I wasn't sure the first time I read it, but I'm fairly certain it's sarcasm now/an attack on the old phantom.

I think you're right. And yeah, gunner on a Phantom is an utter waste of points and a crew slot.

Not really against a Fat Han or high agility ship. Fat Han is likely going to be auto-evading two of your hits. If you only roll two hits against him, gunner will kick in. Of course you'll have FCS. A good tactic is to hold that focus until the 2nd attack when you have TL + Focus for a nastier hit.

Also, who hasn't rolled 4 attack dice and rolled 1 hit, 3 blanks before?

I agree that 5 points could probably be better spent, but its not worthless by any stretch. However, after the FAQing... I think Intel Agent might be the Phantom's new favorite crew.

I wasn't sure the first time I read it, but I'm fairly certain it's sarcasm now/an attack on the old phantom.

I think you're right. And yeah, gunner on a Phantom is an utter waste of points and a crew slot.

Not really against a Fat Han or high agility ship. Fat Han is likely going to be auto-evading two of your hits. If you only roll two hits against him, gunner will kick in. Of course you'll have FCS. A good tactic is to hold that focus until the 2nd attack when you have TL + Focus for a nastier hit.

Also, who hasn't rolled 4 attack dice and rolled 1 hit, 3 blanks before?

I agree that 5 points could probably be better spent, but its not worthless by any stretch. However, after the FAQing... I think Intel Agent might be the Phantom's new favorite crew.

Don't hijack the thread!!

I wasn't sure the first time I read it, but I'm fairly certain it's sarcasm now/an attack on the old phantom.

I think you're right. And yeah, gunner on a Phantom is an utter waste of points and a crew slot.

I keep hearing this, but I find it hard to believe considering D4rkt3mpl4r won US nationals with "Whisper" + FCS + Gunner + ACD last year at GenCon Indy. Seemed pretty effective for him.

The reason that Gunner + FCS on whisper is fantastic is because of her ability to get a free focus after she does damage. It means that you can evade as your action when you know you are getting shot. Then when you shoot, if you get a bad roll and the enemy evades it, that's cool because now you are attacking again with a TL and its unlikely the enemy will evade that too (so thank you for the focus!). It allows Whisper to be more 'tanky' because then she's almost always got evade + focus vs. return fire. Without Gunner, then its a tougher call: what action do you take? Evade means your attack might miss (no way to modify it) so you don't get the free focus. If you focus you might have to spend it just to gaurantee a hit so you end up with only the free focus against return fire. Your basically paying 5 points to make your ship hit harder AND harder to destroy. Its win win, really.

Not really against a Fat Han or high agility ship. Fat Han is likely going to be auto-evading two of your hits. If you only roll two hits against him, gunner will kick in. Of course you'll have FCS. A good tactic is to hold that focus until the 2nd attack when you have TL + Focus for a nastier hit.

It's an insurance policy, and an insurance policy with a pretty high premium. On an expensive 3-dice ship, it's a pretty fair insurance policy (especially now Autothrusters are a thing), but the more attack dice you're rolling, the less often that insurance policy pays out. Hell, if you end up flying against low agility lists such as BBBBX or Warthogs, it may never pay out at all. It'll certainly help tip the scales against Autoceptors, Aggressors, Starvipers, A-Wings or other Phantoms, but against at least half the ships in the game it'll be redundant.

Incidentally, if a Whisper/FCS/Gunner hit MY Fat Han twice as the first attack of the round, unless I was on my very last Hull point I'd either use C3PO OR the Evade token, and leave the Phantom without the benefit of it's reroll. So hold that focus, by all means.

It's an insurance policy, and an insurance policy with a pretty high premium. On an expensive 3-dice ship, it's a pretty fair insurance policy (especially now Autothrusters are a thing), but the more attack dice you're rolling, the less often that insurance policy pays out. Hell, if you end up flying against low agility lists such as BBBBX or Warthogs, it may never pay out at all. It'll certainly help tip the scales against Autoceptors, Aggressors, Starvipers, A-Wings or other Phantoms, but against at least half the ships in the game it'll be redundant.

Incidentally, if a Whisper/FCS/Gunner hit MY Fat Han twice as the first attack of the round, unless I was on my very last Hull point I'd either use C3PO OR the Evade token, and leave the Phantom without the benefit of it's reroll. So hold that focus, by all means.

My last game against BBBBZ I took Rexler & Whisper. Gunner triggered twice that match (both times shooting at b-wings). One time was at range 3 and the other time was at range 1 (yep, all blanks + eyeballs on five dice!). Totally worth 5 points because thanks to the TL, both times the second attack was maximum hits.

So much for not hijacking the thread.......

Defenders still aren't as good as they should be... There back on track!

So much for not hijacking the thread.......

After 23 pages of defender blah blah blah, it was bound to happen. I mean, I'm sure most of the people reading this don't even care about the defender anyways!

I wasn't sure the first time I read it, but I'm fairly certain it's sarcasm now/an attack on the old phantom.

I think you're right. And yeah, gunner on a Phantom is an utter waste of points and a crew slot.

I keep hearing this, but I find it hard to believe considering D4rkt3mpl4r won US nationals with "Whisper" + FCS + Gunner + ACD last year at GenCon Indy. Seemed pretty effective for him.

Not really against a Fat Han or high agility ship. Fat Han is likely going to be auto-evading two of your hits. If you only roll two hits against him, gunner will kick in. Of course you'll have FCS. A good tactic is to hold that focus until the 2nd attack when you have TL + Focus for a nastier hit.

It's an insurance policy, and an insurance policy with a pretty high premium. On an expensive 3-dice ship, it's a pretty fair insurance policy (especially now Autothrusters are a thing), but the more attack dice you're rolling, the less often that insurance policy pays out. Hell, if you end up flying against low agility lists such as BBBBX or Warthogs, it may never pay out at all. It'll certainly help tip the scales against Autoceptors, Aggressors, Starvipers, A-Wings or other Phantoms, but against at least half the ships in the game it'll be redundant.

Incidentally, if a Whisper/FCS/Gunner hit MY Fat Han twice as the first attack of the round, unless I was on my very last Hull point I'd either use C3PO OR the Evade token, and leave the Phantom without the benefit of it's reroll. So hold that focus, by all means.

The extra 7 points on Whisper for FCS + gunner pays for itself if you use the evade token twice. I ran the math for NOVA episode #21. It's not a bad upgrade at all.

// back on-topic

The extra 7 points on Whisper for FCS + gunner pays for itself if you use the evade token twice. I ran the math for NOVA episode #21. It's not a bad upgrade at all.

// back on-topic

Doh! Only got half-way through. Still gotta listen to the rest of it!

Here's a TL;DR of my entire 'scenario' (from the Defender player perspective):

When going up against better jousters, you have the faster ship so use that to your advantage. Remember: R3 is best for you. You have the lower Pilot Skill, so use it to block incoming shots (a touching enemy ship cannot shoot at you = good for you). Whenever possible, force the enemy to k-turn to keep you in arc (stress means no actions for them but actions for you). Also, if possible, use asteroid placement to force enemy to break up its formations. Broken formations = less focus fire on you and more opportunities to bump enemy ships. And don't be afraid to use 5 fwd to escape combat range, then either 3turn or 4k to come back into the fight at a more favourable range (R3 is best!)

Love it! Great way to break down the jousting engagement!

Remember how everyone was comparing aggressors to defenders and declaring defenders the loser? My experience has been the total opposite.

I've seen two defenders tear apart two aggressors never taking hull damage just losing a couple of shields.

I'm 0 for 3 with Defenders against Aggressors. Predator/Gunner/Mangler chews up Deltas.

I made some assumptions because I was 'playing against myself'. It a real match obviously, both sides would do whatever possible to get the most advantage. What you describe is the b-wing player trying to play smart, but of course the defender player will try to do the same. For example, a smart strategy for the Defenders in a real 66 pts match would be 1) take ion cannons instead of hull upgrades (b-wings are basically hosed). 2) start with both ships in opposite corners and slow roll with 1bank/2fwd + BR until the b-wings pick a direction. Then, use the flanking delta to deal damage/ion and the delta getting focussed on tries to bump or run (whichever is more favourable given prevailing circumstances). Ion cannons will be quite dangerous because the b-wing player is forced to move away from the centre (or start on the outside close to an edge), going off table is a real possibility and limits b-wing manoeuvres greatly. And the defender being shot at will not be taking serious fire (because either of the following will be true: bumping stops at least 1 shot or an unexpected 5fwd/3turn + BR will avoid at least 1 arc, if not more) and the b-wing player will have a hard time predicting which tactic the defender will use because they both move in opposite directions.

This is a very different situation from jousting them against each other.

When I've been playing it out I've been trying my best to play both sides to the best of my ability but it really does keep coming down to this: There is no way the defenders can avoid taking three shots in the initial exchange. From there another three shots and there is a good chance there is one defender down, any shots beyond that and it starts to become very unlikely for the defender to survive. At which point it's 1 vs. surviving Bs. If the Defenders haven't killed two by then it's pretty hopeless.

It's been interesting because I've changed what I do on both sides with each iteration as I better understand the options open to the other side and I think I've got a pretty good handle on it now. The reality is there is no way for the Defenders to avoid the opening three shots. From that point in every run the Defenders' margin for error is too small to win. You can bump ships, deny actions, get positional advantage but you can't negate every shot and every single shot has an increasing chance of ending a defender. I'm pretty sure coming at B's from different angles or with ion cannons doesn't change that because you can't eliminate that opening barrage without assuming the B player is much less competent than the Defender player. Unless the Defenders are very lucky in that first exchange that margin is still very slim.

Like I said, it's been interesting and I've learnt a lot more about both ships. I certainly have a bit more respect for the Defender. I like your break down of the Defenders options, it certainly matches my experience. But I've run the scenario around five times in its entirety, the initial range shuffle many more times than that, and I've yet to see even a close call.

Remember how everyone was comparing aggressors to defenders and declaring defenders the loser? My experience has been the total opposite.

I've seen two defenders tear apart two aggressors never taking hull damage just losing a couple of shields.

I'm 0 for 3 with Defenders against Aggressors. Predator/Gunner/Mangler chews up Deltas.

I gotta agree here. As much as I love Defenders and have success with them, I don't see them reliably getting the upper hand on a well built Aggressor. It is definetly more up to the pilots, but overall the Aggressor can have a lot of Aces up his sleeves to face pretty much any threat.

-Advanced Sensor garantee that they will also have their action after a K-turn/S-Loop or before bumping

-Inertial Dampeners allow them to keep a good position once per game, while still keeping their action thanks to Advanced Sensors

-B ability give them a second chance to hit a particularily dodgy opponent

-Two cannons give them a versatility that you can hardly get with any other ships

-While Defenders love range 3, Aggressors love it even more thanks to Autothrusters

-Lot of green to shed the possible stress

Only drawback of the ship is the big base, but if you're used to it, you can easily work around it.

Player skills not wisthanding, I would put my money on the Aggressor. But we are comparing two different beast here, and how each one is built have a big impact on the match-up result. Also, the player with the Aggressor must be used to flying big base, because they handle very differently.

Like I said, it's been interesting and I've learnt a lot more about both ships. I certainly have a bit more respect for the Defender. I like your break down of the Defenders options, it certainly matches my experience. But I've run the scenario around five times in its entirety, the initial range shuffle many more times than that, and I've yet to see even a close call.

First of all, I agree that b-wings have better 'raw' jousting capabilities (except dial). Majorjuggler already proved this via math a while ago.

My efforts here were to show how a defender should approach a ship like the b-wing to minimize damage and put odds in its favour. I disagree with your assessment that the initial engagement will always go poorly for the defender---if its R3, then both sides should lose 1 or 2 shields each, unless really lucky rolls (outliers) come into play. After that, the defender has many options to limit or reduce b-wing firing. I tried to explain that these include bumping, overshooting w/ 5fwd (then k-turn following turn and approach at R3 again) or best of all, forcing the opponent to split up their ships (splitting your own or forcing them to fly towards asteroids helps with this).

Ion cannon though greatly changes things....I mean, if the b-wings are ioned after they k-turn, they are stressed too and so the defenders easily end up behind them and hardly get shot anymore. This allows them to dispatch a b-wing fairly easily and once its 2v2, the b-wings are toast (ion while behind over and over and over...). I'm surprised you did not have this occur at all?

But, I'm sorry if you can't see how the defender has a good chance using these kinds of tactics to overcome the b-wings limited dial. Perhaps the defender is not the ship for you? I just don't know what else to say, but if you feel these things can't help the defender win, then you are of course entitled to your opinion

I just feel differently

Remember how everyone was comparing aggressors to defenders and declaring defenders the loser? My experience has been the total opposite.

I've seen two defenders tear apart two aggressors never taking hull damage just losing a couple of shields.

I'm 0 for 3 with Defenders against Aggressors. Predator/Gunner/Mangler chews up Deltas.

I gotta agree here. As much as I love Defenders and have success with them, I don't see them reliably getting the upper hand on a well built Aggressor. It is definetly more up to the pilots, but overall the Aggressor can have a lot of Aces up his sleeves to face pretty much any threat.

-Advanced Sensor garantee that they will also have their action after a K-turn/S-Loop or before bumping

-Inertial Dampeners allow them to keep a good position once per game, while still keeping their action thanks to Advanced Sensors

-B ability give them a second chance to hit a particularily dodgy opponent

-Two cannons give them a versatility that you can hardly get with any other ships

-While Defenders love range 3, Aggressors love it even more thanks to Autothrusters

-Lot of green to shed the possible stress

Only drawback of the ship is the big base, but if you're used to it, you can easily work around it.

Player skills not wisthanding, I would put my money on the Aggressor. But we are comparing two different beast here, and how each one is built have a big impact on the match-up result. Also, the player with the Aggressor must be used to flying big base, because they handle very differently.

Agreed, when I've messed around with the matchup it comes down almost entirely to the player because there's so many legitimate potential moves that either one can end the turn with an unopposed shot on the other. The Aggressor has more little tricks to mitigate potential problems (and is probably stronger against a lot of other major lists), but the Defender can operate in more of the board thanks to its small size.

Remember how everyone was comparing aggressors to defenders and declaring defenders the loser? My experience has been the total opposite.

I've seen two defenders tear apart two aggressors never taking hull damage just losing a couple of shields.

I'm 0 for 3 with Defenders against Aggressors. Predator/Gunner/Mangler chews up Deltas.

I gotta agree here. As much as I love Defenders and have success with them, I don't see them reliably getting the upper hand on a well built Aggressor. It is definetly more up to the pilots, but overall the Aggressor can have a lot of Aces up his sleeves to face pretty much any threat.

-Advanced Sensor garantee that they will also have their action after a K-turn/S-Loop or before bumping

-Inertial Dampeners allow them to keep a good position once per game, while still keeping their action thanks to Advanced Sensors

-B ability give them a second chance to hit a particularily dodgy opponent

-Two cannons give them a versatility that you can hardly get with any other ships

-While Defenders love range 3, Aggressors love it even more thanks to Autothrusters

-Lot of green to shed the possible stress

Only drawback of the ship is the big base, but if you're used to it, you can easily work around it.

Player skills not wisthanding, I would put my money on the Aggressor. But we are comparing two different beast here, and how each one is built have a big impact on the match-up result. Also, the player with the Aggressor must be used to flying big base, because they handle very differently.

Agreed, when I've messed around with the matchup it comes down almost entirely to the player because there's so many legitimate potential moves that either one can end the turn with an unopposed shot on the other. The Aggressor has more little tricks to mitigate potential problems (and is probably stronger against a lot of other major lists), but the Defender can operate in more of the board thanks to its small size.

True to a certain extent.

The Aggressor do need more space to operate properly and to his full capacity. That's the advantage of small base over big base and why the latter actually have a price discount for that hindrance. Small base are harder to block and easier to maneuvrate in a Asteroid field. The small base should always use this advantage when battling against a big base.

But, thanks to Advanced Sensor, the Aggressor does't really care about being block, it can actually use it to his advantage. Thanks to Advanced Sensor, the Aggressor doesn't really care about going through an asteroid, if he's willing to gamble about the potential damage. The Aggressor player can actually use it to his advantage to get into a better position. So, if I play the Aggressor, the first thing I will do is try to get the field as open as possible, but if I have to go through an asteroid to get an edge, I won't be as bothered as some other ship would be.

Aggressors suffer from needing to clear the stress from the s loop or k turn, key to defeating them is using that to your advantage.

For example an aggressor that can't turn around can't shoot you, once it's performed one s loop and a green you hit it with flechette cannons so it's caught constantly trying to clear stress, if it does a white your still behind it able to do a normal attack.

You have a 4 k turn on the aggressor but the defenders got a green five forward it's not that easy to stay at range three but it's no problem for the defender to four k after when because your going to have to move forward exposing your ass.

All games are pilot dependant of course but there's plenty of ways to use the aggressors need to turn against it.

I've been trying to catch up to the end of this thread since it started, but have only done so now. Too much to read!

I've been exclusively flying a list with a defender for about six months, including 5 store championship tournaments (SF bay area, aside from one that had a space cap at 16, they've all been 25-30 players; Fly Hella Casual). Early iterations had weapon engineer on Echo, Backstabber instead of the Bomber, etc. but the list stabilized right before store champs started in early January. Except for the store champ this past Sunday, it's been (I'm not good enough to play with the new phantom rules, so I swapped echo+tb for fel+doomshuttle):

Colonel Vessery (35)
Lone Wolf (2)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

"Echo" (30)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Recon Specialist (3)
Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I finished 7 wins, 9 losses in swiss over 4 champs with this list, never making the top 8 cut. The last champ had me 3-1 in swiss, losing in the first elimination round.

I assert that this exempts me from the "haven't played it enough" dismissals that have been common in this thread (there are still the old "bad player," "bad list," and "learn to fly it" chestnuts, but I can't win 'em all).

My experience is that V+LW+HLC is an excellent closer. I'll take that loadout for a 1v1 endgame vs. just about any other single ship, except maybe IG88B and an R2-D2 Fat Han. It helps when the other ship is higher PS because they can't block me, and I get to use the focus for defense...

And that's where I feel the ship falls down. As soon as that focus is gone, damage starts piling up. Doesn't matter if it's because of gunner, multiple ships shooting, or a stress; as soon as those green dice are unmodified, V starts hurting. Dodging arcs is difficult at range 3. Since my opponents know that V+LW+HLC is a beast if left for last, they focus fire and V's dead on the second round he'd shoot (note, this can either be the second round of combat, or the round that V gets back into the fight after bugging out after round 1). It just doesn't feel like I've got the toolbox to prevent it.

I know that ships are different, and I can't expect to make apples-to-apples comparisons, but in the last tournament, a loaded out Soontir Fel (costs as much as a naked Vessery) was always the last to go (and in the games I won, was often the only ship I had left on the board). There isn't a single game in that last tournament I wouldn't have been better off trading in Vessery for a trio of academy pilots, and throwing the extra points into the trash.

And that feeling is why people are disappointed in the ship.

And objectively speaking, you are using Vessery to his best possible strength, and he is already the best TIE Defender pilot to begin with - he is actually OK (if you build an entire squad around him), the generics are much much worse off. That does not bode as well for them.

And objectively speaking, you are using Vessery to his best possible strength, and he is already the best TIE Defender pilot to begin with - he is actually OK (if you build an entire squad around him), the generics are much much worse off. That does not bode as well for them.

Yeah, it was rare for V to not get the piggyback TL. 7-9 isn't a horrible record (10-11 if you count the post-Echo tournament), but it's not inspiring either.

It's possible that I needed to be doing some different calculus about when to spend focus (my general philosophy is to spend it on pre-shooting defense unless I have a good chance to kill something when my shot comes up, always spend it on offense unless it's meaningless to do so, and spend it on post-shooting defense as soon as it will save a point of damage), but I don't see that being some huge game-changer.

It's possible that I need to pack a list that has something that people would rather shoot at than V, but I don't know what that would be short of a Decimator, and "the Rear Admiral makes it good" isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.

I've liked the idea of Fel plus double deltas, but I think that I want to go tilt at the StarViper windmill for a while, now that store champs are over.

Aggressors suffer from needing to clear the stress from the s loop or k turn, key to defeating them is using that to your advantage.

For example an aggressor that can't turn around can't shoot you, once it's performed one s loop and a green you hit it with flechette cannons so it's caught constantly trying to clear stress, if it does a white your still behind it able to do a normal attack.

You have a 4 k turn on the aggressor but the defenders got a green five forward it's not that easy to stay at range three but it's no problem for the defender to four k after when because your going to have to move forward exposing your ass.

All games are pilot dependant of course but there's plenty of ways to use the aggressors need to turn against it.

this has been my exact experience as well

Aggressors suffer from needing to clear the stress from the s loop or k turn, key to defeating them is using that to your advantage.

For example an aggressor that can't turn around can't shoot you, once it's performed one s loop and a green you hit it with flechette cannons so it's caught constantly trying to clear stress, if it does a white your still behind it able to do a normal attack.

You have a 4 k turn on the aggressor but the defenders got a green five forward it's not that easy to stay at range three but it's no problem for the defender to four k after when because your going to have to move forward exposing your ass.

All games are pilot dependant of course but there's plenty of ways to use the aggressors need to turn against it.

That doesn't really sound like a reliable strategy to me. Of course, it can works, but there is a lot of variable where it can fails.

First of all, we'll have to assume from the start that a Flechette cannon is an auto-include for you on Defenders. That every time you take a Defender, you also take a Flechette cannon, because that seems to be the core of your strategy.

Second of all, we'll have to assume that you do hit reliably with the Flechette Cannon each and every time you shoot at the Aggressor, which is simply not the case. Let's assume that you're against IG-88C. C get an Evade every time he boost, if I'm stressed and know that I won't be able to have a line of sight on my enemy, I'll go as fast as possible to clear the distance, with C, it's a likely scenario, at least what I will plan to do, that I'll boost to range 3 so that I can benefit from my Evade and Autothrusters, it means that to effectively hit me, you would need a perfect score while I roll only blanks. It will happen from time to time, but the odds are not in your favor.

Third, unless you're talking about a named pilot(and again, are you really always taking a Flechette Cannon on Vessery or Brath? I'm honestly curious here) and that the Aggressor didn't bother with VI, your Defender will move first, which means that the Aggressor will know exactly where the Defender will be shooting at. As you can see by his dial, there is a LOT of options for the Aggressor to go to clear the stress, especially combined with a boost. Make a bank 3 followed by a bank 1, now do it again in the other direction, now do the same thing with a bank 1 followed by a bank boost, do it again with the other side, now do a straight 3 and boost again. Maybe he'll just bump on you so there is no attack this turn. When the Defender move, can you really be sure of where the Aggressor will be? If you can, you're a really gifted player. Even when stressed, an Aggressor has a lot of option, and in tournament under a timed game, playing this cat and mouse game is actually to his advantage, because he's worth more.

Fourth, that's also assuming that the Aggressor did nothing from his side, just stressed and decided to bail. But what if he has a ion cannon? What if it is B with his gunner ability and a Ion cannon? Maybe he'll just ionize the Defender, clear his stress and then come back after a Loop or K-turn for a second round. In a game of attrition between a Flechette Cannon and Ion Cannon, The Aggressor has 2 more health and a second chance to all his attack. The advantage goes to the Aggressor.

Concerning the range of the k-turn and the straight 5 of the Defender. Do the same exercise than before with the bank 3 and boost. Now do it again but with the 4 k-turn and S-Loops, but boost before thanks to Advanced Sensor. Can you reliably guess where the Aggressor will be? You did your 5 straight, but the Aggressor decided to bank boost followed by a S-Loop, he's now on your 3 or 9, have a clear shot on you without risking retaliation.

If it works for you, great. Continue doing so. But really, with an Aggressor, a Flechette Cannon Defender would not really bother me. It's cute. Nothing more. The Aggressor doesn't really care about clearing stress, that's why it's probably the ship that abuse the most of the k-turn. It can go fast to come back later. Unless he's up against a Fat turret, time is always his friend, because when played correctly, he's a really hard ship to get down.

The only thing that troubles me about your strategy, is that it assume that every time you shoot with your cannon you hit, that you will always have a shot on the Aggressor, and that the Aggressor didn't do anything from his side to level the game. That is three things that just won't happen in a real game. Good on paper, doubful in practice.

Now, from my side, there was also some assumption about the loadouts, but here is my dual Aggressor list (if I run only one Aggressor, it will be IG-88B with the same loadout):

IG-88B+Predator+Advanced Sensors+Mangler Cannon+Ion Cannon+Inertial Dampeners+Autothrusters

IG-88C+Lonewolf+Advanced Sensors+Mangler Cannon+Inertial Dampeners+Autothrusters

An aggressor has nine options to clear stress (straights and banks) repeated across three speeds, none of which particularly help orientate its arc well. Stress shuts down pre-manuever boost (and advanced sensors in general) and boosting post maneuver displaces a lot of space with a large base, which complicates positioning further (and tends to get tangled in blocking obstacles/ships)

the issue of hitting Aggressors is resolved through fail-safe redundancy (i.e, two cannons), with shooting and range 2 being quite helpful (which the Defender is equipped to engineer with speed 4 and 5 straights)

the rest comes down to the players

in most situations, the aggressor's only option is to run. At that point, do not chase it it will outrun even defenders. Instead, bring your guns to bear on the buddy it left behind.

Kinda what I meant, when stressed with an Aggressor, you go long to come back later, a hit and run strategy. Don't try to get a line of sight if you can't. Time is your ally. And your buddy is more often than not an other Aggressor that will do just the same. If you can't focus fire on one of the two, you'll have a hard time finishing them up before time runs out. Usually a win situation for the Aggressors. They are like wolves turning around their prey looking for a weakness.

This thread has turned into "My dad can beat up your dad."