On Saturday I attended an Epic Tournament at Linebreakers in Victorville, CA. Eight people came to play, and there was quite a diversity of squads. We had 1 CR90, 1 GR-75, 1 Raider, 1 Gozanti, 2 C-ROC, and two players that lacked a huge ship (one Rebel, one Imperial). I was very pleased to see so much variety. I was the one who brought the Gozanti. My build was as follows:

Gozanti-class Cruiser (40)
- Suppressor (6)
- Grand Moff Tarkin (6)
- Targeting Coordinator (4)
- Sensor Team (4)
- Comms Booster (4)
- Docking Clamps (0)
- Automated Protocols (5)

4x Alpha Sq. Pilot (18) x4 = 72
(Docked with the Suppressor)

Maarek Stele (27) (TIE advanced)
- Opportunist (4)
- TIE/x1 (0)
- Advanced Targeting Computer (1)

Zertik Strom (26)
- Opportunist (4)
- TIE/x1 (0)
- Advanced Targeting Computer (1)

Commander Alozen (25)
- Opportunist (4)
- TIE/x1 (0)
- Advanced Targeting Computer (1)

“Howlrunner” (18)
- Push the Limit (3)
- Shield Upgrade (4)

Colonel Jendon (26)
- ST-321 (3)
- Fire-Control System (2)
- Hotshot Co-Pilot (4)
- Gunner (5)

TOTAL 299

I ran a similar version of this squad at Gencon last year.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/227096-epic-dogfight-at-gencon-indy-2016/#comment-2352006

The main difference was that I had Palpatine and Sensor Jammer on the shuttle. After the nerf, I just wasn’t sure I could use him well. Tbetts94 had bragged about his Juke TIE/sf’s and Weapons Guidance + Crack Shot TIE/fo’s, so I figured Hotshot Co-Pilot would be great for stripping focus tokens, with Suppressor removing evade tokens. Turns out, he didn’t show up. Serves me right for trying to tech my shuttle against him.

So here’s the strategy of the squad. My TIE advanced and Howlrunner fly in a block with the Gozanti on one side, and Colonel Jendon on the other. The TIEs move up and focus (Howlrunner pushes for an evade). Jendon locks on to a target anywhere on the field, preferably one that is in, or is about to enter, firing range of the TIE advanced. The Suppressor moves, launches two TIE interceptors, then spends 1 energy to activate Targeting Coordinator. It chooses one of the TIE advanced, and after acquiring the lock, passes it to that ship. Because it acquired a target lock, it removes a token from the target because of the Suppressor title. Next, it spends 1 energy to activate Comms Booster. If a TIE interceptor boosted or barrel rolled for a better shot, it gets the token; otherwise, we remove the stress from Howlrunner and give her another focus token. Next, we Coordinate to allow another TIE advanced pilot to take a target lock, followed by 1 more energy to activate Automated Protocols to Reinforce the fore section. At the start of combat, Jendon passes his TL to the final TIE advanced, and Grand Moff Tarkin removes a focus token from the target, if it still has one, so that the TIE advanced can all activate Opportunist. Howlrunner gives them rerolls on their 3 dice + crit, causing major damage to just about any target! It’s a little bit convoluted, but it’s involved enough that it keeps me thoroughly entertained, and has the added side effect of messing with my opponents’ heads with all the action and token passing/stealing.

Without further ado, onto the matches!

Round 1

Brian brought all the bounty hunters! Here are the upgrades I can remember:

C-ROC
- Broken Horn
- Heavy Laser Turret
- Jabba the Hutt
- Supercharged Power Cells
- IG-RM Thug Droids
- Automated Protocols

Bossk
- Veteran Instincts
- Mangler Cannon
- IG-88D
- Boba Fett
- Mercenary Copilot
- Glitterstim

Zuckuss
- Adaptability
- 4-LOM
- Electronic Baffle
- Tractor Beam
- Glitterstim
- Misthunter

Dengar
- Adaptability
- Punishing One
- Plasma Torpedoes
- Extra Munitions
- Unhinged Astromech
- K4 Security Droid
- Guidance Chips
- Glitterstim

IG-88B
- Veteran Instincts
- Sensor Jammer
- Heavy Laser Cannon
- Autothrusters
- Glitterstim
- IG-2000

IG-88C
- Veteran Instincts
- Sensor Jammer
- Heavy Laser Cannon
- Autothrusters
- Glitterstim
- IG-2000

That’s the closest I can get relying on my memory. That’s 298, but I’m pretty sure he had 300. He set his C-ROC up in the middle, right across from where I wanted to set up. This was problematic, because I hadn’t had enough practice to be confident that I could bank and keep my ships in formation, especially because the Gozanti would lag behind. So I set up for a joust.

Round 1 we shot out the gate way too fast. He pounced on us and we took a beating. I think my biggest mistake was that I held my TIE interceptors in reserve to see if we could launch with a K-turn behind them. Well, instead they launched because of the Damaged Docking Clamps crit. That was really painful. On the bright side, we put some hurt on his C-ROC, too. Also, his big ships didn’t have a whole lot of room to maneuver. We focused all fire on the C-ROC and were this close to taking it out! I did just enough damage to destroy it, but he spent his Reinforce token using the Broken Horn title to keep it alive. That was a real bummer for me, but well-played on his part.

The next round, he came in with his C-ROC to overlap some of my ships, and was rewarded with a two dead TIE advanced. Also, I forgot to launch TIE interceptors again! So more TIE interceptors got launched, took a damage card, and couldn’t shoot when my Gozanti was destroyed. Fortunately, it overlapped Bossk before it went down. Revenge is sweet.

It wasn’t long before it was 3 TIE interceptors vs. the IG-88s, Dengar, and Zuckuss. We managed to take out Dengar, but we didn’t have a prayer of taking out those IG’s.

This match was a complete disaster. Not only did I let my ships get run over, and make mistakes forgetting to launch my TIE interceptors, but my opponent didn’t even use focus tokens! So much for Grand Moff Tarkin and Hotshot Co-Pilot. At least I was able to use Tarking to give my own ships focus tokens, but only for two rounds before I lost the Gozanti. Three times during and after the match my opponent said, “Oh shoot! We forgot that your Gozanti shoots at PS 2 before my C-ROC.” I kindly reminded him that I had no weapons on that ship. I wonder if his target priority would have been different if he had known it was unarmed.

Round 2

After some pizza, I was feeling a little better, and ready for another battle. Bruce brought TIE defenders. Lots of them.

4x Delta Sq. Pilot
- Stealth Device
- TIE/x7

Countess Ryad
- Intensity
- TIE/x7
- Engine Upgrade

Colonel Vessery
- Tractor Beam
- TIE/D
- Expertise
- Concussion Missiles
- Guidance Chips

Glaive Sq. Pilot
- Juke
- TIE/x7

Glaive Sq. Pilot
- Swarm Leader
- TIE/x7

TOTAL 299

I was a little nervous about this matchup. No huge ship, which I heard is really hard when you’ve brought your own huge ship. He ended up getting initiative.

We move up a little slower this time, straight 3 instead of straight 5. We just managed to get a single Delta Sq. Pilot in range of three of my ships. Suppressor removes its evade token, and Grand Moff Tarkin removes its focus token. Five unmodified dice isn’t enough, and we strip the stealth device and take off its shields. I think I lost a shield on my shuttle. So far, so good.

Next round it gets intense. He splits his forces, sending three after my shuttle, and the rest after my Gozanti. My Gozanti does a 4 straight in the hopes of overlapping, but it falls short. It survives their salvo on just a few points of health. Fortunately, I had remembered to launch my TIE interceptors this time. We start doing damage, but it’s slow going on both sides. I mean, except for the Gozanti. Eating the Swarm Leader shot was pretty painful. Vessery attacked my shuttle, which triggered Hotshot Co-Pilot, which didn’t matter quite as much as I hoped because he had Expertise. It weakened his defense, but Hotshot Co-Pilot just wasn’t pulling its weight.

(Epic often ends up this way - why do we even play on a 6'x3' area?)

Next round I tried to overlap his ships with my Gozanti, but it didn’t happen again. If I hadn’t been so aggressive the previous round, I would have been in prime position to overlap their K-turn locations. Sigh. They manage to take out my huge ship. Fortunately, we get Vessery and one of his Delta Sq. Pilots. We’re both doing damage, but my blocking enables liberal use of Opportunist. Commander Alozen shined in this atmosphere. With no Gozanti or shuttle to hand out locks, the other TIE advanced pilots struggled to get their Advanced Targeting Computers running, but Commander Alozen takes a target lock on an enemy ship at range 1 at the start of combat. At PS 5, he shoots after the target has used its tokens (or got blocked) so he gets 2 dice + 1 for range +1 for Opportunist + crit for Advanced Targeting Computer. That just tore through the defenders! It was even better because Zertik Strom was nearby, preventing the defenders from getting their own range combat bonus. This was Zertik’s best game, too.

The TIE interceptors did lots of work blocking and getting range 1 shots. Before too long, we’ve managed to destroy them all. We only lost the Suppressor, “Howlrunner”, Colonel Jendon, and one of the Alpha Sq. Pilots, I think. This was a much better showing than my last match. At the end of the round, Bruce was surprised to learn that I had no weapons on the Gozanti. Sigh. I need to make it clearer that the Suppressor is peaceful, we have no weapons, and they should choose another target – a military target.

Round 3

So it’s scum again. Sean brought quite a different arrangement from my first round scum match.

C-ROC Cruiser
- Insatiable Worrt
- Heavy Laser Turret
- Supercharged Power Cells
- IG-RM Thug Droids
- Dengar
- Zuckuss
- Optimized Generators

Captain Nym
- Havoc
- “Genius”
- Extra Munitions
- Assault Missiles
- Bomblet Generator
- Synced Turret
- Fire-Control System
- EPT? Adaptability?

Sol Sixxa
- Veteran Instincts
- Extra Munitions
- Assault Missiles
- Proximity Mines
- Cluster Mines
- Synced Turret
- Cad Bane

Genesis Red
- Adaptability
- Pulsed Ray Shield
- “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor
- Mangler Cannon

4x Tansarii Point Veteran
- Veteran Instincts
- Pulsed Ray Shield
- “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor
- Mangler Cannon

Binayre Pirate
- Cruise Missiles
- Guidance Chips
- Scavenger Crane

TOTAL 297

He took initiative. Now, my friend got beat by him pretty badly in round 2, so he told me to watch out for that C-ROC. It’s a really cool build that basically recovers 3 shields every round, and ends up with 3 energy at the end of the round, with a very accurate turret.

Here’s a (blurry) picture just after Round 1. We moved up and did the whole focus and target lock thing, and I launch two TIE interceptors. Our target: Sol Sixxa, which is why you don’t see him in the picture. Targeting Coordinator allowed one of my advanced to get a lock, and also stripped his target lock so he couldn’t fire Assault Missiles at the Gozanti. The scyks took out one of my TIE interceptors, but Sol Sixxa was dead, so it was totally worth it.

The C-ROC was just out of range last round, so I knew we’d all get a chance to fire on it this round. We moved up slowly, repeated the target lock routine, launched two more TIE interceptors, and opened fire. It took all my shots, but we managed to take it out. It got one shot, but I can’t remember who he targeted. Probably Howlrunner. It didn’t hit, despite Dengar + Zuckuss. Nym managed to hit my shuttle with Assault Missiles, though, and that removed shields from three of my fighters nearby.

With Sol Sixxa and the C-ROC destroyed, I wanted to turn my attention to Captain Nym. Unfortunately, he was in a bad place to pursue with my stressed TIE advanced. In all my games, I wished I had Twin Ion Engine Mk. II on all of them, but none so much as this game. My TIE advanced just kind of limped around, taking targets of opportunity on whatever enemy bumped in front of them. Fortunately, my opponent noticed that I had no weapons on the Gozanti, and didn’t shoot at it!

Nym dropped 4 or 5 Bomblets throughout the match, one of which killed Colonel Jendon, and another of which killed Maarek Stele. Zertik Strom’s ability didn’t amount to anything this match because all enemy ships used secondary weapons. But he did manage to live way past his expected time, much to the annoyance of my opponent. In fact, my green dice were on fire, and Sean was trying his best to stay in it, despite how discouraging it was. The rest of the match came down to dogfighting, and we ended up with only my three TIE interceptors and the Gozanti left. My opponent complained about how bad his dice were. I held my tongue, but I wanted to say, “It wasn’t the fault of your dice; it’s because I took away your focus and target lock tokens with my cruiser.”

Summary

I really like my squad, and I think it totally could have beaten the bounty hunters if I played it better. I just made too many mistakes, especially forgetting to launch fighters, but also charging out the gate in round 1. Not a good tactic for this squad.

Throughout the day, I mentally checked if I would have used Emperor Palpatine, and I totally would have. I regret taking him out of the squad. He might have been enough to allow me to destroy the Broken Horn in round 1 before it ran over my ships. Who knows. I also wanted TIE mk. II, as I mentioned earlier. Next time I play this squad, I will drop FCS, Hotshot Co-Pilot, Gunner, and the Shield Upgrade on “Howlrunner”, and I will add Sensor Jammer and Palpatine on the shuttle, and TIE mk. II on Howlrunner and my TIE advanced.

I ended up in 3^rd place. 2^nd place brought Toryn Farr Bright Hope and a whole bunch of T-70’s with Targeting Astromech and Pattern Analyzer. 1^st place brought an Imperial Raider that recovered shields like a monster. I know he also had Omega Leader and Quickdraw in his squad, but I’m not familiar with any of his other upgrades.

Thanks for reading. It’s not my best battle report, but I hope it helps to keep up this recent surge in excitement for Epic play!

That sounds awesome! How long did the day end up running?

3 minutes ago, Kleeg005 said:

That sounds awesome! How long did the day end up running?

We had registration at 10:30, and matches started shortly after 11 AM The day finished around 9 PM. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Nice right up! Lol at the mention ??

Quote

(Epic often ends up this way - why do we even play on a 6'x3' area?)

Because you are clustering your rocks. If you spread them out, ships are forced to run down alleys between them. . .

Because you chose to...in every game here, you and your opponent either had a transport or no epic ship, so why wouldn't you deploy more or less opposite your opponent.

If anyone had brought a corvette with lovely range 4-5 guns, deploying a board's width away becomes a lot more tempting - especially since you could run a defensive minefield between you and the enemy with minefield mapper-equipped cutlass squadron pilots.

To be fair, in the final round I had no room to put my shuttle next to my TIEs without running into obstacles eventually. But I decided the target locks were worth it, and he ran over debris in round 3 of that match.

But yeah, I haven't tried managing range much on an angled attack vector. The Gozanti needs to be range 2 of my other ships, or else it's not earning its points.

In 2 of the 6 games I played where my opponent spread out to approach from many angles, we were able to isolate and destroy key ships from each attack group as they came in. It's looking to me like, at least for my squad, heading straight at my opponent is the most effective strategy.

And having said that, I think I just learned how to beat my own squad.

10 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

Because you are clustering your rocks. If you spread them out, ships are forced to run down alleys between them. . .

Oh, do you mean how the rocks are within range 1 of one other obstacle? That's part of tournament rules, essentially making 6 giant obstacles that have to be range 1-2 apart from each other. It provides wide lanes to allow huge ships to maneuver, and it cuts down on set up time because it restricts options on where obstacles can be placed.

One of these days I'd like to try standard setup rules for obstacles in Epic, and see how it goes.

1 hour ago, Parakitor said:

Oh, do you mean how the rocks are within range 1 of one other obstacle? That's part of tournament rules, essentially making 6 giant obstacles that have to be range 1-2 apart from each other. It provides wide lanes to allow huge ships to maneuver, and it cuts down on set up time because it restricts options on where obstacles can be placed.

One of these days I'd like to try standard setup rules for obstacles in Epic, and see how it goes.

Yeah, we just toss out 12 rocks as fast and random as possible.

I know it is supposed to be a "Turn 0" thing, but OTOH, it seems a little fake to be allowed to Zen Garden before the fight. . .

5 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

it seems a little fake to be allowed to Zen Garden before the fight. . .

LOL! This is a quote I will remember for a loooong time!

But in all seriousness, the Imperials have access to Centerpoint Station, so moving asteroids around a battlefield is a trivial matter. ...wait, did I just say I was 'serious'?

16 hours ago, Parakitor said:

In 2 of the 6 games I played where my opponent spread out to approach from many angles, we were able to isolate and destroy key ships from each attack group as they came in. It's looking to me like, at least for my squad, heading straight at my opponent is the most effective strategy.

Almost every time I see people unused to epic games use phrases like "spread out", "flanking", or "approach from different angles" in epic games, it's inevitably swiftly followed by the phrase "oh, bugger, having to cross a full normal board-width to get to the fight is rather a problem, isn't it?" by which time 1/4 to 1/2 of their squad has been pew-pew-ed to death before the rest arrives.

The one time I've seen a 'flanking' force do well, it was a pair of Aggressors (IG-88s C & D as I recall) with Push The Limit and Burnout SLAM - speed 4 straight, speed 4 straight, boost actually does give you enough speed to get on a large ship's backside quickly.

7 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Almost every time I see people unused to epic games use phrases like "spread out", "flanking", or "approach from different angles" in epic games, it's inevitably swiftly followed by the phrase "oh, bugger, having to cross a full normal board-width to get to the fight is rather a problem, isn't it?" by which time 1/4 to 1/2 of their squad has been pew-pew-ed to death before the rest arrives.

The one time I've seen a 'flanking' force do well, it was a pair of Aggressors (IG-88s C & D as I recall) with Push The Limit and Burnout SLAM - speed 4 straight, speed 4 straight, boost actually does give you enough speed to get on a large ship's backside quickly.

Team Epic at Worlds, our opponents placed 1 squad at the very far end of the mat and another at the other end. We jousted 1 squad and only lost a Tie Fighter. Instead of playing for another 2 hours they conceded and we got to go to the bar and watch the Ducks game

15 hours ago, Tbetts94 said:

Team Epic at Worlds, our opponents placed 1 squad at the very far end of the mat and another at the other end. We jousted 1 squad and only lost a Tie Fighter. Instead of playing for another 2 hours they conceded and we got to go to the bar and watch the Ducks game

Case in point - and neatly done.

I'm pleased to hear lists without epic ships didn't take the top 3 slots. I've always felt epic ships were a bit underwhelming (although I've recently started to prove otherwise with my new Tantive list.) Usually 300 points of cheap generic ships will win the day. Sounds like some good epic ship builds.

Sounds like an amazing tournament, I'd have loved to have played in this!

You need more ships for a epic game !

Nice report !

On 8/15/2017 at 1:15 PM, Parakitor said:

I ended up in 3^rd place. 2^nd place brought Toryn Farr Bright Hope and a whole bunch of T-70’s with Targeting Astromech and Pattern Analyzer. 1^st place brought an Imperial Raider that recovered shields like a monster. I know he also had Omega Leader and Quickdraw in his squad, but I’m not familiar with any of his other upgrades.

Thanks for reading. It’s not my best battle report, but I hope it helps to keep up this recent surge in excitement for Epic play!

Nice battle report. You got some great pics throughout the day.

I also just had to make finally make my account and reply here because I'm the player who took 1st with that Raider (my first-ever 1st place in X-Wing). Figured I would add a little to the discussion with my build and correct a little bit of info there.

I was flying the following:

RAIDER ASSAULT FORMATION

300 points

PILOTS

Raider-class Corvette (aft) (73)
Raider-class Corvette (50), Shield Technician (1), Weapons Engineer (3), Quad Laser Cannons (6), Quad Laser Cannons (6), Sensor Team (4), Ordnance Experts (5)

Raider-class Corvette (fore) (63)
Raider-class Corvette (50), Quad Laser Cannons (6), Impetuous (3), Ordnance Tubes (5)

Captain Jonus (29)
TIE Bomber (22), TIE Shuttle (0), Swarm Tactics (2), Systems Officer (2), Fleet Officer (3)

Gamma Squadron Veteran (25) x 2
TIE Bomber (19), Crack Shot (1), Extra Munitions (2), Plasma Torpedoes (3), Guidance Chips (0)

“Backdraft” (34)
Special Forces TIE (27), Veteran Instincts (1), Fire-Control System (2), Pattern Analyzer (2), Special Ops Training (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

“Pure Sabacc” (25)
TIE Striker (22), Veteran Instincts (1), Adaptive Ailerons (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

“Omega Leader” (26)
TIE/fo Fighter (21), Comm Relay (3), Juke (2)

So my Raider actually didn't recover shields all that well. It was fully loaded to bring the pain with missile volleys, which it did beautifully. I actually lost the fore section in Games 2 and 3. It only survived Game 1 with 1 hull left on the fore because my opponent spent a couple of turns unable to shoot at it because of his movements so it was able to get its shields back while my other ships picked his survivors apart.

But that was a really fun day, all told. I know we didn't get to play each other, but hopefully we'll get the chance if you manage to get up to more tourneys at Linebreakers in the future.