I hate the bomber. Help me understand why I'm wrong.

[DrFish]

I've never been able to get the Bomber to work for me. I like the idea of lobbing bombs down field out of range but I always deviate into my own troops (or in that direction). The fact that it doesn't have arcing fire astounds me, and as such it always seems like he's way too exposed getting LOS on decent targets. Even with the Impaler humping his leg, the 12" range just doesn't seem like enough. The enemy is on him before he can get a target worth his points and then next round he's perma engaged, or everything else is.

As I've seen many lists that have the bomber as the only heavy, I also wonder how exactly they can function as a heavy armor cracker. Yeah, POW 16 is great and it's boostable, but it never seems like enough. In melee is pillow fisted and even with a buff doesn't seem to do enough damage.

I love the sculpt, love the potential, but he has never worked for me and as such I'd rather find a way to put a pyre troll in the list :/ Help me!

[Kamahin]

If the bomber is my only heavy, its not my armor cracker. I almost always bring some Champs to bring down armor if I leave EB, Mauler, or Mulg at home.

[Murkhadh]

Are you running an impaler and giving it far strike?

Also using other things to knock down what you want to hit will help.

[PG_Albinoprince]

yea, and there's no cure for bad deviation dice.

[skurkious]

I feel you brother. Every other person in my LGS thinks the Bomber is awesome and they cringe when I put it in the table. Then I watch 4 farstriked blasts deviate directly away from their troops in my first 2 turns and I wonder what they seem to be afraid of. Or they just run up a couple throw away models to keep him in melee. I think he's actually more susceptible to that than Mulg because trampling out of it is exactly what they want.

But on the flip side of that, I've seen a cross-country'ed Bomber take out and entire unit of blood witches, hiding in a forest, in one turn.

[Cleavelander]

I've only run him once, but 2 boosted pow 16s right on a KDd Butcher's head sealed me the win. ymmv.

[PG_Tionas]

I'll reply from the other side of the board. As a Cryxian especially, this model terrifies me.

its durable. Its going to be there throughout the game. Even if I engage it, you can get it un-engaged and start lobbing bombs, again.

at Pow 16, its good to drop on armor (boosted) or troopers. there is no lack of targets for it. (provided arm 20 or less).

With snipe, I fear it will drop bombs over the heads at a range that makes me very, very sad.

Its a good beast, but its not an insurmountable beast. I would make sure that I don't lob it near my own guys, though with trolls, that less of a thing, overall. Give the bomber room to work his magic. I've suffered from its bad side, but I've also caused guys to lament its existence because I locked it down. For my group, that's something that happens to every new piece. I never get to "try them out" because my opponent is always gunning to get rid of the new piece that can muck up their strategy. Stick with 'im. He'll be worth it for ya.

[Beckman]

I've never been able to get the Bomber to work for me. I like the idea of lobbing bombs down field out of range but I always deviate into my own troops (or in that direction). The fact that it doesn't have arcing fire astounds me, and as such it always seems like he's way too exposed getting LOS on decent targets. Even with the Impaler humping his leg, the 12" range just doesn't seem like enough. The enemy is on him before he can get a target worth his points and then next round he's perma engaged, or everything else is.

As I've seen many lists that have the bomber as the only heavy, I also wonder how exactly they can function as a heavy armor cracker. Yeah, POW 16 is great and it's boostable, but it never seems like enough. In melee is pillow fisted and even with a buff doesn't seem to do enough damage.

I love the sculpt, love the potential, but he has never worked for me and as such I'd rather find a way to put a pyre troll in the list :/ Help me!

Let's compare two lists.
Madrak Ironhide, World Ender (*5pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* 2 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (2pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Horthol, Long Rider Hero (5pts)

This is an infantryspam eMadrak list. It rocks the world of high-ARM lists and has no answer to high DEF. While you can rely Horthol impact attacks under Fell Caller buff, Assassins with Iron Flesh and Winterguard still give the list problems.

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender (*5pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
War Wagon (9pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (7pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Horthol, Long Rider Hero (5pts)

This list is different. You still rock high ARM pretty well - Burrowers, Fennblades, and min Longriders are each independantly able to take out heavy targets with Blood Fury. BUT you have a ranged game to speak of. Knocking down enemies remotely with your War Wagon cannon enables you to drop bombs on them from afar, which can enable assassination runs. More importently, if you keep the Bomber next to the War Wagon, low ARM non-reach models can't run and engage you, or you will fire on your bomber, miss, and AOE them all.

The Bomber is a good ranged option. It keeps the opponent honest. He can't dance around without engaging you or he will eat a bunch of AOEs. He HAS to spread his guys out, which is not optimal positioning for melee infantry, usually.

Your real threat range is 17" with impaler animus, and he has to take that into account when he runs his infantry up... Which means he will be very spread out, or taking a lot of casualties if they're not highish ARM single-wounders. If you bring a STR buff, a Bomber can do "ok" against enemy armor. It's not going to one-round it, typically. If you brought RoK, 6 MAT7 P+S17s at the cost of your next turn is really attractive against lowish ARM higher DEF beasts, such as WW Stalkers and the like. Rok is a good pair up for any Bomber because of their poor MAT.

If you take a pair of bombers, you can usually a heavy remotely per turn. Or seriously threaten a ranged assassination. The problem, of course, with taking two bombers is that you're seriously unbalanced against a stealth list. I prefer the War Wagon/Bomber/Impaler modular combo at 50 points.

[DrFish]

And that's just it. How bad did the game go for your opponent that you were even able to do two boosted shots on a KDed warcaster? I've never played in a game where the warnoun was that far up and not screened by a ton of models. It seems to take so much effort to make the Bomber worth his points. As Skurk pointed out, there are usually one or two throw always ran right I to his face to shut him down for the one or two crucial turns he'd be 10 points useful.

[acsmedic]

boosting and aiming while Farstrike makes the bomber pretty darn accurate... sure you are not boosting much damage..but pow16 does a pretty good job on its own. lets see boost initial, buy and boost second.. leaves one boost damage.. not bad... of course I also run the wagon with my bomber, really funny when I lob a 5inch aoe in thinking no way I will direct hit need a 15...and roll a 10... anything that is not dead is kd and easy bomber prey. also bull rushing long riders to KD things then apply bombs.. that is good fun as well.

also if you have a slag or pyre around bomber gets decent in melee as well pow 17 is not great,,, but not bad either.

[DrFish]

Every time I've run it vs Cryx and other infantry heavy lists, they're always spread out to the point I might get two on a direct hit, or with a perfect deviation maybe three. Obviously good players are going to mitigate the Bomber through good tactics and not walk a giant clump up to get blown to pieces, but without being able to do that he doesn't seem worth it. Am I expecting too much to want to hit at least three troopers with a shot?

The war wagon is a good compliment for sure, but Trolls have made me poor enough as it is Can't afford it!

[Jota]

If the inf spread, they dont block LOS. The bomber is easily the model in my collection that has ticked most boxes on enemy warnouns. With Grim I must add. I am not much for stray AOEs lobbed upboard though. Impaler is mandatory ofc, and Janissa is great to keep him from getting bogged down in melee.

[DrFish]

If the inf spread, they dont block LOS. The bomber is easily the model in my collection that has ticked most boxes on enemy warnouns. With Grim I must add. I am not much for stray AOEs lobbed upboard though. Impaler is mandatory ofc, and Janissa is great to keep him from getting bogged down in melee.

I can honestly say that I didn't think about that first bit. I'm not the most seasoned player, and one thing I find reading these forums is that those "well duh" things aren't so obvious to everyone it they aren't talked about much.

It seems hard to keep him out of melee without parking him behind our medium bases, but that makes it hard to LOS on the targets you want and also avoid unwanted friendly fire and/or super high to hit rolls. And of course with a range of 12 deep striking the opponent's caster (especially warmachine given that they all seem to have Focus 7) is difficult. His upsides just seem so easily mitigated.

[Syas]

Bomber and Calandra took down BoK pVlad (who has a few boxes, but Bomber did the heavy lifting) the other night without breaking a sweat. Calandra brought the Knockdown, and popped Feat; Bomber landed two boosted barrels in his face. Boostable POW16s to the head from 12" is nothing to laugh at.

[Friend_of_ax]

i guess it's all in how the rest of the list is built. I've been playing trolls since the book came out and have almost always brought the bomber along. Frankly can't remember a time he got locked down by something that I didn't want him fighting. I think it's all about giving the opponent faster, scarier things up field to deal with so they aren't concentrating on engaging the bomber.

and don't worry to much about the friendly fire thing. Sometimes it's actually your best friend! One of your models engages a scary high-def something, then the bomber throws at your model, should be getting rear arc bonuses, and catches the bad guy in the blast. POW 8 isn't going to really scare most of our stuff and if it does, there's always tough. Hi-def models normally don't have good armor, so POW 8 should work, if not just boost it!!

Clearing out stealthed stuff is another place it shines. Scary stealthed banes got you down? Nothing a bunch of bombs can't clear out! :-)

[baronvonchaos]

DrFish. Maybe you're playing a game with troops that are too fast. If you can't get a 12" throw without hitting your own dudes, your Bomber is too far back. If your bomber is 4"-5" behind the line, you should be able to lob bombs over your smaller based models (provided they're not in b2b). Drawing LOS through the bases is fairly easy work.
　
You play against cygnar and at Foc 7 You're probably playing against Haley or Nemo (the only 7's in cygnar) and they probably have a Defender sitting around taking super long ranged pot shots at you. Your bomber is a threat, and if they're dumping assets into taking it out. Let them shoot at the bomber and run the champs up and start smashing face. If he's ignoring part of your force to shoot at another part, use the part he's not shooting at for the mayhem. If he's doling out damage equally, he won't kill anything (especiall Trollnoun) by the time you get there. Get Dygmies and pop them up and tie up the defender(s). Gun lines are brutal. Especially Cygnaran gun lines. Not going to candy coat that.
　
If you're having problems with hitting. I sacrifice whelps or pygs by targetting them in the back arc. Gunny has Guided Fire (which rocks). Also just vanilla boosts to hit are good. If you're hitting def 12's, you're only going to hit 50% of the time on 2d6. Keep that in mind. AOE 4's are going to catch multiple models. Try using Janissa or Runeshapers to tremor things and knock them down. The penalty for rug napping is carpet bombing. (Saw that somewhere.)
　
Also a deviation will only move half the distance thrown. So if you throw it 8" and you get a 6 for distance on the deviation, it'll still only go 4". This ensures that you don't drop one on your head.
　
Hope that helps. The Bomber is one of my next purchases.

[DrFish]

Perhaps I should have a more specific set of questions. While I certainly appreciate all of the information you guys are giving, it's not answering what I want to know tactically. Let's see:

Obviously, the bomber is best when able to throw bombs and hit 2 or more unengaged models, the higher armor of which is directly hit, and no friendly models. how do you pick targets when none of the above is an option? Is it worthwhile to use its animus and position tarpit models to either get hit by blast damage or the deviation?

When the Bomber is continuously engaged by being fed one or two models at a time, how do you deal with that? Send over melee models from the front lines? Use counter attack models for that purpose instead? Take the free strike?

Where do you place the model in your normal offensive line? On the flank? Behind the front line and far back? Up close?

What are your tactics for clearing LOS for better targets given that most other infantry is small based and trolls are medium based?

When do you decide that a Mauler would be better for 1 less point?

I know the tricks, I want to know the meat and potatoe realities of how it plays. I really do want to love this model like other people do, I just can't wrap my brain around it.

[perilsensitive]

Janissa or Gunnbjorn can help keep non-reach models off with Rock Wall. Blitzers can walk up and Repulsion the offending models away. Scattergunners with UA can spray through the Bomber without hitting him and kill the offending models (they may need to aim or get help from Grim or something). Just a couple ideas.

[baronvonchaos]

If you have no ranged targets (which for me is SO rare), man get into the fray! Open up a charge lane to a warjack or a bunch of troops and start snacking. Troll stuff at its finest! CHAOS AND FOOD!
Alternatively, bring a blitzer. Have him saddle up front and do his attack (FOOD) business, then pop his animus to push everyone back. Voila, no more engaged stuff. Bomb chucking time. Also now the troops get to charge.

Is it sounds to gird your troops and chuck bombs? YES! This can free up your troops to punch through the front line (get to those defenders and mangle them). Play to win, don't play not to lose. Or in PPS words, Play like you got a pair. The more insane your plots get, the more you'll keep your opponent on his heels. This is my play style, and I love it.

If the bomber is being continually engaged, use a unit to screen him from direct charges or those run to engage models. Also if you have an impaler near, it's always worth it to stabbity stab the imposing model(s) and free up the bomber to chuck. Taking the free strike is sort of a last resort for me. Heaven forbid they get that perfect 6's roll and nuke his Mind. Regeneration helps mitigate this though.

Forgot about Janissa. Tectonic shift pushes models away from others. You can get some real control out of these guys.
　
Placement depends on the models you have in there, but if he's a ranged model that you want to use the ranged attack on, position him so he can do ranged attacks and not hit your own models. If you're playing him up close (3"-4" behind the front line) you have a better chance of being able to chuck barrels and charge the front line up. You may only get 1-2 rounds of chucking before everything's embroiled in combat (and FOOD). In short: up close means you're chucking at the enemy before the first swings happen. Far back means you're chucking at anything that gets through.

Tactics for clearing LOS? the Blitzer's animus. Also Gunny's bazooka. The Bouncer's Animus (more a proactive thing). A straight warbeast push (power attack; make sure the pushed model doesn't have reach.
　
Mauler vs Bomber? when your lists is a straight forward melee brawl. Also when you need that Colossal/Gargantuan killer. Mauler is more for Armor cracking than troop descimation. The Bomber is good for troop descimation and Armor cracking to a small extent. And you were saying, AOE 4's should catch at least 2-3 dudes per bomb. 2 is good for me. It's when you have AOE 3's and you get maybe 1... that's a .

The Bomber has a play style. It plays same as the Defender (warjack) and shoots until something engages it or in the Bomber's case, when charging would be a more advantageous offer for scrapping something (FOOD).
　
　

[FranzGrenstein]

Grim: Loves a bomber and impaler. Jackwall got you down apply the netgun -"I can see through you."

Marked for death, its just not a def debuff, it lets you draw LOS through models, it also removes stealth.

Oh yeah, a line of fenn blades generaly stops the bomber from getting jammed.

[PG_Tionas]

I'll pop back in, because as a skorne player, I have a similar piece: The Cannoneer. +1 points over the Gladiator, and aoe 3 pow 15 RNG 12. we just got snipe in the army, so I have familiarity with a similar piece of work.

to address each point in turn:

A pow 16 gun is good without any AOE attached to it. A pow 16 AoE gun is amazing. Hitting more than one target is not necessary. however, look for the chances to do it. if they apear, great, if not, drop a shot wherever its most needed! that ironclad closing in? Drop a bomb on it, boost to damage. When your mauler gets there, or your champs, its that many less resources you need to commit to kill it. maybe you get lucky and break an arm! a lot of times, the "math" that the other army is looking at is based on full units. breaking that math by one or two models can cause a lot of consternation. Killing models at range is a premium, and doing it at all is just good.

I've learned that both options are the way to go, or even bringing in support solos. is it more important to "waste" one 10th of a units activation, or loose an entire warbeasts activation? if that bomber needs to fire, free it up. costs be damned. Free strikes be damned. its not like he can't be forced to regenerate, right?

My Cannoneer follows RIGHT behind the front line. or even on it, at deployment. Because the speed and size of the game are as they are, deloying back from the line with a speed 4/5 model can lead to some far-behind issues.

I can only address this through Cataphract issues: it does not matter. move your troopers first, and clear the LOS. remember: its almost impossible to block LOS same size to same size. EVEN if your lined perfectly up, you only need a tiny fraction of your monstrous base to get LOS.

Melee is different from ranged, they perform different tasks. Each one has its own place, and they should not be compared (opinion by Tio)

[Syas]

Obviously, the bomber is best when able to throw bombs and hit 2 or more unengaged models, the higher armor of which is directly hit, and no friendly models. how do you pick targets when none of the above is an option? Is it worthwhile to use its animus and position tarpit models to either get hit by blast damage or the deviation?

I don't use his animus, he is rarely close enough to my tarpit (typically Fennblades) to drop the animus on them. Order of activation and target selection is important. If something is already tied up by my Fennblades, mission accomplished, Bomber focuses somewhere else.

When the Bomber is continuously engaged by being fed one or two models at a time, how do you deal with that? Send over melee models from the front lines? Use counter attack models for that purpose instead? Take the free strike?

His little brother Impaler starts beating some butt, if anything is left, remember the Bomber gets his initials (2x Claw) and then can buy 2 more Claws. If you land 4 attacks from the Impaler and 4 attacks from the Bomber and he is still not clear then I would say again, mission accomplished, your opponent has over committed.

Where do you place the model in your normal offensive line? On the flank? Behind the front line and far back? Up close?

Typically on the flank with the Impaler in front, slightly to the side, to discourage charging without blocking a lot of LOS.

What are your tactics for clearing LOS for better targets given that most other infantry is small based and trolls are medium based?

Knockdown (eGriss, Calandra, Borka, War Wagon, etc.)

When do you decide that a Mauler would be better for 1 less point?

When my opponent fields low model count with high armor (such as Beast/Jack heavy lists).

[DrFish]

Lots of great things to think about! All of the shooty lists I play against seem to do better with the shooting and the mitigation of anti-shooting, but it's more likely my lack of experience. It sounds like I should play the Bomber a bit more centrally and less on the flank. Anything trying to flank will still get bombs to the face before engaging.

It still amazes me how long 2 inch reach seems, but how short 12 inch bombs seem.

[PG_Viper114]

I've had some reasonable success with my Bomber when used with Jarl. Along with an Impaler, I have done some good stuff with RNG 12, 4" AOE, POW 16/8 blasts against the enemy. Not always, but a decent amount. And he's still quite good with melee when he needs to be, too.

I've only really used him with Jarl and Gunnbjorn, though. I haven't really tried him with melee-centric casters like Madrak or Borka.

[DrFish]

His little brother Impaler starts beating some butt, if anything is left, remember the Bomber gets his initials (2x Claw) and then can buy 2 more Claws and drop 2 Barrels (if no longer engaged). If you land 4 attacks from the Impaler and 4 attacks from the Bomber and he is still not clear then I would say again, mission accomplished, your opponent has over committed..

Did the Bomber get Virtuoso while I was in the bathroom?

[Syas]

Did the Bomber get Virtuoso while I was in the bathroom?

According to Page 73 in Primal you can buy extra attacks as Ranged or Melee. I thought Virtuoso was for models who could not purchase additional attacks via Fury. f I am reading that wrong, my bad.

Point still stands though, you just lob barrels next turn. If he gets locked up again and survives, again I feel your opponent is probably over-committing, find where he is taking those resources from and exploit his weak side.

[PG_Tionas]

when your model chooses initial attacks, they have to choose ranged or melee. all attacks made that turn need to be the same type unless otherwise noted. Sorry man!

[Beckman]

And that's just it. How bad did the game go for your opponent that you were even able to do two boosted shots on a KDed warcaster?

Not badly at all. ESPECIALLY if you play Grim. Your threat is about 18" away? If you move up, feat, and catch enemy models, then pelt the crap out of them with Bombers, and they can't charge you (because of your feat), and the enemy doesn't move back (either because of objectives, or for some other reason), then I can definitely see scoring a kill from Grim's knockdown gun + shooting.

But you don't even have to knock the opponent down. With Calandra, you get a caster within 18" of both bombers with minimal defensive buffs, and he's toast. Nevermind the KD. Snipe the Bomber from caster, pop feat, camp on 5 FURY, snipe the other bomber with the other... and light the enemy caster's face on fire. 4x POW16 is bad news, especially rerolling 1s and 2s.

Grim: KD gun

Borka: Mosh Pit.

eGrissel: KD Gun

Calandra: Force Blow, to-hit&to-damage feat & Fate Blessed.

War Wagon: You were standing next to a low DEF model, or I hit you with KD Hooves. LOL.

Power Attack: Doublehanded Throw.

Also, remember that you have better-than arcing fire against models with lower elevation than you for LOS restrictions, if you have a large base.

pGrissel & eHoarluk: Hoof-it & Refuge, respectively. Isn't it fun to drop bombs, then walk away?

I've never played in a game where the warnoun was that far up and not screened by a ton of models. It seems to take so much effort to make the Bomber worth his points. As Skurk pointed out, there are usually one or two throw always ran right I to his face to shut him down for the one or two crucial turns he'd be 10 points useful.

If they're screened by a ton of models, that's a lot of clumped up targets. If they're medium based expensive high ARM guys like Man-o-Wars, your opponent has invested a lot of points into a sub-par unit to nullify AOEs. If he took regular medium based dudes, you will probably kill 2 a turn.. because you have good POW and they're easy to hit.

If it's just small based guys, your AOEs should rock them.

Every time I've run it vs Cryx and other infantry heavy lists, they're always spread out to the point I might get two on a direct hit, or with a perfect deviation maybe three. Obviously good players are going to mitigate the Bomber through good tactics and not walk a giant clump up to get blown to pieces, but without being able to do that he doesn't seem worth it. Am I expecting too much to want to hit at least three troopers with a shot?

The war wagon is a good compliment for sure, but Trolls have made me poor enough as it is Can't afford it!

You are, infact, expecting too much. 2 troopers can generally happen each shot if your opponent isn't spreading far apart, but your opponent has to be playing fairly bad if you're expecting to get 3 guys a shot. But the more your opponent spreads out, the worse time they have trying to get all those troopers onto something useful. Spreading out your troops isn't optimal when you're trying to charge your guys in. If they spread out far apart, they probably can't charge your Bomber with everyone.

ALSO, when they charge a beefy model, like a heavy.. The enemy will be all clumped together. It is reasonable to catch a whole unit under two templates in such a circumstance. And that's money right there...

[Syas]

when your model chooses initial attacks, they have to choose ranged or melee. all attacks made that turn need to be the same type unless otherwise noted. Sorry man!

My bad! Luckily it hasn't come up too often, I knew Initials had to be one or the other, I thought additionals could be anything, I am amending my answer then.

I learn more in a few hours here than I do playing every week.

[PG_Tionas]

****, same happens to me, even after 8 years of playing the game.

Did you know that trolls automatically loose when playing against my cryx or skorne! its in the rules!

[PG_joedj]

The Bomber, IMHO, is our most OP model. (What?! Yep, because of ranged KD abilities.) 2 ranged POW 16s with AOE damage you can choose to boost for enemies only? Disgustingly good.

Keeping him from being jammed is worth the necessary 3-5 points. Janissa's wall, Runeshapers, or intervening friendly sacrificial troopers/grunts (Fenns, KWS, Scouts, Slaughterhousers) to eliminate opposing charge lanes. You want those friendly troopers to die or be knocked down, so the Bomber can target upfield!

The Bomber likes an Impaler for turn 2 range, and possible for assassination turn. Otherwise the Impaler acts as the Bomber's personal de-louser, attempting to kill enemy jammers via two boosted melee attacks, or a possible slam. Whelps aid in Bomber de-lousing since the Bomber can walk from a non-weaponsmaster trooper or two, eat the whelp then bomb the same fools who just whacked him!

The Bomber is not a high ARM cracker even with Primal. High ARM requires weaponsmasters or P&S 18+.
For an all-comers list, inclusion of +3 to the Bomber's melee damage is important. This may mean a Mauler, or usually for me, a Pyre plus KSB/SSE.

Side note: Remember, whelps can run forward as targets. -2 DEF when targeting them in the back and make sure they are not engaged at 0.5" if possible. Trading a whelp for 2-3 opposing Banes/Kayazy is win!

[Beckman]

Another good thing to remember: If you shoot out the front guy in a shieldwall unit, for your second shot shoot one of the guys in the back rank, the point of origin of the attack for the models that ARE NOT DIRECTLY HIT is the POINT OF IMPACT. Which means that the guys in the front rank can lose their shield wall bonus from the second attack, since it originated in their back arc. Alternately, if you can draw LOS to a guy in the back in the first place, then that works just as well :P

Your direct hit will almost certainly kill, but anyone who's unlucky enough to have the hole in your AOE in their back arc and caught in the blast loses shield wall and is probably toast also.

[omerplata]

If you are getting your bomber engaged from troops running up, you are probably positioning poorly. I always keep mine screen by a unit. Either my fenns or kriels out a bit in front to prevent that. And each turn I ALWAYS max him on fury. 1 boosted hit/ one extra attack with a boosted hit/ and one boosted damage roll.

My Main caster is grim. Grim makes the bomber much more accurate, as well as giving him cross country. Find a forest and park the bomber in it, then rain explosive death on them. The impaler is a must, but you are taking one with grim anyway. I have also found that with a pye or slag as a melee dmg buff, a bomber is very able to scrap a heavy after a round of boosted kegs to soften up. I feel the bomber is one of our most versatile beasts.

If your main complaint is deviations then that is just bad dice not the model. Khador has the same issue with the destroyer, expect it only gets the one attack. You can always run one of your own infantry to engage your target, then bomb him in the head. Much easier to hit trolls even while in engage than most other infantry.

I had a bomber wipe out the majority of the MHSF for me with 2 kegs. Throw them and the auto deviate, but caught most of them, and a boosted dmg roll on the UA took them out of the game.

My bomber also has 2 harbinger kills to his name.

[SOUPlex]

Trooper models are usually easily removed with Fennblades or other infantry that is making up my battle lines with my bomber. Alternatively, this guy can still use Power Attacks! Trampling is not a bad option when confronted by small based infantry. Neither is throwing large or medium based models. Opponents don't usually think about two-handed throws when engaging our heavies. I have ruined many a casters day by throwing a jack at them instead of one of my bombs.

[Beckman]

If you are getting your bomber engaged from troops running up, you are probably positioning poorly. I always keep mine screen by a unit.

To be fair, the Bomber does suck against Satyxis Raiders + UA and their ilk. It's also not very effective against either flavor of Bane Thralls... But it most definately has some good points.

[omerplata]

To be fair, the Bomber does suck against Satyxis Raiders + UA and their ilk. It's also not very effective against either flavor of Bane Thralls... But it most definately has some good points.

I have not ran into any trouble from these units, but I have been focusing on grim a lot lately. Grim has no problem picking off the problem solos and allowing the bomber to do work. In general it still isn't a good match up, but given the right tools you can work through it.

I should note that there is currently only one active cryx player at my LGS, the rest have moved on to legion.

[perilsensitive]

Side note: Remember, whelps can run forward as targets. -2 DEF when targeting them in the back and make sure they are not engaged at 0.5" if possible. Trading a whelp for 2-3 opposing Banes/Kayazy is win!

A Feralgeist is even better for this!

[Beckman]

I have not ran into any trouble from these units, but I have been focusing on grim a lot lately. Grim has no problem picking off the problem solos and allowing the bomber to do work. In general it still isn't a good match up, but given the right tools you can work through it.

I should note that there is currently only one active cryx player at my LGS, the rest have moved on to legion.

Grim does not have Arcing Fire, so if you place 2 Raiders in BTB in front of the UA, you can't shoot it with Grim's long range gun. You're also putting it at max CMD to the rest of the unit.

Edit: Even if he did have Arcing Fire, he wouldn't be able to see past the two guys in the front. You'd need to land your spell on them that ignores them for LOS purposes. But you'd be getting DEATHLY close to the unit.

[SOUPlex]

Trooper models are usually easily removed with Fennblades or other infantry that is making up my battle lines with my bomber. Alternatively, this guy can still use Power Attacks! Trampling is not a bad option when confronted by small based infantry. Neither is throwing large or medium based models. Opponents don't usually think about two-handed throws when engaging our heavies. I have ruined many a casters day by throwing a jack at them instead of one of my bombs.

[Ogrob]

Don't have much to add except I used to be iffy on the bomber. Mine never did anything useful. Then I got a turn 2 caster kill with one last week, and I can just repeat what's been said about Grim and Bombers.