I can't believe people keep saying the Defender is junk. It is something the Imps have lacked, which is an all around ship with durability. Good firepower and agility, coupled with the durability and white K, make it a good jack of all trades. The only bummer is a lack of EPT on the higher generics (something I think was a mistake on the Interceptors to give them) and the skill level should have been greater. In the game fluff for the old Lucas Arts games they were a prototype super fighter to be used by the best of the best, only. For a while, only the first six were built and those were supposed to end up replacing the royal guard interceptors (but then Endor happened....). Why PS1 Defenders exist is a mystery to me. That aside, I think they are a good solid fighter, just not one you can spam. People just have not built good lists with it yet.

The phantom is just fine as a ship, but it did bring the much maligned cloaking from STAW into the game, albeit in somewhat more balanced form. I do think a better mechanic for it would have been to make it 3 attack and plus one on any turn it decloaks, however, which could have been incorporated into the cloaking rules cards.

PS- The Defender killer that was made during the Tie Fighter Wars events was the Missle Boat, not the Phantom. The two ships have never even appeared in the same game, until this one.

PPS- I would love to get the extra ships from TFW into this game, like the T-Wing, R45 Starchaser, and Assault Gunboat.

As far as the range goes, the fighter portion of this game operates at a 270 to 1 scale, which means our 30 cm range ruler represents only 81 meters of distance, with 27 meters per range increment. Considering the lore provided in the X-wing novels indicated that zeroing lasers at 250 meters is optimal for dog fighting, and our range 3 being under a third of that distance, the combat range in X-wing would be extremely short ranged according to the fluff, so by your own fluff or lore based argument, the Phantom should be super powered at these ranges.

So if we take 250 meters as the starting point.

Range 1=Optimal Fighting Distance, all Lasers/Cannons/Missiles are hitting essentially, no time to dodge. (250 Meters or Less Long)

Range 2=Less Optimal Fighting Distance

Range 3=Still Able to fight but Way Less likely to hit, more likely too dodge. (At Max, 750 Meters)

An X wing is 12.5 meters long and 10.9 wide.

You are in space. So lasers aren't refracting (no atmosphere to refract on)

So you are trying to hit something that's fairly large from a very short distance (Less than one kilometer, or less than half a mile (.46 miles)) away with Lasers in space. I'd say the Phantom de-cloaking at range three and shooting an x wing is still pretty close to it, fluff wise. Sure the defender in the fluff is a ridiculously powerful ship and it can be here. A ps 1 defender with EU and HLC comes in at what, 41? It becomes fairly mobile, has the (arguably) best attack in the game, six health and 3 dodge, which is still the best naked dodge combined with some fairly decent health. If flown right, and with some numbers backing it, it is a monster on the field, especially if flown with Rex in it.

I'd say that both ships are about equally powered in the game, and about equally costed but fill completely different roles. (a tricked out phantom is about 40 while a EU/HLC ps 1 Defender is 41)

(Phantoms hunt down ships first, and the Defender mops up what is left, with your numbers hopefully either stripping their tokens or letting hits land to save the token for defender's attack.)

The Phantom wasn't in SWG, we sure tried to talk the devs into it though. I'm still shocked after all this time they put the TIE Defender in.

PS- The Defender killer that was made during the Tie Fighter Wars events was the Missle Boat, not the Phantom. The two ships have never even appeared in the same game, until this one.

Except for Empire at War: Forces of Corruption.

PS- The Defender killer that was made during the Tie Fighter Wars events was the Missle Boat, not the Phantom. The two ships have never even appeared in the same game, until this one.

PPS- I would love to get the extra ships from TFW into this game, like the T-Wing, R45 Starchaser, and Assault Gunboat.

Yeah in TF the missile boat was to be a Defender counter, BUT in the Lore for Grand Admiral Martio Batch he had the Phantoms made to counter the Defender and Rebs

So if we take 250 meters as the starting point.

Range 1=Optimal Fighting Distance, all Lasers/Cannons/Missiles are hitting essentially, no time to dodge. (250 Meters or Less Long)

Range 2=Less Optimal Fighting Distance

Range 3=Still Able to fight but Way Less likely to hit, more likely too dodge. (At Max, 750 Meters)

An X wing is 12.5 meters long and 10.9 wide.

You are in space. So lasers aren't refracting (no atmosphere to refract on)

So you are trying to hit something that's fairly large from a very short distance (Less than one kilometer, or less than half a mile (.46 miles)) away with Lasers in space. I'd say the Phantom de-cloaking at range three and shooting an x wing is still pretty close to it, fluff wise. Sure the defender in the fluff is a ridiculously powerful ship and it can be here. A ps 1 defender with EU and HLC comes in at what, 41? It becomes fairly mobile, has the (arguably) best attack in the game, six health and 3 dodge, which is still the best naked dodge combined with some fairly decent health. If flown right, and with some numbers backing it, it is a monster on the field, especially if flown with Rex in it.

I'd say that both ships are about equally powered in the game, and about equally costed but fill completely different roles. (a tricked out phantom is about 40 while a EU/HLC ps 1 Defender is 41)

(Phantoms hunt down ships first, and the Defender mops up what is left, with your numbers hopefully either stripping their tokens or letting hits land to save the token for defender's attack.)

I guess the scale is off when it comes to weapon range. Lots have a max range around 50 miles with cannons.

The Phantom wasn't in SWG, we sure tried to talk the devs into it though. I'm still shocked after all this time they put the TIE Defender in.

Thats to bad. I wish I could have played SWGs. So many TIEs where in it that I doubt will ever be playable in any other SW flight sim.

Hopefully FFG will get around to making more of the TIE's and other fighters from SWG. They had some good designs, a lot of people hated it but I loved the TIE Aggressor.

The TIE Phantom allegedly has five laser cannons, while the TIE Defender has three laser cannons. That's why the Phantom has one more attack die than the Defender.

I think it's disingenuous, though, because in Rebel Assault II, you only see the Phantom fire two of its guns. You never see it fire five, if I recall correctly. The Defender should, fluff-wise, have a better attack.

But mechanic-wise, it's more unique to give the TIE Phantom the best attack in the game and make it choose between having using that attack power or having the best defense in the game.

Or not make that choice at all with ACD.