So I picked up a second Defender the other day for some of that sweet sweet Predator love, and it occurred to me that I've never actually played with them! I was trying to concoct some list ideas and I have heard dual defenders lists can do wonders if well piloted, but I've never been one to bank too much on one ship, so heres the list I have cooked up for now, let me know what you guys think, and I will report back once I give them the once over on the tabletop.

Delta Squadron Pilot + Ion Pulse Missile

Delta Squadron Pilot + Ion Pulse Missile

Colonel Jendon + Fire Control System, weapons engineer, and rebel captive

100 points

The idea is to have jendon handing out target locks all day with his ability and weapons engineer, then getting some more for shooting later, making it easy to get those ion pulse missile off. Priority targets will be those stressed from the Captive, and of course big or extra maneuverable ships. I figured with this I can take advantage of the defenders awesome stats and dial, while I get to have a nice big fire magnet that should be able to take some hits while still dishing out some pain.

Curious, why not Ion Cannons instead of Missiles? You get to shoot them multiple turns, don't require a target lock and can shoot at any range.

Could even drop the Weapons Engineer from the shuttle for a 3rd Ion Cannon. You'd be able to lock down even large-base ships with that much fire.

Keep in mind that Jendon will want to keep those Defenders on a leash and that might not turn out to be the best tactic.

Ion pulse missile has an advantage against a large ship, but since you can easily take two ion cannons, that is less of an advantage (assuming you want to be shooting both ships at the big ship anyway). I could see taking the missile if you were also going with heavy laser cannon (although that gets expensive)

How about this:

2 Deltas w/ ion cannon = 33 x 2

Yorr w/ advanced sensors, fleet officer and rebel captive = 33

99

For the last point, you could take a tactical jammer, although it isn't likely to come into play since the defenders will probably end up ahead of the shuttle anyway. Fleet officer will start being very helpful once you've k-turned behind an ionized target and both of your defenders can get TL + Focus shots into its behind...

Ion pulse missile has an advantage against a large ship, but since you can easily take two ion cannons, that is less of an advantage (assuming you want to be shooting both ships at the big ship anyway). I could see taking the missile if you were also going with heavy laser cannon (although that gets expensive)

How about this:

2 Deltas w/ ion cannon = 33 x 2

Yorr w/ advanced sensors, fleet officer and rebel captive = 33

99

For the last point, you could take a tactical jammer, although it isn't likely to come into play since the defenders will probably end up ahead of the shuttle anyway. Fleet officer will start being very helpful once you've k-turned behind an ionized target and both of your defenders can get TL + Focus shots into its behind...

I like this list a lot, esp since most of the time the shuttle will be taking 1 moves anyways, so stress wont be a huge factor! As for the Ion Pulse missiles, I completely forgot that the Ion cannons were so cheap in the first place, plus I'm always trying to make missiles and torpedoes feel "useful" and like many out there I completely forget that fleet officer is a thing. The only thing I would consider trying differently would be to do a fire control system on the shuttle instead and then buy 2 of those new Ion Engine Mk II.

A bit of a different take on it, with both ion and stress available (but only 1 round of double ion tokens).

Juno Eclipse

w/ Expert Handling, Ion Pulse Missiles, TIE mk2 Engines, tie-x1, Accuracy Corrector

34pts

2x Delta Squadron

w/ Flechette Cannon, TIE mk2

2x 33pts = 66pts

100pt build.

It's more-or-less like what you already had, but with an accurate A-wing in tow instead of a shuttle. Juno's missiles can ion out any big targets for a turn while the Ds keep up stress on them, or just blow them apart with lasers. Juno is your arc dodger, but all your ship's dials are pretty good.

You could sub out Expert Handling on Juno for something else, but a free barrel roll can be pretty handy to get the missiles in arc against anything. Stay on Target makes him into a dial freak, but any other movement boosters are fine too.

I'm not really sure it has enough firepower to conclusively win matches, but your agility, dials and stress tapping does count for a lot. You can blow off stress on your end easily, and can confront arc dodgers (while having your own), so at least that's a bit of meta taken care of.

Mk2s could be good on those Deltas. With Fleet Officer handing out Focus, the can make the short turns and still get boosted attacks. Clearing the subsequent stress is nice.

Alternatively, you could go the other way around, giving you stress and ion opportunities all game.

2x Delta Squadron

w/ Ion Cannon

2x 33pts = 66pts

Sigma Squadron (Phantom)

w/ FCS, Advanced Cloak, Mara Jade

34pts

Mara just flies in close being evil and stressing people out, while your Ds ionize everything. When you can manage to take the shots you want, you should have a decent set of TLs and dice to roll with them.... Hopefully. Who needs an arc dodger when the enemy's arcs and movement are so ion/stress limited in the first place? It's a gimmicky build, but Phantoms are evil anyway, so make them even eviller

Ion pulse missile has an advantage against a large ship, but since you can easily take two ion cannons, that is less of an advantage (assuming you want to be shooting both ships at the big ship anyway). I could see taking the missile if you were also going with heavy laser cannon (although that gets expensive)

How about this:

2 Deltas w/ ion cannon = 33 x 2

Yorr w/ advanced sensors, fleet officer and rebel captive = 33

99

For the last point, you could take a tactical jammer, although it isn't likely to come into play since the defenders will probably end up ahead of the shuttle anyway. Fleet officer will start being very helpful once you've k-turned behind an ionized target and both of your defenders can get TL + Focus shots into its behind...

I like this list a lot, esp since most of the time the shuttle will be taking 1 moves anyways, so stress wont be a huge factor! As for the Ion Pulse missiles, I completely forgot that the Ion cannons were so cheap in the first place, plus I'm always trying to make missiles and torpedoes feel "useful" and like many out there I completely forget that fleet officer is a thing. The only thing I would consider trying differently would be to do a fire control system on the shuttle instead and then buy 2 of those new Ion Engine Mk II.

If you run Yorr, you don't need the Mk2 TIE upgrade. Yorr can take the stress for your defenders.

As long as Yorr doesn't currently have stress, he can use advanced sensors to activate Fleet Officer, and then reveal a green move and clear the stress. However, since he might accumulate stress later, there is an argument that FCS will be more useful. Personally, I prefer advanced sensors given the fact that a shuttle without engine upgrade simply does not get to shoot all that often (and its being able to shoot at the same target twice that makes FCS worthwhile).

Onyx Squadron Pilot w/Ion Cannon + TIE Mk. II Engine x2

Maarek Stele w/Tie 1/x + Advanced Targeting Computer

I tried out the Yorr list and well....it went badly. Not the lists fault, but more along the line of several rolls where I would have 5 defense dice (defender +range+obstacle) and get 5 blanks. Otherwise I liked how it played and I need to be more effective with my Ion cannons when combined with the captive

Double Delta and Ace is suprisingly effective. PS1 blockers with something else to draw fire, and when the ace dies you still have two tie defenders left.

I agree that 2 Onyxes or Deltas combined with an ace is the way to go, but I've had fun with the following:

Delta (Ion Cannon)

Delta (Flechette Cannon)

Delta (Mangler Cannon)

99 points

It's mostly about positioning/blocking, but it can be quite effective. The cannons are used only when the opportunity presents itself (to both ionize and stress a ship, or when the opponent's shields are gone for the Mangler of course). Good blocking can help setup strong range 1 attacks (4 dice) for the other Deltas too. I've destroyed a Han + Leebo build with this list, not losing any Defender. I mostly use Focus as their action, or Barrel Roll sometimes.

I tried out the Yorr list and well....it went badly. Not the lists fault, but more along the line of several rolls where I would have 5 defense dice (defender +range+obstacle) and get 5 blanks. Otherwise I liked how it played and I need to be more effective with my Ion cannons when combined with the captive

Both the shuttle and the defender are surprisingly hard to use, so get used to losing

A lot of people have given up on the defender in frustration, so don't feel bad if you are finding it difficult (I've been there!).

It takes a lot of practice to figure out a list like the one you are trying to use. For example, asteroid placement is critical. Ideally, you want the asteroids spaced out so they don't muck up your shuttle and block your defender's k-turns. You still want some asteroids centrally placed, but with nice gaps for the shuttle to sit inside, blocking enemy approaches so they crash into the shuttle (then red zero move to keep them locked there an extra turn and allow your defenders an easy time to get behind them).

I tend to deploy my shuttles centrally so I can react to enemy deployment. I nice opening move is red zero with the shuttle and k-turn with the defenders. Next turn, k-turn with the defenders again so they are right back intheir starting spots and do a 1 move (straight or bank with shuttle). That's 2 turns of enemy movement without much movement on your side so you can see which direction your opponent is commiting to. Then bring your shuttle straight at the enemy (ideally through asteroid gaps) while your defenders approach in open space (they want to engage away from the asteroids). Exception: against swarms, you want to keep the defenders close to the asteroids (but not too close---you want the swarm to move into the asteroids first so your defenders don't get stuck in range 1 of multiple guns taking heavy fire).

Double Delta and Ace is suprisingly effective. PS1 blockers with something else to draw fire, and when the ace dies you still have two tie defenders left.

This is true, I've run double deltas with Ion Cannon alongside Soontir and had great success against all manners of list