I agree that the "problem" with the Defender is not the fire power or the dial. Honestly in most cases stress is not something I worry about when I fly mine. The oppertunity for a tactical green bank always seems to present itself with proper piloting.

The problem is twofold:

One is the over all defense. In truth the evade action is not something I would use often if i had it. Focus is the way to go. If the dice hate you then the dice hate you. The shields and the hull are what they are to tank that.

So in light of that how about:

Modification: Secondary shield Generator

TIE Defender Only

Add two more shield tokens to the ships pool.

Cost: 4

This is not unheard of in the Star Wars universe. This type of defense was made famous by the Mon Calimari.
Game wise this keeps it from being super powerful in the firepower area but gives it a tough enough skin to actually seem like a super advanced superiority fighter.

The second problem is the perception people have of the Defender.
The ship it self has so many potential upgrades and synergies that it's almost always worth the cost. In a two ship build you get a lot of HP, anywhere from good to staggering fire power, and missles to boot just in case. Take the 'Spray, loose the agility in both dice and movement.

In the lore, even Rogue Squadron found them to be formidable fighters but not without their flaws. I think with a little bit more skin they would be just fine.

Old defender needed: Evade action, Boost action, better greens, another shield. More firepower. Better abilities.

Now we get better greens. But missing everything else still.

Blail....what you are describing is a Star Destroyer

Old defender needed:..

...oh, here we go...

Evade action

Nope

Boost action

It's not a TIE Interceptor

better greens

I'll give you that one

another shield

Nope

More firepower

You're kidding, right?

Better abilities.

LOL

The ONLY things the TIE Defender needed were a couple of green banks to help shed stress without being predictable (now it's got nine of them) and a possibly an EPT slot for Onyx Squadron pilots.

Honestly, gunner1764's suggestion seems the best; some native way for Defenders to double down on Focus tokens would be nice (although it would probably instantly propel Rexler to God-tier)

Blail....what you are describing is a Star Destroyer

No. He's describing the original TIE Defender from Star Wars: TIE Fighter. Which was more agile and maneuverable than the Interceptor, and had twice the shields that the later versions of the Defender had.

Also, pretty sure a Star Destroyer wouldn't have Boost or Evade.

Edited for niceness:

According to Wookiepedia: The Defender is faster than an Awing, has shields almost as stong as a capital ship and enough fire power to take on up to four of any other fighter craft in the galaxy, and is more manuverable than any other ship as well.

Oh and it has a hyperdrive.

So In short we would need a disney song to describe how awesome this ship was supposed to be.

Fly the TIE

Must be swift as a boosting A wing

Fly the TIE

With the force of a Staarr Destoryer

Fly the TIE

All the strength of the whole Empire

Cost as much as the right side of NABOOOOO

But it didnt happen.

Can you imagine a small based ship with 3366? Because that's the tie fighter version, it'll have all green moves to boot and come with a seven forward only it can use.

Can you imagine a small based ship with 3366? Because that's the tie fighter version, it'll have all green moves to boot and come with a seven forward only it can use.

Not that I would want to see that happen...

But lets face it....if any ship got that kind of treatment it SHOULD be the defender.

Edited for niceness:

According to Wookiepedia: The Defender is faster than an Awing, has shields almost as stong as a capital ship and enough fire power to take on up to four of any other fighter craft in the galaxy, and is more manuverable than any other ship as well.

Oh and it has a hyperdrive.

So In short we would need a disney song to describe how awesome this ship was supposed to be.

Fly the TIE

Must be swift as a boosting A wing

Fly the TIE

With the force of a Staarr Destoryer

Fly the TIE

All the strength of the whole Empire

Cost as much as the right side of NABOOOOO

But it didnt happen.

Lol.

Mulan goes to tie school

On a serious note, I always found it ironic that the defender have bugger all defensive abilities besides focus.

Can you imagine a small based ship with 3366? Because that's the tie fighter version, it'll have all green moves to boot and come with a seven forward only it can use.

It was badass, but it wasn't THAT badass. These are the stats taken from the game files:

Name			Shields	Hull	Length	Speed	LIMGTW	Special
A-wing			50	16	10	120	2 2
Assault Gunboat		100	30	15	90	222
B-wing			100	62	15	90	332
Combat Utility Vehicle		7	15	35	22	repair/rearm
Missile Boat		120	20	15	125	1 4
R-41 Starchaser		30	15	15	100	22
T-wing			20	15	10	110	2
Tie Advanced		50	15	10	145	4 2
Tie Bomber			30	10	80	2 2
Tie Defender		100	15	10	155	422
Tie Fighter			10	10	100	2
Tie Interceptor			17	10	110	4
Transport		80	40	20	55	22	repair/rearm
Tug				5	5	10		repair/rearm
Tyderian Shuttle	100	25	20	65	4
X-wing			50	21	15	100	4 2
Y-wing			75	42	20	80	222
Z-95 Headhunter		20	15	15	95	2 2

If we do parallelisms with how those stats have been adapted/translated to the miniature game by comparing them with some other ships', we get that the TIE Defender:

• Should have as many shields as a B-Wing or a Shuttle. That is 5 shield tokens.
• Should have as much hull rating as a TIE Advanced, Z-95, or X-Wing. We could go with 2 or 3 hull rating.
• It was the fastest fighter, not accounting for the Missile Boat's SLAM. So if we translate that to a mix between dial, agility and boost action, I think 3 agility is okay, but the dial needed more greens, if we aren't going to put boost on it.
• The action bar is tricky because it cannot be inferred directly from numbers. If we want the Interceptors to stay relevant, we cannot put boost onto everything. However, at least an Evade action should have been added.
• The attack rating seems to actually follow approximately a rounded base 2 logarithm function on the amount of cannons for most ships in this game. Attack Rating = Round(1.25+log₂(Amount of cannons)). So having 4 laser cannons, it deserves Attack 3.

So total: Attack 3, Agility 3, Hull 2/3, Shields 5, Actions. Focus, Target Lock, Evade, Barrel Roll. Dial: One that represents the fastest starfighter.

Can you imagine a small based ship with 3366? Because that's the tie fighter version, it'll have all green moves to boot and come with a seven forward only it can use.

It was badass, but it wasn't THAT badass. These are the stats taken from the game files:

Name			Shields	Hull	Length	Speed	LIMGTW	Special
A-wing			50	16	10	120	2 2
Assault Gunboat		100	30	15	90	222
B-wing			100	62	15	90	332
Combat Utility Vehicle		7	15	35	22	repair/rearm
Missile Boat		120	20	15	125	1 4
R-41 Starchaser		30	15	15	100	22
T-wing			20	15	10	110	2
Tie Advanced		50	15	10	145	4 2
Tie Bomber			30	10	80	2 2
Tie Defender		100	15	10	155	422
Tie Fighter			10	10	100	2
Tie Interceptor			17	10	110	4
Transport		80	40	20	55	22	repair/rearm
Tug				5	5	10		repair/rearm
Tyderian Shuttle	100	25	20	65	4
X-wing			50	21	15	100	4 2
Y-wing			75	42	20	80	222
Z-95 Headhunter		20	15	15	95	2 2

If we do parallelisms with how those stats have been adapted/translated to the miniature game by comparing them with some other ships', we get that the TIE Defender:

• Should have as many shields as a B-Wing or a Shuttle. That is 5 shield tokens.
• Should have as much hull rating as a TIE Advanced, Z-95, or X-Wing. We could go with 2 or 3 hull rating.
• It was the fastest fighter, not accounting for the Missile Boat's SLAM. So if we translate that to a mix between dial, agility and boost action, I think 3 agility is okay, but the dial needed more greens, if we aren't going to put boost on it.
• The action bar is tricky because it cannot be inferred directly from numbers. If we want the Interceptors to stay relevant, we cannot put boost onto everything. However, at least an Evade action should have been added.
• The attack rating seems to actually follow approximately a rounded base 2 logarithm function on the amount of cannons for most ships in this game. Attack Rating = Round(1.25+log₂(Amount of cannons)). So having 4 laser cannons, it deserves Attack 3.

So total: Attack 3, Agility 3, Hull 2/3, Shields 5, Actions. Focus, Target Lock, Evade, Barrel Roll. Dial: One that represents the fastest starfighter.

Your little list can't be right.

Just look at the speed values of the A-Wing and the Tie Advanced.

Another way of looking at it, might be that the B-wing and the Shuttle are slightly over-shielded, and that other ships like the TIE Advanced, X-wing and Y-wing are better as a guideline (so, TIE Advanced and X-wing have 2 shields, Y-wing has 3, Defender ought to have 4.

You can get to 4 shields via the Shield upgrade, at least.

Your little list can't be right.

Just look at the speed values of the A-Wing and the Tie Advanced.

It's taken from the in-game stats. What is wrong with those speeds?

This is from elsewhere. They seem to match:

SHIP | LENGTH | SPEED | CANNON | LAUNCHER | SHIELDS | HULL | JOB
================================================================
T/F     10      100     2LASER   NOT USU.     -       15RU.
T/I     10      111     4L       NOT USU.     -       20
T/B     10      80      2L       2 VARIOUS    -       50
T/A     10      145     4L       2 VAR.     100SBD    20
GUN     15      90      2L,2ION  2 VAR.     100       50

***2.1 Hostile/Neutral Starfighters:****************

Y-W     20      80      2L, 2I   2 PROTON   75        40
X-W     15      100     4L       2P         50        20
A-W     10      120     2L       2CONCUSS'N 50        15
B-W     15      90      3L, 3I   2P         125       60
Z-95    15      85      2L       2C         20        15

The tie advanced in that game is commonly referred to as the tie avenger now. And the speeds are correct.

And....back to topic. : )

Oh well, yes its the Avenger ... so nevermind.

But according to this list, the Defender is so fast that it would need like a speed 8 straight template. And of course 4 shields.

So In short we would need a disney song to describe how awesome this ship was supposed to be.

Well, that's about how flying it felt in TIE fighter.

I think the fact that an "accurate" original TIE Defender would have to cost over 50 points means you don't really have to worry about TIE Interceptors and their role as it relates to the game.

Increase your Agility value by 1 and your shield value by 2.

Combine that with the Twin Ion Engine Mk.II and only then would you truly recreate the glory of the original TIE Defender.

Though I'm sure the cost of such a card would make an already overpriced ship even moreso.

Or SLAM.

Or SLAM.

Eh. SLAM is a very specific piece of tech though. The Missile Boat had it, but the Defender didn't. The Defender didn't required draining it's weaponry to reach the speeds it could.

Giving the ship Boost will give it access to a green straight 6, and that's as close as you'd be able to get with this game's mechanics.

Though I'm sure the cost of such a card would make an already overpriced ship even moreso.

But overpriced compared to what? The price tag of ships and upgrades in this game is there to attempt balance.

It's obvious that the original TIE Defender from the PC game was a monster. As strong as a B-Wing, faster and nimbler than an A-Wing, hitting as much as an X-Wing, with ion cannons like a B-Wing... That was the whole point of the storyline in the game: An arms race leads to the creation of such a weapon to defend the Empire from it's enemies. Enters the twist: What have we done!? Such a powerful weapon could (and indeed does) fall in the hands of the enemies of the Empire! What will save us now?

The role of such a craft in this game should mimic the role it had in the videogame. The player, on a T/D, had to fight thru waves and waves of enemies and survive. In this game, this should lead to a new kind of squadron profile: single ship squadron, with the T/D and all its upgrades perfectly being able to amount up to 100 points if fully pimped.

Giving the ship Boost will give it access to a green straight 6, and that's as close as you'd be able to get with this game's mechanics.

I dunno man. Yeah, that version of the ship is powerful, but 100 points?

Boost, Evade, +1 Agi, +2 Shields is a lot of stuff, but it ain't 60 points worth of stuff.

Basically, it would be like a straight 7, right?

No? It's a straight 6.

I was already including the +1 from the Boost into the green straight 5 it already has.

No? It's a straight 6.

I was already including the +1 from the Boost into the green straight 5 it already has.

...but not the size of the model's base, clearly.

...but not the size of the model's base, clearly.

Ohhh, right...

Then yes, it would be like a straight 7.

The role of such a craft in this game should mimic the role it had in the videogame. The player, on a T/D, had to fight thru waves and waves of enemies and survive. In this game, this should lead to a new kind of squadron profile: single ship squadron, with the T/D and all its upgrades perfectly being able to amount up to 100 points if fully pimped.

I dunno man. Yeah, that version of the ship is powerful, but 100 points?

Boost, Evade, +1 Agi, +2 Shields is a lot of stuff, but it ain't 60 points worth of stuff.

It was basically brainstorming. But try to imagine a silly title like this, I don't know how broken that would be:

•"Defender of the Empire"

Unique, Title, TIE Defender only

You can equip more than one Modification upgrade card, even if they are of the same kind.

You no longer have the restriction of not being able to perform the same action more than once per round.

You may perform an attack at the beginning of the End phase.

Your squadron is limited to only this ship.

Cost: 10

Example squadron:

TIE Defender

Rexler Brath (37)

"Defender of the Empire" (10)

Homing Missiles (5)

Munitions Failsafe (1)

Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Push the Limit (3)

Twin Ion Engine Mark II (1)

Hull Upgrade (3)

Hull Upgrade (3)

Hull Upgrade (3)

Shield Upgrade (4)

Shield Upgrade (4)

Shield Upgrade (4)

Engine Upgrade (4)

Stealth Device (3)

Stealth Device (3)

Stealth Device (3)

Total: 100

Not broken. Not at all!