I'm building a squad of three, with Captain Oicunn carrying Mara Jade and Colonel Vessery as the core members. I'm trying to figure out what would work best, and have several options:

Emphasizing the Decimator:

Oicunn - 42

Mara Jade - 3

Determination - 1

Ysanne Isard - 4

Subtotal - 50

Vessery - 35

Ion Cannon - 3

Subtotal - 38

Academy Pilot - 12

Total - 100

Emphasizing the Defender:

Oicunn - 42

Mara Jade - 3

Weapons Engineer - 3

Determination - 1

Subtotal - 49

Vessery - 35

Cluster Missiles - 4

Subtotal - 39

Academy Pilot - 12

Total - 100

Trying for a non-filler third party

Oicunn - 42

Mara Jade - 3

Subtotal - 45

Vessery - 35

Dark Curse or Scimitar - 16

This leaves 4 points, which I could give the bomber 2 Flechette Torps, one missile, give Vessery Cluster Missiles, or give the Decimator Determination and someone Proton Rockets.

Or Alpha Squadron Pilot with Targeting Computer - 20 points

All of these seem really exciting, but I'm not sure which one would be most effective (verses a Rebel build, to give some context).

Sooo, I'm a big Defender fan. Most of my posts are on such.

I feel ordnance is not the way to go on the Defender. Cluster missiles aren't going to give you enough return to be of value.

However, I don't like to fly Vessery naked.

I recommend Outmaneuver or VI. VI since your force is low PS, but that puts you at 8 only, so might be a moot point.

Outmaneuver is VERY good against turrets. It also tears up B wings with Vessery, as your free locks really help keep your total hits up.

I don't like the Ion Cannon on a Defender, especially in a short list. As your PS is low, you won't get a shot at a Phantom most times, and against the large ship meta I feel it's better to get 5 hits or so from the 2 shots needed to ion them than to use the cannon. For the same points you can negate C 3PO with Outmaneuver and tear up some YT's. With a white 4k, you can get behind them, and many YT's don't bother even trying to point at their foes.

For the Decimator, you have some good options. I'm not expert on those, or much anything here, but I find Determination is good. With Oicunn, I think splurging for Predator would be good as well.

Mara Jade is very good, doing the stress bomb. I don't know if it's better than having predator. Depends. I'd have to try them out, as I do like Mara on OGP Shuttles. Determination is great on Decimators, but without Dauntless, you're going to be trying to bump with Oicunn, so you won't get a primary action, just the Evade token. This means you'll be rolling unmodified attacks 1/3 of the time at least (assuming some maneuvering here). Those don't do much against most ships. I feel like Predator might have a bigger effect than Mara Jade. IMO, most humbly, I prefer Rebel Captive to Mara Jade, but if you want that academy as a blocker, which is a fine idea, it's hard to squeeze stuff in. Defender's and Decimators are just fat, point heavy ships....

I like the idea of Tactical Jammer as I feel Oicunn will be up in their face, and Vessery to slip around the sides. Have Oicunn target lock on the approach, and use Predator for rerolls, keeping the target lock for Vessery to use for a few rounds while Oicunn tries to get all in their face. I'd probably flank with the TIE fighter and use it to block lanes if the enemy is Dash or 2400, or to corner with Oicunn if they have a Phantom. Create a box with Vessery's 4k on one side, your Academy on the other and Oicunn up the center to squeeze in a phantom. If you get real lucky? It won't even be able to decloak (not likely but that would be some lol's).

With luck, the TIE will eat two shots from the enemy, giving more survivability to your allies. If you fly it well, you could get some decent damage as the current meta is big ships, low agility.

Maybe go with:

Oicunn - 42

Predator - 3

Tactical Jammer - 1

Ysanne Isard - 4

Subtotal - 50

Vessery - 35

Outmaneuver - 3

Subtotal - 38

Academy Pilot - 12

Thanks! That would make a lot more sense if I was facing a lot of Phantoms or large base ships, but I think that's not going to happen, since in my small playgroup, very few people use them. I don't have quite enough confidence in my abilty to outmaneuver enough to use the EPT, and since I don't expect to be facing large base ships, I think the Ion Cannon is actually a lot more useful (at least, it's proven that way in most of the games I've played). I do think I'm going to hang onto Mara, since she's so very, very annoying.

You do push me more towards the Academy Pilot, though - thanks!