So with the new Imperial Veterans coming out, I thought I'd give the empire some love and look at the nasty stuff the TIE Defenders can do with their snazzy new Title card; TIE/D. This card is absolutely amazing, letting me shoot any 3 point cannon weapon, then firing my primary weapon right after. HOW COOL IS THIS?! So, what is this list? Well let me show you:

Ion Squadron (98)

Onyx Squadron Pilot (35) - TIE Defender

Ion Cannon (3), TIE/D (0)

Onyx Squadron Pilot (35) - TIE Defender

Ion Cannon (3), TIE/D (0)

Captain Jonus (28) - TIE Bomber

XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (1), Extra Munitions (2), Plasma Torpedoes (3), Long-Range Scanners (0)

Alright, so a quick glance at this list (and squadron title) gives the impression that I absolutely love Ion... And your not wrong. With the new TIE/D upgrade, not only can I ionize my opponent, but I can strip away shields AND make a primary weapon attack the same turn... THIS IS PRETTY COOL. Now, the fun I had was adding Jonus, Which lets me target any friendly in range one and let them re-roll their secondary weapon attack, which in conclusion means MORE CHANCE TO IONIZE. Now, you might also be thinking "look, we get it, you love ion, but I don't see it being that good." Well here's my response: Torpedos. not only am I shooting you with primary weapons and ion cannons, but you'll have to deal with Plasma Torps as well. And if you really wanna get gross, you could remove the tracers and add proton rockets instead when things get in your face (literally). The ultimate idea behind this list is tracer, give your Defenders Target locks, then go to town with their ion and primary weapons with possible re-rolls. SNAZZY. Plus, if you focus fire on those big ships *cough *cough Jumpmaster *cough *cough those 2 ion tokens make your next move extremely predictable.. Literally.

So that's my list and rant on Ion and the new Imperial Veterans coming out. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this thread, and happy Flying!

Yeah Ion cannon + TIE/D title is pretty good.

I think your list can work. Its a decent use of Jonus, all things considered (although having plenty of play experience with TIE/D on VASSAL, I really don't believe Jonus' re-rolls are that important to making generic Defenders work well).

But yeah, taking Onyx for the PS 3 is a good idea right now (since Deltas really suffer against alpha strike lists such as the contracted scout torpedo boats).

Personally though, I'd rather have a dedicated blocker to make the most out of those ions (and shut down alpha strikes by denying an action to reduce incoming damage). I think a Delta w/ X-7 will be a more useful 28 points than Jonus, but that could just be me.

Another list that gives your Defender's greater accuracy, but keeps them independent and has room for a blocker, is:

2 Glaive pilots w/ predator, TIE/D & ion cannon = 40 x 2

This is of course making an assumption (that Glaive generic defenders will cost 34 points), but I think its a pretty safe bet. You then have 20 points left for a good blocker. Alpha pilot w/ autothrusters, or Seinar pilot w/ V-1 title & autothrusters (also gives you a 1 pt bid which is handy vs bro-bots).

But your list is certainly not bad. It focuses on maximizing the strengths of the TIE/D through Jonus re-rolls, but I feel it would be ultimately better to spend those points to cover the Defender's weaknesses, since it reduces the number of bad matchups you have, and at the end of the day, making bad matchups easier to win tends to help out more than making good matchups easier to win (in a tourney anyway).

Another consideration is that you could make Jonus a shuttle and put Fleet Officer on him. You give re-rolls to the Ion Cannons and feed Focus to each ship as well. That's 25 points. With the extra points you could get some Twin Ion Engine Mk2s (more, if different, ion), which I think will be handy with the TIE/D title with Ion Cannons. You could also do something like Mara Jade to screw with people. I'm not sure about EPT on the Jonus Shuttle, but there's probably something good. Cool Hand would essentially be a 1 point shield uograde, so if nothing else, you could start there.

Yeah Ion cannon + TIE/D title is pretty good.

I think your list can work. Its a decent use of Jonus, all things considered (although having plenty of play experience with TIE/D on VASSAL, I really don't believe Jonus' re-rolls are that important to making generic Defenders work well).

But yeah, taking Onyx for the PS 3 is a good idea right now (since Deltas really suffer against alpha strike lists such as the contracted scout torpedo boats).

Personally though, I'd rather have a dedicated blocker to make the most out of those ions (and shut down alpha strikes by denying an action to reduce incoming damage). I think a Delta w/ X-7 will be a more useful 28 points than Jonus, but that could just be me.

Another list that gives your Defender's greater accuracy, but keeps them independent and has room for a blocker, is:

2 Glaive pilots w/ predator, TIE/D & ion cannon = 40 x 2

This is of course making an assumption (that Glaive generic defenders will cost 34 points), but I think its a pretty safe bet. You then have 20 points left for a good blocker. Alpha pilot w/ autothrusters, or Seinar pilot w/ V-1 title & autothrusters (also gives you a 1 pt bid which is handy vs bro-bots).

But your list is certainly not bad. It focuses on maximizing the strengths of the TIE/D through Jonus re-rolls, but I feel it would be ultimately better to spend those points to cover the Defender's weaknesses, since it reduces the number of bad matchups you have, and at the end of the day, making bad matchups easier to win tends to help out more than making good matchups easier to win (in a tourney anyway).

I like the idea of a blocker, so maybe a royal squadron interceptor w/ AT, PTL, SD, and Title card. Thanks for the advice!

Another consideration is that you could make Jonus a shuttle and put Fleet Officer on him. You give re-rolls to the Ion Cannons and feed Focus to each ship as well. That's 25 points. With the extra points you could get some Twin Ion Engine Mk2s (more, if different, ion), which I think will be handy with the TIE/D title with Ion Cannons. You could also do something like Mara Jade to screw with people. I'm not sure about EPT on the Jonus Shuttle, but there's probably something good. Cool Hand would essentially be a 1 point shield uograde, so if nothing else, you could start there.

I made an alternation to this just to see what it would look like on paper. I made Jonus a shuttle, and put Fleet officer and Rebel Captive on it. This will (in theory) draw my opponent to wanting to take it down due to the constant spewing of free Focus tokens to my Defenders, and when he's targeted, the firing ship receives a Stress token. So, he gets stressed, then I focus fire my ion on the poor Pilot who not only is stressed, but will most likely get ionized and shot down fairly quickly. Rinse and repeat for every other ship targeting Jonus instead of my Defenders.