So since Snapshot is an upgrade card with a firepower value it counts as a secondary weapon. As this has been discussed before Rhymer has some keen eyesight when it comes to secondary weapons. So I tried this Rhymer build.

• Major Rhymer
  • Snap shot
  • TIE Shuttle title
  • Tactician
  • Lightweight Frame

I flew him with a Zeta Specialist in boxers (only 0 point upgrades) and 3 naked Epsilon Squadron pilots. That list capped out to 100 points. I had considered moving lightweight frame to Zeta but when taking a look at snap shot that did give Rhymer more firepower so I decided to protect my Bomber over the SF. I flew against a mindlink scum list with Ventress, Rau, and Old Teroc. Rau and Teroc were built to standard, Ventress had Latz.

So at turn 2 I set up Epsilons behind rhymer the idea of leap frogging them, SF was off to the side. To my surprise I was able to snap-tac Old Teroc at turn 2. So that turn I was able to double stress Teroc while mindlink shared the stress. Rest of the story was I was able to knock out Teroc and got Fenn Rau down to 1 hit point, but started focusing on Ventress and let Fen take a bite out of SF and splash a couple of Epsilons while Ventress finished the SF, and time was called.

So against a high pilot skill mindlink lists snap tac rhymer middling pilot skill works to his favor. Still with some good positioning I was able to snap-tac a couple ships before Rhymer moved so rhymer was able to pass out a ton of stress, but did little to no damage. My TIE SF and the Epsilon with a focus did most of the work (also I don't like the TIE/FO reversal maneuver options). So while Snap-Tac Rhymer is great stress control but does not match the damage output of a Snap-Juke Green. Also the Rhymer cost is still a thing to consider. Some of you may have notice that there's an empty seat on Rhymer. That was intentional as I didn't want to make the classic bomber mistake of loading it up to become an easy target also I wanted to have a TIE SF and 3 other TIEs that last longer than Academy pilots. I did think about putting Issard for defense (with or without LWF) or maybe Mara Jade to make a complete Stress Rhymer build but my build already had Rhymer at 32 points and was my most expensive ship in the list. So while the Snap-Tac Rhymer has proven to be a solid starting point the major question is what list does he fit in and how can it be any good? It is going to start at a basic 30 points so you want to put some defense on it (LWF Issard) as it is a unique build and that baloons the cost of that one ship.

If you want to go all in on the stress front and discourage people from shooting Rhymer, Rebel Captive seems like a decent option. It puts Rhymer up to 33 points, but that gives you enough to include some decent other ships. I'd recommend the following.

TIE Bomber: · Major Rhymer (26)
Snap Shot (2)
TIE Shuttle (0)
Tactician (2)
· Rebel Captive (3)
TIE/sf Fighter: · "Quickdraw" (29)
Crack Shot (1)
Fire Control System (2)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Special Ops Training (0)
TIE/sf Fighter: · "Backdraft" (27)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Fire Control System (2)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Special Ops Training (0)
-- TOTAL ------- 99p. --

Rhymer's unlikely to be the priority target there, giving him more time to make the most of his upgrades.

Throw Operations specialist on him and he will be snapping and handing out stress and potential focus to friends for free.

Horrible, he is overcosted to begin with and the Bomber dial is - what it is.

You're better off using a Flechette Torp Scim or a Flechette cannon imho.

It's like stresshog, only a lot worse and more expensive.

For the same price could be better to remplace any Epsilon Pilot by a Black Squadron with crackshot and Zeta specialist by Zeta Leader with Wired/Weapons guidance or Adaptability/trickshot with comm relay ?

By the way, I will try your build for casual next day !

Like the creativity of you guys trying to use Rhymer, his ability is nice; he's just 3-4 points OC.

....casual fun though ?

I've played it since Snap Shot came out, and it's a fantastic build with the right escort. I've settled on the following here . The highlight was:

Major Rhymer (36)
Ysanne Isard
Snap Shot
Tactician
Lightweight Frame
TIE Shuttle

4 minutes ago, SOTL said:

It's like stresshog, only a lot worse and more expensive.

No, it really isn't. or one, Rhymer can do 5 damage in a turn (if super lucky) and doesn't stress himself. He has equivalent durability to the Y-wig without LWF (at 30 points), and has higher PS. He also works on aces before they barrel roll out of arc, making him better in every way.

45 minutes ago, Astech said:

No, it really isn't. or one, Rhymer can do 5 damage in a turn (if super lucky) and doesn't stress himself. He has equivalent durability to the Y-wig without LWF (at 30 points), and has higher PS. He also works on aces before they barrel roll out of arc, making him better in every way.

Well stresshog can do 4 damage without needing to be quite so lucky, Rhymer's durability is nowhere near equivalent, his ability to deal stress is VASTLY reduced, and his higher PS interacts badly with his Snap Shot effect. Making him worse in a huge number of ways.

1 minute ago, SOTL said:

Well stresshog can do 4 damage without needing to be quite so lucky, Rhymer's durability is nowhere near equivalent, his ability to deal stress is VASTLY reduced, and his higher PS interacts badly with his Snap Shot effect. Making him worse in a huge number of ways.

Rhymer's durability is basically the same though - 5/3/1 versus 6/2 is roughly equivalent, and he definitely has the edge if you give him LWF.

I like it with Vader too. Rhymer is silly overcosted, but shoot, if you are going to go all in, go all in. Tactician Snap Shot that ace, and then toss them a crit on top of it too while you're at it.

Sure, that's probably the only shot he gets off, but hey, you did something crazy with Major Rhymer! You win!

24 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Rhymer's durability is basically the same though - 5/3/1 versus 6/2 is roughly equivalent, and he definitely has the edge if you give him LWF.

It's close but the Y-Wig is better. LWF probably gives Rhymer a slight edge.

I like rhymer, but then I'm a Horton fan too. At least the major has an EPT!

1 minute ago, SOTL said:

It's close but the Y-Wig is better. LWF probably gives Rhymer a slight edge.

Either way he's way, way too expensive.

More importantly you're bringing somebody in to deal stress who's not very good at dealing stress.

The big advantage of snaptac Rhymer over other stress inducing builds is that he triggers before a ship gets to perform any actions so he's useful even against ships with lots of green on their dials who could normally shed that stress easily without missing a rounds actions.

Rhymer is still rather pricey though and you'll likely need to run a real heavy hitter alongside him both to draw fire and make up for his lackluster damage.

Rhymer hard counters ptl aces. Too bad Mindlink Aces have supplanted Ptl aces.

19 minutes ago, Rakaydos said:

Rhymer hard counters ptl aces. Too bad Mindlink Aces have supplanted Ptl aces.

Does okay against Mindlink Aces too because his pilot skill 7 is lower than most Aces. Still it is a high pilot skill, and as some people said there are ships that could do it better, just in different factions.

5 hours ago, Keffisch said:

Horrible, he is overcosted to begin with and the Bomber dial is - what it is.

You're better off using a Flechette Torp Scim or a Flechette cannon imho.

Not really, I tried that before the TIE Shuttle came out and against high pilot skill arc dodgers it is always the same. They get out of arc before I can shoot the torpedo. Flechette cannon maybe but Imperials don' have cheap cannon ships like B-wing or Scyk to take it. Rhymer did give out way more than 3 stress not counting mindlink so snap-tac already out performed flechett torps.

5 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Does okay against Mindlink Aces too because his pilot skill 7 is lower than most Aces. Still it is a high pilot skill, and as some people said there are ships that could do it better, just in different factions.

The issue with him and mind link aces is that most builds use a lower ps ace to set the initial buff however snap shot can be used before you move and it is harder then you'd think to stay out of range 2 of a ship even if you know where it is. That's a big danger band and the play area is only so large so it's basically going to be unavoidable for lower PS ships to have to move into r2 at some point particularly if they are jousters.

I played a snaptac Rhymer with LED and Rebel captive. Flew with a Kylo Ren shuttle (for even more stress) and a lone wolf Duchess. The striker was the first target and died quickly, but left both "shuttles" to wreck the rest of the squad. All his ships had multiple stress. I was dealing out 4 a round and he could only clear 3. Game was over after Rhymer got behind everyone.

10 minutes ago, killerbeardhawk said:

I played a snaptac Rhymer with LED and Rebel captive. Flew with a Kylo Ren shuttle (for even more stress) and a lone wolf Duchess. The striker was the first target and died quickly, but left both "shuttles" to wreck the rest of the squad. All his ships had multiple stress. I was dealing out 4 a round and he could only clear 3. Game was over after Rhymer got behind everyone.

by LED I'm assuming that was how autocorrect spelled LWF.

It works really well... the first time someone plays against it. It's got great shock value and is fun but as soon as your opponent has seen it once it's too easy to avoid the range 2 band. I've played it with QD and Vessary several times and it's good fun but it's nowhere near competitive

31 minutes ago, Rorer said:

It works really well... the first time someone plays against it. It's got great shock value and is fun but as soon as your opponent has seen it once it's too easy to avoid the range 2 band. I've played it with QD and Vessary several times and it's good fun but it's nowhere near competitive

That could be said about any builds, but one thing for sure in the current meta, you are best with some sort of control in your build (stress control is a good one with all the mindlinks out there) for your build to be of use.