I headed to Fantasy Books and Games in St. Charles, MO (a very nice venue) this Saturday for a Store Championship. 28 people showed. We did 5 rounds of Swiss and a cut to top 8. The event was very well run by the T.O., Eric, who really moved things along. I swear that he had pairings set less than 2 minutes after the final games reported in. I know tournament software is supposed to help with that, but I’ve been to lots of tournaments with software that didn’t move that quickly. As an aside, Eric has done a lot of work growing the X-wing scene in the greater St. Louis area, even though I rarely am ever able to make it out to his events.

The list I’d originally been working on for Store Championships was a 50-point Rexler Brath (HLC, Predator, Hull Upgrade) and 3 Zeta Squadron Pilots, with 2 points for Initiative. The more I tried it against certain builds, the more that I became concerned, though. The three Zetas are great for blocking against aces, area control, and damage against low AGI stuff, but really suffered against high AGI stuff if Rex was killed early or taken out of the fight. It was especially rough against the Top 16 Glitterstim/Crack Shot IG88 build that’s pretty common right now, because even blocking them doesn’t do much to stop their offense or defense on critical turns, and Rex isn’t enough of an arc-dodger to exploit the higher PS completely. Taking out Rex wasn’t as much of an option, because I wanted a last run with Defenders before Imperial Veterans hit, so I started considering other options to complement Rex. I thought about 2 Interceptors of various builds, but they also suffered pretty hard against Crack Shot lists, even if they had improved offense. I finally settled on this list after a discussion and recommendation by AlexW. It was similar enough to the Rex+Zetas that I didn’t think I’d need to build a new set of tactics, and it had ships that really held their own if Rex went down first.

New List:

Rexler Brath (with a spiffy new paint job) 37

Heavy Laser Cannon 7

Predator 3

Hull Upgrade 3

Omega Leader 21

Juke 2

Comm Relay 3

Zeta Leader 20

Wired 1

Hull Upgrade 3

To answer the inevitable question, Zeta Leader had Hull Upgrade over Comm Relay because I only own one FO expansion right now (my local store had only one last time I was there), and I have an arguably unhealthy fear of Crackshot Bots, and a lesser fear of Crackshot Black Squadrons, and the extra hull helps against those more than an Evade. Additionally, I tended to fly Zeta Leader (in practice games vs myself) pretty much in the thick of things, and rarely had a chance to re-load the Evade token.

Each ship had a nice set of abilities. Rex is the main puncher, 4 dice at PS8 with actionless re-rolls taped to a white K-turn is just an extraordinary tool. It slices, it dices, it one-shots little ships, and occasionally it ruins the day of a really big ship. Omega Leader doesn’t need much more said, but he’s especially nice with Rex, as Juke at PS8 helps draw out defensive tokens so Rex can hit even harder. He also acts as a bodyguard of sorts. I don’t want to chase around Soontir Fel with Rex, but Omega Leader can lock Fel and guard the approaches to threaten the Baron if he makes a move against Rex. He’s also a pretty good shieldbreaker to get rid of the Stealth Device. Fel doesn’t like to stare down 4 dice with re-roll and Focus even with his Stealth Device intact. He really doesn’t like it with 2 hp left and no SD. Zeta Leader rounds out the squad as a crowd control thug. He’s really just beef, but he’s really good at being beef. With a reliably triggered Wired, he’s crazy-tough on defense against multiple mid-low quality shots, and he generates a lot of offense even when blocked or running over an asteroid, particularly considering he’s 24 points, PS7, and has a TIE/fo dial.

This won’t be a detailed account, because I didn’t have too many notes. I’m working from memory, and will pretty much just hit a few key moments in interesting games.

Game 1 vs a name that has escaped me:

His list: Rookie Pilot, Rookie Pilot, Blue Squadron Pilot with HLC, Blue Squadron Pilot with HLC

This was a fairly new player with an older, but very punchy list. He deployed in a line in one corner, I deployed diagonally from him, and approached through the asteroids. He turned into the asteroids, and my squad was able to take his ships all vs 1 for a few turns. Victory, 100-0

Game 2 vs Bob:

His list: Han, Predator, Gunner, 3P0, Engine, Falcon title + Miranda with Recon Specialist and TLT

This was a rough matchup for me. All his stuff did very well vs high AGI and was quite maneuverable. Both those ships were so fast that I was unable to concentrate fire very well. I did get a couple of great rounds of firing on Han where I trapped him in a block and then made him run over an asteroid, but I didn’t do enough damage. I took some unnecessary hits from Miranda early on, as well. Cool red dice + no coherent execution of a plan means I lost. I got half points for the Falcon and he killed my whole squad.

Loss, 31-100

Game 3 vs Stuart:

His list: 3 Blue Squadron Pilots + Jan Ors, VI, Kyle Katarn crew, and Blaster Turret.

I knew this list would plow me under if I jousted with it, so, of course, I tried to put the asteroids between it and me. I ran with the FOs, initially, and he chased, and Rex slipped around the side and starting hammering Blues. The FOs got back in the fight, then and pretty soon Jan died. Then it was two Blues vs my whole squad. He was able to finish of Zeta Leader, but that was it.

Victory, 100-24

Game 4 vs Bob:

His list: Kath Scarlet, HLC, Predator, Inertial Dampeners + Thug with TLT, Unhinged Astromech + N’Dru with Cluster Missiles, Lone Wolf, and Hotshot Blaster

This game started with a really unfortunate turn of events for Bob. The Y-wing made a turn, which by a couple of millimeters blocked Kath onto an asteroid. It was just a tiny bit of misjudged distance. That let my squad open up on an actionless Kath with no return fire from her. They did a bunch of damage and took very little, if any. It was all downhill for him from there.

Victory, 200-0

Game 5 vs Logan

His list: Vader, Predator, EU, ATC + Standard Fel + Standard Omega Leader

He had a 2 point bid, so his Omega Leader moved after my PS 8 ships. I kept my ships together, he flanked with Vader. I went for Vader with Zeta and Rex, blocked his Omega Leader with my Omega Leader, grabbing a TL on Fel and denying him a TL on any of my ships. His arc dodging with Vader was just a hair short of making it out of Rex’s arc, so Rex took a fully modified HLC shot at the Dark Lord and left him with 2 hit points. It was a pretty strong opening round. A lot of twisting and turning dogfighting followed, but with Vader almost dead I was able to force a lot of suboptimal moves.

Victory, 100-0

I was in the number 2 spot after Swiss. Bob with Han/Miranda and Logan made the cut to top 8.

Top 8 vs a different name that has escaped me.

He had Dash, Outrider, Mangler Cannon, PTL, Engine, and 2 TLT Gold Squadron Pilots.

I honestly remember very little about this game. Zeta Leader made a series of ridiculous defensive rolls, aided by Wired, and did a bunch of damage to the TLTs. After I killed Dash, I failed to inflict 3 points of damage on a Y-wing between Omega Leader and Rex. This let the Y-wing kill Rex. Zeta Leader finally died to the other Y-wing the same turn, so I went from whole list to Omega Leader vs 2 Y-wings in one turn. Omega cleaned up the almost dead Y-wing the next turn, and was then 1 vs 1. I didn’t want to spend the next 20 minutes running away with a 2 point lead, but I did disengage to re-load my Comm Relay a couple of times. I slowly wore him down, but tried to be pretty conservative because it wouldn’t take too many bad rolls to lose Omega Leader. By the time I had him where I wanted him (Omega dancing around in the range 1 hole), time was called.

Elimination Round 2 vs Logan, again

Logan had just finished off the undefeated first overall player in Swiss who was running Palpatine, Fel, and Vader, I think. I didn’t like the idea of playing him again, because it always seems like the person who lost the last match has an advantage. Nevertheless, I managed to kill Vader and Omega Leader pretty early, and made it my whole list vs Fel. Rex was almost dead, though, and Fel finished him off in short order. I still had a full health Omega Leader and almost full health Zeta Leader vs a 2 hp Fel. Time, numbers, and firepower were on my side. In the course of chasing around Fel, however, he K-turned right in front of Zeta Leader at Range 1, rolled 2 hits and 2 eyeballs, spend his focus and did 4 hits. Zeta rolled his 3 greens and got 3 blanks (I had a Focus token). 4 hits take out 4 hull and Zeta is dead. To make matters worse, Zeta had a Target Lock on Fel, a Focus token, and no Stress. So he was going to be rolling 4 dice with re-rolls and Focus at a 2 hp token-less Fel. Now time is on his side and Omega has to chase him down. I have 3 or 4 turns where I am literally millimeters away from having Fel in my arc, but it goes to time and I lose. I was pretty frustrated by that roll of the dice, but further reflection showed me the error of my ways. Sure I could have won with the moves I made, but I didn’t shift my tactics to be more appropriate for the situation. I should have played more defensively to ensure as much as possible that I didn’t lose a ship. I was still in early-mid game full offense mental state, and did not adjust to the situation. Credit where it was due, Logan kept his eye on what he needed to do to win and did it, and things worked out for him.

Logan went on to beat a Vader/Whisper/Palpatine list in the finals (who he had beaten in Round 4), winning the whole shebang.

Thanks for reading, and I apologize to any of my opponents if I have gotten names, lists, or events wrong.

Did Rex's ability ever come into play for you? Otherwise, I'm wondering if it might be helpful to downgrade him to a VI Vessery. That frees up four points, which would allow for a Juke/Comm Relay/Hull Upgrade combo on Zeta Leader (assuming you buy another FO pack), or to give Zeta a Weapons Guidance upgrade in addition to the existing Wired/Hull combo.

Admittedly, it also places a lot of importance on Omega Leader as the source of Vessery's target locks, which would place a pretty obvious weak link in the squad.

For the reasons you state, I prefer Rex over Vessery in this build. I'm wary of synergy mechanics because they're just begging for something to go wrong. Omega isn't actually that tough if the enemy has a lot of different ships. With Vessery, Omega becomes the easy first target of the list. The HLC with re-rolls kills a lot of stuff so fast that you actually waste an appreciable number of actions re-acquiring Target Locks against a lot of lists. I tend to like my ships to be nasty in their own right, and then gain synergy by flying them together appropriately. That's my preference, though, and shouldn't be construed as the only way to run a Defender.

Rex's ability rarely comes into play. It did this tournament, once, in the first game I lost. Admittedly, though, I just don't consider it anything more than a fun bonus. I only seriously consider it a tool against fat turrets (and probably the Ghost when it hits). Unlike a lot of ships, the real worth of the Defender is that it's a Defender. No so much the FOs, by contrast. Neither of those ships would be very good without their abilities.

I got $40 in store credit for my 3rd place finish, along with range ruler and challenge coin. A portion of that did go toward another FO pack, so I'll have options in the future.

Great report, glad to see Defender + Tie/FOs working out. I've been running that build since your last report about Rex and the Zetas and have been having a blast using it and variations of it. What kind of deployment did you typically run in, and what asteroids did you use? With generic ties I've usually grouped everything together in a corner so that they can block for the defender, but with the upgrade to two aces I don't think the same logic holds true.

I used the big asteroids. With 3 reasonably maneuverable small-based ships, I feel like blocking off bigger sections of the board is advantageous. Everybody seems to think that, though. You see a lot of 6 big asteroid games.

I tended to keep everything moderately close, but not in formation. The elite FOs didn't block like the Zetas Squadron Pilots did, although they do against big aces. They do help protect Rex, though, providing specific threats to certain kinds of ships. If one was split wide, it was usually Zeta Leader. He's the most expendable, the toughest for his points, and he has great firepower for his points, so he would run a fast flank a lot, trying to engage at close range on a flank when Omega and Rex engaged at long range. Sometimes against aces I kept him close and he was the backup gun. They would spend a lot of actions dodging or tanking the other two ships, only to be open to 3 dice from Zeta Leader. He did a lot of damage that way.

What action do you lean towards with Zeta Leader?

I'd been initially using Focus on him out of habit more than anything else. It has some use even with Wired, as you can guarantee the results you want out of those eyeballs instead of gambling the reroll.

Lately I've been reconsidering that approach in favor of Target Lock or Evade actions. TL lets you modify blank results. If you only roll eyeballs, you can bank the TL for next turn. Meanwhile, Evade is effectively an extra hit point if you're willing to trust Wired to help your defense rolls.

I'm pretty much in the same place as you on Zeta Leader's action. Certain situations and goals shift the optimal action a lot, but I selected Evade quite a bit above average, for me.

You have inspired me to try something similar. Were the hull upgrades worth it, or was it just about peace of mind in the end?

I was thinking of putting Predator on Zeta Leader, to make the most of those stress induced 3 dice attacks. Then I got to thinking about the value of TIE engine mk II on Zeta to clear said stress, though it only adds 2 greens, as well as on Rexler, to green up that dial, should stress lists be common. But I've got a 2 point bid that isn't doing much then.

With a second comms relay, it would be an easy switch on Zeta, but there's more different ships to buy first

The Hull Upgrade on Rex is part of my standard build. I stand by it 100%, because you have so many points in offense that any life extension is pretty meaningful. It's a bit more complicated than this, but look at it this way: you get 17% more hit points, for a mere 6% increase in price. That's a good deal.

Before I really tries Wired, I probably would have been happy with Predator. If you think about it, though, if you're pretty sure of being stressed, Wired is something sort of like Predator on offense (no limit to the number of dice you can re-roll, but only eyeballs can be re-rolled). It's close to as good as Predator if you have no action, and less good if you have a Focus. Throw in the considerable defensive aspects of Wired, and its low cost, and I think it's overall better for Zeta Leader, at least how I was playing him. If I was really going for max damage on Zeta, I'd actually do Wired + Weapon Guidance instead of Predator. It gives you a huge amount of flexibility for how you spend your Focus token.

_Biophysical,

_{When the new titles come out, how would you change this list? Or are you planning something new altogether? I'm looking at a Whisper build with two Onyx defenders with X7 titles. I think I will be able to tell rather quickly if their plan is to go after the defenders or the phantom, in which case I will play the targeted ships defensively while the other hammers them.}

This list would swap the HLC for an Ion Cannon, then probably use the spare points for Comm Relay on Zeta Leader and a small initiative bid.

You could reasonably put the extra points into some defenses for Omega instead, but I tended to put Zeta on the front line. Wired + Hull + Commm Relay + the FOs natural toughness makes him very tough, and it let's him play pretty aggressively.

Always good to read about Defender success stories!

I haven't run Brath in a while, so maybe I'll go back to him. That 50 pt build is exactly how I'd want to run him. I think if I were to run it, I'd want to switch it up a bit though...

Like, it sounds as though you got some value out of Zeta Leader, but I wonder if a pair of academy pilots would ultimately be more useful? Its a question of playstyle, but I always like having a blocker or two in my lists.

Another idea would be to run a pair of Omega pilots w/ Juke, Comm Relay & hull upgrade. 25 points is a lot for generic TIEs, but they are surprisingly hard to kill...

Another another idea would be to go with Carnor Jax and perhaps an Epsilon instead of the leaders. Two different ways of denying tokens makes Rex's HLC hit even harder, and most opponents will want to kill Jax first, allowing Rex to pound away unmolested (possibly).

Always good to read about Defender success stories!

I haven't run Brath in a while, so maybe I'll go back to him. That 50 pt build is exactly how I'd want to run him. I think if I were to run it, I'd want to switch it up a bit though...

Like, it sounds as though you got some value out of Zeta Leader, but I wonder if a pair of academy pilots would ultimately be more useful? Its a question of playstyle, but I always like having a blocker or two in my lists.

Another idea would be to run a pair of Omega pilots w/ Juke, Comm Relay & hull upgrade. 25 points is a lot for generic TIEs, but they are surprisingly hard to kill...

Another another idea would be to go with Carnor Jax and perhaps an Epsilon instead of the leaders. Two different ways of denying tokens makes Rex's HLC hit even harder, and most opponents will want to kill Jax first, allowing Rex to pound away unmolested (possibly).

I did some thinking about it beforehand, and I'm pretty sold on Zeta over the pair of Academies. He's about as tough as the Academies due to Wired and having 5 hit points, and getting some PS-kills and arc-dodges on things that would have shot at him otherwise. He hits about as hard as two Academies, at least at Range 2+, and the PS comes into play here again for the same reasons, and he takes up half the space. As a blocker, he's not blocking as well, but he blocks just fine against high PS multi-action ships that you really want to block anyway. Obviously, he won't block as many places, but usually there's a key area where someone like Fel has to go to turn in and attack you. You put Zeta Leader in part of that area, with his Range 1 band covering the rest of that area. Fel-types are either blocked, get shot by a big shot again, or have to expend actions dodging Zeta instead of another threat.

I think there are a lot of solid 2-ship combinations that can slot in with a 50 point Rexler Brath, it comes down to your play style and how much time you have to try them all. I like Carnor a lot more with the 46 point Ion/D version of the build, because it lets the 3rd ship still be pretty solid. The FOs really give you a lot of good options in that price range.

_Biophysical,

_{When the new titles come out, how would you change this list? Or are you planning something new altogether? I'm looking at a Whisper build with two Onyx defenders with X7 titles. I think I will be able to tell rather quickly if their plan is to go after the defenders or the phantom, in which case I will play the targeted ships defensively while the other hammers them.}

I don't really have experience flying them, but 2 Defenders + a high threat ace seems like a super-solid list that's going to see a lot of play in the upcoming months. The Defenders, for their cost, will be very, very tough, and if the other players go after them first, the Evade+Focus+lots of AGI+lots of HP combo should keep the ship alive long enough for Whisper to do some damage (I hope it's FCS Whisper). Likewise, if they go after Whisper, the Defenders should be able to generate enough offense to kill some stuff before Whisper engages. The trick, as with any flanking plan, is to work your ships into a position where it's hard for the enemy to switch directions at the moment of engagement. That's why it's a game, though.

_Biophysical,

_{When the new titles come out, how would you change this list? Or are you planning something new altogether? I'm looking at a Whisper build with two Onyx defenders with X7 titles. I think I will be able to tell rather quickly if their plan is to go after the defenders or the phantom, in which case I will play the targeted ships defensively while the other hammers them.}

I don't really have experience flying them, but 2 Defenders + a high threat ace seems like a super-solid list that's going to see a lot of play in the upcoming months. The Defenders, for their cost, will be very, very tough, and if the other players go after them first, the Evade+Focus+lots of AGI+lots of HP combo should keep the ship alive long enough for Whisper to do some damage (I hope it's FCS Whisper). Likewise, if they go after Whisper, the Defenders should be able to generate enough offense to kill some stuff before Whisper engages. The trick, as with any flanking plan, is to work your ships into a position where it's hard for the enemy to switch directions at the moment of engagement. That's why it's a game, though.

I have run 2 Onyx w/ X-7 alongside Vader on VASSAL. Its not bad. I have also run a pair of royal guards in place of the Defenders and there's pros and cons to both. The nice thing about the defenders is you don't have to be so cagey in the opening. Just send them straight in and bring Vader in on the flank, or if your opponent looks like he's going for Vader, its easy to kite with the dark lord and the 2 defenders can do a lot of damage...

The build is:

Vader w/ lone wolf, x-1, ATC & engine = 36 (love this build!)

2 onyx w/ x-7 & TIE mk 2 = 31 x 2

98

I really like Vader here instead of Whisper. He has less weaknesses, hits about as hard and is a tad bit cheaper allowing for a decent initiative bid. Lone wolf helps with durability, although you need to keep him out of a bunch of twin laser turret bubbles, but fortunately, x-7 defenders are very hard for twin lasers to kill, so the list has no real bad matchups. There may be more competitive options out there perhaps, but I've had fun with it so far and feel its 'good enough'.

I can't stress enough how well I think these three ships compliment each other. With those two builds, the FO/s hit, defend, and fly, above their weight class by quite a bit with some very minor exceptions (they can get outclassed a bit by multiple aces who have a chance to drop Zeta before he goes). There just aren't ships that can do all the things that they can at the same cost. Brath is a nice compliment because he has an even bigger gun but is tougher to take down.

Vader might be better with the Onyxes at the points they leave free. I wonder if Whisper really merits Deltas. The main knock on the Delta is it shoots after common TLT platforms. A Jammer Whisper probably makes up for that, especially if the Deltas get some quality blocks in.

I can't stress enough how well I think these three ships compliment each other. With those two builds, the FO/s hit, defend, and fly, above their weight class by quite a bit with some very minor exceptions (they can get outclassed a bit by multiple aces who have a chance to drop Zeta before he goes). There just aren't ships that can do all the things that they can at the same cost. Brath is a nice compliment because he has an even bigger gun but is tougher to take down.

You're 100% right. I'll add that while Zeta Leader is susceptible to multi-ace fire that hits before Wired is active, that's still a pretty good scenario a lot of the time, because your other ships are very strong against aces, and should probably be higher on the target list.

The Whisper I would use has FCS and Agent Kallus as a crew member. I could always drop Kallus for a 98 point bit but I think he will more than pay for his points.

I'm not a fan of Delta's because I find it's easier to do K-turns at a pilot skill three rather than at pilot skill 1. Maybe its just my poor flying though. I also like that pilot skill three helps with predator defense.

If Maarek costs what I think he will, I want to play him with the Colonel and the Grand Inquisitor. Or drop the GI and take a bomber to free up some points for hull upgrades on Maarek and the Colonel.

Great work Bio. So good seeing the defender pre veterans still doing well.

I didn't have the best luck with my list. It was the Vessery (-HLC, Tie MKII, VI) Omega Leader (Juke,comm relay) Epsilon ace, academy.

I went 2-3 on the day. I learnt a lot from my losses tho. I think my main issue was in the initial joust my list hurt but then I was too eager to k turn the defender to keep him in the fight, this resulted in getting too surrounded and obviously he died too quickly. The wins came from keeping the distance, then running away to get a better position with Vessery then coming back In. I'm eager to persevere with the list but to also give your list with Zeta leader a try!

I tried this list against my sons yesterday (they were not at 100 points!) and realized that, though Wired works nicely on Zeta Leader, if you clear the stress and aces are shooting at you, you out of luck. Is it just something to live with or did you have a strategy to work around it?

Though this thread is technically a batrep, there's so much I'd like to discuss about this list!

So Zeta is very much optimized against massed lower PS targets in this list. At least that's how I use him. He is a bit weak vs high PS aces, but you've got to consider that Zeta is probably the worst target for enemy aces. Omega and Rex are much more dangerous, so it is usually okay if he's taking shots.

Biophysical, you and Kinetic Operator are my heroes. You guys run such awesome lists and show how great flying, tactics, and creativity can beat "meta" lists with "sub-optimal" ships. I like flying ships that aren't so popular and create diversity. Keep up the awesome work and thanks for sharing your lists and insight.

Thanks for writing all of that up Bio, great to read more Defender goodness from you as always!

Thanks for writing all of that up Bio, great to read more Defender goodness from you as always!

Thanks!

Biophysical, you and Kinetic Operator are my heroes. You guys run such awesome lists and show how great flying, tactics, and creativity can beat "meta" lists with "sub-optimal" ships. I like flying ships that aren't so popular and create diversity. Keep up the awesome work and thanks for sharing your lists and insight.

KO does all those things you say. I just stubbornly fly a handful of ships to wring as much as I can out of them. Thanks, though.