4 bombs fused and ready. But you must survive to drop them, of course. The "how to keep alive" deserves another thread. My doubt is what is the best general purpose payload? Because your 4 bombs are the same.

At first glance "the most expensive the best". If you pay 2 pts for this upgrade, choose one expensive bomb. Conner Nets. But beware... You need your action to use. Mmmm

Perhaps Proton Bombs. Crits welcome. But against some squads you really want to Stress them. So Thermal Detonadors.

Then one friend said... "Ion bombs". If there is a chance to be ioniced you must play more cautious against the BS 17s.

Then started to talk about combined payload. 2 Bombers. 3. Cinematic. Epic.

And I can not choose one option as the "standard" one. Perhaps there is no one. Thermal Detonators or Proton Bombs are my favourites. Sugestions?

Never played with BS 17 on the table.

I've been bouncing this one around in my head since I picked up the bomber. Like you, I'm sort of leaning towards the proton bomb and thermal detonators. The crits are nice but sometimes you want the stress. Tough call. I do have two so a pair of them might be the answer. Going to try and field a two bomber build Thursday night to see what happens.

The limited dial, two attack really hampers the ship. Pretty sure that one won't last a full game. It might be best to run just one at a higher PS than two at the lowest PS. Won't know till I try.

I think it depends on the rest of your list.

I play this one to a lot of success and fun recently:

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Rebel Alliance&d=v4!s!254:27,135,-1,-1,166,237,-1:-1:24:U.-1;280:245,244,181,-1:-1:33:;277:150,61,69:-1:32:&sn=Bombz&obs=coreasteroid1,coreasteroid2,coreasteroid3

Could switch Thermals and Pulse Ray Shield to Proton Bombs.

But i really like stressing ships when im playing bombs and a good blocker / brawler like the Crimson Specialist.

Forces you opponents most of the time to either stick to the stress (hurt a lot on all aces except Poe) or bump and eat another bomb (also no action, again 2 damage and a stress)

Not a fan of the ion bombs; purely because they do no damage. Given the cost of tbe bomber (especially when you start loading it) and its low natural offense, i really don't think you can afford to be running bombs that can't damage the enemy. But i could be proven wrong....

Thermals i really like: you get damage and you get stress, which makes it really effective area denial, and is reasonably good control against anything you catch in the blast.... as well as doing damage.

Seismic charges i don't particularly like. Bomblet generator is just hands down better in my experience.... and cheaper too.

Proton bombs i have not tried... ever actually, but getting the resistance bomber has motivated me to buy a tie bomber now, so i might just be trying them out in the near future. They look really powerful, but it does make for an expensive bomber... not sure if it will be worth the extra points investment.

Summary:

Like thermal detonators, like bomblet generator (i know it invalidates the ordnance silos)

Not sure about ion bombs, but don't think they will be effective enough

Not sure about proton bombs, but excited to try them

No love for seismic charges on this ship at all

I've so far only tested the bomber with the trajectory simulator, so i have stayed away from action bombs all together. I don't believe that the resistance bomber has sufficient mobility to make proper use of the action bombs.

Thanks a lot. I like thematic buildings so bomblet generators with the H6 and Ordnance Silos for the B 17.

I will try Thermal Detonators. Not a bad choice to start toying and definitely no to Ion Bombs. I do not play often 100/6 but more free time available next week so will try this odd looking ship.

First game with the B 17 finished. I am not very excited about Ep 8 stuff yet (but Advanced Optics is a superb card), but the B 17 "feels" ok. Fielded the Cr. Specialist, many threads about the ship and pilots. Lets talk about the Payload.

My opponent fielded a bunch of Tie/Fo plus a Tie Bomber Shuttle, against my Bomber and a couple of T 70s. Payload Thermal Detonators. The bombs caught twice a FO before the Bomber exploded. Against this squadron Thermal Detonators were not the best option.

Later my opponent told me that he was sure that in my Squadron included a B 17 with Thermals, so he ran away from Stress fearing Aces. But interesting game. I must try Protons but I will be less predictable next time...

You should really test him together with Nym. As a stand alone, he feels really clunky.

Protons are awesome but also expensive and rng prone

If you manage to land something devastating like damaged cockpit or engine, it's just phenomenal

If you land shaken pilot, whomp whomp

Protons are far more fearsome if you can stack them (33 points I believe for trajectory ps 1 silos protons) and threaten to blow away regenerating ships with ease, but rebels are really hurting for good 34 point late game threats to cover the bombers with

And with stacked bombers, you're screwed if the bombs don't land

Maybe thermals then? Problem is rebels already have great access to damaging stress tech (tactical wookies, r3a2)

Tough call, might just go for bombletts with crimson spec (as they have the most range of options for dropping to compensate for the ship's rather horrid dial.)