Took this build to a local tournament today, won first place.

Rexler Brath- HLC + Predator

Darth Vader- Outmaneuver + Engine Upgrade

Black Squadron Pilot- Predator

Won all of my games, and Rexler survived every single one. His ability came into play twice through the tournament, once to kill Wedge when he normally would have survived (flipped two damage cards, one was Direct Hit), and the other to cripple a Y-Wing at extreme range and render his PS 0 and his Pilot Ability 0 (on Dutch, that hurt).

Then came a truly majestic lucky shot of lucky shots, getting 4 hits against a Phantom and having 2 of them be evaded, only to have the meager TIE finish it off… at range 3, through an asteroid (got a picture on my 3DS too!).

Seriously though, I've now gotten to the point where I have a much better feel for their dial. You have to plan your approach out much further than most other Imperial craft. You need to look two turns ahead and make sure you won't have an asteroid in your k-turn lane. Defenders make amazing HLC and Ion platforms as well. And most of all, having 3 evade dice meant it was possible to escape damage that many other heavy assault fighters like the B-Wing could never shirk.

All in all, felt tremendously good to fly this Ace.

Very cool. The defender has not been much loved in this expansion, but it seems to be so straight forwardly good. Its one whole (red hard turns) are so easily fixed with Engine upgrades, and their white k-turn means that then not only can k-turn and then take an action, but you can also k-turn while stressed. As stress becomes a bigger and bigger deal here I think that is huge.

I do have to admit I'm a bit surprised. You have low total hit points, and 2 of your 3 ships only have 2 attack dice (granted the other has 4).

Yes but you also have to take into account that two ships have rerolls, and the other is a boosting, barrel rolling machine with no drawbacks who has Outmaneuver. But really each game i was on fire planning my approach. It was how I flew the squad. Earlier in someone else's thread I posted a list of other factors that go into playing a Defender. I put them all into devastating practice today.

Don't dismiss Vader with Outmaneuver and Engine Upgrade. He is very slippery, and Outmaneuver really ups his damage output.

In b4 some troll comes to discredit your "anecdotal evidence."

But seriously, I love the defender in general. And Brath in particular.

Especially against the Y-Wing. I was also able to get behind a PS 10 Wes Janson and force him to fly through asteroids for two or three turns before he could even turn and fire. By the time he could finally k-turn to get to me, it was too late.

Brath is seeing some love in Regionals. Not a ton, but enough to take notice. I am surprised that Vessery isn't seeing more use.

Phantom + FCS or Shuttle + FCS should combo well with him.

Heh. "Anecdotal" my butt. ExpatSmuggler got pictures.

Ya I agree your hp is ridiculously low! Sounds like you had some serious luck on your side and some poor flying by opponents. I don't think I would ever consider taking a 14 hp build to anything regardless of the damage output or confidence in my piloting skills. Kudos to you for taking that and winning tho.

Trust me, my opposition was anything but poor. And it's kind of insulting to them for you to say that. And to me, for attributing my wins to poor opponents and luck.

Luckily for me, showcasing such blatant rudeness and ignorance means I don't have to put a single bit of stock in your opinion.

Ya I agree your hp is ridiculously low! Sounds like you had some serious luck on your side and some poor flying by opponents. I don't think I would ever consider taking a 14 hp build to anything regardless of the damage output or confidence in my piloting skills. Kudos to you for taking that and winning tho.

Need unlike button!

I'd like to hear more about this.

What did you face? How did you fly? etc.

Battle report us for science!

Well there were some Rebel builds and a Phantom build. The Phantom actually got destroyed before it could ever fire, and that one i will attribute to luck. After taking some damage from Rexler's HLC, the Predator TIE got enough damage through despite SIX evade dice. Even though that was the first kill, the match was pretty much over there. But if my opponent hadn't rolled poor evade dice that match, it would have been a very different story.

The closest match came down to just Rexler and Roark. Early in the match I'd lost the TIE after it only fired once (wiffed all evade rolls there), and Vader was nearly destroyed in one shot too (wiffed those as well). But things started to even up when I used Rexler's ability to kill Wedge, and Vader Outmaneuvered Biggs and landed lots of solid shots, including Injured Pilot. I was able to succeed in drawing my enemy back through the asteroid fields to limit their maneuverability, but after a few exchanges lost Vader to another poor roll. It was up to Rexler to clean up from there, which he did. My opponent took some extra damage, hoping saving his focus token for attack would kill me but my focused defense kept me alive.

Ya I agree your hp is ridiculously low! Sounds like you had some serious luck on your side and some poor flying by opponents. I don't think I would ever consider taking a 14 hp build to anything regardless of the damage output or confidence in my piloting skills. Kudos to you for taking that and winning tho.

No such thing as luck, just cause and effect, dismissing someones results because it does not fit your mindset is slightly . . . . .

OP well done on your results, sounds to me you have very average luck

I just faced a Defender list and a Phantom list. That Defender lasted longer than the Phantom did. It is suprisingly tanky. Plus like the OP here he was using a HLC.

I flew a rather prosaic list: Fett(Seismic), Vader(Squad Leader) and Space Cow (FCS). Adv Sensors+Engine Upgrade may have granted my cow one more shot over the games but I found I liked having the TL reroll on demand much more. Vader dropped after two rounds of blank greens but he was useful before he dropped, taking out a bit of the TIE swarms I faced. I debated on HLC for Fett, maybe I will try that next time.

Yeah, it's not so much luck as mitigation. I mean come on, two of my three guys had Predator, and the other was Vader. It's just how the squad was planned, very aggressive. Though I think only a small handful of the ships I faced (2 ships out of all my games) were PS 2 or lower, so it wasn't often that I got the double reroll. But it's nice to be able to hold back for defense.

Anyway, drawing my opponents through the asteroids repeatedly worked great. But doing so required me to eyeball and plan my moves about 2-3 turns out. So while I was planning my approach vector, i was already thinking two more turns ahead to that k-turn which was truly devastating. On two occasions though I made drastically different turns and caught my opponent off guard, since they expected k-spamming and not the 3 hard that I did to hook around Biggs and fire at a Bandit (which was nearly killed in one shot because of it).

I just faced a Defender list and a Phantom list. That Defender lasted longer than the Phantom did. It is suprisingly tanky. Plus like the OP here he was using a HLC.

I flew a rather prosaic list: Fett(Seismic), Vader(Squad Leader) and Space Cow (FCS). Adv Sensors+Engine Upgrade may have granted my cow one more shot over the games but I found I liked having the TL reroll on demand much more. Vader dropped after two rounds of blank greens but he was useful before he dropped, taking out a bit of the TIE swarms I faced. I debated on HLC for Fett, maybe I will try that next time.

Yeah it's starting to seem to me that HLC on Rexler is an absolute must, despite the steep cost. It makes him blazingly effective, giving more chances to get those spanks in. Between focus tokens and Predator rerolls, getting 3-4 consistent hits in at any range had a high occurrence rate. Some good instances were:

Planting 4 hits on a y-wing at extreme range 3, and him rolling 0 evade. With one shield missing already, i dealt two damage cards and flipped them for the two crits i mentioned earlier in this thread. The shot that killed the Y-wing a little bit later was also 4 hits, though it didn't need that much to kill it by then (already dealt some by Vader). The turn later I turned to face down a Prototype Pilot that had already been dealt 2 damage and with Predator/focus got 4 hit results again. Then there were a handful of shots against Boba Fett (the Phantom list) that all had very high damage, almost being killed by Rexler singlehandedly. Vader and the TIE each got 2 in, and Rexler did the rest.

Why did opt for a BSP+predator over Backstabber?

I feel stabbie > any BSP (for the points).

What am I missing?

I've been using a defender and phantom together and really enjoying the list. I've not managed to keep the defender alive to the end of a game yet, but with HLC he's been able to get his points back before doing so. I agree that the dial is great, providing you fly it right (not sure I've entirely mastered it yet but I've only had a few games with it so far).

Big kudos on winning with a defender and an advanced! It's good to see that success is possible with ships the majority of people seem to have written off.

I'd love to read some more detailed advice on flying the defender - what was the earlier thread you posted on? And a reflection on how your ideas turned out in practice would be great if you've got time.

Cheerio,

Ben

Why did opt for a BSP+predator over Backstabber?

I feel stabbie > any BSP (for the points).

What am I missing?

The only advantage is you get to re-roll on offence, and save your focus for defense. Makes him last a little longer.

For a point less, +2 PS, always on stressless opportunist, and some "control" (no one draws hate fire like BS!) I wouldn't pass him up.

Forget the Defender placing first in a tournament, is that a TIE advanced in the winning list?

Tell me, how much fire did Vader take? I'm wondering if he was drawing fire off of Brath, and generally how he was otherwise superior to Soontir Fel PTL with double defensive mods or one defence mod and Targeting Computer. I really want the TIE advanced to work so am eager to hear what it's got over a heavy (double health modded) interceptor.

Why did opt for a BSP+predator over Backstabber?

I feel stabbie > any BSP (for the points).

What am I missing?

Stabbie > BSPs with upgrades that help the BSP. BSP Wingman is occasionally better than Le Stab.

I've said it from the start the defenders a great ship and ffg play testing has again proven it's worth any cheaper it'd be broken it's not cheap but you whack a HLC on their it'll kill things very effectively, I've had two defenders take on four full health ships and win easily.

Goes to show maths alone does not tell the whole story, you can't budget the worth of that k turn accurately, it's a game changer.

Attendance on the tournament ?

What did you face at the finals ?

What lists did you face ?

Congrats on the win.