I'm fairly late in this write up but recently I played at the Area 52 comics and games store championship. It was a fun event and my second store champs attempt this year. There were 18 players attending and it was a very enjoyable event. I finished 5th with this list (inspired originally by biophysicals list that featured rexler instead of Vessery):

Colonel Vessery 35

-Heavy Laser Cannon 7

-T.I.E. mk II 1

-Veteran Instincts 1

Omega Leader 21

-Juke 2

-Comm Relay 3

-Stealth Device 3

Zeta Leader 20

-Wired 1

-Hull Upgrade 3

-Comm Relay 3

100 points.

My first match up was against a player named Chris, full disclosure it was his first tournament. He handled himself very well and brought a very lethal list, an almost symmetrical Brobots B and C list. I don't remember the exact upgrades, however I know they both had Heavy laser cannons and one had veteran instincts. We rolled and I gave him the initiative. The rocks were a central cluster, and he set his bots up side by side with room to maneuver. I placed my list directly across from his gunnerbot as I was sure that was the more dangerous of the two. The initial approach went well for me, I ended up at range one of the gunnerbot with my entire squad and luckily enough his other bot moved a bit too fast and didn't have arc on me. After the exchange I had stripped the shields of gunner bot in return for the shields of vessery. That was the only damage I recieved this game. My opponent and I were both bewildered by the next turn of events where he consecutively banked when he meant to turn his gunnerbot twice resulting in a flight off the table. At that point the other bot had 4 hull and my opponent conceded the match to me. He went on to get a few wins that day, I just hate that our game played out like this. Great guy and I'm certain he will be someone I look forward to playing again.

Win 100/0.

Round 2 had me matched against an old favorite list of mine, with a twist. A Soontir plus mini-swarm list featuring howlrunner, mauler mithel, backstabber, and an Epsilon squaddie piloted by a gentleman named Cory. My game plan going in was to remove soontir Asap. I figured I could worry about the ties later, 2 dice won't go through my agillity right? However it turns out that was a mistake, because mauler and backstabber can still do a load of work. The rocks ended up as a cluster in the center (beginning a patern? Fo's love knife fighting between rocks). He set up the swarm on his right out of the rocks if he had an option, and I set up with a straight line into the cover where he would have to fly around or through debris to get clean shots on me. Luckily enough with the way I engaged his Soontir got caught in a furball with multiple arcs on him from my list, I positioned where he had no choice but to be in arc of omega and zeta or omega and vessery. He picked omega and vessery and after some awesome shots by my Fo's soontir was dead after his first shot. The next few turns saw me trade vessery for mauler (bad trade) and later down the line after consecutively blanking out on a shot on a one health epsilon omega leader was taken by back stabber. Things looked fairly grim but I caught a lucky break where the epsilon died to a scrap cloud crit and then zeta removed backstabber with a range one attack. All that was left was a 4 hull zeta versus a one hull howlrunner, and with the last shot of the game... I missed and recieved a modified win.

Modified win 80/73

Round 3 and I felt like I was on a hot streak. I was feeling great after such a back and forth game and was ready to get back in the pilot seat. My next opponent was a fellow named jake who brought an extremely interesting scum list.

Kavil

-veteran instincts 1

-blaster turret 4

-r4 aggromech 2

Guri

-title

-sensor jammer

-predator

-glitterstim

Palob goldahli

-tlt

-moldy crow

We rolled and I gave my opponent initiative (only mattered for rocks). The rocks once again were a central cluster with a emphasis on my left side. He set up guri and palob on his right. I stated that I liked my chances to joust that and set up directly across from them, and he placed kavil afterward. Let me start with saying, having a y wing be the highest pilot skill on the table was so cool, especially at a tournament. I started screaming down the board with 5 straights. The FO's setup their evades (even though palob would just steal them later). He did speculative banks twoards the rocks with his 5s and then kavil surprised me with a turn away from my list. I banked 3 with my formation the next turn, luckily catching palob in my crosshairs at range three (barely out of two so no stealing for him!). I of course focussed palob and brought him relatively low considering it was the first shots of the game. The next turn I promptly offed palob (not before he disabled juke for omega leader). From here, I won't lie. My green dice were ridiculously hot and his red dice were seriously cold. Zeta leader picked to chase down kavil (getting 4 out of 4 hits 2 turns in a row, and evading taking any damage in return.) and vessery and omega dealt with guri. I will state that I was very impressed with guris performance, even though I ended up only losing the shields from vessery this match.

Win 100/0

My fourth and final round for the day saw me against the only other undefeated player at the tourney. A rebel player named Nick White. He brought a three ship squad as well. With wedge antilles, miranda doni, and jake ferrel. We clustered the rocks, and he gave me initiative. At this point in the day my play became sloppy. I suppose I had hit my tourney fatigue wall after the long rest I had after round 3. I felt like the opening engagement went extremely well, I killed wedge without losing a ship, but miranda double stressed omega with tactician. I felt like I could still recover but then in the same turn his jake zoomed in and unloaded his proton rockets into vessery. 5 hits. I rolled one evade and he used his crackshot. From there the game was an inevitable loss, I just had to try my best to make it difficult. Of course I didn't get another shot for the rest of the game. So, with that crushing defeat, i took my first loss of the day.

Loss 31/100

However, even though I went three and one, and had an awesome mov, that modified win earlier left me with a 5th place finish. Second time in top 8 this year, was hoping to at least top 4 again, but hey the acryllic range ruler is awesome, and I already have a coin anyway. It was great fun to play and I feel like I learned alot from my opponents.

My last comments will be on my list. Mostly everyone performed as expected. When omega was alive to the end, I won. As expected. Vessery had outstandingly reliable damage output, always having a tl and focus on his 4 attack dice, but his green dice are astoundingly fickle, which made him fragile compared to the FO's. Both FO's proved extremely durable and the dials are amazing. My last note is that zeta leader with wired punched way outside of his points value, and Wired triggers far more often than you expect. This list is a joy to fly, and getting a defender on table was a breath of fresh air. Hope y'all enjoyed this write up, fly casual.

Nice rep and well done. Love to see the defenders getting more love this year than last. Nothing's really changed for them yet either so people are just basically coming to terms with thier awesomeness I just took a championship with a similar list; Vess, OL, epsilon ace & an academy. I'll try get the rep up during the week.

You having any more attempts in the championships with this list this year?

You people need to stop making me want to run that list again next weekend, I'm supposed to play Rebel scum this time

Good to hear it went well for you, it is an insanely fun trio. I can't wait to swap in my Rexler for a TIE/D Vessery with a tractor beam, I'll bring that to a tournament at least once.

Having two comm relays also sounds mighty useful, as I expected.

Considering how you described the toughness of the FOs compared to Vessery, do you think it's worth putting Zeta Leader's Hull Upgrade on Vessery?

Given Vessary usually has a target lock and can save his focus token for defence, I'm wondering if stealth device wouldn't be better than hull on him.

That's an interesting idea biophysical, if I did that swap Id probably give zeta the tie mk 2 upgrade. I know it doesn't add many greens to an FO dial but all the options are always better on a self stressing ship. I probably should've saved vessery's focus more than I did as well. I'm less a fan of stealth on vess, because the dice being fickle is what gets him killed more often in the first place. I might even drop the tie mk 2 and hull upgrade for a shield upgrade on vessery instead. Excellent little murderous group of fighters though.

My next tournament will probably be an attempt at georgia regionals. I wanted a buy, but a 4th place finish and a 5th place finish didn't quite grab it for me. My plan is a similar list to this, might be replacing vessery with a 42 point whisper, but I'm still testing.

Yeah, I nearly took vessery out of my list for a 43 pony whisper mostly due to my lack of success vs TLT's with my current squad and great success with whisper. The only reason I didn't was because I couldn't come up with a viable play B's the stresshog with whisper that didn't involve her being out of the fight for too long! At least Vess ain't too fussed about that stupid bot!

That's an interesting idea biophysical, if I did that swap Id probably give zeta the tie mk 2 upgrade. I know it doesn't add many greens to an FO dial but all the options are always better on a self stressing ship. I probably should've saved vessery's focus more than I did as well. I'm less a fan of stealth on vess, because the dice being fickle is what gets him killed more often in the first place. I might even drop the tie mk 2 and hull upgrade for a shield upgrade on vessery instead. Excellent little murderous group of fighters though.

My next tournament will probably be an attempt at georgia regionals. I wanted a buy, but a 4th place finish and a 5th place finish didn't quite grab it for me. My plan is a similar list to this, might be replacing vessery with a 42 point whisper, but I'm still testing.

I've run Vessery with Stealth previously, and it worked pretty well. That was pre-Crack shot, though, and I don't like Stealth as much in a Crack Shot world without more defensive support on a ship. I'd want Lone Wolf, and probably I'd want it on an x7 Vessery so there was a bunch of effects a player had to punch through.

That would be an interesting combination. In a lone wolf x7 scenario I'd probably pick Brath over vessery. Just cause being the last to shoot in this particular list wouldn't be good for vessery with his reliance on friendly target locks

(not that omega leader spends his often.)

That would be an interesting combination. In a lone wolf x7 scenario I'd probably pick Brath over vessery. Just cause being the last to shoot in this particular list wouldn't be good for vessery with his reliance on friendly target locks

(not that omega leader spends his often.)

I like lower PS that a lot of aces for this combination, actually. You shoot after a lot of the common aces (although Brath does plenty of times as well), so you know if you need to spend the Focus on defense to protect your Stealth Device. I do think the combo could be pretty good on any Defender as an anti TLT/swarm setup.

4 dice, one re-rolled, +1 Focus, +1 Evade. It's still nasty tough even when the Stealth Device breaks.

I already won a big store championship with the Omega Leader and 5 TIEs, and next weekend I have another, this time without the pressure. Same size, about 40 people there. I'm bringing Rexler with Omega Leader and Zeta Leader, and felt compelled to tell Bipophysical, because he ran a very similar one (Hull upgrade instead of comm relay on Zeta Leader), and he's the hero the defender needs.

100 Points

50 points

• Rexler Brath

TIE Defender

Heavy Laser Cannon

Predator

Hull Upgrade

26 points

• “Omega Leader”

TIE/fo Fighter

Comm Relay

Juke

24 points

• “Zeta Leader”

TIE/fo Fighter

Comm Relay

Wired

I guess there are a lot of things that hurt me, a lot of things that will make my life very complicated, but... Want to feel Rexler's touch. Thank you for your inspiration, defender ppl.

How useful that second comm relay would have been! And I re-read wired this week and saw I could have rerolled any number of focus :facepalm: Learn from my mistake!

Running Vessery this weekend. Going to be awesome!

How useful that second comm relay would have been! And I re-read wired this week and saw I could have rerolled any number of focus :facepalm: Learn from my mistake!

Yeah, I picked up a second FO pack to grab my second Comm Relay, and it makes Zeta a bit better than the Hull Upgrade. Wired is part of what makes Zeta Leader so insanely good for the points. It's this touch of extra defense against every attack that comes after him on top of some extra offense, action free. The fun thing with re-rolling eyes instead of spending the Focus is that sometimes they come up crits.

For Nynox: Good luck! What in particular do you think are bad matchups?

Yeah, I picked up a second FO pack to grab my second Comm Relay, and it makes Zeta a bit better than the Hull Upgrade. Wired is part of what makes Zeta Leader so insanely good for the points. It's this touch of extra defense against every attack that comes after him on top of some extra offense, action free. The fun thing with re-rolling eyes instead of spending the Focus is that sometimes they come up crits.

For Nynox: Good luck! What in particular do you think are bad matchups?

I still don't believe it, Biophysical. It was finally a 32 ppl store championship, only swiss, 5 rounds. I made it to the second place with 5 games, four of them won 100-0, one lost 15-100. I faced aces only, since luckily, people is avoiding the 4 tlt meta that won the two first stores in southern Spain, in Sevilla and Malaga. So, in general, the top tables were filled with some meta lists, and mostly not so meta lists. There were 5 kirahzx (3rd place), double decimator (5th), 4 z95 2Ys (Took first place), And imperial aces (4th place, the only loss I had). I also saw in top tables 4 t70s, 7 z95s with feedback arrays, and 4Bs 1z. A heartwarming variety that I did not face at all xD

There were not particularly good or bad matchups. I fought against Vessery (PTL, Engine, HLC), lambda (Vader, title) and omega leader in the first round against an unexperienced player, and I tried to be helpful while explaining the choices I made every time. He left the lambda behind too long, and the first combat round I was able to focus fire omega leader, the next turn Vessery, and the game ended promptly, only receiving a salvo in Zeta Leader.

The second game was against the only other 100-0 and it was a very archetypical Poe, Corran, A wing. Both aces with VI, He set up for the joust, the A in the flank. I ran fast with Zeta, and Omega and Rex moved 2 to set up a good fire concentration of fire. The next turn I tried to force either Poe or Corran to take focused fire, and to avoid that, Poe boosted, into Rex's range 1, only avoiding Omega Leader's shots. When he got killed, and corran did no damage to Omega Leader, things went south for him. Next round Corran lost all of his shields, and the only damage I took was a double attack from Corran on my defender, who stood up with no shields.

The third game put me against a Vader, Soontir (Targeting computer) and omega leader squad. It should have hurted me more than it did. At certain point, he boosted Soontir into range 1 of Rex, and Vader did the same, expecting to kill me before I could answer. I still think that was a bit reckless, but It could have worked. Soontir removed all 3 shields, but Vader was unable to finish the job (2 damage, agility crit), so there was a return fire turn, with focus. Soontir died there, and his omega leader followed. Once forced into the defensive, the game was finished, and the FOs did the rest of the job while I tried to protect a 2 health Rex, that is worth 50 points.

Fourth game was against a Palpatine, Soontir(TC too) and Vader(Juke). Again, aces. A guy from a the neighbour city of Córdoba. We've played 4 times, I've only won one. This was not that one xD

He flew Palp defensively, and his aces did the job. First shot range 3 stripped all shields from my Rexler, 1 damage on vader in return, and after that, the only true chance I had appeared while blocking Vader, but my Rex shot got only 3 hits, and he rolled two evades. Palp did the rest. Omega leader died to lambda fire after that, Zeta leader did what he could, but did not shine this time, and died second. Rex tried, survived a few turns, but only one guy with no available blockers, his demise became just a matter of time, and last round of the game, Vader erased him from existence. A few potshots on the lambda gave me half it's value, but that's it.

The last round was against a Whisper, omega leader, and Palpmobile. It's played by a young lad, who plays quite well (Has won several tourneys in the last months), but lacks a certain level of concentration. Once he makes one bad roll/decision, he just starts ranting to himself, and usually that leads to his self-defeat. My recent loss did not affect me, and after an unfortunate bad positioned Whisper's cloak, I moved all my ships to the only place the decloak could take place. The phantom decloaked, and and after a 1 hard turn, missed the chance of a shot for milimeters, while I had the 3 ships pointing in his direction. He cloaked again, but I managed to do the damage even after Kallus and Palp did their jobs, and did not lose anywhing. Omega leader died, and after that was a Lambda merry chase.

A second medal, a second range ruler, and another nice € prize. The most important thing, I enjoyed every game, even the loss, and I had a true blast with Rex, who only used his ability ONCE, against the phantom in the last game, and did not affect anything. Oh, yes, he received 2 damage because he didn't have a focus xD

Again, thank you guys, and I hope you excuse my writing, since I'm clearly not native english speaker

edit: Oh, I did not answer your questions. under average matchups could have been any swarmy 3 red dice lists, and in general, tlts do not favour the odds of evading too much, while 8 (9) red dice may be too short to kill something soon. Vader decimators and direct damage lads, like the 7 z95s could prove them a hard matchup too. If I had to choose what not to find, I'd go with the 4 tlts, hands down.

Wow, 2nd out if 32 is pretty nice. It's interesting that you don't like the swarm or TLT matchup. I've found that Rex build does very well vs swarms (although I haven't played it vs the Feedback Array swarm), and Zeta Leader is strong cell swarms, too. The TLTs can be tough, and rely a lot on the first engagement, but Zeta Leader can do a lot of good work here, as do the Comm Relays. With Rex, you pretty much have to engineer it so he doesn't take the full fire the first engagement, or the FOs will have an uphill (but winnable) battle.