What passes for a rebel bomber focused list these days?

[okkam99 0]

I'm trying to put together a bomber focused list, but I really am not familiar with rebels. I've been an Imperial player pretty much exclusively the entire time I've played. Everything I seem to find is from before the current FAQ.

Any help?

I get individual ships and how they go, but putting it all together is what eludes me.

[JacobBodmer 16]

The "Skeleton" of a rebel bomber list typically looks like this:

 

Assault: Most Wanted (Sometimes precision strike) 
Defense: Fighter Ambush (Other viable options are out there though)
Navigation: Superior Positions

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)
• Flight Commander (3)
• Fighter Coordination Team (3)
• Yavaris (5)
= 68 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Toryn Farr (7)
• Bomber Command Center (8)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 35 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Adar Tallon (10) (Sometimes he hitches a different ride)
= 28 Points

• Up to 135pts of other ships and your commander - don't forget him! (or her, but probably him) Dodonna gets a lot of play for bombers, but Rieekan works well also (see: world champions since forever)

Popular ships are Peltas (AFFM!) Assault Frigates, CR90s, HammerHeads. Occasionally you'll see a MC75 or MC80H1 - but those typically requiring sacrificing some squads. 

Squadrons:
• Jan Ors (19)
• Ten Numb (19)
• 2 x 13-point escorts (26)
• Misc Aces and Squads (usually 4 of them, taking up 70-ish points)
= 134 Points

 

Take a look at some of these threads for more involved discussion:

 

 

 

[The Jabbawookie 4,766]

Just a note about the excellent post above: FCTs aren’t nearly as popular with Yavaris since the FAQ.  You can definitely make a case for putting them on to grant early game speed boosts, but they’re not what I’d call “standard” anymore.  Also, Adar.  Great, but don’t be afraid to drop him if that space is needed.

Edited July 19, 2018 by The Jabbawookie

[ovinomanc3r 4,034]

5 hours ago, The Jabbawookie said:

Just a note about the excellent post above: FCTs aren’t nearly as popular with Yavaris since the FAQ.  You can definitely make a case for putting them on to grant early game speed boosts, but they’re not what I’d call “standard” anymore.  Also, Adar.  Great, but don’t be afraid to drop him in the space if needed.

ftfy

[Parkdaddy 626]

Yavaaris plus Aces is really strong, but there are alternatives to doing well and still having fun. 

Ys plus HWKs with ruthless strategists (AF Mkii) presents a ton of hull to chew through. The trick is to hit your opponent with the Ys before the Intel is gone. 

Massed Bs also presents a lot of hull, plus AA competence, plus heavy AS capability. Combined with Flight Commander, fighter coordination teams, and AFFM!, they almost an effective speed 5.

[Deadshane 710]

Fighter Ambush is also an actually really POOR mission to include.  It hoses your activation advantage.  It will also generally only be chosen when your opponent can outfight you in the squadron battle.

Better options out there.

[JacobBodmer 16]

I realized I neglected to mention, at all, how these parts work together. A brief synopsis:

 

The "Buff" Flotilla - this is the one slinging the Bomber Command Center around. It's often got Toryn as well for those tasty blue dice rerolls. Bright Hope is on there to make it just a hair harder to kill, because your opponent is going to want it dead. Sometimes you'll see it with Boosted Comms and Adar instead of Toryn - this is so it can hand out all the buffs from long range, where it's much safer - but you need some survivable way to deliver Toryn to the fighter battle - this would typically be your 4th+ ship.

Yavaris - pretty self explanatory.  Flight Commander is, IMO, neigh upon mandatory since you don't have access to Boosted Comms, and (probably) don't have the luxury of Relay. Yavaris is your "finisher" other ships (espc Adar's ride) set up the position of your bombers, and then Yavaris makes a pair hit like a truck. Expect Yavaris to die. Every game. People will chase after it with their whole fleet - make them pay dearly to get it. Fighter Coordination Teams on Yavaris, post FAQ, are mostly useful for nudging slower squadrons (B-wings, YT1300s) along in the early game, and, should you survive, helping to re-position your assets for a strike on a second ship next turn. Yavaris is your quasar. It's fragile, but pushes a pile of damage out on your foe, with a squad token (always good to find a way to get her one) you get six attacks, just like a tooled up Quasar. 

The "Spare" Flotilla is optional - but very frequently included. It's a cheap source of a second officer seat for Adar Talon, gives you another deployment/activation, and brings a way to push a pair of squads. This is the least necessary part - depending on the rest of your fleet. He's comfortable hanging back (espc. w. Boosted Comms) to push squads from retaliative safety, and typically won't be a priority target

The Commander's ride (and other ships) can really be anything, experiment! try to focus on things that can support your squad ball somehow - if your ball is a little weak on anti-squadron, try to get some good flak. If they're slow - more FCTs and maybe AFFM! 

 

For the squad ball, Jan provides a much needed source of Intel (losing even 1 key turn of bombing can and will cost you the game) Plus she lends her braces out to (usually) your escorts to help you survive alpha strikes and weather the squad game.

A Pair of escorts is nearly always around because it can be hard to 'hold' enough space with just one, and you want to dictate what your opponent can hurt.

Ten Numb makes it into a lot of lists because, with Adar and Yavaris, he can, on the right day, attack 3 times, which has insane damage potential and can out-right win the squadron game inside of a turn (or 2 at worst)

The rest depend a lot on taste: 

Wedge, Dutch, and Corran are all bombers who contribute substantially to the anti-squad game.

Hera gets to play at being a Flotilla so your 4th+ ship(s) don't need to worry about squad dials.

Luke, Keyan, and Nym are all excellent bombers who can do serious damage (especially w. Yavaris) whereas Nora makes all your bombers a hair better. Luke suffers from having Escort because you can't "hide" him - so he tends to get jumped in the squad mini-game to prevent him from blowing up the death star.

Gold Squadron is a very point-efficient source of bomber-dice.

For generics:

Y-wings offer you cheap, black dice with enough hull to not stress flak too much - but suffer from being really mediocre at anti-squad

B-wings are amazing bombers, reasonably durable, and average in the dogfight, but are just so dog slow, you need to have a plan to get them places.

Scurrgs live comfortably between the Ywing and Bwing, with the hull, speed, and (sadly) anti-squad of the former, but bringing the excellent dice of the latter - you do pay for it with a points premium though.

X-wings are more escort than bomber, your most point efficient source of blue-die for anti squad, but at least get to benefit from the BCC

E-wings are X-wings that pay a premium, both in points and loss of escort, for speed, and the ability to "just say no" to counter attacks.

YT1300s are beefy, slow escorts. Good at what they do (getting shot) but like B-Wings, need a delivery plan.

VCX provide an okay source of anti-squad blue dice, and a lot of hull, but the combination of "heavy" and lack of "bomber" limit their frequency in dedicated bombing lists (post relay nerf)

HWKs don't make the table much - outside of Jan. Jan just gives you a whole lot for her 7pt premium - but sometimes you'll see a pair of generic HWKs instead.

Lancers also don't see much use. They're tied for fastest bomber with E-Wings, and cost as much, but suffer from low hull and only "okay" anti-squad. They are Rogues with Grit though, so they can totally work, People just ... don't usually take them.

Z95s, A-wings, and YT-2400s are all very anti-squad focused, and while they have their place, aren't quite as common due to lack of "bomber".

[okkam99 0]

I'm going to try this out tomorrow and see how it goes..

 

Rebel Bomber Mk1 
Author: okkam99

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 395/400  

Commander: General Dodonna

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

 

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
-  General Dodonna  ( 20  points) 
-  Adar Tallon  ( 10  points) 
-  Fighter Coordination Team  ( 3  points) 
-  Boosted Comms  ( 4  points) 
-  Reinforced Blast Doors  ( 5  points) 
= 148 total ship cost

 

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
-  Yavaris  ( 5  points) 
-  Flight Commander  ( 3  points) 
= 65 total ship cost

 

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Bright Hope  ( 2  points) 
-  Toryn Farr  ( 7  points) 
-  Bomber Command Center  ( 8  points) 
= 35 total ship cost

 

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Comms Net  ( 2  points) 
= 20 total ship cost

 

1 Jan Ors ( 19 points) 
1 Biggs Darklighter ( 19 points) 
2 X-Wing Squadrons ( 26 points) 
1 Nym ( 21 points) 
1 Gold Squadron ( 12 points) 
3 Y-Wing Squadrons ( 30 points) 
= 127 total squadron cost

Card view link

Fleet created with Armada Warlords