I have a pleasant little team Epic game coming up. I have had sufficiently horrific experiences flying *against* the VCX to have vowed never to buy one, as I believe firmly that it should have always been an Epic ship. Which leads me to wonder has anyone actually ever flown one in an Epic game, and would they care to share their insights? I have one I can borrow, and would love to demonstrate to my apostate friends what i've been going on about since the bloody Ghost was released.

Never used it in epic, but the VCX is one of my favorite ships to fly. It's also, IMO, one of the best balanced ship in the game. Kanan/Biggs is the only archetype to get widespread competitive use and that's more of a function of the value of Biggs more than the imbalance of the Ghost.

There are many ways to build it, and in all of them it feels like you're getting what you paid for, which is as it should be.

I'm sorry you've had such bad experiences against it.

While I have never used mine in Epic, I have flown against one player using it and have played many other games of Epic. And I would not consider it problematic in the Epic format.

The one time I faced one, it got burned down before it could shoot. 16 health is a lot, but 0 agility and lots of guns pointed at it makes it just melt.

While in standard games, it is very potent, the increased scale of Epic reduces its contributions significantly. It would function best as a TLT double tap or just using its 4 die gun, which is not such a concern in Epic, in my experience. plus, like i said, lots of guns kill it fast.

I love the Ghost to death, and am sorry for your terrible experiences. I've never flown it in epic, but I could see using it with this build after Wave XII drops to melt ALL OF THE THINGS in epic or 100/6:

Lothal Rebel w/Title, Maul, Ezra Bridger, Reinforced Deflectors, and TLT with a docked Phantom (original)

Maul/Ezra gets you free mods (you WILL hit, trust me), Reinforced Deflectors+Evade every turn makes you live long, and the extra TLT with more free mods is essentially 2 guaranteed damage every turn. If not proxying/using Maul, change Reinforced Deflectors to FCS, drop Ezra and use... Honestly, whatever makes sense to you. Any VCX pilot can work well, but I would recommend RecSpec or Rey on Kanan. Hera likes Nien. Chopper likes Zeb and Intel Agent. The traditional generic build uses Hera and Ezra and essentially ignores stress tokens. For all of these, FCS and TLT are essentially a must, but the turret can be negotiable.

3 hours ago, Kleeg005 said:

I have a pleasant little team Epic game coming up. I have had sufficiently horrific experiences flying *against* the VCX to have vowed never to buy one, as I believe firmly that it should have always been an Epic ship. Which leads me to wonder has anyone actually ever flown one in an Epic game, and would they care to share their insights? I have one I can borrow, and would love to demonstrate to my apostate friends what i've been going on about since the bloody Ghost was released.

I've vaped one with a CR90 at long range before it could close to range. Gotta love Range 4-5 fire. I've also played a VCX and got run over by a Gonzanti. It's a scary ship, with lots of firepower, but it'll die fast in epic if you make a mistake with it. The 0 agility hates turbolaser fire, and the large base means it really doesn't want to be too close to an epic ship either. If it can dodge around at R2-3 it will happily wreck a cruiser.

Interesting thoughts so far, thank you. I have seen in my few Epic games that Aces are definitely of reduced utility, and the Ghost is maybe the ultimate mega-Ace. I have only myself flown the C-ROC, but have faced numerous Raiders and Gozantis. And it seems to me that something like the Corvette and the Raider find their utility in their ability to fire multiple times in a round, while the C-ROC and Gozanti find their utility in support roles (although not terribly efficiently perhaps) and survive only as long as they do by not being very threatening. I think the VCX sort of falls in the middle, it's main weakness lying in its inability to regen shields. Interesting.

Ghost can have 2 roles:

1) support ship.

Kanan+FCS+TLT+Jan+Recon+counter+

ghost

measures = 54 points

Keep it wide, or constantly 5-Kturns, don’t worry about arc and snipe with turret. Very expensive and will melt if focused fired.

2) Decoy ship.

Lothal+FCS+ABT+Chooper+Zeb+Anti pursuit + ghost=42

you know they are going after it, so blows right into the middle. Bump all you want and be sure to erase one or two ships w/the ghost before you go. The main goal here is to bring your main force on a flank.

The main issue is cost. Even thin the Ghost is 42 points + another 18-20 with the Phantom. I look forward to Phantom II, it will make a cheaper and better support Ghost.

VCX has the same problem as Decimators: they melt too quickly to be worth using in epic. As soon as 3 ships can all shoot it, it dies before it can kill enough points for you to be ahead of the game. 2 TLT Y-Wings are better, but less fun.

We're in the middle of our third epic league / tournament and I'll echo what everyone else said: anything that is costly, 0 agility and no reinforce gets creamed in epic. They can even become a liability to the rest of your squad if you happen to be facing someone who loves ruthlessness / harpoons / other area effect weapons.

Basic rule of the thumb is that the lower a ship's agility is, the fewer points you want on it.