Now that we have had the Defender properly spoiled and a little time to mull it over, what do you see yourself trying once you have the opportunity?

Now I'll admit that most of my builds tend to be a bit... questionable, and reflect things that I would like to work rather than what actually works, but I have a few ideas for things that could be fun if not necessarily the most effective.

Delta Squad Pilot w/ ion

Soontir, push the limit, shield upgrade

Carnor Jax, push the limit, shield upgrade

Rexler Brath, predator, heavy laser cannon, shield upgrade

Vessery, predator, HLC, shield upgrade

Rexler Brath, predator, HLC, hull upgrade

royal guard w/ push the limit x 2

Rexler Brath, predator, ion cannon

Carnor Jax, PTL

Turr Phennir, PTL

Soontir Fel, PTL, stealth

Delta Squad Pilot, ion

Bounty hunter, intel agent

Delta Squad Pilot, HLC x2

Omicron Group Pilot, intel agent, engine upgrade

P.S. I also like interceptors, can you tell?

I'll be the first to admit I have a bit more enthusiasm for the heavy laser cannon than it probably deserves. I used to play a lot of Krassis Trelix with HLC back when wave 2 was first out, but eventually I found that I was just not getting enough shots out of my front arc with the Firespray to make it worth it. With the Defender I see a bit more potential to make that HLC worth the 7 points and I'm at least going to give it a shot. With HLC+predator any pilot can become Krassis, and even gain an extra reroll vs low PS pilots or on range 1 primary weapon attacks.

Feel free to share your own builds, or tear mine apart. I'm pretty well aware of their potential weaknesses myself but perhaps someone will gain some knowledge from the discussion.

I haven't personally built a tie defender. Never really had any aptitude for sculpting and fantasy flight is releasing the model soon enough anyways.

Delta + Ion Upgrade x3
Maximizes that Koiogran efficiency.

Delta + Stealth Upgrade x3
For when you really don't wanna get hit

Delta + Hull Upgrade x3
For when you want the tankiness to be Blount-proof

Delta x3 + Heavy Laser Cannon

Rex + hlc + predator

2x royal gaurds with vi and stealth

The guards stripe shield and rex unlods up to 4 crits

The Tie-Defender is my all time favorite starfighter from the X-wing/Tie Fighter games. I have been making lists since it's been spoiled.

I call it the Sniper:

Delta Squad w/ HLC & SD - 40

Howl w/ SD & Swarm Tactics - 23

Acad. Tie X 3 - 36

Total: 99

The mini-swarm moves as a swarm of course. I would keep the 3 Academies up front to block and clog up the opponent, I would have Howl and the Delta in the rear. For the Alpha strike Howl would Swarm Tactic the Delta and let him rip with the HLC. After the initial skirmish I would peel off the Delta to flank. Thus giving the opponent two choices, chase the Delta or deal with the mini-Tie Swarm. The Delta should be able to re-engage within two turns. You could sub out whatever the un-spoiled, un-named Defender pilot is, but you'll lose the SD and I don't think it will be worth it for the extra 2-3 PS.

This one is the Falcon Killer:

Vessery w/ Out Maneuver, Cluster Missile, & SD - 45

Jonus w/ Predator, Proton, & Seismic Charge - 31

Scimitar w/ Proton(x2) - 24

Total: 100

This one would have to be tweaked with play. But basically you try to throw enough hate at the Falcon during the first exchange of fire and hopefully cripple it nicely. Then with luck Jonus can leave a parting gift with a Seismic Charge (maybe try a mine here instead). Hopefully Vessery & the Scimitar can make it out alive to get in behind the Falcon to finish it off. This should work best against Chewie flown Falcons as you'll be able to get the drop on him.

Brath and his Bros?:

Brath - OM, Pred, SD, or PTL. Which ever you fancy. - 40

Acad Tie x 5 - 60

Total: 100

Not too much imagination here. Brath flanks while the 5 Acad Ties try to strip as much shields as they can. Brath comes in and does strafing runs to try and Crit as much as he can. PTL might be nice as you can TL & Focus, but you'll be limited the next turn.

Col. Vessery

-Outmaneuvre

Col. Jendon

-Fire Control System

-Weapons Engineer

-St-321

Black Squadron Pilot (x2)

100 point list that makes absolutely sure Vessery's special ability is always going off. Set him up as the flank ship and watch the rebels cry as their shields melt and ships fall to pieces.

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Omicron Group Pilot + Darth Vader (24)

Colonel Vessary + Veteran Instincts (36)

Rexler Brath + Squad Leader (39)

99 Points

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The problem with this list is I fear that Vessery and Brath don't play nice together. Once the Doom Shuttle goes down, there won't be any body to help Vessery with TLs. Brath could do it, but he wouldn't have any Focus to use his ability.

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Omicron Group Pilot + Darth Vader (24)

Colonel Vessary + Veteran Instincts (36)

Rexler Brath + Squad Leader (39)

99 Points

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The problem with this list is I fear that Vessery and Brath don't play nice together. Once the Doom Shuttle goes down, there won't be any body to help Vessery with TLs. Brath could do it, but he wouldn't have any Focus to use his ability.

Squad Leader is an ill fit on Brath anyway, as he'll want to take focus more often than not, instead of spending his action to enable the shuttle taking extra actions.

This squad is a bit of a ramble I'm afraid. The Shuttle moves, focuses. Brath moves, gives OGP a free action to target lock. Vessery moves and focuses or rolls to benefit outmaneuver.

Vessery shoots, hopefully at the TL'd ship. Brath shoots but can't use his ability. Shuttle shoots, uses Vader.

Once the shuttle is gone Squad Leader is dead as well and Brath must choose to focus on his own ability or to enable Vessery.

There's no synergy here.

I'm a bit uncertain about Vessery's ability in general. Theoretically you use to it to gain TL+focus on as many of his attacks as possible but the effort it takes to make that reliably happen seems inefficient, especially when you could (theoretically, if it has one) slap the Predator EPT on the PS3 Defender pilot and get fairly similar results.

The ultimate super manly list. If your testes-sack doesn't weight at least 3 pounds please don't fly this.

Rexlar Brath

Assault Missiles, Heavy Laser Cannon, Predator, Stealth Device

Whisper

Rebel captive, Veteran instincts

List comes to 91 points, so theres still room to get advanced cloak and something else. I havent seen points on advanced cloak yet.

I don't know why nobodys saying to give the defenders some autoblaster, when they first announced the ship I had a feeling it would be cool on it. It could be difficult to stay in range all the time, but Brath with an autoblaster is gonna tear the rebel scum apart. Mabey with an engine upgrade, to assist in staying unstressed in range 1

I'm a bit uncertain about Vessery's ability in general. Theoretically you use to it to gain TL+focus on as many of his attacks as possible but the effort it takes to make that reliably happen seems inefficient, especially when you could (theoretically, if it has one) slap the Predator EPT on the PS3 Defender pilot and get fairly similar results.

I dunno, I kinda like Vessery paired with an OGP, Weapons Engi and ST-321. The Shuttle at the back of the battlefield in control and supporting.

Or you know:

OGP, WE, IA, APL X 2

Vessery, Predator, Cluster Missiles, Ion Cannon

99 points

Take Vessery down first and you still have two large shuttles blocking the field, take one shuttle down and Vessery is hardly affected.

Whisper

Rebel captive, Veteran instincts

I'm not a fan of RC on Whisper, you don't want him to get shot at after all. There is a discussion on Whisper's crew choices here:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/103485-whispers-intelligent-crew-choice

Personally, I'm leaning toward Navigator.

I also came up with the Rebel Hunting Party:

Brath - w/ Adrenaline Rush (had to give him something) - 38

Vader - w/ SL - 31

Soontir - w/ PTL - 30

Total: 99

Vader helps Brath focus and TL or double focus with SL and Vader can still perform an evade or what have you. Soontir flies around like crazy... It might just be more effective with two Ties instead of Soontir, but it probably wouldn't be as much fun. Too bad the IMPs don't have a focus machine like Kyle. Brath would be nasty.

Whisper

Rebel captive, Veteran instincts

I'm not a fan of RC on Whisper, you don't want him to get shot at after all. There is a discussion on Whisper's crew choices here:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/103485-whispers-intelligent-crew-choice

Personally, I'm leaning toward Navigator.

rebel captive, in my mind, helps slow down the enemies potential to do damage. you are fighting the extremely tough and fast defender or the unpredictable and hard to hit phantom. If they go for the defender first, then hopefully late game they have to deal with stressing their own ships to fight a phantom. If they go for the phantom first, you enjoy more action economy and movement freedom, as you are handing out stress early.

Swap Vader out for car nor jax

On my build? Canor Jax would be useful too, but the beauty of Vader is he can let Brath double action and he can still take an action. Vader while not having the firepower Jax can dish out, will stay alive a heck of a lot longer. Vader can be tough to kill when he can Focus/Evade.

I like the Defender with an Engine Upgrade, as that is the pre-established stop-gap for ships with Red Turns.
That being said, I want to try it out Naked first.

I'm thinking of putting a Delta, a Bounty Hunter, and two Alphas on the board (99 points), and being happy with whatever ship I have at the end to Joust with.

I'm not really at the point of being comfortable with full lists yet, but here's what I'm thinking…

• I like Delta Squadron + Ion Cannon in a lot of places where I would normally run a naked Bounty Hunter. Particularly if the metagame continues to like B-wings, Defender + Ions is some serious B-wing hate: durable enough to survive a couple of hits and agile enough to dodge the rest, and perfectly capable of taking a B-wing completely out of the game for a couple of turns.
• I might like Delta Squadron + HLC, not because they're any better with them than a Bounty Hunter, but because 74 points for a pair of Deltas is a lot cheaper than 80 points for a pair of Hunters. (In particular, 20 points isn't enough to run 2 TIE Fighters alongside, but 26 points is.
• I like Adrenaline Rush on Vessery and Brath, if the 3-point EPTs are infeasible, because you won't need those turns that often--but when you do need them, you really need them, and this way you won't have to give up an action to get them.
• I like the idea of pairing Vessery with a Scimitar or (as Dagonet says) with OMG + FCS + ST-321 , preferably with Weapons Engineer too. And he'll be great with Clusters.
• I like Brath with Predator, with or without HLC. HLC might actually be too much, since it puts his cost uncomfortably close to half of my list.

I like the Defender with an Engine Upgrade, as that is the pre-established stop-gap for ships with Red Turns.

That being said, I want to try it out Naked first.

I'm thinking of putting a Delta, a Bounty Hunter, and two Alphas on the board (99 points), and being happy with whatever ship I have at the end to Joust with.

The Alphas will be priority #1. The Defender and Firespray are tanks, the Interceptors are glass cannons.

I like the idea of trying out lists of pure Defenders. If nothing else, it should make the strengths and weaknesses readily apparent. Good ships can be run in a pure squad with good success. Less competitive ships, not so much. I'm curious where the TIE Defender with its white K-turn will fall.

The baseline starting point for a competitive Defender build is obviously 3 Deltas, which leaves 10 points for upgrades. That makes the two named pilots mutually exclusive. So that leaves 5 baseline permutations:

• 3 Deltas + 10 points
• 3 PS3 (Onyx?) + 4 points
• Colonel Vessery + 2 Deltas, +5 points
• Colonel Vessery + 2 Onyx, +1 point
• Rexler Brath + 2 Deltas, +3 points

I'm still not sure which one is best. I'm liking these lists the best:

• Colonel Vessery with Adrenaline Rush, 2 Onyx
• Delta + HLC, Delta + Ion Cannon, Delta
• Rexler Brath with Predator, 2 Deltas

Delta squadron with HLC X2

Captain Jonus with Swarm tactics + seismic charges

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Omicron Group Pilot + Darth Vader (24)

Colonel Vessary + Veteran Instincts (36)

Rexler Brath + Squad Leader (39)

99 Points

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The problem with this list is I fear that Vessery and Brath don't play nice together. Once the Doom Shuttle goes down, there won't be any body to help Vessery with TLs. Brath could do it, but he wouldn't have any Focus to use his ability.

Squad Leader is an ill fit on Brath anyway, as he'll want to take focus more often than not, instead of spending his action to enable the shuttle taking extra actions.

This squad is a bit of a ramble I'm afraid. The Shuttle moves, focuses. Brath moves, gives OGP a free action to target lock. Vessery moves and focuses or rolls to benefit outmaneuver.

Vessery shoots, hopefully at the TL'd ship. Brath shoots but can't use his ability. Shuttle shoots, uses Vader.

Once the shuttle is gone Squad Leader is dead as well and Brath must choose to focus on his own ability or to enable Vessery.

There's no synergy here.

Well, I made a mistake here: It should read Swarm Tactics instead of squad leader ! SL is bad on Brath for sure. The idea is to get the damage out early and hopefully crit/finish with Vader bevor the targeted ship can fire. But you are right; Brath and Vassary in the endgame have antisynergy. Maybe give Brath a PTL to let him targetlock for Vassary? Hmm... this reduce the mobility of Brath because of only green straight moves and Brath, Vessary and Doomshuttle are 96 points so only 4 points to play with. Thats not much to get this work. Maybe this one:

Colonel Vessery (35) + VI (1)

Rexler Brath (37) + PTL (3)

Omicron Group Pilot (21) + Vader (3)

Still two PS 8 hitters in the mid/endgame and a little bit more synergy between Vassery and Brath. To bad there are no points left for wingman on Vessery.