I have recently returned to playing Imperial bomber lists, Firesprays mainly. In my two fleets I haven't felt the need for Rhymer.

400/400 Most Wanted, Hyperspace Assault, Solar Corona
ISD-II, RBD, GT, LS, SAD-viser, Boosted Comms, Jerjerrod. 167
GSD-I, Demolisher, ACM, OE. 77
Gozanti, BCC, Vector. 33
3 Firespray, Tie-B, Tempest, Sabre, Dengar, Mauler. 123

I find Vector to be invaluable with Firesprays. Turn 1 you have the option of flinging them in at speed 4 against fast moving ships or bank a squadron token then do the same on turn 2 with all of them. Mauler and Dengar can also do speed 5 ramming attacks. With vector in the list you get some of the benefits of Rhymer's extra reach due to the increased speed. Once the game gets into its middle turns Firesprays are usually fast enough on their own to keep up with the action. The Rogue ability means you can leave them or send them off after wounded ships trying to escape into a corner. But then Vector is a command one ship so anytime you sense you need a little more speed just plot a squadron command and get that extra boost.

I suppose Corruptor can do the same (even to TIE-Bs) especially on turn 2 but also works well with Chiraneau. With Snipe now a potential to easily kill your intel I think Chiraneau/Corruptor could have its place but the cost is a bit steep.

My other fleet replaces the ISD with a flight controller Quasar and a cheap Arquitens. Now rather than vector (or maybe as well as) I can add Squall to the Quasar and now Firesprays can really alpha strike. Firesprays going speed 2 plus another speed 3 (or 4 with vector or even 5 with AFFM too).

I like Rhymer but no longer feel he is needed even in bomber orientated lists. Perhaps if the slow Tie-Punnisher gets released he will return from exile.

I said it then, and I'll say it again now. The Rhymer Nerf was heavy handed. It went too far.

That said, I would still love to make a list where he shines. The good major deserves better than obscurity.

On 10/3/2018 at 7:21 AM, cynanbloodbane said:

I said it then, and I'll say it again now. The Rhymer Nerf was heavy handed. It went too far.

That said, I would still love to make a list where he shines. The good major deserves better than obscurity.

Very late to this, but figured I would put my $.02 in. I agree that it was to heavy handed. I rarely used him before and never after, I know that lots of people have said that he as an auto-include, but not in my area. To us his trick was that he could attack outside of black AA dice range, something that he can no longer do. And the reason he could do that was to pull the fighters from under the umbrella cover of Gallant Haven, so they Nerfed the counter to Gallant Haven but did not at that time (they have now and boy did the rebel players wine) nerf what it was supposed to counter.

2 hours ago, CDAT said:

To us his trick was that he could attack outside of black AA dice range, something that he can no longer do.

He can still attack outside of QLT range, which would be pretty valuable once SSD hits the tables.

3 hours ago, PT106 said:

He can still attack outside of QLT range, which would be pretty valuable once SSD hits the tables.

why would QLT become a thing on the SSD?

30 minutes ago, Muelmuel said:

why would QLT become a thing on the SSD?

Because combo it with Kallus, PDR and flak (and Annihilator/Ravager) and you get a substantial volume of AA fire. 6-12 dice vs a Yavaris triple tap before flak. Normally the weakness of antisquad upgrades is that a. they're useless part of the time and b. squads can just target something else. Here, it's a reasonably small investment to cover a lot of your points, and they usually have to target it to get any meaningful win.

4 hours ago, PT106 said:

He can still attack outside of QLT range, which would be pretty valuable once SSD hits the tables.

If by QLT you mean Quad laser Turrets attacking out to range 1, I fail to see how you think taking away the counter attack is going to make much difference? Some yes, but very little I think and not enough to justify his points. Now I like the Quad Laser Turrets myself, but most people I talk with think it is not the best option for that slot, so not often seen (reducing his ability more) and once you get to a ship that has three AA dice counter attack is not that big of a deal I think but you may differ.

1 hour ago, CDAT said:

If by QLT you mean Quad laser Turrets attacking out to range 1, I fail to see how you think taking away the counter attack is going to make much difference? Some yes, but very little I think and not enough to justify his points. Now I like the Quad Laser Turrets myself, but most people I talk with think it is not the best option for that slot, so not often seen (reducing his ability more) and once you get to a ship that has three AA dice counter attack is not that big of a deal I think but you may differ.

Lets state it this way - I regularly run Kallus/QLT on my squadronless ISD and often eat most of the opponents squadrons so there is data behind the assumption that Kallus/QLT does make the difference.

So with Rhymer pre nerf he was great as the empire didn't have a wide range of bombers. We now have with upgrades available to the Empire the ability to have speed 5 firesprays and speed 5 Rhymer. This means you are almost guaranteed to hit in early rounds to overwhelm shields and defense tokens