For my friend i lost three hit points total but inflicted 23 damage in return.

I took:

Rexler with SU,HLC and Predator

Vessery with SU,HLC and VI

i faced:

2 B-wings with FCS and ion cannons, both had HU.

Jake farrel with a-wing test pilot predator and lone wolf and prokets, he had SU.

I went in a bit uncertain how two expensive defenders would do but they worked pretty well, rexler sacrificed his ability to use TL for vess, the first round of shooting vess hit four times at range three against the first B-wing stripping most of its shields, rex fired after getting another four hits he got one evade so i put one hit and two crits on him preventing red turns and blinding him for that turn.

2nd round of shooting i finished off the first b-wing and engaged the A-wing with vessery, having VI proved invaluable as i used barrel roll to keep out of arc never letting him use the prokets, the a-wing died to rexler who shot through an asteroid at range three and got two hits and two crits.

At no point after the first b-wing was taken out did i ever really feel in danger.

I doubt it would do that well in a tournament setting but in a casual game it worked well this time and i'm happy how i flew.

Overloaded defenders are fun as long as nobody is competing with you for pilot skill. 8 is the ceiling for two Defenders (unless you want VI taking up Brath's slot to push him to 10), and there are plenty of Skill 8s, 9s, and guys with Veteran Instincts who can give this list problems. I know, because I lost to a list having Howlrunner in it.

Once you loose one Defender it's a real uphill struggle if you haven't caused any enemy casualties up to that point.

What Norsehound said, that and I think you would have problems facing a swarm.

At least when facing a higher PS phantom you should be able to out run it long enough to take out some of it's support ships.

Looks like heaps of fun, Im gonna have to give that ago.

DEFENDERS HOOOOOOOOO

Oh i'm sure it's got plenty of counters but i just thought i'd give it a go and in this game it owned big time.

I played a Defender with Ties list and really liked how the Defender played. Saying it's a small base version of the Firespray is not all that far from the truth.

I think a lot of players are starting to the light regarding Defenders. There were quite a few present at a tourney two weeks ago.

I even picked one up for myself, Hobojeebus.

I have been playing this for a few months now. It's super fun, but only wins like 33% of games.

As a die hard Tie Fighter (flight sim) advocate, this post warms my heart.

I went in braced to get trounced my friend new what i was bringing, but then he forgot because we haven't seen each other for two weeks and he decided to try jake out as his rebel aces finally arrived.

Double delta/BH w/gunner and apl is not bad.

I've been wanting to try:

Vessery VI

Rexlar Predator

Doom shuttle

I recently played with a single Onyx Defender with HLC in a 150 pts battle. The damned thing slaughtered everything it shot at! I think I got off five or so shots and of all the dice I rolled, only one(!) was a blank. I didn't even have to use my focus. Sometimes Murphy is looking the other way.

I was just thinking about this list at work today lol. I think I will try it next week. I have found ddefenders are incredibly hard to kill from time to time

I played a Defender with Ties list and really liked how the Defender played. Saying it's a small base version of the Firespray is not all that far from the truth.

But better, I think.

The small base lets you slow roll, er, slower than the Firespray. Gets you many more hlc shots.

Then that lovely white k turn. So good.

Sure, you don't get bombs or crew, but you can't have everything:)

If you ask me, the fact that whenever someone for whatever reason performs well with Defenders, feels the imperative necessity of telling everyone in the forums, it is a pretty indicative clue that something isn't quite right with them.

If the Defender's good performance were the norm, and not the exception, it wouldn't be necessary to praise each victory, right?

If you ask me, the fact that whenever someone for whatever reason performs well with Defenders, feels the imperative necessity of telling everyone in the forums, it is a pretty indicative clue that something isn't quite right with them.

If the Defender's good performance were the norm, and not the exception, it wouldn't be necessary to praise each victory, right?

Didn't the same thing have to be done with the shuttle before people dropped their preconceived notion of its inferiority and embraced it as a welcome addition to the Imperial arsenal?

If you ask me, the fact that whenever someone for whatever reason performs well with Defenders, feels the imperative necessity of telling everyone in the forums, it is a pretty indicative clue that something isn't quite right with them.

If the Defender's good performance were the norm, and not the exception, it wouldn't be necessary to praise each victory, right?

Didn't the same thing have to be done with the shuttle before people dropped their preconceived notion of its inferiority and embraced it as a welcome addition to the Imperial arsenal?

Not really, because the Shuttle, while also having a [relative] bad dial, on comparison, it was dirty cheap and had a fantastic upgrade bar.... Neither of which are virtues of the defender.

I suspect that's pretty much FFG's point of view on the subject "Well, it's just that people hasn't learnt to fly the Defender yet... It'll be like it happened with the shuttle, you see... Give them time and people will love them later...".

But I'm afraid the defender has nothing in common with the shuttle.

For a closer comparison, compare Vessery (35 points) with the known IG-88 (36 points). Both ships have a fighter role, almost identical cost, EPT, special ability, PS6 and a special maneuver.

If you ask me, the fact that whenever someone for whatever reason performs well with Defenders, feels the imperative necessity of telling everyone in the forums, it is a pretty indicative clue that something isn't quite right with them.

If the Defender's good performance were the norm, and not the exception, it wouldn't be necessary to praise each victory, right?

defenders are good. just really costly.

also, you might ahve good green dice luck this game, but next game you might not.

I had Vessery live though tons of shots, but other times, my friend's defenders just bit the dust after two attack. blank and blank. 6 damage to the face. and promptly died.

If you ask me, the fact that whenever someone for whatever reason performs well with Defenders, feels the imperative necessity of telling everyone in the forums, it is a pretty indicative clue that something isn't quite right with them.

If the Defender's good performance were the norm, and not the exception, it wouldn't be necessary to praise each victory, right?

No its nessicery because everyone yielded to internet wisdom at the start when it was deemed too expensive for what it was, it's taking time but eyes are opening now.

I tried a two small ship list for the first time and it went well so I thought I'd share.

yeah. my friend played the exact same thing though against us. we took it down fast. he got some shots but you had to be pretty careful. =/

adding a shield upgrade was probably a great idea. though id just get outmanevuer on vessery and not worry about PS

What about PTL on Brath so both Vessery and Brath get Target Lock and Focus for maximum effect?

I know it usually makes no sense to stress a defender but it could work

VI was so I could TL with rexler then fire with vessery first to clear off shields, then next turn rexler can use his ability on a ship stripped of protection.

Killing a ship early was key to having any chance at victory, vessery hit with four attacks and the b-wing fluffed it's defence roll meaning a ship with nine hit points lost almost half its total to one attack, then rex got blinded pilot meaning only the 2nd b-wing got to fire that first combat turn, third turn saw the b-wing dead.

It's high risk but that was part of the fun going in with less ships less hull points and equal firepower.

Like I said it'll never win a tournament or even most of its games but a win with two small ships earns you some bragging rights.

You'll hate this Hobo but there is a better 2-small ship list. Corran and Etahn

2 defenders=fun...competitive=meh

I'll take Keyan farlander+hlc kturning over a defender. Better dial and a sensor slot of needed.

He is too easy to kill though. Just my honest opinion.