First time flying the Wave 4 imperials tonight. Faced my mate who flew Chewbacker with Gunner, Knave with Adv sensor, R5-P9 and Tala with Assault missiles. May have been something else in there too.

First game I had Col. Vessery with Ion cannon, Jonus with Seismics, and Two scimitars with a little ordinance.

The Falcon took me apart! The Assualt missiles did their job too but no matter how well I flew the defender he could just hit with the Falcon.

Second game I took Whisper with Howl, Mauler and Backstaber. Pretty much the same thing happened here!

Don't get me wrong there was a lot of learning with the new ships, but The Falcon just looks like it'll never be at too much disadvantage vs, the Defender or Phantom.

Is it my poor flying? Does anyone have any advise on what to do if you face The Falcon with either of these wave 4 imps?

Why ion cannons on Vessery?

What sort of ordinance on the Scims?

Where did you try to engage the falcon?

When you saw he had assault missles did you go a) I will break up my formation or b) she'll be right bro and face plant yourself right into them?

The Plan with Vessery was to Ion and control then K-turn behind.

All there was room for on the Scims was flechettes on one and ion pulse with Failsafe.

The Assualt missile did me fair and square. That was a rookie mistake.

Engagement the Falcon primarily in a tight asteroid belt, causing him to hit a few, but couldn't find anyway of taking the heat off the defender.

I've not had much of a problem with the Falcon.

I've only used echo. With her unique decloak you can really keep your distance.

The trick I found is give him something else to shoot at.

Would he shoot something at range 3 with 5 evade dice or something at Range 2 with with 3,

Same can be said for range one or two.

He can shoot at range one get an extra attack dice or range 2 and still be rolling 3 dice vs 4

That is how I find it best to deal with Turret ships.

I find most I play against will target the ship they have a better chance at hitting. Even if the is something that takes priority.

It's just you would rather attack something that is not getting bonus dice, or if the turreted ship is getting a bonus

Plus remember, even though they have a turret they must still fly in a straight path. Unlike echo who can just about move anywhere she feels like

To be brutally honest it sounds like your list is just a pile of low value plays.

Ion cannon on Vessery removes a key advantage of using the defender. For the same cost you could grab Outmaneuver and get better value on your investment. Similarly Jonus is a poor investment if all you have are a FTorp and an IPM. Its unlikely that Jonus will be in position to support a Defender without you sacrificing the Defenders key advantage.

Engaging the Falcon in the rocks is also a mistake. Not only does the Falcon have a better dial than most ships, it has the raw durability to go over said rocks with impunity.

Lastly and this is the thing that most imperial players dont get about the Falcon, when people play the falcon they are looking to aggressively trade. With its low agility the falcon WILL die. Its all a matter of how many ships it can take with it. Your list is probably better than most at preventing this with its 6 hull equiv. across the board ensuring that nothing is likely to die from just 1 volley of fire however its lacking the firepower to take down the Falcon in any reasonable time frame.

My suggestion would be to drop Jonus to another Scimitar and the missiles, drop the ion cannon, give all the scims seismic charges and then you have 8 points to play with on Vessery. Giving him HLC would be kind of obvious but you could also spend those points on durability upgrades for Vess or the Scims.

Appreciate the constructive critique.

I agree that the list does not sync brilliantly. It was an attempt to shoehorn the defender in to my normal bomber list, which after playing it will never really work. You make a good suggestion with three Scims with Seismics. I was also thinking about switching Jonus to Howlrunner, giving a longer term benefit to the Scims. Although I think she would be primary target, if kitted defensively she could take a lot of heat while the bombers remain for the mid game and have a chance to drop their ordinance.

Falcons cause major problems for most imperial small ships. Bombers do Ok, and supposedly Defenders are good, but I figure Gunner hasn't been involved then. The secret with Falcons is to overpower them. You need 4-5 good attackers, and they need to be able to focus. Generally this requires the Empires bigger ships.

Phantoms can work. But you cannot lose the PS bid against falcons. If you don't shoot first you're getting 2, maybe 3 shots off. Be aware of this, and make the best of it with the rest of your team.

Beyond that, keep working at it. Falcons are good, but they murder the lists firepower. Or will until people start chucking 4 Z95s out there with them. I think Lando and Cracken might see some cooperative play.

will this be irritating to go up against?

Eg. Han Solo + Millennium Falcon (title) + PTL + C3PO crew + Lando crew