Bombs or APL?

By Crabbok, in X-Wing

I'm thinking of running 2x Bounty Hunter, Howlrunner, and Academy Pilot for regionals. This gives me 4 points to spare, and I'm kinda unsure if I should go with Seismic Charges, or Anti-Pursuit Lasers on the Bounty Hunters.

The charges will certainly let me play mind games with my opponent,, but I think the APL are going to end up dealing more damage, and I wouldn't ever risk harming my own ships.

I say go charges seeing your hunter should be dancing around the field not overlapping. It will make someone k-turning to chase you think again.

Ps crabbok really enjoy your YouTube channel

Tough call!

The APLs are also good for messing with your opponents head, and I agree they will probably do more damage.

The charges are interesting too. But I think that with firesprays, the enemy is already thinking twice about trying to k turn behind you.

I would go with the APLs

With low PS go for APL.

APL's are the way to go. With the right asteroid placement you can really put the other guy in some really bad places. If they are dumb enough to joust you, you win. Clog it up and blow them away.

This is going a bit outside your original list, but what if you remove the Academy Pilot, then throw on both APL and the Charges on both ships, then tack on a Recon Specialist to each, making them more durable.

It'll leave you with 2 pts left, and you can use that on Howlrunner for something like Swarm Tactics to help your shooting, or Squad Leader to get one of your BH's 2 Focus/1 Evade tokens in a round in case you see a heavy hit coming.

I've flown pairs of RecSpec Bounty Hunters many times, and they can take a beating. If you're adept at flying them, you can really wear an opponent down by absorbing their shots and still hitting back hard.

If you're down to the last couple of ships, that second Focus Token is a great closer.

Having fielded multiple Bounty Hunters before, I can tell you that PS3 is surprisingly relevant in the current meta. There are a number of PS1 and 2 ships still being fielded to great effect, so if you're building your list with the assumption that you'll always be higher or lower than your opponent, you may want to reconsider.

That having been said, Recon Specialist is probably the best upgrade you can put on a Bounty Hunter. The Firespray is already super tanky, and having double focus tokens just makes them that much more difficult to put down while still maintaining your offensive potential.