So I'm new to the game, recently played my first games in a tournament and really enjoy the game. One thing that bugged me was hearing imperial players, who are in the majority in my area, go on about how tie fighter swarms are the only competitive build. That combined with ordinance is a waste brings me here.

My natural response is to try anything but.

Looking at what the store had, and trying to see largely what wasn't selling or being played I fell for the tie bomber hard.

http://miniwarroom.blogspot.ca/2014/04/my-new-list-cause-only-tie-swarm-can-win.html

Above is my blog post after running the list for the first time.

So it's Jonus with 3x scimitar bombers with a proton, cluster and concussion missile respectively. They form up the first pass. Concussion and proton hit up xwing types and the cluster is there for ag1 veh.

After ord is away Howlrunner, the final piece in the puzzle keeps the guns downing things.

With 27 hull it's pretty beefy and the bombers seem to be pretty resilient, and they minimize what a bad roll can do, ie no being one shotted on all but the most extreme circumstances.

Plus I just like the look of the lumbering beast.

Priority of targets is high agility craft like a and xwings, then the ships rip up low agility craft with their lasers.

I think it can work and will shake up the meta.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Amazingly well thought out trolling?

I myself have been practicing with bombers some lately and gotten good results.

If the dominant meta in your area is swarms, I would think you would want to include at least some assault missiles. See if your local imperial players continue to praise swarms if you kill 7 TIEs on the first round of combat with 3 assault missiles.

If you can manage it I think you will be better with two Cluster Missiles rather than the Concussion.

I've gotten some good mileage out of both Seismic Charges and Proton Bombs, but you REALLY have to know how to read your opponent to get the most out of them flying Scimitar Squadron Pilots.

Also, Jonus is a good place to put at least one of those bombs...

After all, there's no reason NOT to!

My experience of Bombers however has taught me to LOVE the Assault Missile. If it doesn't do mass damage then it screws with the enemy plan 9/10 games.

Also... Jonus REALLY wants to rock Squad Leader. It can make a BIG difference to your ordinance strike.

If it was only toe swarms everywhere id be all over the assault missiles but I think the list is made to deal with high agility targets with the ordinance and then hammer home smaller targets. The current missiles will be better against rebel lists and will help me drop interceptors and the like. Plus taking the assault missiles would drop my ordinance count by one. Would it still be worth it?

Interesting build. Getting 5 ships on the board is pretty good. You'll have difficulty flying howlie with the bombers though because howl can't do a 1 forward and doesn't have a 5k. And I would DEFINITELY put an assault missile in there somewhere.

I've been finding that swarm tactics helps out bombers a lot on that alpha strike. I recently changed my bomber build to include Vader for exactly that reason.

Good! Someone is actually running the Howl, Jonus, 3 Scim build! I always liked it. Every time I play Scimitars with ordnance, however, I get matched up against a PS 4 build and lose a Scim due to hot dice before it shoots or get a bad crit, so I moved on to lists that didn't upset me as much. It's like every time I play interceptors a Falcon lines up on the other side of the table so I don't even get to play with the mobility! But good luck with it! Let me know how it fairs.

I think it was Englishpete or Rakky Wistol who suggested a cool list:

Gamma

Gamma

Gamma

Scimitar

Academy Pilot

With enough points left over for ordnance on each.

I also liked:

Howlrunner

Scimitar + 4 pt ordnance x 4

Having 5 ships just feels better than 4, which you'll get with Gamma and Jonus.

Also, Bombers in general fair well against Academy Pilots. PS 2, 2 agility, 6 hull is tough for those little Ties. The lists that'll be tough will probably be B Wing lists. Those are the lists I think Tie-F are better at killing.

I flew a bomber swarm in our local tournament this weekend and managed to take 1st. 5 Scimitar Squadron pilots + Howlrunner w/ Swarm tactics. Obviously, as with any TIE swarm, Howlrunner is the lyinchpin of this list. But if you can keep her alive and close to the bombers, this list works well. 6 ships, 33 health! I love the bomber for the same reason I love the Y-wing: it's a cheap ship with loads of health.

So Darkhorse - I see you live in Winnipeg as well? (Or I'm assuming you do..)

Where do you get together for X-Wing gaming? Are you just into tourneys or do you have the opportunity to play casually? My buddy and I are trying to get a few more games under our belts before we dive headlong into the tournament pool..

How do you fly howl with a bomber squad? Their dials are pretty different. Especially the lack of a 1 forward for howl

How do you fly howl with a bomber squad? Their dials are pretty different. Especially the lack of a 1 forward for howl

Just don't do 1 movements or 1 or 2 turn. All their greens are the same, so it isn't that hard. 3 turn is good enough for getting into position.

You could also purposely bump howl into the bombers.

Their dials don't make a HUGE difference.

I've tried a similar list recently, using Howlrunner + Determination and 4x Gamma Squadron Bombers all with Seismic Charges. It shows promise, but my Bombers lived up to their reputation for being crit magnets. I had nine or ten faceup cards inflicted on me in my one victory out of three games and just slightly less in both defeats. One thing I learned though is that I need to practice planning for dropping bombs. That part of my game did very poorly.

I do love flying Bombers though, so this list is gonna go through a lot more testing and tweaking, including trying out Proton Bombs and missiles/torps. My previous attempts at lists like this have always involved Jonus and/or Jendon so this is a nice change.

Good! Someone is actually running the Howl, Jonus, 3 Scim build! I always liked it. Every time I play Scimitars with ordnance, however, I get matched up against a PS 4 build and lose a Scim due to hot dice before it shoots or get a bad crit, so I moved on to lists that didn't upset me as much. It's like every time I play interceptors a Falcon lines up on the other side of the table so I don't even get to play with the mobility! But good luck with it! Let me know how it fairs.

I think it was Englishpete or Rakky Wistol who suggested a cool list:

Gamma

Gamma

Gamma

Scimitar

Academy Pilot

With enough points left over for ordnance on each.

I also liked:

Howlrunner

Scimitar + 4 pt ordnance x 4

Having 5 ships just feels better than 4, which you'll get with Gamma and Jonus.

Also, Bombers in general fair well against Academy Pilots. PS 2, 2 agility, 6 hull is tough for those little Ties. The lists that'll be tough will probably be B Wing lists. Those are the lists I think Tie-F are better at killing.

i actually like the single academy pilot in this build as it will get left untouched most of the time and is an effective blocker at PS1

I've had an AWFUL time trying to kill Biggs Walks the Dog in my league. The 2 B's are murder and biggs screws with ordinance something fierce. I'm having my best success with Vader + Assault, Swarm, Jonus + Swarm, Scim +Proton Torp, Scim + Proton Torp. I can at least hang with most squads with that.

So Darkhorse - I see you live in Winnipeg as well? (Or I'm assuming you do..)

Where do you get together for X-Wing gaming? Are you just into tourneys or do you have the opportunity to play casually? My buddy and I are trying to get a few more games under our belts before we dive headlong into the tournament pool..

I'm in Shilo. But Wpg is close enough.

As far as games, I'm always up to play. But don't let a lack of games stop you from trying a tournament. My first four games were in a tournament and I loved it.