Flying the newly rejuvenated Defenders is fun, but they are equally not fun to fly against. I flew against a triple Defender list last night and was regularly rolling four hits. Over and over again, nothing would go through: the focus & evade were efficient and preventing hits from scoring. Once in a while, I might get one hit through.

Assuming it is going to be a Defender-heavy environment for a while (as it is the shiny new thing), what are good counters? I was thinking that this might be the time for Carnor Jax to shine, as he could make the Defenders cry when he takes away their focus and free evade...

High ps arc dodgers.

While I have not tested these options, I've theorized pilots like Palob (who can steal green tokens) and Wes (who strips tokens after he fires) would be of use versus x7 defenders.

Jax and the likes of OL could work too.

Ah the wonderful world of green dice

Realistically speaking, defenders are still easier to hit than palp aces (focus and evade but no thrusters; no palp unless they bring palp ofc) so really dice still work

Otherwise, bombs. Defenders are lower PS and usually don't bring EU, making them easy money for Sabine (bit too much health to go through without Sabine, though).

TLT also works decently (TLt + bombs = Miranda, baby!)

And of course token mitigation is always helpful ala Jax, as mentioned. Wes is also pretty ******* irritating

Mostly, though, you just gotta realize they'll kick your ass in a joust basically Everytime.

High ps arc dodgers.

Yeah, that's my instinct. But the pilot that was regularly scoring the four hits to no avail was Fel. I'd get in close from a 90 degree angle and unleash four dice with focus and get four hits, and the Defenders would roll a combination of evades a focus and shrug them all off. Granted his green dice were hot, but he was ending up with at least three evade nearly every time...

Arc dodgers and turrets.

Super Dash is a super pain.

Fel by himself will take an age to break through an x7 Defender. You need to stack multiple attacks, deny modification, or hit with massive piles of dice in a single attack. There's a lot of ships that do this, but there's lots of otherwise good squads that don't.

For Imperials, Omega Leader and Carnor Jax are the most useful counters.

For Scum, the combination of strong ordnance alpha strikes and Zuckuss/4LOM crew will help get you through.

For Rebels, a Sabine powered K-wing is really great. Sabine does the extra damage, and the Net slows the ship down next turn allowing effective concentrated fire and denying tokens.

High ps arc dodgers.

Yeah, that's my instinct. But the pilot that was regularly scoring the four hits to no avail was Fel. I'd get in close from a 90 degree angle and unleash four dice with focus and get four hits, and the Defenders would roll a combination of evades a focus and shrug them all off. Granted his green dice were hot, but he was ending up with at least three evade nearly every time...

I've been playing x3 defenders for about 2 months now, and in that time I've found them to be very very potent. The things that will really stand a chance of dropping these guys like nothing else are as follows:

-Things with gunner, will take 1-2 damage every turn. 1 for a 3-power weapon/turret, 2 for something like whisper.

-Palob is excellent, but becomes target #1 when he's on the board

-Zuckuss/4-LOM

-Carnor if you're good with maneuvering. Carnor will give you a big hit when he goes in, but may have trouble staying alive to focused fire, suffers same issue as Palob

-Omega Leader

-anything with autoblasters

-anything with sabine and bombs (like proton bomb)

The number #1 thing that drops defenders though is getting multiple hits in from multiple shooters. If you're flying fat Han and an ace, or Dash and Corran, you're going to have a very very hard time against an experienced Defender pilot, unless you can drop the defender(s) before they takes out your partner. Crack swarms do really well, as do pilots using juke, to burn through those focus tokens, but as soon as that first pass is done, you need to have pumped a significant amount of damage into the defenders, or they will burn through your scattered ships on the second pass.

I have yet to lose a game to palp aces, they just cannot muster enough firepower to get past the defenders fast enough unless there is a whisper on the board. It of course varies from game to game, but as the defender pilot, you take down carnor if he's available, otherwise just drop the shuttle and neither side will really be able to kill each other and the game goes to time.

Superdash against two deltas will do okay, but if your dash is faced with ace x7s, it may turn nasty. A single VI stele will routinely butcher large base ships with little return going the other way.

If you're going at a defender with only one ship, even a range 1 Fel, or even a range 1 Whisper, you need to be prepared to come away disappointed, as even a totally flunked roll with a perfect roll from you from the defender will at MOST result in 1 hull being taken off. This is an absolute rarity, and on the best average rolls you have to expect to not even scratch the paint on one of the defenders.

You *need* to be firing at them with multiple ships, to stand a chance of knocking them out with speed.

Lots of attack dice. As many as you can fit on the table.

Admittedly, that's pretty much my counter for everything ...

Lots of attack dice. As many as you can fit on the table.

Admittedly, that's pretty much my counter for everything ...

A big enough hammer, and nails, and all that.

Just won with Jax, Soontir and an x7/Delta against defenders actually. The delta is such a great blocker/brawler, and makes your opponent wonder why they wasted extra points on their glaives, countess, etc. Carnor backed up by soontir can put serious pain on your target, and rarely get caught in arc, because x7s are fairly predictable beasts, and interceptors love predictable beasts...

Lots of attack dice. As many as you can fit on the table.

Admittedly, that's pretty much my counter for everything ...

A big enough hammer, and nails, and all that.

I haven't tried a hammer yet, but I imagine that would be quite devastating to my friend's Defenders as well.

But yeah. Fifteen attack dice can make a lot of lists wince in pain.

for 31 points you can fly TAP Inquisitor, cheaper than any cool defender and will do just fine.

Whisper w/ gunner and FCS. That will push through some damage every round.

Mobile turrets. Unhinged TLTs, Dash, even Falcons or Decimators with boost could be effective.

Brobots would give them a taste of their own medicine (3 greens, high health) and the extra offense should make up for one less ship.

Stress-inducing lists will limit their actions, so try Rebel Captive, Tactician, R3-A2, etc...

If you want to joust, try an old classic like BBBBZ. I'm not saying that it will work, but you should be able to give them a run for their money.

Autoblasters, bombs, arc-dodgers, Wampa, TLT, Gunner, IG-88B, Dengar/R4-P8, doom shuttle/decimator, ...

Prioritize getting multiple attacks, then pick up as many dice as you can get. Gunner is good, Twin Laser Turret is good, Cluster Missiles can work, etc.

In the same vets box, Tomax and Crackshot homing missiles are a nice way to push through x7's

High ps arc dodgers.

Yeah, that's my instinct. But the pilot that was regularly scoring the four hits to no avail was Fel. I'd get in close from a 90 degree angle and unleash four dice with focus and get four hits, and the Defenders would roll a combination of evades a focus and shrug them all off. Granted his green dice were hot, but he was ending up with at least three evade nearly every time...

I've been playing x3 defenders for about 2 months now, and in that time I've found them to be very very potent. The things that will really stand a chance of dropping these guys like nothing else are as follows:

-Things with gunner, will take 1-2 damage every turn. 1 for a 3-power weapon/turret, 2 for something like whisper.

-Palob is excellent, but becomes target #1 when he's on the board

-Zuckuss/4-LOM

-Carnor if you're good with maneuvering. Carnor will give you a big hit when he goes in, but may have trouble staying alive to focused fire, suffers same issue as Palob

-Omega Leader

-anything with autoblasters

-anything with sabine and bombs (like proton bomb)

The number #1 thing that drops defenders though is getting multiple hits in from multiple shooters. If you're flying fat Han and an ace, or Dash and Corran, you're going to have a very very hard time against an experienced Defender pilot, unless you can drop the defender(s) before they takes out your partner. Crack swarms do really well, as do pilots using juke, to burn through those focus tokens, but as soon as that first pass is done, you need to have pumped a significant amount of damage into the defenders, or they will burn through your scattered ships on the second pass.

I have yet to lose a game to palp aces, they just cannot muster enough firepower to get past the defenders fast enough unless there is a whisper on the board. It of course varies from game to game, but as the defender pilot, you take down carnor if he's available, otherwise just drop the shuttle and neither side will really be able to kill each other and the game goes to time.

Superdash against two deltas will do okay, but if your dash is faced with ace x7s, it may turn nasty. A single VI stele will routinely butcher large base ships with little return going the other way.

If you're going at a defender with only one ship, even a range 1 Fel, or even a range 1 Whisper, you need to be prepared to come away disappointed, as even a totally flunked roll with a perfect roll from you from the defender will at MOST result in 1 hull being taken off. This is an absolute rarity, and on the best average rolls you have to expect to not even scratch the paint on one of the defenders.

You *need* to be firing at them with multiple ships, to stand a chance of knocking them out with speed.

I don't suppose it will come as any surprise to the more experienced here, but 2xK-wing (with Sabine) and Cluster & Proximity mines (...and one Conner) doesn't work ,

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/223902-imp-vet-is-so-much-fun-to-play/?p=2296324

I did get one with a proximity+Sabine+Cluster+Sabine two turn combo in a mine alley, but the Countess was never touched (the one chance I had, I opted to SLAM, where a set of clusters would have landed right where she K-turned...oh well )

High ps arc dodgers.

Yeah, that's my instinct. But the pilot that was regularly scoring the four hits to no avail was Fel. I'd get in close from a 90 degree angle and unleash four dice with focus and get four hits, and the Defenders would roll a combination of evades a focus and shrug them all off. Granted his green dice were hot, but he was ending up with at least three evade nearly every time...

What triple defender list are you running?

These all work:

Ryad x7 + adaptability

Glaive x7 + juke

Glaive x7 + juke

Stele x7 + VI + SD

Delta x7 + SD

Delta x7 + SD

Vessery x7 + Juke

Glaive x7 + Juke

Delta x7 + SD

Vessery /D + VI + Tractor

Glaive x7 + Juke

Delta x7

And for bonus, although it's not a triple defender list, it's a mighty potent triple 9s list, (Soontir is hilariously the least dangerous target in this one, and is consistently underestimated)

Soontir + PTL

Brath x7 + Adaptability

Stele x7 + VI

I think Dengaroo has a fine matchup vs Defenders. Dengar wants to joust and Defenders can't really do much else, and Dengar is the better jouster. Zuckus does a lot of work there, as defenders, even with their free evade, have to rely on their 3 agility.

Triple Aces should also do fine.

Homing Missiles also work very well - denying that Evade token, and with a TL+Guidance Chips (Or TL+F) they have a very good chance of rolling a lot of hits that they can then put through. Gamma vets with Crack Shot work very well as a delivery system for these - you can even build in a bid to move and TL after Ryad!

stupid ass large ships.

Thoughts on Dagger B's with FCS, E2 Mod, and Gunner crew?