Tinkering and such and keep seeing people using "Genius" on Rebel Nym.
I don't see the appeal - is it to drop a bomblet and not get hit by it until you're clear of the blast radius? Seems like there's some Rebel crew I'd rather have but I trust "market forces"

The only appeal I see is that it's a free upgrade if you want/need a systems upgrade and are sacrificing the crew member slot.

Genius is good in Rebel Nym, although you sacrifice a crew slot to have him, where you could perhaps put Sabine, it allows you to equip FCS for example and it is a 0 point cost upgrade. Also, just because Genius is there, doesn't mean you HAVE to use him, kinda like chopper crew, plus it allows you to do some board control weirdness, with the whole, prevent detonation, and you could potentially drop two bombs in the exact same spot. Just my opinion though.

Toss Engines on him with VI,Bomblet,Genius. Move at PS10, drop a bomb, and boost to safety. Any boost clears range 1.

Drop bomb with Genius - dont make it explode

Next turn, drop a bomb on top of that bomb, make your move. Both bombs explode on whatever is at range 1.

Its not going to work out perfect like that all the time but when it does.. its pretty awesome.

The fact that Genius allows you to choose when to drop the bomblet before or after you reveal your maneuver is HUGE! Even when your bomblet doesn't do any damage, I have found that it affects how your opponent flies. Because they are flying to avoid the bomblet, it forces them to fly where you want. I have a had a lot of success with "Wurms" load out plus "autoblaster turret" with "accuracy corrector".

Adding genius makes Nym more flexible. It was mentioned earlier that you don't have to use him. But your opponent can no longer predict where bombs are dropping. Could be anywhere. And if a ship is on the edge of death, Nym could just ram him, after bumping, you drop the bomb and let it go. Yeah, He'll take the hit too, but there are situations when it's worth it.

Different mentality than scum Nym

Scum Nym wants to dive your face, doesnt even care if he slams into you he still drops a bomb and is completely safe.
Rebel Nym doesnt necessarily want to do that, though he can in a pinch (trying to finish off a super agile ship, your hp is a resource use it well). Ideally he drops the bomb where he knows it would be annoying and hangs onto it. Area denial is his game, while Scum Nym is kamikaze-mode. Yes they can just fly away from the bomb, but a R1 bubble is much harder to avoid with a single maneuver than just not hitting a template, and if they do get away it probably sent them on a really annoying/bad course while your turret lights them up.

Genius is there primarily for the option of kamikaze strats. He's free, so why not, and except for Painbot he really has no need for any of the other unique droids (that is, if he has bombletts)

Won a store championship this weekend using Rebel Nym with VI, TLT, Bomblets, FCS, Genius and Engine Upgrade. As has already been mentioned, moving at PS10 and choosing whether I drop the bomblet before moving or after moving with a boost was huge. Often, I was able to Genius-drop the bomblet and boost out of R1 of both the bomblet and my opponent's ship (and his arc), meaning I could safely TLT the ship that was also being bombed. Did a lot of work!

Dropping a Cluster or Conner after movement can be really valuable too. I prefer Advanced Sensors to FCS personally. Getting to barrel roll or boost before movement makes your opponent have no clue where a bomb could be placed.

After extensively using Miranda/Nym list the past 3 weeks, if you're using Genius on Rebel Nym, he MUST have Engine Upgrade. Not that Rebel Nym w/ Genius can't work without Engine Upgrade, he's just so much more effective with that combination.

Its free. And in some cases it is defintitly worth taking some damage, too.