With the arrival of my Raider Corvette today, I have completed my X-Wing collection. Now... what’s a good jumping-off point for an Epic fleet? Do people tend to pack a Raider or CR90 to the gills with upgrades, and throw them in alongside a few amazing and expensive aces like Kylo, Vader, Wedge, and Han Solo? Or should I start with like, a wing of X-Wings, a couple of aces, and a GR-75 with just a couple of upgrades?

the format seems so wide-open, it’s hard to know where to start.

Where are the point guides and play formats? Is it one huge ship vs another? A huge ship vs a squad... I don't see much setup instructions or real rules or objectives... I see a manual point guide you can download and huge ship mechanics... but nothing on how many points etc for a standard huge ship game.

This is what is wrong with FFG

Aces or loads of upgrades on fighters are often not worth it in Epic. There are so many firing arcs, so it is difficult for Aces or expensive fighters to avoid arcs.

Then have a look at what a fully equipped Raider or CR90 with Teams and all the bonus attacks can do. It can just evaporate aces.

Aces in a wing, though, are another story as they distribute away damage and are thus more resilient.

Anyway, for the first Epic games I would recommend to have only some generics alongside. You will have all hands full already with the interactions of the Huges:)

3 minutes ago, Managarmr said:

Anyway, for the first Epic games I would recommend to have only some generics alongside. You will have all hands full already with the interactions of the Huges:)

This. Essentially, the more different initiatives and upgrades you have, the slower and more complicated the game will end up being (to start with, at least).

Personally I'd start out by exploring the huge ships. Make them the star of the show so you can get used to their abilities and mechanics. Limit your chosen ship to a certain upgrade allowance, then fill out the rest of the list with (wings of) generics and maybe one named character as a squadron leader per side.

Once you've played a couple of games, you can start opening things up a bit more.

And maybe consider starting at 300 points. That will allow you to focus more on getting the rules down pat before you take on the complication of masses of snub fighters.

A standard Epic game is 500 points. Right now there are no rules on the limit of huge ships you can use in build if you choose to use more than one. For Small, Medium, and Large ships some folks keep to the standard 8 max of a particular type such as 8 TIE Fighters. Here we limit at 10 of a single type. As for Aces, as mentioned before you will want to limit your Aces and minimize the upgrades and go more with generics. I tend to use Aces as wing leaders or a single harasser such as Kylo. Vader with Howlrunner and Iden Versio and 4 Academy TIE's is fantastic. But, you are going to want a variety of ships or even Wings of ships. Huge ships with truckloads of upgrades really limits the other ships you will be able to add to your fleet. I played a Separatist Build with a C-ROC against a friend of mine with a Rebel build. It was 17 ships vs. 7. He had one really fat CR-90, Wedge and 5 X-Wings. 10 Vulture droids, 4 Bombers, 2 Belbullabs, and the C-ROC just shredded that CR-90 and just by throwing Vultures at his X-Wing Wing it ruined his movement and action for Wedge and broke the wing apart. You want a good balance of ships to be able to deal with whatever comes at you. Some simple pointers: Large ships with 0 or 1 agility tend to get shredded quickly so forget the Decimators, Resistance Bombers, and Ghosts. (Upsilons, especially Tavson are actually pretty good in Epic) Bombs can hurt you just as much as your opponent in Epic so if you use them be very careful where you launch or drop them. A bunch of high PS Aces takes ships way from the fleet. In Epic, quantity is more often better than quality. Remember, a huge ship can fire all of its weapons (if it has the energy and upgrades such as Ordinance Tubes.) if ships are within its range. That will change the way a lot of other ships fly near it and is why Aces are basically useless against a huge ship. Here is an easy huge ship build for either the Empire or the First Order: A Gozanti with Tibanna Reserves, Damage Control Team, and Point Defense Battery. Not a lot of points dedicated to it, but it can do a lot of damage and stay alive longer. Its 75 points. Compare that to Vader with FCS and Afterburners at 75 points.