The Tie Bomber is a great ship, but it really suffers from the fact that if you equip all of its ordnance slots you can easily spend more on the ordnance than you did on the ship itself!

There really is no need for a Bomber to want to equip every available upgrade. Those slots are there just so that is versatile - you can equip two torpedoes if you want, or two missiles, or just a bomb, or a bomb and extra munitions, or [etc.]... No other ship is expected to fill up every single upgrade slot (not even Fat Han!), so why would this be the case for the TIE Bomber? They just allow for all kinds of combinations of secondary weapons. Given a Bomber's lifespan, (in)ability to get target locks and range restrictions on ordnance, I don't think a Bomber should ever really want to have more than two missiles/torpedoes and a bomb.. which is exactly what fits snuggly in a 4 bomber list.

Would like to see a pilot card with the callsign •"That pilot chick from the TIE Fighter Anime" though. Also actually really like that last special rule.

The main issue always lies in the target lock department though. A Bomber-specific upgrade (mod/title) allowing it to not discard it when firing ordnance would be good, either enabling re-rolls on the ordnance attack, or, if Jonus is present, use him for re-rolls and keep the lock for a second attack later on. That won't solve the difficulty of getting a lock on the first engagement at range 3 though.. how about this:

Long-range targeting system (modification, TIE Bomber only, 1 point.. or 0?)

"Immediately before performing a maneuver, declare to use this card. Skip your 'Perform Action' step this round. At the end of the Activation Phase, you may perform a free Target Lock action."

Probably too much to make it 'acquire a target lock', although I'd love for it to work after performing that beautiful 5 koiogran turn. Or give it a twist.. discard card, skip Action, then, at the end of the activation phase, get a focus and target lock on a ship inside your firing arc.

A BTL-A4 type upgrade could also be interesting, to just add a little bit of extra spice to the alpha strike. "Automated loading mechanism", immediately after attacking with a [missile] or [torpedo] secondary weapon, perform a primary weapon attack. (No further restrictions needed, won't be used too often anyway.)

Or how about an upgrade along the lines of "After performing an attack with a [missile] or [torpedo] secondary weapon, you may acquire a target lock. Then, receive a stress token". This then allows you to, next turn, perform a green maneuver, clear the stress, and get a focus for a strong second ordnance shot. Requires careful planning (given the Bomber's limited dial), but potentially useful despite the limitations.

Try using the bomber as a fighter... Jonus + 3 scimitars loaded with extra munitions and cluster missiles!!

The Tie Bomber is a great ship, but it really suffers from the fact that if you equip all of its ordnance slots you can easily spend more on the ordnance than you did on the ship itself!

There really is no need for a Bomber to want to equip every available upgrade. Those slots are there just so that is versatile - you can equip two torpedoes if you want, or two missiles, or just a bomb, or a bomb and extra munitions, or [etc.]... No other ship is expected to fill up every single upgrade slot (not even Fat Han!), so why would this be the case for the TIE Bomber? They just allow for all kinds of combinations of secondary weapons. Given a Bomber's lifespan, (in)ability to get target locks and range restrictions on ordnance, I don't think a Bomber should ever really want to have more than two missiles/torpedoes and a bomb.. which is exactly what fits snuggly in a 4 bomber list.

Would like to see a pilot card with the callsign •"That pilot chick from the TIE Fighter Anime" though. Also actually really like that last special rule.

The main issue always lies in the target lock department though. A Bomber-specific upgrade (mod/title) allowing it to not discard it when firing ordnance would be good, either enabling re-rolls on the ordnance attack, or, if Jonus is present, use him for re-rolls and keep the lock for a second attack later on. That won't solve the difficulty of getting a lock on the first engagement at range 3 though.. how about this:

Long-range targeting system (modification, TIE Bomber only, 1 point.. or 0?)

"Immediately before performing a maneuver, declare to use this card. Skip your 'Perform Action' step this round. At the end of the Activation Phase, you may perform a free Target Lock action."

Probably too much to make it 'acquire a target lock', although I'd love for it to work after performing that beautiful 5 koiogran turn. Or give it a twist.. discard card, skip Action, then, at the end of the activation phase, get a focus and target lock on a ship inside your firing arc.

A BTL-A4 type upgrade could also be interesting, to just add a little bit of extra spice to the alpha strike. "Automated loading mechanism", immediately after attacking with a [missile] or [torpedo] secondary weapon, perform a primary weapon attack. (No further restrictions needed, won't be used too often anyway.)

Or how about an upgrade along the lines of "After performing an attack with a [missile] or [torpedo] secondary weapon, you may acquire a target lock. Then, receive a stress token". This then allows you to, next turn, perform a green maneuver, clear the stress, and get a focus for a strong second ordnance shot. Requires careful planning (given the Bomber's limited dial), but potentially useful despite the limitations.

An ordnance caddie SHOULD have a fair amount of ordnance, I usually have at least 4 shots on my bombers for 8 points. Making it affordable for the bomber to be able to take a full load of ordnance AND making the "never seen, ever" ordnance weapons was the goal of my title suggestion. When you think about it we tend to see only a small fraction of the available ordnance cards ever get used due to point costs, this title would help the Tie Bomber fill a different role from the Tie Punisher, which with Fire Control System can do EXACTLY what you are saying you want the bomber to do.

It also would help fix Major Rhymer's absurdly high points cost by discounting the more expensive stuff he carries.

How about this for a Tech/Modification idea mechanic:

Networked Targeting Computer

Type: Tech Cost: 1 point

"You may perform a secondary weapon attack on a ship as long as it has a Red Target Lock token."

This does two things to help the bomber out. First this allows you to shoot a missile without using a target lock, so if you have one you can spend it for rerolls. You also have a lot more flexibility, you can have a ship which has no shot this turn acquire a target lock to let your other ships focus and then still attack.

This actually would be an AWESOME Tech upgrade card, the challenge of course being that until FFG releases a method for the older ships to get Tech upgrades it wouldn't help. THAT could be part of a Tie Bomber title, granting it a Tech upgrade slot. Alternatively it could be a mod, but it makes more sense as a Tech upgrade and would go a LONG way towards making Ordnance viable.

For me the problem with ordnance is not the Target lock requeriment, or the need for re-rolls. Is just that you pay for a limited ammunition. Extra ammo solved that, but only a bit. Cannons and turrets are great secondary weapons, because you have them for all game. 10 shooting rounds? No problem. But with a bomber, if you keep low in upgrades in half games you will end with a flying potatoe, and if you invest too much, it becomes a too expensive ship.

The game should have an ACTION-Reload: You gain an ordnance token for one of your secondary weapons. Or something like this. Is hard to adquire TL and you cannot shoot every round, but you know that your ship can fight all game with your paid secondary weapons.

Said that... Lets see what future brings to the Bomber. I hope for the Aces pack with Bomber + Defender, and foremost, that they distinguish it even more from Punishers in some way.

For me the problem with ordnance is not the Target lock requeriment, or the need for re-rolls. Is just that you pay for a limited ammunition. Extra ammo solved that, but only a bit. Cannons and turrets are great secondary weapons, because you have them for all game. 10 shooting rounds? No problem. But with a bomber, if you keep low in upgrades in half games you will end with a flying potatoe, and if you invest too much, it becomes a too expensive ship.

The game should have an ACTION-Reload: You gain an ordnance token for one of your secondary weapons. Or something like this. Is hard to adquire TL and you cannot shoot every round, but you know that your ship can fight all game with your paid secondary weapons.

Said that... Lets see what future brings to the Bomber. I hope for the Aces pack with Bomber + Defender, and foremost, that they distinguish it even more from Punishers in some way.

Here are my ideas for cards to help bring the tie bomber back AND to differentiate it from the Tie Punisher, these would be in a new Imperial Aces back having a bomber and defender in them ideally.

Logistical Support

Type: Title Cost: 0

Missile and Torpedo upgrades with a starting cost of 3 or more cost -2 points (To a minimum of 2).

The Tie Bomber is a great ship, but it really suffers from the fact that if you equip all of its ordnance slots you can easily spend more on the ordnance than you did on the ship itself! You have the catch 22 that if you equip it to be able to perform its designated roll it becomes too expensive to effectively perform its designated roll. This title would make it reasonable to equip a Tie Bomber with a full ordnance loadout for 10 points (adding a seisim charge), but wouldn't give it an unreasonably high advantage over other ordnance caddies. It would also help make more types of ordnance viable in the game. Here would be the adjusted price chart for missiles and Torps.

Cluster Missiles 2

Concussion Missiles 2

Assault Missiles 3

Homing Missiles 3

Ion Pulse Missiles 2

Proton Rockets 2

Advanced Homing Missiles 2

Proton Torpedoes 2

Advanced Proton Torpedoes 4

Flechette Torpedoes 2

Ion Torpedoes 3

Extra Munitions 2

Plasma Torpedoes 2

I didn't include bombs in the title as they are more reasonably priced than missile and torp cards, but they could be included as well easily enough. As you can see it doesn't make the prices too crazy, a fully equipped Tie Bomber will still be expensive but you could realistically take a well equipped squad of 4 bombers with this title. The really good missiles and torps still cost more than 2 as well.

Here is another card which would be cool to see with the Tie Bomber kit:

Autoloader

Type: Bomb Cost: 2 points

After firing a Torpedo or Missile as long as you are not stressed you may fire another Torpedo or Missile as long as you meet its Fire conditions. Then gain 1 stress token.

This would help with the issue of it being very hard to shoot off all your ordnance in a game, but would be challenging to use well as you would still need to have target locks and such to shoot your missils.

Ok, onto pilots

Pilot 1:

PS 8, has an EPT

You may perform a secondary weapon attack on an enemy ship as long as it has a Red Target Lock token.

Basically an elite pilot who gets to use other people's target locks without consuming them, obvious synrgy with Autoloader.

Pilot 2 (chick from Tie Fighter Anime)

PS 5, has EPT

After you acquire a Target Lock you may perform a free Barrel Roll action.

That is literally what she does in the film, and it would be a cool action economy card.

Pilot 3:

PS 3, no EPT

After you acquire a Target Lock on a ship it recieves 1 stress.

This guy is fun as he's the alert siren telling you "warning: missile lock". Fun but not broken.

Your PS3 ship can apply stress against any ship within range 3 during the activation phase. Consider what this does to a ship that then reveals a red manoeuvre...

Other thoughts wanting to be able to reroll dice for mines and the like: Remember that bombs and mines are not faction-specific, or even ship-specific - there's no way to know who dropped what. Now consider that if both sides show up with the things, it's perfectly possible to have half a dozen of the things scattered around the table at once... and any 'your bombs reroll dice' effects aren't going to pan out.

Rather, it'd want to be an aura:

TIE Bomberman

PS3, no Elite

When a ship detonates a mine within Range 1-3, you may force it to reroll any number of damage dice.

Then you FAQ it to note that in the case of mirror matches, the order of rerolls is based on initative... and a reminder that you can only reroll a die once.

For me the problem with ordnance is not the Target lock requeriment, or the need for re-rolls. Is just that you pay for a limited ammunition. Extra ammo solved that, but only a bit. Cannons and turrets are great secondary weapons, because you have them for all game. 10 shooting rounds? No problem. But with a bomber, if you keep low in upgrades in half games you will end with a flying potatoe, and if you invest too much, it becomes a too expensive ship.

The game should have an ACTION-Reload: You gain an ordnance token for one of your secondary weapons. Or something like this. Is hard to adquire TL and you cannot shoot every round, but you know that your ship can fight all game with your paid secondary weapons.

Said that... Lets see what future brings to the Bomber. I hope for the Aces pack with Bomber + Defender, and foremost, that they distinguish it even more from Punishers in some way.

Awesome picture, I'd recommend that it be "Roll an Evade die and on a Focus result..."

Hits give you a 37.5% chance of success, that seems REALLY reliable. Focus on evade dice is 25%, and Crits would be 12.5%. Having a 1 in 4 chance to regen ammo would be reasonable for 2 points, going to 3 in 8 would increase the cost of the mod.

Here are my ideas for cards to help bring the tie bomber back AND to differentiate it from the Tie Punisher, these would be in a new Imperial Aces back having a bomber and defender in them ideally.

Logistical Support

Type: Title Cost: 0

Missile and Torpedo upgrades with a starting cost of 3 or more cost -2 points (To a minimum of 2).

The Tie Bomber is a great ship, but it really suffers from the fact that if you equip all of its ordnance slots you can easily spend more on the ordnance than you did on the ship itself! You have the catch 22 that if you equip it to be able to perform its designated roll it becomes too expensive to effectively perform its designated roll. This title would make it reasonable to equip a Tie Bomber with a full ordnance loadout for 10 points (adding a seisim charge), but wouldn't give it an unreasonably high advantage over other ordnance caddies. It would also help make more types of ordnance viable in the game. Here would be the adjusted price chart for missiles and Torps.

Cluster Missiles 2

Concussion Missiles 2

Assault Missiles 3

Homing Missiles 3

Ion Pulse Missiles 2

Proton Rockets 2

Advanced Homing Missiles 2

Proton Torpedoes 2

Advanced Proton Torpedoes 4

Flechette Torpedoes 2

Ion Torpedoes 3

Extra Munitions 2

Plasma Torpedoes 2

I didn't include bombs in the title as they are more reasonably priced than missile and torp cards, but they could be included as well easily enough. As you can see it doesn't make the prices too crazy, a fully equipped Tie Bomber will still be expensive but you could realistically take a well equipped squad of 4 bombers with this title. The really good missiles and torps still cost more than 2 as well.

Here is another card which would be cool to see with the Tie Bomber kit:

Autoloader

Type: Bomb Cost: 2 points

After firing a Torpedo or Missile as long as you are not stressed you may fire another Torpedo or Missile as long as you meet its Fire conditions. Then gain 1 stress token.

This would help with the issue of it being very hard to shoot off all your ordnance in a game, but would be challenging to use well as you would still need to have target locks and such to shoot your missils.

Ok, onto pilots

Pilot 1:

PS 8, has an EPT

You may perform a secondary weapon attack on an enemy ship as long as it has a Red Target Lock token.

Basically an elite pilot who gets to use other people's target locks without consuming them, obvious synrgy with Autoloader.

Pilot 2 (chick from Tie Fighter Anime)

PS 5, has EPT

After you acquire a Target Lock you may perform a free Barrel Roll action.

That is literally what she does in the film, and it would be a cool action economy card.

Pilot 3:

PS 3, no EPT

After you acquire a Target Lock on a ship it recieves 1 stress.

This guy is fun as he's the alert siren telling you "warning: missile lock". Fun but not broken.

Your PS3 ship can apply stress against any ship within range 3 during the activation phase. Consider what this does to a ship that then reveals a red manoeuvre...

Other thoughts wanting to be able to reroll dice for mines and the like: Remember that bombs and mines are not faction-specific, or even ship-specific - there's no way to know who dropped what. Now consider that if both sides show up with the things, it's perfectly possible to have half a dozen of the things scattered around the table at once... and any 'your bombs reroll dice' effects aren't going to pan out.

Rather, it'd want to be an aura:

TIE Bomberman

PS3, no Elite

When a ship detonates a mine within Range 1-3, you may force it to reroll any number of damage dice.

Then you FAQ it to note that in the case of mirror matches, the order of rerolls is based on initative... and a reminder that you can only reroll a die once.

Ah, that is true that would be brutal. Ok how about this then.

Pilot who gets a target lock after spending target lock for secondary weapon.

Pilot who gets a free action after firing secondary weapon

Pilot who fires primary weapon after secondary weapon

Pilot who can drop a bomb and a mine in one round.

Pilot who gains free focus after TL is spent

Pilot who adds one crit result to all successful hits after having at least one damage card.

I wouldn't mind having an cross faction aces pack with Y-wings and TIE bombers.

... Looks at TLT spam list.

... Or you know TIE bombers and TIE defenders works to.

Awesome picture, I'd recommend that it be "Roll an Evade die and on a Focus result..."

Hits give you a 37.5% chance of success, that seems REALLY reliable. Focus on evade dice is 25%, and Crits would be 12.5%. Having a 1 in 4 chance to regen ammo would be reasonable for 2 points, going to 3 in 8 would increase the cost of the mod.

Its not my picture, credit goes to the guy who made the Tie Fighter Anime. It should be an evade dice that I agree with, too many red dice being rolled makes it an easy way to get confused what is occurring. I don't know about too reliable, 37.5% isn't that great once a turn and how many turns will you be able to use it? I suppose it could be 25% but in order for it to make up its points it would have to regenerate at least one munition and then be able to use that munition, which in and of itself can be tricky. Don't forget that it is also competing with the Mk. II upgrade that bombers really enjoy.

Autoloaders shouldn't NEED to be a mod because all the launchers in Star Wars ALREADY autoload!

Stupid ****ing one-shot ordnance mechanics...don't make no **** sense...

Bomber don't suck, they are actually great ships but they have two things going against them; the ship itself has vulnerabilities in its dial that can be exploited and the munitions themselves are situationally useful. So you have stand a good chance that your ship and loadout won't be optimal against your opponent, unless you really have the meta dialed in (down to PS because bombers need those TLs). I guarantee, guarantee, that if your load out was optimal enemy ships would be terrified every time bombers hit the table.

I would say they have one more thing going against them. They are more or less required to take Target lock at the beginning of the game. So they have neither Focus or Evade, and only 2 evade dice and esp. no shields. So there is a substantial risk that you recieve a crit when going against mangler cannons, high PS pilots with high damage output and the likes of Ten Numb etc. Quite bitter receiving a munitions failure (old deck), any of the pilot crits, action-requiring crits or damaged sensor array before even firing any of your ordnance.

Love some of the ideas here.. I have 8 bombers and 4 punishers... I am trying all sorts of combos.. lol..

Love some of the ideas here.. I have 8 bombers and 4 punishers... I am trying all sorts of combos.. lol..

You are cra......

.... quite the man the Empire needs to bomb the hell out of them!

Do you had the chance to use them in a game of epic?

Love some of the ideas here.. I have 8 bombers and 4 punishers... I am trying all sorts of combos.. lol..

You are cra......

.... quite the man the Empire needs to bomb the hell out of them!

Do you had the chance to use them in a game of epic?

Not really, we don't do many epic games. Though with the advent of more epic ships there may be a chance, it would be fun to set all 8 up for a run at a Corvette.. cluster missiles ready in their pods.. then...... boom.. boomboomboom.. boom..

yeaaaaaaaaahhhh

Love some of the ideas here.. I have 8 bombers and 4 punishers... I am trying all sorts of combos.. lol..

You are cra......

.... quite the man the Empire needs to bomb the hell out of them!

Do you had the chance to use them in a game of epic?

Not really, we don't do many epic games. Though with the advent of more epic ships there may be a chance, it would be fun to set all 8 up for a run at a Corvette.. cluster missiles ready in their pods.. then...... boom.. boomboomboom.. boom..

yeaaaaaaaaahhhh

I have a list for you:

Love some of the ideas here.. I have 8 bombers and 4 punishers... I am trying all sorts of combos.. lol..

You are cra......

.... quite the man the Empire needs to bomb the hell out of them!

Do you had the chance to use them in a game of epic?

Not really, we don't do many epic games. Though with the advent of more epic ships there may be a chance, it would be fun to set all 8 up for a run at a Corvette.. cluster missiles ready in their pods.. then...... boom.. boomboomboom.. boom..

yeaaaaaaaaahhhh

I have a list for you:

EPIC BOMBER MAYHEM

300 points

PILOTS

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (22) x 8

TIE Bomber (16), Extra Munitions (2), Concussion Missiles (4)

Black Eight Squadron Pilot (31) x 4

TIE Punisher (23), Fire-Control System (2), Extra Munitions (2), Concussion Missiles (4)

Love it.. I'd fly that.. all day long hahaha

Would like to see a pilot card with the callsign •"That pilot chick from the TIE Fighter Anime" though.

Her name is Flight Lieutenant Ada.