So Im relatively new to the x-wing community. I have been playing for a couple months and I'm currently preparing to attend my first store championship tournament. I've been playing the defender a lot and so I want to incorporate it into my s/c build, but it's cost leaves an awkward amount of points to round out my list.

Rexler - 37

Lone wolf - 2

Heavy laser cannon - 7

Now I don't want to go out there and copy and paste a list off the Internet for the sake of being more competitive, but I do want to build my list with meta game considerations in mind.

Would anyone be willing to help me by painting a picture of what lists are popular right now, which meta lists will exploit my defender's weaknesses, and which lists my defender will Excell at? I want to compliment my defender with ships that will cover his blind spots.

That being said, feel free to suggest any ship. I already have most imperial ships and wouldn't mind picking up one or two more before the tournament. Also, feel free to critique my defender build. I was running that build as vessery as I liked his ability more, but vessery is far too relient upon his squad to make the most of the defensive re-rolls lone wolf provides him with.

Update: as soon as I posted this I got an idea to just load up rexler and whisper and see where it left me. This is what I came up with

Rexler Barth - 37

Lone wolf - 2

HLC - 7

Stealth device - 3 (effectively a 5th green die with lone wolf reroll)

49

Whisper - 32

VI - 1

ACD - 4

Sensor jammer - 4

Gunner - 5

46

The idea here is gunner and modified HLC should make quick work of aces. Could go PTL or predator on rexler to allow for a coordinated alpha strike, but I like splitting my ships here as my jousting value is relatively low and my manuverability is insanely high. Sensor jammer is a luxury I can afford to protect whisper should he get caught in an arc (or to give me a chance against those pesky TLTs) rexler rolls 5 greens with a reroll at range 3 on top of 6 hit points. Good luck hitting him with a tie swarm. I tried to minimize the luck aspect as much as I could with crazy amounts of modifications. Sensor jammer > fcs here because whisper needs all the help he can get vs ps 10-11

Thoughts?

Play some games with it. You'll probably find it hard to take 50% of your opponent off the board by the time you lose a ship. I strongly suggest you pick one or the other to build a list around.

Thanks. I'm planning on doing some pretty heavy testing in the coming weeks. Any insight on what lists I might run into at a tournament?

None really, only played two this year and the only list I played against twice was Poe/Miranda/stress hog. Always good to plan what you'd do against a swarm and fat turret build whenever you build a list though,

I know people have been pairing their HLC toting Defenders with the two named FOs, to some success. I'd definitely pay attention to Biophysical's threads, as he runs Defenders often and to good effect. He has a write up on his store championship, which is worth a read to maybe pick up a few tips and see how match ups played out.

Personally I would be hesitant to go with stealth device on him. I imagine you'll run into brobots at some point and I promise you they will remove it in one activation. (4 dice, with a focus, and a 2nd shot with TL if the first shot misses, all with crackshot) I like hull on Defenders pretty well.

My current defender list is as follows.

Vessery

Crackshot

HLC

Hull upgrade

3x Omega Sq Pilot

Crackshot

That's just me and I probably have an unhealthy love for crackshot, but it's a fun list and it can put some hurt on, and the Omega's blocking aces can set up some painful shots.

I like the Rexler build, but I think if you do a defensive upgrade, Hull is better right now than Stealth. Crack Shot is too common.

In general, a Lone Wolf Defender is pretty strong against 2 and 3 dice primary shots that aren't heavily modified because it's very hard for those sort of attacks to punch through all those hit points behind what is effectively 4 green dice. The HLC is strong against everything, though.

Whisper might be a good match, but my experience with Phantoms is very low. You could also try a couple bombers. That might work to clear of enemy ships pretty quickly. TIE Advanced could work in there as well. I think you probably don't want more than 3 ships overall with a Lone Wolf ship, though.

Yeah I saw the other threads with the tie/fo aces and I liked what I saw, but I value originality in my build. I don't want to steal someone else's list.

Good point on stealth device, however if brobots are the only time I won't get more utility out of stealth than hull upgrade, I'd argue the marginal utility vs swarms and TLTs (my perceived worst match up as a 2 ship build. I have ps and white k turns over brobots) outweighs that of one additional hull.

Besides, if they spend crackshot on my defender, they will have a hell of a time pushing through any damage on my sensor jammer phantom.

I'll test both in various scenarios and see what feels stronger to me

Definitely test. I've run Stealth Device with Lone Wolf of a Defender as well and it is seriously tough, just susceptible to some bad dice.

What are your thoughts on engine upgrade over hull?

I was running Rexler + Whisper for a while last spring, and it was great fun. For your reference, my list was:

Rexler w/ predator, HLC, shield & ion pulse missile = 54

Whisper w/ VI, FCS, gunner & ACD = 44

98

I also tried a few variations: lone wolf, proton rockets and even tried it with Vessery in place of Rexler. Overall, I liked Rexler with predator best, but YMMV, of course. I found predator resulted in better damage overall than lone wolf, but I do like lone wolf and in a two ship build its easy to keep active. The proton rockets were not really worth it. Based on Bio's experiences, I switched to ion pulse for the threat it provides against large-based ships, but I didn't really get much use out of them.

As for your engine question: personally, I don't think its needed on a Defender, whereas more hull/shield is generally always useful since the ship ends up in firing arcs like it or not (that's my experience anyway)

Thanks for your advice. Do you think the occasional extra reroll on offense outweighs the defensive benefit of lone wolf (the main reason I was playing lw in the first place) I like the idea of shield upgrade. Definitely still going to test around and see what I like but everyone's insight is incredibly helpful. I love the welcoming atmosphere surrounding this game. I like the ion missiles too, but like you said, it's very situational and this list benefits a lot from a strong initiative bid. Then again, yv666 and firespray are seeing a lot of love on this forum lately and one double ion shot might turn the tide of a close game

Thanks for your advice. Do you think the occasional extra reroll on offense outweighs the defensive benefit of lone wolf (the main reason I was playing lw in the first place) I like the idea of shield upgrade. Definitely still going to test around and see what I like but everyone's insight is incredibly helpful. I love the welcoming atmosphere surrounding this game. I like the ion missiles too, but like you said, it's very situational and this list benefits a lot from a strong initiative bid. Then again, yv666 and firespray are seeing a lot of love on this forum lately and one double ion shot might turn the tide of a close game

Like I said, I think both predator and lone wolf are good, but I just felt predator helped more against low PS where you really need the extra damage. I wouldn't say it was a huge difference, though. No harm trying both and seeing what you prefer, but it takes a few games of each to get an idea

Update: I got a few games in with this list. I was playing against my friend's double pancake list.

I lost the first game because of a bad judgment call on decloaking. I ran whisper straight over an asteroid and he got eaten alive on the first round of shots. The defender impressed me though. It was able to single handedly take out the outrider and got the falcon down to 6 hull before being brought to a slow and painful death

2nd game was similarly disappointing as I lost whisper early to a bump and focus fire. I conceded to make time for a third game

This game restored my confidence in my list. I finally flew a half decent game and won quite handily. The burst damage in this list is insane. The green dice are Godly. (And yes, I did throw quite a few blanks, but when you roll 5 greens with a focus and sensor jammer the odds that you are going to blank out are slim to none)

I have found these things in my preliminary tests

Lone wolf is a beast when active. Vessery dies a quick death without it.

My games were pretty quick with this list. Heavy firepower and very few ships made sure of that

My opponents need more than 3 dice to punch through any real damage.

This list LOVES range 3

If I fly bad I auto lose. However, this list has a very very high skill cap

Update: Ive continued testing and while I love my 2 ship HLC builds, it doesn't seem to matter whether I run a defender alongside whisper, a firespray, or another defender. They simply die to 3+ TLTs. I'm only about 50/50 win rate against them and that's when I can get some serious damage on the first one at R3. 2 ships just isn't enough hit points without some serious green modifications, in which case I die to stress fairly quickly. So I came up with this build

Vessery - 35

HLC - 7

Crackshot- 1

43

Vader - 29

ATC - 1

VI - 1

31

Omega Leader - 21

Juke - 2

Comm Relay - 3

26

I like synergy

The defender is over costed, so pairing him with under costed aces brings this list back into "not instantly dying to anything slightly resembling a joust" territory.

Very anti-ace for the 3 ship meta

My first actions are permanent, so stress does not render me helpless

Still has a very high skill cap

Lone wolf is a very nice card, but it just doesn't compare to concentrated firepower and flying in formation

Hmm... like I said previously, I don't have so lot of Phantom flying experience, but it seems like Whisper ought to be able to handle TLTs. Maybe others can comment.

Yeah phantom is nice against tlt, but a defender/phantom list simply doesn't have the hull to cope if a stressbot happens to snipe whisper.

I don't have much experience with vader. Just how relient is he on engine upgrade?

Personally, I like to kit out my Rex with HLC, Twin Ion MkII, and PTL. Rex's ability is begging for Push the Limit, and with the new Ion engines, it's now a feasible build.

I've been running the following list to great effect in our area -

Rex, PTL, HLC, Twin Ion MkII

Echo, ACD, VI, FCS, and either Navigator or Tactician (1 point Difference between the two)

Academy Pilot

Rex is a superstar, and being able to flip those HLC hits to crits is always fun. I prefer Echo, because of his unpredictability compared to Whisper. And kitting Echo out with Navigator allows me some measure of response to blockers. The Academy always seems to be my endgame piece - everyone ignores the lowly TIE, and it usually comes back to bite them in the butt. Tactician is the other option, and gives you a point to spare, perhaps giving you the initiative if you're lucky.

I have been toying with the idea of running Echo without a crew member and instead changing the Academy Pilot to an Epsilon Squadron Pilot (Tie FO), just for some increased survivability, and the S-Loop. Haven't had a chance to try it out just yet.

Once Inperial Veterans drops, tables are going to be flooded with Defenders of all types - the new titles will definitely ensure that, and I am quite certain we'll see a lot of Ion Defender Warthogs, as well as Tractor and Flechette versions.

You could just not go to the tournament.

Personally, I like to kit out my Rex with HLC, Twin Ion MkII, and PTL. Rex's ability is begging for Push the Limit, and with the new Ion engines, it's now a feasible build.

I've been running the following list to great effect in our area -

Rex, PTL, HLC, Twin Ion MkII

Echo, ACD, VI, FCS, and either Navigator or Tactician (1 point Difference between the two)

Academy Pilot

Rex is a superstar, and being able to flip those HLC hits to crits is always fun. I prefer Echo, because of his unpredictability compared to Whisper. And kitting Echo out with Navigator allows me some measure of response to blockers. The Academy always seems to be my endgame piece - everyone ignores the lowly TIE, and it usually comes back to bite them in the butt. Tactician is the other option, and gives you a point to spare, perhaps giving you the initiative if you're lucky.

I have been toying with the idea of running Echo without a crew member and instead changing the Academy Pilot to an Epsilon Squadron Pilot (Tie FO), just for some increased survivability, and the S-Loop. Haven't had a chance to try it out just yet.

Once Inperial Veterans drops, tables are going to be flooded with Defenders of all types - the new titles will definitely ensure that, and I am quite certain we'll see a lot of Ion Defender Warthogs, as well as Tractor and Flechette versions.

Cool thanks for the insight. Ill test this list out. Have you tried sensor jammer over FCS on echo? Idk why but I get paranoid about facing a TLT list and having no response.

I feel you on the titles. I want a chance to get some flying time with the defender before veterans drops. I just hate playing the same thing that everyone and their mother is playing.