I really think tie bombers an b-wings, as well as a lambda shuttle will add a lot of scope for scenarios. also the b wing is my fave rebel ship i never really played much x wing on the pc but i played tie fighter to death. hopefully i can convince my opponents to be the good guys . .

Those would be nice but lets wait till the game actually comes out.

I know, waiting sucks.

GorFrag said:

Amen Brother!

i really dont want to wait id buy this right now

Question however...

if this is a dog fighting game, what use are bombers? Sure they hit hard but generally they're no match for a fighter. Will there be bombing missions in this game? or will bombers be tweaked to be able to dog fight?

I guess if the falcon can out fly tie fighters any thing is posable.

I was going to say something to that effect, but I feel I've been a wet blanket sufficiently already. Truly, though, at starfighter scale I can only see the Y-Wing and B-Wing as even remotely useable. Though they may appear (esp. Y-wing), more useful to see A-Wings, TIE Interceptors, a few "uniques",  and then a range of prequel/Clone Wars fighters.

GorFrag said:

An excellent question. I for one am confident that there will be bombing missions -- especially if they are planning on tapping into the nostalgia of the old X-wing and TIE Fighter video games.

There are also rumors about the Slave I and the Millennium Falcon making an appearance in this game. If those rumors are true then bombers may be of strategic value in opposing such larger ships by dealing heavy damage that wouldn't necessarily be able to hit a starfighter.

However, since proton torpedoes are already a part of the game, and all they do is increase attack without any limitations on targeting, it's likely that bombers will be tweaked for dogfighting (probably by exhibiting greater hull/shield values than other starfighters). Just my prediction.

Wings of War WWII had stukas, those are more ore less bombers, and in real life had no buisness dog fighting.

Has anyone here played that game and seen how Dive bombers worked?

That's an exceptionally good question. MY next question was actually going to be, does WoW have Stukas, Dauntlesses and the like? What do they do (as in, how do they factor in)? You answered the first part; a Stuka was indeed a toad of a "fighter." So how it factors in to a WWII fighter game would help give us an idea of not only how a TIE bomber would factor in to "X-Wing," but indeed where the (as yet unrelesed) game would end up going.

IG-58 said:

But, but... ion cannons.

 I hope that the game is not a clone of "wings of war" in space. If the game has a system with bombing missions, the bombers can be in.

 First off, I want bombers too. The Y-wing is my personal favorite of the core Rebel starfighters from the movies (A/B/X/Y - wings).

Second, I believe bombers will still find a place in this game, even though it may be primarily about dogfighting. Obviously they should have a special place in missions, so I will focus on the dogfighting instead. We all agree that bombers are typically at a disadvantage to more nimble classes such as interceptors. I believe this is primarily due to the difference in maneuverability. We cannot say that bombers' weapons are ineffective against other classes; that would be ridiculous. To emphasize this maneuverability disadvantage, the bombers should be given a new set of movement guides. All guides should turn less than 90 degrees to represent the decreased maneuverability. I would also go further by recommending that immelmans (sp.) be unavailable to bombers. They should also have shorter movement guides to represent their slower speed.

So, given the disadvantage of a bomber, why have it on a team? I believe most bombers are useful for long-range assaults. Maybe bombers ought to have a longer range guide that allows them to hit targets a little farther off from the standard fighter. I also agree with Parakitor that they may have some particular efficacy against larger craft such as the Slave I and Millennium Falcon. Another natural benefit is stronger shields and/or stronger hull (more hit points). Finally, as qwertyuoip mentioned, Y-wings and B-wings ought to have ion cannons available. Perhaps an ion cannon has a higher rate of successful hits, but reveals damage cards that disable ship systems without causing damage to hull. Just a thought, but that can be discussed elsewhere.

In summary, I believe that bombers, although not made for dogfighing, have enough benefits to outweigh their costs that there is no reason to omit them from this game or make them like carbon copies of X-wings. The trade-off of hp vs. maneuverability seems balanced to me, and the idea of bombers being good against larger craft will be good for the metagame. 

If the game allows alternate warhead loadouts, bombers could also serve as missile platforms. In the computer game "X-wing Alliance" you had the option of changing the proton torpedo default loadout of b-wings, x-wings and y-wings to a concussion missiles loadout. And, if I remember correctly, the concussion missiles were supposed to be smaller than proton torpedoes, so you could carry more concusion missiles than proton torpedoes (let's say double the capacity). An Y-wing carrying 16 concussion missiles instead of 8 proton torpedoes was a very powerful deterrent against TIE Fighters.

Of course, this depends of how closely the rules of the game would stick to what has been seen at the movies, and how many things they will be willing to incorporate from another sources as the novels, computer games and RPG lines, that are usually considered as "canon" capabilities of the fighters (such as the A-wing's sensor jammer and back-firing blasters, or the B-wing's tracking laser, ¡or even the Y-wing's ion turret!) but are not seen on the movies.

In the old games the bombers were probably less effective in dogfights than specialised fighters, but they were still able to fight, and if an opponent was dumb enough to let the bomber get a clear shot they were toast due to the amount of ion shots and torpedos the bombers fired.

I think B wings might have been closer to the tie defender in capabilities, Y wing with tie bomber, X wing with tie advanced etc

Less manouverability, more shields and armour, and a second crewmember has to give some kind of advantage.

A rule for torpedos like in the old games workshop space battle game would be good, with them represented on the batllefield and with fighters dodging them and being trailed etc.

Also bombers are good for taking out other slower heavier armed ships like other bombers.

I hope it isn't to!

I would be very surprised if bombers did not make an appearance.

First, they give the game far more scope than "my fighters can outfight your fighters." Protecting bombers on their missions is a time-honored mission.

Second, they're a canonical part of the forces we've seen in the films. Very few of the space battles we saw in Episodes 4-6 were all-fighter battles; there were always some bombers involved.

...and lastly, I think they'd be fun, so why not?!