I think it's fair to say that the Raider benefits the most from ordnance tubes. This is due to it's range 2-4 primary (with the ability to double tap) and the Impetuous title that allows it to acquire a target lock when it kills a ship (this can also be combined with weapons engineer to great effect). Additionally, ordnance tubes makes it so that your attacks require no energy beyond spending 2 for the double primary attack.

This build can also benefit from Captain Jonus flying in formation (and protected by EM emitter) and allowing the Raider to get 2 free re-rolls on all of its secondary weapon attacks. Jonus can also have the TIE shuttle title and Systems Officer to grant free target locks to the Raider.

I just ran this build tonight and it was far and away the MVP of our team epic squad. It was fun and satisfying to play, but it left my opponent wondering how he could have countered it with his rebel list. Poe was useless for stripping locks because the Huge ships always move last. Wes Janson was in there, but I was using Swarm Tactics to boost the Raider's PS to 9 during combat which allowed it to shoot before token stripping occurred.

My question is: how have folks countered this build? Countermeasures and PS 10 Wes are the only ways to strip the target locks that Ordnance Tubes demands. Massed Jam tokens would shut it down I suppose, as would getting into range 1, but that's risky vs. a huge ship.

Discuss

I never fly Rebel Epic without Toryn Farr and CR-90, initiative can be a ***** though. After they introduced the Tubes the only way to take down a big ship is usually another big ship. Although usually I just fly the Raider myself too and plow everything in my way. This build is particularly nasty:

Raider-class Corvette (Aft) + Weapons Engineer + Darth Vader + Proton Torpedoes + Cluster Missiles + Ordnance Experts + Tibanna Gas Supplies + Ordnance Tubes + Impetuous

Raider-class Corvette (Fore) + Proton Torpedoes + Gunnery Team

combat phase actions on a black one poe, combat phase expert handling, jam tokens, Toryn, and Captain Kagi (sort of),

Liked for correct spelling of ordnance

As mentioned Toryn, Expert Handling, Black One, Captain Kagi, Jamming Beam all mess up target locks.

Yeah I didn't think about Airen Cracken handing out combat phase actions to Poe. That would help a lot.

If you are after combat phase actions there are a few more options as well.

One I ve used a lot is the Kyle katarn + Jake Farrel + PTL + Elusiveness or Squad Leader. It happens at the beginning of the combat phase so you don't have to worry about the raider being PS9 by Swarm Tactics. With this combo Jake can boost at R1 and avoid being hit and can also pass an action to anyone with Elusiveness next to him. Just make sure you approach the Raider with these two ships first (Jake and his wing-man) to have her lock on them. R1 Prockets from Jake + 1 more missile from the other guy usually means bad news for one section.

The problem with the Raider and ordnance tubes though is that even if you cripple the fore section, as it usually happens, she can still fire her ordnance from that section since the TL action is on the aft section. So basically you don't limit its effective attack strength (i.e. her ordnance attacks, not mains).

personally with when flying against raiders I go for the aft first, because thats where TL, crew, and most of the upgrades are, and limit their energy, all while preventing 1 banks

7 minutes ago, CMDR Ytterium said:

personally with when flying against raiders I go for the aft first, because thats where TL, crew, and most of the upgrades are, and limit their energy, all while preventing 1 banks

Easier said than done unfortunately. Its not just the raider, but if you manage to put a ship stalking a huge ship from the rear the Epic ship will go down really fast. So currently any Epic games I ve played evolve around having the Epic ship support squad protecting the rear. Usually who ever kills the support squad ships first wins, tournament matches included.