Boo..... Ha got you.

Anyway, the defender. Its a strange ship to fly. I have to say it was really really good BUT its got a problem I didn't foresee. Its turns ( unless you like stress ) are very wide.

So next time its used I shall fly diagonally across the board. Anyone else got advise?

Next game I get to take the phantom for a spin.

You are right. I flew two Delta's along with Whisper last night. Went 3-0 with them. But I struggled whenever I was inside the asteroids. Defenders don't like flying in close, cluttered quarters. They want lots of space to run strafing runs, like you say. Try to keep open flight paths mapped out, but that can be harder to do when the enemy is intent on fighting in the rocks.

I had a lot of fun flying the Defenders though. That 4 k-turn is crazy good. It's so satisfying to k-turn behind your opponent and still get an action while they are stressed.

do you get the impression from the dial and slots that they really should be run with HLC?

@Spaceman91: What do you mean by the tie defender makes "wide turns"? Dial looks comparable to tie interceptor.

Is this about ways to remove or negate stress?

@Spaceman91: What do you mean by the tie defender makes "wide turns"? Dial looks comparable to tie interceptor.

Is this about ways to remove or negate stress?

Edit: the interceptor is flown in a very different way. Defender is like the mountain, the interceptor its the red viper.

do you get the impression from the dial and slots that they really should be run with HLC?

I found rexler with pred does stupid damage so never really felt the need. Not saying its a bad idea I'm just not sure its a help as such

Its got a white K turn it had to have some red movement or else it would be way too OP.

haven't tried mine yet but looking forward to it.

The ship is really good. The white k turn is helpful but the red turns are a killer. Its just a matter of being aware of its limits.

@Spaceman91: What do you mean by the tie defender makes "wide turns"? Dial looks comparable to tie interceptor.

Is this about ways to remove or negate stress?

It only has the 3 turn as non-red. It can 1-turn and 2-turn but they're red maneuvers.

This is why Engine Upgrades are so Defender friendly. Bank, bank again. K-turn past your opponent, bank behind him.

What a Tie Defender wouldn't kill for a plain R-2 Astromech slot.

Science and development needs to get on that pronto.

What a Tie Defender wouldn't kill for a plain R-2 Astromech slot.

Science and development needs to get on that pronto.

The interceptor would be dead if you could do that.

The EPT for the Defender is a toss up for me due to its awesomeness, either Predator? or Opportunist? or Outmaneuver? All simply awesome!

I'm really not sure about outmaneuver after today. I don't think it can "dance" well enough to get use out of it.

The EPT for the Defender is a toss up for me due to its awesomeness, either Predator? or Opportunist? or Outmaneuver? All simply awesome!

Really? I haven't played with them yet, but Preditor seems to be the hands down best upgrade.

Flew a TIE Defender as the linchpin of my list at an escalation tournament today and it was absolutely amazing.

I wanted to use one of the new ships and thought the Phantom already gets all the love it needs and to no surprise several other Imperial players were using that one today. Mine was the only TIE Defender, though.

I flew four matches (60-150 pts) with it and I never had stress on it; not even a single time. You can get a long way with the white 3-turn and all the different banks. Further into the tournament I also added an Engine Upgrade to it. It's undescribable how great it was to constantly do the White K-turns followed up with a Boost after the K-turn bearing down on the Rebel Scum with Outmaneuver and a free target lock (used Vessery). And I never needed to jump into the red turns to be able to adjust my trajectories.

Yes, the upgraded Defender costs a fortune with a named pilot, Outmaneuver and Engine Upgrade, yet it kept being my strongest and most endurable ship - I might even be tempted to beef it further up the next time around.

Also you can't take a stressful maneuver if you can't go straight next turn. At least you can, but it's not a great idea unless you have a Wingman.

My advice is embrace the White K-turn, I think that it still hasn't sunk in yet but I love it.

Also I believe Predator on Rexlar, Outmaneuver on Vessery (or Marksmanship maybe, but I think canceling a defense die sometimes probably outweighs getting a crit, especially if you lose the defensive focus in case you don't use it on offense)

I'm glad that everyone loves the defender. With a little bit more practice I think it could be unstoppable.

@Spaceman91: What do you mean by the tie defender makes "wide turns"? Dial looks comparable to tie interceptor.

Is this about ways to remove or negate stress?

Yer basically its do a hard turn then you have to go straight. It causes problems.

Edit: the interceptor is flown in a very different way. Defender is like the mountain, the interceptor its the red viper.

Too soon, RIP in peace sweet prince

I did a three-way 50 point match with two of my buddies today. Letsee...

Rexler // Engine Upgrade / Outmanuever / Ion cannon / Ion pulse missile

Corran Horn // FCS / R7-T1 ???

Echo // ??? (Echo died turn 2, Inexperience landed him in front of the E-Wing). + Obsidian Squadron pilot.

E-Wing had initiative.

My TIE Defender took 2 hits the entire match and was incredibly fun to fly. Outmaneuvering the E-Wing and chasing down the last lone TIE Fighter from the phantom squadron gave me a feeling of power I've never had from another craft. I found I didn't miss the Turn 1 and 2 much, and the engine upgrade helped me overcome the shortcomings of the rest of the dial. If I felt I couldn't turn back to engage, I just used a 5 forward to clear and find another way to approach my enemy or dupe him into making a positional mistake I could exploit.

Yeah sure you can take a Firespray but the TIE Defender can get into places a Firespray cannot. I Turned-3 to face an asteroid and then barrel rolled away to get into arc range. Pretty sure that same maneuver would have beached the Firespray. I'm in love, and might just pick up a third in the near future to run the 3-ship skill 1 list in spite of being skill 1.

I take it you meant the Ion Pulse Missile? the Defender doesn't take torpedoes andd the ion torpedoes haven't been released yet.

It's an ion, it's a warhead, so I jumped to that shorthand from my brain yes it was an Ion pulse missile.

Missile, torpedo, they all wind up ionizing someone in the end...

I didn't get to go to my local Imdaar Alpha Event, and my Wave 4 is still shipping. However, last week at the league, some of the guys already had their ships. We did a 6v6 Furball match. It was a huge blast. I was on the Rebel side, but there was one PS1 Defender. I was really surprised by its durability, it was the second to last Empire ship to go, followed by Tetran Cowall for a Rebel victory with only Kyle Katarn left on the table. Anyway, all he had to do was get into the center of the fray and K-turn repeatedly, and he always had a shot. It was really something to see it K-turn 3, 4, 5 rounds in a row and always get his action. Notably it wasn't even that we weren't getting shots in, its just that the 3-4 evade dice he was getting were rolling well in his favor, and because he fired last, he always had a focus for defense. That 3-down statline is more powerful than you'd think. Makes it more durable than a B-wing, especially if it focuses its defenses.