Yeah. I said this elsewhere, but Stele in an x7 Defender is going to be much harder to kill than the Advanced variant. The Advanced version needs PTL if he wants to get his target lock and a defensive token in the same turn. That means stress, on one of the worst dials in the game for clearing stress. Otherwise, he's relying on naked green dice to keep him alive. He also needs his target to remain in arc for his ATC to work. If he's stuck shooting targets of opportunity, he's only rolling two dice.

Defender Maarek can get a free evade token for defense, which automatically means he's taking less damage than his Advanced version. He's also free to take a focus action on top of that and shoot 3-4 dice at anyone within his arc, rather than requiring a target lock to generate that third hit result. He's not going to have to work as hard for similar results, but he will be an extra five points before any other upgrades.

List I'd love to try: The Aristocrats!

Countess w/ x7, MkII, PTL

3 x Barons w/ V1 and Crackshot

Yeah. I said this elsewhere, but Stele in an x7 Defender is going to be much harder to kill than the Advanced variant. The Advanced version needs PTL if he wants to get his target lock and a defensive token in the same turn. That means stress, on one of the worst dials in the game for clearing stress. Otherwise, he's relying on naked green dice to keep him alive. He also needs his target to remain in arc for his ATC to work. If he's stuck shooting targets of opportunity, he's only rolling two dice.

Defender Maarek can get a free evade token for defense, which automatically means he's taking less damage than his Advanced version. He's also free to take a focus action on top of that and shoot 3-4 dice at anyone within his arc, rather than requiring a target lock to generate that third hit result. He's not going to have to work as hard for similar results, but he will be an extra five points before any other upgrades.

Thing is, it's pretty easy to telegram where the three moves are likely to end up.

Stele's Tie advanced with PTL could work well with the tie x2 mod I guess

Ive taken to putting Twin MK2 engines on my defenders because once they get stressed they cannot shake it. Yeah, it hurts not having the extra agi for cloaking device but it hurts more to either hit a debris or face a Tactician list. Even 1 stress is enough to prevent the defender from doing anything, since his only green movements are straight and usually by the time hes stressed hes in a position where he really does not want to go straight lol

Ive taken to putting Twin MK2 engines on my defenders because once they get stressed they cannot shake it. Yeah, it hurts not having the extra agi for cloaking device but it hurts more to either hit a debris or face a Tactician list. Even 1 stress is enough to prevent the defender from doing anything, since his only green movements are straight and usually by the time hes stressed hes in a position where he really does not want to go straight lol

I agree, it also makes those lower speed hard turns viable options if you are forced to knife fight.

Ive taken to putting Twin MK2 engines on my defenders because once they get stressed they cannot shake it. Yeah, it hurts not having the extra agi for cloaking device but it hurts more to either hit a debris or face a Tactician list. Even 1 stress is enough to prevent the defender from doing anything, since his only green movements are straight and usually by the time hes stressed hes in a position where he really does not want to go straight lol

I too like the Mk2 upgrade on Defenders, but the white kturn on the Defender is a really great option, even when stressed. You don't have to shed your stress the turn after you get it, sometimes a kturn followed up by a slow(er) green is you best bet.

Ive taken to putting Twin MK2 engines on my defenders because once they get stressed they cannot shake it. Yeah, it hurts not having the extra agi for cloaking device but it hurts more to either hit a debris or face a Tactician list. Even 1 stress is enough to prevent the defender from doing anything, since his only green movements are straight and usually by the time hes stressed hes in a position where he really does not want to go straight lol

The games that went best for me were when I stopped obsessing about clearing stress off of Rexler and just focused on positioning him best. Of course, I run him with predator, so it's still modified dice.

Ive taken to putting Twin MK2 engines on my defenders because once they get stressed they cannot shake it. Yeah, it hurts not having the extra agi for cloaking device but it hurts more to either hit a debris or face a Tactician list. Even 1 stress is enough to prevent the defender from doing anything, since his only green movements are straight and usually by the time hes stressed hes in a position where he really does not want to go straight lol

I too like the Mk2 upgrade on Defenders, but the white kturn on the Defender is a really great option, even when stressed. You don't have to shed your stress the turn after you get it, sometimes a kturn followed up by a slow(er) green is you best bet.

This is especially true for Vessery and his action free target locks but I'll still take being able to shed stress on a bank over a boost action any day.

All this wonderfulness aside though... I feel like Stele is best left on his Advanced, his ability works better there.

Sadly, I agree.

This amuses me more than it should:

Countess with EU and Push the Limit, locking in a 2 straight.

Just listened to the mynock pod cast and they really don't think much of the countess. I think she is great. It will not be that hard for her to get three actions a turn.

^ PS 5 will make her a decent punching bag for the high PS aces.

It is the way she was balanced and imho it is perfect. Any higher and she'd be broken.

Now she is just "fun".

^ PS 5 will make her a decent punching bag for the high PS aces.

It is the way she was balanced and imho it is perfect. Any higher and she'd be broken.

Now she is just "fun".

I think she should be able to be unpredictable enough not to be a pure punchbag, and to force them to skip shots rather than getting shots on target.

But I don't know for sure without trying her out. Come on boat. Arrive.

The nice part about the Countess is that she's not so expensive that you can't have a higher PS ace in the squad. She can hunt most generics with a good chance of success while your 8+ deals with his counterpart.

It just comes down to...

TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY!

^ PS 5 will make her a decent punching bag for the high PS aces.

It is the way she was balanced and imho it is perfect. Any higher and she'd be broken.

Now she is just "fun".

I have way too many Vader and Fel kills with PS8 or PS6 Defenders to be worried about PS5 being a problem against aces. You don't need to be higher PS than a positional ship in order to beat it.

^ PS 5 will make her a decent punching bag for the high PS aces.

It is the way she was balanced and imho it is perfect. Any higher and she'd be broken.

Now she is just "fun".

I have way too many Vader and Fel kills with PS8 or PS6 Defenders to be worried about PS5 being a problem against aces. You don't need to be higher PS than a positional ship in order to beat it.

This 100%. I think players need to have more faith in themselves to be able to out fly pilots rather then relying on a ships ability alone.

Yes aces can dodge her arch sometimes. But in my experience, that means the a majority of the time you are not in their arch either.

I think Ryad is just right at PS5. She will absolutely dominate a straight 1v1 joust against a generic pilot at PS1-4 because she has enough options to move and reposition with even just the vanilla pilot card, never mind the x7 and EU±PtL nonsense.

But against a higher PS ship, Ace or no, she's now the best blocker I can think of. She can zip through and roll over to where Fel or Vader are likely to be, and then she pays no penalty whatsoever to turn around and get back to shooting. Even Fel doesn't like trying to 180, since it still takes him two turns to completely turn around.

I think Bio said earlier that Ryad just does better what a Defender does best, and that's hit the nail on the head. She may not suit everyone's flying style but I feel she's going to be a strong competitive contender all-around.

Anyone feel that Ryad should have been a Baroness to continue the theme with Tomax?

I've played multiple GOTTAGOFAST games with /x7, and I've never had a problem with needing to go slow - not east because when your opponent is expecting you to go fast forever, you can really wrong foot him by doing a 1 bank...

I really think that throwing the occasional 1 bank on your Defender can make such a big difference enough to make your opponent keep guessing what you are going to do. If you are always doing the K-turn or the Speed 3+ with X/7, then you will become predictable. You can really snooker someone by doing the oddball move. It can win you games that way.

I think Ryad should go with the X/7 title, PTL, and MkII engines. When she does go Speed 3+, she gets her free Evade. She can use PTL to either BR to a new spot or Focus and TL. I think a BR should be enough to get her to where she needs to be. Throw in the occasional 1 bank and BR further out and you are NOT where they thought you would be.

I don't see Engine Upgrade being that highly used on Ryad. She's just too low PS to really take advantage of it and she should probably do some other action than Boosting.

I don't see Ryad as game breaking or OP or unstoppable. I think she's good and nifty. She's harder to predict than a regular Tie Defender, but she can also get defensive with the PTL. Make it a BR and Focus or just get the Evade and Focus (with another action, as well).

Anyone feel that Ryad should have been a Baroness to continue the theme with Tomax?

Maybe. But she's an EU character. And she's a countess there.

Anyone feel that Ryad should have been a Baroness to continue the theme with Tomax?

Maybe. But she's an EU character. And she's a countess there.

At any rate she's gonna be in the Char Aznable Pink Defender, because Gundam. Char himself gets the pink Interceptor.

^ PS 5 will make her a decent punching bag for the high PS aces.

It is the way she was balanced and imho it is perfect. Any higher and she'd be broken.

Now she is just "fun".

I have way too many Vader and Fel kills with PS8 or PS6 Defenders to be worried about PS5 being a problem against aces. You don't need to be higher PS than a positional ship in order to beat it.

Don't tell pgs this. His head might explode.

Seriously, the fact that this includes no Conner Net is really irritating. They're literally only in Rebel sets at the moment, which is a pain for people who play Scum and Imps and not Rebels.

Welcome to everything wrong with this game in general.

And Sithborg, there's only one Sonic themesong that's worth linking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYW7-hNXZlM

Wtf?! That's the most insane thing I've ever heard!

This is the only music I here...

http://youtu.be/SF9ZLNxHaBY

This is the only music I here...

http://youtu.be/SF9ZLNxHaBY

Better.

The Countess gets a green 5k, which she can repeat endlessly while using PtL. That is going to be a pain in the ass to dodge constantly, especially if you throw in some surprises every one in a while. Interceptors don't turn around very well at all, at least not without using all of their actions. This is a ship that can be pointed in almost any direction you could want it to be. I'm honestly surprised that good players are having a hard time seeing why this is so good.

What she is is another pilot that will absolutely murder generics, like Guri. Seriously, she can probably take on twice her points in generics and at least have a solid chance of coming out ahead, not that many named pilots can do that. However unlike Guri she can take a solid high-PS ace hunter to back her up, like Vader or Whisper.

I also don't think that people should overlook /D on her either. She'll likely be taking a lot of range 3 shots with her long k-turns, and with access to PtL she can easily modify both of those shots. Not as survivable, but this is a ship that I expect won't actually get shot that much except by turrets.

All I can really say about the Countess though is that I wish we'd gotten more Defender pilots. She's the only really new one that we got, and likely will get for several years, so I'm going to enjoy the hell out of flying her.