I Think that defenders are great ships.

Predictablity goes out the window when the ship was built as a jousting ship. 1 more shield than an x-wing, 1 more defense, and two very good pilot ability named guys. The ships will do very well in the right hands. Expect them to die but not before putting up a fight.

I like reliability. High PS to date, has not been worth it. High Agility to date, has not proved useful in keeping ships alive over a series of games. Positioning abilites have proved useful. Low cost high damage ships have proven to be useful. Ships with extra firing arcs and large amounts of HP have proven useful. I just don't see the Defender offering enough over its competition to be useful. It's not as bad as the advanced, the dial is better, and the stats are better. But it isn't an efficient ship. Efficiency wins games, and is the sign of a good list.

I have yet to see an efficiently built Defender list.(Although mostly I see them in 3 ship list. (Granted, 3 Defender lists are probably better than 3 X lists, but again, I think it's over-rated and overshadowed by the Firespray.

Efficient is a relative term, and different people are going to rate certain aspects more or less based on their expectations, I guess, but I find it hard to believe anyone would call a 3/3/3/3 statline for 30 pts 'inefficient'. Even more surprising that you are comfortable making this judgement without even using the ship... o.O

As to efficiency. Compare it to an Interceptor. 3 shields for 12 points? No thanks.

Compare it to an X-WIng. 9 Points for a shield and an agility? No thank you. Compare it to an advanced. 9 points for an attack die and a shield. Maybe, but the Advanced already sucks.

Compare it to a Firespray. Add 3 points for 2 Pilot Skill and 1 agility, lose 3 Hull, and 1 shield, a crew slot and a bomb slot. Shrink the base and lose the rear arc. Get a nice, but limited dial.

Every comparison I see makes it look overcosted.

Maybe it'll work out, but I don't see it finding a spot in the metagame. It has one thing I like about it. It can really lock a ship into one direction with an Ion cannon. But personally y-wings do so better, what with the turret and the 1 forward to match speed.

A note on Heavy Laser Cannons:

• HLC i s useful on B-wings because they can slow-roll 1's, and to a lesser extent on the Shuttle because it has a 0 move.
• The HLC is also useful on Krassis because of his rerolls.
• In the competitive arena, the HLC is occasionally used for the above reasons.
• None of these HLC advantages apply to the Defenders.

A note on Heavy Laser Cannons:

• None of these HLC advantages apply to the Defenders.

Slow roll 1 straight is not exactly the same as 1 bank, but the defender can still do it. B-wings get their shots with HLC early in the game but have to work hard to keep in desired range later on. Defenders can both slow roll (not exactly as good as a b-wing, but close enough) and go faster than a b-wing, so to me, it seems to have more manoeuvring options. I'm thinking it will make an excellent ion/HLC platform for this reason. Obviously missiles are relatively less attractive on the defender, given that you can spam missiles on bombers for much less.

I like reliability. High PS to date, has not been worth it. High Agility to date, has not proved useful in keeping ships alive over a series of games. Positioning abilites have proved useful. Low cost high damage ships have proven to be useful. Ships with extra firing arcs and large amounts of HP have proven useful. I just don't see the Defender offering enough over its competition to be useful. It's not as bad as the advanced, the dial is better, and the stats are better. But it isn't an efficient ship. Efficiency wins games, and is the sign of a good list.

I have yet to see an efficiently built Defender list.(Although mostly I see them in 3 ship list. (Granted, 3 Defender lists are probably better than 3 X lists, but again, I think it's over-rated and overshadowed by the Firespray.

Efficient is a relative term, and different people are going to rate certain aspects more or less based on their expectations, I guess, but I find it hard to believe anyone would call a 3/3/3/3 statline for 30 pts 'inefficient'. Even more surprising that you are comfortable making this judgement without even using the ship... o.O

As to efficiency. Compare it to an Interceptor. 3 shields for 12 points? No thanks.

Compare it to an X-WIng. 9 Points for a shield and an agility? No thank you. Compare it to an advanced. 9 points for an attack die and a shield. Maybe, but the Advanced already sucks.

Compare it to a Firespray. Add 3 points for 2 Pilot Skill and 1 agility, lose 3 Hull, and 1 shield, a crew slot and a bomb slot. Shrink the base and lose the rear arc. Get a nice, but limited dial.

Every comparison I see makes it look overcosted.

Maybe it'll work out, but I don't see it finding a spot in the metagame. It has one thing I like about it. It can really lock a ship into one direction with an Ion cannon. But personally y-wings do so better, what with the turret and the 1 forward to match speed.

Your comparisons don't seem that bad to me points-wise. 12 points for +3 shields = 3 shield upgrades (vs interceptor). Sure there's more to it than that (interceptor has way better dial, of course). Vs. x-wing: +1 shield and +1 agility is probably worth about 9 points, to be fair, although that's still -1 PS, so again, maybe it is about 1 pt over-costed.

Vs. the Firespray though, the Defender does have a few advantages to make up for its relatively lower durability: it can as I mentioned in my edited post, use its HLC/ion cannon more efficiently over the course of a game. It also does not suffer the Firespray's main weakness: the large base gives it a glaring blind spot on either side that manoeuverable ships can exploit (not so with the Defender). It can also fly slower due to the smaller base and therefore stay behind a target easier than the Firespray. It also has ALL the TURNS & BANKS. No other ship has that feature. Maybe its not super awesome, but it does give it more manoeuvring flexibility than I think most people are giving it credit for (partly because most of the turns are red and people can't seem to see pass that, perhaps?).

Not a good flanking ship? The Defender can hard bank, get stressed, but who cares because I can still do a K-turn and end up pointing at you on your flank.

As to efficiency. Compare it to an Interceptor. 3 shields for 12 points? No thanks.

Compare it to an X-WIng. 9 Points for a shield and an agility? No thank you. Compare it to an advanced. 9 points for an attack die and a shield. Maybe, but the Advanced already sucks.

Compare it to a Firespray. Add 3 points for 2 Pilot Skill and 1 agility, lose 3 Hull, and 1 shield, a crew slot and a bomb slot. Shrink the base and lose the rear arc. Get a nice, but limited dial.

Every comparison I see makes it look overcosted.

Maybe it'll work out, but I don't see it finding a spot in the metagame. It has one thing I like about it. It can really lock a ship into one direction with an Ion cannon. But personally y-wings do so better, what with the turret and the 1 forward to match speed.

Your comparisons don't seem that bad to me points-wise. 12 points for +3 shields = 3 shield upgrades (vs interceptor). Sure there's more to it than that (interceptor has way better dial, of course). Vs. x-wing: +1 shield and +1 agility is probably worth about 9 points, to be fair, although that's still -1 PS, so again, maybe it is about 1 pt over-costed.

Upgrades are ALWAYS overcosted compared to the built-in ship values, so of course that comparison would look good. If Shield Upgrade and Hull Upgrade were really worth 4 and 3 points, then you would see every single PS6+ Interceptor ALWAYS take BOTH of them in competitive lists. But even though Interceptor are glass cannons, you still don't see Shield+Hull as auto include, because the upgrades are still overcosted.

If you want to talk numbers on the base stat line, then the Defender looks like a TIE Advanced as far as jousting efficiency is concerned. End of story. Trying to argue that the differential point cost justifies its existence as a jouster, as you imply above, only shows a lack of understanding in how the fundamental statistics mechanics work for this game.

That said, it is possible that the inclusion of a cannon slot, and the dial being radically changed, would make the TIE Advanced a favorable ship. But I find that highly unlikely.

Not a good flanking ship? The Defender can hard bank, get stressed, but who cares because I can still do a K-turn and end up pointing at you on your flank.

That's a cute trick, but 30 points for 3 unmodified attack dice are not exactly going to rock the meta. 2 TIE Fighters (let alone 2.5 that it costs) will put out more damage.

OP:

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is that the TIE Defender is not a straightforward jousting ship. If you fly straight at your opponent and trade fire you will not get your 30 points value from it. On the other hand, if you play to its strength you can get more than its 30 points value. It is appropriately costed for its abilities.

I disagree with the assessment that the TIE Defender is not a good flanking ship. It has very high speed, and can also slowroll by combining 1 banks with barrel rolls. Because of those two things it is very good at getting around to the side and lingering there, especially combined with an engine upgrade. Also, 3 Agility works very well on the flank where you are only likely to take one or two shots, meaning you have a pretty good likelihood of having a focus available to take advantage of those dice.

It compares well to a bounty hunter. The white K-Turn provides similar functionality to a rear fire arc, with an improvement in survivability. The 3 Ag 6 Health is comparable with 2 Ag 10 Health, with a slight loss of survivability. It comes out about even. The 10 Health makes the Bounty hunter more likely to survive the first pass, the White K turn makes the Defender a more effective closer. Both can carry Cannons, but the Defender is much better at using them because it is far more efficient at keeping ships in front. All together, a 3 point difference between the two is pretty accurate, since surviving the first pass trumps the other abilities.

Will it rock the meta? No, but that is a good thing. It means that the ship is not under cost for its abilities.

Try this ship.

Delta Squadron (Engine Upgrade). For 34 points you have an outstanding flanker, that is fast enough to get into position and very difficult to pin down once it gets there. Once you get through the first pass, 2 or 3 consecutive K-Turns can ensure the opponent has most of his ships pointing the wrong direction.

There is a whole lot of talk about white kturns being it's saving grace. Played Porkins this weekend for "white Kturns" and it was a neat trick but it was his ability to heal shields via droid that actually mattered. What can a defender do after the Kturn that porkins can't? Move a little farther? Ion someone (why aren't you just killing it with your 3-4 dice?!). At 30pts it's vanilla and all the extra tricks are add ons.

If your main strategy hinges on your opponent not being able to handle a Kturn, you were going to beat that opponent anyway.

All that being said... Defender is close enough to playable that a single combo or synergy in standard will make it viable and it will immediately see use in Epic. And it will cry every time it is outmaneuvered by its interceptor brethren.

Alright. If Wedge vs Delta doesn't suit, try the following 30 point rebeler.

2x Prototype + Chaardan Refit.

They're the same PS, and you get to address your concerns about the Defender getting outmaneuvered (but not Outmaneuver ed).

That's a better comparison. The A-wings have more firepower and durability, if the Defender jousts it's dead.

In a theoretical world where a Defender and two A-Wings sat in front of one another and shot, they are about even. The A-Wings are up about 1/3 of a damage per turn until one of them dies, then the survivor is at a pretty significant disadvantage. On the table, every other turn or so the Defender will have a shot where the A-Wings do not or have a focus while the A-Wings do not.

Long story short, 2 A-Wings vs. a Defender is a fair fight and could go either way. That means the answer to the OP is no, the Defender is not overrated.

Rakky - I find that the white K-Turn is very good, whether on the Defender or on Porkins. It isn't so much the fact that you can take an action after K-Turn (which is nice), but the fact that you can take consecutive K-Turns in order to get behind your opponent that I find valuable. Because of that, the Defenders increased health and agility makes it more likely to survive the 2 or 3 turns it takes to get into that position (on the other hand, Porkins can do a lot of other tricks). JMO, of course.

That's a better comparison. The A-wings have more firepower and durability, if the Defender jousts it's dead.

So it will get you the correct training on how to fly a Defender.

They have more ships than you do. You're more survivable than either of them

They have the pinnacle of good dials, and you've got the weirdest dial in the game.

Et c. Et c. Et c. Here comes the new boss, substantially different than the old boss.

In a theoretical world where a Defender and two A-Wings sat in front of one another and shot, they are about even. The A-Wings are up about 1/3 of a damage per turn until one of them dies, then the survivor is at a pretty significant disadvantage. On the table, every other turn or so the Defender will have a shot where the A-Wings do not or have a focus while the A-Wings do not.

Long story short, 2 A-Wings vs. a Defender is a fair fight and could go either way. That means the answer to the OP is no, the Defender is not overrated.

Rakky - I find that the white K-Turn is very good, whether on the Defender or on Porkins. It isn't so much the fact that you can take an action after K-Turn (which is nice), but the fact that you can take consecutive K-Turns in order to get behind your opponent that I find valuable. Because of that, the Defenders increased health and agility makes it more likely to survive the 2 or 3 turns it takes to get into that position (on the other hand, Porkins can do a lot of other tricks). JMO, of course.

I like taking consecutive Koiograns when you're not trying to jockey into a following position. If they come at a 90* path past you, you can keep koiograning until they change their mind. This basically works into a dipositional white Stop. Hilarious to do when you've got an Ion Cannon, as it keeps them in your kill-box.

Not a good flanking ship? The Defender can hard bank, get stressed, but who cares because I can still do a K-turn and end up pointing at you on your flank.

That's a cute trick, but 30 points for 3 unmodified attack dice are not exactly going to rock the meta. 2 TIE Fighters (let alone 2.5 that it costs) will put out more damage.

That's true. The Defender might be the first ship where we see the named pilots getting a lot more play than the generics. I kind of look at both the generics and they seem pretty lackluster for the points. For I few points more I can field the Colonel and have his psuedo FCS ability and higher PS. Or just use Brath for flipping Crits. For me, the Colonel will probably be my go to Defender pilot. He's expensive, but I think you can run him naked and still have an effective offensive ship.

I think Rexlar with an Ion Cannon and Predator is going to be pretty sweet. An Omicron with Weapons Engineer and the ST-321 title combined with the Colonel will be great as well. I can see two or three generics running Ion Cannons ruining someones day in Epic play going up against the Corvette or Transport. You can pretty much shut down a huge ships energy production. I think there are some really unique and interesting possibilities with the Defender. It may be a while until those abilities are fully realized in the meta, though. Or I could be wrong, and it is over-costed and not worth the points. But I plan on running it extensively, once it's released, before I make a premature conclusion for myself.

In a theoretical world where a Defender and two A-Wings sat in front of one another and shot, they are about even. The A-Wings are up about 1/3 of a damage per turn until one of them dies, then the survivor is at a pretty significant disadvantage. On the table, every other turn or so the Defender will have a shot where the A-Wings do not or have a focus while the A-Wings do not.

I'll have to look at the numbers for the specific matchup of A-wings vs Defenders later. It is however the best case matchup for the defender since the extra attack dice is significant against 3 agility. Lets assume the A-wings each do 1/2 the damage of the Defender, so they collectively do the same damage the Defender does. Lets normalize the damage so the Defender does 1 damage per round. Both ships have the same agility and Shield/Hull ratios so that makes an apples to apples comparison very easy.

After 4 rounds:

• The Defender inflicts exactly enough damage to kill one A-wing: 1x4 = 4
• The A-wings inflict almost enough damage to reduce the Defender to 2 health: 4*2*0.5 = 4

So you are left with a 2 HP Defender vs. a 4 HP A-wing. We are assuming that the Defender does twice the damage output that the A-wing does, so they will end up dead even.

However, to emphasize, this is the best possible matchup for the Defender. It wants to be fighting ships with only 2 attack dice. If you consider the entire metagame and give it a more appropriately weighted average attack value, then it doesn't look nearly so good.

Edit: realized that you didn't say that the A-wings do 1/3 more damage in relative, but rather in absolute terms. That changes the numbers. What did you have for relative damage numbers? I used 2x as a baseline, but in reality the Defender shouldn't have that large of an advantage even in this specific match up.

Rakky - I find that the white K-Turn is very good, whether on the Defender or on Porkins. It isn't so much the fact that you can take an action after K-Turn (which is nice), but the fact that you can take consecutive K-Turns in order to get behind your opponent that I find valuable. Because of that, the Defenders increased health and agility makes it more likely to survive the 2 or 3 turns it takes to get into that position (on the other hand, Porkins can do a lot of other tricks). JMO, of course.

I just can't see Kturning every turn being viable on a PS 1 30pt ship. I hope I'm wrong. I want to like the defender but a shift to lower PS pilots and sniping would have to occur for that to be viable. The phantom, z95, and ewing might help that change. I also expect bombs to get better!

In a theoretical world where a Defender and two A-Wings sat in front of one another and shot, they are about even. The A-Wings are up about 1/3 of a damage per turn until one of them dies, then the survivor is at a pretty significant disadvantage. On the table, every other turn or so the Defender will have a shot where the A-Wings do not or have a focus while the A-Wings do not.

The generalized jousting numbers I calculated, using weighted averages for a variety of ranges and action economies, puts 3 attack dice at around 1.75x as effective as 2 attack dice. So the normalized damage output of the A-wings will be around 2.0 vs. 1.75 from the Defender - but that is assuming a variety of different targets to shoot at. The A-wing will do comparatively better against lower agility targets, which is reflected in the above numbers.

I'll have to look at the numbers for the specific matchup of A-wings vs Defenders later. It is however the best case matchup for the defender since the extra attack dice is significant against 3 agility. Lets assume the A-wings each do 1/2 the damage of the Defender, so they collectively do the same damage the Defender does. Lets normalize the damage so the Defender does 1 damage per round. Both ships have the same agility and Shield/Hull ratios so that makes an apples to apples comparison very easy.

After 4 rounds:

• The Defender inflicts exactly enough damage to kill one A-wing: 1x4 = 4
• The A-wings inflict almost enough damage to reduce the Defender to 2 health: 4*2*0.5 = 4

So you are left with a 2 HP Defender vs. a 4 HP A-wing. We are assuming that the Defender does twice the damage output that the A-wing does, so they will end up dead even.

However, to emphasize, this is the best possible matchup for the Defender. It wants to be fighting ships with only 2 attack dice. If you consider the entire metagame and give it a more appropriately weighted average attack value, then it doesn't look nearly so good.

Edit: realized that you didn't say that the A-wings do 1/3 more damage in relative, but rather in absolute terms. That changes the numbers. What did you have for relative damage numbers? I used 2x as a baseline, but in reality the Defender shouldn't have that large of an advantage even in this specific match up.

Once one A-wing is down the defender would switch from offensive focus to reduce the number of dice against it to defensive dice. a modified three agility roll is going to average something like 1.7 evades a roll, a modified A-wing attack is going to average 1.5, compared to the 1vs 1.5 the defender would be using( I assume that any two attack ship that actually wants to hit a 3 agility one will be using modified attack dice). The defender will have initiative, being imperial, so on the "final pass", can switch to offensive to secure the win, even if the A-wing uses the focus defensively then it is reducing it's odds of hitting massively.

Granted I am not as good at statistics as you and this is all mental math and rough estimates.

2 on 1 is still not an effective way to tell if a ship is balanced. Put it in a few 100 point squads. See if the builds are capable of doing well and forming a cohesive strategy.

The issue here is this.

3 Defenders is probably a bad idea.

Most squads use formation flying to be effective and get fire focused. The Defender cannot formation fly thanks to its wonky dial.

That should mean it's a good flanker. But it isn't. It's too easy to make it stress itself, and too hard to be unpredictable while clearing said stress. he linear movement style allows most ships to evade it's firing arc with some level of efficiency, unless it stresses itself.

So that leaves it as a lone ship that can't flank, or highly limiting your tie swarms effectiveness.

Now, it could in theory take a heavy laser and play sniper, but repeated 1 banking and 2 forwards are going to make that tough and awkward.

I have yet to see a Defender squad I see as dangerous because the defender doesn't synergize with anything. Not even other defenders.

Unless you use it as your center piece, Take say Brath give him something like predator and what ever else, maybe an engine upgrade. Then run him in the middle flanked by some interceptor Aces essentially the same way you would run a firespray, except its smaller slightly less durable, and has a stress free barrel roll

Most squads use formation flying to be effective and get fire focused. The Defender cannot formation fly thanks to its wonky dial.

That should mean it's a good flanker. But it isn't. It's too easy to make it stress itself, and too hard to be unpredictable while clearing said stress. he linear movement style allows most ships to evade it's firing arc with some level of efficiency, unless it stresses itself.

So that leaves it as a lone ship that can't flank, or highly limiting your tie swarms effectiveness.

Now, it could in theory take a heavy laser and play sniper, but repeated 1 banking and 2 forwards are going to make that tough and awkward.

I have yet to see a Defender squad I see as dangerous because the defender doesn't synergize with anything. Not even other defenders.

This is mostly erroneous. First of all you are making some gross assumptions about what it can or cannot do without any knowledge of how it maneuvres on the table.

Flying in formation? Well true, it doesn't fly well in formation with other ships, but it doesn't have to. With a heavy laser cannon, it can bring up the rear behind your formation and start sniping at R3 while the rest of your squad moves in.

A formation of 3 defenders (for example, triple Deltas w/ ion cannons) can in fact fly in formation just fine. Why wouldn't they be able to? They all have the same dial! Thing is, it gets by quite nicely on mostly just banking and k-turning. Yes it may need to do a hard turn on occasion, but it actually isn't required all that often to keep enemies in arc. Sound crazy? Only way to know is to try it yourself.\

As a flanker, it can work just fine: you can start with angled deployment, right? Then your 5 straight + 3 bank puts you nicely on the flank of any formation that moves straight up the board.

I just had a game this evening with a buddy of mine. Getting ready for Assault on Imdaar Alpha. I flew imperials and he used a HSF. I had an Onyx pilot with Heavy Laser Cannon. Was able to keep the falcon in its sights every turn except one (before the falcon went down). Never got stressed all game. Did 4 k-turns in a row at one point to keep two of his ships in firing arc. Worked like a charm since I only lost one ship (the phantom in the 2nd turn).

Again, I'm not trying to sell the Defender as the best ship ever, since I do feel it is a little over-priced. However, I think it works well and provides a unique role that the empire needs: a small-based ship that can pack a cannon effectively.

MajorJuggler: I used a dice iterator put together by one of my league mates, here. http://www.xwingdice.com/

The theoretical assumptions I made were based on the fact that the Defender gains a greater damage increase from offensive focus than he gains defensive value from focus, especially when attacked with 2 dice. This is generally true, regardless. The A-Wings on the other hand gain greater value from defensive focus. So, I calculated the Defender attack using focus against an A-Wing defense with focus. Then the return fire was one A-Wing focused and one A-Wing unfocused (because he spent it on defense) against the Defender unfocused (because he spent it on offense). The numbers are:

Defender Fires (3 focused red vs. 3 focused green): .68 Damage

A-Wing Fires (2 focused red vs 3 unfocused green): .64 Damage

A-Wing Fires (2 unfocused red vs 3 unfocused green): .37 Damage

Which comes to about .68 vs. 1.01 Damage per turn. So, about 1/3 of a hit. It is very important to understand, however, that outlier results heavily favor the Defender especially if they occur early. For example, a worst case scenario for the Defender is the A-Wing getting full hits while the Defender blanks agility, leaving the Defender losing 2 shields. A worst case scenario for the A-Wings is the Defender getting full hits with a Direct Hit critical, and the A-Wing blanking agility, which destroys an A-Wing. Even if the third hit is not a direct hit, the A-Wing is likely to die on the next shot where the Defender is only at half health. A Defender with 3 hull should beat an A-Wing at full health.

Consider that once the first A-Wing goes down, he loses both a second shot and a second focus. If he spends his focus defensively, the Defender is now up .68 vs .37 Damage. If he spends his focus offensively, the Defender is up 1.28 vs .64 Damage. Either way the Defender is putting out almost twice the damage per turn of the A-Wing, while also being less vulnerable to outliers.

So in our theoretical world, the Defender would have to take 4 damage (leaving him with 2) before the first A-Wing dies in order to have an even chance at victory. It would take 4/.68=5.88 so 5 or 6 turns of dead average shooting to destroy an A-Wing. In that time, the A-Wings would have inflicted (.68+.37)*6=6.06 Damage.

In other words, an advantage to the A-Wings but not huge, especially considering outlier events. When you consider further that if we leave the theoretical world and actually put ships on the table the Defender will often have focus where the A-Wings will not, and also frequently have a shot where one or both A-Wings do not, the Defender comes out ahead by a pretty significant margin.

As you pointed out this is a best case scenario for a Defender, but then again it is almost certainly going to come through this scenario having half of its health remaining (because the white k turn allows shots unanswered and also gives an action advantage). So again, this leads me to conclude that Defenders are indeed appropriately priced.

Also, I have been playing with them and the results I see on the table bear out my statistical predictions, so I feel pretty confident in my preliminary analysis.

Most squads use formation flying to be effective and get fire focused. The Defender cannot formation fly thanks to its wonky dial.

That should mean it's a good flanker. But it isn't. It's too easy to make it stress itself, and too hard to be unpredictable while clearing said stress. he linear movement style allows most ships to evade it's firing arc with some level of efficiency, unless it stresses itself.

So that leaves it as a lone ship that can't flank, or highly limiting your tie swarms effectiveness.

Now, it could in theory take a heavy laser and play sniper, but repeated 1 banking and 2 forwards are going to make that tough and awkward.

I have yet to see a Defender squad I see as dangerous because the defender doesn't synergize with anything. Not even other defenders.

This is mostly erroneous. First of all you are making some gross assumptions about what it can or cannot do without any knowledge of how it maneuvres on the table.

Flying in formation? Well true, it doesn't fly well in formation with other ships, but it doesn't have to. With a heavy laser cannon, it can bring up the rear behind your formation and start sniping at R3 while the rest of your squad moves in.

A formation of 3 defenders (for example, triple Deltas w/ ion cannons) can in fact fly in formation just fine. Why wouldn't they be able to? They all have the same dial! Thing is, it gets by quite nicely on mostly just banking and k-turning. Yes it may need to do a hard turn on occasion, but it actually isn't required all that often to keep enemies in arc. Sound crazy? Only way to know is to try it yourself.\

As a flanker, it can work just fine: you can start with angled deployment, right? Then your 5 straight + 3 bank puts you nicely on the flank of any formation that moves straight up the board.

I just had a game this evening with a buddy of mine. Getting ready for Assault on Imdaar Alpha. I flew imperials and he used a HSF. I had an Onyx pilot with Heavy Laser Cannon. Was able to keep the falcon in its sights every turn except one (before the falcon went down). Never got stressed all game. Did 4 k-turns in a row at one point to keep two of his ships in firing arc. Worked like a charm since I only lost one ship (the phantom in the 2nd turn).

Again, I'm not trying to sell the Defender as the best ship ever, since I do feel it is a little over-priced. However, I think it works well and provides a unique role that the empire needs: a small-based ship that can pack a cannon effectively.

It doesn't play well with others. If you fly a Defender with Squint escorts it's highly likely to either be forced to be the flanker, hamstring its teamates with much much better dials, or split your force far too much for them to properly engage.(And Squints aren't all that competitive to begin with, but I'd rather have two squints than a Defender with upgrades any day.

And I'm not calling it worthless, just not efficient enough for competitive use due to the Firespray, which is a far better ship due to to customization and a better dial.

I cannot think of a single time I have wanted to K-turn two turns in a row, except when I crash. But lve crashed on a lot more turns than Kturns, and the Defender crashing on a turn is in real trouble. It's got a good statline for too many points, and a dial I just don't find intriguing or good. Hard time turning, and moves too fast. It compares badly to literally every other ship in the game, except the E-Wing, which has amazing upgrade options, and the Tie Advanced, which sucks. It's too expensive and reliant on green dice to tank.

Maybe the White K-turn is good enough to make it worthwhile. If it had boost naturally I'd probably like it, as that would help it corner, and Boosting out of a K-turn is mean. Barrel Roll and a cannon slot though. Just not enough to make me want to play it. I don't see the niche for it.