I feel a lot of the recent podcasts have had some really extreme responses to Trajectory Simulator, and I think they're way off the mark. Most discussion has made the assumption that "launch" means place out of the front guides instead of the rear, which I'd bet money is the correct guess.

There are then two strong possibilities for how it will work, either before movement after dial reveal as with current bombs or after movement (as per Genius). If it's the first option, it will be useful as an area denial or anti-formation tool, but I can't imagine ships regularly get caught in that some. It's a basically how non-Nym reveal bombs work now. Good in the right circumstance, but not a game breaker. The second option is a more powerful, as the opponent doesn't know exactly where it will end up when setting their dial, but it's still very avoidable, as a launched bomb is only going one place per dial reveal. There will be no adjustment, whoever is slinging that thing has to guess right. This seems like an awesome and reasonably fair implementation of bombs. It doesn't make Nym better, because it takes Nym's reactivity away by occupying the Advanced Sensors slot.

Furthermore, as either implementation is rather clunky, you'll need a lot of hulls slinging bombs to really put the coverage out to catch rmenemy ships. This makes it most powerful with larger numbers of hulls, so 3 Resistance Bombers or Punishers would get a lot more out of this upgrade than one Havoc.

I think you nailed it Bio. It's a neat new mechanic that isn't going to be world-shattering or game-breaking but can be fun and effective in the right hands. I would like to see "launch"ing happen after movement but expect it to take place before, as dropping bombs does. Couple that with the ability to run three B/SFs with Simulators, Proton Bombs, and Ordnance Silos for a paltry eight(!) points each, and I expect to see some neat high-profile games with Trajectory Simulators down the road.

It's another option. Don't know how strong an option it is yet.

Very few ships need more options to bomb better... punishers are winners here, everyone else? Punishers would be super fantastic with access to silos.

All bombers can use it to be "better". Some are just more better than others.

1 hour ago, Biophysical said:

I feel a lot of the recent podcasts have had some really extreme responses to Trajectory Simulator, and I think they're way off the mark. Most discussion has made the assumption that "launch" means place out of the front guides instead of the rear, which I'd bet money is the correct guess.

There are then two strong possibilities for how it will work, either before movement after dial reveal as with current bombs or after movement (as per Genius). If it's the first option, it will be useful as an area denial or anti-formation tool, but I can't imagine ships regularly get caught in that some. It's a basically how non-Nym reveal bombs work now. Good in the right circumstance, but not a game breaker. The second option is a more powerful, as the opponent doesn't know exactly where it will end up when setting their dial, but it's still very avoidable, as a launched bomb is only going one place per dial reveal. There will be no adjustment, whoever is slinging that thing has to guess right. This seems like an awesome and reasonably fair implementation of bombs. It doesn't make Nym better, because it takes Nym's reactivity away by occupying the Advanced Sensors slot.

Furthermore, as either implementation is rather clunky, you'll need a lot of hulls slinging bombs to really put the coverage out to catch rmenemy ships. This makes it most powerful with larger numbers of hulls, so 3 Resistance Bombers or Punishers would get a lot more out of this upgrade than one Havoc.

The second option will still be pretty potent on Nym. As the only* pilot who can go up to PS10 with a bomb and Trajectory Simulator, he'll be able to deploy bombs with near perfect knowledge of the board state.

Given that it comes with the B/SF-17, then I have to assume it'll be after reveal. If you launch before movement, then the large-based bomber would end up within the range-1 blast radius of its own bombs after any forward maneuver.

*Ten Numb can also do this on paper, but it requires you to field him with Sabine and an E2 mod.

But I'm not old enough to play shuffleboard yet!

It's instead of dropping, guys

You'd launch whenever you'd drop a nonaction bomb

That's on reveal or genius, so far

The issue of the resistance bomber being forced to fly into its own launched bombs is interesting.

It seems unlikely that the ship would come with a white full stop as that would lead to even more turtling than we already see. A red full stop seems likely though.

The unrevealed card Def(lector) Pl(ating) could possibly have some text about giving the bomber bomb resistance.

What I would love to see is this ship not having any bomb resistance and it flying into its own bombs being considered when the design team decided on its ludicrous 9/3 hull/shield points.

If it didn't have any bomb resistance, then it wouldn't be a resistance bomber

31 minutes ago, PhantomFO said:

The second option will still be pretty potent on Nym. As the only* pilot who can go up to PS10 with a bomb and Trajectory Simulator, he'll be able to deploy bombs with near perfect knowledge of the board state.

It would be potent, but I can't imagine most Nym players giving up Advanced Sensors to do it. Having to predict opponent's positioning might be too much.

I'm fairly confident it'll be like the launch mechanics in the Imperial Veterans mission.

Bio, stop being so aggressively reasonable. How are people supposed to whip the great unwashed into yet another frenzy about an unreleased card if you keep doing that?

Sheesh...

4 hours ago, Biophysical said:

... to catch rmenemy ships.

New faction confirmed!

- - - - -

I'm hoping it'll be on reveal - partly to minimise the volume of doom-mongering - but mostly because that would still make it a very useful option (if costed correctly) for the ad hoc (ie different to Mapper) area-denial (including threat/bluff mind games), for messing with mixed ship formations (may not all be able to do the same evasion move), and all without the inevitable NPE of it on high PS ship.

Additionally, it would also actually make Genius useful to more than just one Pilot.

Any bets on the stop maneuver for that bomber?

1 hour ago, NoZone said:

The unrevealed card Def(lector) Pl(ating) could possibly have some text about giving the bomber bomb resistance.

My money is on this!

A "cancel one [hit] from friendly bombs" ability.

Perhaps even only "if the token is in your firing arc" - though preferably not if the B/SF-17 also has a Stop manoeuvre - so you can pull out a cheeky block and add a little sting to it for anything behind you.

12 minutes ago, TasteTheRainbow said:

Any bets on the stop maneuver for that bomber?

Given the scene from the trailer (though game play > fluff) and for no other reason than 'why not?' - I think it would be fine, so long as it's red!

Having it white would just encourage Fortressing, and reignite all the old arguments over that tactic.

1 hour ago, MegaSilver said:

I'm fairly confident it'll be like the launch mechanics in the Imperial Veterans mission.

I'm not so sure, because (assuming pre-move launch) then even small ships would have to worry about landing in their own AOE.

Though, that being said, it could serve to further restrict which ships it would synergise with (ie TIE Punisher, with its native Boost, is likely still viable).

Am i the only one that thinks of the matrix bomb bots when i see this card?

2 hours ago, MegaSilver said:

I'm fairly confident it'll be like the launch mechanics in the Imperial Veterans mission.

I'd be astonished if it is. It's a needlessly complex mechanic (especially if the launching ship sits still or moves straight) when you could just use the front guides and subtract 1 from the template you want to use for each base size.

Why does everyone assume it's all about Nym?

It's about Teh Punishurs....

2 hours ago, Ralgon said:

Am i the only one that thinks of the matrix bomb bots when i see this card?

Wheee!

I just don't get why it's called Trajectory Simulator. What's that mean? How is it...simulating?

I think it's better than Minefield Mapper, maybe even good enough to see a decent amount of play. It's absolutely NOT a major problem card, and Nym won't want to swap out his Advanced Sensors for it.

The BS17 will have a 0 stop and the TrajSim works nicely there, and I think it may finally be enough to get a Punisher onto the table. 31pts buys you a Punisher with Harpons, Thermals and Extra Munitions with LRS & TSrajSim. That's quite a lot of area control for the points, on a tough hull. Dial is still crappy though.

It's maybe the one card in waves 12 &13 that I'm most looking forward to!

1 hour ago, Ailowynn said:

I just don't get why it's called Trajectory Simulator. What's that mean? How is it...simulating?

The BS17 will have a 0 stop, and the system is simulating that the bomb would have continued to travel forwards along the ships old trajectory.

9 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

It's instead of dropping, guys

You'd launch whenever you'd drop a nonaction bomb

That's on reveal or genius, so far

This. I really don't understand how it's so hard to grasp.

I don't think it'll be much of a problem either. I do think it hurts jousters more than anything else. Let's say you enter into a joust with a ship that has this card. Right as you enter range 3 of that ship, they can choose to launch a bomb and then turn away to avoid it themselves. A 5-straight + the range 1 area of the bomb means you're guaranteed to get hit. Then you choose to either follow them and eat more bombs or disengage completely. This strategy makes turrets more desirable as a carrier (Scurrg, Resistance Bomber) than it does non-turrets (Punisher). You probably won't take this on Nym as Adv Sensors is so valuable, but on another Scurrg it seems juicy.