Well, it's been a month since worlds and I'm only just recovering from the jet lag!
However, in my haze, I've been slowly creating a load of new cards for a new and improved Battle of the Titans!
Battle of the Titans is an old project I did in the early days of my articles, making a Nebulon-B and Arquitens for the Rebel and Imperial faction's epic games. However, now that I've finished printing and painting both ships in epic scale, I decided to make more up-to-date cards for them!
I quickly realised that the standard loadout design would be quite effective in epic, allowing for cheaper ships and easy to pick up and play combinations. So I have extended my project to cover all the factions, making cards for each of their epic ships and adding a few new epic ships so each faction has 3 huge ships with 2 standard loadout cards. I have also decided to make some new epic game small ships with standard loadouts so each faction has 3 small generic ships with 2 standard loadout cards.
As this totals EIGHTY FOUR cards, this will be a seven-article project with each article tackling one of the factions. So let's get cracking with the Rebellion!
EF76 Nebulon-B Escort Frigate:
The Nebulon-B is what I'm classifying as a massive size ship. These ships use all the same rules as huge ships, however, they have larger bases, using one normal huge ship base at the front and a single large ship base at the back, connected by the cardboard base plate. The second difference is that they require eight ion or tractor tokens to be considered ionised or tractored over the six required by huge ships. Otherwise, they function identically to huge ships. The last change, and a change that I'd apply to all epic ships, is that when they are destroyed, the opponent places three debris fields at range zero of the destroyed ship.
The Nebulon-B is a forward heavy ship, party because its primary weapons are restricted to its front arc, but mainly because when ships start to flank or get behind it, the Nebulon becomes very vulnerable. This is due to its Tough Head Weak Spine pilot ability which forces your reinforce tokens to be on the fore section but allows you to roll an extra defence die while defending from attacks in your front half.
Like all the massive ships, it has a new second ship ability, Capital Grade Shields. This ability shows off the strength of these ship's shields, letting them reinforce twice so they are reinforced from every angle at the cost of extra shield regeneration. The Nebulon-B is a little odd as its reinforce tokens must be on the foreside, meaning it can't be forced to reinforce both the front and back like all the other massive ships. This can be an advantage as it adds to the tough nature of its front half, making front-on attacks suicidal for opponents.
As for durability in the shields and hull department, the Nebulon is much tougher than all current epic ships however it is weaker than the other massive ships I've made for the other six factions.
Finally, the dial of the Nebulon is relatively basic, it is quite slow only having speed 1-2 banks, however, I did allow it to keep up to a four straight solely so it can get to the fight quick enough so the games don't drag on forever!
Redemption:
19 Points
The original Nebulon we see on screen, the Redemption was repurposed as a medical frigate during the Civil War. The upgrades show this with it being only equipped with point defence weapons and upgrades that keep other friendly ships around for longer, like Rieekan and the droids that healed Luke twice during ESB.
Vanguard:
19 Points
Jan Dodonna's flagship during Rebels, the Vanguard is a more combat-focused Nebulon, equipped with deadly proton cannons to rip apart other enemy capital ships. However, it is also an effective support ship, Dodonna's normal crew ability and Vanguard's ability to get a hold of more green tokens combine to make this ship an amazing flagship for your fleet.
CR90 Corellian Corvette:
Tantive IV:
13 Points
The classic epic ship, the Tantive has a slightly better title ability to keep it more defensive. Leia's diplomatic ability to deplete ships attacking you plus R2 and 3PO helping you recover an additional shield make the Tantive a hard-to-kill ship.
Liberator:
13 Points
Jun Sato's flagship for a time after the destruction of Phoenix Home and before the capture of the Phoenix Nest, the Liberator is filled out to be a support ship with better coordination abilities and room for two A-Wings. However, Sato can still make his heroic sacrifice as he did in the Phoenix Nest, crashing the CR90 into enemy ships after another huge ship goes down.
GR-75 Medium Transport:
Bright Hope:
9 Points
The last ship to escape from Echo base, the Bright Hope took many Rebels like communications officer Toryn Farr to safety. I decided because of Farr's role in commanding and coordinating the ion cannon on Hoth, her ability boosts the chances that the Bright Hope or another friendly ship ionizes an enemy ship.
Quantum Storm:
9 Points
The last of the Rebel epic ships, the Quantum Storm is a jamming machine! The Jamming Field upgrade is an idea taken from Armada's upgrade of the same name although slightly changed in design. It allows the Quantum Storm to charge into the mists of an enemy squadron and completely wreak havoc.
Wingmates:
I'm personally a fan of the game's current design where generics are a rare sight in normal play. However, that being said it makes epic games very complex and hard to run, with far too many abilities and components to keep track of. I believe this could be one of the reasons epic has been left untouched by AMG at the current time, along with other issues and reasons, however, my solution is simple, a new standard loadouts for the generic pilots of the game that are designed for epic play!
These pilots are designed for the wing mechanic with each of them being equipped with the Wingmate upgrade. This is a reworded Veteran Wing Leader, however, it does make all the ships worse whilst apart from their wing, with all their actions becoming red, and prevents them from being part of a wing that has a high initiative Wing Leader.
This allows the Generics to be slightly cheaper and have a pair of upgrades to make them effective. Although all the generic ships of the game could easily have a new standard loadout card each, for my sanity I only made cards for the classic small ships of each faction, with the Rebellion having the T-65 X-Wing, BTL-A4 Y-Wing and RZ-1 A-Wing.
T-65 X-Wing:
Blue Squadron Escort:
4 Points
The basic Blue Squadron Escorts are the Rebellion's Torpedo carriers, each gets the R3 Astromech and a new type of torpedo, the Flechette Torpedo. These work in a similar way to concussion missiles, except the enemy ship can choose to negate the effects. It also isn't as long range so it can be a danger to the X-wings as well, however, the extra die is incredibly useful at range two!
Red Squadron Veteran:
4 Points
The heroic pilots of Red Squadron don't have heavy munitions, however, they do get access to the amazing Selfless talent to keep their wingmates safe. They also have their trusty R2 Astromechs to regenerate their shields, however, they only get one shot at this.
BTL-A4 Y-Wing:
Gray Squadron Bomber:
3 Points
The pilots of Gray Squadron have a basic bombing loadout, a set of Thermal Detonators to drop (although they have one less charge than normal) and a Skilled Bomber upgrade repackaged as an astromech.
Gold Squadron Veteran:
3 Points
Gold squadron's pilots use Ion Cannon Turrets and Watchful Astromechs to boost their chance of hitting their target thanks to the extra attack die and to make this wing incredibly effective at disabling enemy ships.
RZ-1 A-Wing:
Phoenix Squadron Pilot
3 Points
The pilots of Phoenix Squadron can use Cluster Missiles to boost their attack strength, although if you wish to use the ability to perform a bonus attack, you'll run yourself dry of missiles. On top of this, the Starbird Slash talent pairs well with the Vectored Cannons ship ability so you can flee through your opponent, strain the enemy and keep shooting them.
Green Squadron Pilot:
3 Points
The final pilots of this pack, the pilots of Green Squadron are more defensive than their Phoenix Squadron friends, with it being equipped with Juke which means it's more beneficial for it to keep evading. However thanks to Hopeful and the high casualty rate of epic games, it is likely that these A-Wing will also often have both an evade and focus token by the time they perform an attack.
For high-quality images of all the cards and the base plates, of the Battle of the Titans project, ready to print, click HERE! Be aware the base plates are in two halves to allow for easy printing on A4 paper. For use, glue it onto a piece of cardboard of the right size.
Conclusion:
The second I got my 3D printer I decided I wanted to print epic ships for X-Wing, however for some reason, I've only just gotten around to it after two years of having the printer. But it was worth it, and they look amazing! This is what inspired this project, however, it has grown so much larger and I'm excited
to show off all the other cards I've created from the remaining factions alongside some pictures of the 3d printed ships I have for these epic battles!
Thank you all for reading.
Watcher Leader out!