After XX-23 S-Thread Tracers will be released in the next wave, many new tactics become possible, many of them based on ordnance. I can imagine several z95 pirates with cluster missiles and glitterstim, next two them one or two ships with S-Thread Tracers making hard strikes possible.

Additionally to mention, that tracers will be THE counter against two ship list, which are prone two focused fire.

Personally, I am lookimg forward for the next earthquake in the current meta

Thoughts? Squad ideas?

swarm buff.. ANY swarm buff..

Well I don't know if it would be good for missile and torpedo secondary weapons but it would be good for swarms.

Biggest problem with missile and torpedo weapons is the requirement of the target lock which restricts to a single ship and further more many of said upgrade requirement to spend the target lock. When you look or compare 3 dice with a target lock in comparison against 4 dice without, the 3 dice + TL wins.

Now the biggest question is does this require the ship to have TL in the action bar. Since it says all ships within range 1-2 may acquire a target lock and not take a free TL action makes me think that the best advantage is giving ships like the TIE mini swarm a target lock in which they can use.

Missile and torpedo secondary weapons have many problems. The difficulty in acquiring a target lock for lower pilot skill pilots is half of it but also the point expenditure the sacrifice of valuable dice modification abilities, and the ease of which Arc dodgers can leave a firing arc thus removing any chance of using said secondary weapons is all a combination of what keep missile and torpedo secondary weapon non-competitive. All these little helping hands is best described as "too little, too late."

In the most recent rules reference, ships which do not have a target lock action can use it if the gain a target lock from an in game ability

Lt Blount with a swarm of missile mooks

Z swarm is viable again, with and without missiles.

Darth Vader, 3 tempests. All with tracers and ATC.

Basically, any time you'd be interested in an ordnance-based alpha strike against a single ship you should find the point for it. Or even a non-ordnance-based alpha strike, since it'll mean target lock + focus for a lot of your attacks.

I like 4 Scimitar Squadron Pilots, each with EM and Thread Tracers. This leaves 6 points per bomber for explosives. You Focus with everybody, and start shooting tracers. Once one hits, everyone else starts dropping Focused Concussion Missiles on the target. Once you run out of warheads, you still can get TLs for Primary weapons.

Lt Blount with a swarm of missile mooks

This. I think Concussion Missiles work better than Cluster Missiles. I like the better range and I like the higher dice total. In this way, all the Z's will have a Focus and a TL, which means a 94% of getting at least 3 hits. I think you can get 4-5 Z's with the missiles. That's enough to toast a Fat Turret, Phantom, Soontir Fel, or a Bro Bot.

I had that same list idea in mind, Bio, but I added in a couple Munitions Failsafes to make the xx23s stick around, otherwise if Fel gets stuck in arc, all he has to do is dodge them for a couple rounds. With the failsafes you are A) going to waste fewer points on ordnance that draws out defense tokens, and B) getting a lot of extra life in the ordnance, ensuring that as your bombers slowly die off, you will still have firepower until the end. 2 ship lists would crumble.

Unfortunately, TLTs munch through bombers pretty good, which begs the question. Do you invest in Gammas, or do you just skip the xx23 route and use the TIE Punisher with FCS? I'm going to have to playtest this a lot when wave 8 comes out.

On the rebel side of things, Blount leading Bandits or Talas with concussion missiles is the new standard "Head Trauma" list. I am excited to see if I can take the new version to regionals next year. I love me some Z95 ordnance swarms! Taking Blount instead of Cracken will open the list up a lot in terms of flying because I won't need to stay in formation.

For scum, I think the PS1 and 3 split on Zs will be inferior to rebels, and the ordnance Z swarm will be done better by the rebels. Maybe on a standard Xizor and the new power generation build a tracer missile or two would be handy though.

I think all three factions will gain list building options far beyond what I have put here, though. At only 1 point, these little guys can sure make a huge difference. Any 2 ship build (Brobots, Decifel, Pancakes, etc) will sweat when this missile is on the other side of the table.

I like 4 Scimitar Squadron Pilots, each with EM and Thread Tracers. This leaves 6 points per bomber for explosives. You Focus with everybody, and start shooting tracers. Once one hits, everyone else starts dropping Focused Concussion Missiles on the target. Once you run out of warheads, you still can get TLs for Primary weapons.

Get Munitions Failsafe and Homing Missiles on each and here you go.

I had that same list idea in mind, Bio, but I added in a couple Munitions Failsafes to make the xx23s stick around, otherwise if Fel gets stuck in arc, all he has to do is dodge them for a couple rounds. With the failsafes you are A) going to waste fewer points on ordnance that draws out defense tokens, and B) getting a lot of extra life in the ordnance, ensuring that as your bombers slowly die off, you will still have firepower until the end. 2 ship lists would crumble.

...

For scum, I think the PS1 and 3 split on Zs will be inferior to rebels, and the ordnance Z swarm will be done better by the rebels. Maybe on a standard Xizor and the new power generation build a tracer missile or two would be handy though.

Personally, I think Homing Missiles with EM are better on Tie Bombers. You get the TL to use and Soontir or Bro Bots can't use the Evade (or Yvonne, or Falcon, or Tie Adv., etc.). It's one point more, but more viable on a regular Tie Bomber.

EDIT: ....and Ninja'd!

As for the New Power Generation, I don't see where to get the points for it. I like the idea in concept, but I have no idea what to drop to make it work. The Flechette Torp. is absolutely vital to make it work.

I agree homing missiles are better on bombers in most cases, for the reasons you mentioned. However, the xx23 allows a TL in the combat phase, which is essential as Scimitars are only PS2. If I am just running one bomber, I'm going to take homing missiles and failsafe over the tracer every time. If I am running 4 bombers, I am going to bring as many tracers with MFS and concussion missiles as I can.

On the first exchange you go from shooting 4 primaries, likely at range 3, to firing a tracer (3 attack die modifiable by focus) and then 3 concussion missiles. Sometimes it may take 2 tracers, but from my experience with ordnance alpha strikes, that first round is often the most important as can force ships to fly defensively and break off, or change their angle of approach to try to reduce the number of arcs they are in. If a tracer hits, that target is going to take some serious damage from the inbound concussion missiles. If not, you're in the same situation you would have been otherwise. Firing two tracers to get the TL for the other two bombers is definitely worth it, in my opinion.

When I flew Head Trauma, I often got 2 concussion missiles off on the initial exchange. Combined with normal laser shots from the other 4 z95s, it wasn't uncommon to drop a Bwing, or take a Decimator or Falcon to half health. Granted, 4 bombers don't have access to the extra 2 dice attacks, but if you can get 3 concussion missiles off on a ship, that is game over for your opponent in most cases. A decimator will likely have 4-6 health remaining, a Falcon will be around half health, any B or Y wing will be dead, Soontir will live and die by the green dice, as is his custom, and Brobots will be sweating. Even if I am in range to TL, I will still Focus and shoot a tracer if I have 2 other ships that would benefit. The power of TL + F concussion missiles will finally be readily available to 4 TIE Bomber lists, and for that I am happy.

Tempest Squadron Pilot + TIE/x1 + Advanced Targeting Computer + XX-23 Thread Tracers x4.

Problem gaining target locks removed. Pick a target and crit them into oblivion.

Eight points to play with (which is enough to upgrade to Vader, or any other TIE advanced + upgrades).

Focus + tracer rounds for TL = fully modded homing missile

Miranada will have some fun if you can enable that

Jonus + 2xTracers + Crack Shot

3 x Scimitars + Assault Missiles + Flechettes + EM

= 100

Lt Blount with a swarm of missile mooks

This. I think Concussion Missiles work better than Cluster Missiles. I like the better range and I like the higher dice total. In this way, all the Z's will have a Focus and a TL, which means a 94% of getting at least 3 hits. I think you can get 4-5 Z's with the missiles. That's enough to toast a Fat Turret, Phantom, Soontir Fel, or a Bro Bot.

Agreed - concs are still arguably the most reliable missile around especially with focus - I'd probably go with a couple of each though - missile mooks on the front rank with Clusters and concs on the MMs at the rear

Heychadwick - on the subject of Concussion Missiles, here's something I posted a while back:

some numbers while I was watching the cricket the other afternoon (watching cricket gives you time to do other things)

I over a few hundred dice rolls (cricket matches can take a long time too) I compared the results of a concussion missile (supposedly the most reliable missile in the game) fired without a modifier, to a Conc fired with a focus on top.

The results were interesting - albeit not exhaustive.

Without focus you score 4 hits about 7% of the time - with focus it's more like 71%

For 3 hits without focus - 54% - with focus 25%

re t

So that's a 61% chance of getting 3-4 hits (most often just 3) without any additional modification to the built-in modifier of the conc, compared to 96% (most often 4) with a focus.

So you REALLY want that focus!

I agree homing missiles are better on bombers in most cases, for the reasons you mentioned. However, the xx23 allows a TL in the combat phase, which is essential as Scimitars are only PS2. If I am just running one bomber, I'm going to take homing missiles and failsafe over the tracer every time. If I am running 4 bombers, I am going to bring as many tracers with MFS and concussion missiles as I can.

Why not xx23 and Homing Missiles? I'd think that getting 4 dice, a TL and a Focus, and they can't use an evade is flat out better than using Concussion with a Focus.

A good Ordnance Alpha Strike promoter, yes. Ordnance in general? Not really. The fewer ships you have at range 1, the lest benefit for the cost(points and opportunity) you get for them.

I would be much more enthused about an ordnance that "marks" a target so that ships don't have to be at range 1, but that would present a difficult balance problem.

What this does for ordnance is remove a bit of the pilot skill tax on setting up alpha strikes.

It also gives a cheap, easy way to acquire a lock after a red maneuver.

Z-swarm and 4x TIE Bomber are the lists that I think will benefit most from the card.

Jonus + 2xTracers + Crack Shot

3 x Scimitars + Assault Missiles + Flechettes + EM

= 100

Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner. I think you can argue over the exact missile loadout, but the combination of Crack Shot with Tracers on Jonus rocks, and his re-rolls let the Scimitars use a Focus for defense more often.

You could do:

Jonus, 2x Tracers, Crack Shot for 25

Scimitar, Ion Pulse Missile, Proton Torpedo, EM = 25

Scimitar, Concussion Missile, Flechette Torpedo, Tracers, EM = 25

Scimitar, Assault Missile, Flechette Torpedo, EM = 25

A good Ordnance Alpha Strike promoter, yes. Ordnance in general? Not really. The fewer ships you have at range 1, the lest benefit for the cost(points and opportunity) you get for them.

I would be much more enthused about an ordnance that "marks" a target so that ships don't have to be at range 1, but that would present a difficult balance problem.

It is for every friendly ship in range 1-2, so positioning isn't too hard.

How long does the tracer effect last? Is it only one turn?