Au Contraire: I think its dial is potentially the best in the game.

Yes, it has 2 red turns. However, it's the first ship in the game with all 3 turns and all 3 banks!

It's also the 2nd ship in the game with a Green Forward 2-5.

And there's that "White Koiogran" thing.

All in all, this is the most unpredicable dial that FFG has yet produced.

It doesn't zig-zag well, but since everything BUT its 1-2 turns are White and Green, it still chases very effectively.

Moreover, it can disengage at will.

It zig-zags.

It zig-zags by K-turn->barrel rolling, then K-turn->barrel rolling the next turn, then K-turn->barrel rolling the next turn...

It's a pretty useful zig-zag.

Ah: a Square Wave rather than a Triangular Wave. I like it!

I think I have found my quest: making a 2 Defender squad viable.

So it has been written, so it shall be done.

I don't think we will see viable two ship builds until we get legit extra attacks . Defenders firing 2x per turn might work

If we can make their attacks hit as reliably as a ship with Gunner, we might have a shot.

Well, with Vessery and one other ship with Target Lock you ARE hitting as reliably as a ship with Gunner!

I think I have found my quest: making a 2 Defender squad viable.

So it has been written, so it shall be done.

Well, it's not a two Defender squad but here's my first take on a two ship list:

Colonel Vessery with outmaneuver, cluster missiles, HLC and a shield upgrade.

Whisper, with outmaneuver, weapons engineer, FCS and ACD

Though you might droo the HLC for an ion cannon.

Not sure if someone said this already but i'm not reading the whole thread just to go and forget what i wanna say:

Rexlor Brath is gonna rip Chewbacca to pieces. And, really, everyone, but especially Mr. I'm Not Used to Dealing With Critical Hits Chewie.

Maarek Stele is crying on a dark, lonely corner...

If Marek Steele gets to have 3 attack dice, will there be an uproar of crying too OP?

If Marek Steele gets to have 3 attack dice, will there be an uproar of crying too OP?

You bet

lol, even with shields that negate crits, many still complain about their hull...

So no win for FF. LOL

It's a shame that there is no Defender with Marek Steele...

...

...

...

no really.

There should have been a Maarek Steele pilot card in ADDITION to Rexler and Vessery ... but ... maybe the Advanced will be fixed like the A-Wing ... and then ......

Marek Steele has practically piloted nearly all Imperial fighters and good in all of them too, but then, I think his ability would change if he jumps onto another ship.

If you change his ability, you could just pretend that Rexler is Maarek ....

So, no! Of course he keeps his ability.

So I like to have a Tie Bomber with Maarek ... and of course a Defender and a TIE Avenger.

I want to have him even in a TIE Fighter, to team up with Mauler

BUT ... it seems like FFG don't want to have multiple unique pilots. Not even with Maarek Stele.......

Ha ha, they probably don't want to keep on printing him over and over again.

Who knows. Maybe this is to keep things simple for the players.

I would also love to have Black Squadron Tie Bombers. It's canon.

But for some reason FFG don't want to have like

Black Squadron Pilot (Tie Fighter) AND Black Squadron Pilot (Tie Bomber)

Maybe for the same reason we won't get

Maarek Stele (Tie Advanced) AND Maarek Stele (Tie Defender)

Maarek's signature ship was the TIE Avenger. Even when Defenders were available to him, he still preferred to fly his Avenger, since in practice, it was as maneuverable as the Defender, and it didn't suffered from blind spots as the Defender did.

OK, then it was the Avenger... but I doubt that there will be a Maarek Stele pilot card in the Avenger package.

And then? Would you complain?

I'd love to see both Maarek Stele and Darth Vader in TIE Defenders. Then I can refight the TIE Fighter missions where you have to save the Emperor from being kidnapped by Admiral Zaarin.

I can hear Vader's Comms chatter right now.

"Zaarin has prepared a trap for us... We can't enter hyperspace as long as that interdictor is here, we'll have to fight our way out!"

"Excellent, the first kill is ours! These traitors must pay the ultimate price."

Haha ... another TIE Fighter veteran

TIE Fighter Collectors CD-ROM sits in my optic drive at this moment actually. It's still a solid game and runs well on Win7.

It would be nice if the Defender came with two Predator cards. It's going to be costly for your wallet to outfit squads with Predator.

There are rules discussing multiple uniques with the same name, even in different ships, so I will bet we see another Tie Defender with Maarek in it. He may have prefered the Avenger, but darned if I didn't use a TIE Defender every SINGLE time I could.

TIE Fighter Collectors CD-ROM sits in my optic drive at this moment actually. It's still a solid game and runs well on Win7.

I could never find that one so I've recently acquired the series in another fashion...

Now to find a joystick somewhere.

I still have fond memories of the demo of TIE-Fighter, a single 3.5" disk with a seemingly endless, progressively difficult mission of new ships hypering into the area.

And of course the training mission where you start by shooting a single Z95 and end by taking on a complete squad of twelve X-Wings. Just you, in your trusty TIE.

Darting around and hiding behind the space station the enemy launches from hoping they will hit the station by mistake so it will shred them.

There are rules discussing multiple uniques with the same name, even in different ships, so I will bet we see another Tie Defender with Maarek in it. He may have prefered the Avenger, but darned if I didn't use a TIE Defender every SINGLE time I could.

Who is discussing and where? And what rules are to be discussed? And what make you think FFG is concerned?

I think they are going to fix the Advance and thats it.

There are rules discussing multiple uniques with the same name, even in different ships, so I will bet we see another Tie Defender with Maarek in it. He may have prefered the Avenger, but darned if I didn't use a TIE Defender every SINGLE time I could.

Who is discussing and where? And what rules are to be discussed? And what make you think FFG is concerned?

I think they are going to fix the Advance and thats it.

The rules are the ones in the yt-1300 that mention that you can't use, say, Luke the pilot and Luke the crew member in the same squadron. Luke, Vader, Chewie, and soon R2 will all have two cards, it's not impossible Steele will as well. I suppose it would depend on how easy it is for them to come up with new pilots for any future products.

I do think Steele still has a place even beside his new "big brother". If nothing else he's about ten points cheaper for a tiny PS dip, one less firepower and shield, and no cannon but he does get an evade. I mean it was still only a small subset of us that liked him anyway and I for one am not going to abandon him just for the new guy, at least not more than simple choice dilution would account for anyway.

But on the more important Defender topic. I'm mostly pleased, I think the dial will be tricky but it will be interesting, the defender has high attack, the best survivability under fire of any small base in the game, and a dial that will focus on mid-long range in your face engagements. I think the people saying "flanker" are on the right track but it'll also be a very nice anchor for other flankers like Interceptors and defenders.

On the upgrades, I like both, I think outmaneuver is going to be better on lower attack ships that have a better chance of maxing out their potential hits either naturally or with a single focus and predator will be better on higher attack ships.

he he, I wonder if the forum will explode when they spoil the E-wing dial... ... ...

Even if the E-Wing has a dial like the Defender it has one big thing going for it the Defender doesn't: Astromechs. It may increase the cost more and close out other options but if you could put an R2 on the Defender that dial suddenly becomes incredibly amazing. It would more than double the number of green maneuvers and cut out the red all for a point.

I'm completely baffled by how many people are complaining about the dial. I would like to start by saying that it has every. single. maneuver. except the 1 straight. Every one. No other ship is missing less than 3 maneuvers.

YT: Missing 3 L/R Turn + 5 straight (3)

A: Missing 1 L/R Bank + 1 Straight (3)

B: Missing 3 L/R Turn + 5 Straight (3)

X: Missing 1 L/R Turn + 5 Straight (3)

Y: Missing 1 L/R Turn + 5 Straight (3)

Nice EPTs, the defenders still an over priced ship. Swarm got less effective again with predator EPT. And it Looks like the phantom is the only semi decent ship this release for empire.

The empire needs more synergy with its fighters and soon.