4 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

Just to be a thicky. . .the advantage of Deadeye is not to have to select a target during the Declare Actions phase?

Also useful if you're not in TL range after you move, but expect the opponent to move within R3 on their activation - so synergises well with the lower PS pilots.

For single action ships firing ordnance that does not require spending TL (ie your focus), you still have a focus to mod eye results.

8 hours ago, Kieransi said:

Agreed. A dream “fix” card for me would be

Seasoned Veteran

Title, non-unique only , cost 0

Your upgrade bar gains the EPT icon. You may not equip this card if you already have an EPT slot or have a Pilot Skill of 2 or lower.

I would just erase this bolded part, but make the upgrade unique. Kir Kanos, you can finally have your EPT!

My bomber list:

1. Deathfire! He is so much fun to bomb with, and he is cheap

2. Major Rhymer: I don't care if he is overcosted, with Advanced Proton Torpedoes and Long Range Scanners he is my hero. Snap/Tac is fun with the shuttle, too. Honorable mention to Advanced homing missiles.

3. Tomax Bren: Keep him cheap with Unguided Rockets and crackshot. Maybe Lightweight Frame, too.

4. Gamma Squad Vet: Crackshot plus ordnance is so worth it

5. Scimitar: Better cheap to be cheapest than worst!

6. Gamma Squad: Because your meta is full of Scimitar squadron, Rookie, and other generic pilots, right?

7. Captain Jonus: No need to reroll in an era of guidance chips and decent ordnance that you can use a TL on.

16 hours ago, Stay On The Leader said:

1. Deathfire
   *big gap*
2. Tomax Bren
3. Scimitar Squadron Pilot
4. Gamma Squadron Veteran
   *big gap*
5. Gamma Squadron Pilot
6. Captain Jonus
7. Major Rhymer

I think I'm probably being quite kind to Tomax there, he should probably be in at #4 but people will cry if I put him there and it's not worth the aggro.

You didn't put him at #1. Let the aggro commence!

5 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

Completely agree. I also think Gamma Vets are great for epic squadron building (multiple copies kitted the same way).

Oh my. I gotta give that Gamma Vet build a go. . .I was killing B-wings with a vengeance with Cruise Missiles last time I played.

Just to be a thicky. . .the advantage of Deadeye is not to have to select a target during the Declare Actions phase?

Amongst other things.

• A focus token does not 'lock you in' to a given target, which means you can fire your missiles at a different target if the guy before you lands the killing blow, or your original target ends up out of range or rac.
• The intended target doesn't have to be in R3 target lock range.
• If the bomber comes under serious fire, you can always choose to spend the focus token defensively and give up shooting your missiles (because only getting to fire with unmodified primaries is better than exploding at PS6)
• 'Free focus tokens' are a lot easier to come by from the rest of your squad (Fleet Officer, Operations Specialist and General Hux all spring to mind)

1 hour ago, Gersun said:

I would just erase this bolded part, but make the upgrade unique. Kir Kanos, you can finally have your EPT!

Only if it's Imperial Only ...

... Miranda with an EPT - not thanks!!

(sorry Laetin, means you miss out too)

14 hours ago, PT106 said:

As a fellow TIE Bomber pilot I would respectfully disagree Tomax is great and is costed appropriately for ordnance alpha-strike list, but does require support to shine. Jonus ability was good until last wave as cruise/harpoon missiles make him somewhat redundant, however I expect him to be useful again once gunboat as a cannon platform hits the tables (and he is a cheapest Bomber/Shuttle that can get to PS8 and has a useful ability on top of that). If I would rank TIE Bomber pilots, it would be something like:

1. Tomax Bren/Scimitar Squadron (The best ordnance carriers from price/performance perspective)

2. Deathfire (I never used him, but I can see his usefulness in a bombs meta, so I'm relying on representations from others here )

3. Captain Jonus/Gamma Squadron Veteran (Cheap source of EPT, rerolls are always good )

4. everything else.

Tomax is absolutely priced well, I totally agree, and he's a lot of fun. What I've found, however, is that there's nothing he can do that I can't do with a Scimitar. Now, maybe that's just my flying style - and to be fair, I haven't tried out Unguided Rockets on him yet - but I can punch just as hard with the little guy, and sink the points elsewhere if I'm going all-out ordnance.

Deathfire is solid, but I still rate the Gamma Vet higher. That EPT for Deadeye or Crack shot is stellar. If you want something hilariously fun that'll always catch an opponent off guard: LRS and Lightning Reflexes. Deathfire, I've found these days, tends to just get murdered before those bombs actually come in handy. In one way, that's fine as becomes a meat shield, but it's still rough to be losing him while he's strapped.

Jonus... yeah, I still don't get it. I've honestly found better support using a Scimitar shuttle with OpsSpec and Inspiring Recruit. Even just as an EPT option, he's not cheap. He scales up super well, like 150pt games and Epic, but I have my TL rerolls every time in a standard game.

I do think the Top 4 of this list would vary depending entirely on your play style though. Bombers are fickle and fragile, and I've come across multiple play styles with them that suit those players, and elevate certain pilots. For me, however, the sheer cost efficiency of the generics (or two of them) wins out, every time.

Good to see I'm not the only one still loving to fly these guys though!

Double...

4 hours ago, NakedDex said:

Tomax is absolutely priced well, I totally agree, and he's a lot of fun. What I've found, however, is that there's nothing he can do that I can't do with a Scimitar. Now, maybe that's just my flying style - and to be fair, I haven't tried out Unguided Rockets on him yet - but I can punch just as hard with the little guy, and sink the points elsewhere if I'm going all-out ordnance.

Deathfire is solid, but I still rate the Gamma Vet higher. That EPT for Deadeye or Crack shot is stellar. If you want something hilariously fun that'll always catch an opponent off guard: LRS and Lightning Reflexes. Deathfire, I've found these days, tends to just get murdered before those bombs actually come in handy. In one way, that's fine as becomes a meat shield, but it's still rough to be losing him while he's strapped.

Jonus... yeah, I still don't get it. I've honestly found better support using a Scimitar shuttle with OpsSpec and Inspiring Recruit. Even just as an EPT option, he's not cheap. He scales up super well, like 150pt games and Epic, but I have my TL rerolls every time in a standard game.

I do think the Top 4 of this list would vary depending entirely on your play style though. Bombers are fickle and fragile, and I've come across multiple play styles with them that suit those players, and elevate certain pilots. For me, however, the sheer cost efficiency of the generics (or two of them) wins out, every time.

Good to see I'm not the only one still loving to fly these guys though!

Yeah, I can see totally how the ranking depends on a playstyle. I usually fly ordnance bombers together with Targeting Synchronizer SF and another ace high-PS ship and in this case Tomax brings the following advantages: Higher damage output (Crackshot), Potential to PS-kill someone (and he's less likely to be PS-killed), and last, but not least - Deployment advantage.

As far as Jonus is concerned, he is very good with cluster missiles somewhere else in the squad (and I'm not a fan of using cruise missiles on bombers), he can boost cannons (think defenders and soon-to-be Gunboat), and he can get to PS8 to shoot first for things like Hotshot Copilot. You pay 3 points extra for that compared to GSV, but its an appropriate cost if you're planning to utilize these abilities.

6 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Amongst other things.

• A focus token does not 'lock you in' to a given target, which means you can fire your missiles at a different target if the guy before you lands the killing blow, or your original target ends up out of range or rac.
• The intended target doesn't have to be in R3 target lock range.
• If the bomber comes under serious fire, you can always choose to spend the focus token defensively and give up shooting your missiles (because only getting to fire with unmodified primaries is better than exploding at PS6)
• 'Free focus tokens' are a lot easier to come by from the rest of your squad (Fleet Officer, Operations Specialist and General Hux all spring to mind)

Sheesh, I can't believe none of this every occur to me in the last 3 years.

This is what the boards are supposed to be about

Thanks for a great discussion series @Celestial Lizards !!