I'm looking at making the most of some of the upgrades that came in the Bomber expansion. I've seen critism of both Deflective Plating and Crossfire formation, but I still think they have their place, especially on Crimson Specialist. How does something like this look as a starting point?

"Crimson Specialist" (27)
Trajectory Simulator (1)
Ordnance Silos (2)
Seismic Charges (2)
Advanced Optics (2)
Deflective Plating (1)
Crossfire Formation (2)

Jess Pava (25)
R2-D6 (1)
Draw Their Fire (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Poe Dameron (31)
Veteran Instincts (1)
BB-8 (2)
Advanced Optics (2)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

2 hours ago, jwilliamson12 said:

"Crimson Specialist" (27)
Trajectory Simulator (1)
Ordnance Silos (2)
Seismic Charges (2)
Advanced Optics (2)
Deflective Plating (1)
Crossfire Formation (2)

Crimson Specialist looks like probably the best pilot in the expansion - Rattled is nice but comes at a cost and requires you to keep someone under fire in your arc to really leverage, and Crimson Leader's pilot skill isn't that amazing.

Between Crimson Specialist's Pilot ability, Trajectory Simulator, and the oft-forgotten option to just drop a bomb normally, you can place a bomb token anywhere in a large number of possible areas.

Advanced Optics and Crossfire makes the bomber irritatingly tough - even three harpoons will struggle to kill the thing.

The main weakness of the list was the bombs. Seismic Charges/Ordnance Silos are....not amazing. You have to compare them to the Bomblet Generator, which:

• Takes up the same number of upgrade 'slots'
• Costs 2 points less overall
• Does on average the same damage (2 dice with a 50% chance of damage each versus 1 automatic damage)
• Can cause criticals (there's about a 25% chance of a target taking at least one critical)
• Doesn't 'run out' of ammunition

Don't get me wrong; ordnance silos are amazing. But, I wouldn't buy them for seismic charges because you don't really gain anything relative to bomblets and pay a lot more. If equipping Proton Bombs (shield-piercing autocriticals), Thermal Detonators (stress), or Ion bombs (ion tokens) then you're getting something out of the deal that a bomblet couldn't deliver, but as a pure damage-only bomb, seismic charges are now very much the poor cousin and only for ships incapable of equipping the bomblet generator (or if the unique bomblet generator has already been equipped).

2 hours ago, jwilliamson12 said:

Jess Pava (25)
R2-D6 (1)
Draw Their Fire (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Interesting choice. I guess Jess wants to stay glued to the bomber to get her rerolls, but under normal circumstances I'd probably rather take damage on the bomber than her.

The choice between Draw Their Fire and Selflessness is an interesting one, but I guess that given the Resistance Bomber's massive hull, stopping criticals is probably a bigger deal than stopping big 'lumps' of non-critical damage.

If you swap seismic charges down to a bomblet generator, that does free up a point to swap that for M9-G8, which is a very useful tool for giving Poe some punch when boosting, barrel rolling and pulling red moves - or to try and limit an opponent's firepower.

2 hours ago, jwilliamson12 said:

Poe Dameron (31)
Veteran Instincts (1)
BB-8 (2)
Advanced Optics (2)
Integrated Astromech (0)

PS10 is an interesting choice. I get wanting PS11, or PS9 and having your elite talent free. PS10 is a middle-of-the-road choice but may come unstuck against the PS11 alpha strike missile crowd. Still, PS10 boost-and-barrel-roll and still have focus is a very, very nice ability.

Main suggestion: if you take bomblet generator, in addition to spending 1 point to up R2-D6/Draw Their Fire to M9-G8, I would spend the other to equip Black One.

With a free barrel roll, and boost if you need it, Poe can strip two target locks per turn off himself or nearby ships - that's enough to really cut the teeth of any missile strike at PS9 or less, and also will make a huge difference in an end-game duel against Vader (who will probably be higher pilot skill but at least needs to keep reacquiring that lock to make Advanced Targeting Computer work) and Omega Leader (who will struggle to maintain a lock on you at all, essentially turning her into a pretty harmless PS8 TIE fighter).

I first looked at Crimson Leader, Jess, Poe but the points are too tight to get the Poe I wanted.

So here's what I ran tonight:

"Crimson Specialist" (27)
Trajectory Simulator (1)
Bomblet Generator (3)
Comm Relay (3)
Deflective Plating (1)
Crossfire Formation (2)

Jess Pava (25)
R2-D6 (1)
Comm Relay (3)
Draw Their Fire (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Lowhhrick (28)
Selflessness (1)
Jan Ors (2)
Rey (2)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

It's an eerily similar list except with Lowhhrick instead of Poe, and then a few points to spread around. I decided that, while having 2 resistance ships is better for triggering the bomber title, the title isn't worth basing an entire list around.

Basically you slow play for a bit and put evades on your resistance ships while Lowie builds his Rey bank. On the opening engagement, both resistance ships have focus+evade, and Lowie has reinforce+evade or focus. With both selflessness and draw their fire, the damage distribution potential is crazy. In my second game tonight, against Asajj/Bossk, he got 3 hits on the bomber at range 3. 2 green dice+title+evade+reinforce+focus=minimum 3, maximum 5 evade results!

There are seriously no good targets. It's a lot of fun.

6 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Crimson Specialist looks like probably the best pilot in the expansion - Rattled is nice but comes at a cost and requires you to keep someone under fire in your arc to really leverage, and Crimson Leader's pilot skill isn't that amazing.

Between Crimson Specialist's Pilot ability, Trajectory Simulator, and the oft-forgotten option to just drop a bomb normally, you can place a bomb token anywhere in a large number of possible areas.

Advanced Optics and Crossfire makes the bomber irritatingly tough - even three harpoons will struggle to kill the thing.

The main weakness of the list was the bombs. Seismic Charges/Ordnance Silos are....not amazing. You have to compare them to the Bomblet Generator, which:

• Takes up the same number of upgrade 'slots'
• Costs 2 points less overall
• Does on average the same damage (2 dice with a 50% chance of damage each versus 1 automatic damage)
• Can cause criticals (there's about a 25% chance of a target taking at least one critical)
• Doesn't 'run out' of ammunition

Don't get me wrong; ordnance silos are amazing. But, I wouldn't buy them for seismic charges because you don't really gain anything relative to bomblets and pay a lot more. If equipping Proton Bombs (shield-piercing autocriticals), Thermal Detonators (stress), or Ion bombs (ion tokens) then you're getting something out of the deal that a bomblet couldn't deliver, but as a pure damage-only bomb, seismic charges are now very much the poor cousin and only for ships incapable of equipping the bomblet generator (or if the unique bomblet generator has already been equipped).

Interesting choice. I guess Jess wants to stay glued to the bomber to get her rerolls, but under normal circumstances I'd probably rather take damage on the bomber than her.

The choice between Draw Their Fire and Selflessness is an interesting one, but I guess that given the Resistance Bomber's massive hull, stopping criticals is probably a bigger deal than stopping big 'lumps' of non-critical damage.

If you swap seismic charges down to a bomblet generator, that does free up a point to swap that for M9-G8, which is a very useful tool for giving Poe some punch when boosting, barrel rolling and pulling red moves - or to try and limit an opponent's firepower.

PS10 is an interesting choice. I get wanting PS11, or PS9 and having your elite talent free. PS10 is a middle-of-the-road choice but may come unstuck against the PS11 alpha strike missile crowd. Still, PS10 boost-and-barrel-roll and still have focus is a very, very nice ability.

Main suggestion: if you take bomblet generator, in addition to spending 1 point to up R2-D6/Draw Their Fire to M9-G8, I would spend the other to equip Black One.

With a free barrel roll, and boost if you need it, Poe can strip two target locks per turn off himself or nearby ships - that's enough to really cut the teeth of any missile strike at PS9 or less, and also will make a huge difference in an end-game duel against Vader (who will probably be higher pilot skill but at least needs to keep reacquiring that lock to make Advanced Targeting Computer work) and Omega Leader (who will struggle to maintain a lock on you at all, essentially turning her into a pretty harmless PS8 TIE fighter).

2

Man, thanks for all this feedback. I really appreciate it.

I'm not sure why Bomblet Generator wasn't the obvious choice there. I guess I was looking to make silos work, but yeah generator is for sure the better value.

According to YASB, though, I don't think I have any points to spare after swapping to M9-G8. Draw Their Fire and R2-D6 are each one point, so I would add a point switching to M9-G8 to put me at 100, which leaves no room for Black One. I would have to Drop VI for Adaptability or Trick Shot to make room for the title. Though it may still be worth it.

As @Sekac pointed out, there's not much room for a strong Poe build. I'd love to go PS9 VI, but the points aren't there. I figure PS10 separates him from a lot of ships, but will still be susceptible to Kylo, or perhaps a Quickdaw or Rey running VI.

Ran Crimson Specialist with just bomblet, trajectory, and defective for 32. That pilot is dumb. Had Poe with Advanced optics, R2D2, Integrated, VI and Black One and Jess with Pattern Analyzer, Flight Assist and Integrated escorting. Worked really well. Crimson takes forever to kill and those bombs are virtually impossible to avoid and by the time you get through it, your remaining ships have to take down regen PS10 Poe with perma focus and Jess. Not the best list, but actually quite solid and Crimson does a great job of deterring possible jousts or punishing players who try to do it anyways.

How much mileage did you get from Jess’ Pattern Analyzer? What do you think about putting those points into PS9 Poe instead to get the PS 11?

Just now, BlodVargarna said:

How much mileage did you get from Jess’ Pattern Analyzer? What do you think about putting those points into PS9 Poe instead to get the PS 11?

A lot. You'd be surprised what you can do with Pattern Analyzer and Flight Assist. Tallon roll intentionally where you can't see anything, free boost or roll followed by normal action with her innate re-rolls. It's really good action economy.

What about this play on the theme:

Poe Dameron (PS9) (33)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Flight-Assist Astromech (1)
Advanced Optics (2)
Autothrusters (2)
Black One (1)

"Crimson Specialist" (27)
Trajectory Simulator (1)
Bomblet Generator (3)
Hyperwave Comm Scanner (1)
Deflective Plating (1)

Ezra Bridger (Sheathipede) (17)
Wired (1)
Sabine Wren (2)
R3-A2 (2)
Hull Upgrade (3)

Total: 98

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

It keeps the core Crimson Poe combo together. Adds a bit of spice with Hyperwave to make the focus action a thing of the past for Poe. Plus it gives a bit more flexibility when placing the bomber. Also the stressbug is in there primarily as a Sabine carrier to help the bombs, but can also do work with Wired and Hull Upgrade keeping him alive a bit longer.

I know most aren't sold on FAA with Poe. There are points there to switch to BB8, but I think FAA gives Poe a much better escape route for the re-attack run.

Thoughts?

Why does nobody consider Elusiveness of Ezra? It basically says you will always have stress when rolling defense dice and might screw over your opponent. With all the missiles floating around int he meta, I'd definitely try to put BB-8 on Poe just for the lock shaking, but that's just me.

I think this is interesting. I think it'd take a while to figure out how to fly it well, but it's definitely interesting.

25 minutes ago, MasterShake2 said:

Why does nobody consider Elusiveness of Ezra? It basically says you will always have stress when rolling defense dice and might screw over your opponent.

Because elusiveness only works if you are unstressed. So on a stressbug Ezra, you'll use it at most one time, though it could be 0 times if Ezra shoots before he's shot.

2 points to force your opponent to re-roll one red die, once per game is a bad investment. It's like M9-G8 that you can only use one time for only 1 point less.

1 hour ago, gennataos said:

I think this is interesting. I think it'd take a while to figure out how to fly it well, but it's definitely interesting.

Just for clarification, is this comment based on my original setup, or the list with Ezra in place of Jess?

Just now, jwilliamson12 said:

Just for clarification, is this comment based on my original setup, or the list with Ezra in place of Jess?

I like Jess over Ezra, because otherwise the list would lack much punch.

14 minutes ago, gennataos said:

I like Jess over Ezra, because otherwise the list would lack much punch.

I'm excited to try this out next time I play, which will probably be after the holidays. I'll report back how it goes.

I love the list concept, particularly as thematic with the film.

I like your Poe, but I would trade BB-8 down to FAA/Black One.

For Jess, I support using M9-G8, because M9-G8 is amazing. Pattern Analyzer is also crazy good on her, but you might be stuck for points.

As for the Specialist, I don't think you really need Trajectory Simulator. Yes, its really cool, but with Crimson's ability, you have plenty of positioning versatility already.

All in all, I would suggest something like this:

PS8 Poe

VI

FAA

AO

IA

Title

Jess

PA

IA

M9-G8

Crimson Specialist

Collision Detector

Bomblets

Title

Pattern Analyzer or Deflective Plating (depending on whether you are more concerned with getting shot or dealing with your own bombs)

5 hours ago, Greebwahn said:

As for the Specialist, I don't think you really need Trajectory Simulator. Yes, its really cool, but with Crimson's ability, you have plenty of positioning versatility already.

Can confirm. This has been my experience with CS.