Ok, so I like the feel of this on paper, but I need another bomber before I can try it out. Has anyone played something like this? Also if you have any suggested tweaks, I'm open for it.

I did something similar with a couple of interceptors in place of one bomber. Among a couple of my friends I play with it is extremely obvious that you get close to bombers fast and beat their faces in quickly. In all of our games no player has every been able to unload all of a bomber's ordinance, I've gotten the closest.

All three ships in that list are slow and can't dodge, you have nothing to take the heat off your force once they pass you (which they will). I had a very difficult time flying something similar, good luck.

I've got a similar list I've yet to try out.

The HLC is great, but I would suggest to downgrade it to the cheaper Ion Cannon, as it helps to line up enemy ships for a shot with the bombers. It also frees up enough points that you can upgrade one of the Scimitar pilots to Captain Jonus, which will help you hit both with the Ion Cannon and the ordonance on the other bomber.

Finally I would prefer to fly with different kinds of ordonance for different ranges, so that you can still deliver your payload if the enemy manages to breeze right into your Range 1.

I also did similar but with 1 bomber and 1 interceptor. The bomber can then take more ordnance and spend more turns blasting away from the safety of range 1 of the shuttle, while the interceptor can rush ahead to disrupt formations and distract enemy ships. Carnor Jax in the interceptor was a really good way to lock down enemy ships, especially those pesky Push The Limit A-Wings piloted by a certain Tycho Celchu.

Don't go too upgrade happy on the Lambda though, it'll spend a lot of time with nothing in arc. Anti-pursuit lasers and some crew that affect enemies at range 1 to 2 are useful though.

I flew this last night almost exactly. I dropped the HLC and 2 of the assault missles for flach torps. Grabbed a black squadron Tie with squad leader to try for more focused target locks and another body.

The rolls were favoring my opponent slightly. But even so the ships were just too slow. The shuttle got blocked a bunch causing bumping issues with the bombers since they try to stay close. But sadly even the X-Wings could outmaneuver the slow bombers.

They took a beating and fired some missles but eventually fell. The builds problem being, other than being unable to turn, that there was a lot of points invested into missle firing which, truthfully, isnt all that devastating once it finally happens. Sure its better than a normal range 3 shot will be, but it was by no means an auto-kill after all of that work. You would be better off just playing a bomber with a missile for the off chance that you'll get a good shot with it. The threat seems more effective than the actual payoff.

Thus far I tried Jendon with Jonus and 2 bombers once. (each with only 1 missile each!)

It worked pretty well vs 2 daggers and a falcon actually.

Dice were not cruel to me so no clue if this was a fluke or not.

I've got a similar list I've yet to try out.

The HLC is great, but I would suggest to downgrade it to the cheaper Ion Cannon, as it helps to line up enemy ships for a shot with the bombers. It also frees up enough points that you can upgrade one of the Scimitar pilots to Captain Jonus, which will help you hit both with the Ion Cannon and the ordonance on the other bomber.

Finally I would prefer to fly with different kinds of ordonance for different ranges, so that you can still deliver your payload if the enemy manages to breeze right into your Range 1.

I agree with this 100%. I always run my bombers with assault missiles and cluster missiles. Good for all ranges. Also Jonus will definitely make up his points. Give him Homing missiles instead since he does not get his reroll on himself.

I played a few variants before settling on this for now:

Jendon HLC ST-title

Jonus Seismic

Scimitar Concussion

Scimitar Proton

Start in pinwheel on a corner, move up as slowly as possible, TL-ing either the highest priority target, the one that is likely to be in your range soonest, or a flanker. If you TL a flanker, they might be more hesitant to bring it in early.

Firstly: having that much ordnance on anyone is just looking to get sniped out by higher PS ships. In my testing, there was a very good chance of losing a bomber on the opponents alpha strike (i was able to maneuver the enemy ships so that they pretty much all fired at once also during alpha round). That means you lose 1/3 of your ships and +10 wasted points on ordnance.

After learning that, I added another bomber and spread the ordnance a little more. It makes targetting much more difficult, as the unnamed bombers have the damage. Jonus helps... but when you already have TL and F from Jendon, that first pass is going to hurt anyway.

Then you get some sillies that really want to kill the shuttle. You just laugh over their grave. The shuttle has already done its job by TLing 4 times.

I find Captain Jonus a much better support to bombers than Jendon.

-Bombers are not really that maneuverable when they don't have to stay next to the shuttle.

-I like to put on different ranged ordnance into the different slots. (Cluster missiles with Jonus are awesome).

-If you goal is to pass out TL and then engage, Start with a 90 turn and then race around the outer edge of the board,

-Lastly if you take the Shuttle the first upgrade I would recommend is Engine Upgrade. It pretty much is a 4 point fix to remove the shuttles biggest weakness.

The question is.. is a Omicron with HLC and Engine (and maybe Intel agent) really that much more support for Jonus+2bombers?

Maybe Ion cannon and add a missile somewhere instead.

I could actually see a Jonus+2bombers and Soontir going pretty well. Alpha strike with the bombers, Soontir flank and survive into late-game. Set up as formation and flanker.

A three ship build with a 46 point Jendon? No way. If you're committed to using Jendon, keep him cheap. I agree with the posters who suggest that Jonus is the better choice here. He's going to give you better quality than the quantity that Jendon brings. A Scim with Concussion and Clusters clocks in at 24 points. That's seriously economical for a platform that can fire ordinance at any range. Jonus makes those guys truly terrifying.

Dang, now I gotta go and get 3 more bombers to see for myself.

All of this is greatly appreciated. I guess I'm no closer to a list for the preview event, haha. I'm going to have to toy with lists a bit more. I may lean towards a buzzsaw Lambda with lots of bombers. Any suggestions for that would be appreciated as well.

As a side note, it is interesting to see the different schools of thought for what lists work the best all throughout the forum. I know lots of it has to do with the local meta, which I'm really going to have to scope out.

Toying around with this concept in Squadron Builder, I came up with this.

Colonel Jendon (26)

+ Ion Cannon (3)

+ ST-321 (3)

+ Weapons Engineer (3)

Major Rhymer (26)

+ Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)

+ Assault Missiles (5)

Captain Jonus (22)

+ Proton Bombs (5)

+ Determination (1)

Competitively, I know 3-ship builds aren't usually that strong, but I do like named pilots, so this has a lot of appeal to me. In fact, it's at the top of my list whenever I get around to buying a second Bomber.

As pointed out above, Ion helps set up shots for ordnance, and now a Proton Bomb drop on a key fighter. Jonus' Bombs and ability might make him a target, but Determination can help deflect some of that. Rhymer, however, with both his secondary weapons, would probably be my first target if I was facing this squad. His ability helps him unload his ordnance, and he has a full range of options (normal/Missile/Torpedo) at Range 1-2. Between Jendon giving him a TL and Jonus' re-roll, if Rhymer Focuses, he should have no trouble getting 5 hits out of the APTs.

When all is said and done, though, you might get a decent alpha strike and follow up turn, and not much else after that.

Toying around with this concept in Squadron Builder, I came up with this.

Colonel Jendon (26)

+ Ion Cannon (3)

+ ST-321 (3)

+ Weapons Engineer (3)

Major Rhymer (26)

+ Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)

+ Assault Missiles (5)

Captain Jonus (22)

+ Proton Bombs (5)

+ Determination (1)

Competitively, I know 3-ship builds aren't usually that strong, but I do like named pilots, so this has a lot of appeal to me. In fact, it's at the top of my list whenever I get around to buying a second Bomber.

As pointed out above, Ion helps set up shots for ordnance, and now a Proton Bomb drop on a key fighter. Jonus' Bombs and ability might make him a target, but Determination can help deflect some of that. Rhymer, however, with both his secondary weapons, would probably be my first target if I was facing this squad. His ability helps him unload his ordnance, and he has a full range of options (normal/Missile/Torpedo) at Range 1-2. Between Jendon giving him a TL and Jonus' re-roll, if Rhymer Focuses, he should have no trouble getting 5 hits out of the APTs.

When all is said and done, though, you might get a decent alpha strike and follow up turn, and not much else after that.

That definitely seems like an interesting one to run too. I'd love to see how it turns out.

I was also thinking this:

Is C missiles cluster or concussion?

I tend to like concussion better because you get to use all of range 3 and 2 which is a lot bigger of an area. and range 1 just be satisfied with your 3 dice. Also lets you alpha strike from farther.

Buzzsaw is probably good. I did Jendon with HLC and ST-title. very nice too.

And if you go the 3 ship version, I think Rhymer is required also.

What are your opinions on Adv. Sen. for the Buzzsaw? Do you like that or the FCS instead?

originally cluster, but could do a mix.

between advanced sensors and fcs is simply what you want out of the ship. i think i prefer the advanced sensors because it increases maneuverability by allowing you to boost before taking a red maneuver, allowing you to turn around in 2 turns instead of 3 with only 1 stress. fcs is definitely nice, but with 2 chances at shooting anyway with the gunner, almost seems redundant.