hi folks,

What do yu thin of the absurd strategy of bringing 99 points of time bombers? Even if the rebels brought 7 xwing squarsons or 9 a wing squads, yu would still get 2-4 bombers on target for at least 2 turns (since tie bombers can't be one shot by an a wing or xwing). That's a lot of black dice, and could easily secure victory before the rebels fighters can make a difference...

Thoughts?

Doubt if they would get through the fighter screen as they would be locked down in a dogfight.

I doubt it would work well, because remember that fighters cannot attack capital ships if they are engaged with (i.e. within range 1 of) other fighters, and bombers that are "heavy", which the TIE bombers are, cannot stop other fighters from moving out of engagement.

So in short all the Rebel player would have to do is put his fighters just outside range 1 of his ships, (or engage your bombers further out and just leave that fight to come engage any that slipped past the line), and they would be locked in figher combat within sight of the capital ships until they die (or blow up all your oppositions fighters - which is very unlikely).

What you really need is some interceptors to tie up the rebel fighters, and then you leapfrog the bombers over them, with the fighters unable to go follow because they are still busy fighting the TIE Interceptors.

What you really need is some interceptors to tie up the rebel fighters, and then you leapfrog the bombers over them, with the fighters unable to go follow because they are still busy fighting the TIE Interceptors.

I agree that a mix of TIE Interceptors and TIE Bombers could give you a nice one-two punch. It just so happens that 5 of each costs 100 points. Or you could go with 4 Interceptors, Howlrunner, and 4 Bombers for 96 points.

I'm just not sold on the bombers at this point without several games under my belt. I still lean toward 8-10 TIE fighters for screening.

The whole point of this build is to simply overwhelm the rebel fighter screen with numbers.

The price between rebel fighters and imperial exists but is not huge. Bombers or Y wings by themselves will loose to in fighter engagements unsupported. Even of they don't they will be stuck fighting fighters and not the capitals they want to.

I think a successful bomber strategy will revolve around a 1-2 of clearing/engaging the enemy fighter screen, and using Major Rhymer and a Corrupter to throw a hook with the Bombers at the now exposed enemy capital ships.

You can accomplish the first in any number of ways. For example, build a core out of Vader, Fel and Mauler (I know, I know, 52 points). Order them forward with Squadron Command, everyone engaged by Mauler takes an automatic point of damage, then you kill what you can with 10 blue dice and 1 black die. Fel and Mauler can re-roll one die, and Vader does extra damage for every crit. Then next turn the enemy has to all attack Vader (burn all your tokens if you must, Vader must survive at least one turn), with each attacking enemy taking an automatic point from Fel. Then next turn have a token handy to have Mauler move and attack again, and repeat. By this point, fighters engaging this trio will have taken up to 3 automatic points of damage, before whatever damage 20 blue dice with 4 rerolls + 2 black dice will kill.

Or you can throw complexity out the window and just throw Howlrunner + as many TIE/Lns and Interceptors as you have points for at them.

Again, a major deciding factor will be if squadrons become engaged the moment they come within range 1 of enemy squadrons. If not, for fear of your bomber sucker punch, the opponent will have to keep his fighters clustered around his ships as a screen, so you can just ignore them and kill his capital ships with your capital ships.