I have heard it said that with the large number of chunky ships coming into the game bombs barely scratch the paint. Now while this is true the bombs are fine as they are against small ships, many of which have 3-6 health. I was wondering if a solution to this would be that all bombs deal double damage to large base ships. This would also be thematic as the blast would be hitting a large area of the large ship causing more parts of it to get damaged.

As regards the prox mines and cluster mines, maybe they can turn 1 blank into a hit.

Any thoughts?

I use bombs more as a way to deal with aces, since that's still the primary focus at the FLGS where I game. Would love to see a few different bomb designs more focused on beefier targets, or more possible upgrades/abilities that focus on bombs.

I play Epic more than standard at this point, and I did put bombs on a CR-90 once just because I could. (Sabine Wren.)

With conner nets being the go to choice, maybe we could see some other 'utility' nonsense bombs in the future, Bombs that strip tokens instead of do damage, or maybe something silly like a gravity bomb that has tractor beam effects.

Bombs are less powerful than Ordnance but they can be deployed as well as normal shooting. Some do not even require an action to launch making them very effective, even if stressed.

Having said that, they work very differently to conventional attacks and require even more planning ahead to use (unless you are just chucking a seismic charge on something as a cheap contingency). I think bombs take practice to use. The flip side is that because they are uncommon, they are also hard to counter. Many players not used to seeing them will end up getting caught out.

That Conner net does give a lovely combination of damage and Ion.

Bombs are surprisingly good at hindering your opponents movement options. That alone can give you an edge when you would otherwise be the underdog.
And then your opponent can forget that you have bombs (As no one isn't really playing them anyway, they'll check that you have bombs, but 10 rounds later they have forgotten their existence) and finish off ships with 1 hull left.

I mainly use them for deterrent and Area control. If I don't want someone coming from that angle, I'll threaten to drop a bomb.
If I don't want him to K-turn, I'll threaten to drop an Ion bomb (Most of the time I don't even need to drop those bombs..as enemy players choose less bomb like route.) One game I denied Enemy Colzet K-turn for like 2 turns, so he was out of fight for 3-4 rounds. That alone gave me time to move more freely with Dash and put serious hurt at his ships. Colzet was the last ship alive for my enemy.
Last couple months I've flown Super Dash with Miranda (Seismic and Ion).
One tournament I finished 3 ships with seismic. Other tournament I delayed Soontir coming at me for 2 turns using bombs, which gave me time to kill his palpatine without really taking any fire as Soontir etc were busy dodging bombs.

I'd say 2 point bombs have their use (And I like them). Mines (conner net, prox. cluster.) work differently and have their own role. Usually thrown straight at enemy for immediate effect, so they can't be dodged.

With Sabine?

Yes.

Without?

Sometimes.

The only good thing to use non-action bombs is "Genius" droid.

On a high-PS carrier...

ahem...

VI EU KAVIL!

Miranda plus Sabine plus full bomb loadout and extra munitions (conner+cluster+seismic) personally i prefer cluster to conners as you have 3 bases to go through plus have had some success with them

people dont know how to play against them so they try and avoid the areas they are likely to be dropped and you can segregate parts of lists (conners/clusters in between roids can take ships out the game for a few turns)

The Glen Burnie Regional round 4 is worth watching for bombs and more bombs lol https://youtu.be/8yOHSv5sZ5s?t=7h3m8s

bombs are disproportionately effective against aces and tie fighters, where low health and removing their lucky ass dice from the equation just kills them right quick

the effect of bombs can be psychologically damaging to the point where you don't even have to use them to win games

"Guess who has seismics:"

bombs are still effective against beefier jousters, though without sabine you're really chipping away at a prison wall with a plastic spoon against jumpmasters and higher health. Conner nets v large bases has more success because the ionization often really **** them over, but seismics are just a little bit of free damage.

cluster mines, which were intended to overlap a large ship multiple times, are a colossal rng-laden failure

bombs are nigh on worthless against turrets unless you have an A-slam conner K or Deathrain. They have no reason to ever be behind you as they can move wherever they want with no consequence

Dash is practically immune to bombs

The Glen Burnie Regional round 4 is worth watching for bombs and more bombs lol https://youtu.be/8yOHSv5sZ5s?t=7h3m8s

oh man that was amazing! That perfect Connor Net!

BOMBS are great. Seismic charges are 2pts and can easily sneak a damage on people.

MINES suck unless youre Deathfire or Deathrain. Strictly because they take your **** action, which prevents you from firing ordnance that round majority of the time. Deathrain can dump his mines directly on his opponent out of his front and Deathfire just dumps them for free after he reveals his dial or does a move, so he doesnt lose his TL action.

Mines really should have been a lot cheaper since they eat your action and arent easy to land...except for Deathrain lol

I was 1 hull away from top 4 at Michigan Regionals running Miranda with Sabine, AdvSlam, Conners, Seismic, EM, and TLT. (Coupled with a Kanan Ghost). I finished 3rd in the swiss there. And at Ohio I finished 5th in the Swiss, but lost my Top 16 match.

With Sabine they are definitely viable.

bombs are viable outside sabine, outside rebels

mainly in empire, because conner nets sets up devastating attacks from the empire's wide variety of impressive aces. Inq, Vader and Whisper all hit like trucks, especially against some poor bastard that loses his action step

at least, they used to be viable because Deathrain didn't give a crap about palp aces, and with PS 6 boost and seismic pre-move rolls he didn't really care about enemy TLTs either. JM5ks are another matter

I love using bombs. Often, your opponent forgets about them, even if you used one in the same game against him! There are a lot of uses for bombs. Conner Nets and such tend to work best against Aces. Seismic is always great for hitting large amounts of enemy or even just area of denial. I had an Outrider land on 4 Seismic Charges at one time in the same round. I then fired 2 Missiles and finished it off in one round! Very fun. Proximity Mines can be used to block lanes of movement. All sorts of fun.

Bombs are pretty much my favorite upgrade type. They're fun. And people usually underestimate their utility.

Even if they're not doing damage, they're altering the way your opponent flies and positions his ships, which is still good.

Also you can take 4 Gammas with Proton Bombs and extra munitions:

The last tournament I played in Proton bomb took out a full health corran horn which allowed me to win the match and go on to win the tournament. Bombs are severely under rated in this game.

Yes.

Next question.

ever since poor Deathrain fell out of favor (was he ever in favor? well, I loved him in the palp ace dominated days of wave 7) my favorite bomber has been Miranda

sure, you technically take Miranda because she's a goddamn regenerating brick with wings and a TLT, but her high PS and ability to fire out of arc really allows you to abuse the hell out of "drop on dial reveal" bombs

with seismics, she (almost without exaggeration) can mulch PS 8 palp aces and crackswarms all on her own

sadly, scouts still pose a problem

my standard loadout is now TLT, sabine, double seismic for 41 points (which only leaves me wishing the two T-70s I fly her with were 28 instead of 29 so I could get MOAR seismics, but stupid Targeting Astro is a point overpriced)

could conceivably switch to proton bombs + extras (no sabine, but then again she's less necessary with protons) for 1 more point if you're hankering for card-based rng

I like to use Cluster Mines on low pilot skill ships. A Gold Squadron or Warden Squadron pilot, is cheap, but the ability to move first into just the right spot, drop the mines right on them just increases the damage capability of a cheap ship.

Bombs are a tricky thing, if you don't know how to use them then they are a complete waste of points. One of my favorite tricks to pull against a group of ships was use Fett with Mara Jade and a seismic charge. Charge straight in, blast someone using Fett's rerolls, then deal them all some stress. No they want to clear stress so they have an action to defend against the rear shot as I fly past, so they pull a green and usually land just on the back side of me. I drop a charge, scoot forward and let them all take a damage then blast one of them again. It's great.

Basically, the value of bombs increases exponentially when the skill of the player flying the ship. I was flying Imperial and was chasing down a K-Wing with an Interceptor with AT. Now I know as an Interceptor flyer that running into the back of a slower moving ship can be a major problem, so I'm just moving ahead 2. He drops a cluster mine and I have just enough room to move, then barrel roll out of the way. So since it was a friendly match I told him, "Had you waited one more turn, those mines would have screwed me badly."

Bombs have a lot of potential - they can hurt aces, threaten swarms, and lock down large-based ships. However they've also got some downsides - they're a bit like ordnance pre-Guidance Chips and extra munitions, although not nearly as bad.

Individual bomb types all have a role to play: seismic charges and thermal detonators against swarms, cluster mines against large bases, proximity mines and Connor Nets against aces, and proton bombs against everyone. However if you bring the wrong sort of bomb you've often wasted a lot of points. Drop bombs work against lower PS targets and action bombs against higher, so if you've got the wrong one they're a lot less reliable.

In addition bombs cost a lot of points, and are hard to use as your opponent needs to be in the right position. SLAM, Deathrain and Genius can help here though. However by the time you've loaded your bomb carrier out it's often as expensive as an ace, without the same defences, reliability or ease of use.

That said they've definitely got uses - a well-placed bomb (especially with Sabine Wren) can really hurt your opponent's plans. Generally bombers have tended to do best when accompanying something else (often aces), where the different and unusual nature of the threat causes problems with targeting and maneuvering for the enemy. In contrast, I don't think all-bomber lists tend to do nearly as well.

If you want to see what bombs can accomplish, take a look here !

Bombs are a tricky thing, if you don't know how to use them then they are a complete waste of points. One of my favorite tricks to pull against a group of ships was use Fett with Mara Jade and a seismic charge. Charge straight in, blast someone using Fett's rerolls, then deal them all some stress. No they want to clear stress so they have an action to defend against the rear shot as I fly past, so they pull a green and usually land just on the back side of me. I drop a charge, scoot forward and let them all take a damage then blast one of them again. It's great.

How does this work when Mara Jade is Imp. only and Scum Fett is the one getting rerolls? TL?

Bombs are a tricky thing, if you don't know how to use them then they are a complete waste of points. One of my favorite tricks to pull against a group of ships was use Fett with Mara Jade and a seismic charge. Charge straight in, blast someone using Fett's rerolls, then deal them all some stress. No they want to clear stress so they have an action to defend against the rear shot as I fly past, so they pull a green and usually land just on the back side of me. I drop a charge, scoot forward and let them all take a damage then blast one of them again. It's great.

How does this work when Mara Jade is Imp. only and Scum Fett is the one getting rerolls? TL?

Crap, confused my versions of Fett. But Imperial Kath works with that concept too.

I manage to kill 1 tie fighter on 1 round with Sabine crew, cluster mine and seismic charge.

Don't list build around them, but sneaking in a bomb or two isn't an awful idea. At the very least, it's small amount of area control and could net you some free damage.

Just make sure you practice and can eyeball that R1 bubble off the token