I'd be down for doing a writeup. I've flown the defender with some success and have a pretty good feel for the dial. While I was theory crafting the 2-boost and looking at the potential 4k-turn block, I found some interesting things. A ship sitting in the exact 4-straight position to block the k-turn can still (barely) hit you if you do a 3-turn, but if you barrel roll forward from there, it has to be at the 7-straight. If you have an EU and boost the 1-bank towards it out of the turn, it has to be at the 9-straight position...and is then at range 3.

Here's a Defender specific cannon, I know in the games they were used on different ships, but pooh and tuttut at that I say. Bother even.

Beam Weapon

TIE Defender only

Cannon

Attack, if this attack hits, place a purple beam token on the defending ship and a blue beam token on your ship. Then cancel all attack dice.

Beam token. While defending, if a ship has a beam token, reduce its agility by 1 per beam token for a minimum of 0.

If at the end of the activation phase you are not in the primary arc of the ship with the correpsonding blue beam token, remove the purple beam token.

Clunky, I know.

As a beam mechanic it's not bad though, my idea was to stop hard turns while under the effects of a beam.

It is an imperial upgrade we want to see but I can imagine it's a bigger to balance for the devs.

Beam Weapons souldn't go in cannon slots. Also, Beam Weapons are a whole different story.

Another way to 'fix' it:

Ion Cannons are free for Tie Defenders.

Easy yet effective. Tie Defender is fixed for all eternity.

It would certainly kill off the prevalence of the YT's

I just want that Beam Weapon from the TIE games in this game, they were great for a control player like me

I'm still thinking how to implement them on the ship they were introduced on, the Advanced.

Leave Beam Weapons to the Tie Avenger

No. .

Beam Weapons souldn't go in cannon slots. Also, Beam Weapons are a whole different story.

Another way to 'fix' it:

Ion Cannons are free for Tie Defenders.

Easy yet effective. Tie Defender is fixed for all eternity.

I actually had the same thought the other day. It fits the fluff and I find the ion cannon really great on the defender. But I seriously doubt FFG will do it

Beam Weapons souldn't go in cannon slots. Also, Beam Weapons are a whole different story.

Another way to 'fix' it:

Ion Cannons are free for Tie Defenders.

Easy yet effective. Tie Defender is fixed for all eternity.

I actually had the same thought the other day. It fits the fluff and I find the ion cannon really great on the defender. But I seriously doubt FFG will do it

Of course not.

I'm still asking myself why Onyx Squad Pilots don't have access to Elite Talents. I tryed to follow the FFG-logic behind it but I fail in doing so.

The only reason might be:

They are designing new ships with a flaw to come up with a 'fix' in a large expansion box.

Beam Weapons souldn't go in cannon slots. Also, Beam Weapons are a whole different story.

Another way to 'fix' it:

Ion Cannons are free for Tie Defenders.

Easy yet effective. Tie Defender is fixed for all eternity.

I actually had the same thought the other day. It fits the fluff and I find the ion cannon really great on the defender. But I seriously doubt FFG will do it

Of course not.

I'm still asking myself why Onyx Squad Pilots don't have access to Elite Talents. I tryed to follow the FFG-logic behind it but I fail in doing so.

The only reason might be:

They are designing new ships with a flaw to come up with a 'fix' in a large expansion box.

Or they don't share your opinion that the second level of generic pilots deserve an Elite Talent. A ship having a "flaw" isn't necessarily a bad thing, since you can't design a ship that is strong in all areas.

I doubt they purposely designed a ship to be flawed/sucky. They designed it to be balanced. Unfortunately in the case of the Defender, they went a little overboard. I think they thought the white K-turn with a ship that's 3/3/3/3 would be a game-changer, which it is very good. But they nerfed the rest of the dial and made the **** ship expensive as hell. Maybe it was due to it being released with the Phantom. Obviously the phantom was going to be beast with that 4 attack dice. For balance they went a little heavy on making sure the Defender isn't too good. The **** PS1 pilot is 12 points (that's a Tie fighter!) more than the PS1 interceptor. The PS 3 doesn't have an EPT making him pretty much worthless. The named pilots come in at over a 1/3 of your list and need a list built around them to get the most out of their abilities.

The Defender is good and I will continue to try to run it whenever I can (love the ship), but at the price it is it should be great.

I'm still asking myself why Onyx Squad Pilots don't have access to Elite Talents.

Why in the world would you expect them to have a EPT?

There is exactly 1 2nd tier generic with a EPT in the game, Green Squadron. There's a total of 3 generic pilots with EPT, Green, Black and Saber.

So again why in the world would you expect Onyx to get one?

How about NO....

its a powerful ship and I would imagine that the playtesters and more importantly the designers made them that way for a reason.

SO no, no title for stress. Stress is part of the game, and if you can stress those Big Ds then you can work them over. Its called a weakness, every ship has them.

So again why in the world would you expect Onyx to get one?

Lets see....

1) Fluff-wise the Defenders were only crewed by the most elite pilots

2) Game-wise to have a reason to take them to play - ps3 isn't the skill you are going for. And there are many elite upgrades you won't put onto your named pilots, but would be perfect for generics, so like Adrenaline Rush, Deadeye, Wingman, Decoy, ...

3) Balance-wise the E-Wing (which is the rebels counterpart) has much more means to customize. A elite talent there would levy the Defenders to be used in competitive scene eventually.

4) As the game evolves it is clear that ships with more options to customize are superiour to others with less options

5) I would love it

6) Rebels stink if they have the only generics with ps3 elite talent slots (now 2 with title)

7) Rebels stink anyway

8) Rebels stink even washed

1) Fluff-wise the Defenders were only crewed by the most elite pilots

Fluff doesn't mean a thing when it comes to balancing a game.

2) Game-wise to have a reason to take them to play -

The PS and points should be reason enough, they don't need a EPT be playable.

3) Balance-wise the E-Wing (which is the rebels counterpart) has much more means to customize.

And the E-Wing plays for those options.

6) Rebels stink if they have the only generics with ps3 elite talent slots (now 2 with title)

So you don't actually have anything even approaching a logical reason why you expected such a thing.

1) Fluff-wise the Defenders were only crewed by the most elite pilots

Fluff doesn't mean a thing when it comes to balancing a game.

2) Game-wise to have a reason to take them to play -

The PS and points should be reason enough, they don't need a EPT be playable.

3) Balance-wise the E-Wing (which is the rebels counterpart) has much more means to customize.

And the E-Wing plays for those options.

6) Rebels stink if they have the only generics with ps3 elite talent slots (now 2 with title)

So you don't actually have anything even approaching a logical reason why you expected such a thing.

There is no logic in game design neccessarily needed anyway.

Its more like it or leave it.

Discussion over.

There is an easy way to prove all the poor players that rely on crutches how wrong they are, and how wonderful the defender is when fled by someone who has the skills...

Win worlds using at least 1 defender.

And without EU, of course. We don't want anyone to think you are lame. So far, everyone that tried didn't make it, nor even to the top 32... But that's because they were probably poor players that didn't truly know how to fly the ship...

Because unless a ship wins at worlds it's terrible. Don't see any flaws in this logic.

To be honest, even sighting it merely at the top 32 would have made me happy.

Firespray didn't make it in the top 32 either. And the Firespray is a good ship.

There's a big difference between a ship being good and being good in the current meta.

I don't find the Defender terrible, but it's either 2-3 points overcosted, or it should have had Boost on its bar from the start (and i don't get why it hasn't!!! Maybe FFG brainlag like with "Y-Wings have no elite pilots...").

A 30 point PS1 Defender is playable with an INCLUDED boost action and an ion cannon. As it is now, it is not playable other than in the most friendly of games... You take EU and Ion cannon and land at 37 points for a generic pilot. That's not good enough by any means.

The second problem the defender has is actually a meta problem: it gets outshone by the Phantom so hard that it's just laughable. Whisper at 32 points, Rexler at 37. Come on! Do i need to say more?

My 2 cents on this:

I don't find the Defender terrible, but it's either 2-3 points overcosted, or it should have had Boost on its bar from the start (and i don't get why it hasn't!!! Maybe FFG brainlag like with "Y-Wings have no elite pilots...").

A 30 point PS1 Defender is playable with an INCLUDED boost action and an ion cannon. As it is now, it is not playable other than in the most friendly of games... You take EU and Ion cannon and land at 37 points for a generic pilot. That's not good enough by any means.

The second problem the defender has is actually a meta problem: it gets outshone by the Phantom so hard that it's just laughable. Whisper at 32 points, Rexler at 37. Come on! Do i need to say more?

I don't think the Defender needs an Engine Upgrade, but to each his own.

I DO think you're being disingenuous with your second point though, or do you run Whisper without Advanced Cloaking Device? Whisper and Rexler pretty much cost exactly the same. Whisper w/ ACD & VI is 37 points, same as Rexler. That leaves Whisper with an open sensor & crew slot and Rexler with all his slots.

At that point the difference between the two is that Whisper is better against low PS fighters, but gets hard countered by turrets. Rexler isn't hard-countered by turrets and has a good chance of hurting them 'cause he has a good chance of pulling off his ability against those low agi ships.

Whisper at 32 points, Rexler at 37. Come on! Do i need to say more?

Whisper is effectively 36 with no mod slot option. Whisper without ACD is 5 points worse than a naked Rexler. A least.