I threw this together just building on what others have thrown out already.

Gamma Squad Vet - Bomber 19

Deadeye 1

Extra Munitions 2

Plasma Torpedoes 3

Proton Rockets 3

XX-23 S-Thread Tracers 1

Guidance Chips 0

Ship Total: 29

Captain Jonus - Bomber 22

Deadeye 1

Extra Munitions 2

Plasma Torpedoes 3

Proton Rockets 3

Homing Missiles 5

Guidance Chips 0

Ship Total: 36

Major Rhymer - Bomber 26

Deadeye 1

Extra Munitions 2

Plasma Torpedoes 3

Proton Rockets 3

Guidance Chips 0

Ship Total: 35

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v4!s!191:19,126,136,73,143,-1:-1:25:;51:19,126,136,73,17,-1:-1:25:;52:19,126,136,73,-1,-1:-1:25:&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron

Jonus ability does not effect himself and rhymer is expensive. Obviously when we see that a ps8 bomber is cheaper than a ps7 bomber ffg has realized this themselves

The huge problem with bombers is 2 agility and no shields. So susceptible to crits. Many times when I use them, it's not unusual to see 3-5 crits spread out between them.

If you must use Jonus my advice keep him as a support and just run Fleet Officer. Keep him as cheap as possible. Same goes for rhymer. He's ps7 so he usually does well. I do like apt, ptl, tie engine mod, on him. He's usually the biggest target so he tends to die very fast.

The thing with bombers is also, they're not only susceptible to crits, but can be quite easy to focus fire down fast.

I was playing around with a list with tomax, and rhymer but after equipping them, left enough room for omega leader or a tie Phantom. Since bombers are likely the bigger threat I figured the Phantom may get left alone. But alas, uBoats came along so even if you did kill 1 before it shoots, chances are if the other two get to shot back, it's bye bye bomber. And so on.

I will be honest and say I haven't really trues long range Scanners, but I still feel against high PS maneuverable ships, you still have a hard time trying to shoot off those missles. It's not hard for fel, jax, or whoever to stay out of arcs, or go from range 4-1 leaving you with only primaries.

Honestly what the bombers needs is a 1 white or green turn imo.

I'm also finding it hard to want to run bombers as ordnance carriers when I know uBoats excel at the job, and not as risky.

I think going the route of maybe tomax, and then something else like a phantom or fel. Maybe wampa. If only the empire had a ship like Biggs, which wampa does kind of act like

Maybe something like this

Tomax

Crackshot

Extra Munitions

Guidance chips

Proton Torpedoes

Whisper

Veteran Instincts

Agent Kallus

Fcs

Advanced cloak

Wampa

Tie Academy.

Leaves you with two pt int bid. Wampa would be scary against any low hull ships, but it's the uBoats I alway seem to worry about when coming up with these kind of lists

Shooting at Dengar if in his front arc would not be healthy

It will be very scary if people start running Mara Jade bombers everywhere.

So don't do it.

Giving stress to multiple enemy ships isn't a good ability. It will be so hard to get range 1 with a ship that has barrel roll. 19 points is way to expensive for this ship + ability. It won't act as a 19 point Imperial Biggs.

Guess I'll have to 'test fly' Mara Jade bomber for the next year. You would be doing a good deed if you don't fly MJB. (Mara Jade Bomber)

Ive flown Mara jade bombers actually quite a bit, and frankly this is where I see bombers doing better in vs ordnance carriers. Being a shuttle to support

I've gotten quite a few wins with this list. Only lost once I believe to Paul heaver

3x scimitar bombers

Tie Shuttle title

Tactician

1) rebel captive 2) Mara jade 3) Fleet Officer

Vessery

Crackshot

Tie d title

Tractor beam.

The game I flew against heaver I flew them quite terrible actually. Usually I always keep the rebel captive up front, but for some reason this game it was Fleet Officer in the lead and he died very quickly. In the end I did better than I expected from the very rocky start that I did with it

That tractor beam with crackshot is very scary for some ships, and three bombers with tactician isn't something you want to get caught in front of, and the tractor beam worked very well on many occasions to boost or barrel roll my opponent ship into range 1 of usually two bombers.

Mara jade in this list I found usually doesn't do much, but I keep her around as she does have usefulness. If tactician stress something out, or your opponent is using ptl or some other stress mechanism in his list Mara jade doesn't help at all since she can only stress non stressed targets, but even so with this list your usually trying to dodge a lot of things. Vessery Crackshot tb. Range 2 tactician, and range 1 Mara jade.

If I wasn't expecting so many uBoats at our regional I'd almost consider flying this

I posted a thread asking for comments on a list that contains 3 bombers.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/223570-imperial-3-bomber-inquisitor-list/

The list is

2 Tie Bombers (Gamma Squadron Veterans)

Deadeye

Extra Munitions

Plasma Torpedoes

Guidance Chips

25 Points Each

Tie Bomber (Scimitar Squadron Pilot)

Tie Shuttle

Fleet Officer

19 Points

Tie Advanced Prototype (Inquisitor)

Push the Limit

Tie/v1

Autothrusters

31 Points

I think the list has potential but I will have to play a few games against UBoats, Imp Aces and Tie Swarms to know for certain.

The huge problem with bombers is 2 agility and no shields. So susceptible to crits. Many times when I use them, it's not unusual to see 3-5 crits spread out between them.

...

I will be honest and say I haven't really trues long range Scanners, but I still feel against high PS maneuverable ships, you still have a hard time trying to shoot off those missles. It's not hard for fel, jax, or whoever to stay out of arcs, or go from range 4-1 leaving you with only primaries.

Honestly what the bombers needs is a 1 white or green turn imo.

I'm also finding it hard to want to run bombers as ordnance carriers when I know uBoats excel at the job, and not as risky.

It is true that Bombers attract crits like magnets. That's one reason why I think Rebel Captive is a good one for a Tie Shuttle. I also think Moff Jerjerrod is worth it on someone like Tomax Bren...if you can find the points. It's basically a 2 point shield upgrade.

OK....you say you haven't flown Bombers, but you feel that it would be hard to use LRS. Well, I can tell you that I've flown Bombers and it's not that hard to get the Target Locks. For one, you don't fly in formation. This way, there it's not possible to stay within R1-2 of all your Tie Bombers. That....and it's a lot easier to arc dodge a formation than non-formation. The 5 K-turn does a lot to get distance from your opponent. It often takes 2 rounds to get back around to firing range. You go first, so you clear the stress and grab the TL while they are still out of R2.

If you don't fly in formation, it's also really hard for someone like Soontir or Carnor to get from R4 to R1 for all your ships. You only need 2 ships firing at Soontir Fel with Homing Missiles to kill him. It's not that hard to keep them in arc, either. You just do a 1 bank and a Barrel Roll and you are good. Even before LRS and Guidance Chip, every time I played a list vs. Soontir Fel, he died. I might not have won more than half those games, but Soontir died. If you get practice vs. Imperial Aces with 4 Tie Bombers, it's not as bad as one might think, especially with LRS. If your main target bugs out, then you blast the rest of his list. That's not bad, either.

I don't know if it's worth comparing Tie Bombers and U-boats too much. I also don't know about them being so far apart. If you go with the LRS route, you can get a TL and a Focus for your Homing Missile....which is actually better than U-boats on the dice. They get Deadeye, but you have two modifiers. U-boats suffer from only having 3 ships while Tie Bombers are 4. That's actually pretty important for a number of reasons. It's harder for any opponent to concentrate firepower. If you lose one ship, it's not as big a deal. You can fire one more missile than U-boats, which is huge. That's 4 Homing Missile shots vs. 3 Torpedoes.

If you face off vs. Uboats, you can destroy one U-boat before they fire and even damage another U-boat with your 4th Homing Missile. They destroy one Bomber. You then finish off the 2nd U-boat and damage the third. They damage one of your Tie Bombers and it's down to main weapons each.

You don't need LRS to be effective with Tie Bombers, either. You do better vs. U-boats, but then have a harder time with Imperial Aces. I could see someone mixing a 4 Tie Bomber squad with 2 LRS and 2 Guidance Chip ships, as well.

Bombers get so damnably expensive so fast, that you usually only 4 with toys. =(

Also their hull is just laughable. And they always get Blinded Pilot crit right when they have that perfect shot. Lol.

Sigh. They're a hard ship to use.

Also Uboats totally beat them for ordanance, and Kwings beat them for bombs.

The huge problem with bombers is 2 agility and no shields. So susceptible to crits. Many times when I use them, it's not unusual to see 3-5 crits spread out between them.

...

I will be honest and say I haven't really trues long range Scanners, but I still feel against high PS maneuverable ships, you still have a hard time trying to shoot off those missles. It's not hard for fel, jax, or whoever to stay out of arcs, or go from range 4-1 leaving you with only primaries.

Honestly what the bombers needs is a 1 white or green turn imo.

I'm also finding it hard to want to run bombers as ordnance carriers when I know uBoats excel at the job, and not as risky.

It is true that Bombers attract crits like magnets. That's one reason why I think Rebel Captive is a good one for a Tie Shuttle. I also think Moff Jerjerrod is worth it on someone like Tomax Bren...if you can find the points. It's basically a 2 point shield upgrade.

OK....you say you haven't flown Bombers, but you feel that it would be hard to use LRS. Well, I can tell you that I've flown Bombers and it's not that hard to get the Target Locks. For one, you don't fly in formation. This way, there it's not possible to stay within R1-2 of all your Tie Bombers. That....and it's a lot easier to arc dodge a formation than non-formation. The 5 K-turn does a lot to get distance from your opponent. It often takes 2 rounds to get back around to firing range. You go first, so you clear the stress and grab the TL while they are still out of R2.

If you don't fly in formation, it's also really hard for someone like Soontir or Carnor to get from R4 to R1 for all your ships. You only need 2 ships firing at Soontir Fel with Homing Missiles to kill him. It's not that hard to keep them in arc, either. You just do a 1 bank and a Barrel Roll and you are good. Even before LRS and Guidance Chip, every time I played a list vs. Soontir Fel, he died. I might not have won more than half those games, but Soontir died. If you get practice vs. Imperial Aces with 4 Tie Bombers, it's not as bad as one might think, especially with LRS. If your main target bugs out, then you blast the rest of his list. That's not bad, either.

I don't know if it's worth comparing Tie Bombers and U-boats too much. I also don't know about them being so far apart. If you go with the LRS route, you can get a TL and a Focus for your Homing Missile....which is actually better than U-boats on the dice. They get Deadeye, but you have two modifiers. U-boats suffer from only having 3 ships while Tie Bombers are 4. That's actually pretty important for a number of reasons. It's harder for any opponent to concentrate firepower. If you lose one ship, it's not as big a deal. You can fire one more missile than U-boats, which is huge. That's 4 Homing Missile shots vs. 3 Torpedoes.

If you face off vs. Uboats, you can destroy one U-boat before they fire and even damage another U-boat with your 4th Homing Missile. They destroy one Bomber. You then finish off the 2nd U-boat and damage the third. They damage one of your Tie Bombers and it's down to main weapons each.

You don't need LRS to be effective with Tie Bombers, either. You do better vs. U-boats, but then have a harder time with Imperial Aces. I could see someone mixing a 4 Tie Bomber squad with 2 LRS and 2 Guidance Chip ships, as well.

I've flown bombers a lot.

I've done well with various builds on bombers.

I do own 4 soon to be 5. I just never gave long range Scanners a try. There are certain aspects I don't like about it. But granted I agree try it before you knock it.

One thing is as soon as you target lock a ship, let's say fel, your opponent knows right away what your intentions are

2) now that he knows if he's smart and a good player he's going to do his damnest to keep fel away, and out of arc.

3) once he gets in close you can no longer switch target locks. So if he manages to keep fel away, but sends in Vader or jax, at range 2 you cannot reapply target lock to one of them (which is the aspect I really don't like about lrs)

When flying bombers I tend to use guidance chips over lrs. Lrs does help Scimitar because getting a tl with a Scimitar is pretty hard if your opponent is experienced. He'll go from range 4-1 in a heart beat and destroy one of your ships. It's what I do when facing them, and it's what I've seen when using them pre lrs. So lrs would help in that regard

The reason why I compare bombers to uBoats is because uBoats are very effective. Not only that but that large base barrel rolling block so much more space that the uBoats can be better blockers imo, they have 4 shields and the same amount of agility. 3 uBoats still have more hp vs 4 bombers, and they can modify very well with their action upgrades. They don't need long range Scanners as well. I think it still be hard to kill a uBoats with 4 bombers. It'll take 3 missles min to take one off the board and that's if he doesn't roll any evades. If his dice are good it may take 4 (but 3 should hopefully do it). Bombers only have 6 hull so it's a good chance he can take 1 off with two shots

I think as I said earlier run 1-2 bombers with something really ugly to take the attention away from them or use them as crew carriers will likely be the best usage for them.

I've flown bombers a lot.

I've done well with various builds on bombers.

I do own 4 soon to be 5. I just never gave long range Scanners a try. There are certain aspects I don't like about it. But granted I agree try it before you knock it.

One thing is as soon as you target lock a ship, let's say fel, your opponent knows right away what your intentions are

2) now that he knows if he's smart and a good player he's going to do his damnest to keep fel away, and out of arc.

3) once he gets in close you can no longer switch target locks. So if he manages to keep fel away, but sends in Vader or jax, at range 2 you cannot reapply target lock to one of them (which is the aspect I really don't like about lrs)

When flying bombers I tend to use guidance chips over lrs. Lrs does help Scimitar because getting a tl with a Scimitar is pretty hard if your opponent is experienced. He'll go from range 4-1 in a heart beat and destroy one of your ships. It's what I do when facing them, and it's what I've seen when using them pre lrs. So lrs would help in that regard

... I think it still be hard to kill a uBoats with 4 bombers. It'll take 3 missles min to take one off the board and that's if he doesn't roll any evades. If his dice are good it may take 4 (but 3 should hopefully do it). Bombers only have 6 hull so it's a good chance he can take 1 off with two shots

I will say that you don't need to put more than 2 TL's on Soontir Fel. It is not worth it to put all your TL on the same ship. So, it's not like your entire list is screwed if you go after Soontir. Also, if you wanted to, you can switch off Soontir at the last turn and switch over to someone other than Soontir on that turn when Soontir would close. So, you could spend a turn when all your TL are on other targets and Soontir might be peeling off. You won't have the Focus and TL, but you will be good to go against a different target. You move before they do can change your TL as they are still out of R2.

It should be pretty easy to get hits on U-boats and 3 Homing Missile shots should be enough to kill one U-boat. Go with the idea that the U-boat is either going to save it's Focus for offensive shot. Still, even if it does get to use it, it only does on one shot.

Homing Missile w/ Guidance Chip vs. 2 Agility (no Focus) = 2.9 hits (22% chance 2; 42% chance 3 hits; and 28% chance 4 hits)

Homing Missile w/ Guidance Chip vs. 2 Agility w/ Focus = 2.4 hits (39% chance 2; 37% chance 3 hits; and 10% chance 4 hits)

Homing Missile w/ LRS and Focus vs. 2 Agility (no Focus) = 3 hits (21% chance 2; 44% chance 3 hits; and 30% chance 4 hits)

Homing Missile w/ LRS and Focus vs. 2 Agility w/ Focus = 2.5 hits (40% chance 2; 39% chance 3 hits; and 10% chance 4 hits)

Most likely, you are able to kill one U-boat with just 3 Homing Missiles, either with GC or LRS.