They're coming soon and no one is talking much about them. This might be fun:

Academy Tie- 12

Academy Tie- 12

Tempest Squad + Homing= 26

Scimitar Squad + Cluster Missiles + Seismic charge = 22

Captain Jonas + Proton Torps + Seismic charge = 28

I'm not convinced about bombs and could certainly upgrade to another round of torpedoes for the Scimitar squad. Academy ties muck it up the 3 missile carriers take it slow and unload, use tempest to ensure the highest priority target takes a bit hit.

Anyone want to run the numbers on Cluster vs. Homing vs. Proton torpedoes vs. assault missiles vs... well you get the point... when you are re-rolling 2 dice per attack? I think Cluster missiles get really nasty since you can reroll 2 x the dice.

And Swarms...

Scimitar X 4

Academy Pilot x 3

or maybe

Scimitar + siesmic charge X2

Obsidian Squad X3

Captain Yorr...

and for fun

AP X3

Alpha X2

Scimitar + Seismic charge + Advanced proton torpedo + concussion missile

Though you could go to gamma and drop the seismic charges...

Yes, it's quite telling that Miniature Market is sold out of TIE bombers, but when I checked last they still had 65 B-wings. I wonder what kinds of cool lists people will come up with...

@Rakky Wistol, I like the build. But with Captain Jonus I think dropping the Seismic Charges is a safe bet. Or better yet, keep the Seismic Charges, but give Jonus' Proton Torpedoes to the Scimitar Squadron Piot. After all, Jonus doesn't let himself reroll. Hmm...maybe in that case it would be good to use the points for the Scimitar's seismic Charges to upgrade him to a Gamma Sq. Pilot (thanks Ravncat for getting me thinking about that). This could make acquiring Target Locks easier.

I don't have the math for Cluster Missiles, but I agree that Jonus will make them dangerous.

As for me, I want to try TIE bombers with Proton Bombs:

4x Scimitar Sq. Pilot (Concussion Missiles, Proton Bombs)

If my opponent is naive enough to run straight at me, we can drop our payloads and Koiogran 5 behind them. I don't think it would work in tournament settings, but still, having that many bombs just seems wicked cool!

Jonas' ability does not work on himself, so I would drop any none bomb ordinance on him and keep him cheap. You could then give him squad leader to allow your other ships 2 actions on the rounds you have them firing ordinance or you could upgrade both Tie Fighters to Black Squadron with 'draw their fire' to keep the bombers crit free for a bit longer. You could even give Jonas squad leader and upgrade 1 Tie for the best of both worlds.

Squad Leadering your Tempest via Jonas would make its Homing Missiles quite lethal. You could fire your Cluster Missiles the same turn and with Jonas reroll ability be pretty certain of success with them. If you waited a turn and squad leadered the Scimitar so it had lock and focus and Jonas reroll, it becomes lethal. Lock to fire, reroll misses with Jonas and focus to change those eyeballs.

The other beauty of keeping Jonas naked is that your opponent really has to think about which ship to hit first. With Jonas set up as you have him, he will be target priority one.

Is taking Jonas without any ordinance really worth taking at all?

I've run:

2x Tie Advanced w/ Cluster Missiles

Scimitar Squadron w/ Proton Torp

Jonas w/ PtL and Homing Missile.

Its brutally effective - the cluster missiles are fairly likely to end up with 3 hits on each attack, and with the advanceds out in front, the bombers have enough range to fire the homing missile and the proton torp.

Jonas ability alone is worth his points as it allows you to somewhat make up for having to spend target locks to fire missiles and torps. So yes, he is very worth taking without ordinance. Adding squad leader makes him a very effective support ship. If you add ordinance he suffers from the same problems all other missile boats do, namely either having to spend two turns setting up a shot (one to lock, one to focus) or firing expensive ordinance with a good chance of scoring no damage. That probably then means using PtL on him, which 'benefits' only him and makes him more expensive and less utilitarian.

The best ordinance on him is actually a bomb, Seismic or Proton as they require no action to use, are nasty and still allow him the full support roll.

Is taking Jonas without any ordinance really worth taking at all?

Is Howlrunner worth taking without any ordnance?

Jonus himself won't fire missiles any better than a baseline Bomber (or Advanced) would. He boosts everyone around him. Putting missiles on other ships - which can benefit from his ability - improves their overall effectiveness.

I'm not sure I'd combine Jonus and any sort of bombs in a squad, though. Jonus needs to be at Range 1 to provide his boosts, which means you're at threat for damaging your own ships when you drop.

Is taking Jonas without any ordinance really worth taking at all?

Absolutely. Think of him as a beefier Howlrunner.

Is taking Jonas without any ordinance really worth taking at all?

Is Howlrunner worth taking without any ordnance?

I don't follow. I thought that by herself she is a rather good fighter? So I'd say yes?

Is taking Jonas without any ordinance really worth taking at all?

Jonus himself won't fire missiles any better than a baseline Bomber (or Advanced) would.

Perhaps he would be the same as a TIE Advanced. I thought the general consensus was that Advanced other then Vader ISN'T worth the costs? If they aren't worth taking then???

Jonas ability alone is worth his points as it allows you to somewhat make up for having to spend target locks to fire missiles and torps. So yes, he is very worth taking without ordinance. Adding squad leader makes him a very effective support ship. If you add ordinance he suffers from the same problems all other missile boats do, namely either having to spend two turns setting up a shot (one to lock, one to focus) or firing expensive ordinance with a good chance of scoring no damage. That probably then means using PtL on him, which 'benefits' only him and makes him more expensive and less utilitarian.

The best ordinance on him is actually a bomb, Seismic or Proton as they require no action to use, are nasty and still allow him the full support roll.

Interesting... his ability alone? Then you are right he is acting more in a support roll than a bomber. I didn't follow it that way, I was still trying to consider him as an effective bomber.

That's still a lot of point for a guy that doesn't have shields isn't it? If you get him in close for bombs then you'll really need his covering ships won't you?

With Jonas out there now does that make a TIE Advanced with a Cluster Missile more viable or are CMs still a bad choice? What about an Advanced (other than Vader) with a different missile?

Is taking Jonas without any ordinance really worth taking at all?

Absolutely. Think of him as a beefier Howlrunner.

With the TIE Bombers maneuver dial he's a beefier Howlrunner???

CM's with Jonas buffing become VERY viable, especially if you use squad leader to give a focus. In general, Jonas with Squad leader for 24 points makes ALL Torps and Missiles better and can really help with HLC's as well.

If you use him with Krassis Trellix for example, Krassis will be able to reoll 3 attack dice on missiles/torps/HLC.

Is taking Jonas without any ordinance really worth taking at all?

Absolutely. Think of him as a beefier Howlrunner.

With the TIE Bombers maneuver dial he's a beefier Howlrunner???

Beefier doesn't imply better in every respect, just more substantial. He's bigger, both physically (more hull) and points-wise.

People compare Jonus and Howlrunner because they have the same sort of support ability - both allow other ships to reroll attack dice.

Yes, Howlrunner is a decent TIE on her own, but there's very little point to taking her if you're not going to use her ability. You're better off with Mauler or Backstabber, who are a few points cheaper and will provide more offensive punch, or Dark Curse, who will have better survivability.

If you put Jonus in a squad, it will be to leverage his ability to improve the secondary weapons of his allies, not because of what he does directly. This may mean missiles, which will for all intents and purposes have an extra target lock reroll option. It could be with a Bounty Hunter's HLC, which gets the benefit as well.

But consider Jonus without any secondary weapons in your squad at all. His ability is wasted points, and the Bomber doesn't stack up favorably to other options for what to do with those points.

So you don't put Jonus in your squad to fight, you put him in to support the others and help them fight.

Let's take an example squad with Jonas (could be one of many squads, it's for emphasizing the point)

Total Squad Points: 99

Pilot: Tempest Squadron Pilot
Tie Advanced (21)
Upgrades:

• Cluster Missiles (4)

Pilot: Krassis Trelix
Firespray-31 (36)
Upgrades:

• Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
• Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)
• Slave-1 (0)

Pilot: Colonel Jonas
Tie Bomber (22)
Upgrades:

• Squad Leader (2)

With Jonas set up as he is, he can allow Trellix to reroll both HLC dice, which synergies with Trellix own ability. He can help with Trellix Advanced Proton Torpedoes by allowing rerolls and he can help the tempest pilot by providing rerolls on the missiles. He can also give the other two pilots an extra action.

Let's use Tempest Squadron as an example.

Tempest Squadron moves and Target Locks an X-Wing. Jonas moves and gives a focus action to Tempest via Squad Leader.

Tempest fires it's CM at the X-Wing. The first missile rolls "hit" and two blanks. Jonas allows two dice to be rerolled, so the two blanks, they come up 2 hits, so missile one has three hits now instead of one. X-wing evades one with defense dice. 2 shields down.

Tempest rolls for CM 2, scores 1 focus a crit and a miss. Jonas allows the rerolls, tempest rerolls the miss and gets a focus. So far only one hit. Now tempest uses his focus (given by Jonas for squad leader) to get 2 hits and a crit. The X-wing evades one hit with defense dice. One hull point is lost and a second is lost plus a crit. The crit turns out to be double damage. Dead X-Wing.

Without Jonas, the Tempest would have scored only one hit for CM 1 and no damage and 1 crit for CM 2 and no resulting damage.

That is how useful Jonas is :-)

With Trellix he's even better.

Why are people not fans of Jonus having a missile of his own? For 8 points (ptl + homing missile) you can virtually guarantee 4 hits on a ship to go with the rest of your ordinance. That 8 points isn't going to buy you another ship, though I suppose it will buy you another missile on a different bomber, but I think you want to get rid of the ordnance as quickly as possible by spreading it out across as many ships as possible.

Why are people not fans of Jonus having a missile of his own? For 8 points (ptl + homing missile) you can virtually guarantee 4 hits on a ship to go with the rest of your ordinance. That 8 points isn't going to buy you another ship, though I suppose it will buy you another missile on a different bomber, but I think you want to get rid of the ordnance as quickly as possible by spreading it out across as many ships as possible.

Not sure how you believe it guarantees 4 hits. his ability does not work on himself. Assuming you wanbt PTL on there to make sure there is a focus and target lock is still far from a guarantee of 4 hits.

Tough, I think, while his ability is great in a list with other missile carrying ships, by himself, he's the cheapest way of running a bomber with deadeye with the lowest pilot skill possible. Deadeye seems great where you can get multiple uses for it....

That's something I hadn't considered until this thread - does Jonus breathe new life into the TIE Advanced? A TIE Bomber is a cheaper missile platform, but a bit less maneuverable, less agile, and more susceptible to Critical Hits.

• Tempest Squadron + Cluster Missiles x 3 = 75 points
• Captain Jonus + Squad Leader = 24 points

He plays well with Vader, but then who doesn't?

No love for Rhymer?

No love for Rhymer?

I really wish I could, but he's a one trick pony - ATPs at range 2. That's strong, but not exactly busted for what you're spending in terms of points. I just think there are more competitive options out there.

Why are people not fans of Jonus having a missile of his own? For 8 points (ptl + homing missile) you can virtually guarantee 4 hits on a ship to go with the rest of your ordinance. That 8 points isn't going to buy you another ship, though I suppose it will buy you another missile on a different bomber, but I think you want to get rid of the ordnance as quickly as possible by spreading it out across as many ships as possible.

Not sure how you believe it guarantees 4 hits. his ability does not work on himself. Assuming you wanbt PTL on there to make sure there is a focus and target lock is still far from a guarantee of 4 hits.

Excel tells me that a homing missile with a target lock + focus yields a 93.75% chance of 4 hits. That's close enough to guaranteed for me, and it pans out in game as well as I can't recall the last time I fired a Homing missile with focus and a lock that I didn't get 4 hits.

wait. are you spending a TL to fire the missile then spending another TL to reroll?

Homing Missiles don't spend the lock.