Second champs I took part in yesterday. Four rounds, came in 3-1 with a catch: all three were modified wins. Which bottom-line kept me out of the top 4 (9 points vs. 12-13ish being the bottom).

I've been running four Bombers for the past couple months, and my list has looked a little something like this:

Jonus: Swarm Tactics, Seismic

Gamma: Assault, Proton Trop, Seismic

Scimitar: Proton, Seismic

Scimitar: Assault

And variations on this theme. Sometimes swapping in a Gamma, or ditching a seismic, etc. I've had some success with this build, but admittedly, over the past couple sessions especially I have some real difficulty.

Now, again, most of my matches were wins. In many cases my opponents possibly knocking out one ship, but rarely taking out more than that; I normally took out over half of the opponent's ships.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

I had a similar problem with my very first tournament list: lots of modified wins, not many full ones. (It pushed me out of the top two at a Kessel Run, despite being one of just two undefeated players after regular play.) In your case, your list is going to be relatively tough to kill, but you're basically done with your offense by Round 3.

I'd swap out a couple of the Bombers for something with better primary offense: Howlrunner + 2x Academy with Jonus and a Scimitar leaves you with 20 points for ordnance and upgrades--Squad Leader on Jonus and Swarm Tactics on Howlrunner leaves you with enough room for Homing/Seismic on Jonus and Assault/Seismic on the Scimitar, which gives you a tough 5-ship swarm with a tough alpha strike and pretty effective offense on the following round, as well.

Alternately, with 40-45 points you can play a lot of fun Firespray or Shuttle games, and an HLC with Jonus' reroll is nothing to sneeze at.

Tie Bomber squads are a high risk to take on tourneys:

1. The Rebels got too many popular lists that counter your bombers with ease.

2. The high defence values of Tie Fighters prevents the effective use of ballistic ordnance.

Small Rebel high-PS squads and all squads with Biggs are your Bomber Squads greatest enemies.

Since there are more Rebel players and Biggs is very popular to take, It is very likely that you encounter a squad with Biggs.

What makes Biggs so dangerous?

If you haven't played against Biggs + Friends yet ...

Lets assume your Opponent rebel player got Biggs, Wedge and 2 Rookies. You got Jonus and 3 Gammas.

You know about formation flying, the rule of 11, you did all right. You move your Gammas in range of the Rookies and got a target lock on each of them. Then Biggs moves - and is now in range 3 of 2 of your Gammas. You move Jonus - he actually would be in rane 3 of Biggs - but he got nothing but his lasers to shoot at him.... Now you are in deep ****.

One of your Gammas is capable to shoot a torpedo/missile at one of the Rookies ... Jonus and the 2 remaining Gammas are forced to shoot at Biggs with their Lasers - at range 3. No alpha strike. In the following furball you lose bomber after bomber with their ordnance still in their launchers. Your seismic charges made some damage but not enough to score a kill.

Ha. No kidding. I wrote a post about Biggs on our website . He's crazy difficult to deal with. I've tried slow playing and jumping in on him, but you're right, it's insanely difficult to get the drop on Biggs. The Ol' Heaver Special has foiled me a few times.

@vorp -- I appreciate your thoughts. I was running Jonus, 3 Bombers and Howl for a while. I enjoyed it, but wasn't getting the impact I needed, so I tried to max out the Bomber aspect. But I think you might be right, and I think I might have to try out something a bit more diverse. I'll have to test that this week. I potentially have two more champs I'm trying to prep for.

OK so you know about the dangers of facing Biggs ^^

The only way to get around the Biggs trap is to get a TL for your Bombers AFTER Biggs moved in range. And this comes with a price. You could give Jonus the power of a Squad Leader, so one of your Bombers use Focus as action, and Jonus gives him a TL at PS 6. Biggs got PS5 so it doesn't matter if you got initiative. But in this case it is very unlikely that the Gamma and Jonus' laser cannons are able to kill Biggs, so that the 2 other Gammas could fire at their targets... you need another Missile/Torp to be fired at Biggs. This disqualifies Jonus as Squad Leader. He need to get a shot at Biggs as well. Meaning you are forced to swap one of your Bombers. You need Mauler Mithel, Howlrunner or Darth Vader as a Squad Leader nerby.

... or you might consider to take super-overpriced Major Rhymer into your squad.

Jonus + Rhymer together are able to kill Biggs in the first encounter.

Jonus + PtL + Concussions

Rhymer + Clusters

Are able to deliver a decent blow.

BOOOM. You have killed Biggs. Mission goal achieved. But then what? Your Opponent wins anyway. You lock so many points to counter Biggs that you will have a hard time to fight the remaining ships. And you find yourself lucky to get a modified win.

Unless the Gammas get an ETP slot for Deadeye or Veteran Instincts (which is unlikely) or there will be a modification in the future which allows to fire Torps/missiles without TL (which is also unlikely) ... pure Tie Bomber squads will be a high risk to take.

Well, I went 1-2 in my tourney with the following list:

Jonus squad leader

Gamma Concussion Proton torp

Gamma Concussion proton torp

Gamma Proton Torp

My one modified win came against Hothie of all people when he landed on an asteroid with Kath Scarlet and I basically one-shotted her (6 damage from one missile). Other than that, I got chewed up by two similar vader, soontir, turr lists.

My next list is taken directly from the forums from someone that said they've won some store championships with it.

Jonus PTL, Homing miss

Gamma Assault Cluster

Gamma Assault Cluster

Dark Curse

I'm debating somehow replacing dark curse with an interceptor. Either way, I'm sticking with my bombers. We can make this work!

I suppose I could go

Jonus PTL Shield Upgrade

Scimitar Assault Cluster

Scimitar Assault Cluster

Alpha Interceptor with Stealth Device

I think the way to go with bombers is using bombs :-)

I will try a build with a some (3-4?) bombers loaded with proton bombs, accompanied by one or two TIE fighters to block the enemy and ensure that they will not escape the trap. The proton bombs should be able to kill b-wings and x-wing quite well, and even the TIE swarm needs to be very careful to not get caught in that trap.

If the TIE blockade is not working I might go with some missiles for an alpha strike, which should do a good job vs swarm and low agility ships like YT (the bombs will have a hard time bringing that one down)

I think the way to go with bombers is using bombs :-)

I will try a build with a some (3-4?) bombers loaded with proton bombs, accompanied by one or two TIE fighters to block the enemy and ensure that they will not escape the trap. The proton bombs should be able to kill b-wings and x-wing quite well, and even the TIE swarm needs to be very careful to not get caught in that trap.

If the TIE blockade is not working I might go with some missiles for an alpha strike, which should do a good job vs swarm and low agility ships like YT (the bombs will have a hard time bringing that one down)

I tested a 3 Bomber with just proton bombs this past week -- it was okay, but especially if you wind up putting a lot of TIEs out with them, the ties are hard to keep out of the way of the bombs. Worked okay, but still didn't get my kills in before the buzzer. Blerg.

How about some serious ordnance?

========
3 Bomber
========

100 points

Pilots
------

Captain Jonus (36)
TIE Bomber (22), Assault Missiles (5), Concussion Missiles (4), Push the Limit (3), Seismic Charges (2)

Gamma Squadron Pilot (32)
TIE Bomber (18), Proton Torpedoes (4), Cluster Missiles (4), Cluster Missiles (4), Seismic Charges (2)

Gamma Squadron Pilot (32)
TIE Bomber (18), Proton Torpedoes (4), Cluster Missiles (4), Cluster Missiles (4), Seismic Charges (2)

or

========
3 Bomber
========

100 points

Pilots
------

Captain Jonus (38)
TIE Bomber (22), Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6), Assault Missiles (5), Push the Limit (3), Seismic Charges (2)

Gamma Squadron Pilot (31)
TIE Bomber (18), Proton Torpedoes (4), Assault Missiles (5), Cluster Missiles (4)

Gamma Squadron Pilot (31)
TIE Bomber (18), Proton Torpedoes (4), Assault Missiles (5), Cluster Missiles (4)

------

View: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/57390/3-bomber
Tweak: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/build/57390

I feel uncomfortable putting only three ships on the table. But I think I will try four again tonight.

I think one of the keys to catching Biggs has to be Squad Leader, but I'm also toying with the idea of running Jonus and Rhymer. So far I can't get them to quite fit, but more thoughts to come.

I really like playing (admittedly, casually) with:

Jonus - Squad Leader and Seismic

Scimitar - Assault and cluster

Scimitar - Assault and cluster

Sabre - PTL

You can fiddle around a bit with the basic idea. Drop the assaults to a concussion and proton torpedo and you can upgrade one of the bombers to a gamma or throw targeting computer on the interceptor. Just make sure you keep Jonus back from the bombers and get the interceptor behind the enemy.

How do you use the Sabre? Do you flank with him from the outside?

I've been thinking about a similar setup either with two Academys to block or Howlrunner to be Howlrunner.

How do you use the Sabre? Do you flank with him from the outside?

I've been thinking about a similar setup either with two Academys to block or Howlrunner to be Howlrunner.

I put the bombers on a side that has a good turn lane inwards and the sabre closer to the other side, shading towards the middle. I try to ensure the interceptor can hang back a bit if needed while the bombers plow ahead. I'm sure two academies could work, but I find a PTL Sabre has enough offense to be really dangerous if ignored. If you're using the academies, I'd think you'd want to run them in front of the bombers to manage range, but I'm not very good at blocking or swarm formation flying.