Musings on Epic: Listbuilding the GR75

After we established some basics on the mechanics of Epic gaming, I want to finally turn to list building. At first, we'll take a look at a ships available for the Rebel faction (and, by proxy, the Resistance): the GR75 Transport. Be advised that the Resistance has much reduced options in some cases; I will mention this for the categories. For each ship, we shall look at the available upgrades in turn. I will steal a page from the Space Cats Peace Turtles podcast for rating the upgrades and establish tiers, without any specific order within the tiers. We go in descending order from S-Tier to A-Tier over to B-Tier, C-Tier and F-Tier. With all that preliminary stuff out of the way, let's evacuate some bases with the GR75!

Command Upgrades

Like every ship in Epic, the GR75 has a Command Upgrade slot. Five choices are available for the Rebels; the Resistance and the Republic has a grand total of two. Remember that taking a commander in this slot also eats up a crew slot, unlike the Veteran Wing Leader and other related upgrades do for wings. So, let's delve into this.

S-Tier

I don't think there's anything that provides great synergies here. The GR75 is just not central enough that any of these upgrades provides us enough to consider it that good.

A-Tier

If they have a place on any ship, the Strategic Commander fits best on a support vessel like the transport. The transport wants to be in the general vicinity of your ships anyway, and the ability to change dials can be hugely important since it either affects a whole wing or even another Huge Ship (which might overlap something). However, the latter option is sharply restricted since the Strategic Commander only allows changes to the same difficulty and speed, which is why I consider him more of a thing for wings, especially those that have high initiative and therefore are subject to being blocked. There's also a fringe use with Adaptive Shields, if you have enough energy left, to soak some additional hits.

B-Tier

I don't think that there are any options to be considered good enough for this category. All other commanders are so circumstantial I'd rather put them lower on the scale. 

C-Tier

We meet our boy Jan Dodonna. His mighty beard allows friendly ships to spend our Focus or Evade tokens. There might be a fringe case of a Perceptive Co-Pilot and someone really needing those tokens, but I don't see the investment worth it.

Carlist Rieekan allows one friendly ship in Range 0-2 to perform a red Evade action when another friendly ship in the same range is destroyed. My main problem is that not only does this stress the target in question, it can also easily be avoided by the adversary by shooting at other targets. The fringe cases that only one ship remains in arc and the Evade token then rescuing the day isn't worth the considerable investment in my opinion.

I don't consider Raymus Antilles to be a good option on any ship. He's just way too expensive and the timing is awkward. When the transport explodes, most other ships likely already activated or aren't targets, so the free Focus (which in any case only applies to Range 0-1) doesn't do much, and staying on the board will mostly affect your primary, so...simply don't.

F-Tier

What I said about Raymus goes double for the Stalwart Captain. You invest so many points and a slot to fire another 2-dice attack (maybe)? Simply don't.

Hardpoints

You can outfit the transport with some cannons, which can actually give it a lot more firepower than anyone expected. I don't see this as a priority for the GR75, so the following scale is relative to the decision to install a weapon in the first place, which I usually don't consider initially. But if I were to, what weapon do I install on the innocent evacuee, though?

S-Tier

To be honest, the main job of the transport is not to shoot at things, so I don't really think there's a S-Tier for this category.

A-Tier

If you want some support on the cheap, the Ion Cannon Battery does the job. Why do we like it? On the one hand, it sports range 4, and we really don't want to go in the thick of it. On the other hand, its cost of one energy is bearable, and the ability to break up enemy wings is welcome and synergizes well with the support role of the vessel.

B-Tier

The Targeting Battery gets demoted relative to the Ion Cannon mainly because there is not much synergy for the Target Lock. Yes, I can shoot again next round and have modified dice, but in a list with a GR75, damage output will be other people's job, and I like not to dilute responsibilities.

C-Tier

You might be surprised to find the Point Defense Battery here, but hear me out. I guess there's a place for a GR75 build that charges into the enemy and fires this thing four times, but that's a dead GR75, and I don't think that's worth the points. Now, when it comes to self-defense, why not install it? The point is simple: energy cost. The GR75 has so many great abilities that eat up energy, it's simply not worth it paying premium for yet another option to burn it, especially as you have no access to dice modifications.

In theory - I never tested this, mind you - you could install a Turbolaser Battery on a GR75, put on practically nothing else and use it as a long-range cannon. I still think it's not worth it because the Turbolaser Battery simply sucks (figuratively in terms of efficiency and literally and in case of energy), but if you put it on somewhere, you might as well try this and call it a very casual and silly game. I don't recommend it, though. You would need either Quantum Storm or Luminous to even have the capacity as well.

F-Tier

Ordnance Tubes. You can't take Ordnance. Duh.

Turrets

I guess the idea behind installing a turret on the GR75 is to have another option besides the front arc to fire out of without expending energy. The latter part is crucial, because for everything else, we have hardpoints. However, given the likely need to turn the turret arcs at one point - these are for emergency defense, after all, and hard to plan because of that - the tax on the action economy makes this a dicey proposition.

S-Tier

I can't recommend anything here; the GR75 simply isn't a gun platform, and the points are likely better spent elsewhere.

A-Tier

I can't recommend anything here; the GR75 simply isn't a gun platform, and the points are likely better spent elsewhere.

B-Tier

The Ion Cannon Turret barely makes the cut here, just because ionizing a wing leader who's coming too close is a grimly funny thing to do. This will at least leave some mark on the board. 

C-Tier

The Dorsal Turret likely allows you to shoot at the people who are going to kill you, but there's a chance you can fire off a 3-dice attack once. Hooray.

F-Tier

I mean, it's not like you're losing out completely with turrets, so nothing in this category.

Crew

Now we come to the more important stuff. The transport is a carrier, after all, so let's have a look at who we evacuated and how they may help the war effort. Funny enough, there's not that many great crew options for the GR75, so we're looking at a very restricted set of possibilities.

S-Tier

K-2SO (Rebel Alliance) is a great card on any carrier. You only need to stay in range 0-3 of any friend, which should be easy enough to do.

This is somewhat speculative, but GA-97 (Resistance) has a great synergy with any Dreadnought Hunter or ace in general. Said ace is able to spawn on the same table edge as your adversary, therefore getting behind enemy Huge Ships or wings, which can really wreak havoc. 

A-Tier

The Informant is actually a great upgrade because you'll put it on a Wing Leader, and that way, you'll know where the entire wing goes. This is especially relevant if you have a blocker wing that can then sweep in and break up the enemy formation.

Given the scaling with the number of ships in Epic, Leia Organa (Rebel Alliance) is an obvious choice. She allows whole wings to K-Turn or Tallon Roll or to red-turn or to stop and still take actions. The only reason I didn't put her in the S-Tier is that it is my experience that I don't need to dial red maneuvers as often as in normal games since there are more targets available and the playing field is so much bigger. 

B-Tier

The Freelance Slicer is actually an interesting choice here because he allows us to Jam at Range 3. Coordinate a friend, take a target lock, spend it for the Jam, lock down enemy Ordnance or at least dice mods. The upgrade is severely hindered by the fact that it only applies to people attacking us, but the bomber protection it affords might just be worth it.

There are some uses for Toryn Farr (Rebel Alliance). While you usually don't want to Target Lock with a GR75, it being red and all, Torryn makes it white, following red Coordinate (that's one energy for everyone that keeps counting) allows any ship to lock on whatever you just locked. For low-initiative ordnance carriers, this might be interesting: Lock the target, coordinate the other ship a Focus, which then gets the free lock,

C-Tier

Jyn Erso (Rebel Alliance) might help a nearby wing that really, really wants to survive by handing out Evade tokens. This might be especially relevant for jousting superior wings; however, it requires the GR75 to be essentially part of the joust due to the range requirement, and...why? This is, of course, a calculation that differs greatly when playing with scenarios.

There's some synergy with Jan Dodonna or the Bright Hope and Lando Calrissian (Rebel Alliance), as the Focus and Evade tokens we get can be used by friendly ships. That at least makes it very likely SOMEONE is going to use these tokens, but I don't really see it worth giving up the points and the crew slot.

Baze Malabus (Rebel Alliance) allows us to take up to two Focus tokens at the cost of one energy. As with Lando, this might matter if other ships can use our Focus tokens. The Bright Hope can spend them in defense. In all other cases, I don't see why we'd need them.

Sabine Wren (Rebel Alliance) simply requires anyone to carry her into battle, and while she doesn't synergize at all with the GR75, if any part of your list uses bombs, she might as well hitch a ride in this vessel.

If you want to repair damage cards on the cheap, the Novice Technician allows us to repair one especially nasty crit in exchange for exposing another. The GR75 doesn't care much about offline Hardpoints, so this would be an obvious applicability; however, it's difficult to plan.

If you want to perform blue 2-banks, put Nien Nunb (Rebel Alliance) on your carrier. It has an obvious synergy with the Optimized Power Core, but in my experience, I don't want to fly 2-speed maneuvers often anyway, so I can't recommend the man.

Kaydel Connix (Resistance) is the best option to actually ram something. The low speed of Huge Ships means this remains restricted to fringe cases, but still, it might help you out if you ever need to change a 1-bank into a 2-bank or something like that (why would it, though?).

While C-3PO (Rebel Alliance) can be enormously powerful, he's wasted on the GR75. We don't really want to have two calculates, and spending so many points for guaranteed Evades against long range shots doesn't seem worth it.

Like his pendant without a red arm, C-3PO (Resistance) doesn't do you much good on the GR75. You gain an additional Calculate token when Coordinating, but there aren't many good ways to spend it. And Coordinating ships with Calculate on their action bar isn't something often seen in Epic.

PZ-4CO (Resistance) allows you to push Focus or Calculate tokens onto friendly ships, but given that the Resistance lacks the best recipient for that (the CR90), I don't know how much use you'll be getting out of this, given the limited viability of Aces and the sheer number of ships.

Combined with the ship, Amilyn Holdo (Resistance) might help you getting rid of Disarm tokens, since a GR75 doesn't care much. However, the timing window means you need to do this when you engage, which is initiative 1. So it's likely not relevant for anything involving Black One, but Epic isn't really the place for such ace shenanigans anyway. More relevant seems reloading, which currently affects the bombers, or helping out Initiative 1 X-Wings or A-Wings flying alongside. Still not a good choice, though.

If you need Focus tokens for some synergy, like Jan Dodonna, the Perceptive Copilot MIGHT be worth it. Just barely. But usually, the GR75 doesn't want to Focus anyway.

You're not a damage dealer, so Saw Gerrera (Rebel Alliance) makes not much sense on this platform. Because the damage is regenerated each round, I see a case to be made for him with the aforementioned silly Turbolaser Battery build if you want that desperately.

Given that you have two actions, the GNK "Gonk" Droid actually might work out for some increased survivability, but the point cost remains prohibitive and the taxing of the action economy real.

R2-D2 (Rebel Alliance)falls into the same category. He gives you back a shield (hooray) for a 50% chance of triggering a crit, and since many crits cost you vital energy, I don't see this as a good bargain for the point cost involved.

Kanan Jarrus (Rebel Alliance) is a good supporter, but taking away stress from just one friendly ship just doesn't cut it in Epic. So many points require a dedicated ace to make use of this in my opinion, and I find dedicated aces dicey propositions in Epic. The carrier also isn't best suited to make use of the Force if there's no stress to be removed.

While Leia Organa (Resistance) is great in any 200-point game, usually, one ship being able to reduce difficulty simply isn't going to cut it, and the GR75 can't really do much with the Force, so the high cost is prohibitive.

F-Tier

Chopper (Rebel Alliance) allows you to do actions for damage while stressed, but Huge Ships are very rarely stressed, so I don't see the point. I allow a very fringe case of using the GR75 to ram lots of ships, which is a likely source of stress; however, that's not a strategy I can recommend, so let's simply not.

"Zeb" Orrelios (Rebel Alliance)allows you to fire your 2-dice-primary at range 0. Great. As a Huge Ship, you're not terribly likely to be in range 0 of anything IN FRONT OF YOU, and the other guy can shoot back.

For more survivability, you might want to add Han Solo (Resistance), who at the cost on an energy can give you a wing's worth of Evade tokens. But when a wing is that close, you're not likely to roll any green dice, so why bother?

Equally useless is Larma D'Acy (Resistance), since all her abilities pertain to being stressed, which Huge Ships rarely are.

Chewbacca (Rebel Alliance) allows you to repair one face-up damage card every two rounds, which can come in handy when you get a crit that messes with your energy. The rub is the timing: Chewbacca triggers at the beginning of the Engagement Phase, which means you will suffer the crit for a full turn, and then he would need to regenerate another two turns. And let's be honest, when you start collecting crits, you likely won't last another two turns.

The wookie equivalent in the Resistance, Chewbacca (Resistance), unfortunately doesn't fare much better than his Rebel counterpart in this list. He can modify your dice to crits, which on a GR75 is really wasted.

Korr Sella (Resistance) allows you to remove all your stress after a blue maneuver. Great. You don't have stress.

Hera Syndulla (Rebel Alliance)allows us to do red maneuvers even when stressed, but then, Huge Ships can do that anyway.

It might be my bias, but I think Cassian Andor (Rebel Alliance)is extremely fringy in any case, and to actually line him up with a ram by the GR75 is a dicey proposition at best.

Magva Yarro (Rebel Alliance)gives you Target Locks after defending. What do you do with them? I don't know, and Magva also just shakes her head. Pass on this one.

As with all things ramming, a Seasoned Navigator helps you out a little bit, but he's more expensive than the Strategic Commander, who does the same thing in a less useful slot cheaper, so why bother?

Rose Tico (Resistance) gives you a lock after spending a result attacking or defending, but what do you want with that lock...?

Teams

Teamwork! Who doesn't like it? Teams are the one upgrade category restricted to Huge Ships, so they should do some work for us, shouldn't they? As with crew, our actual options are somewhat limited, though.

S-Tier

Coordinating an entire wing and earning a Calculate for the trouble? Sure, count me in for the Comms Team. Nuff said.

A-Tier

Nothing to see here, move along.

B-Tier

Given that you usually don't have many Hardpoints, repairing offline upgrade cards isn't such a priority with the GR75, so the Damage Control Team isn't placed higher. Still, you'll Reinforce a lot, and the additional Calculate synergizes well with some other upgrades.

C-Tier

The Bombardement Specialists have a place on a GR75 that actually uses its Hardpoint, upgrading that to a white one with a linked Calculate. So, whenever you put any upgrade on that requires Target Locks, these guys might be worth a look. However, all of that requires so many points that it's hard to justify.

The Gunnery Specialists fall into the same category as their Bombardement colleagues. If you're dedicated to shooting Hardpoints and Turrets, yes, maybe. But why would you?

More Target Locks coming your way with the Sensor Experts. You're not really needing Target Locks, but if you want to have several of them for some crazy combo, this is the upgrade for you.

F-Tier

Without Ordnance, what do you want with an Ordnance Team? You can't even reload.

Cargo

Isn't it weird that a transport actually puts an emphasis on cargo? I know, gets me every time, too. We have two slots for this, so let's have a look at the options. ALL FOUR OF THEM.

S-Tier

The Tibanna Gas Reserves should be stapled to the GR75. You can usually spare the action, and between Coordinating (Comms Team and all that) and the baked-in ability of the ship, this comes in very handy. Always make room for gas.

Speaking of energy, if you install Boosted Scanners, you can increase the range of Coordinate and Jam. Increase the range of Jam. I'm repeating that: you can increase the range of Jam. This eats up energy FAST, but it turns your transport into a supporting power house. 

A-Tier

The Optimized Power Core is a great choice on the GR75. Our 1-maneuvers are blue, and 1-maneuvers are the natural state of being, so we get more energy, and energy we need. Since I advice to keep the GR75 lean on upgrades, the only obstacle is the point cost.

B-Tier

If you have a wing that wants to stay close or are shadowing a CR90, the Adaptive Shields might justify their cost. I find the range 1 requirement very restrictive, but the ability to mitigate damage should never ever be denied.

C-Tier

Nothing to see here, move along.

F-Tier

Nothing to see here, move along. 

Titles

The Rebel Alliance has access to some titles, while the Resistance unfortunately does not. This should be quick, it's only three cards. 

S-Tier

The Quantum Storm is practically an auto-include. You gain one more energy (ONE. MORE. ENERGY.) more slots, and on white maneuvers (2-speed and 3-speed), you get energy back, which, combined with an Optimized Power Core, actually means any non-red maneuver brings back energy. You even get additional slots! And all that for so few points, it's a steal. 

A-Tier

I don't see anything in this category. 

B-Tier

Reinforcing with the Bright Hope your front  makes the GR75 into a tanky beast. Provided the enemy is shooting at it head-on, you actually gain some use for all those Calculate and Focus tokens. 

The Luminous gives you 2 energy, but at the cost of one shield and at prohibitive cost. You ARE able to threaten a whole TIE swarm with annihilation in round 1, provided there's a well-dialed 3-maneuver, though. Its uses rise sharply when you play with scenarios, though, I'm told, so you might want to take that into account. 

C-Tier

Nothing here. 

F-Tier

Nothing here. 

Sample Builds

Phew. That was a lot. Now, let's talk some sample builds. 

Discount GR75

Echo Base Evacuees (55) 
    Tibanna Reserves (3) 
    Quantum Storm (3) 
 
Ship total: 61  Half Points: 31  Threshold: 8 
Total: 61 

This version is incredibly cheap. It provides you with  a lot of Energy, which you will likely spend on the baked-in ability of regenerating shields and taking away bad tokens from nearby ships. I like flying this next to a CR90.

The Supporter

Echo Base Evacuees (55) 
    Tibanna Reserves (3) 
    Optimized Power Core (6) 
    Quantum Storm (3) 
    Comms Team (8) 
    Boosted Scanners (8) 
 
Ship total: 83  Half Points: 42  Threshold: 8   
Total: 83 

This version is much more expensive, but it regenerates energy more reliably and can really put some oomph behind 3-ship wings. It's also great at jamming away vital target locks from enemy ordnance carriers. You might consider slapping Leia (Rebel Alliance) on, especially when you use a wing of Y-Wings or something like that.

Long-Range Cannon

Echo Base Evacuees (55) 
    Turbolaser Battery (13) 
    Saw Gerrera (9) 
    Tibanna Reserves (3) 
    Quantum Storm (3) 
    Bombardment Specialists (6) 
 
Ship total: 89  Half Points: 45  Threshold: 8 
Total: 89

Again, I think this is rather a casual build, but if you want to do this, this gives you the necessary dice mods. You can shoot about once very three rounds or so, and you can't use energy for anything else.

Point-Defense Battery 

Echo Base Evacuees (55)
       Luminous (12)
       Point-Defense Battery (9)
       Optimized Power Core (6)
       Damage Control Team (3)
       Perceptive Copilot (8)
TOTAL: 93

Can you name a standard ship worth 93 points that gets 4 attacks, a reinforce, calculate, and two focus tokens all backed up by 12 hull and 2 shields? The Decimator comes close, and so does the VCX, but this thing is still lightyears better. I totally agree that the GR-75 is made to be a support ship, but it can sure dish out some damage for its points. Worth it! (This comes from FFG Forums user Parakitor)

Point-Defense Battery 2

Echo Base Evacuees (55)
       Stalwart Captain (6)
       Point-Defense Battery (9)
       Damage Control Team (3)
TOTAL: 70

Anything can die in a single round (even the Raider) and tbh, if my opponent has to chew through 15 HP (reinforced if they're not jamming that off) for 70 points, I think I'm ok with it. Agree that it's not going to be as good as something similar on a C-ROC but backed by Drea for mods. This comes from FFG forums user eljms)

Target Lock Spammer

Echo Base Evacuees (55)
     Toryn Farr (4)
     Comms Team (8) 
     Boosted Scanners (8)
     Quantum Storm (3)

“Dutch” Vander (40)
     Plasma Torpedoes (9)
     Veteran Wing Leader (2)

Gray Squadron Bomber (30)
     Proton Torpedoes (13)

Gray Squadron Bomber (30)
     Proton Torpedoes (13)

Green Squadron Pilot (32)
     Concussion Missiles (6)
     Veteran Wing Leader (2)

Phoenix Squadron Pilot (29)
     Concussion Missiles (6)

Phoenix Squadron Pilot (29)
     Concussion Missiles (6)

Total: 325 - still room for a lot with 175 pts to spare in a 500 list.  

So, I went through the build to make sure I had everything right, but I realized I didn't even need the Targeting Battery.  You only need:

• Boosted Scanners - lets you Target Lock at R4 or R5 for 1 or 2 Energy. (8 pts)
• Torryn Farr - changes your TL to White and allows a linked Coordinate action.  (4 pts)

1. Action 1 - Grab a TL at R5
2. Linked Action - Coordinate to a nearby ship with Torpedoes (Y-wing, X-wing, etc.) on enemy target.

You can give a TL to another ship on an enemy at R5.  All this for 12 pts.  If you want to go further, you can add a Comms Team for 8 more pts.  That will let you spend up to 2 Energy to give 2 other ships a TL.    So, you can:

1. Action 1 - Pop Tibanna Gas 
2. Action 2 - TL enemy Ship R5 for 2 Energy
3. Linked Action - Costs another Energy - Coordinate to friendly Torpedo boat to give a TL.  Spend 2 more Energy to give 2 more TL's.  

Total cost = 20 pts extra (75 pts for ship total)

Total Energy = 5 Energy (you will need a title to get more than the 4 Energy)

The best part is you can do it again the next turn when everything is at R4 to give another wing of 3 ships TL.  

So, if you build your list to be about ships with Torpedoes, this build can really assist in trying to get the max effect of your warheads with double modification.  They will have TL's already and you can Focus for the turn you are going to fire.  It can be an enemy capital ship or an enemy Wing leader.  If you are firing fully modded Proton Torpedoes on a Wing Leader, they can only shunt off so much damage a shot.  With 4 dice fully modded, you can still do 2 hits to the Wing Leader and then he will be spreading damage around.  Also, if you really want to hurt him, you have a wing of A-wings that fire Concussion Missiles at the enemy wing after he spreads a bunch of Proton Torpedo hits to the rest of his squad, especially if they are un-shielded.  One hit means every ship in that Wing will be flipping their damage card to a Crit.  It can get ugly.  (This comes from FFG Forums user heychadwick)

That's it so far. What are your favorite builds? Post them in the comments and I can expand this section!