you gotta flank with little Inqy; he's not a fan of slug-fests

that's the defenders' territory

hence running two x7 jukes and ptl title thrusters inq

An x7 Defender is aiming to fight at Range 1-2 against most things. It has the hit points and action independent offense and defense to make it work. The Inquisitor's pilot ability is undeniably incredible. Each ship is optimal at different ranges. x7 Defenders are happier up close, while the Inquisitor wants to skirt around the edges. Personal preference, and where one's strengths lay in piloting probably determine which one you'll want to take.

Inquisitor gets TL focus Evade.

Defenders get Evade and one of those. They're not equal offensively.

Defensively, the Inquisitor is better. It's not exactly difficult to trigger Autothrusters.

Ryad with PTL and x7 gets Focus/TL/Evade. Vessery with x7 gets focus/evade and a free TL as long as an ally has one. And they get 4 dice at range 1.

I would rather have 3 dice at all ranges that deny Autothrusters and the range 3 bonus die than 3 with a potential for 4 at range 1.

I would also rather have Autothrusters and 4 health than no Autothrusters and 6 health. It's not exactly difficult to dodge arcs/rig engagements so that you're at range 3 with the Inquisitor.

Also, I realize how powerful Vessery is, that's why you fly Inquisitor, VI x7 EU Vessery, Palp Shuttle. Best Defender pilot, second best Defender pilot, and hyper C-3PO in an already efficient stat-wise shuttle. 98 points for boosting last.

An x7 Defender is aiming to fight at Range 1-2 against most things. It has the hit points and action independent offense and defense to make it work. The Inquisitor's pilot ability is undeniably incredible. Each ship is optimal at different ranges. x7 Defenders are happier up close, while the Inquisitor wants to skirt around the edges. Personal preference, and where one's strengths lay in piloting probably determine which one you'll want to take.

Inquisitor gets TL focus Evade.

Defenders get Evade and one of those. They're not equal offensively.

Defensively, the Inquisitor is better. It's not exactly difficult to trigger Autothrusters.

Ryad with PTL and x7 gets Focus/TL/Evade. Vessery with x7 gets focus/evade and a free TL as long as an ally has one. And they get 4 dice at range 1.

I would rather have 3 dice at all ranges that deny Autothrusters and the range 3 bonus die than 3 with a potential for 4 at range 1.

I would also rather have Autothrusters and 4 health than no Autothrusters and 6 health. It's not exactly difficult to dodge arcs/rig engagements so that you're at range 3 with the Inquisitor.

All depends on flying style. Both are always 3 dice. As has been stated numerous times this thread, inquisitor is better at range 3 since he denies a die and autothrusters, defender is better at range 1 since it gets 4 dice. I have yet to miss having autothrusters myself flying my defender list. I'm not at range 3 often enough for it to matter and every turret ship I've flown against so far (including dash, dengar, maybe han?) has died fast enough that the focus/evade on defense has been all I've needed. Anytime autothrusters isn't triggering, the health is better. If autothrusters prevents a damage twice, they'll break even. If autothrusters saves more than 2 damage, then the inquisitor will come out ahead.

So, from a lot of the discussion I've seen so far, it looks like Ryad is going to be the biggest gamechanger/most widely used new pilot. I mean for me personally, I think I'll get more fun out of using Maarek. But I'm interested to see how well a simple Ryad + Glaive/juke/x7 (x2) will work out. And then there's that delicious tractor beam...

Ryad is enticing because of her price point and incredible ability; I think the x7 Delta is going to have a greater impact overall, but that's most likely my preferences tinting my vision. It's 28 points you can reliably throw into any Imperial list and get results.

Quite frankly the reason Ryad is so delicious sounding is both because she has easily the best defender pilot ability, allowing her to 2-5K with GREEN moves makes he pretty **** maneuverable, AND shes cheap.

I dont know why you'd ever run a Glaive over her. PS5 vs PS6 feels like its not a big enough of a "nerf" to justify such a powerful ability. Opponent sits to block a 4k, if it was a Glaive he'd be right but Ryad just did a 3K and you flew right past her afterwords (or5K and shes still behind you).

She doesnt have a way to change the dial though so its not foolproof.

Both her and Stele have been finding their way into my lists a lot lately. Crit shenanigans are glorious in this game. I did it in Armada before i got into xwing and it always felt lack luster, since the crits in that game arent as mean. In this game though wow you can do some mean things both by giving a bad card and discarding a good one (i.e. dish out that doubledamage to a 1hp ship when it was the 2nd card draw, with the first being Blind Pilot or something minor like that)

Had one opponent where i drew 3 cards for him, gave him the third card which was "cannot be assigned straight moves" when he HAD to go straight to not hit a rock. The other two cards? PS0 on a PS4 ship and white moves stress him out on a decimator. He was PISSED that i managed to fish out the two best cards for that ship to draw faceup and threw them away

In general I find Inquisitor more appealing than an X7 Defender. There are definitely perks to both. But let us not forget that Inquisitor can equip Proton Rockets, increasing his pts to only 34, which is about the same as your average x7 Defender, and suddenly, one of the Inquisitor's main weaknesses is gone (for one round ). Boost is just very clutch, 1 turns feel amazing, and Autothrusters + free Evade means Inquisitor is so very unlikely to be hit by a PWT that you might as well not shoot at him out of arc.

Or we can go another way, pts work out such that we can fit all these ships together and help cover many of the weaknesses. This is a good example:

Inquisitor + PTL + V1 + AT

Ryad + Predator + x7

Vessery + VI + x7

100pts

Im still of the mind that Ion Defenders feel way better though.

Inquisitor + PTL + AT + V1 + Prockets

Delta + Ion Cannon + Tie/D

Delta + Ion Cannon + Tie/D

100pts

Vader + Adaptability + X1 + ATC + Engine

2 x Delta + Ion Cannon + Tie/D

100pts

Those lists are pretty neat for Ion spam and ace support. The difference between Vader and Inquisitor is people may actually shoot at Vader early and get damage through, but that means the Delta's are less likely to be considered for PS killing.

As well as:

Vader + Adaptability + X1 + ATC + Engine

Omega Leader + Juke + Comm

Vessery + Lone Wolf/VI/Crackshot + Ion Cannon + Tie/D

99/100pts

the inquisitor's "one main weakness" isn't range 1

it's also stress, guaranteed damage, predictable dial post ptl (don't think it's possible to NOT get blocked by a large ship at that point) etc

none of which impact the defender nearly as much

they complement each other very well

people need to stop comparing x7 defenders to inquis. They behave dramatically different and have completely different weakness/strengths.

Inquis HAS to ptl to get what he gets, which makes him even more predictable than defenders' 4k for his next move and hes very vulnerable to stress attacks. Plus, he wants to remain at range3, which isnt easy to do and not get too close or disengage more than other ships.

Defenders with mk2 dont give a rats ass about stress, especially Ryad. One less action for a vastly superior dial and more durability. Boost isnt super powerful when youre diving down people's throats anyway.

Offensively theyre roughly the same but the way they move is so dramatically different they cant be interchangeable. Its literally preference of how you fly, not which is stronger.

And who ever takes prockets or any missile on an inquis? or any ship for that matter lol

Quite frankly the reason Ryad is so delicious sounding is both because she has easily the best defender pilot ability, allowing her to 2-5K with GREEN moves makes he pretty **** maneuverable, AND shes cheap.

I dont know why you'd ever run a Glaive over her. PS5 vs PS6 feels like its not a big enough of a "nerf" to justify such a powerful ability. Opponent sits to block a 4k, if it was a Glaive he'd be right but Ryad just did a 3K and you flew right past her afterwords (or5K and shes still behind you).

She doesnt have a way to change the dial though so its not foolproof.

Both her and Stele have been finding their way into my lists a lot lately. Crit shenanigans are glorious in this game. I did it in Armada before i got into xwing and it always felt lack luster, since the crits in that game arent as mean. In this game though wow you can do some mean things both by giving a bad card and discarding a good one (i.e. dish out that doubledamage to a 1hp ship when it was the 2nd card draw, with the first being Blind Pilot or something minor like that)

Had one opponent where i drew 3 cards for him, gave him the third card which was "cannot be assigned straight moves" when he HAD to go straight to not hit a rock. The other two cards? PS0 on a PS4 ship and white moves stress him out on a decimator. He was PISSED that i managed to fish out the two best cards for that ship to draw faceup and threw them away

For Ryad's ability, I actually like that she has a mid range pilot skill. I've actually used Adaptability to lower her pilot skill, and I'll explain why.

Defenders are good jousters since they can put out a lot of damage and soak it, firing first for them isn't the biggest deal because no ship in the game can kill them in one shot. So Ryad comes in and jousts an enemy Ace. But moving before the enemy Ace you're jousting is a benefit in my mind. It removes ALL the guesswork of trying to anticipate their move. All you've got to do is pick the right distance and K-turn right in front of them. So there are really only two outcomes: the Ace doesn't clear you and loses an action (but you've still got yours) and can't fire at you, OR they end up somewhere right in front of you facing away.

So normally, I always take Predator over Outmaneuver. For the same points, Predator always works (and does double duty on low PS filler ships) while Outmaneuver needs to be triggered. And I prefer rerolling an attack die over removing a defense die, I don't know the math on that but that's just me.

BUT, Ryad's ability makes me take Outmaneuver for her over since it's so much easier for her to get behind ships.

Truth, Outmaneuver is glorious on Ryad and meh on others.

I just had a thought though regarding the triple defender list...one that in theory would be annoying as HELL but in practice im not sure.

Countess Ryad (34)

Draw Their Fire (1)

x7 (-2)

Glaive Squadron Pilot (34)x2

Draw Their Fire (1)

x7 (-2)

Total: 99

Could also just sub Ryad for a third Glaive, since you'd need 2 vets anyway and she isnt really gaining much.

The theory here is keep them all within range1 of at least 1 other. Whenever another suffers a crit, shimmy it over to someone else. In theory, this makes focusing down someone WAY harder because heres the kicker i noticed: Draw Their Fire states YOU (i.e. the pilot with the card) may suffer 1 unsaved crit. Say they get lucky and get 2 crits through. You can throw 1 onto both other defenders, and since they have 3 shields it also greatly improves crit effect nullifying.

Better than all 3 with juke? probably not. But interesting nontheless. In theory this drastically improves their lifespan, but it slightly hurts offense and flying freedom.

So, from a lot of the discussion I've seen so far, it looks like Ryad is going to be the biggest gamechanger/most widely used new pilot. I mean for me personally, I think I'll get more fun out of using Maarek. But I'm interested to see how well a simple Ryad + Glaive/juke/x7 (x2) will work out. And then there's that delicious tractor beam...

Ryad with PtL is just an inferior Vessery. Vessery can take VI and get to PS 8 for 2 less points than a TIE MK II PtL Ryad. So Ryad ends up being pretty much the same as Vessery, except at 3 less PS and more points.

People seem to forget a few things about Ryad:

The ability to reactively decide between a K-Turn and a straight? Only at PS 5, where it's not relevant.

Green K-Turns? You already have a white K-Turn.

Better than all 3 with juke? probably not. But interesting nontheless. In theory this drastically improves their lifespan, but it slightly hurts offense and flying freedom.

You can't fit 3 glaives (or ryad) with juke. They come out to 34 points each with x7 and juke.

So, from a lot of the discussion I've seen so far, it looks like Ryad is going to be the biggest gamechanger/most widely used new pilot. I mean for me personally, I think I'll get more fun out of using Maarek. But I'm interested to see how well a simple Ryad + Glaive/juke/x7 (x2) will work out. And then there's that delicious tractor beam...

Ryad with PtL is just an inferior Vessery. Vessery can take VI and get to PS 8 for 2 less points than a TIE MK II PtL Ryad. So Ryad ends up being pretty much the same as Vessery, except at 3 less PS and more points.

People seem to forget a few things about Ryad:

The ability to reactively decide between a K-Turn and a straight? Only at PS 5, where it's not relevant.

Green K-Turns? You already have a white K-Turn.

Vessery only gets the same action economy as PTL Ryad as long as he has someone getting TLs for him. If he doesn't have that for any reason (if he's the last ship alive for instance) his ability becomes useless.

And Green k-turns > white k-turns. If vessery is stressed he's forced to go straight (or bank with mk2), which makes it a lot easier to not get shot by him the next round (or he k-turns and gets no action). Ryad can k-turn as well, leaving her much more arc coverage (with actions).

So, from a lot of the discussion I've seen so far, it looks like Ryad is going to be the biggest gamechanger/most widely used new pilot. I mean for me personally, I think I'll get more fun out of using Maarek. But I'm interested to see how well a simple Ryad + Glaive/juke/x7 (x2) will work out. And then there's that delicious tractor beam...

Ryad with PtL is just an inferior Vessery. Vessery can take VI and get to PS 8 for 2 less points than a TIE MK II PtL Ryad. So Ryad ends up being pretty much the same as Vessery, except at 3 less PS and more points.

People seem to forget a few things about Ryad:

The ability to reactively decide between a K-Turn and a straight? Only at PS 5, where it's not relevant.

Green K-Turns? You already have a white K-Turn.

So what you're telling me is that you don't think positioning has any value. I mean, that can be your opinion, but it's wrong.

Also, reactively choosing straight or K has value because there are many, many builds with ships lower than PS 5. It's SUPER easy to block a white 4-K turn. It's impossible to block a green 2-5 K turn. And Ryad can shed a stress by K-turning, making it easier to use her Hard 1-2 turns which most people don't expect you to use on a Defender.

Again, The ability to K turn at any speed 2-5 is actually BETTER to use before other ships move since you can put yourself directly in front of a ship that hasn't moved yet just waiting for them to move into your firing arc. Or the other ship just gets blocked and loses it's action. It's a win-win situation.

A one shot focussed, targeted locked range 1, 5 Dice attack from the Inquisitor can be devastating if you have the points for it man.

Played a list the other night with Countess a Glaive and the Inquisitor and honestly I didn't love the ptl, especially since it out a big pinch on the points I could spend on the glaive (due to also wanting mk2). Next list to try is:

Inquisitor (31 points standard build)

Countess x7 lone wolf

Glaive x7 predator

That's 100 points and 3 ships that are all self sufficient end game ships while still being strong when used together. Countess can probably 1v1 most any ship in the end game due to her unique kturn possibilities and just getting more consistent shots than most pilots can generate. Lone wolf over ptl also a) benefits her defense and b) eliminates and weakness to rebel stress control or other forms of stress giving that she normally wouldn't like even with green ks.

So, from a lot of the discussion I've seen so far, it looks like Ryad is going to be the biggest gamechanger/most widely used new pilot. I mean for me personally, I think I'll get more fun out of using Maarek. But I'm interested to see how well a simple Ryad + Glaive/juke/x7 (x2) will work out. And then there's that delicious tractor beam...

Ryad with PtL is just an inferior Vessery. Vessery can take VI and get to PS 8 for 2 less points than a TIE MK II PtL Ryad. So Ryad ends up being pretty much the same as Vessery, except at 3 less PS and more points.

People seem to forget a few things about Ryad:

The ability to reactively decide between a K-Turn and a straight? Only at PS 5, where it's not relevant.

Green K-Turns? You already have a white K-Turn.

So what you're telling me is that you don't think positioning has any value. I mean, that can be your opinion, but it's wrong.

Also, reactively choosing straight or K has value because there are many, many builds with ships lower than PS 5. It's SUPER easy to block a white 4-K turn. It's impossible to block a green 2-5 K turn. And Ryad can shed a stress by K-turning, making it easier to use her Hard 1-2 turns which most people don't expect you to use on a Defender.

Again, The ability to K turn at any speed 2-5 is actually BETTER to use before other ships move since you can put yourself directly in front of a ship that hasn't moved yet just waiting for them to move into your firing arc. Or the other ship just gets blocked and loses it's action. It's a win-win situation.

Tell me which is better at positioning. A PS 8 ship with a 2 point initiative bid, or a PS 5 one that can choose between a k turn and a straight at PS 5 before every Acewing in the game?

Against most things that are PS 5 and lower, the ability to reactively choose between a straight or a K isn't very relevant. Against higher PS ships you're not doing it reactively.

Ryad's ability isn't as good as Vessery's. Vessery's only works with other TL buddies but the best squad to use him in has 2 excellent TL buddies in it so it's a non-issue.

PS 8 is better for positioning than Ryad's ability at PS 5. PS is everything.

Tell me which is better at positioning. A PS 8 ship with a 2 point initiative bid, or a PS 5 one that can choose between a k turn and a straight at PS 5 before every Acewing in the game?

I think Ryad being able to do a 2-5 K-Turn is a bigger deal than being able to re-actively change her facing.

Nah the biggest deal is it's freaking green

Nah the biggest deal is it's freaking green

This. The reactivity portion of Ryad's ability is next to meaningless since it is, as PGS has pointed out ad infinitum, on a PS 5 pilot. The actually useful portion of the ability, the effective addition of a 2,3, and 5 K turn to her dial and making all of her K turns green, on the other hand is huge. As a result Ryad's dial is just flat out superior to Vessery's making her more maneuverable and a very effective PtL platform. And seeing as she doesn't need any buddies to make it work she is hands down a better closer (not that Vessery ever lives that long in my experience...)

PS5 may very well prevent Ryad from seeing much competitive play, but it will be because other pilots get to react to her. Not because she doesn't get a chance to use her power reactively since that is by far the weakest aspect of it.

Nah the biggest deal is it's freaking green

This. The reactivity portion of Ryad's ability is next to meaningless since it is, as PGS has pointed out ad infinitum, on a PS 5 pilot. The actually useful portion of the ability, the effective addition of a 2,3, and 5 K turn to her dial and making all of her K turns green, on the other hand is huge. As a result Ryad's dial is just flat out superior to Vessery's making her more maneuverable and a very effective PtL platform. And seeing as she doesn't need any buddies to make it work she is hands down a better closer (not that Vessery ever lives that long in my experience...)

PS5 may very well prevent Ryad from seeing much competitive play, but it will be because other pilots get to react to her. Not because she doesn't get a chance to use her power reactively since that is by far the weakest aspect of it.

If she had been a much higher PS, her ability might be a little too strong. As it is, the reactive choice of facing is just a nice bonus when she is dealing with lower PS ships.

The recent regional tournament results analysis on Nova Squadron Radio suggested that Crackswarm was the strongest of the major competitive archetypes. Ryad is really solid against Crackswarm. She has just enough PS, a good bit of hit points to absorb some Crack Shots, and is much harder for the swarm to block.

Man I'm so tired of waiting for vets to arrive I want ryad in her pretty red defender running circles around stuff.

Tell me which is better at positioning. A PS 8 ship with a 2 point initiative bid, or a PS 5 one that can choose between a k turn and a straight at PS 5 before every Acewing in the game?

I can actually think of many instances where I'd like to get that k-turn completed without being blocked (or perhaps a better way to phrase it would be "completing the kiogran turn at relatively low PS). Even though for her, the block isn't normally all that devastating since she can repeat it constantly and even shed stress while doing so. For instance, if you're using the k-turn to stop just shy of an asteroid. Completing that turn is important because it means you're not pointing at the asteroid going into a) the combat round where tractor beams are a thing and b) the next maneuver phase, where you can safely go the other direction.

In fact, in the coming meta of double tapping tractor-bastards, having an asteroid directly behind you is literally the only safe place it can be.