Here are the "default" builds I think of when I think about the new epic ships. Obviously they could be adjusted depending upon available points, and experience showing us which things are actually good, but this is where I would start.
GR-75 MEDIUM TRANSPORT
Ion Cannon Battery, Damage Control Team, Boosted Comms (optional), Leia (either version)... 78 (Rebels), 91 (Resistance)
Leia is a worthy choice for either faction. If you're taking her (and you should), you might as well put her on the GR-75. It's a relatively safe spot for her, especially if we're reinforcing all the time (and I think we should be). Damage Control Team takes a GR-75 weakness (the red Reinforce) and makes it a strength (by turning it white, and linking it to calculate for a trivial three points). I understand the opportunity cost here of losing out on Comms Team, which seems a great choice for a Coordinate boat. In the first place, Boosted Comms and Comms Team compete for the GR-75's limited energy and I think coordinating the *right* target is more important; in the second place, Rebel players can pick up Quantum Storm and get the Comms Team too for a small premium. The Ion Cannon Battery is there to give the ship some teeth. I think it's the best on-its-own hardpoint choice you can make. I'm leaving the turret slot empty since you can only use the turret or your pea-shooter, and it just doesn't seem like a big gain.
Honestly, a GR-75 with just the Ion Battery and DCT will run you 64 points, which seems a bargain price for an I7 Coordinate behind 11 regenerating, reinforced health, with a small gun and a big gun shooting back.
CR-90 CORRELLIAN CORVETTE
-Stalwart Captain, Targeting Battery, Turbolaser Battery, Damage Control Team, Optimized Power Core, Nien Nunb (Rebels only)… 190
The core of this build is Nien Nunb plus Optimized Power Core giving you a constant three Energy per turn, allowing you to take Turbolaser shots every round. The Targeting Battery is there to ensure you've got the lock you need to shoot (and modify) the Turbolaser. This frees you to use your normal action to modify your four-dice primary. Damage Control Team (like the Stalwart Captain) guarantees you can take your shots no matter what. We've invested too many points in this ship to let it ever not be shooting. Reinforce is probably also a solid action, even if the circle-strafe flight pattern of the Corvette makes it not as much a no-brainer as for the Transport. Add flavor (in the crew, title, and other team slots) to taste, though few of the titles move me much.
The Republic CR-90 has a bit more trouble generating enough energy to power this build. Tibanna Reserves seem the obvious solution, but a big ship's actions are at an extraordinary premium; dipping into the Reserves is sure to compromise either your offense (no mods to your attacks) or defense (no reinforce). Maybe you babysit the CR-90 with a Battle Meditation Jedi Knight? The points for all of this is becoming prohibitive. Maybe just keep the CR-90 in Sinker's side arc and hope for the best. Or, downgrade the Turbolaser to an Ion Cannon Battery. It's a solid weapon even if it doesn't have the OMGWTFLOL potential of the Turbolaser.
RAIDER CORVETTE
--Ordnance Ahoy: Corvus (Empire only), Proton Torpedoes, Concussion Missiles, Ordnance Tubes, Targeting Battery, Bombardment Specialists, Admiral Sloane (Empire only)… 198
Time will tell if it makes sense to add Optimized Power Core and Ordnance Specialists. Because the Raider really wants to keep everyone in front of it, I think you may end up doing the stall and 0-bank maneuvers a lot, making the OPC pointless. As for Ordnance Specialists. how many shots do we think we're going to get? Are we really going to be reloading much? Can we afford the energy costs of a mega-reload? Only experience will help us know. In the meantime, Damage Control Team is worth considering. (It's a mere one point difference between it and Ordnance Specialists.)
Really, though, you only need one team of any kind, because we want some way to get the Calculate action-so that Corvus can give us another for free. It works especially nicely in conjunction with Bombardment Specialists. Shooting at range 4 gives two bonus dice to the defender. unless you're ignoring range bonuses with ordnance shots!
I really believe we should lean into the ordnance identity of the Raider, if for no other reason than we're paying for the slots already. I want to test Pro Torps against shieldless targets, and then Concussion Missiles to flip crits again, all at range 4 without range bonuses. Targeting Battery, as with the Correllian Corvette, is a must-have to get the locks necessary to pull this off. Sloane, like Leia, is a really good idea in this format regardless of the carrier ship. Because the Raider is so expensive, we may not have points for a separate Sloane-carrier, so plopping her on the Raider is a shortcut. Sloane also directly benefits the Raider. You have ways to get two locks, but you have four shots you want to take. Passive mods, allowing you to conserve those locks to power your ordnance, are a must. I'm not crazy about PerCop because, again, I believe we will be reinforcing an awful lot, and our other action is already spoken for (lock).
The Corvus title is there mainly for the 3-point no-brainer calculates. If you want to dock a ship, Mauler Mithel is my go-to. The Raider's weakness is getting flanked. Mauler can feast on fools that are trying to get close, for a reasonable price.
Want a cheaper alternative?
--Corvus, Damage Control Team, Targeting Battery, Ion Cannon Battery. 171
It's hard to bullseye things with this ship. unless those things are ionized. Then they're toast. Boom! Targeting Battery gives you another three-dice swing while strongly modifying the Ion shot. That's a good amount of dakka for 171 points (plus 9 for Sloane if she's not hanging elsewhere), and it's much simpler/less conditional than the ordnance build. Having a base energy expenditure of only 2 (from your bonus attacks) lets you repeatedly stall or 0-bank to control range.
You can do Turbolaser builds with the Raider, but I suspect the Raider has a harder time with range control than the CR-90, and certainly can't abuse Optimized Power Core like the Correllian ship.
GOZANTI-CLASS CARRIER
-The Gatling Gozanti: Blood Crow, Point-Defense Battery, Perceptive Copilot, Damage Control Team, Admiral Sloane (Empire only) (optional). 95
Say hi to Sloane again-a card I have to think is great in Epic. As before, you might not need the Gozanti itself to carry her, but if points are tight, it can make sense. The points difference between the Gozanti and the Raider are more than enough to fit in Kagi or Jendon, though.
I'm hesitant to recommend giving Huge ships worse defenses. That said, there's some serious kill potential in taking lots of shots and adding eyeball results every time. DCT is a natural combo with that linked Calculate, while PerCop comes into his own here; your go-to approach is double focus, Reinforce-calculate, fire the primary, and then blaze away with the Point Defense with its extra eyeballs until you run out of energy or stuff is dead. Kallus seems like a natural combo with Blood Crow, but the danger is that you never come to grips with the Hunted! target, or that he shifts Hunted to some nobody after your main target is dead. Five points isn't much, though.
This is a very aggressive build that might get your Huge into trouble and quickly burns your energy. You can take Tibanna Reserves, but losing an action to use it (while in a doubtlessly exposed position) is a stiff price to pay. There are two alternatives that slot in at a very reasonable 83 points, and fulfill somewhat different roles:
-The "Transport" build: Admiral Sloane, Ion Cannon Battery, Comms Team
-The "Bruiser" build: Admiral Sloane, Ion Cannon Battery, Damage Control Team, Blood Crow
Again, we're assuming there's not a better place to put Sloane. These options are a bit more standoff-ish than the Gatling Gozanti, and because they fire fewer shots they don't need to spend points to spam tokens. The Transport Gozanti is basically the default GR-75 build with all its problems fixed (the red reinforce and two-dice primary): for only five points more the Gozanti has a white reinforce, a better primary, and more health in a better mix (-1 hull, +2 shields). You don't have Resupply Ship, but you can't have it all. Instead, you have an Ini7 multi-coordinate carrier that's hard to meaningfully damage and that holds its own in a firefight. Not bad.
The Bruiser picks a spot on the map, sits there, and spits fire. You have good range, and if people approach you, you hit much harder. Because the energy expenditure is light, you can stay in your spot for up to five turns without losing shots. With a focus and a reinforce-calculate, you have two tokens for two shots, and can spend the one that makes sense. PerCop can replace DCT for five more points to simplify the decision making.
C-ROC
-Non-canon Cannons: Corsair Refit, Ion Cannon, IG-88D*, Damage Control Team, Point Defense Battery, Tibanna Reserves. 97
*with IG-88B in the squad
Important note about bonus attacks and huge ships: the only limit to the number of bonus attacks is that a huge ship "can only use each attack with a BONUS ATTACK: header once". IG-88B's ability does not have the BONUS ATTACK header. That implies you can use it as often as its conditions are met.
So let's attack a bazillion times, shall we? Who cares about mods if we can just take more shots? We'll have a minimum of mods with two calculate tokens, but other than that, we're reinforcing, sipping Tibanna, and making pew-pew noises. If you really want to go crazy, add in Merchant One and a Dorsal Turret for 1-2 additional attacks for 10 more points.
Edited
by ChahDresh
