I beat a Whisper RAC list with Sable's bomber list: Scimitar + Prox x4 and a Doomshuttle.
Was about to take it to Winnipeg regionals tomorrow and see what I could do but a storm (80mph winds) dumped on my parents farm and now I have to go help clean up.
Mother nature has spared Winnipeg the wrath of my Tie Bombers.
bombs are viable outside sabine, outside rebels
but sadly, not outside Conner Nets :L
bombs are viable outside sabine, outside rebels
but sadly, not outside Conner Nets :L
conners, thermals and seismics
just avoid RNG like the plague, you have primary and secondary weapons for that
Proton bombs can be quite effective against large ships, had a game against bro bots with my duel firespray list that one proton did double damage against one and reduced the agility of the other which then got shot to pieces, plus it's good against regenerators because it's straight through to hull rather than shields.
also emon with bombardier I find really good because he can throw out his bombs with such variety that my opponents tend to over react to it and forget about the arcs of my other ships or catch them off guard when they think they are safe (they also don't like dead and switch on emon where he becomes a bomb, he has taken out a few aces this way)
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
That's quite cool. Would something along these lines possibly help?
Miranda Doni (29)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Extra Munitions (2)
Sabine Wren (2)
Seismic Charges (2)
Conner Net (4)
Advanced SLAM (2)
Tala Squadron Pilot (13)
Homing Missiles (5)
Guidance Chips (0)
Tala Squadron Pilot (13)
Homing Missiles (5)
Guidance Chips (0)
Tala Squadron Pilot (13)
Concussion Missiles (4)
Guidance Chips (0)
Total: 100
View in Yet Another Squad Builder
With Miranda's TLT, you should expect to alpha at least one jumpmaster, and hopefully Miranda's slam is helping her avoid taking too many hits she can't regen. Plus, the homing missiles help vs Aces.
Outside of that idea, one use for bombs that I have tries with some success is throwing a pair of seismics onto a stresshog. Especially at PS4 grey squadron, it can still do it's Stresshog things vs jumpmasters and aces, but if someone gets behind it, it's not helpless. Protect it in the first pass with Biggs and it can do some real good, even more so if you can sneak Sabine in somewhere.
I won the 2015 Austin Regional with a Proton Bomb. It did 6 damage to Fat Han and one damage each to two Z-95s. On a PS10 ship, Proton Bomb can be extremely effective.
With Sabine?
Yes.
Without?
Sometimes.
I'm with Keffisch on this one, and I honestly think OPs idea of doubling damage on large base ships is not a bad idea at all. IGs might be punished a little too much, but IGs are still an incredibly powerful ship. I wouldn't mind having a fun counter like bombs for them. If that proves too much for them, maybe simply say ships agility 1 and lower take double damage. But that becomes troublesome for Y-wings and K-wings...
Anyways, continuing on.
The rough part about bombs is you are either dealing 1 damage with a side effect, or your opponent is rolling dice for damage. If they are rolling and they have Palp, which the majority of ace lists do it seems, good luck getting much damage through. But if you have Sabine, it can wreck them very quickly with that guaranteed damage. I have been trying to make a Deathrain and Deathfire list work focused on bombs, but I'm not sure it quite cuts it without the extra damage from Sabine.
Thanks kdubb I was beginning to think I was the only one for a while.
Based on many comments above I would like to reiterate that against small based ships I did not feel any modifying of bombs was needed and would like to clarify that I was suggesting double damage to large based ships only.
I agree that there are some pilots that can make better use of bombs than others but they are few and far between.
As regards the IG's being hard done by with double damage, that is a fair point, maybe it could be:
All large based ships with 2 or less agility suffer double damage from bombs
Or it could read suffer 1 extra damage when hit by a bomb blast.
That would mean with proton bombs it would be 1 face up and 1 damage. Also it clarifies that only the damage is extra not other effects.
I don't think I'd make bombs more powerful but I would make them cheaper.
You don't want to get into the point where they print a bomb equivalent of Guidance Chips and suddenly it's bombs everywhere. Bombs are annoying now and present interesting tactical issues of not wanting to get behind opponent, but you rarely face them because it's just not worth the points value to equip a bomb for the off chance it will do something.
I would make a modification that reduces the cost of bombs.
Advanced Bomb Bay
(Modification - 0 pts)
Equip only if you have a [bomb] symbol.
You upgrade bar gains a [bomb] symbol. If you equip a [bomb] upgrade its squad cost is reduced by 2, to a minimum of 0.
bombs are viable outside sabine, outside rebels
but sadly, not outside Conner Nets :L
conners, thermals and seismics
just avoid RNG like the plague, you have primary and secondary weapons for that
Sadly, but thermals and seismics only scare swarms, and arcdodgers ignore them entirely.
hopefully we'd get remote control upgrade cards that let us stop them from exploding if you see the target arcdodging out of the blast radius...
bombs are viable outside sabine, outside rebels
but sadly, not outside Conner Nets :L
conners, thermals and seismics
just avoid RNG like the plague, you have primary and secondary weapons for that
Sadly, but thermals and seismics only scare swarms, and arcdodgers ignore them entirely.
hopefully we'd get remote control upgrade cards that let us stop them from exploding if you see the target arcdodging out of the blast radius...
not only does miranda with a 1 point bid move after PS 8 aces (Especially the inquisitor), but just having the bombs will keep aces off your tail
alternatively
Sadly, but thermals and seismics only scare swarms, and arcdodgers ignore them entirely.
hopefully we'd get remote control upgrade cards that let us stop them from exploding if you see the target arcdodging out of the blast radius...
This isn't always true. For one, even if you drop the Seismics and the Arc Dodger spins off to avoid the damage....that usually saves you for a turn or two as they are trying to get away, and then get back into a prime spot. If you can capitalize on those 2 turns, then it's well worth it.
Depending on the table setup, there might not be a way for them to get away. If it's board edge or asteroid...or a cluster of ships....maybe they can't get out of the way. It's all situational...but the whole game is situational.
Even the threat of bombs can help enter into your strategy. You can expect where someone is NOT going to be due to the Seismic Charges. That can work in your favor, as well.
There are also times when you can drop the bombs where someone other than arc dodgers and swarms are and it do the damage. There are other list types out there and doing damage is a good thing. It's only 2 pts, as well.
bombs are viable outside sabine, outside rebels
but sadly, not outside Conner Nets :L
conners, thermals and seismics
just avoid RNG like the plague, you have primary and secondary weapons for that
Sadly, but thermals and seismics only scare swarms, and arcdodgers ignore them entirely.
hopefully we'd get remote control upgrade cards that let us stop them from exploding if you see the target arcdodging out of the blast radius...
not only does miranda with a 1 point bid move after PS 8 aces (Especially the inquisitor), but just having the bombs will keep aces off your tail
alternatively
Things I don't quite understand
1. I see 2 Kwings but 3 Seismics. One bomb per turn, no?
2. there's no way a K could have dropped the bomb on the right o_O
bombs are viable outside sabine, outside rebels
but sadly, not outside Conner Nets :L
conners, thermals and seismics
just avoid RNG like the plague, you have primary and secondary weapons for that
Sadly, but thermals and seismics only scare swarms, and arcdodgers ignore them entirely.
hopefully we'd get remote control upgrade cards that let us stop them from exploding if you see the target arcdodging out of the blast radius...
not only does miranda with a 1 point bid move after PS 8 aces (Especially the inquisitor), but just having the bombs will keep aces off your tail
alternatively
Things I don't quite understand
1. I see 2 Kwings but 3 Seismics. One bomb per turn, no?
2. there's no way a K could have dropped the bomb on the right o_O
There is a third just outside the frame in the top right corner.
SLAM, baby, SLAM!
Poor guy took some heat the round prior and didn't want to stick around
With how much people love them they are so close to being good. I think a few more crew/pilots like Sabine, Deathrain, Deathfire, and Emmon, who all work on bombing specifically are still very much needed. You can see how crazy good all their abilities are but they still aren't good enough when you also have to pay more to activate them. If each got an automatic 1 bomb to use and then you could buy more they'd see play all the time.