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!

In this case, you trust your focus and 3 agility for defense. Zeta can also perform a blocking role in those situations, but even if that's not the case, having them shoot at Zeta is better than the other two, who are ideal end-game ships, provided you can make them pay for doing so.

While I'm still juggling some small tweaks, I'm all but convinced that I'll run that trio at Saturday's tournament. I'm not expecting similar results though, I've only played 4 games against people older than 6 and won one of those (but many, many dozens against those 6 or younger ).

Zeta taking an evade, short of having a second Comms relay on hand, does seem to have a very nice impact on the survivability of the list, while not making his 3 dice attack that much weaker.

Thanks for the inspiration!

I was thinking of flying some pre-veteran Defenders, and glad to see they kick ass. Thinking of an HLC vessary with omega leader and two epsilons, but you're making me waver

Have you posted pics of your shiny defender repaint?

Thanks for writing this up. If I have time to practice it I might give it a try Sunday over my current plans of Vessery or Rexler+FOs or Echo+something else I haven't figured out yet.

While I'm still juggling some small tweaks, I'm all but convinced that I'll run that trio at Saturday's tournament. I'm not expecting similar results though, I've only played 4 games against people older than 6 and won one of those (but many, many dozens against those 6 or younger ).

Zeta taking an evade, short of having a second Comms relay on hand, does seem to have a very nice impact on the survivability of the list, while not making his 3 dice attack that much weaker.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Did you end up running the list? How'd it go?

Still 2 days to go! I'm 99% convinced I'll run stealth device on Omega instead of hull on Zeta, the rest is the same. Hopefully, my opponents will either waste shots on Omega, or leave him alone till the end!

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!

Have you written a battle report? I am planning on flying a similar list in a tournament (a first for me) next weekend and am curious what squads you did well against, and which ones were a struggle.

I'm back from my tournament, I got one 100-0 win, one 50-100 loss, one 0-100 loss (but close to not being 0), and a bye. The rounds were in the opposite order, so steadily improving during the day.

The lists were all rebels, many Poes, Red Aces and stresshogs.

Red Ace utterly hates Omega Leader. Both times I faced him, I (nearly) solo'ed him with Omega, he can't use that token, so losing regen'ed shields brings no extra tokens, killing his ability on top of the rest of it.

I'll post a more detailed battle rep later tonight, in it's own thread, and link it here.

Here's my battle report. Note that I'm not a good player, these were, respectively, my 5th, 6th, and 7th games against grown-ups. Much fun was had, those are three fun ships!

I would fly it again, but would likely want comm relay on Zeta (or a defender title on Rexler).

Alright, I got some practice in with 2 academies in place of Zeta Leader. I also tried a doomshuttle in that spot as well.

I'm gonna concede that Zeta Leader is probably better. The academies are terrible against twin lasers, and I'm not convinced the added body is enough to make a matchup vs arc-dodgers easier.

Doom shuttle is not a bad option though. It doesn't get a lot of shots, so relatively speaking, zeta leader will probably contribute more damage more often overall...

Alright, I got some practice in with 2 academies in place of Zeta Leader. I also tried a doomshuttle in that spot as well.

I'm gonna concede that Zeta Leader is probably better. The academies are terrible against twin lasers, and I'm not convinced the added body is enough to make a matchup vs arc-dodgers easier.

Doom shuttle is not a bad option though. It doesn't get a lot of shots, so relatively speaking, zeta leader will probably contribute more damage more often overall...

Right now, I almost consider TIE Fighters to be 13 points base, because I just don't like shooting after TLTs, even with filler. The chance to Barrel Roll into Range 1 or get a PS kill in to save someone else a shot is completely worth a point to me, but unfortunately, that takes them out of the price range of this list. The thing with Zeta is that the extra die is about as good as a whole other TIE Fighter attack, but it happens at PS7, has a smaller footprint, better dial, and is almost as tough as those two TIEs together. The only thing the pair of APs are better at are blocking, and as you note, they're not so much better at blocking that it's really worth it. I hadn't considered the Doomshuttle, but I like the idea. I might try that and convert Predator on Rex to Lone Wolf. That spare point could be used for initiative or to put Electronic Baffles on the shuttle when they are revealed. That would make 3 awful arcs for aces to be in.

What kind of set up do you go for with these guys? Split them up and attack in a pincer, or sucker them after Rex and smash them with the FOs?

What kind of set up do you go for with these guys? Split them up and attack in a pincer, or sucker them after Rex and smash them with the FOs?

That depends entirely on my opponent's ships. If there's one I can run down and kill quickly, I sometimes bunch them up and go for the kill. If the other squad is stocked with mobile ships of higher PS than mine, I might spread out, with Rex in back and Omega and Zeta up front. In those sorts of cases, Rex is covering some of the approaches where I expect other ships to come in on, making them take heavy fire or spend tokens on defense and not attack. There's no set plan, though.

I do find that I frequently attack through asteroid fields. I feel like I'm pretty good at handling this squad in asteroids, and they serve to both make movement difficult for heavier squads that outnumber me and limit the movement of action-dependent, highly maneuverable ships. That is much more of a defining feature compared to any setup formation.