having played the two, I think you're almost always getting LRS on bombers

the limitations of having to TL a high PS target are just too strict, especially after you come to enjoy the benefits of being able to b-roll into position or focus etc.

helps to have seismic charges to dissuade close range, though

I have ran Headhunters with missiles and chips a couple times. They are super cheap, 16 or 17 points depending on if you go for a PS bid, and with chips they have a nice alpha strike. With three of them you are giving up a Z95 in the cost of their missiles but those four dice attacks with chips are more likely to punch through 3 agility than the Headhunter's primary attack at ranges 2-3.

In my experience so far one ship takes a beating, sometimes gets it's missiles off while the other two are free to fire away. Afterwards I can use them to block and try and clean up the mess the missiles just made.

I am itchin' to get my bombers on the board with chips and dips but I haven't figured out a list that I like yet.

Correct.

Personally, I'm not sold on Tracers. They take an attack to fire them and you have to hit. Unless you are using Blount, it's not worth it. I'd rather just use a real attack and try to fly better to get the TL. I do love the just stay out of R3 tactic, and then bum rush them to R1 to try to bump. You grab the TL and they can't focus fire. You get to drop Seismic Charges next turn as you 5 K-turn behind them.....with a TL to fire.

What is your go to Bomber Squad?

Correct.

Personally, I'm not sold on Tracers. They take an attack to fire them and you have to hit. Unless you are using Blount, it's not worth it. I'd rather just use a real attack and try to fly better to get the TL. I do love the just stay out of R3 tactic, and then bum rush them to R1 to try to bump. You grab the TL and they can't focus fire. You get to drop Seismic Charges next turn as you 5 K-turn behind them.....with a TL to fire.

What is your go to Bomber Squad?

I admit that I haven't played as much since Wave 8 came and I'll even further admit that I'm flying less tournament type games these days for HotAC or missions, but......

The list that I've been going with ever since Extra Munitions came out is something I call "Flying Scimitars", though a few people have been calling it the "heychadwick bomber", which tickles me to no end.

4 x Scimitar Bomber w/ Extra Munitions, Homing Missile, Seismic Charge (and now Guidance Chip, but will be LRS)

I didn't see a deluge of TLT's in my area and I'm not sure about U-boats, but I could see dropping the Seismic Charges for Gamma pilots. Personally, though, I LOVE Seismic Charges. There are too many times where I've dropped my charges, 5 K-turned, and blasted the enemy to pieces.

I've been flying my 4 x Tie Bomber without LRS for over a year now and I've gotten tricks to help out with that. Things will change quite a bit when they come out. The extra Focus to deal damage or the ability to BR and keep people in arc will be fun.

At the moment, what I try to do is have a huge asteroid directly in the middle. I then like to spread out the asteroids as much on the sides as possible and open up the middle. Make it harder to flank in from the sides, as well. Don't bunch them up too much, though. I deploy directly in the middle and don't put them in formation. Put them in a loose line. If they have someone like Soontir to flank, I note which side that one goes on. One option is to gun for one side and try to hit them as fast as possible. This can work really well as long as that one side can't get in. It will probably be easier once LRS comes out, though, especially if you gun for the flanker. Stagger your Bombers and have at least 2 Bombers on each angle he can get to.

If you can't jump one side, go with a 1 forward to try to see where they go. You want to get just out of R3 by using the Rule of 11 until LRS comes out. That's when you zip in, grab the TL, and try to force them to bump. K-turn and then blast away.

If you deploy on a flank, then you are too susceptible to flankers (probably need to be in formation to fit). It is possible to have an asteroid in your corner and make sure you have a lane through asteroids back to middle. What you can do is start off with is either a chance to bank towards the middle early on. You don't want the flanker to get too far around you. It's actually better to try to deal with the flanker alone and ignore the rest of the list. When you bank, you tend to have guys ahead in the curve and guys in the back. Those guys in the back can usually curve in and try to get the flanker while the first really just kind of block escape routes. First guys can go after rest of ships or just grab the TL and prepare to move next turn. It's not the best this way, though, because if your opponent does come in eager, you could be caught in a pincer. Still usually best to destroy the flanker first, though. Best if you can trick him to split off in deployment and you are able to pounce.

Once LRS comes out, it will be a whole different game. A Tie Bomber has a great dial for it and combined with BR will be able to keep any arc dodger in their sites. For starters, people usually zip out their arc dodgers early and fast, so surprising them and going for the arc dodger can catch people by surprise. Once they have committed their arc dodger far enough, it's not easy for them to change directions. Probably a 1 hard turn and then boost backwards is what they will need to do. If that's the case, you really just caused them many turns of being out of the fight. Just make sure you aren't in a bad spot as his other ships are going to be coming for you right away. You will notice that Soontir types usually go with a speed 2 if they aren't trying to zip up the flanks. He does a 2 speed and then expects to Boost and such to the right spot. If you know what to expect, you can set up a nice kill zone with 4 Tie Bombers. Just make sure to have a nice spread of angles to get all the spots he can go. 2-3 Homing Missiles should kill him, especially if you have a Focus, too. One covers the far end in case he goes fast. The next covers that area and a bit more towards the middle. Third one covers middle and a bit of left area. Last one covers left area and middle. No matter where he goes, he should be covered. Fly conservative and NEVER let him zip past you. Better to have him out of range, but in a corner as you can expect what he will do next turn.

Well....I kind of rambled. Work keeps distracting me through typing this. I'll just go ahead and hit POST and hope it makes sense.

Can someone please outline the benefits of each card and/or recommend a good build. I was leaning towards Jonus and Gamma Squadron Pilot,

First off.....let me say that Jonus is a trap. Once Extra Munitions has come out, it's cheaper to just get Homing Missiles for your Bombers than it is to pay for the points for Jonus, who doesn't even get to use his own ability. Oh, and you can only re-roll 2 dice, instead of all of them.

I was thinking that Jonus might be an ok TIE shuttle option. Give him a fleet office and have him follow to hand out focuses to your chip equipped buddies. Then they get TL, focus, GC, and a reroll.

*edit* maybe give him "Wingman" to help with stress after your 5K or swarn tactics to bump a Scimitar

Made a list with my above idea. Not sure if it would work well but looks fun to me

Jonus

-TIE Shuttle

-Swarm tactics

-Fleet Officer

Scimitar squad pilot

-Concussion missile

-EM

-GC

Gamma Squad Vet - X2

-Adapt

-Concussion missile

-EM

-GC

Total - 99

with swarm everyone is PS6 so will go before non-aces. slow-roll in, TL, fleet officer gives focus, Jonus gives rerolls, conncus self modifies. Should be a good strong alpha strike. Then just focus fire down the next guy. enough hull to help keep them alive though attrition. Although if I dropped EM on the scimitar I could get deadeye on the gammas for after the alpha. I know they are not really blockers but he could try his best.

Can someone please outline the benefits of each card and/or recommend a good build. I was leaning towards Jonus and Gamma Squadron Pilot,

First off.....let me say that Jonus is a trap. Once Extra Munitions has come out, it's cheaper to just get Homing Missiles for your Bombers than it is to pay for the points for Jonus, who doesn't even get to use his own ability. Oh, and you can only re-roll 2 dice, instead of all of them.

I was thinking that Jonus might be an ok TIE shuttle option. Give him a fleet office and have him follow to hand out focuses to your chip equipped buddies. Then they get TL, focus, GC, and a reroll.

*edit* maybe give him "Wingman" to help with stress after your 5K or swarn tactics to bump a Scimitar

That's a lot of points when I'd rather just have another Tie Bomber with Homing Missiles and either LRS or GC.

Can someone please outline the benefits of each card and/or recommend a good build. I was leaning towards Jonus and Gamma Squadron Pilot,

First off.....let me say that Jonus is a trap. Once Extra Munitions has come out, it's cheaper to just get Homing Missiles for your Bombers than it is to pay for the points for Jonus, who doesn't even get to use his own ability. Oh, and you can only re-roll 2 dice, instead of all of them.

I was thinking that Jonus might be an ok TIE shuttle option. Give him a fleet office and have him follow to hand out focuses to your chip equipped buddies. Then they get TL, focus, GC, and a reroll.

*edit* maybe give him "Wingman" to help with stress after your 5K or swarn tactics to bump a Scimitar

That's a lot of points when I'd rather just have another Tie Bomber with Homing Missiles and either LRS or GC.

Ya, I agree, but it does find a use for his ability nich for him to fit.

First off.....let me say that Jonus is a trap. Once Extra Munitions has come out, it's cheaper to just get Homing Missiles for your Bombers than it is to pay for the points for Jonus, who doesn't even get to use his own ability. Oh, and you can only re-roll 2 dice, instead of all of them.

LRS for low PS, GC for high.

This is really the key. The whole problem with low PS Bombers is getting that TL and being able to use it before you are destroyed.

So really, for TIE Bombers it's LRS every time. Currently we only have Scimitar and Gamma with respective pilot skills of 2 and 4. Jonus and Rhymer just aren't worth the points or are redundant.

Looks like the Imp Vets pack brings us Tomax Bren at PS8, a generic at PS5 and another named pilot at PS3.

If you only have one Bomber, you might go with Major Rhymer. I've not tried it, so I can't really speak towards it. At that point, you want GC.

As for the new ones....well, that's another story! Tomax Bren is going to be quite fun for even just one Bomber in a list. Go with GC and....I'd probably go with Crack Shot. Possibly Adrenaline Rush as a 2nd.

Gama Vet will also be very good.

I've used Rhymer with deadeye, AHM,EM, and chips to good effect. As they don't discard you still have the focus to modify. YMMV but it's a fav of mine.

Everything dies.

It's all about what makes up your squad. Here, LRS can be used to get a bead on anything, and even if the bomber doesn't shoot, it still helps vessery. In turn, vessery's TB helps the bomber's lack-luster 2 red after-ordinance attacks.

The issue though is that if you focus all fire on one thing and it dies before you fire all missiles, then it will be a long time before you get to let loose the missiles.

Long Range Sensor can be a good thing but the only problem is that it is so easy to arc dodge ships like TIE Bombers then close in at range 1-2 out of arc with everything else.

Long Range Sensor can be a good thing but the only problem is that it is so easy to arc dodge ships like TIE Bombers then close in at range 1-2 out of arc with everything else.

Long Range Sensor can be a good thing but the only problem is that it is so easy to arc dodge ships like TIE Bombers then close in at range 1-2 out of arc with everything else.

Not very true at all, especially if you have the TL beforehand.

Keep in mind that LRS also make it obvious which ship your gunning for.

Which can be difficult when dealing with arc dodgers that just run away when you mark them.

The initial Locks could be used as a decoy as you could target lock a different ship instead lock onto the ace early then change them when you're moving in. Even with Long Range if they wanna play chicken you can always go after a more meaty target.

Giving up your ability to target lock at close range is well worth changing so you can get your first locks right away instead of the normal crawl forward and see what they do with Bombers. I can't wait for those new toys for them Having the chips now is even more of a boon right now.

I think 25 point generic set-up of Extra Munitions, Homing Missile and Long Range Sensor will be the primary loads and if your using a Scimitar instead of Gamma put on Seismic Charges for a threatening area at close range.

Long Range Sensor can be a good thing but the only problem is that it is so easy to arc dodge ships like TIE Bombers then close in at range 1-2 out of arc with everything else.

I try and counted by spreading out bit. You can dodge 1 arc,but the other(s) will still get you

Long Range Sensor can be a good thing but the only problem is that it is so easy to arc dodge ships like TIE Bombers then close in at range 1-2 out of arc with everything else.

Not very true at all, especially if you have the TL beforehand.

Actually I already tried something similar with Jendon and title. The ship that had the target lock just flew out of range and quickly skipped across the arc of tie bombers. Focused one and you can never catch it. Even tried to match them up and you wouldn't believe how easy it was for them to criss-cross and avoid the firing arc of the ship that had the target lock on them rendering the tokens useless.

Keep in mind that LRS also make it obvious which ship your gunning for.

Which can be difficult when dealing with arc dodgers that just run away when you mark them.

My point exactly, you will never catch an arc dodger with a target lock especially if it has a higher pilot skill than your ship.

LRS is a novel idea but it is a lost cost and DOA in competitive. I do see it useful in epic though and since I like to play epic I will use it a lot in those games. Too bad scum doesn't have any ships that can equip it yet.

The only ship for Scum that can use Long Range Sensor is Slave 1 Fire Spray as it has both a Torpedo and Missile slot

Arc Dodgers have always, ALWAYS been a bane to the Bomber and If you were going to run a list of four I'd make one of them dedicated to Nets instead of Homing as especially against say the Dastardly Dash Seismics are not enough. Or some Fighters.

You can price up a trio of bombers and a pocket ace pretty easily. Your pick of Inquisitor or Omega Leader when you do so.

Actually I already tried something similar with Jendon and title. The ship that had the target lock just flew out of range and quickly skipped across the arc of tie bombers. Focused one and you can never catch it. Even tried to match them up and you wouldn't believe how easy it was for them to criss-cross and avoid the firing arc of the ship that had the target lock on them rendering the tokens useless.

Keep in mind that LRS also make it obvious which ship your gunning for.

Which can be difficult when dealing with arc dodgers that just run away when you mark them.

My point exactly, you will never catch an arc dodger with a target lock especially if it has a higher pilot skill than your ship.

LRS is a novel idea but it is a lost cost and DOA in competitive. I do see it useful in epic though and since I like to play epic I will use it a lot in those games. Too bad scum doesn't have any ships that can equip it yet.

I'd have to see the game to really get the feel for it. I think unless an Arc Dodger just stays out of the game for a bit, it can't easily stay out of firing arc of 4 Tie Bombers.

Also, it doesn't require all 4 to target the same ship. 2 can do it and force him to zip around and not do much. The other 2 can fire at the rest of the list.

There is also the ability for the Tie Bombers to switch TL if they know the Arc Dodger is going to try to just distract. It means that the Arc Dodger does nothing for that turn, but you can still fire your ordnance at another target. You don't have the Focus to add, but if you use Homing Missiles, it isn't so bad.

If due to setup and game play that the Arc Dodger is able to get away, it's not too hard to use that to your advantage. If you are a clever player, you can turn that whole situation to your advantage.

I've mostly only skimmed this thread so I might have missed someone already making this point, but I think one important distinction is that LRS can still be used after you've used all your ordnance, and GC cannot.