I recounted step 1 in this series about a month ago with a small local tournament: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/132879-putting-my-money-where-my-mouth-is-on-tie-defenders-step-1/

Today, I'll be taking the same list to a Store Championship today.

Here it is:

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

I've had good results against various fat turrets and Phantoms (the PS 10 HLC really does a number on them), but the recent weeks (online at least) BBBBZ has exploded. This scares me a bit, because the list does well against a few big attacks or a lot of small attacks, but lots of reasonably big attacks protected by a huge pile of hit points is... problematic. In testing, I can beat this list with really excellent asteroid usage and not too much bad luck, but it's not confidence inspiring. The good news is this will be the first time most players will see any list like mine, although I don't much like counting on an opponent's inexperience. Anyway, I toyed with putting in Predator for VI, but it ended up not helping enough compared to how much it hurt against Phantoms. Am I nervous? Yes, but there's nothing to do but go, now.

Report to follow.

I played in a Store Championship this past weekend at Fantasy Books and Games in Fairview Heights Illinois. 14 people came out, and it was pretty clear everyone just didn’t give a **** about any sort of “meta”. There was a single Decimator, a single Phantom, and no Falcons. This was pretty cool because there was a pretty interesting array of builds. This was slightly problematic because my list was certainly designed with these in mind. My VI for Rexler Brath was specifically picked over Predator because it’s so good against Phantoms. In my book, that’s a pretty good trade. The T.O., who’s name I hate that I can’t remember, did a great job of moving everything along. We did four 65 minute rounds before cutting to a top 4.

Game 1 vs Eric:

List:

-Kath Scarlet, VI, Ion Cannon, Prox Mines, Recon Specialist

-IG88-B, VI, Ion Cannon, Prox Mines, FCS, Autothrusters

This list was interesting, because it had control, good PS, durability, funny tricks with the prox mines, and it packed a wallop. Asteroids were set up in a potato shaped column up and down the board on my right. I deployed behind them, figuring my two small bases minded the asteroids a lot less than my opponent’s two large bases. Our ships were pretty much lined up across from each other. We end up doing essentially a joust. My thought was that he’d have to work a little harder to keep me in arc and avoid asteroids, but he didn’t. We exchanged heavy fire early, with multiple ionizations leaving me vulnerable to prox mines that ignored my Defender’s 3 green dice. I was also kind of on autopilot on my initial approach, trying for range 3 shots. That didn’t help me defend against Ion Cannons, and it definitely help him by keying Autothrusters against my HLCs.

A fairly brutal exchange over a couple of turns left Vessery and IG-88B dead, Rexler with some shield damage, and Kath with only one shield gone. The problem was Rex was in a pursuit position on Kath, and that’s bad when it’s Scum Kath. I managed to organize an approach from a side, and so Kath turned toward the board edge to bring Rex into rear arc. I fired off the Ion Pulse missile (through an asteroid), landed 3 hits, and ionized the Firespray. The problem is, Kath returned fire with 4 dice, landed 2 hits and 2 crits on my shieldless Rex. My 5 Green dice stopped the two hits, and the two crits landed…

…but no Direct Hits. Rex was alive, but Kath wasn’t dead yet. The next turn had her drifting forward 1, while I turned away trying to get out of arc/range, with no barrel roll to help because of a stress Rex picked up from the thrust control fire. A nearby undetonated Prox mine made things even a little more uncertain. I was able to get Rex out of range, though, and when the next turn rolled around, it was clear that the 2-turn would take Kath off the board, as Rex finds the largest piece of his Defender and tries to fly it home. Victory, 100-48.

One can make a fairly strong argument that I only won on a critical mistake from my opponent. It’s true, but the Ion Pulse missiles are there to either limit movement of enemy ships or punish them for critical mistakes, and it worked in that game. My opponent seemed like a good guy and took it all in stride.

Game 2 vs Adam:

List:

Roark w/ Shield Upgrade, RecSpec, Blaster Turret

Garven

2 Blue Squadron Pilots

This list was, I think, the worst matchup for me in the tournament. In my experience, my Defenders have the hit points to soak a couple big shots, and the AGI to do a pretty good job bouncing large numbers of low AGI shots, but large numbers of 3-dice attacks have proven difficult. My normal approach with this sort of list would be to try and quick-kill the squishiest one (Garven), then use the asteroids and K-turns to limit the number of solid shots my ships receive each turn. I didn’t do that. I don’t know why, but instead of going in for the kill on early, I got cagey (timid), and found myself in too many bad positions. Props to my opponent, he helped me make these mistakes. I didn’t understand the deployment of his squad at all, and held back thinking it was a trap I didn’t see. I think I was wrong in retrospect. Nevertheless, the game ended with Rexler dog-fighting the pair of B-wings, very nearly surviving until time was called. Loss, 56-100

Game 3 vs Gabriel:

List:

Keyan Farlander, E2-mod, 3P0, HLC, PTL

Jan Ors, Draw Their Fire, Shield Upgrade, RecSpec, Ion Cannon Turret

Biggs, R4-D6

This was a synergy list with Keyan Farlander as the centerpiece. Biggs drew the shots, Jan protected Biggs, and then boosted Keyan so he was dropping the hammer in a big way. The drawback was the dissimilar dials for the three ships. The synergy only lasted so long.

We started in opposite corners, with most of the asteroids in a column on the side where I deployed. We both moved up, with me trying to get some cover with the asteroids. Vessery took a solid chunk of damage from Keyan’s super-HLC early, and my Defenders rolled 2 crits (from HLC re-rolled dice) against Biggs that were drawn off by Jan. I then proceeded to make my worst move of the night, and banked when I should have gone straight to block Keyan’s K-turn with Vessery. Some good green dice helped prevent that from being a disaster. I eventually tracked down Biggs, and the weakened Jan Ors, but lost Vessery in the process. Then it was a full Rexler vs a full Keyan, and that fight’s just not fair. Rex has 1 less hit point, but 2 more AGI and the PS advantage. Victory 100-48.

Game 4 vs Eric

List:

Dash, VI, HLC, Outrider Title

Wedge

Blue

Here was a svelte Dash list. He’s still got the HLC and Outrider, but drops all the other goodies for VI to avoid the donut hole and leave points for a couple other heavy hitters. I deploy on the right, he’s in the middle, with an asteroid field in the middle of the board. After initial maneuvers, I get shots off on Dash with return fire from Dash and only the B, I think. Vessery fires first and does some damage, I take some non-trivial return fire, and then Rex pegs Dash with an Ion Pulse Missile. Dash goes 1 forward, ends up on a rock and barrel rolls off. This takes away his focus for attack or defense. He goes down to Vessery pounding away with the HLC for a couple of turns while Rex engages the fighters. Eventually, Rex goes down, but kills Wedge, and then Vessery finishes off the B-wing. Victory, 100-52.

Cut to Top 4: After initial rounds, I’m 2 ^nd overall in points in the second position at 3-1. First overall was playing a Scum list with Xizor, a BTL-A4, and Z and Torkil Mux (I think). 3 ^rd was the Rebel player who beat me in game 2 (3-1, lost to the 1 ^st ranked player). 4 ^th was the Scum player I narrowly defeated in game 1 (2-2, lost to me and the 3 ^rd seeded player, but really cleaned up in his other two rounds). I end up playing the 3 ^rd seed who had beaten me previously. At this point, it’s about 5:45. The store closes at 8:00, and what was supposed to be a dusting of snow is about 4” and still coming on strong. We skip a dinner break and go right into matches.

First round of elimination vs Adam again:

We both set up a really tight asteroid field in the middle. I decide not to make the same mistake as last time and put on the jets to chase him around the asteroids or make him turn into the asteroids to get to me. He turns in and we fight. A really bone-headed landing of Vessery on an asteroid combined with forgetting to Focus a turn later and some really impressively bad green rolls means Vessery is dead way too soon and its Rex vs all 4 Rebel ships with a slightly wounded HWK for my efforts. At this point I have this thought that I can kill the HWK and Garven and win the match if I can avoid all those 3-dice guns for as long as it takes to kill them. I eventually nab the HWK, but it takes too many shields. I’m down to 0 or 1 shield, but I’m just flying out of my mind. It’s probably the best flying I’ve ever done in this game. Rex basically slashes through the asteroid field shoots at Garven, does a disengage move, K-turns, and repeats. With the lousy B-wing dial and the dense field, there’s only a few ways for him to get shots. They usually require a barrel roll, a stress, or a passage through a asteroid or a shot through an asteroid, so my life is holding for a while. The problem is, my HLC is rolling things like Blank/Blank/Blank/Focus for multiple shots on Garven. Finally, there’s 5 minutes left. A B finally catches me with a Focus at close range and leaves me with 1 hull. I have the tiniest of chances of victory. I arc in to face Garven at close range. The B’s turn to get me in arc (but I have an asteroid shielding me from one). I have a Focus, and a TL on Garven. I don’t need them. My attack roll is hit/hit/crit/crit. He has no Focus and rolls no evades. 2 crits go into the hull, one is a Direct Hit. The B’s fire, and my Focus and asteroid help prevent them from pushing a damage through. Time is called moments after I roll greens against the last attack against Rex. Victory, as Rex costs 8 points more than 2 Blues. I’m rather dumbfounded. My opponent is very gracious in defeat after a big swing of luck at the end and wishes me well.

Championship Game vs Eric #1

My first game opponent defeated the top seeded undefeated player, and moved on the Finals as well. I don’t know what happened in that game, but I kept hearing sounds of frustration as the other player struggled to land damage. I’m guessing that Aggressor was pretty solidly tanking attacks pretty well with its 3 AGI. At this point, I’m pretty spent. I’m coming off the high from the crazy end to the last game, I’m thinking about a 40 mile drive home in the snow with a car not optimized for this sort of weather, a wife whose been looking after an angry toddler all day, and because of the store closing, we only had about 50 minutes for the game. I rushed in whole-hog instead of being even a little careful. Probably because at the time I only really had enough mental energy for that, which is probably something I’ll need to work on if I intend to try a Regionals event. My opponent kept his head and predictably cut me to ribbons. I couldn’t even say exactly what happened because my head wasn’t really in the game, which is a horrible thing to say about the finals of a Store Championship, but it was true. I just know that I was always caught in firing arcs and moved without making smart predictions. Total loss, I killed nothing and got wiped before time was called in our shortened battle. I happily congratulated my opponent and after 90 minutes on snowy interstate I was home.

Overall I had a fantastic time. All the games I played were competitive, and my opponents were friendly and easy going. The dual TIE Defender list is a blast to play, very satisfying to win with, and had a chance against everything I faced. It’s a pretty exciting squadron to run because it relies so little on post-movement positioning (only Barrel Roll), so the planning phase is what makes or breaks you. I’ll note that I managed to win without flying perfectly, which is somewhat heartening, because it means I didn’t hit the maximum potential of the list. I think with more practice I can do better. I’ll strongly consider this list or a close variant if I end up going to a Regionals.

Now, in order of no particular significance, random thoughts and things learned in the game:

Dual Defenders is a high variance list. Obviously this means you can get unlucky, but it also means you can get lucky. An interesting aspect of a high variance list is that if one player has a high variance list, both players effectively have a high variance list.

Two Scum players in the top 4. Nice.

The Ion Pulse Missile is so freakin’ cool on PS10. It’s a dagger out of nowhere that can just ruin any ship’s day if they’re not careful. Add more things to think about and you can get more mistakes happening.

Decoy has a ton of utility that probably deserves its own thread. Right now I’ll just say it has use as both an offensive and defensive upgrade, aside from the cool things it does with the Rex/Vessery combo specifically.

There’s something really different about flying HLC Defenders. The 1-banks are the bread and butter maneuver at a distance. Once you get close you switch to the 3-banks and 3-turns to dodge arcs or the K-turn to get pointed back the right way. For a ship without a white 1-turn or 1 straight, it’s pretty good in a dense asteroid field because the rocks limit the ability of other ships to come to bear on you, but the Defender can use the white K to pop out, cover the whole field with the cannon, and then slash back in. This probably deserves its own post with pictures, because I can’t describe it that well in words.

Opponent’s unfamiliarity in flying against Defenders definitely was an advantage. They knew the white-K was an option, but it’s often hard to cover that location as well as the 3-speed moves. It’s basically an extra high-quality maneuver that can cause them problems. Near asteroids they are often in situations where covering your 4K allows your disengage to put you in an excellent position for the subsequent 4K, but covering the turn or bank puts them in a horrible position against the 4K.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.

Bump because I finally have the report in.

Great report! It made for a fantastic lunch reading.

Good job with the dual Defenders. It's always nice to read someone's thoughts for a while on something....and then see how they do in an actual event. Good stuff! My SC was very similar where everyone ignored the meta. I went with Bombers designed to crush big ships, but found few. It turns out that no one knows how to fly against Tie Bombers and ordnance + Seismic Charges does wonders.

Thanks. I'm trying to put together something on why I think the Defender is better than it looks. Aside from the big things like Cannons and white K-turns, there's some interesting little things about having all that power wrapped up in a small base.

It's nice when everyone ignores the meta because each game is a new problem to solve, but sometimes you want to test your list against good players with the power builds.

Thank you for sharing your experience and having the courage to take a Tie Defender list to not one but now two tournaments!

I tried out your list, but I ended up testing it against x4 Tie Interceptor player who was a) very good, b) knew exactly how to play with and against Tie Defenders. Long story short, he blocked Rexler early on in the game and the Vessery - Rexy TL/Decoy combo was broken. I took down 1 T/I (which wasn't that bad against his list). but that was all.

My only slight critique of your approach to T/Ds is that you don't have Predator or Lone Wolf on Rexler, making it even harder to activate his pilot ability (which btw, is so extremely satisfying when it goes off), but I can see how having decoy makes Vessery work on a much better level.

Please, keep sharing your games, this was a lot of fun to read!

I'm curious, what was the Interceptor list? It seems like you should be able to do some damage at range where you have a decently large firepower advantage before your shields get completely worn down and you're in knife-fighting range with the Interceptors. Once close-in, did you immediately K-turn or did you try a different move to get some distance first?

I would dearly love Predator or Lone Wolf. They make Rexler into a real powerhouse. The problem is Phantoms. In my test games, Phantoms were too hard to consistently beat with this list when Rex was his stock PS8. In a lot of ways, a Predator Rex and VI Vessery is a better overall list, it's just plainly worse against some very prominent stuff. I'm playing with the idea of Soontir Fel (if I can ever find a TIE interceptor) or Darth Vader post Raider upgrades to fill the role of the High PS pilot, and use the extra points for a TIE fighter. That would be really excellent because a highly mobile knife-fighter is pretty strong against Rebel Swarms, and I could use Rex's EPT slot for a better overall EPT. He would also fire after Soontir or Vader, making his ability even better.

Seriously, though:

Rexler Brath

Lone Wolf

HLC

Stealth Device

(49)

Soontir Fel

PTL

Shield Upgrade

Autothrusters

(35)

Academy TIE 12

or

Rexler Brath

Lone Wolf

HLC

Stealth Device

(49)

Vader

Engine Upgrade

Title

ATC

Predator

(37)

Academy TIE

(12)

Both builds have some points left for initiative or a couple minor mods. Both might be better than my current list, but not as cool, because they're not dual TIE Defenders. I think both Lone Rex and Vader/Soontir are super-nasty late game ships.

I'm curious, what was the Interceptor list? It seems like you should be able to do some damage at range where you have a decently large firepower advantage before your shields get completely worn down and you're in knife-fighting range with the Interceptors. Once close-in, did you immediately K-turn or did you try a different move to get some distance first?

T/I List: Alpha+Hull, Avenger+Hull, Royal+Hull+Vet Instincts, Jax+Hull+Vet Instincts

The list doesn't look like much on paper, but the player flying it won a 4 round tournament one time with it without loosing a single ship the entire event, and he knows how to play against Tie Defenders!

I had two asteroids blocking some of my maneuvers on the approach. I did not try to K-Turn right away because there was a T/I out to the side that could have easily gotten blown to pieces but Rexler was blocked at that point, braking the combo (otherwise the T/I would have never survived and the game would have become 2 T/D on 2 T/I at that point and an easy win for me).

I would dearly love Predator or Lone Wolf. They make Rexler into a real powerhouse. The problem is Phantoms. In my test games, Phantoms were too hard to consistently beat with this list when Rex was his stock PS8. In a lot of ways, a Predator Rex and VI Vessery is a better overall list, it's just plainly worse against some very prominent stuff. I'm playing with the idea of Soontir Fel (if I can ever find a TIE interceptor) or Darth Vader post Raider upgrades to fill the role of the High PS pilot, and use the extra points for a TIE fighter. That would be really excellent because a highly mobile knife-fighter is pretty strong against Rebel Swarms, and I could use Rex's EPT slot for a better overall EPT. He would also fire after Soontir or Vader, making his ability even better.

I played a game yesterday with my x4 T/F, Rexler, HLC, Lone Wolf and Shield Upgrade yesterday against the new Scum and I got obliterated! I agree that Rexler with Predator/Lone Wolf is not consistent. Some games he is a star and in others... not so much. I think that the new Tie Advance will mesh extremely well with Vessery.

Have any Tie Defender players out there tried the Star Viper? I am finding the S-Turn addictive to the point of thinking of dropping the Empire for Scum and Villainy!

Great write up! This is Adam from the tournament. Awesome list. Never expected it to do as well as it did and I certainly plan on copying it when I get my hands on some Defenders.

Thanks! If you or anyone else is mentioned in this report have anything to add or correct, please feel free to post. Speaking of, Eric #1 (first and last guy I played) reminded me of an epic Prox Bombing in the final game where Vessery ate a mine and rolled 3 hits. It stripped his shields and opened him up for further devastation by Kath. He also reminded me that the TO's name was Gene.

I'm curious, what was the Interceptor list? It seems like you should be able to do some damage at range where you have a decently large firepower advantage before your shields get completely worn down and you're in knife-fighting range with the Interceptors. Once close-in, did you immediately K-turn or did you try a different move to get some distance first?

T/I List: Alpha+Hull, Avenger+Hull, Royal+Hull+Vet Instincts, Jax+Hull+Vet Instincts

The list doesn't look like much on paper, but the player flying it won a 4 round tournament one time with it without loosing a single ship the entire event, and he knows how to play against Tie Defenders!

I had two asteroids blocking some of my maneuvers on the approach. I did not try to K-Turn right away because there was a T/I out to the side that could have easily gotten blown to pieces but Rexler was blocked at that point, braking the combo (otherwise the T/I would have never survived and the game would have become 2 T/D on 2 T/I at that point and an easy win for me).

That's an interesting list (that I don't fully understand, but that's not a knock against it). Sounds like a pretty exceptional player. I'll note that I don't try that hard to do the TL combo unless it's a pretty tough ship and I think I'll be firing on it for a few turns. Usually I just end up focusing for Rexler unless nobody has any guns pointed at me, then I'll TL and try to use Vessery's ability.

Championship Game vs Eric #1

My first game opponent defeated the top seeded undefeated player, and moved on the Finals as well. I don’t know what happened in that game, but I kept hearing sounds of frustration as the other player struggled to land damage. I’m guessing that Aggressor was pretty solidly tanking attacks pretty well with its 3 AGI. At this point, I’m pretty spent. I’m coming off the high from the crazy end to the last game, I’m thinking about a 40 mile drive home in the snow with a car not optimized for this sort of weather, a wife whose been looking after an angry toddler all day, and because of the store closing, we only had about 50 minutes for the game. I rushed in whole-hog instead of being even a little careful. Probably because at the time I only really had enough mental energy for that, which is probably something I’ll need to work on if I intend to try a Regionals event. My opponent kept his head and predictably cut me to ribbons. I couldn’t even say exactly what happened because my head wasn’t really in the game, which is a horrible thing to say about the finals of a Store Championship, but it was true. I just know that I was always caught in firing arcs and moved without making smart predictions. Total loss, I killed nothing and got wiped before time was called in our shortened battle. I happily congratulated my opponent and after 90 minutes on snowy interstate I was home.

I misplayed in a major way during that game. Like you I was really tired and I made a couple of dumb moves (that eric capitalized on) as a result.

The sounds of frustration was at not being able to land a hit on Kath for most of the game while she went ape and destroyed half my list. I focused her figuring she'd be the easier of the two to destroy and was arguably more dangerous. By the time I managed to blow her up I had Xizor and a 1 hp Z-95 left to show for it while he had IG88B at full.

The end part of that game was just Xizor and IG88 zipping around landing only one or two shots on each other due to arc dodging/range 3 autothruster shots just whiffing. Once time was called he beat me by either 10 or 11 points, so it was still fairly close. On that note I have no idea why people seem to poo-poo the starviper on these forums (Xizor in particular). He never died in any game I played, and with predator+adv sensors he always did pretty good damage and was able to pull of some cool maneuver shenanigans.

One correction to your report, there was a single falcon (Lando) that was part of a Lando/Dash build that I played as part of my first game, but that was the only one.

Wish I could have played a game against you or at least had the opportunity to watch one of your matches. I at least enjoyed talking to you in between matches, hopefully I'll see you at the miniature market tournament at the end of the month.

Firesprays with Recon Specialist are pretty tough. With a little bit of luck they can sustain a tremendous amount of damage. I think the Starviper naysayers are going to be proven wrong fairly quickly. It may not be a ship that everyone "gets", but it's tough, maneuverable, and hard-hitting. Check out betes' report that recently went up on this site and Team Covenant. He used Xizor and 5 Zs and won a store championship against some pretty tough competition in a pretty tough area (the KC, Omaha, Iowa crowds seem to have a thing going on that the St. Louis area needs to get in on).

Nice report

Thanks!

This report is great. I like your list even better.

After reading your list I was wondering "Why Ion Pulse instead of Proton Rockets". Then I read the first game report... ionizing a firespray off the table is a pretty good reason

Yeah, that is the best possible result, but not expected. The missiles are mainly there to complicate opponent planning and give them something extra to think about every planning phase. There's a few things that can happen:

1.) Opponent remembers Ion Pulse Missiles and is forced to sacrifice some optimal moves to avoid really bad results (getting ioned onto a rock or off the board).

2.) Opponent remembers Ion Pulse Missiles, but gambles that their defensive options are enough to avoid the hit, and they are successful.

3.) Opponent remembers Ion Pulse Missiles, but gambles that their defensive options are enough to avoid the hit, and they are unsuccessful.

4.) Opponent forgets Ion Pulse Missiles, and leaves themself open to getting ioned onto a rock or off the board.

Option 2 is really the only not good result, and it's pretty rare, usually with targets that I'd almost always want to use the HLC on anyway. Option 1 is the best for my opponent, but the missiles are still useful for a 2-round setup combo

Round 1: Rex Target Locks, Vessery Focuses, Vessery fires HLC with TL/Focus, Rex fires IPM, ideally not spending the Target Lock, and making target predictable for a turn.

Round 2: Rex & Vessery Focus, Vessery fires HLC with TL/Focus, Rex fires with TL, using Focus to get extra damage or flip cards face up, depending on dice results.

It takes a lot of bad red dice for a large ship to not be completely crippled by this attack, and while it's not necessarily easy to set up, it's also not that hard. The awesome thing about PS10 Rex is that most builds won't know if there's going to be a target lock, so they always have to guard against it.

Hey Bio,

Totally agree with what you've saidd about flying Defenders. I have the same mindset as well. I keep on saying to other players that the 'predictability of the defender dial' when used properly can be totally unpredictable! Too bad on your last game though, but understandable

I bought another defender just to see how good your list is. But unfortunately I don't have the shield upgrades

Hey Bio,

Totally agree with what you've saidd about flying Defenders. I have the same mindset as well. I keep on saying to other players that the 'predictability of the defender dial' when used properly can be totally unpredictable! Too bad on your last game though, but understandable

I bought another defender just to see how good your list is. But unfortunately I don't have the shield upgrades

I've played around with dual Defender lists with Hull and Stealth Device also. You could also proxy if your gaming group doesn't mind. I think I like shield best overall, but recently I'm really liking Vessery with Lone Wolf and Stealth Device (abandoning any attempt to try and have him strip shields/tokens for Brath). Brath is the natural first target and the ability to leave a target lock on some big ship for Vessery to pound on. Kill Brath and you basically kill the pilot ability for Vessery also. Lone Wolf gives Vessery a nice bonus in the beginning of the game (if you start them apart) or the end game (when Brath dies first), when his ability is least likely to be used. I don't think I'd try to run the list without any defensive upgrades, though. That extra hit point matters, and more importantly, it lets you really sell out with your Focus to drop a ton of damage on someone that you really want to kill this turn. Knowing you've got a few shields to soak return fire lets you do this.

My current favourite list is this:

Boba Fett + VI + HLC + Rebel Captive(50 points)

Rexler Brath + Predator + HLC + Stealth Device(50 points).

Only lost one game with this build so far.

Boba Target Locks and strips tokens/shields. Rexler fires using predator for Reroll keeping the focus for turning up crits.

I played a Chewy Leebo build and just wrecked them both with crits cause none of their abilities can do anything with the crits that rexler turns up on them. Their abilities are when they are dealt a face up damage card and these are dealt face down and then flipped up. This was the first time I'd ever seen a crit on a chewy build in person - lol.

Because of this thread, I went out and bought another defender. I'll be practicing with my own dual defender list in preparation for the next tourney.

Just thought I'd let you know that your spreading of the gospel of Defender is working

Another list I'm going to be flying soon is 3 Delta Defenders with Stealth Device. 99 points of harder to knock down tanks.

You need to get a 3rd - lol.

I'll have to figure out a good title when I hit 1000 posts, like "Apostle of the Church of the TIE Defender". I hadn't considered 3 Deltas with Stealth, but I really like it. I'm usually about increasing offense with those extra points, but the Delta at PS1 really does like the Stealth Device, because it will always know if it needs to spend Focus to protect it or not. It's also nice to know that one of them is going to be around in the end game, and a Defender with Stealth Device after the biggest gun has been killed is going to be bad news. You might think about trading one Stealth Device out for an Ion Cannon, though. It makes your opponent make uncomfortable decisions, and it gives you a tool to work with.

I would love to be able to fit a 4th defender in. We need a TieX1 like title for therm to drop the cost from 30 to 25 so I can run 4 naked delta defenders - we don't need no stinkin' 4 B-wings.

A list with 3 deltas with ion made top 8 at a SC I went to early this year.

Wish I had come up with my Boba/Rexler PS 10 HLC build I currently run for that tourny as I would have just wrecked with it.

The delta with the ion will become the target so it won't last long though. I'll have to give it a shot though and see what happens.