All I have to say is the first very crew member I'm putting on my fancy new TIE Shuttle is yo momma!

Yo mamma so fat when she boards the shuttle she takes up all the crew slots.

To me the Achilles' heel of Brobots has always been (aside from stress control) the fact that they rely so much on repositioning that they struggle against higher PS in general, and higher PS aces/arc-dodgers in particular. And since those ships will still do fairly well against Defenders (not to mention the fact that PS7+ Defenders are capable of outflying Brobots in the hands of a strong player), I'm not sure Brobots will get stronger than they are now in the post-Imperial Veterans meta.

You'd think that, but there is a long list of things that scare me more than Soontir Fel. He just doesn't do enough damage to really worry me, at least the way I run my big, stupid 50 point Defenders. He doesn't do reliable damage at Range 3 against an AG3 ship (with 7 hit points), and and Range 1-2 autothrusters stop working so he has to get really worried about those 4 red dice slamming through his defenses. I can guard against a Range 1 shot with a supporting ship, and just go to town on his support, because he can't do enough damage to worry me before I can put the ship count in my favor. Do I sometimes lose to Fel? Sure, but him and Vader are two very maneuverable ships that I am pretty okay facing.

I only said they'd do fairly well. Fel (or Vader, or whomever) is definitely going to take a long time to chew through the Defender's hit points. Especially with the x7 title in the mix, Fel can expect to shoot through 3 dice with focus and evade, which looks suspiciously like his own token stack but with twice the HP behind it.

But Fel has a huge advantage in one-on-one maneuverability, if not in speed--he has to watch for the white K-turn, but otherwise it looks to me like he's got fairly free reign over the board space. (I've only tried to chase him down in a Defender once, and I won but it was a slog. I've played it a handful of times the other way, too, and outflying the Defender as Fel was a lot easier.)

My point, though, was that if you look at Imperial aces, Defenders, and Brobots in a rock-paper-scissors sort of scenario, aces can usually expect to beat Brobots, and the other matchups are pretty neutral. That isn't an environment where Brobots leap into the front of the metagame, unless there's also some phenomenally popular Rebel list in the mix that Brobots can beat reliably.

My point, though, was that if you look at Imperial aces, Defenders, and Brobots in a rock-paper-scissors sort of scenario, aces can usually expect to beat Brobots, and the other matchups are pretty neutral. That isn't an environment where Brobots leap into the front of the metagame, unless there's also some phenomenally popular Rebel list in the mix that Brobots can beat reliably.

Yeah, I agree with this.

This is going to be an exciting release for sure. When is it coming................

June or July maybe?

Something I noticed with the X7 title: it's a free token, not a free action. And the green manuvers on a Defender are notoriously unreliable. So if we plan on being stressed all game, what options does that open for us?

Rage.

Nevermind. I just noticed that Rage is an action. That makes it far less useful than I thought it would be.

Something I noticed with the X7 title: it's a free token, not a free action. And the green manuvers on a Defender are notoriously unreliable. So if we plan on being stressed all game, what options does that open for us?

Rage.

Nevermind. I just noticed that Rage is an action. That makes it far less useful than I thought it would be.

Rage is basically custom designed for Tycho. Other ships it is a lot more situational.

Something I noticed with the X7 title: it's a free token, not a free action. And the green manuvers on a Defender are notoriously unreliable. So if we plan on being stressed all game, what options does that open for us?

Rage.

Nevermind. I just noticed that Rage is an action. That makes it far less useful than I thought it would be.

To answer your question another way: Wired

My best game with a defender is one where I couldn't afford to clear stress. Predator helped a lot, wired and x7 would have made it amazing. Running wired on a defender is iffy though, you're not always in a situation to get that stress, so it'll sit idle a lot.

Rage is basically custom designed for Tycho. Other ships it is a lot more situational.

Just imagine how great it would be were it either not an action, or only gave 1 stress!

Ruthlessness on the Col Vess is still being underestimated I think. Extra damage aside, it punishes your opponent for flying well. Meaning formation flying and focus firing. I would gladly pay the points for that ept for that reason even without the added bonus of splash damage.

Brath with any title is still not worth it IMO. Merrek will be a great wingman for Vess plus Omega leader.

@Tokyogriz - I hope so, I'm planning on it to arrive later than earlier though and hopefully I'm not disappointed.

@Chief Hugh - Indeed I agree with you sir. Perhaps RB's pilot ability is just too specialised currently to be used consistently. You're paying for the premium pilot skill I would think. Just looking forward to it a great deal indeed!

Rexlar with Juke and X7 seems like it's going to be pretty decent.

i was actually more thinking of running the Vassery w/ TIE/D, Ion Cannon, Push the Limits, and Twin Ion Engines MK2.

Free target lock to reroll the ion cannon so i can neutralize a ship at a distance so i can follow up next round for the kill. Push the limits because its just too valuable to slap a random Evade on yourself even if you NEED to barrel to get a good shot and the engines to greatly improve his destressing-ability.

Somewhat pricy, 39pts in the end, but he will be pretty difficult to take out with a perma-evade token on top of 3 agility, and that capability to lockdown into the kill is juicy. Dont really see a point in putting any missiles on him since, atleast the ones i own, none of them are either uber powerful compared to his normal dice at close range or offer a fallback tactic worth the points. I do like my homing missiles, but 5pts on top of a 39 point ship...ouch lol

Defenders don't have the Evade action...

I'm quite liking the look of;

Brath - 41

Tie/d (0)

Predator (3)

Tractor Beam (1)

Vessery - 39

Tie/d (0)

Ion cannon (3)

Crackshot or VI (1)

Scimitar Squadron - 20

Tie Shuttle (0)

Intel agent (1)

Fleet officer (3)

Long range scanners (0)

I'm not too sure on the legitimacy of scanners and tie shuttle on the same ship, but assuming the FAQ the EPT bot and not losing your EPT when he goes weeeeeee out the hatch i'm gonna hope it's possible.

I think the defenders have the capability of hitting as hard as HLC defenders if Brath can hit with his tractor beam. Really messes up regen ships and deals with stress reasonably well.

Other than that, I'm definitely most excited for X7 as it seems to be the title which offers something to both the aces and the generics. I'm certainly excited for what I can do with 9 points in my lists by taking X7 on Vess instead of the compulsory HLC at the moment.

I'm just hoping it hits before the UK open series event in June!

I wonder how well VI x7 Rexler will work. He's a focus token short of Fel's stack and lacks boost and Autothrusters, but with three extra shields, +1 PS and not being limited to greens he should be a capable ace hunter. Once in a while you might even have a focus token and roll three hits against an unshielded ship.

The Evade token is useful, but of course the best defence is always to avoid being shot at in the first place. Unless you're playing vs turrets then your movement doesn't have to change since you should be angling to be out of arc as much as possible to begin with. The free token is just a cherry topping for those times you can't manage it, and as insurance vs turreted ships.

I'm surprised we haven't had a skies falling thread about defenders doing six damage in a turn with ruthlessness and an ion cannon attached.

FWIW then aren't Crackswarms the only lists that can't mitigate Ruthlessness to the point of near-uselessness? Aces, Brobots, Poe etc etc don't seem fussed by having to stay in R1 of each other, you're more likely to have a friendly ship taking that damage than an enemy in a lot of cases.

Forcing the other guy to separate let's you take them out piecemeal because you can group your fire but they can't.

It all depends on your ability to take advantage of positioning

Forcing the other guy to separate let's you take them out piecemeal because you can group your fire but they can't.

It all depends on your ability to take advantage of positioning

I suspect a lot of times Ruthlessness will be like Lone Wolf. It may seem easier than it actually is. If the enemy goes wide, all your ships have to start being very careful about how they approach and fly. That's the sort of thing that breaks down when you're tired.

On the other hand, Tractor will make a big difference for triggering Ruthlessness, and with Biggs making a resurgence...

You can always pick your least important, least damaged ship to take the hit, too.

Yeah suddenly taking Biggs hurts you more than benefits.

Never liked his ability it should of been the first attack that round not every one, back when empire was majority 2attack he'd soak an entire turns fire, these days it's not really an issue.

I think /D is only auto equip on Vessery, all off the others will be using X/7. Unless Maarek is really nicely priced that throwing a mangler on him is worth not having the evade of X7 or the extra shot of the D...

Who knows, maybe the countess will be something crazy since she spent tons of money on her defender, like gaining the boost action or something.

You won't be able to combine /D and a mangler, the mangler costs over 4 points. Can you imagine the OP ranting that would happen otherwise.

Yeah suddenly taking Biggs hurts you more than benefits.

Never liked his ability it should of been the first attack that round not every one, back when empire was majority 2attack he'd soak an entire turns fire, these days it's not really an issue.

Though the new Kanon/Biggs builds will still be super annoying.

As for Maarek and Mangler, I think it will still be fine to run Defenders without titles with Mangler/HLC. Top tier options, not likely, but still very fun that can do well.