I've been an advocate for the TIE Defender since not long after it was released. I think it has a combination of traits that are odd, but pretty strong if used correctly. Consequently I'm going to try and run a pair of Defenders in an upcoming Store Championship, and hopefully Regionals if schedule allows. The fist step, however, will be to give it a run at a small local tournament. This will do a couple of things. First, it will let me give it a go in a quasi-competitive environment. Second, this tournament crowd isn't keyed too much on the "meta", so it will let me have a go at some versatile, solid lists that I haven't thought up myself. Finally, I'm posting this here to keep myself honest. If I get destroyed in this tournament, I'll post about that. I don't want only to talk about my pet list if it wins.

The list I'll be using:

Rexler Brath 37, Veteran Instincts 1, HLC 7, Ion Pulse Missile 3, Shield Upgrade 4 = 52

Colonel Vessery 35, Decoy 2, HLC 7, Shield Upgrade 4 = 48

Both are obviously damage dealers, but Vessery typically does a bit more. Rex is there to hunt hyper-mobile ships and big ships. Both can take a couple punches and keep rocking.

Shield Upgrade: In play testing, I found that the extra shield let me be more aggressive than the Engine Upgrade. This list is decent at outmaneuvering things because of the K-turn, and Defenders are tough enough that arc dodging doesn't have the same urgency as with Interceptors. It also gives me more opportunities to really sell out on an attack because I know I've got the defenses to handle the return fire.

Veteran Instincts: This gives me a phantom counter that would be absent otherwise, it also lets me get a Target Lock against high PS stuff early which brings Vessery's ability into play sooner. Finally, combined with the Ion Pulse Missile, ships (especially big ones) have to be a little more careful to avoid edges and asteroids, because they never know when they move if an Ion Pulse Missile will be pointed at them.

Decoy: Aside from the obvious benefit of putting Rex's ability into play easier, it also has a big defensive advantage. Whichever ship I want to protect more fires last, so I know if I'll need to spend my Focus on defense from their higher PS pilots. This is a surprisingly useful feature of this card. Additionally, if HP is very low on one of the pilots, I'll have him fire at PS 10 to make sure the shot happens.

HLCs: Need no explanation.

Overall Strategy: Typically, I'll want to go for the enemy main ship and combine fire, then mop up with whichever ship is left (if not both). If for some reason it looks like it will be difficult to take out the main ship in 60 minutes (some super-turtle falcon build or something), I can go for the support and be pretty confident that neither of my ships will drop.

Report: Local friendly tournament

This was a small, three-round tournament at a local shop, although about 20 people came out, so it ended up not being so small. We did 60 minute rounds.

My first opponent was flying a fat swarm:

-Howlrunner with Hull Upgrade and Swarm Tactics

-4x Scimitar Squadron Pilots

1x Obsidian Squadron Pilot.

Asteroids were pretty packed near the center of the board. I set up with my two Defenders aiming for a hole through the rocks, he set up to my right in formation. As we closed, I found I was a hair short of being in range, so I didn’t have a chance to soften him up before combat began in earnest. Consequently I peeled off through the rocks. He stayed straight, as his formation couldn’t really negotiate the asteroids. We spent a couple more turns maneuvering and turning. It took a while because he was a bit out of practice with swarms. The table next to us actually finished their game before any of our ships had taken damage. I ended up coming on his flank, because he guessed wrong about where I would go. From there I started tearing apart bombers, and he didn’t have enough 2-dice attacks on me to seriously threaten the 3 AGI Defenders. He also had some astoundingly bad attack rolls. As time drew near, he decided to concede. I think he felt a little bad about taking so long to plan moves, and both my ships were at full health.

The second opponent was flying a 3-ship super-defense Rebel list:

-Keyan Farlander, E2, Jan Ors, PTL, Advanced Sensors

-Kyle Katarn, Ion Cannon Turret, Recon Specialist

-Biggs, R2D2, Shield Upgrade

This list worked by passing Focus to Biggs and turning it into Evades, then healing any damage with R2D2. Asteroids were pretty spaced out. I set up spread out on the right, he was in the middle. I tried to move so I could take shots on Farlander, but Rex caught Biggs in his sights first turn of combat. Vessery was able to put 3 damage onto Farlander, however. As we closed, I kept Vessery turned away from Biggs, but Rex was pretty much stuck on him due to asteroids. I did successfully time my approach so that Kyle only had one shot with his Ion Cannon, which missed. Once the first pass happened, the weakness of the tank-list came out. Kyle can’t K-turn, so he has to sail along and can’t help as much. Vessery and Farlander kept pounding on each other, with the edge to Farlander because of PTL and a little bit of better dice. Next turn, however, Rex was able to pull a hard 1 to swing his nose away from Biggs and add fire onto Farlander. He whiffed, and I stupidly held a Focus back with Vessery to do 3 instead of 4 damage on Farlander, who ended the turn with one health. The white K came into play, however, and I was able to K-turn with him to keep a gun on Farlander even though I was stressed from the 1-turn. That’s a neat move to be able to pull. I rolled 1 dang hit, but Farlander rolled a blank on his defense die, so that was the end. A dial error from the turn before put Kyle off the board, and the other player was pretty frustrated. He decided to concede. I do think I was in a good position to win even without the dial error, though. He would have had Kyle off near an edge, and I could have focused on Biggs with a pair of HLCs.

The final opponent was playing an odd Imperial hodgepodge:

-Echo, ACD, Lone Wolf

-Carnor Jax (no upgrades)

-Alpha Squadron Pilot

-Avenger Squadron Pilot

I won the initiative roll and gave it to him so Echo wouldn’t move after Vessery. Rocks were in a cluster in the middle. I set up in the middle heading into the rocks. He set up all four ships to my right in the open, which I thought was odd considering Echo’s loadout. I approached coming out of the asteroids in such a manner that he had a hard time turning in on me, so I would be able to follow him after the first pass. Echo didn’t decloak initially, so I focused elsewhere. Vessery one-shotted Carnor Jax, and Rex dinged a shield off of Echo. I decided I wanted to knife-fight instead of blowing through, for reasons I don’t fully understand looking back. Vessery takes shots from Echo and Avenger point blank, and rolls a lot of blanks, making him almost dead, but the HLCs dropped Echo. The next sees me making a bad move with Vessery and ending up in the sights of the Avenger again, and going down. Rex was able to mop up the two remaining Interceptors pretty handily, though.

Overall thoughts:

-I ended up winning the tournament. There was a gentleman that also went 3-0, but due to some confusion with the software or something, Strength of Schedule was the tiebreaker. I think I had an overall MoV advantage also, though, as I only ever lost a ship once. This player was pretty good, having had some success at Nationals, and I really would have loved to play him, but the store had time constraints that couldn’t be budged.

-All of my opponents went 2-1, meaning their games with me were the only losses that all of them had. Even though there were some odd lists, they were decent compared to the field, I suppose.

-No obvious weaknesses were exposed in the list, although I will add that a full-on Rebel control list played in testing beat me pretty bad, and showed me that I need to be very careful around mass Ion Turrets.

-One of the nice aspects of this list is that it doesn’t required a ton of processing power to plan your moves, so you can spend most of your time thinking about overall strategy, which is important because of the oddities of the Defender.

-I’m happy with the list so far. It was fun to play and difficult to plan against, as most people aren’t used to fighting one Defender, let alone two.

-Time to give it a shot in a bigger tournament. Step 2 will be taking it to a Store Championship next month.

So will Brath be TLing for Vessery? I guess you are essentially using Brath for his PS and not ability.

I just feel like they don't play well together. Why not just grab a lowly Delta w/ HLC and fit a Tie or two in? Its a very risky list to run. I've lost a Defender in one round of firing before. It didn't help that I rolled 0 evades in 3 rolls, but they can die alarmingly quick if focused on.

The Defender is good, but it doesn't warrant its crazy high price. Making them 50 points a piece is just compounding the madness. Good luck.

I like this a lot. I play tested something kinda similar vs fat Chewie (who negates Rex's ability) and Lando and almost won. I am kinda noobish and entering my first store tourney next month. the rounds are 60 min. long, so points are a priority.

I believe the meta-game is a lot of fat Han still and Decimator/Phantoms. I wanted to have a list that counters large ships (ion the hell out of them) accompanied by slippery small ship(s) and Defenders seem to be a good ship to fly for that purpose.

With that in mind, i have a few questions/comments:

Having two high value small ships scares me a bit against Decimator/Phantoms. It seems they'd focus fire on one to get 48 or more points and then avoid the other Defender until time is up. I assume Decoy/VI (target lock helps to get shots off first, so, is the idea to fly close, utilize Decoy/VI to get shots off first (and target lock), have shields to defend then navigate around asteroids waiting for a large ship to be in prime ion vulnerability?

Also, would Vessery benefit from the ion missiles more so than Rex?

Wishing you luck with the build. I too like the Tie Defenders and feel they are underrated.

The other night I ran Kenkirk and Vessery with HLC. Easily dispatched a 6 ship rebel swarm.

So will Brath be TLing for Vessery? I guess you are essentially using Brath for his PS and not ability.

I just feel like they don't play well together. Why not just grab a lowly Delta w/ HLC and fit a Tie or two in? Its a very risky list to run. I've lost a Defender in one round of firing before. It didn't help that I rolled 0 evades in 3 rolls, but they can die alarmingly quick if focused on.

The Defender is good, but it doesn't warrant its crazy high price. Making them 50 points a piece is just compounding the madness. Good luck.

If I'm trying to do max damage in one turn, it will be something like:

Actions: Vessery-Focus, Rex-Target Lock

Attacks: Vessery spends Focus and/or TL, Rex spends TL

If I'm trying to punch through shields on a big ship, I'll leave the TL on there for Rex to use it on a later turn. You are correct in that Rex is predominantly there for the PS. It's a counter to hyper-maneuverable ships. If set up, he can also be a really strong counter to big ships. There are a lot of crits that just completely change how a Fat Han or Decimator plays.

I like this a lot. I play tested something kinda similar vs fat Chewie (who negates Rex's ability) and Lando and almost won. I am kinda noobish and entering my first store tourney next month. the rounds are 60 min. long, so points are a priority.

I believe the meta-game is a lot of fat Han still and Decimator/Phantoms. I wanted to have a list that counters large ships (ion the hell out of them) accompanied by slippery small ship(s) and Defenders seem to be a good ship to fly for that purpose.

With that in mind, i have a few questions/comments:

Having two high value small ships scares me a bit against Decimator/Phantoms. It seems they'd focus fire on one to get 48 or more points and then avoid the other Defender until time is up. I assume Decoy/VI (target lock helps to get shots off first, so, is the idea to fly close, utilize Decoy/VI to get shots off first (and target lock), have shields to defend then navigate around asteroids waiting for a large ship to be in prime ion vulnerability?

Also, would Vessery benefit from the ion missiles more so than Rex?

Actually Chewie doesn't negate Rex's ability, as his damage isn't dealt face up. It is turned up later. The same is true of Determination and Moff Jerjerrod. I actually think the Defender pair is incredibly strong against Decimator/Phantom. A PS10 HLC is not something any phantom wants to see. Rex can cripple a Decimator early as well. Agility 3 with 7 hit points each really lets you last for a while, particularly if the Decimator doesn't have a gunner. Think about how many shots it will take for an HLC to drop a Z-95. That's what a phantom is to PS10 Rex. You're looking at about 2 shots, maybe 3 depending on luck. The Phantom is maneuvering blind against you, and you've got a minor repositioning ability from the Barrel Roll to bring it into your sights. Vessery can be dumping damage into the Decimator in the meantime. Maybe I'm wrong. I suspect if green dice are utter crap, a Defender might go down too soon, but 7 hit points lets you have one crap role and keep kicking.

Rex has the missiles because I don't want any ship to feel "safe" when they move. I've rarely used them in testing, but it prevents certain maneuvers when the opposition knows that it's possible for them to eat an Ion Pulse this turn. If Vessery had them, Fat Dash or whoever would know that they would be at risk or not because a Target Lock would be on them (or not). When it's on PS10, every turn is a threat.

Don't think of them as small high value ships, think of them as large high value ships. Durability wise they're not that far off from a Firespray thanks to the extra agility. A pair of Firesprays isn't the toughest thing in the world, but it's not like a pair of B-wings or something.

Wishing you luck with the build. I too like the Tie Defenders and feel they are underrated.

The other night I ran Kenkirk and Vessery with HLC. Easily dispatched a 6 ship rebel swarm.

Thanks. Good to hear a Defender is doing well.

Thinking about this a bit more I'd probably put the ion pulse missiles on Vessery to even out the points.

100 Points

This way they really need to think about who to get rid of first. Other wise I'd target Rex first for points and the crit ability. Having vessery with 2 more points will make it a tougher decision.

I'm going to try this build this weekend in casual play.

In the Kenirk/Vessery build I ran, Kenkirk was taken out fairly quickly due to a lack of defence which left Vessery to clean up. It was nice K-turning without having to take stress which meant I was attacking 2 rounds to the opponents 1 round due to having to take stress for k-turn. With HLC these things are awesome. Nothing like shooting 4 dice at ranges 1-3 with a ship that has 3 defence and 3hull/3shield(if you don't add shield or hull to it).

I'm also really liking the reverse use of decoy - that is brilliant!

Whichever one is closer to the phantom or other hig PS ship can take it. I love it!

I respect the Defender love, as I share it. However, I would probably use a low PS defender for my second one and squeeze in a cheap third ship. It's much more gain than loss to have 3 ships in my opinion. At the same time, however, I always encourage experimenting with unique builds. Interested to hear some results.

Nice list! I think it's the Ion Pulse Missile and Decoy that really make it look good. Nice ideas.

The battle report for the day is up in the first response after the OP.

I'm also really liking the reverse use of decoy - that is brilliant!

Whichever one is closer to the phantom or other hig PS ship can take it. I love it!

Honestly, it's as much a defensive thing as offensive. Rex is a bigger target than Vessery. It's nice having him fire at PS6 early in the game. PS6 is usually lower than an opponent's main ace. It lets you know if you need to use your Focus for defense.

Great results at your tournament. I'm going to fly something similar tomorrow. Basically just moving the ion pulse to Vessery.

There's a lot of legitmate reasons to make any number of minor changes to the list. It all comes down to personal preference and style, I think. I'll be interested to see you it does in your hands.

I like this a lot. I play tested something kinda similar vs fat Chewie (who negates Rex's ability) and Lando and almost won. I am kinda noobish and entering my first store tourney next month. the rounds are 60 min. long, so points are a priority.

Chewie doesn't negate Rex's ability, quite the opposite. His is the only one that negates Chewie's as the cards are dealt facedown, even the crits per Chewie's ability. Then Rex's ability is triggered, flipping them face up.

The only thing that would worry me with this list is the eventual Decimator with Rebel Captive. Taking a stress every turn could mean playing the entire game without any actions. Since Vessery can at least gain a TL from Brath, I guess I would make him shoot first.

The only thing that would worry me with this list is the eventual Decimator with Rebel Captive. Taking a stress every turn could mean playing the entire game without any actions. Since Vessery can at least gain a TL from Brath, I guess I would make him shoot first.

That's the idea. You just let him rack up stress, but keep getting Target Locks anyway. You can still K-turn, so you go about your day with a stack of stress.

Saw that happen yesterday. Vessery ended up with 4-5 stress tokens. He looked like Tycho.

Nice write up of your tourney. It would have been interesting to see how this list would stack up against a Deci + Phantom, Super Dash, or Fat Han.

Saw that happen yesterday. Vessery ended up with 4-5 stress tokens. He looked like Tycho.

Nice write up of your tourney. It would have been interesting to see how this list would stack up against a Deci + Phantom, Super Dash, or Fat Han.

Yeah, I like my odds, but I would have loved to play against any of those lists run by a good opponent just to see what happens. The one Fat Han that was there was the Worlds winning list. Defenders love gunner-less Falcons, but it's certainly not an easy thing.

Saw that happen yesterday. Vessery ended up with 4-5 stress tokens. He looked like Tycho.

Nice write up of your tourney. It would have been interesting to see how this list would stack up against a Deci + Phantom, Super Dash, or Fat Han.

Also happened to me today with the list I'm currently trying out. It was something I fear but after all, Vessery didn't really care about it. Ended the game with 3 stress token on him and a Bomber with 2 hull left flying faaaaar away so Vessery could continue to attack with TL everytime.

Those agility rolls become really intense though when you don't have any focus to back them up.