First I have to comfess that I haven't bought my wave three stuff yet. I know it makes me a bad person, but wives and babies come first.

Ever since the TIE Fighter PC game I have always had a special place in my heart for the TIE Bomber. I would love to get three of them just to have them. But as I play the game I really am not a fan of torpedoes and missiles. (I haven't even tried using any bombs) One of the first things I tried with my y-wings was giving y-wing two proton torpdeos. I promised my self I would never do that again. Even using a single torpedo or missile seems like a ton of points for a single attack. You can get a Academy Pilot TIE fighter for the price of 3 Proton Torpedoes. I much prefer the Heavy Laiser Cannon.

So my question is this, How do I justify TIE Bombers since what they do is carry a bunch of those secondary weapon upgrades that I never found to be worth their points.

I think the important thing to note is Wave 3 changes the nature of Ordinance quite a bit. Models like Jendon and Jonus and Rhymer, make models more likely to do damage with their Ordinance.

Jendon allows you to get Target Locks onto your Bombers as they close, so when you get to the Alpha strike you are all set up to fire off your missiles.

Jonus, allows Bombers near him to reroll 2 of their Ordinances dice.

Rhymer allow you to increase the range band of your Ordinance, taking your Advanced Proton Torpedoes up to range 1-2 makes them far easier to use.

Then you add to that the fact that there are now better Ordinance available than before I think we are getting to the stage where Missiles and Torpedoes are viable.

Jonus on his own makes missiles worth it now imo. give him squad leader and 3 bomber escorts. Simple and destructive.

I was really disappointed with the results of my 2 bomber, 3 Tie build, but I read about the Jonus + 3 scimitar squadron and it can work pretty well. A lot of damage up front and PTL for target lock and focus + a homing missile on the Captain is a lot of fun. In my first game with it Toggle anticipated all my movements as if psychic against his B and X-wings and ultimately beat me, but it was a tough and close match, and I won two matches against other people that day. I'm going to definitely use this one again. I kind of feel like with these ships you've got to go all in for the crazy alpha strike, at which point the maneuverability is just enough to help you finish off the stragglers, since with a mixed group you go way down in attack value once you use your missiles and still have an intact ship or two to deal with.

Also, using Jonus to get an assault missile to hit one ship just to strip the stealth off another is sooo satisfying.

I didn't think Assault Missile splash damage impacted stealth devices.

EDIT: Looking into this, the FAQ states that if a ship equipped with Stealth Device

Assault missile splash damage doesn't strip stealth from ships...

A TIE Bomber may be able to carry a lot of ordinance but I don't think anyone will/should ever tell you to "load 'em up" as you odds of getting destroyed with something on them is too great. Two or three "extras" seems to be the max you should go for and even then you probably should be utilizing some of the rest of Wave 3's goodies.

One of the first things I tried with my y-wings was giving y-wing two proton torpdeos. I promised my self I would never do that again.

So my question is this, How do I justify TIE Bombers since what they do is carry a bunch of those secondary weapon upgrades that I never found to be worth their points.

As someone who doesn't actually own any TIE Bombers yet (but will hopefully be changing that soon), I will point out that the TIE Bombers have really great maneuver dials compared to Y-Wings. This can be really important when it comes to setting up your missiles/torps, so you may find that you'll have more success with secondary weapons on TIE Bombers.

Further, Wave 3's support ships add lots of new ways to make secondary weapons more effective, mostly by passing Target Locks or Focus Tokens around where needed.

****, then I messed up. Thanks for correcting me! I thought it counted as an attack because I was attacking, as opposed to an asteroid or Darth Vader's crew card, since that's as an action. It wouldn't have changed a lot, but the last couple of moves might have taken longer.

Well, I just won the last two tournaments I've played in; both with Tie-Bomber squads. Those ships are more than competitive.

I'm running three Alpha Interceptors and two Scimitar Bombers. Each bomber has a Proton torp. and a stealth device.

Keep the distance and fire away. The six hitpoints on the bombers and standrad TIE attack rate makes them quite usefull even after having spent their ordinance. The bombers' maneuvre wheel is quite good, and they are capable of dogfighting, especialy when supported by three Interceptors.