Ryhmer is a really awful joke on Imperial players. He has a cool ability that only works with ordinance that is already overcosted AND the cost of the pilot is overcosted as well. Then you plug him into a ship that has a lumbering dia and pretty much make it mandatory that he take PTL so he can fire that ordinance before he gets toasted by concentrated fire. Good luck if you see an Etahn swarm...MunFailsafe is be a must take on him thus again increasing his cost to ensure his efficacy. The good Major has a nice sounding ability, but it still requires a lot of build support to reduce all the RNG factors to make his ability actually worth the points.

Imo, there's no way he should be ten points more than the base Tie Bomber pilot. They got the pricing wrong since Jonus is way more effective and provides essential support and reduces RNG. The guys at FFG don't seem to know how to price things that bypass the randomness of the game.

For a 100 pt game NO Rhymer isn't worth the points. For an Epic game he is worth EVERY Point!!!

Bombers are great in any game that's over 100 points!! You can finally afford Ordinance!!

Well...

its been almost a year sice I posted this topic.

And still ... Rhymer's ability isn't worth 5 points.

Agreed, 26 points is very steep. I'm guessing that they put such a high price on him not so much because of his ability as the fact that he's slinging ordnance at PS 7. There's a lot of added value for high PS with ordnance because of the approach and the TL.

Horton is PS 8 in a ship that has 2 point higher base cost and is still a point cheaper than Rhymer. He's got an ability that is arguably as good for ordnance as Rhymer's is but that works even if no extra points are spent on him.

I'm almost convinced that Rhymer's cost is a typo that made it to the printer without anyone catching it until it was too late to do anything about it.

Haha, thats exactly what I thought ... a year ago.

Rhymers ability is only good for APTs (or NOW Proton Rockets with Stealth - if you like this combo)

There are no other warhreads in the pipe that would help him. (a range 2 only missile would be cool for Rhymer)

If he could carry a heavy cannon, a HLC or an Autoblaster would be so cool on him.

For a 100 pt game NO Rhymer isn't worth the points. For an Epic game he is worth EVERY Point!!!

Bombers are great in any game that's over 100 points!! You can finally afford Ordinance!!

Bombers are great in any game.

I took 4 Scimitars and 3 Academies to great success.

The main problem is that the 36 points invested in Tie Fighters have a much higher revenue then invested in ordnance for your bombers. So the bombers remain empty and get a fighter escord. In epic games the bombers actually get ordnance to toy with.

His ability should be all friendly units including himself, within 1 range have their secondary weapon attack range expanded by 1.

That would be nice and might be worth the points, but I think it would just turn him into another Jonus. He'd be flying around buffing squads with cannons (and turrets if Imperial ever get a ship that can use them). I imagine that Autoblaster Brath would be a good friend of his.

Every new piece of ordnance makes him better as they are giving ordnance more reasonable points costs.

That said, I want to try him with Cluster Missiles. He can boost the range to 3.

I came up with the idea of using Major Rhymer with 2 x Advanced Proton Torpedoes + Marksmanship. I'm obviously not the first (there is a separate thread in this forum that discussed that). In the end I went with:

Major Rhymer (Bomber) + Veteran Instincts + 2 x Advanced Torpedoes

Captain Kagi (Lambda) + Fleet Officer

Carnor Jax + Targeting Computer

Only 97 points and Veteran Instincts because I've been coming up against pilot skill 9 craft a lot, especially Phantoms, and I wanted to be sure of getting first shot off. Rhymer of course to extend the torp's range to 2. Kagi to soak up the target locks, Jax to get in close and restrict the Focus / Evades (he was very annoying), and Fleet Officer to give both Rhymer and Jax a Focus, especially Rhymer so he can be sure to score 5 hits with each torp.

On the other side was Wedge (X), Luke (X), Dutch (Y) and one of the higher level Z-95s sharing a couple of bonus cards.

I was lucky because the plan had to come together with each ship in it's right position and at least Rhymer and Kagi getting actions. On the second turn, first firing, Luke was taken out with some help, then Rhymer K-turned and came back on the 4th round to take out the Z-95. As I expected, from then on things got a lot harder.

It finished with the only two suviving ships, Wedge and Major Rhymer going head to head and taking each other out with simultaneous fire. So a draw. My only draw ever so far. One of the most fun games I have ever played.

Thoughts:

- Kagi's soak up the target locks idea wasn't so successful in the first two rounds (only 1) but then worked well for a few rounds,

- The shuttle got I think only one shot off and then was near impossible to turn around. In the end he ended up running off the side of the board (by about 5mm but that was enough). So if I'm going to use a shuttle I will need more practise with it.

- Maybe I could put the Fleet Officer on a more maneuverable ship, or maybe give up the Veteran Instincts, go back to the Marksmanship idea and escort him with a couple of 9ers.

- Maybe replace one of the torps with a range 3 option (torp or missile).

- Or maybe loose Rhymer, and try the Adv Prot Torp + Marksmanship on two more capable craft albeit stuck with the range 1 if I'm lucky.

A lot of the fun in this game is coming up with those squad designs.

May the force be with you and long live the emperor.

No.

Bombers are great, certainly in Epic.

In a small 60x60 arena with a 60 points each game Rhymer is good as well.

In a standard 100 points game it is more difficult.

The thing is, people are getting drawn to the idea of fully equiping a ship. Logically, why else do you have four secondary weapon slots? But is that the reason? Isn't the reason to give you the choice of 2 missiles, 2 torps, or one each, or one in combination with a bomb?

Does anyone fly fully loaded x wings, y wings, or b wings?

No, it is not worth it. But Rhymer tempts you to load up with 2 advanced proton torps and 2 prockets. But don't

Just go for, let's say an advanced proton torp and a flechette torp. Forget amo failsafe you don't need it with the advanced torp, if you get munition failure as damage lose the flechette.

Give a higher ps pilot like vader (or howlrunner if you want to go cheap) squad leader so rhymer doesn't need ptl for his primary torp. And suddenly he just costs 33 points, for a nice first punch. After that he can be a ps7 tank.

Works fine.

If we really would need fully loaded bomber we would need a bomber only title/mod, giving a 1 or 2 point discount on torps and missiles.

Gotta go, kid wakes up :-)

Think we will see a similar fix to Bombers as we did with Advanced. Somthing like:

Title

Cost: 0p

You may equip one Missile, Torpedo or Bomb at 3p reduced price

Tbh that's what the bomber needs to really shine

Think we will see a similar fix to Bombers as we did with Advanced. Somthing like:

Title

Cost: 0p

You may equip one Missile, Torpedo or Bomb at 3p reduced price

Tbh that's what the bomber needs to really shine

I think this should be a Modification to allow for effective use of ordnance on other ships as well. Also there should be a restriction of: reduce the cost by 3 points, to a minimum of 1 point. To prevent free PRockets, Ion Pulse, Flechettes, Prox mines and seismics.

But then the Bomber should have a Title to make it make it stand out over other ordnance carriers, and be something that allows the generics to reliably use ordnance as they have trouble securing the much needed Target Lock:

Tie Bomber Mark 2 - 2 points

Tie Bomber Only. Title

"Treat the header of equipped secondary weapons as ATTACK. You are not required to spend a token when using secondary weapons if instructed to do so."

Every new piece of ordnance makes him better as they are giving ordnance more reasonable points costs.

That said, I want to try him with Cluster Missiles. He can boost the range to 3.

What about:

Clusters are 4 points a piece, but I do agree that that is a more reliable Rhymer (with Predator). Probably the only way I would attempt to run him in the current game state.

Clusters are 4 points a piece...

Doh!

Does anyone fly fully loaded x wings, y wings, or b wings?

I have a couple times, Horton Salm with a double load of torpedoes, a Turret and an Astromech

I played against 2 rebel builds (not so much fun with those shields and what not) but I did beat out a TIE swarm (one of those 5 Black Squadron with pred/outmaneuver + night beast) That was more fun with Horton's rerolls working with his proton torpedoes and the crit from the card them selves

You people should see the face of my opponents when they finally line up the APT shot on my decimator and I use "Countermeasures"...

I hate it to say this but Jonus should be 21 points and Rhymer 22 points.

Jonus is alright still for 22, though ....

Rhymer ... well ...

just wait for a fix ...

for Bombers or for ordnance or even both

Major Rhymer wins all the rap battles.

He'll do better when ordnance does better.

OMG idea for a T/B improvement (not saying fix, a fix would be improving ordnance).

replace (2 torp or 2 mis) with (1 cannon) for like 2 points.

Major Rhymer wins all the rap battles.

He'll do better when ordnance does better.

OMG idea for a T/B improvement (not saying fix, a fix would be improving ordnance).

replace (2 torp or 2 mis) with (1 cannon) for like 2 points.

so you would pay 2 points for the cannon slot, 5 points for Rhymers ability ... and for the cannon itself ... I guess you are looking for the Autoblaster ... this would be 12 points for a range 1-2 Autoblaster then.

Oh no this isn't specific to Rhymer, but yeah, that'd work.

I was actually kinda thinking HLC.

A 16 + 2 + 7 HLC Bomber for 25 points?

This would be effective of course ... but ... this isn't the Tie Bomber.

Unless your title card is unique.

It'd be some kind of secret weapons of the Empire style modification. So yeah, would not be a Tie Bomber anymore, would be a TIE Biggun.

Placing a HLC on a Rhymer would mean nobody ever would ever field a Defender, would they?

I can't see that happening to be honest.

Jonus seems fine as he is. He also one of the few Imperial pilots giving a buff to others.

Rhymer, is good for Rhymer, but when loaded with one or two things he will do fine.

A bit on the expensive side, but manageble ;-)

If Rhymer's ability allowed to change range of secondaries to 1-3, regardless whats printed on the upgrade card,

he may be worthwhile.

Imagine Proton Rockets and Advanced Proton Torpedos up to range 3.

Still expensive but effective enough to justify the 5 points for his ability.

Without the "Range 1-3" limit, Rhymer would be great.