GR-75: the healer

By Parakitor, in X-Wing Epic Play

The GR-75 has a really interesting ship ability:

Resupply Craft: After another friendly ship at range 0-1 performs an action, you may spend 1 energy. If you do, it removes 1 orange or red token, or recovers 1 shield.

I have given it much thought. I tried using it once to help a Resistance Bomber reload a bomb, but ditch the weapons disabled token so it could still fire. It was ok.

Then I realized. What ship gets the most actions? Huge ships! So I began thinking about running a support GR-75 alongside a CR90 (in Rebels, of course). The GR-75 could spend 4 energy to let the CR90 recover 4 shields - in addition to the 2 shields it recovers in the End Phase! That's some serious healing. Here's an example squad.

Alderaanian Guard (146)
Point-Defense Battery (10)
Turbolaser Battery (15)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Sensor Experts (10)
Damage Control Team (3)
Tibanna Reserves (3)
Liberator (5)
Ship total: 200

Echo Base Evacuees (55)
Tibanna Reserves (3)
Ship total: 58

Wedge Antilles (55)
Swarm Tactics (5)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Veteran Wing Leader (2)
Ship total: 62

Blue Squadron Escort (41)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship total: 41

Blue Squadron Escort (41)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship total: 41 Half Points: 21 Threshold: 3

Bodhi Rook (49)
Pivot Wing (0)
Ship total: 49 Half Points: 25 Threshold: 4

Bandit Squadron Pilot (23)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (23)

Total: 497


View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

Essentially the GR-75 hangs back at range 1 of the CR90 while the starfighters move up into range to allow the CR90 to lock onto an enemy to power Turbolasers thanks to Bodhi Rook's ability.

The key is to make sure the CR90 gets targeted before the GR-75, but have at least one round of firing with the CR90 beyond range 3.

Edited by Parakitor

I forgot to say, GR-75 coordinates a focus (CR90 recovers), CR90 reinforce (recover) link into calculate (recover), lock (recover). That's how the healing goes down.

GR-75 has to use Tibanna Reserves to have enough energy to do it next turn.

Sounds interesting. I have a 2 transport rebel list I’d like to try. Let my opponent focus them down while everything else does damage or heal up the ships they do shoot. Problem is keeping a bunch of ships in range 1 but with 2 transports shouldn’t be too difficult, maneuvering a lil more so

Edited by Gokuja04

Okay but what does turn zero look like? huge ships are placed first so I think you would need to sandwich your GR75 against an edge with the corvette between it and the enemy. If you don't do this then the opponent will set up to joust the GR75 keeping the corvette too far away for point defense, and perhaps other guns less the turbo laser. That set up may also inadvertently leave your small ships to face the enemy alone.

5 hours ago, BenDay said:

Okay but what does turn zero look like? huge ships are placed first so I think you would need to sandwich your GR75 against an edge with the corvette between it and the enemy. If you don't do this then the opponent will set up to joust the GR75 keeping the corvette too far away for point defense, and perhaps other guns less the turbo laser. That set up may also inadvertently leave your small ships to face the enemy alone.

Probably something like an L shape setup. CR90 pointing towards enemy edge, CR75 pointing towards the rear end of the CR90, with enough room so it won't bump on turn 1. You can set up the small ships flanking the CR90.

23 minutes ago, Cerebrawl said:

Probably something like an L shape setup. CR90 pointing towards enemy edge, CR75 pointing towards the rear end of the CR90, with enough room so it won't bump on turn 1. You can set up the small ships flanking the CR90.

Be careful a huge ship that is parallel to its edge fishtails of the board on a 1,2 or 3 bank..... so if you don’t deploy on an angle you are toast, then you need to be doing stop maneuvers until the other huge is far enough in front. I think it is more problematic than it appears.

Why the U-Wing...? I think the wings want some more power behind them.

3 hours ago, Stefan said:

Why the U-Wing...? I think the wings want some more power behind them.

It's definitely NOT the final draft of the squad. I just wanted to put out the idea of using the GR-75 to give crazy recovery abilities to the CR90.

So the U-wing is there to allow the CR90 to lock onto objects at range 0-3 of friendly ships, enabling the range 5 turbolasers. Sure, I could have used a cargo or team to help out with that, but might as well throw that ability on a 3-dice ship. I don't know. Like I said, my mind was going in, like, seven different directions as I put this squad together. And if anybody is okay without range enhancement, it's the CR90 because it already locks out to range 4. Bodhi can probably go away.

10 hours ago, BenDay said:

Okay but what does turn zero look like? huge ships are placed first so I think you would need to sandwich your GR75 against an edge with the corvette between it and the enemy. If you don't do this then the opponent will set up to joust the GR75 keeping the corvette too far away for point defense, and perhaps other guns less the turbo laser. That set up may also inadvertently leave your small ships to face the enemy alone.

Deployment is definitely THE question. In First Edition, I had this really fun squad that consisted of Bright Hope GR-75 screening the CR90, so that enemy ships could either shoot at a CR90 at range 3 with 2 additional defense dice, OR shoot a GR-75 that essentially had double reinforce. Maneuvering those two in that manner was definitely difficult, and sometimes I messed up. But it was still hilarious.

Here are some basics on maneuvering.

49329259068_e11408e852.jpg

For safe deployment at a 45 degree angle, the ships really shouldn't be closer than 2 ship bases (technically they can be a little closer, but 1.5 ship bases is too close).

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49329259168_ff7f7337ff.jpg

At this distance, the CR90 can safely perform a 0-bank maneuver if the GR-75 chooses to perform a stationary maneuver.

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49329949517_a65af6474e.jpg

If the GR-75 performs a 2-straight (to preserve energy), the CR90 will have to perform a 1-bank in order to clear. Notice in both of the above photos the ships are so close that the CR90 won't fit on its base without hitting the GR-75 model.

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49330013032_5eef2d2233.jpg

49330012837_5e5d20edbc.jpg

Following that, the GR-75 performs a 1-straight, followed by a 1-bank to end up dangerously close to the CR90. In these photos the CR90 perfomed stationary maneuvers, but it would likely perform 1-straights in a real game to preserve energy. However, the great thing here is that any ship trying to shoot the CR90 in the rear which is not reinforced, will be firing obstructed through the GR-75. Of course, then they may just shoot the GR-75 - which is fine! Now you gave them a good reason not to shoot the CR90!

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Incidentally, you can set up parallel with 1 base between you, and land a 3-bank away from the other ship. The new 45 degree banks really help these things get around.

The key thing about maneuvering is that you need the CR90 at range 1 of the GR-75 during the CR90's activation - that's when it has the bulk of its actions, recovering the most shields. If you realize after the GR-75 moves that the CR90 may not be close enough after it executes its maneuver, coordinate the Reinforce link into Calculate so at least you can get 2 shields back.

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There are a lot of variations, and I don't know which is better. @BenDay suggested hiding the GR-75 behind the CR90 up against the side of the board. This is a possibility, but I almost always use a scenario, and being a wallflower just doesn't work out when there are objectives to secure. You could just switch the position of the CR90 and GR-75 in the photos above. If that's the route you take, your CR90 will probably not have those sweet range 0-4 Broadside Batteries on target. If your opponent is far enough away, this shouldn't be too bad, and at least your Turbolasers will be in range. But some of those deployments put ships pretty close, and you may miss some good shots in the first couple of rounds.

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Titles are another interesting topic. I put Quantum Storm on to increase the energy capacity of the GR-75, and add energy recovery on white maneuvers.

But Bright Hope is really interesting because the GR-75 can reinforce the front and get an extra defense die for some potential added survivability. Makes shooting the GR-75 a less desirable option.

Luminous could also be really useful because the GR-75 is held in reserve, and you can place it after all other ships have placed so it is in the best position. You'll have to leave room around the CR90 for the GR-75 to deploy. Luminous also grants the GR-75 an extra +2 energy capacity (at the cost of 1 shield), so you have plenty of energy to recharge the CR90's shields. (Photo of titles below for reference)

49329865741_7772514731_b.jpg

Oh my goodness. I just looked at @Stefan 's Imperial list and thought, "Shame the Rebels don't have something like Kagi." But I just realized that in the opening engagement, before the CR90 has lost any shields, the GR-75 doesn't have much to do - unless the enemy uses ordnance to attack the CR90. Resupply Craft also grants the option to remove a red token instead of recovering a shield, so with each action the CR90 takes, the GR-75 can spend an energy to allow it to remove those enemy locks!

The easiest use of the GR75 may be a meat shield. it is 55 point for 15 hit points, this is 3.6 points per hit point (a decimator is 68 for 16 or 4.25). I say don't do any upgrades at all (maybe a cheap second shot) and ram it at the enemies center of mass. They will be forced to engage, and each shot not at your corvette is as good as a shield.

6 hours ago, BenDay said:

The easiest use of the GR75 may be a meat shield. it is 55 point for 15 hit points, this is 3.6 points per hit point (a decimator is 68 for 16 or 4.25). I say don't do any upgrades at all (maybe a cheap second shot) and ram it at the enemies center of mass. They will be forced to engage, and each shot not at your corvette is as good as a shield.

I'm not saying you're wrong, because you very well may be right. This is a well established use of the GR-75. But it would be a shame to leave this ship to a single role of efficiency, and sideline all the cool options it has available.

Also, considering the points, healing 4 shields on a CR90 is like putting 32 points back on the table - that's like bringing a Z-95 back from the dead!

Hopefully we can come up with even more cool builds and uses for the GR-75. I can't wait to try the Healer, but I've become pretty busy lately, so I'm not sure how soon I can put it in the table.

Sadly, the only huge ships I have right now are the two cruisers so there will be very little GR75 experience coming from me.

I like the CROC as a corsair and the Gozanti as a coordinator.

Will you be able to post any of your games?

18 hours ago, BenDay said:

Sadly, the only huge ships I have right now are the two cruisers so there will be very little GR75 experience coming from me.

I like the CROC as a corsair and the Gozanti as a coordinator.

Will you be able to post any of your games?

Yeah. I have a good group of Epic enthusiasts, so I should be able to try it out once or twice before the end of the month. Hopefully.

Edited by Parakitor
On 1/5/2020 at 1:31 AM, Parakitor said:

Oh my goodness. I just looked at @Stefan 's Imperial list and thought, "Shame the Rebels don't have something like Kagi." But I just realized that in the opening engagement, before the CR90 has lost any shields, the GR-75 doesn't have much to do - unless the enemy uses ordnance to attack the CR90. Resupply Craft also grants the option to remove a red token instead of recovering a shield, so with each action the CR90 takes, the GR-75 can spend an energy to allow it to remove those enemy locks!

Good point!

On 1/5/2020 at 8:26 AM, BenDay said:

The easiest use of the GR75 may be a meat shield. it is 55 point for 15 hit points, this is 3.6 points per hit point (a decimator is 68 for 16 or 4.25). I say don't do any upgrades at all (maybe a cheap second shot) and ram it at the enemies center of mass. They will be forced to engage, and each shot not at your corvette is as good as a shield.

True, but I don't know if I like that playstyle ^^

On 1/3/2020 at 7:14 PM, Parakitor said:

The GR-75 has a really interesting ship ability:

Resupply Craft: After another friendly ship at range 0-1 performs an action, you may spend 1 energy. If you do, it removes 1 orange or red token, or recovers 1 shield.

The GR-75 could spend 4 energy to let the CR90 recover 4 shields - in addition to the 2 shields it recovers in the End Phase!

You can only spend 1 Energy when a ship performs an action, so max 2 Shield for the CR-90 from the GR-75.

28 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

You can only spend 1 Energy when a ship performs an action, so max 2 Shield for the CR-90 from the GR-75.

I think you might have jumped the gun. Read the next post down.

On 1/3/2020 at 7:20 PM, Parakitor said:

I forgot to say, GR-75 coordinates a focus (CR90 recovers), CR90 reinforce (recover) link into calculate (recover), lock (recover). That's how the healing goes down.

GR-75 has to use Tibanna Reserves to have enough energy to do it next turn.

Sorry I didn't include that in the original post. It's a really cool interaction.

Edited by Parakitor
3 hours ago, Stefan said:
On 1/4/2020 at 11:26 PM, BenDay said:

The easiest use of the GR75 may be a meat shield. it is 55 point for 15 hit points, this is 3.6 points per hit point (a decimator is 68 for 16 or 4.25). I say don't do any upgrades at all (maybe a cheap second shot) and ram it at the enemies center of mass. They will be forced to engage, and each shot not at your corvette is as good as a shield.

True, but I don't know if I like that playstyle ^^

Yeah me three. Its boring. Any old soup spoon director can cue in a ram scene.

I played around with this a bit, and here's my iteration. Hope to bring it to the table tomorrow.

Alderaanian Guard (146)
Point-Defense Battery (9)
Turbolaser Battery (13)
Magva Yarro (8)
Saw Gerrera (9)
Sensor Experts (10)
Damage Control Team (3)
Tibanna Reserves (3)
Liberator (5)

Echo Base Evacuees (55)
Tibanna Reserves (3)
Quantum Storm (3)

Wedge Antilles (55)
Crack Shot (1)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Red Squadron Veteran (41)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Red Squadron Veteran (41)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Braylen Stramm (52)
Fire-Control System (2)
Jamming Beam (0)
Stabilized S-Foils (2)

Green Squadron Pilot (32)
Crack Shot (1)
Concussion Missiles (6)
Total: 500

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

However, in the meantime: Isn't flying the GR75 as a flank cover for the CR90 obstructing all my own shots and therefore not exactly desirable?

Edited by Stefan
2 hours ago, Stefan said:

However, in the meantime: Isn't flying the GR75 as a flank cover for the CR90 obstructing all my own shots and therefore not exactly desirable?

Good point. Now, if you're blocking one side you can still shoot out the other because of the way the CR90 firing arcs are laid out. So depending on enemy deployment it may still be a viable tactic.

2 hours ago, Stefan said:

I played around with this a bit, and here's my iteration. Hope to bring it to the table tomorrow.

Alderaanian Guard (146)
Point-Defense Battery (9)
Turbolaser Battery (13)
Magva Yarro (8)
Saw Gerrera (9)
Sensor Experts (10)
Damage Control Team (3)
Tibanna Reserves (3)
Liberator (5)

Echo Base Evacuees (55)
Tibanna Reserves (3)
Quantum Storm (3)

Wedge Antilles (55)
Crack Shot (1)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Red Squadron Veteran (41)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Red Squadron Veteran (41)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Braylen Stramm (52)
Fire-Control System (2)
Jamming Beam (0)
Stabilized S-Foils (2)

Green Squadron Pilot (32)
Crack Shot (1)
Concussion Missiles (6)
Total: 500

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

1) do you know which scenario? Or is it death match?

2) Do you realize that Wedge doesn't have Veteran Wing Leader? I know it's a silly question, but when you have an i6 and two generics of the same ship type, wings immediately spring to mind. Just want to make sure it's intentional.

1) Death Match

2) Not silly at all, I didn't realize it. Thanks!

Alderaanian Guard (146)
Turbolaser Battery (13)
Point-Defense Battery (9)
Saw Gerrera (9)
Magva Yarro (8)
Damage Control Team (3)
Sensor Experts (10)
Tibanna Reserves (3)
Liberator (5)

Echo Base Evacuees (55)
Tibanna Reserves (3)
Quantum Storm (3)

Wedge Antilles (55)
Crack Shot (1)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Veteran Wing Leader (2)

Red Squadron Veteran (41)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Red Squadron Veteran (41)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Braylen Stramm (52)
Crack Shot (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Jamming Beam (0)
Stabilized S-Foils (2)

Phoenix Squadron Pilot (29)
Crack Shot (1)
Concussion Missiles (6)
Total: 500

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

Edited by Stefan

So, I flew it today. The healing is phenomenal, the Turbolaser less so. I'm continually underwhelmed and will likely not bother with it again.

I made a new iteration. Out with Turbolasers, in with Targeted Battery. I added Hotshot Gunner; the Point Defense provides a cheap possibility of shooting away Focus on TIEs and the like. I'm yet unsure about the B-Wing and the A-Wing in their current iterations; I made Braylen a bit leaner (his job is only jamming and surviving long enough to do it), gave the A-Wing Clusters for some swarm control and made him I3.

Alderaanian Guard (146)
Point-Defense Battery (9)
Targeting Battery (6)
Magva Yarro (8)
Saw Gerrera (9)
Hotshot Gunner (7)
Sensor Experts (10)
Damage Control Team (3)
Tibanna Reserves (3)
Liberator (5)

Echo Base Evacuees (55)
Tibanna Reserves (3)
Quantum Storm (3)

Wedge Antilles (55)
Crack Shot (1)
R4 Astromech (2)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Veteran Wing Leader (2)

Red Squadron Veteran (41)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Red Squadron Veteran (41)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Braylen Stramm (52)
Jamming Beam (0)
Stabilized S-Foils (2)

Green Squadron Pilot (32)
Cluster Missiles (5)
Total: 500

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

15 hours ago, Stefan said:

I made a new iteration. Out with Turbolasers, in with Targeted Battery. I added Hotshot Gunner; the Point Defense provides a cheap possibility of shooting away Focus on TIEs and the like. I'm yet unsure about the B-Wing and the A-Wing in their current iterations; I made Braylen a bit leaner (his job is only jamming and surviving long enough to do it), gave the A-Wing Clusters for some swarm control and made him I3.

-snip-

I like it. Did you feel like you had enough fighters? Five isn't very many for Epic, but if the CR90 keeps its shields up for even two extra rounds, that's HUGE because it becomes increasingly harder for your opponent to stick damage as their ship count drops. By the way, how many rounds was the GR-75 able to let the CR90 recover?

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Separate idea. I saw your Hotshot Gunner and thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to do that early in the round?" And then I realized that you could do that with Han Gunner. Unfortunately, to get both you would have to take the Thunderstrike instead of the Liberator , which trades out 3 shields for 3 hull. That's not exactly what you're looking for in a ship on which you are focusing your shield recovery efforts. And yet, of any title that wants shield recovery, Thunderstrike makes a lot of sense because a) it excels at getting in the thick of things and doing damage to a lot of ships with the Point-Defense Battery, and b) it doesn't have a lot of shields to begin with, so getting them back is a bigger deal. It doesn't even need 4 actions to get full shields because it only has 4 total, regenerating 2 of them in the end phase. So instead of Coordinate, you could choose another meaningful action for the GR-75. Might be something to think about...but recovering shields on a huge ship that is riddled with crits seems like a poor investment. I can't really see how Thunderstrike is better than Liberator , especially if you're packing Point-Defense Battery and want that extra energy. I guess you could Coordinate to help it flip crits over, giving a shield at the same time.

If Thunderstrike isn't good with shield recovery, when is it ever good?

P.S. Jaina's Light would be so much better if it said "obstructed by an object" instead of "instructed by an obstacle." That way the Huge ships could more effectively screen, and you could use energy to let the support line of your larger wings roll extra defense because the enemy must shoot through the front rank. I don't know how often I would willingly spend an energy to let a ship that is already rolling an extra die for defending through an obstruction to roll one more die, especially because Jaina's Light is +1 shield, -1 energy.

P.P.S. This may seem like a tangent, but I am trying to figure out the best CR90 title to try to heal with the GR-75, but so far all signs point to Liberator . Like, seriously, the only time you wouldn't choose Liberator ever is if you already had one in your squad. And even then I'm not sure I would bother with a title for the second CR90. . .

💡 !

That's it! You take Liberator AND Thunderstrike!

Alderaanian Guard (146)
Stalwart Captain (6)
Point-Defense Battery (9)
Ion Cannon Battery (5)
Hotshot Gunner (7)
Damage Control Team (3)
Gunnery Specialists (8)
Optimized Power Core (6)
Thunderstrike (4)
Han Solo (14)

Echo Base Evacuees (55)
Jan Dodonna (4)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Damage Control Team (3)
Tibanna Reserves (3)
Optimized Power Core (6)
Luminous (12)

Alderaanian Guard (146)
Raymus Antilles (12)
Point-Defense Battery (9)
Targeting Battery (6)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Damage Control Team (3)
Sensor Experts (10)
Liberator (5)

Total: 498

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0

A beefed up support GR-75 sandwiched between two CR90s armed to the teeth. Ooh, I'm itching to try this now! It will probably fall flat on its face during death matches, but might be effective in a death match. The key beef on the support is that it can focus and gain two tokens with Perceptive Copilot, and Jan Dodonna allows the CR90s to use those tokens. Oh, I am drooling over this idea. Must try it soon!

The GR75 was able to consistently heal and, even more importantly, to kill Target Locks. It completely neutered a swarm of TIE Bombers and much of the Raider's power.

Liberator is just the go-to title. I always scroll through others being like "naaaaah....".