4 bomber vs ???

By Darth_Gnaffa, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Hi all, I ll have a game probably against 4 bomber list with jonus only unique pilot...someone has ideas how to counteract them??? In my my opinion I can t be hitted from for 4 bombers togheter every ship will goes down so I have to fly free...it can be good??

[Boba Fett(39), Engine Upgrade(4), Heavy Laser Cannon(7), Navigator(3), Andrasta(0), Expertise(4), Bomblet Generator(3)]

[Countess Ryad(34), Push The Limit(3), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II(1), TIE/x7(-2)] 96points

Four Tie Bombers does sound scary, but those ships are also pretty fragile. The fact that they don't [Edit] Have Shields makes them pretty susceptible to critical hits [End Edit].

Rexler Brath & Maarek Stele in Tie Defenders, have abilities that let them deal out critical hits pretty consistently, and that may be very effective against ships without shields. And with 6 hit points, you're very unlikely to take out the bombers with single salvos. Crippling them may be an effective trick.

The cool thing about the Tie Defenders (vs Bombers) is that they are very nimble, so if you can turn this into a battle of maneuver, you may pull this off.

Edited by Mark Caliber

More ships, High defence/Arc dodge/rng control. More ships: means a couple good torps don't wreck your list.; High Defence: 2-3 agility with focus and evade actions; Arc Dodge: have at least one highly mobile Ace ie. Vader, Fel, Inqy, BB-8 Poe, EU Rac, EU Horn, A-wings (Jake) etc. ; Rng Control: Stay just outside Rng 3 until you are ready to dive down to Rng1, unless he has cluster missile or prockets or Unguided rockets, he won't have anything but is primary, watch out for bombs, after the first 1-2 passes you should easily out fly him.

This is just my opinion, and your list looks like it could put down some hurt, Ryad should easily out fly the bombers and take them down quick, as long as she survives the first round of shooting.

If you're expecting to fly against Jonus and 3 generics in a 100 pt game, you don't have a lot to worry about. Jonus will typically be in a shuttle with at least fleet officer, possibly systems officer and TIE mk. II. He'll get stressed often and be locked into green moves most turns, giving potentially all 3 bombers double mods for their shots if done properly. You'll want to avoid letting him get that full compliment as often as possible.

If he is running 3 gamma squad veterans, they have 5-6 points for an EPT, ordnance and mods. That most likely means chips, deadeye and either proton torps or harpoon missiles. Or he could run scimitars with 8-9 points worth of ordnance, probably just adding plasma torps to the list. 3 bombers with a single missile each you can counter pretty hard by forcing him to split targets or attack his focus tokens. Jamming beam on a defender shuts that down, flechette cannon stops the jonus token handout, ion tokens are always strong against bombers, even tractor beaming ships onto rocks or out of jonus range can be huge. You have a lot of options, including just getting in his face and bumping or staying in range 1 as much as possible. Plan how you want to handle it, rehearse it a few times and you should be golden.

Vets have the same PS as ryad, so plan to either block with her if you want or have initiative or figure out how she can best arc dodge if you want her moving second. The bombers will probably want to give you initiative if they don't have Deadeye or will want it themselves if they do have it. With scimitars at PS 2 and no LRS, it'll be a lot harder for him to get off those missiles. You can slow roll until you're ready to close in and have no fear of eating anything beyond a jonus - systems officer - target lock on ryad; in which case you have your target already picked out for you. If he puts LRS on his ships, you have a bit harder time avoiding those first shots and it comes back to finding a way to stagger them between your ships or if he puts them all on the same ship, fly that out wide. Both boba and ryad should be able to kick around a few bombers that are too close to get new target locks.

[Darth Vader(29), Advanced Targeting Computer(5), TIE/x1(0)]

[Rexler Brath(37), TIE/x7(-2)]

[Maarek Stele(35), TIE/x7(-2)]

98points

I can add crack shot on defenders and fly often with white kojogran or maybe downgrade the tie advanced in a tie fighter and add ptl and eu on tie defenders

x7's can absorb shots, but you honestly aren't pushing through much damage with them basically naked. You're probably better off running Glaives or Ryad rather than rexlar and maarek. You won't be getting much use out of their pilot abilities without more mods. Vader certainly does better with a heavier load, but if you can't find the points for him, then Omega Leader fills the same role well enough at the same price with stealth device, juke, comms relay.

That list would look something like

  • Omega Leader (21)
    • Stealth Device (3)
    • Juke (2)
    • Comms Relay (3)
  • 2x Glaive Squadron (34)
    • Stealth Device (3)
    • Trick Shot (0)
    • TIE/x7 (-2)

Totals out to 99 points. Or you could drop the stealth device on OL to put juke on both Glaives. Either way, try to keep as many rocks in the middle as you can and make that your home. 5 defense dice (when obstructed) plus evade and focus tokens on top of shooting before all of his ships makes that first salvo about as threatening as a bag of kittens. If you like the extra fire power, you can drop either stealth device entirely or just juke down to anything 1 pt or less (A score to settle is a good choice, and 0 pts!) and you can fit TIE mk. II and PTL on both Glaives instead. Ryad also fits in at the same price point as glaives if you like her pilot ability, otherwise I'd stick with the PS6's. Lots of greens in that set up to clear stress; evade, focus and target locks each round. You'll chew them up pretty good, but you should probably save your tokens for defense until the missiles are blown. Should be easy pickings at that point, barring any really unfortunate dice rolls.

I like Jim's idea. Below is sorta what I was thinking. Another interesting idea would be to use PTL Fel or standard whisper to make it hard for them to get arcs on you.

Omega Squadron Pilot (18) - TIE/FO Fighter - Crack Shot (1)

Omega Squadron Pilot (18) - TIE/FO Fighter - Crack Shot (1)

•"Omega Leader" (26) - TIE/FO Fighter - Juke (2), Comm Relay (3)

•Countess Ryad (36) - TIE Defender - Push The Limit (3), TIE/x7 (-2), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

I have played around with this idea a lot. It has 2 hard hitting potential blocker/fodder (hard hitting due to crack and speed (get in close for extra die) or if he uses lower PS bombers these guys have a PS advantage. Ryad is a typical beast, and if she can either get in behind or flank side to side with 5k's and barrel rolls she can make short work of those bombers, and OL is a great end game piece, just keep him out of the furball until ordinance is gone and he can rock any bomber set-up 1v1.

On 11/20/2017 at 5:57 PM, Darth_Gnaffa said:

Hi all, I ll have a game probably against 4 bomber list with jonus only unique pilot...someone has ideas how to counteract them??? In my my opinion I can t be hitted from for 4 bombers togheter every ship will goes down so I have to fly free...it can be good??

I f you know for a fact you're facing Jonus and TIE bombers with missiles, my first thought is to reach for Poe Dameron with BB-8, Intensity and Black One.

Go on. Target Lock me. You know you want to.

Another way to look at it if you really want options is this. You've got 3 missiles or torps coming your way. 4 dice each, then probably a 2 dice primary from jonus. If you've got any defensive tokens or luck with dice at all, you'll probably take 3 at most from each missile and maybe 1 from jonus, although that's pretty iffy since he likely won't have mods on his early shots. You can just beat out his ordnance with meat. Bring an auzituck or arc, anything with 9+ total hull and shields with some way to get reinforce or evades and you'll eat all his shots and laugh as he's stuck with 2 dice primaries. Stress and Ions also shut down bomber lists pretty hard. If they can't turn or get their target locks, all those missiles are just fancy paperweights.