Loving the ideas so far, some of them I hadn't thought of

On Cluster Bombs: There is an entire thread where people (including me) take turns explaining why they are crap for tournament or standard play. A quick summary is

- It's 1 shot, on 1 squad for FIVE POINTS so the opportunity cost vs return is garbage

- It's 5 wasted points vs all-ship lists, if you are taking 2 of them it is definitively better to add a tie fighter or find a point and add an A wing instead

- It can't nuke an ace completely most of the time and its childs play to take the shot and GTFO

Since there is no carry over in tournament games people would gladly take your potentially crappy cluster bomb shot and not care, in Campaign where your ace squadrons will be hunted and where someone might take a dominant ship arc shot at squadrons instead of a ship on the chance they might take out an ace rather than just suffer through them living Cluster Bombs become a legitimate thing to put on a ship.

Redemption will likely see a bit more play.

How do you reckon it stacks up in the era of Repair crews? I've been really happy with Redemption in a Rieekan Aces list in the past but had to drop it for a damage dealer as I just couldn't swing anything more than a narrow victory.

Redemption's value goes up with the frequency of Repair commands. If the campaign increases the value of repairing ships, then I think Redemption will be fairly valuable.

Makes sense that it would be particularly at home in a defensive fleet, sniping from the back whilst boosting the other ships holding the line.

All I'm saying is, with Cluster Bombs, every game I've played as Rebel fighters, which I've been doing since digging full bore into the game six months ago, my key bombers always end with 2 or 3 health left when they kill the targets. That's just out of the stay ship AS fire, the random squad that snuck by Jan, or some off counter attack. If they had bombs, my squad would be dead, and they might be alive. Thank the Force is only a one shot. Five points to stop a B-wing firing another three times with Toryn and bomber command for 9 damage and three potential critical. Or to rob Luke of three shield busters with Dodona. Even if all it does is deter that potential scenario, I'd take it. Tournament or casual, that is all good to me. It's not like I won't possibly waste a couple of points somewhere on a given game anyway.

Loving the ideas so far, some of them I hadn't thought of

On Cluster Bombs: There is an entire thread where people (including me) take turns explaining why they are crap for tournament or standard play. A quick summary is

- It's 1 shot, on 1 squad for FIVE POINTS so the opportunity cost vs return is garbage

- It's 5 wasted points vs all-ship lists, if you are taking 2 of them it is definitively better to add a tie fighter or find a point and add an A wing instead

- It can't nuke an ace completely most of the time and its childs play to take the shot and GTFO

Since there is no carry over in tournament games people would gladly take your potentially crappy cluster bomb shot and not care, in Campaign where your ace squadrons will be hunted and where someone might take a dominant ship arc shot at squadrons instead of a ship on the chance they might take out an ace rather than just suffer through them living Cluster Bombs become a legitimate thing to put on a ship.

While I 100% understand and agree with this, I do have a few counter points on Cluster Bombs:

I played an all ship Mothma Swarm the other week with 3 TRC90s, 2 MC30s, and a flotilla. All three of the CR90s had clusters on them. I was facing a Rhymer ball coupled with an ISD, VSD, and Flotilla. 2nd round, since I have no squadrons, Rhymer shoots at one of the CR90s, I cluster bomb and dish out 4 damage, and then activate the CR and anti squad Rhymer for the kill, making his other 3 bombers mostly useless for the rest of the game. I had a wonderful time and killed a few other squads with CB, so my 15 points ended up netting me like....40-ish points.

It's not often you're going to see all-ship lists anymore I don't think. I could be completely wrong but it doesn't seem likely anymore. They could potentially be useful for killing those pesky high hull targets or something.

But yes. They're overcosted. And 1 use. And I would never run them in a tournament. Like you said haha.

Bleh. Raiders are bad and should feel bad.

I've yet to see a raider on the board that wasn't 1-turn destroyed by a pile of bombers before it ever got a shot off.

This is, of course, just my experience. I am admittedly a bad player.

I love them. Either a player ignores them because "they're just Raiders", or they chase them down with something and take the heat off something nastier. Either way, they end up punching more than their points. I love running a pair of them with Assault Concussion Missiles in a Screed list. I pulled an ISD from full health to zero shields and seven hull damage in two turns of firing, for just a single shield lost on my side. Admittedly, Targeting Scrambler from a nearby Interdictor did turn a fair amount of damage into almost zilch, but that was kind of the point of that list anyway.

Loving the ideas so far, some of them I hadn't thought of

On Cluster Bombs: There is an entire thread where people (including me) take turns explaining why they are crap for tournament or standard play. A quick summary is

- It's 1 shot, on 1 squad for FIVE POINTS so the opportunity cost vs return is garbage

- It's 5 wasted points vs all-ship lists, if you are taking 2 of them it is definitively better to add a tie fighter or find a point and add an A wing instead

- It can't nuke an ace completely most of the time and its childs play to take the shot and GTFO

Since there is no carry over in tournament games people would gladly take your potentially crappy cluster bomb shot and not care, in Campaign where your ace squadrons will be hunted and where someone might take a dominant ship arc shot at squadrons instead of a ship on the chance they might take out an ace rather than just suffer through them living Cluster Bombs become a legitimate thing to put on a ship.

While I 100% understand and agree with this, I do have a few counter points on Cluster Bombs:

I played an all ship Mothma Swarm the other week with 3 TRC90s, 2 MC30s, and a flotilla. All three of the CR90s had clusters on them. I was facing a Rhymer ball coupled with an ISD, VSD, and Flotilla. 2nd round, since I have no squadrons, Rhymer shoots at one of the CR90s, I cluster bomb and dish out 4 damage, and then activate the CR and anti squad Rhymer for the kill, making his other 3 bombers mostly useless for the rest of the game. I had a wonderful time and killed a few other squads with CB, so my 15 points ended up netting me like....40-ish points.

It's not often you're going to see all-ship lists anymore I don't think. I could be completely wrong but it doesn't seem likely anymore. They could potentially be useful for killing those pesky high hull targets or something.

But yes. They're overcosted. And 1 use. And I would never run them in a tournament. Like you said haha.

Sure you can come up with "that one time" arguments all day long. All I keep thinking is that you are heaving 15 points of upgrades around and even IF you get to shoot them off, the cost is stupid. I mean, at that cost you are nearly at a flotilla that even if you sacrificed as a flack bomb it STILL would have gotten you more value (extra activation, something else for opponent to shoot at/get obstructed by)

Opportunity cost has to be part of the cost calculation not just basic points.