I'm trying to come up with a little build to my store's tournament at the end of the month(I'll just grab something from offline if I can't come up with anything good though) and I am torn on whether to bring a TIE Punisher or TIE Bomber. I wont have the opportunity to play enough between now and the tournament to experiment so here I am!

I play imperials and my plan was to have a fully loaded Krassis Trellix with Vader in the Slave I alongside Captain Jonus also fully loaded with a hull upgrade and Predator. My main concern was keeping Jonus alive. With only 6 base health he seems flimsy for a two ship build, but I was kind of counting on his pilot ability and Elite slot. I could take a Punisher, though I would lose the synergy of pilot ability and the elite slot. At that point I'm not sure its even worth bringing a second ordinance ship, I have a missile and torpedo on Krassis, and Vader would help take down any Phantoms or whatnot.

I'm torn. With only two ships, both loaded with ordinance, I feel like health is incredibly important, but without Jonus the entire point of the build unravels.

Is the entire idea kind of silly? I like the idea of re-rolling up to three dice on munitions(often-times this is all the dice) seems valuable, but wouldn't the opponent just pile on Jonus and take out half my squad(and points)? I prefer running named pilots to nameless ones, but other than the typical 3 aces or two aces and palpatine I'm having trouble seeing anything real logical in the Imperial lists.

Redline and Deathrain are punishers. Load with ordnance/bombs respectively and have fun

Cutlass and black 8 are overpriced bombers

With the occasional exception on the named punishers, I always prefer the bombers. However, if I were to walk into a tournament (that I wanted to win) with a two ship list, neither the bomber or the punisher would be on that list. Given the choice here, I would take the punisher. You are realistically only going to have 1 or 2 shots of having Jones helping the Slave 1, and I do not think Jonus' ability works on himself, so take the three shields and the punisher.

Jonus isn't going to be able to pull his weight in a two ship list, especially if the other ship is Krassis. Krassis is already rerolling one die with secondary weapons. Jonus really needs to be boosting the attacks of at least two other ships to be worth bringing. If he could grant himself rerolls, it would be a different story.

It might just be how I fly Firesprays but I found that after the first couple of shots with my HLC I rarely had an opportunity to fire it again. Bringing a whole other ship to boost those couple of shots seems to be a waste of points to me.

Jonus isn't going to be able to pull his weight in a two ship list, especially if the other ship is Krassis. Krassis is already rerolling one die with secondary weapons.

Yeah. It works like this: each additional die you get to reroll is worth less than the one before it. It's pretty likely that you'll have to reroll at least one die, but it's not very likely at all that you'll need to reroll three. Jonus just isn't doing much here, and he's fairly fragile as half of a two-ship list. I'd take almost anything else.

The bomber is cool and the punisher is ugly. Easy choice, IMO

Sorry to be that guy (and I love both ships, I really do), but I am afraid neither is the right answer. Single Bombers are a bit iffy until we get Imperial Veterans and a Punisher will be way too expensive for your list. A properly kitted one will cost you 36-42 points. If you have that space, go for the Punisher, but otherwise look for alternatives.

If you only have about 25-28 points you can run a Bomber with Homing Missiles, Seismic Charges and Extra Munition, but I don't really like them solo. Do some test matches and see if that looks differently for you.

I've won a couple games with Deathrain, Redline, and Omega Leader.

2 named Punishers is only doable when you can bring a cheap ace like OL.

Deathrain needs a little something to work though, pick one of the following:

Advanced Sensors, or Experimental Interface - can help you get those bombs where you need them.

FCS or Accuracy corrector - will help his primary weapon attack have a decent shot at doing damage.

Enhanced Scopes - the cheap option. Bad in theory, good in practice.

Extra Munitions + Conner Net + Seismic charges. Don't use any other bombs, they are reliable and points efficient.

Redline wants Flechette or Plasma Torpedoes for range 3 attacks, you don't need 2 bays of Cluster Missiles.

Sorry to be that guy (and I love both ships, I really do), but I am afraid neither is the right answer. Single Bombers are a bit iffy until we get Imperial Veterans and a Punisher will be way too expensive for your list. A properly kitted one will cost you 36-42 points. If you have that space, go for the Punisher, but otherwise look for alternatives.

If you only have about 25-28 points you can run a Bomber with Homing Missiles, Seismic Charges and Extra Munition, but I don't really like them solo. Do some test matches and see if that looks differently for you.

A single Scimitar Bomber is good as a cheap blocker. For his 16 points, he's surprisingly durable.

Punisher named pilots are decent but I'd take a generic bomber over a generic punisher every time.

Punisher is one of those ships you need to invest into to get results.

I don't rate Jonus. If you ditch him and just upgrade whatever ordnance you had on the other ships to Homing Missiles, you end up better than having a ship that only helps those around it (but doesn't help itself).

If you want Krassis, have him take EM and Homing Missile and it's cheaper than a Missile and Torp combo. Would his ability matter much? Well, maybe. It might be smarter to just take a generic Bounty Hunter instead, but....you might need it. What if you roll 4 dice and end up needing to only re-roll one die? You keep the TL and then get to use his ability. Of course, you could just go with EM and a Concussion Missile for cheaper, too. Less redundancy vs. bad rolls, but averages are good.

I do rate Homing Missile on Vader. Yes, it makes him more expensive, but he can TL and Focus the turn he fires. He usually goes first. He has a decent chance of hitting someone like Soontir Fel first (especially if you give him VI). Four dice with TL and Focus and they don't get Evade? That's pretty good. Just make sure you aren't in too many other people's firing arc when you do it.

Personally, I like to have at least a few chump ships for cheap blockers. Throw in a couple of Tie Fighters to help out is what I would probably do. Blockers....distractions....minor damage dealers. Or you can go with a mid-tier ace like an FO or something. Do the whole Juke/Comm Relay thing.

In my experience Bombers > Punishers with the notable exception of the named Punishers. Bombers work best when swarmed with a mostly naked Jonus and the named Punishers can operate independently just fine. I would also keep my Bombers fairly light with Extra Munitions and a Missile or Torp and maybe a Bomb.

If you just want to take a single ordnance carrier in a list and have ~40 points, Redline is my pick. Redline with Fire Control System and Cluster Missiles is just brutal against low Agility targets. He will be even better when Chimps hit.

I play imperials and my plan was to have a fully loaded Krassis Trellix with Vader in the Slave I alongside Captain Jonus also fully loaded with a hull upgrade and Predator. My main concern was keeping Jonus alive.

It just registeted with me that you are planning on putting Vader on a Firespray that is probably well over 50 points. Call me old fashioned but Vader should be riding in something cheap and durable.

I'm not usually "that guy" but I'd scrap this list and start over. Vader on a firespray is almost never a great idea. there are many better and cheaper options, like Rec spec. with the exception of bombs, ordnance on a firespray is likely a waste, and an HLC often is as well. ( I know you are looking at krassis)

I second the notion that jonus Doesn't help you much (He can be cool in an epic game leading a

bomber wing, but Keeping jonus close enough is also a problem, and his ability does not work on himself, as previously stated.

Unless you want to just fly something funky for fun, I've got a bad feeling about this......

Sorry to be that guy

If you want ordnance on Krassis, I'd probably wait until Guidance Chips drop. Between his reroll and the getting to change any of his results to a crit, he should hit pretty hard.