Alright, I've been doing quite a bit of theory crafting with Bombers since points came out. I'm very pleased with the squads I've built thus far.

I mostly want to see what people are coming up with for swarm or mini-swarm builds.

My favorites so far:

• Col. Jendon (46) [60]
  • Admiral Sloane (10)
  • HLC (4)
• Scimitar Sq Pilot (28) [35] x4 = [140]
  • Cluster Missiles (5)
  • Munitions Failsafe (2)

This seems like a really sweet list. It telegraphs for quite some time, but will punish enemies who do linked actions, red maneuvers, and shoot your Bombers. The Bombers should make people not want to fly in formation with their Cluster Missiles.

• Whisper (52) [56]
  • Juke (4)
• Scimitar Sq Pilot (28) [36] x4 = [144]
  • Barrage Missiles (6)
  • Munitions Failsafe (2)

This seems a little janky with such a light Whisper, but I think Juke will really make Whisper sing. That alone makes her terrifying. I want to play around with Whisper with Juke and Sloane with Inferno Squadron as well, but that's not what this thread's about. Soontir could fit as well with room for a bid, which wouldn't be unwelcome.

I've mostly spent my time crafting around Missiles, so I'm welcome to hear what other Bomber pilots have to say!

I must be the only one who doesn't like Clusters. Spending points to get a 3 die range 2 missile that has the opportunity to spend more charges for an unmodded shot on a different ship doesn't sound like good value for 5 points. If these gave a range bonus I'd like them a lot more, but as is these have to be the weakest missile available.

I've been wondering about Moff Jerjerrod, skilled bombardier and proton bombs.

Surely there's something in a two or three bomber formation throwing a 1 bank left then using a 2 bank right to drop protons or seismic to punish anyone trying to flank on that side?

Other than that, jendon seems like a good choice for missile or torpedo build support, possibly with Krennic to give himself the lock action and use his own ability.

Enthusiasm for clusters will probably melt with actual practice, but it is a high-charge, 3-die attack for 5 points

You can modify its extra attack with guys like Jonus or Deathrain/redline who can generate additional mods with their abilities

Wouldn't use it outside those guys, though

Ps: we got a look at barrage missles? Haven't seen em yet

5 minutes ago, HolySorcerer said:

I must be the only one who doesn't like Clusters. Spending points to get a 3 die range 2 missile that has the opportunity to spend more charges for an unmodded shot on a different ship doesn't sound like good value for 5 points. If these gave a range bonus I'd like them a lot more, but as is these have to be the weakest missile available.

They aren't my favorite. I think I'd rather have Barrage or Ion, I think. I might actually throw Ions in for an annoying amount of control, but this was an initial build. The Whisper build came first. I haven't gotten anything on the table as of yet, so I don't really know how all the missiles perform. I have a sneaking suspicion that Homing Missiles might be better than they appear since they do roll 4 dice and will almost always have at least one hit.

1 minute ago, ficklegreendice said:

Ps: we got a look at barrage missles? Haven't seen em yet

Yeah, it's in the Reddit post. It's improved over Unguided. Regular 3 die attack, 2 slots, 5 charges, when in BEA you can spend a charge to reroll a dice. Also, focus to fire, which is a big deal.

5 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

Enthusiasm for clusters will probably melt with actual practice, but it is a high-charge, 3-die attack for 5 points

You can modify its extra attack with guys like Jonus or Deathrain/redline who can generate additional mods with their abilities

Wouldn't use it outside those guys, though

Ps: we got a look at barrage missles? Haven't seen em yet

If only we had some way of holding locks on two targets at once, then they might be usable. Perhaps some kind of weapons engineer who could sit at the controls of our weapons systems and help improve our targeting.

Whoops, they gave that ability to a noisy trashcan instead. Which everyone but the empire can take.

6 minutes ago, Praetorate of the Empire said:

They aren't my favorite. I think I'd rather have Barrage or Ion, I think. I might actually throw Ions in for an annoying amount of control, but this was an initial build. The Whisper build came first. I haven't gotten anything on the table as of yet, so I don't really know how all the missiles perform. I have a sneaking suspicion that Homing Missiles might be better than they appear since they do roll 4 dice and will almost always have at least one hit.

I suspect homing missiles will complement cluster - four dice or a guaranteed damage to chip at high agility ships or clear off stealth devices vs bonus unmodded attacks effective against low agility targets.

Oh hey, those look rad

Can you still not mod dice apart from focus (and bullseye benefit)? If you get additional mods, I'd basically set up every bomber (and gressor) with those buggers because they seem really **** solid

As for the "light whisper" thing from the OP, I don't think we should weigh ourselves down with a 1.0 mentality. Whisper isn't the bullcrap point sponge she used to be, and clocking in at 56 points (28 in 1.0) for all she offers seems really **** solid

7 minutes ago, HolySorcerer said:

If only we had some way of holding locks on two targets at once, then they might be usable. Perhaps some kind of weapons engineer who could sit at the controls of our weapons systems and help improve our targeting.

Whoops, they gave that ability to a noisy trashcan instead. Which everyone but the empire can take.

Literally Redline

Though you really don't need double locks, just one lock to fire and then a focus if you want to mod the second shot

3 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

Oh hey, those look rad

Can you still not mod dice apart from focus (and bullseye benefit)? If you get additional mods, I'd basically set up every bomber (and gressor) with those buggers because they seem really **** solid

As for the "light whisper" thing from the OP, I don't think we should weigh ourselves down with a 1.0 mentality. Whisper isn't the bullcrap point sponge she used to be, and clocking in at 56 points (28 in 1.0) for all she offers seems really **** solid

Literally Redline

Though you really don't need double locks, just one lock to fire and then a focus if you want to mod the second shot

Barrage Rockets can be fully modded like any other attack.

Sure Redline and Jonus can make good use of Clusters for the second attack, but it would have been nice for the low I Imperial bombers to have access to R3 in the form of a gunner upgrade. Lack of an EPT on Redline is a bit out of place too, as it makes the Bombers better at saturating targets than the Punisher.

35 minutes ago, HolySorcerer said:

I must be the only one who doesn't like Clusters. Spending points to get a 3 die range 2 missile that has the opportunity to spend more charges for an unmodded shot on a different ship doesn't sound like good value for 5 points. If these gave a range bonus I'd like them a lot more, but as is these have to be the weakest missile available.

I had the impression that you don't spend a Change for the Bonus attack? ?

2 minutes ago, HolySorcerer said:

Barrage Rockets can be fully modded like any other attack.

Sure Redline and Jonus can make good use of Clusters for the second attack, but it would have been nice for the low I Imperial bombers to have access to R3 in the form of a gunner upgrade. Lack of an EPT on Redline is a bit out of place too, as it makes the Bombers better at saturating targets than the Punisher.

But Trajectory Simulator makes the Punisher such a beast in the Alpha Strike. Sure, some people will be able to get away from thrown bombs, but it'll be hard.

Do you mean access to past R3, like LRS? Kind of a bummer, but got around it by having Jendon around and fairly cheap in a durable chassis.

Just now, TheRealStarkiller said:

I had the impression that you don't spend a Change för the Bonus attack? ?

Oh, hey, that's a thing. Neat. That does change their viability a bit.

3 minutes ago, TheRealStarkiller said:

I had the impression that you don't spend a Change for the Bonus attack? ?

Nope, you have to spend a charge if you elect to take the bonus attack. You just do the attack all over again fresh, just without the lock requirement. They would be much better otherwise, not great, but better.

Just now, HolySorcerer said:

Nope, you have to spend a charge if you elect to take the bonus attack. You just do the attack all over again fresh, just without the lock requirement. They would be much better otherwise, not great, but better.

Ah, this attack is the kicker. Good catch.

56pt Whisper is legit. Dunno about the bombers but I wouldn't be worrying about him.

32 minutes ago, HolySorcerer said:

Nope, you have to spend a charge if you elect to take the bonus attack. You just do the attack all over again fresh, just without the lock requirement. They would be much better otherwise, not great, but better.

This would mean you would not need to stop performing bonus attacks until all your charges are gone in a single turn, since if you do it all over, you would get to chose to spend a Charge to do a Bonus attack after each attack

7 minutes ago, TheRealStarkiller said:

This would mean you would not need to stop performing bonus attacks until all your charges are gone in a single turn, since if you do it all over, you would get to chose to spend a Charge to do a Bonus attack after each attack

"Attack(target lock): Spend one charge. After this attack, you may perform this attack as a bonus attack against a different target at range 0-1 of the defender ignoring the Target Lock requirement."

Doesn't read to me as being able to be chained as you suggested.

18 minutes ago, TheRealStarkiller said:

This would mean you would not need to stop performing bonus attacks until all your charges are gone in a single turn, since if you do it all over, you would get to chose to spend a Charge to do a Bonus attack after each attack

Except the devs said that no ship may ever perform more than one bonus attack per round.

So you spend a Change, do the attack and a Bonus attack, if the condition is met, to do this attack again without spending another charge

2 minutes ago, ClassicalMoser said:

Except the devs said that no ship may ever perform more than one bonus attack per round.

The would be broken of course

2 minutes ago, TheRealStarkiller said:

So you spend a Change, do the attack and a Bonus attack, if the condition is met, to do this attack again without spending another charge

The wording doesn't exclude the charge cost for the bonus attack, just the Target Lock requirement.

2 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

The wording doesn't exclude the charge cost for the bonus attack, just the Target Lock requirement.

It does also not say to spend another charge to perform the Bonus attack

13 minutes ago, TheRealStarkiller said:

It does also not say to spend another charge to perform the Bonus attack

This is feeling like a repeat of the Torani Kulda pilot skill last year. Is the wording ment to have the implied meaning that some of us see or is it ment to 100% literal like that ability turned out to be? With that ability as a reference I'm leaning towards agreeing with you but I think a ruling from the devs might be in order.

Pretty sure they've also already said that every ship is limited to one bonus attack per round.

1 hour ago, TheRealStarkiller said:

This would mean you would not need to stop performing bonus attacks until all your charges are gone in a single turn, since if you do it all over, you would get to chose to spend a Charge to do a Bonus attack after each attack

Core rules state that a ship may only perform one bonus attack per round.