Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170703223814/@comment-454133-20171214071856

Today I flew the resistance bomber:

Crimson Squadron Pilot with Trajectory Simulator + Thermal Detonators + Ordnance Silos + Pattern Analyzer + Deflective Plating

Wookiee Liberator with Predator + Breach Specialist + Tactician

Nera Dantels with Deadeye + Plasma Torpedoes + Extra Munitions + FCS + Guidance Chips

And now that I'm looking at it, I'm kicking myself for not swapping Tactician for Sabine Wren (Crew)

I fought rebel Nym with TLT and other stuff, Horton with TLT and I don't know what else, and two naked Z-95s.

I put Nera on the left, resistance bomber in the center, and the liberator on the right. He packed all his ships together in a square, with the zeds in front. We started by slowrolling, and things only started happening around round 2. My next couple rounds I launched bombs impotently (they hit nothing, not even close), but this scared him into turning away toward the east of the map. From there my Wookie engaged them but took a lot of damage -- turns out TLT is really strong against a wookie that focused instead of reinforcing. ;)  And a Zed rolled 3 crits at range 1 outside of his arc, which really hurt.  In the mean time it took Nera a couple rounds to engage, but her next two rounds did solid damage with torps.  She contributed to the rapid death of Horton (a big relief because his TLT had me worried), and then put a damage or two on Nym.  Crimson was doing okay but not stellar.  I actually started doing a lot of harm once I got into range one and started bombing normally... this ship does normal bombs really well, which makes "Crimson Specialist" kind of appealing.

Once the wookie was dead (actually finished off by a bomblet), it was a mildly damaged Nym and two Zeds (one with shields missing) against Nera and Crimson, both of whom had taken only a bit of shield damage. Crimson spent most of the game stressed though, thanks to choosing to plow through debris for optimal positioning (and I rolled a lot of crits on debris this game...). Damage did start to pile onto Crimson, but he could take it, and he did a great job of blocking and arc-dodging those Zeds. Then Nym's hot green dice cooled, and I was able to finish him. From there it was just a cleanup job, hunting down the Zeds while they failed to get the bomber in arc.

Launch is exceptionally hard to use, so I'm going to need practice with it. I think Nym, TIE Zeb, Sheathipede Zeb , or an Auzituck carrying Sabine crew would be strong with a resistance bomber; that's a solid damage boost for a ship that really loves bombing the snot out of its victims. Advanced Sensors + Cluster Mines seem really solid for that PS 1 Crimson Specialist. I especially like the idea of Sheathipede Zeb coordinating a higher-PS resistance bomber with Engine Upgrade and Trajectory Simulator, allowing it to boost before its activation to aim its launch and be more unpredictable. That has potential, but it might be too much investment. No idea, needs testing!

But for a mere 25 point base cost, this is a 12-health monster that can pack 4 bombs or just Bomblets on the cheap. And its large base makes it a great blocker. The underwhelming dial is still way better than the Lambda, plus the turret takes some of the heat off of it... it can meander about dropping bombs and blocking ships, and still shoot behind itself. That's really solid.

I've taken to the Resistance Bomber, might even pick up a second one. The problem is storage... I just don't know how I'm gong to store yet another absurdly large ship that doesn't fit in my other boxes, and this ship is covered in detail I don't want breaking off. >_>

Everyone went home early today so I only got one match in. I'm hoping to play my empire and scum lists sometime soon too!