A Thrawn Bombers list by @MandalorianMoose won our store championship in Orange County last weekend. So I'm wanting to give it a try myself. I love the idea of Ruthless Strategists and long range flak with it with it, but I'm wondering if I don't have enough ship firepower. I think this list could handle Heavy fighter lists, and I think the bombering if fairly potent. I don't play much in the way of imperial bombers though, so this is all new to me. I do think I should possibly change Valen to Tempest for one more bomber and escort. Anyways, I'd love to hear any thoughts!

Name: Thrawn bombers 1.2
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Grand Admiral Thrawn

Assault: Precision Strike
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Superior Positions

Imperial II (120)
• Grand Admiral Thrawn (32)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
= 180 Points

Quasar Fire II (61)
• Agent Kallus (3)
• Ruthless Strategists (4)
• Flight Controllers (6)
• Boosted Comms (4)
= 78 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Bomber Command Center (8)
= 31 Points

Squadrons:
• 6 x TIE Bomber Squadron (54)
• Zertik Strom (15)
• Dengar (20)
• Black Squadron (9)
• Valen Rudor (13)
= 111 Points

Total Points: 400

Thrawn bombers are certainly a lot of fun, it’s every squadron commanders dream to have an un sliceable squadron command. I like the base of your list but I do have some pointers or recommendations.

First off with the ISD,

generally, going from three activations to four activations is much less impactful than going from four activations to five activations-you may want to consider swapping strategic advisor for pryce for a guaranteed last in a round.

Secondly xi7 seems to be competing with your bombers, who generally aim to overload redirects. unless you’re aiming to be able to threaten a second small ship that isn’t being bombed I would switch this to quad battery turrets for the extra blue dice.

Next, your quasar

you have a lot of points invested in it for something that dies to a stiff breeze- I like to keep my quasars light, around 60 points. You could afford a Vic with some upgrades for what you are paying here (or almost a second flotilla).

I know the ruthless strategists kallus red AA die sounds awesome, but it has a few things going against it. It gets obstructed more often than you would think, and believe it or not you really want your quasar shooting at ships- I mean you said it yourself, the fleet is somewhat lacking in ship to ship firepower- you really need as many dice as you can get in separate packets into the same target as possible. It’s why I put Dcaps on my quasar. And I’ve found that when using ruthless as AA, you really want two sources (and mauler) to really pile the autodamage on quicklyso that you can disengage and get back to bombing ships.

you do need an AA plan though- mine is to slice the carrier and tie things up with zertik dengar tempest and gamma while I bomb the carrier to death- I’ve found it works better for me than trying to just grind down the squad ball at the expense of my own bombers.

Rhymer is still really good. He allows you to threaten areas of the board that your opponent would normally be able to hide in. Tempest is also very good, the versatility of being able to target squads or bomb ships is very nice.

Here is my list for reference

Tie Bombers (400/400)
Empire

Commander: Grand Admiral Thrawn

Objectives: Most Wanted, Contested Outpost, Superior Positions

[flagship] Imperial I-class Star Destroyer (110)
- Grand Admiral Thrawn (32)
- Leading Shots (4)
- Boosted Comms (4)
- Strategic Adviser (4)
- Quad Battery Turrets (5)
= 159 total points

Quasar Fire I-class Cruiser-Carrier (54)
- Boosted Comms (4)
- Disposable Capacitors (3)
= 61 total points

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23)
- Bomber Command Center (8)
= 31 total points

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23)
- Slicer Tools (7)
= 30 total points

Squadrons (119/134):
1x Major Rhymer Tie Bomber Squadron (16)
1x Gamma Squadron TIE Bomber Squadron (10)
5x Tie Bomber Squadron (45)
1x Zertik Strom TIE Advanced Squadron (15)
1x Tempest Squadron TIE Advanced Squadron (13)
1x Punishing One - Dengar (20)

QBT is a really good turbolaser for thrawn because he gives you a lot of speed control since you are typically (at least for the first 3 ish turns) going to be locking nav a lot. One trick I picked up is thrawning nav the first turn if they don't have slicers. Worst case, all your ships get a nav token turn 1. In some cases though, you can dial + token to blow off the line fast and jam an ISD right down their throat. Doing the unexpected is what makes thrawn good. Especially since once you are in their face you can always squad + nav to slow back down. Dropping to 0 is also a nice trick.

I agree with Sam the Quasar II flak is more kitchy than effective. Obstruction is a real issue. I'm running my Quasar Fire with title, Flight Controllers, Brunson, and Boosted Coms. That's it. Brunson gives her JUUUST enough survivability that if I am using squad+nav to arc dodge Brunson can knock down the damage spikes. Course you can always play the Thrawn 3-of-a-kind and dial CF, discard pursuant to use Squad, and thrawn a nav. Works well with DCAPS for a 3rd turn damage burst.

I hate agreeing with Sam so much, but he is also right unless you can get a 4th activation you are better off with Pryce than SAd. I play a 2 ship thrawn bombers and Pryce is legit there. Be conservative using her, I will sometimes even thrawn turn 1 if I get the feeling they might try to bum rush me. It lets you keep the option to drop to 0 and delay letting the bombers soften things up. You don't really want to jump into combat before you are ready.

Also for the record- if I had been there Thrawn bombers still woulda won, but it wouldn't have been Sam's Thrawn bomber fleet

jk jk everyone knows Sam beats me.