I loved the Resistance Bomber since I first laid eyes on it in the trailer. I was the most excited to try this ship over all the others of Wave 12/13. I'm currently playing a wave locked league and as such haven't had many chances to test out the new ships yet, but I finally got to play them last weekend.
Since this meant that I had seen the movie before playing the bomber, I decided to make a loosely themed list to try it out. The list was as follows;
| "Crimson Specialist" — B/SF-17 Bomber | 27 |
| Trajectory Simulator | 1 |
| Bomblet Generator | 3 |
| Hyperwave Comm Scanner | 1 |
| Deflective Plating | 1 |
| Crossfire Formation | 2 |
| Ship Total: 35 | |
| Red Squadron Veteran — T-70 X-Wing | 26 |
| Push the Limit | 3 |
| R2 Astromech | 1 |
| Advanced Optics | 2 |
| Integrated Astromech | 0 |
| Ship Total: 32 | |
| Red Squadron Veteran — T-70 X-Wing | 26 |
| Push the Limit | 3 |
| R2 Astromech | 1 |
| Advanced Optics | 2 |
| Integrated Astromech | 0 |
| Ship Total: 32 | |
I flew against an HLC Lambda and 2 OS-1 gunboats (Vynder and Karsabi). I went for the Shuttle first, I lined up a bomb launch and had the X-wings in crossfire range as I thought my opponents prime target would be the bomber. I got 3 good shots on it, and crossfire saved me from a solid HLC shot. I took one shield in the first round on the bomber, and lost all my shields on one X-wing as he surprisingly tried to knock off one of the x-wings first with the gunboats.
By the second round I rolled well with bomblet generator and the Lambda was gone. I then split the X-wings up to try split the gunboats and bomb blocked with Crimson Specialist. This is where I truly fell in love with the Bomber. Being able to block with a bomb was fantastic, I found CS's ability even more useful than launching bombs. I found I had detonation radius on at least one of his ships about 4 rounds in a row. The gunboats slam action really saved my opponent's skin quite a bit, but the fact he had to slam every round avoid my bombs and try and chase the X-wings meant he rarely had arc on my ships.
I was able to get one of the gunboats back in the asteroid belt I'd made and was able to block his lanes with the X-wings and land 2 more bombs on it. His last move was slamming out of bomb range and onto a rock which happened to kill it. He was down to 1 gunboat against all three of my ships, with a Bomber above half health, and one X-wing untouched. I was able to hunt this last one down with the X-wings whilst blocking again with the Bomber, and finished it off.
This was one of the most fun games I've had a in a long time, and I found the Bomber was more useful than I expected. I think it's safe to say Crimson Specialist is my favourite pilot even without flying the others yet, as his ability really makes that big base work.
The one thing I thought to change after the game is Hyperwave Comm Scanner. It was neat to have my X-wings with fully modded dice in the first round, and it allowed me to do solid damage on the Lambda. I do think having the focus failsafe in the form of advanced optics on the Bomber would have been more valuable though, as I had a couple of turns where I had crossfire set up, but no focus token to utilise it.
Edited by BVRCH
