Do you have those in hand already, or are you building this squad anticipating your ship coming in?

It is anticipatory, true, I'll have to wait at least a month, more likely two or three.

There's a list further down which is a bit more realistic in its usability. I tend to quickly throw out lists that make use of a point without them really being honed or tested.

I do think the IT's are a very nice addition coming in.

I do think the IT's are a very nice addition coming in.

Yes indeed. It might make the bomber more formidable against the Phantom Menace; certainly the Z-Swarm, though that's what Assault Missiles are for.

I played today at FLGS:

2x scimitars with assault missiles + seismic

Scimitar with homing missile + seismic

Jendon + title + APL

Probably not best possible list but it is quite fun to play when you try to block with shuttle and hit with missiles/seismics. Jendon kind of replaces Jonus.

Im still convinced 5 x Gammas + Seismic Charges can compete in this meta.

Also the variation of 3 x Gamma + Seismic and 1BH + Seismic + Gunner (or Rebel Captive + flechette or something like that).

This don't involve Jonus or any of the 4 forward-firing ordnance slots a bomber has to offer...

Baha, I didn't read the "Jonus" part of the title.

If I use Jonus, I'll often equip him with Determination, Hull Upgrade and a bomb of some kind. He does better C&C work with the other bombers than trying to release his own weapons.

I think this could be of some success:

With Predator even Jonus would have a reroll. In this case he just use it to hopefully 2 hits with the lasers.

Ion pulse missiles force fat falcons....

Captain Jonus (25)
TIE Bomber (22), Predator (3)

Gamma Squadron Pilot (25)
TIE Bomber (18), Proton Torpedoes (4), Ion Pulse Missiles (3)

Gamma Squadron Pilot (25)
TIE Bomber (18), Proton Torpedoes (4), Ion Pulse Missiles (3)

Gamma Squadron Pilot (25)
TIE Bomber (18), Proton Torpedoes (4), Ion Pulse Missiles (3)

Here's a few observations based on the current meta:

1. Many of you noted Jonus is there for the rerolls and not necessarily the primary ordinance carrier. In this aspect you can think of him as a super Howlrunner for secondary weapons and this works well. Unlike Howl, Jonus is nigh impossible to one shot (can be done in exceptional circumstances like Ors boosted APT, etc). Consider the value of bolstering your shooters with Jonus, while not making him an ordinance carrier..don't underestimate using him to bolster 2 delta defenders with HLC (96 points)

2. Many of you noted an obvious fault of the bomber; speed and mobility. Seismic charges are often best used as a means to K turn while keeping your 6 clear rather than in trying to deliver them offensively with a ship that isn't great in a maneuver battle.

3. Many mentions of needing Assaults to help vs swarms and splash damage Biggs. Ruthlessness can make any attack an assault missile..kind of. With Jonus as the support and Rhymer as the shooter; putting ruthlessness on Rhymer makes cluster missiles a interesting prospect I'd like to test. It'll work on Z swarms and Biggs lists as well as shredding falcons and maybe hit it's support.

Toy with this list if you like and see where it goes..can't remember where I saw the base for this list, but it's fun:

Jonus Squad Leader Seismic Charges

One gamma and Rhymer each with Homing missile, APT and Cluster Missiles

Basic Use (obviously varies by opponent): fire the homing missiles at 3: DO NOT burn the TL..you need it to fire the APTs locked and focused on the next turn

Save the seismic to make your turn around. Cluster missiles to close the deal..or for Falcons

Squad leader on Jonus is only usable on the gamma..I've toyed with changing things up an PTLing Rhymer but you drop the gamma there to a scimitar.

I ran a fun squad last weekend that did pretty well, went 1-1-1 (stupid bye), but I think it has promise outside of terrabad dice.

+ Vessery

+ Jonus

+ 1 scimitars + Munitions failsafe + meta appropriate ordinance

+ 1 scimitars + Munitions failsafe + meta appropriate ordinance

I ran one homing missile and one cluster missile anticipating chewie and phantoms, but the list is able to accommodate swarms as well. The list is beefy and as long as you don't get a bomber taken out before he can get ordinance off in the first pass, you have a pretty good shot crippling whatever you're afraid of. Vessery is a great generalist and cleanup crew pilot with a lot of surefire dice, and jonus is basically just 4 points to make those two missiles crippling and after that is just an obese elite PS tie.

I don't think bombs are competitive right now, and unless they print an elite 5 PS bomber (so as not to obsolete Jonus) , I think they are soft to every big meta list outside of swarms--folding 2 of 3 of the big 3 lists is probably not the best place to be.

I used to play 4 Bombers. I agree with what has been said in regards to Jonus, only let him have Bombs, not other ordnance. In addition, squad leader is quite handy on him for handing late TLs on PS1-5 opponents.

The bane of this list is now clearly the Phantom. What about the Proximity Mines? Should we revisit them? I've never used one, but suddenly it doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Did you block 2 out of 3 decloak paths? Drop a proximity mine on the third, and watch his phantom blow to pieces. There has never been a high-point low-hp ship before, especially one as hard to pin down as a phantom.

What about the following 4-Bomber squad:

Jonus + Squad Leader + Proximity Mine

Scimitar + Assault + Flechette Torps + Munitions Failsafe (for both flechette and assault)

Scimitar + Concussion + Cluster

Scimitar + Concussion + Flechette + Proximity Mine

Flechette with Munitions is there to stress a phantom without hitting it (as much as possible), also helps with not losing assault.

The bane of this list is now clearly the Phantom. What about the Proximity Mines? Should we revisit them? I've never used one, but suddenly it doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Did you block 2 out of 3 decloak paths? Drop a proximity mine on the third, and watch his phantom blow to pieces. There has never been a high-point low-hp ship before, especially one as hard to pin down as a phantom.

Definately yes!

I love bombers. I started out flying them with Jendon and Jonus with various ordnance depending on the number of points used in the tournament (Jendon dishing out pre-alpha strike Target Locks and Jonus giving rerolls to the bombers and to Jendon's Ion or HLC).

I eventually moved away from Jendon and Jonus and instead packing cheap Scimitar bombers with bombs and mines rather than missiles and torpedos (flying with a flanking defender). Scimitars have low PS which doesn't sync well with bombs; but low PS is awesome with Mines and Mines are at their best against high agility / high value enemy ships (high agility as they get no defense roll against mines).

I seem to be the only one in my area bringing bombs and mines to the tournament, which only means that people are less used to them. Mines works best against enemies with a higher pilot skills than you, much like blocking is also the poor PS pilots' one benefit. Race through or bank past your enemies and drop those mines right under them or in their paths. My preferred targets are Biggs (he friggin' annoys me) and the Phantom and I've had success with killing both with mines. The Phantom is harder as you have to be extremely precise, covering all angles so that it is impossible for it to activate and decloak without blasting the mines, and it is priceless when that happens such as here:

The bomber is mine. The Phantom is an enemy that have yet to activate this Activation Phase and there is nothing it can do to dodge the unavoidable.

Also, is there anything more thematic than killing off a cloaked enemy by deploying mine fields?

You don't have to be as exact each time - just as often the mines do their job by blocking in the Phantom limiting its decloaking choices and sometimes that is enough to force them into your firing arcs, onto an asteroid, or even - as I've done once - gradually force them off the table through a combination of asteroids, ships and mine deployment.

Jonus+3 bombers is a good list, but it is weak vs higher PS positional ships.

I wouldn't play it now, Phantoms are too big of a threat, but come wave 5 and a big influx of large ships, they could do well as they are pretty good against them.

I just flew my Jonus Bombers list at a tournament, and ... came in dead last. Last week I won.

The difference was that my opponents at today's tournament were just really good. I didn't make too many mistakes (I feel), and the dice were average. I also didn't happen to face any of the Phantoms. I did face a fat Falcon and a B-list.

Anyway, I'm wondering if I should just try my hand at something different. Soon my Decimator will come in, as will my Rebel Aces.

I'd prefer to stick with the Empire (the Galaxy just needs order, and I want to work towards thwarting DagobahDave's attempt to overthrow the legitimate Galactic government. (Oh, did I fail to record today's losses.... oops!)

What do you guys think of Vader with Proton Rockets and Engine Upgrade? That and the Decimator, with a to-be-determined loadout should be pretty good, right?

I tend to prefer putting the Flechette Torpedo+Munitions Failsafe on Cpt. Jonus. Why? In a sense you might more often want to miss than to hit with this one - at least in the first part of the battle - as it allows you to stress and still keep the Flechettes, and you are more likely to hit with another ship as it will have Jonus' two rerolls.

Smack Deadeye on top and it allows you to pick feeely amongst the ships that happen to be in your firing arc without the need for the Target Lock (it's basically a free and certain stress on any one ship in range whether you hit or not).

I'm considering a Jonus (Deadeye, Flechette, Failsafe, Seismic), Scimitar (Ion, Cluster, Failsafe, Proximity), Vessery (HLC+Outmaneuver) as an interesting synergy with the stressing from Jonus and an Ion Missile on the Scimitar helping Vessery to brutalise the enemy through controlling their flight paths, though I'm a bit hesitant to return to overloading ships with upgrades. On the plus side bombers and defenders are the ships I have the most experience flying allowing me to squeeze more out of them.


PS: I'm also looking forward to playing around with Vader and his new rockets.

I tend to prefer putting the Flechette Torpedo+Munitions Failsafe on Cpt. Jonus. Why? In a sense you might more often want to miss than to hit with this one - at least in the first part of the battle - as it allows you to stress and still keep the Flechettes, and you are more likely to hit with another ship as it will have Jonus' two rerolls.

Smack Deadeye on top and it allows you to pick feeely amongst the ships that happen to be in your firing arc without the need for the Target Lock (it's basically a free and certain stress on any one ship in range whether you hit or not).

I'm considering a Jonus (Deadeye, Flechette, Failsafe, Seismic), Scimitar (Ion, Cluster, Failsafe, Proximity), Vessery (HLC+Outmaneuver) as an interesting synergy with the stressing from Jonus and an Ion Missile on the Scimitar helping Vessery to brutalise the enemy through controlling their flight paths, though I'm a bit hesitant to return to overloading ships with upgrades. On the plus side bombers and defenders are the ships I have the most experience flying allowing me to squeeze more out of them.

PS: I'm also looking forward to playing around with Vader and his new rockets.

Hey, if *really* want to miss, just use Jonus' rerolls to convert hits into blanks! Deadeye seems like a good idea though, and you've definitely convinced me on mines, I might try a 4-bomber squad with 2 mines or so.

This is a list I had some fun with, it felt like a great combination of toughness with firepower, though I can't imagine it's much cop against a phantom.

TIE BOMBER: SCIMITAR SQUADRON PILOT

Proton Torpedoes

LAMBDA-CLASS SHUTTLE: · COLONEL JENDON

Heavy Laser Cannon

· ST-321

TIE BOMBER: SCIMITAR SQUADRON PILOT

Cluster Missiles

TIE BOMBER: · CAPTAIN JONUS

Flechette Torpedoes

So, I tried something similar (had to go out and buy another bomber, as I only had one). But instead of 3 bombers, I went with two and munitions out my nose.

Lambda-Class Shuttle: Colonel Jendon (26)

--ST-321 (2)

--Anti-Pursuits Lasers (3)

--Fire Control System (2)

--Ion Cannon (3)

--Mercenary Copilot (2)

--Weapons Engineer (3)

Tie Bomber: Gamma Squad (18)

--Proton Bomb (5)

--Cluster Missle (4)

--Fletchette Torp (2)

Tie Bomber: Gamma Squad (18)

--Seismic Charge (2)

--Cluster Missle (4)

--Ion Pulse Missile (3)

--Fletchette Torp (2)

My opponent chose 3 Xwings (Wedge, Garvin, Rookie), 2 Bandit Zs.

To be honest, I never managed to use Anti Pursuit, Mercenary Copilots, or Fire Control Systems, so it was a wasted 6 points. The two times I tried the ion cannon and my Ion Pulse missile, I missed, but I didn't know if my opponent would use something I needed to Ion, so I will probably keep those. I managed to use all of my munitions, including a well placed Proton that managed to take out a Z with a direct hit flip. Still, It came down to the two bombers and ultimately only 3 hp left on the board. The last Z lasted forever because of terrible rolls on my part and the best rolls of the Z's night. I am considering dropping the wasted 6 points, adding another Ion Pulse Missile, dropping my seismic charge for another Proton. It keeps me at 99 points, and adds another source of Ion.

Any thoughts?

I had fun last Sunday trying out the Blue Bombers The main problem was that once I unloaded the payload I wasn't able to combat as well with normal attacks. I used:

Two TIE Fighter Academy (12x2= 24)

Two Scimitar Squadron (16x2 = 32)

W/

Assault Missiles x 1 / Seismic Charges (5+2)x2=14)

Captain Jonus (22)

W/

Veteran Instincts / Ion Missilesx1 / Seismic Charges (1+5+2=8)

(24+46+30=100)

I was thinking of keeping the same ships but moving the points around. Mostly upgrading a Tie to Howlrunner with Swarm Tactics. Howl should also help my low combat initiative along with my main weapon hit rate. So this time I'm thinking of:

Tie Fighter Academy (12)

Howlrunner (18)

w/

Swarm Tactics (2)

Two Scimitar Squadron (16x2= 32)

w/Assault Missiles x1 (5x2=10)

Captain Jonus (22)

w/

Adrenalin Rush / Proximity Mine (1+3=4)

(12+20+42+26=100)

I'm taking the Proxi Mine instead to have a hazard to drop which is also why I'm not using Instincts to move earlier. Rush would also let me take a much more daring about face and drop the bomb for the action. Otherwise maybe Determination for Jonus? If I ever get my hands on an Advance I would most likely change it to that and Sesimic for those four points.

Does this look to be a good list for them? I tried to spread out the points more so each ship has a goal.