Now, if only we knew the cost of the Glaives...

34 minimum. No 3x x/7s with Juke for you!

Defenders didn't care much about stress before, but now they really don't care. Iike giving-stress-the-middle-finger don't care.

These are the Defenders of the Empire we were looking for.

Defenders only greens are straight, and can't turn, and still get denied actions. They hate stress as much as anyone.

Built properly, they are pretty action independent. The titles add to this.

An action independent defender that isn't Vesserly looks like..?

Put Predator and X7 on a Defender... it is now pretty close to being action independent.

I like HLC on the unique. Rexlar for all the crits. And Vessery is just nasty with the free TL and a Focus.

I would rather spend 4 fewer points, probably do the same amount of damage, probably more, and know where my target is going to be next round.

Pretty much this. Rex + Predator + Ion Cannon + /D title is 43 points before defensive upgrades. If a control shot starts hitting, he can rush into range 1 and get a 4 dice primary + the control shot. Brutal against low AGI stuff, token sapping against high AGI stuff that can't afford the ion token. The IC can also just be good for dropping a shield to make it easier to activate Rex's ability. He's going to be mean with this setup.

You do have to be a little careful, as anything you Ion has to go slower than you're capable of.

Wait, didn't the defender randomly come with an evade token no-one could figure out?

NOOE!

That's why they gave us royal guards too

I wouldn't be surprised to NEVER see delta/onyx/Rex again

Vess is amazing, esp with tie/D

Tie/x7 + juke on the rgp defenders

Other defender characters I need to see

I dunno, /D with Ion cannons, get on their tail and never leave?

Yes that's vessery

TL both attacks!

And that could also be 3 Deltas... So sexy....

I like HLC on the unique. Rexlar for all the crits. And Vessery is just nasty with the free TL and a Focus.

I would rather spend 4 fewer points, probably do the same amount of damage, probably more, and know where my target is going to be next round.

Pretty much this. Rex + Predator + Ion Cannon + /D title is 43 points before defensive upgrades. If a control shot starts hitting, he can rush into range 1 and get a 4 dice primary + the control shot. Brutal against low AGI stuff, token sapping against high AGI stuff that can't afford the ion token. The IC can also just be good for dropping a shield to make it easier to activate Rex's ability. He's going to be mean with this setup.

You do have to be a little careful, as anything you Ion has to go slower than you're capable of.

True, but if you can engineer it to be hitting them in the side, you can just abuse the 4-K turn to keep them in arc.

PTL rex has been my go to for a while letting him shed two points and gain an evade from shooting around is great.

Vessery with tie/d gets to do a potential four damage as if armed with a HLC and ions things so who can complain about that.

And finally maarek finally in a defender give him calculation for his ability and watch him bring the pain.

And that's just the stuff we are sure of, Xmas came early.

I'll wait for the new pilots before I ss judgement, but these abilities do nothing for a predictable dial and not enough for the cost. 28 for a base model is still too much, and they still need the twin-ion to have any hope of clearing stress.

Being able to follow up a Flechette or Ion shot with a primary attack should be a significant increase in a Defender's damage output.

Wait, didn't the defender randomly come with an evade token no-one could figure out?

According to this picture... yes:

But not according to the Wikki. Must have been an error when the picture was taken.

http://xwing-miniatures.wikia.com/wiki/TIE_Defender_Expansion_Pack

I'll wait for the new pilots before I ss judgement, but these abilities do nothing for a predictable dial and not enough for the cost. 28 for a base model is still too much, and they still need the twin-ion to have any hope of clearing stress.

Being able to follow up a Flechette or Ion shot with a primary attack should be a significant increase in a Defender's damage output.

Vessery gets to use his ability on both shots savour that for a moment.

I'll wait for the new pilots before I ss judgement, but these abilities do nothing for a predictable dial and not enough for the cost. 28 for a base model is still too much, and they still need the twin-ion to have any hope of clearing stress.

Being able to follow up a Flechette or Ion shot with a primary attack should be a significant increase in a Defender's damage output.

I really can't think of an argument for using the Flechette over the Ion or the Tractor Beam. The Flechette only adds stress if the ship is not already (flawed design IMHO) while the Ion does 1 damage and forces small base ships to move 1 forward. The Tractor Beam will give the Defender extra punch, so long as it can land that first cannon shot.

Flechette stresses aggressors in one go; no red maneuvers

Vessery gets to use his ability on both shots savour that for a moment.

Kind of makes me wonder if Vessery wants the D or the x7. The former is brutal since he gets Redline levels or re-rolling, but zipping around at speed 3+, with essentially stressless triple actions seems pretty powerful. Hell, even if blocked he still gets both evade and target lock. Just add Juke, Veteran Instincts or Crack Shot.

It's almost like FFG is trying to sell us something....

I fixed that for you.

Not that I'm complaining, because I am definitly buying minimum of 2

Being able to stress and ion the same target while still getting your primary attacks is big it lets you deprive your target of actions and limits movement for two turns while taking a potential four damage from each ship.

I like HLC on the unique. Rexlar for all the crits. And Vessery is just nasty with the free TL and a Focus.

I would rather spend 4 fewer points, probably do the same amount of damage, probably more, and know where my target is going to be next round.

Pretty much this. Rex + Predator + Ion Cannon + /D title is 43 points before defensive upgrades. If a control shot starts hitting, he can rush into range 1 and get a 4 dice primary + the control shot. Brutal against low AGI stuff, token sapping against high AGI stuff that can't afford the ion token. The IC can also just be good for dropping a shield to make it easier to activate Rex's ability. He's going to be mean with this setup.

I'll probably prefer Vessery with VI, /D title and Ion or Tractor Beam, and Rexlar with PTL, HLC and MkII engines. Let Vessery do the hard work of stripping shields and controlling the target, which then sets them up so Rexlar can drop the hammer.

Ion on Vessery comes with a cost, though: he's going to have a harder time hitting high-agility targets, especially at range 3. A focused, TLed HLC shot was averaging somewhere around 3.5 hits per attack. A focused attack with TL on both will only average 2.625 hits with the focus/TL combo, and 2.25 hits with just the TL.

It's almost like FFG is trying to sell us something....

I fixed that for you.

Not that I'm complaining, because I am definitly buying minimum of 2

No way around that, seeing as I have two of each already. But how am I going to fit in four Defenders?

Ion on Vessery comes with a cost, though: he's going to have a harder time hitting high-agility targets, especially at range 3. A focused, TLed HLC shot was averaging somewhere around 3.5 hits per attack. A focused attack with TL on both will only average 2.625 hits with the focus/TL combo, and 2.25 hits with just the TL.

True, but that pre-primary shot will either remove a token or two, or leave the target at -1 agility. I haven't run the math on it, but is a HLC really more likely to hit Soontir than a TLT?

I like Brath with TIE/x7, Lone Wolf and Stealth Device. Cheap for a defender, and really defensive.

I like TIE/D and tractor beam on pretty much any generic, unless you have another plan for it specifically.

It's a great time to fly Defenders.

Kind of makes me wonder if Vessery wants the D...

Taking things out of context sure is fun!

On topic, I cannot overstate how happy I am for the Defender and Bombers to (hopefully) become relevant again, this Veteran Box in general feels very well thought out and rounded...thanks FFG!

It's almost like FFG is trying to sell us something....

I fixed that for you.

Not that I'm complaining, because I am definitly buying minimum of 2

No way around that, seeing as I have two of each already. But how am I going to fit in four Defenders?

Epic?

And is that Stele I see in the perview pic? Can't think of any other Imperial pilot with a name that starts with Maar.... this pleases me more than the title cards and the awesome new paint job on the Defender.

Does this make Stele the first named pilot with two ships (rather than a named pilot who also has a Crew upgrade) to fly?

Does this make Stele the first named pilot with two ships (rather than a named pilot who also has a Crew upgrade) to fly?

Definitely Stele, but Hera beat him to it.

It's almost like FFG is trying to sell us something....

I fixed that for you.

Not that I'm complaining, because I am definitly buying minimum of 2

No way around that, seeing as I have two of each already. But how am I going to fit in four Defenders?

Epic?

And is that Stele I see in the perview pic? Can't think of any other Imperial pilot with a name that starts with Maar.... this pleases me more than the title cards and the awesome new paint job on the Defender.

Does this make Stele the first named pilot with two ships (rather than a named pilot who also has a Crew upgrade) to fly?

The Ghost/Phantom has duplicate pilots, Hera to name 1

GAH, Okapi beat me to it

It is a Charrdan refit on Steroids and a BTL-A4 title without any drawbacks. The only thing though is I think the x7 will be used more than the D because of the point reduction. The biggest weakness for the Defender is the 30 point cost, not the dial much to say.

The 30 point cost was only an issue because you couldn't really get 30 points of value out of it. A Double Tapping Defender that also applies control will be worth significantly more points than a control Defender that isn't also applying damage.

You'll have 1 of 2 options: either Ion Defender that zooms and booms to a ship that it knows exactly where it will be next round, (while having the potential for as much damage as an HLC this round), _or_ you will have a Tractor Defender that makes the second shot more likely to actually hit. Either way: fun shenanigans.

Your other standard build will be a cheaper "in your face" style of Defender. Hearty enough to last a few rounds, but cheap enough to be efficient as a pure jouster. Note that to get the Defender all the way up to "efficient" they had to remove 2 points from the cost _and also_ give it a way to grab an evade token. That's... that's a lot of deficit it's had to overcome.

3x Onyx Squadron, 3x X7 title, 3x TIE MK II. 7 points left for upgrades.

Shame that X7 disables the missile slot, with a bunch of free points to play with I wouldn't mind putting missiles on them. Ah well, super excited still. May have to get 3 packs to get 3 red defenders.