I believe that Deathrain will still want to drop bombs forward and not bother to get away that much. Think about it. PS 6 pilot can move forward and drop a Proton Bomb on a Tie Swarm. Yes, you take the hit, but you just put a crit on a whole lot of enemy Tie Fighters.

How do you drop a Proton Bomb after you move?

They get dumped when you reveal your dial.

...

I don't see anything in that picture besides some blue stuff.

Well in the picture all you see is blue stuff, but in TIE Fighter and Star Wars Battlefront they show three projectors.

TIE bombers have four such exhausts. Doesn't necessarily mean they have four engines.

And that's assuming twin ion engines means two ion engines. It could mean an engine based on twin ions. It's also possible that each of those dots is a twin ion engine.

I believe that Deathrain will still want to drop bombs forward and not bother to get away that much. Think about it. PS 6 pilot can move forward and drop a Proton Bomb on a Tie Swarm. Yes, you take the hit, but you just put a crit on a whole lot of enemy Tie Fighters. Or B-wings. Or...whatever. There will be times when sucking up the bomb hit will be worth it from moving and then dropping a bomb forward.

Read his ability again. He's got a way out.

How do you drop a Proton Bomb after you move?

They get dumped when you reveal your dial.

Doh! You are totally right. My mistake. Too bad Deathrain can't take "Genius" astromech.

Still....dropping the template bombs after moving is pretty cool, especially right on top of or in front of someone like Soontir, Corran, or ...well....anyone.

Deathrain's ability will deter swarms from flying into his Range 1 to 2 band. If they do, he dumps the Proton Bomb and then rolls away, laughing...

Deathrain wins that joust hands down.

Deathrain's ability will deter swarms from flying into his Range 1 to 2 band. If they do, he dumps the Proton Bomb and then rolls away, laughing...

Deathrain wins that joust hands down.

Deathrain might also be a fantastic anti-capital ship bomber. Can get close to the vette, bomb token and roll out of RAM angle, and then drop another bomb next turn.

The black panels changed to white in Ep VII, so I doubt they're solar panels in canon as white is a pretty much the worst coloring for absorbing light.

True. So the whole "solar panel" explanation for the last 38 years is discarded.

True. So the whole "solar panel" explanation for the last 38 years is discarded.

Not really, because it assumes that whatever sci-fi tech they use in their solar panels works exactly like ours and has to be a specific color.

True. So the whole "solar panel" explanation for the last 38 years is discarded.

Not really, because it assumes that whatever sci-fi tech they use in their solar panels works exactly like ours and has to be a specific color.

Star Wars isn't sci-fi, because they have no interest on basing their universe on any kind of coherent 'science' even if it were 'fictional'. Yesterday it was solar panels. Today it's radiators, tomorrow they will be something else. They need to sell merchardising, and if a Cross Sections book needs to have pseudotechnical mumbo jumbo, they will add it next to the pretty, made up, cross sections.

As Vader told Lando "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

Sure, but they haven't done any of that yet.

Their going explanation is that they are solar panels. Just because they changed the color doesn't make them not that UNTIL they decide to retcon the explanation.

Does red paint from a blood stripe (that is the red line or chevron painted on a TIE) stop a solar panel working? No.

Does the Imperial cog painted on a solar panel prevent it from working (the attack squadrons trailer has TIE's with the logo on) nope.

Does Sabines painted TIE fighter have any less efficiency? Doesn't appear so.

Grey/Black is one of the Impies favourite colour schemes, they just liked their panels black is all.

Guess the First order liked theirs white. Also they discharged the Stormtrooper Corp and replaced them with iTroopers.

Hehe, I guess it's why their elites are chrome-troopers.

The IE troopers were too slow on the draw, and their Firefox troopers used too many resources.

The reason the iTroopers can never find the Rebels is because they are using Apple maps.

Wow a preview thread that HASN'T erupted into a rules argument?? Keep up the good work guys :DSeriously though, the Interdictor is looking good.

This isnt the Armada forum, we dont care about gravwells. Stick to punisher discussion.

Except that really isn't the meaning of Interdictor. It's the Interdictor for those who play Battlegrounds or the FFG RPG.___________________________________________The more I look, the more I wonder what those missiles are...

If it cant stop a hyperdrive, its no interdictor, whatever some game called it.

You really don't know what interdictor means:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdictor

And for the record, the official terminology for an Interdictor cruiser or SD is Immobilizer.

You really don't know what interdictor means:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdictor

Nobody cares, because that's not what it means in Star Wars.

I don't know if you know this but...the Death Star is not actually a star! And the Millenium Falcon is not really a bird! And the TIE Phantom? Not actually an incorporeal spirit.

And the official terminology for the TIE Punisher is now the TIE Punisher. Not the TIE Interdictor.

And the Immobilizer 418 is the name of the class of ship. Interdictor is the type of ship it is. The Immobilizer 418 is not the only interdictor in the Star Wars universe.

Well we made it 11 pages before a pointless side argument broke out, and it took seemingly single minded determination to derail the thread before it happened, well done everyone.

I'd argue that the term interdictor better fits the Immobilizer cruiser in that it prohibits or otherwise intercepts and prevents movement (more or less meaning of the word). This said, the TIE Interdictor also fits the military parlance of the word. TIE Punisher, TIE Interdictor.... TIE Bomber/TIE Surface Assault.

Sometimes the names change or are colloqualized. Honestly, I'll still nickname it the TIE Egg Carton no matter what. Likewise I will never spell or pronounce Kircterahtttrzzzz correctly either. It's Kiki, the bigger one is ikki (not to be confused with iggy, IG88) and the bigger one is Rikki.

To me the TIE Punisher / Interdictor is a byproduct of a reskinned AOEII with the only redeeming feature that i can kill gungans in new and interesting ways, and the Interdictor Cruiser is an underutilized workhorse vessel of the Imperial Navy, which is far too often singled out for elimination by... anyone. Indeed if I ever command one, I'll be sure to paint a bullseye on it's hull.

Possibly in Neon lights.

the question that came to my mind is now how about the abbreviation? The TIE Interdictor had TIE/IT. What now about the Punisher? TIE/Pu? is there anything official?

I believe that Deathrain will still want to drop bombs forward and not bother to get away that much. Think about it. PS 6 pilot can move forward and drop a Proton Bomb on a Tie Swarm. Yes, you take the hit, but you just put a crit on a whole lot of enemy Tie Fighters. Or B-wings. Or...whatever. There will be times when sucking up the bomb hit will be worth it from moving and then dropping a bomb forward.

I also think Cluster Mines will be worth dropping forward after you move. You see Soontir or a Phantom ahead? Move forward and drop Cluster Mines. If you don't drop them directly on the target, you put it right in front of the enemy formation.....then barrel roll away. Most likely the enemy will then move after you and hit the mines. Boom! Cleared for next turn's movement.

Those that say the Tie Bomber are dead are sadly mistaken. The Scimitar is still the cheapest ordnance carrier around. Low PS isn't that terrible for getting TL and firing your shots. You just need to learn some cheap tricks and the "Rule of 11". I've done very well with my PS 2 Scimitar Bombers.

Thinking the Tie Advanced is not going to be played is foolish. It will still be a fantastic ship to fly.

To be honest, I'm more excited about the ordnance than the bombs. Yes, they are cool, but the ordnance is better in my humble opinion. A Scimitar with Homing Missile, Seismic Charge, and Extra Munitions clocks in at 25 pts. Forget Jonus and the need to modify the dice.

I believe that Deathrain will still want to drop bombs forward and not bother to get away that much. Think about it. PS 6 pilot can move forward and drop a Proton Bomb on a Tie Swarm. Yes, you take the hit, but you just put a crit on a whole lot of enemy Tie Fighters. Or B-wings. Or...whatever. There will be times when sucking up the bomb hit will be worth it from moving and then dropping a bomb forward.

I also think Cluster Mines will be worth dropping forward after you move. You see Soontir or a Phantom ahead? Move forward and drop Cluster Mines. If you don't drop them directly on the target, you put it right in front of the enemy formation.....then barrel roll away. Most likely the enemy will then move after you and hit the mines. Boom! Cleared for next turn's movement.

Those that say the Tie Bomber are dead are sadly mistaken. The Scimitar is still the cheapest ordnance carrier around. Low PS isn't that terrible for getting TL and firing your shots. You just need to learn some cheap tricks and the "Rule of 11". I've done very well with my PS 2 Scimitar Bombers.

Thinking the Tie Advanced is not going to be played is foolish. It will still be a fantastic ship to fly.

To be honest, I'm more excited about the ordnance than the bombs. Yes, they are cool, but the ordnance is better in my humble opinion. A Scimitar with Homing Missile, Seismic Charge, and Extra Munitions clocks in at 25 pts. Forget Jonus and the need to modify the dice.

what is it the "Rule of 11" ?

This guy pretty much explains the rule of 11

Deathrain seems like a very fun guy.

"Drop these Cluster Mines on your face with my Advanced Sensors, reveal my dial and drop this Seismic on your face as well. Barrel roll over this way and K-turn, while laughing madly. Nice swarm you had there."

Redline is also a blatant attempt to fix the "spend your targt lock to fire this" problem, and I for one approve.

Also looking forward to Defenders being more of a thing. Now that they have some actual options for clearing stress I think they'll be more useful.

You can't drop two bombs in one turn. It's in the FAQ

You really don't know what interdictor means:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdictor

Nobody cares, because that's not what it means in Star Wars.

I don't know if you know this but...the Death Star is not actually a star! And the Millenium Falcon is not really a bird! And the TIE Phantom? Not actually an incorporeal spirit.

And for the record, the official terminology for an Interdictor cruiser or SD is Immobilizer.

And the official terminology for the TIE Punisher is now the TIE Punisher. Not the TIE Interdictor.

And the Immobilizer 418 is the name of the class of ship. Interdictor is the type of ship it is. The Immobilizer 418 is not the only interdictor in the Star Wars universe.

I know, and I addressed that, both the cruiser and SD are called immobilizers. I don't understand why people are up in arms about its proper name when they don't even research it. The FFG RPG calls it a TIE Interdictor, and the FFG RPG is as valid as X-wing. It doesn't deserve a crap name like punisher. As long as there are more valid sources for the name Interdictor than punisher, I will continue to call it that.

The FFG RPG calls it a TIE Interdictor, and the FFG RPG is as valid as X-wing.

No it's not. New references overwrite old ones. And the X-Wing reference is newer.

You just said they were the same level of validity.

It is all made up. All space star wars/trek/whatever have people standing in space ships in outer space. Perhaps when they solved the whole travel-at-the-speed-of-light thing, they figured out how to make gravity in spaceships.

You see the trail the Defender is leaving behind in the picture? In that area in a triangle configuration is Three Ion projectors.

Wookieepedia says otherwise.

All that being said I wouldnt trust wookieepedia, they lie or mix information with other bits of info when they shouldnt.

Granted, but if my choices are between trusting Wookieepedia, and trusting some nobody on a message board, I know which one I'm going to pick.

So your going out of your way too use a inncorrect source?

It's a wikki your still trusting some nobody because anybody can edit it.

Yes, but at least the wiki is curated and cites sources.

They lie about their sources, I don't. They consider SW higher than human life, I don't. They approve cyber slander and harassment of members they look down on, the ex-members they moved too their Ex-Sisterwiki "Star Wars Battlefront wiki". They conveniently disowned them then claimed they broke copyrite because the articals were very simular, then took them too small claims. I am not petty like that.

I am only talking about their Admiral of course.

There is no point on fighting about the technical specs of a Star Wars ship. All of that is made up and change on the fly depending on the hired author that writes whatever book it features at.

At this point, we don't even know what the black panels in the TIE ships are for!

Solar panels? Absurd, when they have a mini fusion reactor that would have an higher output by so many orders of magnitude that it becomes laughable. And that would mean that TIEs would stop performing when they fight in deep space, dust clouds, or shadowed by bigger ships or at night time on a planet.

Radiators? Perhaps. It's the explanation that convinces me most, but at the same time, the one that is less widespread accepted.

Repulsorlift maneuver thrusters? That would explain why most TIEs are more maneuverable than other ships, but still, this is an even less popular explanation.

Lucas liked the models his creative team made for the movie. He called them "tie fighters" because they resemble bowties. And the black panels looked like solar panels, that were all futuristic and high tech back in the 70's, so they called them so in the first "technical documents", even if technologically it makes no sense at all.

Moreover, Star Wars ships shouldn't even need those rocket-looking, nozzles in the rear. The ships can move up, down, left and right with repulsor sci-fi tech. The Death Star, the Federation Cores, and many other ships don't have any nozzles, and they move however they please. Maybe they are just exhaust ports to cool down the internal reactor or whatever other made up nerdy explanation we decide to like today.

Seriously, there is no point on fighting over this.

They make it clear in the source books what all the componets are in the craft. The pannels on all TIEs from ep 2 onward past Dark Empire up too before White pannel craft are built are useing solar pannels. It even says this in the newest source books. What they dont explane well enough on wookieepedia is that the energy gathered by the pannels isnt used too power the craft. The solar pannels can be thought of as "Spark Plugs." The celestial energy is used to fire emitions in a ionization reactor filled with charged radioactive gas under high pressure.

The only thing not powered by this reactor on the Newer TIEs are the LASER, Blaster, and Ion weapon or whatever other energy weapons are mounted to it. They have their own seperate generators. If TIEs had too fight in Dark areas it can be reasoned that the craft can draw power from these generators OR the Empire can just use Star-Wings, Cruise Missile troopers, or any other non-TIE craft.

The black panels changed to white in Ep VII, so I doubt they're solar panels in canon as white is a pretty much the worst coloring for absorbing light.

The White panneled ones might not be solar pannels BUT that doesnt make the black ones not solar pannels ether.

I really like the model and the concept of the ship, but with the advance fix I'm having trouble figuring out how it fits in an imperial list.

As an ordinance delivery platform I think the bomber is better, you can get some solid and versitile loadouts for a little more than a naked punisher.

As a midrange front line fighter I think the tie advance comes out way ahead, especially with some of the new named pilots. I'd love for somone to show me a more compelling use of 30 points than Vader or soontir using the punisher.

At the high 30 mark/centerpiece price range, I cannot imagine leaving the phantom in the garage for anything else in the imperial navy. The buffed defenders are solid too in my opinion and that's a tough spot to be.

Luckily this community is filled with creative people who will probably open my eyes soon. Either way the pack is definitely filled with upgrades that an imperial player will want.

TIE bombers have four such exhausts. Doesn't necessarily mean they have four engines.

And that's assuming twin ion engines means two ion engines. It could mean an engine based on twin ions. It's also possible that each of those dots is a twin ion engine.

In the tech books and Stele chronicles the call them "Twin Ion Engines." So at the least there two engines, which is the red glowing spot on TIEs, or green on some TIE Interceptors. There only one tech source that says the TIE Defender has Twin Ion Engines. Thats the Stele chronicals. I am pretty sure it is a mistake since it clearly shows in TIE Fighter and Star Wars Battlefront 3 and 4 that it has three engines. The TIE Fighter, Interceptor, Avenger, Defender, Bombers are all using the SFS P-s series Ion engines. The SFS P-sz9.7 ion engines used by Defenders are just about the same in design as the earlier TIE models. Its 40 % faster than TIE Fighters in atmo with shields off.

Since we know the ion engines glow red or green when active, and the Defenders Ion engines are barely diffrent than the models used on past TIEs. Its pretty safe too assume that the three red spots on the Defender are three SFS P-sz9.7 ion engines.

As for the TIE Bombers they are listed in the Stele chronicals as using the same Ion engines as TIE Fighters "SFS P-s4 Ion Engines."

Kerrie Dougherty and Curtis Saxton are amazing writers for SW tech books like crossections, one being a theoretical astrophysisthe other a Curator of Space Technology in Sydney Australia. We are look they were hired too write these books.

Does red paint from a blood stripe (that is the red line or chevron painted on a TIE) stop a solar panel working? No.

Does the Imperial cog painted on a solar panel prevent it from working (the attack squadrons trailer has TIE's with the logo on) nope.

Does Sabines painted TIE fighter have any less efficiency? Doesn't appear so.

Grey/Black is one of the Impies favourite colour schemes, they just liked their panels black is all.

Guess the First order liked theirs white. Also they discharged the Stormtrooper Corp and replaced them with iTroopers.

Hehe, I guess it's why their elites are chrome-troopers.

The IE troopers were too slow on the draw, and their Firefox troopers used too many resources.

The reason the iTroopers can never find the Rebels is because they are using Apple maps.

I have to question if they are really painted and if they are is the paint really the color we are seeing and not really some transparent pant that when naturally viewed looks like the color we see.

They make it clear in the source books what all the componets are in the craft. The pannels on all TIEs from ep 2 onward past Dark Empire up too before White pannel craft are built are useing solar pannels. It even says this in the newest source books. What they dont explane well enough on wookieepedia is that the energy gathered by the pannels isnt used too power the craft. The solar pannels can be thought of as "Spark Plugs." The celestial energy is used to fire emitions in a ionization reactor filled with charged radioactive gas under high pressure.

[...]

The White panneled ones might not be solar pannels BUT that doesnt make the black ones not solar pannels ether.

Look, I used to be an Star Wars technical enthusiast like you before. Then I took an arrow on my knee.

And that arrow was when they started retconning, rewriting, respec'ing everything.

At the beginning, the filming diaries with their technical comments were the Truth. But they were made by special effect artists, model-makers, concept artists and, in general, film-makers with almost no knowledge on how physics or engineering work.

Then the West End Games sourcebooks made a huge cleanup of all of that and supposed a blank slate, while trying to adapt "official" numbers and terms to a more coherent universe.

Then the EU books and licensed exploded and they all started to contradict each other. We had different artists making up different new ships, vehicles and races, only the looks of them.

When you make a ship in real life, or whatever, you don't have a bunch of artists designing the looks of it first, then you pass the design to your engineers to fill it up with engines and gadgets. It's actually the other way. The nature and purpose of something is what gives that thing its looks.

It's not like that in Star Wars. TIEs don't have black panels because they are good for their purpose ("spark plugs"? Why my car doesn't need huge black panels to start it's gasoline engine then? Why the Defender needs 3 while the Avenger needs only 2? Why the Imperial Raider has black panels in a ship that size? They don't have room for spark plugs inside?)

They have black panels because an artist thought it looked cool, and someone else approved it.

The drawn design approved by Lucas, or Lucas Licesing comitee, were passed on to the writers to keep extending the EU with more characters, stories, planets, races, and stuff. If some ship became popular, then it would be the job of some techno-babble geek in Lucas Licensing to fill up a "technical card" with a lot of fine grained made up details. The more details you put on something, the more it looks like it's real. So they started to even naming every laser cannon, with their manufacturers, and their models and submodels. Oh, this has a Taim and Baik laser cannon. Not to mistake with a blaster cannon, or an autoblaster, or a turbolaser. (No one told them that lasers don't actually behave like that? What is the standing today on Star Wars lasers? I read some "laser guided energy pulsation" nonsense lately.)

So that is why all of that means absolutely nothing!

That technojargon guy at Lucas Licensing probably looked at other similar ships, by role, and came up with some similar stats or numbers for it. A little bit more of SDB, a little bit less of RU, less DPS, more atmospheric speed... With some cool twist, maybe. "The B-Wing cockpit can rotate to keep the pilot horizontal..." Horizontal in space? There is no horizon! It makes no sense!

We have to realize that the seed of all this discord is that Star Wars isn't sci-fi, and has zero real respect for technical coherence. Even Ghostbusters or Back to the Future have more sci-fi elements than Star Wars. It's space fantasy. The TIEs have fantasy engines and fantasy fuselage that makes them move like that, with fantasy weapons that shoot like that.

As soon as we try to bind those ships to technical sci-fi specs, everything falls apart.

Kerrie Dougherty and Curtis Saxton are amazing writers for SW tech books like crossections, one being a theoretical astrophysisthe other a Curator of Space Technology in Sydney Australia. We are look they were hired too write these books.

Androids are another good example on incoherence.

During the West End Games era of "canon", androids were unable to use weapons or harm living beings, because all androids in the galaxy were programmed against it. I even remember them using some of Asimov laws in a clear homage. Even IG-88 captured his preys alive and used ion cannons. Then soon after, all of that starts contradicting itself with C-3PX, the IG-88 stories, and even worst, the Prequel Trilogy with whole armies full with killer droids.

I stopped caring about all these simulacra of technological foundation when they showed again and again that they don't have any respect for their own works.