The chimp ordinance must be some new ape-law I've never heard of.

Punishers are already good, I'm pleased as punch to get some new 0 cost toys on them.

It only annoys me the Rebels get them too, while they also get exclusive use of the Super Sabine upgrade that boosts the damage, and range of bombs and lets K-wings have a third bomb slot.

K-wings can have more bomb slots and they can still take turrets, what the heck FFG...

K-wings can have more bomb slots and they can still take turrets, what the heck FFG...

It is a mere 10 points to add Sabine, Extra munitions, and 3 Seismic Charges to a single K-wing. For the entire game, your enemy will know that moving into range 1 of where you might drop a bomb could mean taking 2 damage without a roll. And 6 turns where you can actually do it.

You can also spread ion cannons and torpedoes out to your crew. Blount will be pretty devastating to a ship that assumed it would be able to get away from the K-wing before it can drop a bomb on the following turn.

Anyone that has ever dropped a Conner Net from Deathrain knows the value in a 2 point seismic charge followup the next turn.

Ion cannons mean you could be doing this the entire game..

For 4 points per Y-wing, you could give them 2 Seismic Charges each. Sabine could be on a B-wing with 2 more. You will control space.

The prospect of Kath with clusters is terrifying.

But so is sitting on no defensive tokens on a Firespray for 1 turn.

Enter the TIE Shuttle /w Fleet Officer?

But the Empire doesn't really have a super-cheap option. What they have is the TIE Bomber, which is both their cheapest carrier and capable of being loaded to the gills. Because it's so flexible, and because it potentially benefits from Jonus, I expect people will be experimenting with it quite a bit.

I must admit that I don't rate Jonus. I've used him to come in 3rd at a Store Championship last year and feel like I know the pilot well enough. He's too expensive for what he brings, especially because he can't use his own ability. You can just give everyone Homing Missiles for cheaper points than using Jonus. He's a weak link that everyone targets. If he dies then you have lost a lot of effectiveness.

So besides Clusters on Redline, what else would you recommend? I am in no way rummaging through new purchases as I type this, no sir.

I totally got mixed up on which expansion guidance chips came in. This could get fun very soon. You can use a guidance chip to modify a die after re-rolling it, right? If so, I kind of want to try this just for fun:

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/415279/redline#

And of course this: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/415296/four-amigos#

You can use a guidance chip to modify a die after re-rolling it, right?

Yes.

But the Empire doesn't really have a super-cheap option. What they have is the TIE Bomber, which is both their cheapest carrier and capable of being loaded to the gills. Because it's so flexible, and because it potentially benefits from Jonus, I expect people will be experimenting with it quite a bit.

I must admit that I don't rate Jonus. I've used him to come in 3rd at a Store Championship last year and feel like I know the pilot well enough. He's too expensive for what he brings, especially because he can't use his own ability. You can just give everyone Homing Missiles for cheaper points than using Jonus. He's a weak link that everyone targets. If he dies then you have lost a lot of effectiveness.

Yeah, but in the Guidance Chips era Proton Torpedoes or Concussion Missiles are still going to hit pretty hard without Jonus rerolls. (The median and mode is 4 successes, with an average of 3.5.) In that context, Jonus is insurance against whiffs, rather than a necessary component.

So without making a particular claim about the strength of this list, consider his role here:

He's the same price as Biggs, and presents a problem for your opponent to solve. Do they focus fire on Jonus first, in order to blunt the impact of the second wave of ordnance and mess up your action economy? Or do they attack one of the Scimitars directly, in order to reduce the total number of dice you can roll? As the Bomber player, I'd be fairly satisfied with either choice.

I don't think Jonus is the best way to spend your Bomber points, not with Tomax Bren on the horizon. I like don't think ordnance spam is going to be a more successful long-term strategy than any other spam list has been, and my biggest problem is that Jonus heavily encourages spam lists. But I do think a lot of people will see his ability as an attractive element in an ordnance-focused list.

Honestly? Kaato Leeachos is going to be a solid alpha striker with chimps.

Leeachos w/ Homing Missiles, Guidance Chips, Crackshot

Use his ability and you snag a Focus from a nearby ship. Then you fire your TL+Focus, Evade token ignoring, Crack Shot ready, missile at some poor bastard. 21pts and an excellent ace deterrent. If you manage to get the shot off, it's basically a "say goodbye to your Stealth Device, Soontir" attack.

For similar reasons, I look forward to Tomax Bren with Crack Shot and Homing Missiles, though he'll need support in order to also potentially get a Focus token to maximize his boom (TIE Shuttle with Fleet Officer, anyone? Palpatine?!).

And I think it'll add an interesting ripple for Y-Wings, both scum and rebel. 27 points can get you a Y-Wing with a double dose of Proton Torpedoes and a Dorsal Turret to punish folks trying to slip out of arc. You could even drop the turret, bump up to a Gray, and throw on R2-D6 and Deadeye for a reasonable 28pts that'll be able to pick and choose and hit like a truck twice a game.

Y-Wings as TLT carriers may be all the rage right now, but there's so much potential for customization and different load-outs for them (especially when chips finally land).

Ran this last night and was a laser line away from ioning Dash off the board. So I killed him the old fashioned way. Ioned Poe after he K-turned into 3 range 1 shots.

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/415203/cutlass-supreme#

Lots of beef, and none of the missiles require you to spend the target lock, helping out with dice modification. The dial is a little rough, but no worse than a shuttle or HWK.

6x Bandit Squadron, 6x Guidance Chips, 4x Homing Missiles, 2x Ion Pulse Missiles.

Ran this last night and was a laser line away from ioning Dash off the board. So I killed him the old fashioned way. Ioned Poe after he K-turned into 3 range 1 shots.

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/415203/cutlass-supreme#

Lots of beef, and none of the missiles require you to spend the target lock, helping out with dice modification. The dial is a little rough, but no worse than a shuttle or HWK.

Dial is not that bad when you have boost.

Scum still lack a good ordinance carrier sadly

N'Dru Suhlak with Glitterstim, Guidance Chip, Missile (Cluster or Homing) and EPT (Lonewolf, Veteran Instinct or Crackshot) will be a beast. He already is.

Same for Kavil with Deadeye, Proton Torpedoes, Extra Munition, Guidance Chip, R4 astromech and turret of choice.

Or Boba with K4 Security droid, Cluster Missiles and Glitterstim.

Or soon the Jumpmaster with Deadeye, R4 astromech and Recon Specialist, Guidance Chip, Extra Munition and Torpedo of choice.

Or the Kirhaxz and Z-95 with Glitterstim, Guidance chip and missile of choice.

They might not have a ship with a lot of space for ordnance, but thanks to Glitterstim, R4 astromech and some scum pilot special ability, they have some of the best ordnance carrier in the game.

Wait, when did they become worthwhile? Are you talking about Wave 8 or Wave 7? For Wave 7 the answer is too little too late. For Wave 8 it is not out yet so nothing has changed.

PtL A-Wings. Maybe not as a swarm but as a single or double unit flanking team with a second EPT, dependant on who you feel would work best for the job. Juke is attractive, Outmaneuver, Predator, Crack Shot, Veteran Instincts, Wingman, there are many options for their role once the missile is spent.

At 25pts my favorite scum pilot is N'Dru Suhlak with Glitterstim, Cluster Missile and Lonewolf. He just got better.

At 25pts my favorite scum pilot is N'Dru Suhlak with Glitterstim, Cluster Missile and Lonewolf. He just got better.

And cheaper to boot.

Whats ridiculous is just how effective certain ordnance is alongside chimps. They're as consistent as locked HLCs only now with 1-2 crits per shot and in the case of homers it comes with a built in crack shot.

Imperial Kath with Cluster Missiles and Guidance Chips is genius. Two crits from two attacks -- wanna cancel them and get Stressed, or take a crit? Sure it's only one turn, but double-stressing anything at any point in the game is valuable.

I still say that the TIE Bomber is the best ordnance platform when viewed in a vacuum. The Punisher is a little too expensive for my taste, and the Bomber has 4 pilots with access to an EPT.

Personally, I'm looking forward to loaded K-Wings

Proxied this the other night:

Warden

Autoblaster Turret

Extra Munitions

Plasma Torpedo

XX-23 Tracer

Ion Bomb

x3

Versus large ships you have the torps. Versus aces you have the turrets. Ion Bombs for catching your breath, lockdown, and resetting the torp joust.

I would love to free up points for Guardians, but I don't know what to drop. Weirdly, the extra munitions would probably be the first to go

Lots of nasty ideas out there. I think we will definitely see ordinance of all types in use - not on every ship. But if you want to us it. It can be viable.

How about Ten Numb with VI, chips, Plasma Torpedoe and Extra munitions. Two auto damage each shot. Good for softening up shield heavy aces like Poe or Corran to get ahead of regen. Scary. Obviously less useful against Empire though. Could use ion Torp also.

What about tempest squadrons with Proton rockets, guidance chip, then either the title with sensor jammer or accuracy corrector. This gives them a pretry nasty bite for the first engagement, then they can be used as a great blocker for the remainder of the game.

Any thoughts or other suggestions for using guidance chimps with tempests?

Honestly the TIE bomber is set to become immensely better.

20 Scimitar w/ ConcussM, LRS.

20pts nets you a nasty alpha-striker, which can still be a decent brawler even after the missiles are spent. An extra 3pts gets you this:

23 Scimitar w/ ConcussM, Prox, LRS.

So now you have a nasty alpha-strike, a decent brawler, and also the ability to ruin an ace's day. It's a steal for 23pts, or 25pts with extra munitions, though I'd not bother.

Scimitar with Ion Pulse Missiles, Extra Munitions, Conner Net, LRS. 25 points.

I foresee the following:

Bandits rise, flying with Blount and Tracers (while each wield Concussions and Chimps)

Prototypes rise, flying with Prockets and Chimps

Scimitars rise, flying with Clusters, Chimps, and Jonus (with some points to spare)

TAP rise, as the Title works off of Tracers to give everyone else in your fleet TLs and evade tokens.

Pirates rise, flying with Mux.

Generic Jumpmaster ~26 points?

Deadeye 1

Recon Specialist 3

R4 Agromech 2

Extra Munitions 2

Preferred Torpedoes (plasma 3)

Guidance Chips 0

Total ~37

In the spread image for the Punishing One, all pilots including the generic have an EPT. Always Focus. If you have a ship in arc, spend focus to activate torpedo. Acquire free target lock. You then have a 4 dice attack with focus, target lock, and an automatic conversion. If they have shields left, plasma Torpedoes deal an extra damage. And you can spend that second focus to acquire another target lock for later, in addition to or even if you didn't have to change change any focus results.