LRS lets you get a solid alpha strike.

Gchips only help 1 bad roll, TL + Focus is extremely unlikely to do less than 3 damage. LRS + Homers let you do that. Also evade denial to middle finder x7 defenders and OL.

focus + g-chips is 75% or so of 3+ hits, minus all the annoying TL restrictions

as nice as LRS can be, it really is a "one-of" upgrade. Too many ships running with it will frustrate you to no end as range 1-2 becomes the longest **** thing in the game

eh ive learned to get around it. For the most part i dont really have an issue, it just makes me rebound a lot wider than i'd normally do.

A-10 mentality. Fly over the target, hit it hard, leave, turn around, do it again. Passes take quite awhile but **** do they hit hard. Bombs of any nature prevent them from just Kturning right after you initially so you got a full turn to get away before you Kturn yourself. The few people i faced that thought they could kturn and get away from my proton bombs were sorrily mistaken (any idea how satisfying it is to basically take out Dengar with a single proton bomb because of ludicrously bad luck? lol.... he drew a Major Explosion, rolled a hit, drew another major Explosion, rolled a hit, drew a Direct Hit...took 4 damage from 1 bomb LOL)

The main thing about LRS is you gotta play slow. Disengaging is how they work, you dont try to swivel for another shot you immediately vacate the area and come back later. It takes almost as long as a crackswarm because youre spending several turns just positioning.

However i am going to try it with Deadeye + Chips today and compare. I will say the obvious though: Deadeye + Chips will dodge the issue my last game had - the fink i was targeting deliberately dove into a rock to dodge me, and because of the position i couldnt get another shot without range1 following turn, and the guy i had arc and range2 on had no TL on him

Captain Jonus (Adaptability, TIE Shuttle, Fleet Officer)

Gamma Squadron Veteran (Deadeye, Plasma Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, Guidance Chips)

Gamma Squadron Veteran (Deadeye, Plasma Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, Guidance Chips)

Gamma Squadron Veteran (Deadeye, Plasma Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, Guidance Chips)

(100pts)

Jonus gives super-accurate Deadeye shots and then also Focuses your boys up after they K-Turn for a second shot.

I don't really rate Jonus. He requires you to fly in formation, which makes you really easy to flank. That's a high weakness of the list. Also, you give up a Bomber with a chance of hitting someone hard with ordnance. I've found that having the 4 Tie Bombers hitting with ordnance is more powerful than the restrictions of being around Jonus for the re-rolls. Not many people will really want to joust you straight up with that list, so you will have a hard time staying in R1 of Jonus and getting shots off at people.

Also, with Plasma Torpedoes, you really lose out on the native adjustments for other options. Yes, you can re-roll 2 dice, but you probably could just take a Scimitar Pilot and give everyone Homing Missiles for cheaper. That lets you actually adjust all your dice.

My last TIE Bomber just came in the mail finally, reading this topic. Awesome timing.

Homing missiles are also exceptionally relevant v all these aces and x7

hell the scum cancer can exploit its evade pretty well too so it's good to have a counter there

Homing missiles are also exceptionally relevant v all these aces and x7

hell the scum cancer can exploit its evade pretty well too so it's good to have a counter there

Fear not, the Empire provides a treatment of warheads and explosive payloads for such diseases.

I don't really rate Jonus. He requires you to fly in formation, which makes you really easy to flank. That's a high weakness of the list. Also, you give up a Bomber with a chance of hitting someone hard with ordnance. I've found that having the 4 Tie Bombers hitting with ordnance is more powerful than the restrictions of being around Jonus for the re-rolls. Not many people will really want to joust you straight up with that list, so you will have a hard time staying in R1 of Jonus and getting shots off at people.

Also, with Plasma Torpedoes, you really lose out on the native adjustments for other options. Yes, you can re-roll 2 dice, but you probably could just take a Scimitar Pilot and give everyone Homing Missiles for cheaper. That lets you actually adjust all your dice.

Assuming you can actually FIRE your dice to begin with, which is dubious if you're not running Deadeye.

I wouldn't consider any bomber loadout that didn't include Deadeye, and Long Range Scanners is NOT a replacement.

Homing missiles are also exceptionally relevant v all these aces and x7

hell the scum cancer can exploit its evade pretty well too so it's good to have a counter there

Fear not, the Empire provides a treatment of warheads and explosive payloads for such diseases.

goddamn autocorrect

I love the CASTER too, not like I want to discourage it as if it were a filthy fat pwt or something

incidentally, new Hotr yt-1300? homing missile that crap!

I don't really rate Jonus. He requires you to fly in formation, which makes you really easy to flank. That's a high weakness of the list. Also, you give up a Bomber with a chance of hitting someone hard with ordnance. I've found that having the 4 Tie Bombers hitting with ordnance is more powerful than the restrictions of being around Jonus for the re-rolls. Not many people will really want to joust you straight up with that list, so you will have a hard time staying in R1 of Jonus and getting shots off at people.

Also, with Plasma Torpedoes, you really lose out on the native adjustments for other options. Yes, you can re-roll 2 dice, but you probably could just take a Scimitar Pilot and give everyone Homing Missiles for cheaper. That lets you actually adjust all your dice.

Assuming you can actually FIRE your dice to begin with, which is dubious if you're not running Deadeye.

I wouldn't consider any bomber loadout that didn't include Deadeye, and Long Range Scanners is NOT a replacement.

Well....I've been flying Tie Bombers since before Extra Munitions came out and I've developed strategies to get the TL. It's not as crippling as some people think. It is possible to fly Tie Bombers without Deadeye. I've done it and won...many times.

Also, I wouldn't want my whole list to have LRS, but I don't think it's a bad option to take. It seems you do, though.

So on Friday i tried out gchips + deadeye on my duo bombers. Nope, i prefer crack + LRS.

Lack of a reroll can really bite. Out of 3 games, i had 2 shots (got off most of my homers each game) that DIDNT roll solid blanks and 1 hit or crit. Having no reroll, i gchips a blank to a hit for 2 hits. And having no crackshot, they just get evaded. That was outright terrible.

LRS + Crack is a bit harder to pull off because it telegraphs what im doing but if i can even poke at range3 i WILL murder my target. The reroll + focus is far more guaranteed than a singular mod.

Saturday we had our summer tourney (the one with the predator alt-art card). Bout 20 of us showed up. I swapped back to my LRS + Crack build and i went 3-1... all 3 wins were solid wins and my 1 loss was bad luck upon a pile of bad luck (i literally drew 5 doubledamage in a row...). I even faced a Dengaroo...and annihilated him. Got him just in range3, he opted to not pop counters because he thought it wasnt in range (thank you lack of premeasure) and it was so close that if either ship was a hair away the template wouldnt have rested on both bases. For both bombers. he has virtually no defense since 2agility against a very reliable 4hit attack with cracks. Almost took him out right there, protonbombs and my normal guns finished the job later. Ryad just devoured Manaroo on her own.

Had he popped counters, i would have used the angle i approached to leave. Dengar in that build is highly predictable, he might have had a range3 shot through a rock but thats the worst he could have done.

to heychadwick and Vineheart01...

Can you share any tips you might have about how to handle your deployment and maneuvering to make LRS more viable? Currently I'm running two TIE Bombers and typically deploy them close together roughly around the center of the board and move them up slowly. My Academy Pilot generally tries to move up and block, and Carnor Jax typically goes up a flank. The first shot typically goes fine, but then I have a lot of trouble turning around and acquiring a lock for my second shot.

Game night is tomorrow evening, so I was going to try splitting up my TIE Bombers hoping that enemy ships would have a harder time being close to both of them and I'd be able to relock more easily, see how that goes. Does this seem reasonable?

If I had four Bombers I also thought of running them in two waves, with the first pair moving up more briskly and the second pair following slower behind them.

Its kinda hard to give any tips since its severely dependent on the scenario.

The one time i ran this list where my bombers got countered hard, for instance, was against a double defender list. The reason he got me was because i deployed first and he deployed directly across the table from me and 2 5speeds put him JUST in range1 after my 2 1speeds. Remedied that issue by deploying hugging the map edge.

You need to move very, very slow and deploy hugging the wall. Speed1fwd right off the bat for LRS, see what your opponent is doing. If hes going full speed, you need to go slow again. 9/10 of the time i do a 1fwd again or a bank, the other 1/10 i actually speed up because my intended target isnt quick (ywings).

Some people insist in targeting 2 people but i prefer to hit 1 guy and guarantee hes out of the picture. Especially if its OL because he hard counters my Ryad build if allowed to. Generally a single 4die hit isnt enough to kill something, everything is either beefy enough to withstand 1 solid hit or evasive enough to make it a not so solid hit. It might be just me, but ive noticed Bombers are surprisingly nimble, ive actually done quite a bit of damage with them by behaving like a TIE Fighter without an evade action after that initial strike. If i think i can get a shot with a broll and dodge most of my opponent's arcs, i'll take it over getting away for another TL (if i even used it since Homers dont auto-spend it). That throws people off, and it also tends to set up for a nice bomb plant next round.

When you DO disengage to reacquire a TL though, do it very very widely. Dont do a 5k, you can easily end up at range2 after doing a green1fwd next round, do a 3bank and just keep going. It takes 2-3 turns to turn around but it sets up another "alpha strike" perfectly, just this time you might be damaged enough to not get a shot (usually i do get it off though). 5Ks are for if you didnt spend the TL or you are out of homers and dont care anymore.

Also, if you can get a 3die hit without spending the TL on the first pass, dont spend the TL. Dont get greedy, keep that TL for round2. Ive noticed my luck is rather laughable when i try to reroll that singular die to get a 4hit.

Ive never ran the 4bomber stuff, though i only have 3 bombers so that might be an issue lol.Personally i dont really see a need for more than 2 because 2 will almost always vaporize something (Dengaroo takes a LOT of planning, i may have made that sound easy but believe me that was NOT easy i had to call the shots perfectly to win that) and my Ryad build i squeezed in there can annihilate most lists once i vaporize the troublemaker for her (OL, TLTs, Autoblasters, Ten Numb, Zuckus crew) so i dont see a point for more bombers. Plus, the four bomber list has no actual bombs, and DO NOT underestimate the proton bomb hehehehe i took out two Z-95s with a single proton bomb in one of those games....that was so glorious..one drew double damage one drew the roll for another crit and he rolled the hit

In fact, even in the game i lost, the proton bomb did something horrendous to my opponent. Almost took out Vessery with 1 bomb, but the extra crit wasnt a double damage (the literal next card he drew was double damage lol)

edit: oh, and i tend to formation fly them. Sometimes i split them up by doing a barrelroll but i usually just keep them lined up. I gun for range3 shots, which are stupid hard to avoid once you breach that distance to begin with. Generally if i get the range on 1 guy they both have it.

And for the record, i ran this list probably about 25 times before that tourny. I won a lot of my practice games, and with the exception of that one duo-defender all my losses were my own stupidity.

I think with LRS, it's important to not fly in formation. I think it's a lot easier for your opponent to keep within R2 of you if you are close together. I think it's good to put your TL from both of them on the same target going in, but then you can put them on different targets after that. If you spread out, you can have a better chance of at least one of them trying to get a TL after the first pass. There is usually SOMEONE out of R2 for you to grab on to. After the first pass, it sometimes doesn't matter as much who you nail. OK...there are some better targets, but there are few bad targets, I should say.

It's harder to arc dodge or evade the firing arc of two Tie Bombers that are not near each other. I find they create cross fire areas that are a lot harder to avoid. It can really mess with someone when you do that as they get nervous about the firing arcs.

I do like the 5 K-turn to get out of the fight and grabbing a TL, but I agree that sometimes it isn't the best option. If it looks OK, I do it, though. I love the move. I do think it's much better to maneuver for a turn to get into a better position than it is to go right in. So, sometimes I'll have some other ships mess around for a little bit while it waits for the Bombers to turn around. That alone can mess with people as they expect you to get into prime spot for that turn ASAP.

I usually like to deploy in the middle of the board with the Bombers. I will have them approach at various speeds, depending on who is where. If they can hit the same target, I'll go for that. It's great to just delete one ship in a round, even if it's not their best ship. Just taking out a decent portion of their list is great. Sometimes it's best to nail the fat support ship. I burned down a YV-666 in 2 rounds lately that surprised my opponent. His list had that as a key ship to last a while and let his Misthunters destroy everything else, but taking it out really messed with him.

It might be just me, but ive noticed Bombers are surprisingly nimble,

Oh, no. I absolutely agree! People say it's got a terrible dial or that it has a hard time trying to keep someone like Soontir Fel in arc. I just laugh at that. A 1 bank and a BR will do wonders. I really like the dial on the Tie Bomber and never understood why people think it has a bad dial. The only real downside is the 2 hard turn being red, but even that isn't really bad.

Bomber basically has what i consider an ideal dial.

Its not littered in greens. Its not full of k's or sloops. What does it have? Complete access, even if some of them are red. Yeah no 5fwd but its a BOMBER i dont want a 5fwd lol

Ive done a 1hard a few times, completely catching my opponent off guard because *gasp* i stressed myself out and forgo my action?! wtf would i do that for?! simple...i got a range1 shot now because you didnt think i was going to do that. Unmodded yes, but range1 shot nontheless and you cant fire back because im on your side

Its unfavorable because you want the focus + tl, but LRS lets you do those red moves and fire as well. Ive had people try to swing wide and fast to out-swing my bombers, i just ditched the focus and did a 1hard to fire with only a TL and obliterated them.

Dont be afraid to use slow red moves. Using Keyan alot, who actually wants to do that, i learned that often those red moves are the move you NEED to do but they cost your action. With LRS, i can do them and get a shot, without LRS i cant. Atleast not easily.

Bomber basically has what i consider an ideal dial.

Its not littered in greens. Its not full of k's or sloops. What does it have? Complete access, even if some of them are red. Yeah no 5fwd but its a BOMBER i dont want a 5fwd lol

Ive done a 1hard a few times, completely catching my opponent off guard because *gasp* i stressed myself out and forgo my action?! wtf would i do that for?! simple...i got a range1 shot now because you didnt think i was going to do that. Unmodded yes, but range1 shot nontheless and you cant fire back because im on your side

Its unfavorable because you want the focus + tl, but LRS lets you do those red moves and fire as well. Ive had people try to swing wide and fast to out-swing my bombers, i just ditched the focus and did a 1hard to fire with only a TL and obliterated them.

Dont be afraid to use slow red moves. Using Keyan alot, who actually wants to do that, i learned that often those red moves are the move you NEED to do but they cost your action. With LRS, i can do them and get a shot, without LRS i cant. Atleast not easily.

Bomber doesn't have a one hard turn, but maybe I'm misunderstanding you

Ive done a 1hard a few times, completely catching my opponent off guard...

Bomber doesn't have a one hard turn, but maybe I'm misunderstanding you

A Bomber doing a 1-hard (even red) certainly would catch people off-guard in that case.

Its kinda hard to give any tips since its severely dependent on the scenario.

The one time i ran this list where my bombers got countered hard, for instance, was against a double defender list. The reason he got me was because i deployed first and he deployed directly across the table from me and 2 5speeds put him JUST in range1 after my 2 1speeds. Remedied that issue by deploying hugging the map edge.

You need to move very, very slow and deploy hugging the wall. Speed1fwd right off the bat for LRS, see what your opponent is doing. If hes going full speed, you need to go slow again. 9/10 of the time i do a 1fwd again or a bank, the other 1/10 i actually speed up because my intended target isnt quick (ywings).

Some people insist in targeting 2 people but i prefer to hit 1 guy and guarantee hes out of the picture. Especially if its OL because he hard counters my Ryad build if allowed to. Generally a single 4die hit isnt enough to kill something, everything is either beefy enough to withstand 1 solid hit or evasive enough to make it a not so solid hit. It might be just me, but ive noticed Bombers are surprisingly nimble, ive actually done quite a bit of damage with them by behaving like a TIE Fighter without an evade action after that initial strike. If i think i can get a shot with a broll and dodge most of my opponent's arcs, i'll take it over getting away for another TL (if i even used it since Homers dont auto-spend it). That throws people off, and it also tends to set up for a nice bomb plant next round.

When you DO disengage to reacquire a TL though, do it very very widely. Dont do a 5k, you can easily end up at range2 after doing a green1fwd next round, do a 3bank and just keep going. It takes 2-3 turns to turn around but it sets up another "alpha strike" perfectly, just this time you might be damaged enough to not get a shot (usually i do get it off though). 5Ks are for if you didnt spend the TL or you are out of homers and dont care anymore.

Also, if you can get a 3die hit without spending the TL on the first pass, dont spend the TL. Dont get greedy, keep that TL for round2. Ive noticed my luck is rather laughable when i try to reroll that singular die to get a 4hit.

Ive never ran the 4bomber stuff, though i only have 3 bombers so that might be an issue lol.Personally i dont really see a need for more than 2 because 2 will almost always vaporize something (Dengaroo takes a LOT of planning, i may have made that sound easy but believe me that was NOT easy i had to call the shots perfectly to win that) and my Ryad build i squeezed in there can annihilate most lists once i vaporize the troublemaker for her (OL, TLTs, Autoblasters, Ten Numb, Zuckus crew) so i dont see a point for more bombers. Plus, the four bomber list has no actual bombs, and DO NOT underestimate the proton bomb hehehehe i took out two Z-95s with a single proton bomb in one of those games....that was so glorious..one drew double damage one drew the roll for another crit and he rolled the hit

In fact, even in the game i lost, the proton bomb did something horrendous to my opponent. Almost took out Vessery with 1 bomb, but the extra crit wasnt a double damage (the literal next card he drew was double damage lol)

edit: oh, and i tend to formation fly them. Sometimes i split them up by doing a barrelroll but i usually just keep them lined up. I gun for range3 shots, which are stupid hard to avoid once you breach that distance to begin with. Generally if i get the range on 1 guy they both have it.

And for the record, i ran this list probably about 25 times before that tourny. I won a lot of my practice games, and with the exception of that one duo-defender all my losses were my own stupidity.

What is your list?

hmm i thought i posted it in this thread guess i didnt lol

Countess' Bombing Runs

Gamma Vet 32

Crackshot (1)

Extra Muns (2)

Homing Missile (5)

Proton Bombs (5)

Long Range Scanner (0)

Gamma Vet 30

Crackshot (1)

Extra Muns (2)

Homing Missile (5)

Thermal Detonators (3)

Long Range Scanner (0)

Countess Ryad 37

Lone Wolf (2)

Stealth Device (3)

TIE/x7 (-2)

Total: 99

Ryad is a late gamer, i actually try to keep her out of the fight unless i can approach very widely and away from the bombers. Usually by the time the bombers are dead or really hurting theyve taken out a lot of gak, which she easily solos.

I would prefer double proton bombs, since somehow hes the one that alwyas dies first (even though nobody specifically gunned for him) lol. I was seriously tempted to cut a crackshot for it, but decided against it.

Given your low PS you may be better served by Long Range Scanners.

Pretty much yeah.

LRS may telegraph what im doing but you have to REALLY work at it to dodge a range3 arc. That duo defender list that sneaked into range 1 is the only time ive ever had someone dodge the attack (as in never went off not evaded the hit). Technically deadeye is literally impossible to dodge because i'll just change targets, but like i said before i prefer crackshot and LRS. Focus + TL the instnat they reach range3 just has far more security, alot of the time i ran deadeye i would wiff my initial roll and since i had no TL i couldnt attempt to fix it.

Oh, also great against OL. He tends to prevent one of them from modding but he simply cannot survive two, even if one is unmodded. Saw him in 3 of my 4 games on saturday tourny, immediately vaporized him because i do NOT want him to be facing Ryad 1on1 lol