for a missile platform what do you feel is better long range sensors or guidance chips

Depends on the Pilot Skill.

A lower pilot skill would like to get the Target Lock early then use there actions like focus up tight. Often as a lower pilot and moving first it is difficult to get the lock. So they would prefer Long Range Sensors.

I higher pilot skill would move later and would allow the target lock to work (be in range) so this Guidance Chips can benefit getting the lock during the action phase lock.

So it really depends on who moves first, i.e. pilot skill

define "better"

personally, I find LRS to be incredibly frustrating because range 2 is massive when you're flying a ship like the bomber which only has its firing arc to work with (as opposed to the K)

so I never fly more than one

and when I do, I make sure to pack bombs for those otherwise worthless turns of being an overpriced tie fighter. "Deathfire" with homing and conners works LRS quite well, and he sets up Vess like a boss too

There are several factors here. I feel that Ken is right to a point. But you cannot ignore Tracer Threads and their ability to give a whole squad TL for a very low cost.

I find that when running a single bomber or K-wing I am more likely to consider LRS. When I run a squad of bombers or K-wings I tend to go for a mixed bag approach, or find some other means to get my locks if I am mid to low PS.

Ships like Major Rhymer are almost a guarantee that i take LRS. The ability to lock and then have a focus on the turn you fire is a must when using Advance Proton Torpedoes. But I found that on Tomax Brin in my bomber, defender, Tie F/O list, LRS was more of a hindrance.

Best thing I can say to the OP is that it you will have to play them both a lot and determine what fits your play style the best. You may be one of those guy that just manages to always get the most out of LRS.

Ideally a mixture of both, with equaly as many or more Guidance Chips. The punch Gamma Vets have with a fully modified Crackshot Homing MIssile is awesome. You can't rely on it too well, though, so some Gamma Vets with Deadeye, Chips and Homing Missiles (sometimes if you are strained on points Concussion Missiles, but generally don't) are a good backbone to missile list.

*sees LRS post*

OO OO OO I HAS INPUT!

i run tie bombers with LRS quite a bit. Ive experimented with various combos of Deadeye + Gchips or LRS + favored EPT. Went 3-1 at a local tourny with the LRS.

LRS: Especially with homing missiles where you dont need to spend the TL to fire, allowing you to potentially not even need to burn it for a followup attack, it lets that alpha strike hit REALLY HARD. Problem is: 1) It telegraphs what you are doing, and sometimes people will willingly bolt with that ship to avoid getting shot at, effectively wasting your ordnance because 2) getting the TL outside of the initial turn is NOT easy, often theyre just barely in range2 so you cant get it again.

However, this can be offset with good planning. The comment i said about the opponent bolting from the fight? i faced that guy again, so i did a fast one: he planned for a hard turn to just play keepaway and i reacquired a TL on another ship, sacrificing my focus but i basically removed one of his ships from the initial joust as a reward: and it was very rewarding indeed

Gchips: Unless paired with Deadeye you fall under the aged-old problem of moving, not being in range, they move and now theyre in range. However it solidifies at least 1 hit no matter how bad your roll was, and very often is the reason you got a 4die hit. Requires no planning other than what ordnance takes to begin with and has no negative impact if you didnt get to use it for whatever reason.

The comment of running Deadeye + Gchips on my gamma vets was brought to my attention before the tourny being much more reliable and being almost as deadly. So i tried it out for a few days: and i hated it. Homers + Deadeye + Gchips kept giving me 2-3 hits and i had no crackshot to make it nastier, and i noticed very quickly that i had been banking on the reaction of my opponent when i LRS his main ship to get the real damage through, and not the ordnance itself. with Deadeye + Gchip, it literally turned into a joust and since i fired last it generally was bad for me, losing a bomber before i did anything.

I will admit, the sheer freedom Deadeye + Gchips gives you is undeniably powerful. But i think freeing up the EPT and just using some careful flying with LRS is far better from experience. The TL + Focus on Homers often lead to 3-4 hits, and if it was a lower agi ship i'd just keep the TL, pull a 5K, and fire the 2nd volley without a focus.

i will say this though: LRS is a tie bomber upgrade. It "can" be on a kwing, punisher, and titled firespray but these ships have issues with LRS that make it lousy.

Kwing: no kturns. SLAM a 2turn into a 2turn can give it a very wide "kturn" but if its being chased, that will never get you back in arc reliably and often never break range2 to get another TL.

Punisher: its a punisher...wtf are you using a pusher for to begin with? Ok in all seriousness it suffers mostly because it simply cant get away. its much slower than a bomber, and it shows.

Firespray: In theory, good idea, but usually EU is vastly more powerful than an initial joust with focus + tl

Personally, it depends on the weapon.

Concussions, with their innate mods, like having guidance chips. More hits to go round. Things like homing missile that don't spend their action just to fire, they want LRS. get the hard part out of the way early, focus up all the way in.

Personally, it depends on the weapon.

Concussions, with their innate mods, like having guidance chips. More hits to go round. Things like homing missile that don't spend their action just to fire, they want LRS. get the hard part out of the way early, focus up all the way in.

I've got a b-tier list that flies three K-wings with LRS, weapons engineer, homing missiles and EM. The idea being that most lists feature 2-3 ships these days, and you can target lock 2/3-100% of the enemy list on turn one with all your ships using LRS+Weapons engineer.

From that point forward, the homing missiles, as you point out, don't require you to spend the TL to fire them, mitigating the impact of the range restriction of LRS, and you also have a second TL on another enemy ship if you can't reacquire on the primary target after the first shot. Homing missiles also prevent the enemy from using evade tokens, which are often encountered these days on ace archetypes and x7 defenders.

The list has plenty of weaknesses; low PS is still a problem, lack of repositioning other than SLAM, and a limit of 2 missile shots per ship before you have to rely on the K-wing's paltry primary dice, etc.

There might be some useful information in this conversation .

Personal taste for flying imperials is this

Tie bomber with EPT = LRS + Deadeye (unless tomax then crackshot)

Tie bomber with no EPT = Chips

Chips for anything with 3+ primary (firespray or deci)

Chips for all punishers

LRS is pretty much an imperial only upgrade.

Indeed. Long Ranged Scanners are generally best for a ship which would otherwise struggle to get a lock (so bombers unable to equip deadeye), or bombers you don't intend to fire a second round of ordnance with.

Long Range Scanners, Homing Missiles, Crack Shot makes for a scary alpha strike - perfectly capable of punching out a TIE interceptor (or at least costing it its stealth device) despite its tokens.