Defender of the Empire

The new TIE Defender is a very cool ship. It looks awesome but I've always wondered. How in the Hell do they land that thing? I mean, come on, no landing gear to speak of, yet in some of the books they describe it landing without a bunch of extra equipment for it to dock with like a regular TIE fighter. And once its landed, how do you get in or out of the thing? None of that really matters in the game, but from a logistics point of view it is a damnable awkward design. 

So basic Defender design, what do you get outside of the standard TIE 3 Hull and 3 Agility?... Hyperdrive (only good in campaigns), Shields (Nice) Three of them (Hell Yeah), Three Attack (Come to daddy),  Focus, Target Lock, Barrel Roll (good, good, good), Cannons (Oh baby), Missiles (and we get some new missile types ta boot?) plus mods.

Well the stats will be easy to remember. They say good things come in threes. But what about the maneuver dial? Its screwy right?

One and two hard turns are red, but the Defender is supposed to be fast and with a 5 straight green it can pour on the speed. But wait what is this? A 4 K-turn that is WHITE, WTF Wedge? Yes kids the first white K-turn in the game. Nice. I can see these things zooming up and down the board not even bothering to do a regular turn just back and forth. So the ship is pretty great stats wise... but my god the points... They ain't cheap.

m

Mr. Brath here is the most expensive small based ship in the game so far. Hell he is more expensive than two of the Firesprays. He is more expensive than Vader. Holy crap. But is he worth it? High PS, a boss of a ship, and card text that turns all of his damage into crits for one focus? He certainly is good. But that is a lot of eggs in one basket. 

Like the cannons, missiles just seem to be a points sink for this guy since he already has a great attack and great card text. 

An Ion cannon (though traditional on a Defender) does not work well with this guy's card text since it can only ever cause one damage. There are cheaper ships for Ion support if you need something to control the other guy's movement. Neither does an autoblaster because it robs you of that extra attack dice at range one. The Heavy Laser Cannon could work since all your hits will get turned into crits anyway by his card text. But that would be super expensive points-wise.

Elite Pilot skills, on the other hand, you could slap a couple different things on him and make him a beast. Opportunist, Predator, Veteran Instincts, Push the Limit would all work great on this dude and make him even more of a monster. It would also make an already tempting target the focus of the entire opposing squad for a couple of turns till he is dead.

As for mods, I think Engine Upgrade is the way to go for him. I will make him even more slippery by allowing him to boost or barrel roll out of firing arcs or out of range. But you can't really go wrong with Stealth Device, Shield upgrade or even Hull Upgrade if you are strapped for points.

Colonel Vessery was a good character from the X-wing novels and seemed like an honorable dude even though he was working for the biggest, snake in the grass, villian: Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard. Despite his questionable choice in bosses his card text is awesome. A free Target Lock right after you roll your attack dice? Yes please. So focus this guy all the time and get your Focus/TL-re-roll on brother. Like Brath he is expensive and I think works best in a tournament list with just an EPS and maybe an engine upgrade.

If you run him and Brath together it won't leave much for support, you might be able to squeeze in a TIE or two or a shuttle if you run them naked.

I thought only the best Imperial Pilots got to drive these things. Who let the NOOB have one? Seriously, I guess if you wanted three of these things you could run either of the two named guys with two NOOB wingmen and maybe an EPS on the named dude. Still it is an awefully expensive ship to be moving first and shootin last. But hey your mileage may vary.

Rexler Brath with Predator 40 pts

2 x (Noobs) Delta Sqd Defenders 30 pts each

Total: 100 Points.

My hope for this list is that BRath will be drawing the majority of the heat and let the two Noob wingmen rack up some kills when people aren't looking. Still it is three durable, maneuverable and dangerous ships but where dice are involved you never know what is going to happen.