Can the Empire get a Bombing Modification, instead of crew?

Make it a modification not crew something like this would be nice.

High Explosive Bombs

Empire Only

Modification:

0 pt

Must have a Bomb or Mine equipped.

Once per round, when an enemy ship rolls attack dice due to a friendly bomb detonating, you may choose any number of Focus results. It must reroll those results.

Any Hit results may be turned to Crit Results.

How does that sound? This way Bombers and Empire ships carrying bombs, don't need a crew to be effective

I can't comment on your particular offering, but yes, I think a modification is the way to deal with the Empire's lack of bombing boost. I was thinking about that shortly after Cad Bane was revealed. I think it would be an interesting twist to the mechanic.

I'm thinking it might be a torp personally. Fits on every Empire bomb-carrier including the Firespray (with Slave-1) and most of those never use all their torp slots. A mod would be really jamming up an already full slot, between LWF, Guidance Chips and LRS.

i'd rather a different effect in addition to the bomb upgrade.

Perhaps merging a bit of Bombardier in there. "When you are placing a bomb, you may use the 2straight or 1bank instead of the 1straight"

Make it easier to land them rather than do more damage. Im not pleased seeing cad bane is basically the same dang thing Sabine is only its roll-based rather than flatout +1 damage (which is infinitely inferior)

edit: or better yet, give us the "bomb fling" from the Imp Vet box scenario. Yeah, our bombs dont do extra damage or make you reroll failed bomb hits, but i throw mine RIGHT IN YO FACE!

I agree that a modification would be the right way to go, but am not a fan of your specific suggestion. Zero points is way too cheap for that added value, and the once-per-round limitation means little given that it's non-unique.

Alternately, what about a crew member that, once per round, will allow you to prevent an enemy ship from performing a boost, barrel roll or SLAM action if they're within range 1 of a bomb token?

I'm thinking it might even be a modification card that adds a bombing ability to assist Imps (how you can drop them, or when you can potentially drop them, how to control the damage output a little akin to Sabine/Bane) as well I think the Imps need a boost due to their less than Scrugg: Shield/Hull/maneuverability/lack of turret/less than 3 dice primary; and add another mod and system slot or some kind of defensive push so that the poor underused and over-costed things could get their ordinance out so the assist can actually assist. Good ideas I'm sure will come through this forum, they always do...

Torp takes up the Extra Munitions slot on VT-49 or Firespray, meaning less bombs. Do not want.

Mod takes up the LWF slot on the Bomber and Punisher, making them fragile again. Imperial only Mod could work if it allowed another modification.

Make it take a bomb slot... but also GRANT a bomb slot... and yes, Imperial only.

Bomb Wing!

Title. First non-ship specific title. Empire only. Multi-ship.

Title- bombing mission: you must have either the torp or bomb icon. Add one bomb slot to your upgrade bar. Once per round, when another friendly ship drops a bomb token you may also drop a bomb as a free action. You may drop more than one bomb in a round but only once per opportunity.

would make deathrain and death fire actually deaths and higher PS bombers worth a bit more

Here is a thread about my imperial dream upgrade. It also has a breakdown about how ships will benefit, as I see it, of course.

Rapid Bomb tubes (Torpedo slot, Empire only) 2 points

When you would use a 1straight to deploy a bomb, instead deploy with 1 bank left and deploy a copy of that bomb with 1 bank right.

Slightly strongert than sabine or cad, but you have to buy it for EACH bomb layer you field.

I like that idea @Rakaydos but i feel that might get out of hand with the expensive bombs lol

Double connernets (in a V pattern)
V-placement Clusters
"Clustered" proxy mines
or hell even with the new Bomblet generator that could be ridiculous.

Such an upgrade should probably be an expensive one, like a 4pointer or something. The area coverage alone would make it worth it, nevermind the extra damage.

though now i kinda want it to appear so i can double-proton bomb 2hull ships LOL

2 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

I like that idea @Rakaydos but i feel that might get out of hand with the expensive bombs lol

Double connernets (in a V pattern)
V-placement Clusters
"Clustered" proxy mines
or hell even with the new Bomblet generator that could be ridiculous.

Such an upgrade should probably be an expensive one, like a 4pointer or something. The area coverage alone would make it worth it, nevermind the extra damage.

though now i kinda want it to appear so i can double-proton bomb 2hull ships LOL

Putting expensive bombs on imperial ships is it's own drawback.

Also, even with double proton bomb, not every ship will be in range 1 of both tokens. Definately an area boost, though.

I really like the idea of doing this with the modification slot. I started a new topic so it doesn't bog down yours, but how about this?

10 hours ago, Vineheart01 said:

or better yet, give us the "bomb fling" from the Imp Vet box scenario. Yeah, our bombs dont do extra damage or make you reroll failed bomb hits, but i throw mine RIGHT IN YO FACE!

yes please!

Or make those ImpVets bombs imperial only upgrades.

16 hours ago, kris40k said:

Torp takes up the Extra Munitions slot on VT-49 or Firespray, meaning less bombs. Do not want.

Mod takes up the LWF slot on the Bomber and Punisher, making them fragile again. Imperial only Mod could work if it allowed another modification.

With the exception of the VT-49, all imperial Bomb-carriers also have missile slots. Might that work?

You just build in the EM effect to whatever it is. Or better, you make it make the bombs unlimited. The Empire has the resources after all!

Or add a modification:

High Yield Munitions: 0 points - Imperial Only
When determining damage from a [bomb] upgrade, roll one additional dice.

This means Imperials get:
Three dice Clusters
Four dice Proximity

Balanced because:
It's not Sabine's "add damage"
It's unmodified
Can spike high just as easily as it can whiff.
Helps Deathfire, Deathrain and specializes bomber loadouts.

(Friend of mine suggested it should be:

High Yield Munitions: 2 points
When determining damage from a [bomb]. [torp] or [missile] upgrade, roll one additional dice.)

How does that work with Seismic charges, though?

14 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

How does that work with Seismic charges, though?

It doesn't, same way Cad Bane doesn't.

Sabine is the only one that effects all bombs.

FFG don't reuse or copy abilities so an Imperial "bomb enhancement" cannot be add damage or re-rolls. Not sure what else you can do but add a dice?

18 minutes ago, Viktus106 said:

It doesn't, same way Cad Bane doesn't.

Sabine is the only one that effects all bombs.

FFG don't reuse or copy abilities so an Imperial "bomb enhancement" cannot be add damage or re-rolls. Not sure what else you can do but add a dice?

Expand the number of results that matter, or allow spending of focus and/or TL to modify results.

6 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Expand the number of results that matter, or allow spending of focus and/or TL to modify results.

Spending a focus could work, i like it.

Additionally, as it's Imperial and they have the least focus passing abilities, I don't think this would be overly powerful.

Just now, Viktus106 said:

Spending a focus could work, i like it.

Additionally, as it's Imperial and they have the least focus passing abilities, I don't think this would be overly powerful.

Fleet Officer and Hux, but nothing huge. The other obvious option is expanding the explosion range of dial bombs, and maybe giving action bombs a range as well. Or the bomb flingy thing from Imp Vets..

FWIW, this was my thought for the Punisher and Imp bombs in general which I scribbled down a while back. The TIE/it title: dual card so that you can load out your punisher with a Torp or Missile and a Bomb and then decide based on your opposition which one is going to be most useful to focus on. Obviates the need for EM in most cases. And with Bomblet Generators, the Expanded Pods side is amazing, but only open to Punishers anyway and they're way expensive, so probably fine. The Targetting side is obviously intended to do Primary>FCS>Torp or Missile. The goal basically being to get Punishers pseudo-Deadeye, and the ability to fire ordnance in a closing engagement where they get out PSed.

I don't want to make them much cheaper, and I don't want to make them much tougher, I want to make them SUPER shooty.

The mod I wasn't sure about - I like the idea that you could use it to drop bombs on your own dudes for a benefit, OR hit your enemies for a benefit and penalty, but it's a little tweaky and weird and not actually that much of a buff, so I piut in the alternative one of 'just do an extra action'. Either way, it gives a small side benefit in games where you don't ever get your bombs off (or even equip them), so you might want to equip it on any Imperial anyway, and in particular it allows Bombers and Punishers to take it, LRS, GCs and LWF, which realistically the both need to be able to take to be properly competitive, Deathfire excepted.

TIE/it

Title, TIE Punisher only. 0 points. Dual card.

TIE/it: Targetting Laser Pods: After attacking with a primary weapon, you may make an attack with an equipped secondary weapon.

When equipped secondary weapons require you to discard them, do not do so.

TIE/it: Expanded Mine Pods: When you drop a [bomb] upgrade, you may either drop two identical tokens, one using the [1 bank right] template and 1 using the [1 bank left] template or if the card would require you to discard it, you may choose not to do so.

(Some Fluffy Name) Modification, 0 points, Imperial only. When a bomb token you dropped detonates, choose one ship affected by the detonation. Assign that ship stress, ion, and focus tokens until it has at least one of each.

When you are ionised, treat the 1 straight manoeuvre you perform as green.

You may equip any number of additional modification upgrades. The total squad points you spend on modification upgrades cannot exceed 2.

OR

(Some Fluffy Name) Modification, 0 points, Imperial only. After you drop a [bomb] upgrade, you may perform a free action from your action bar.

When you are ionised, treat the 1 straight manoeuvre you perform as green.

You may equip any number of additional modification upgrades. The total squad points you spend on modification upgrades cannot exceed 2.

Make Deathrain Great Again.

This is my thought to help the empire's bombing capabilities.