Question: is the 0 cost TIE Defender upgrade any good? All I hear is that the x7 is amazing and the TIE xD just isn't good enough. What are the community's thoughts/math on this? Thanks!

TIE/D gives you double tap.

Double tap is amazing.

That's because people are talking in terms of tournament play where you want to limit how bad the green dice shank you in the back.

Vessery with Tie D and ion canon is a beast.

Try it yourself and see what you think. It's always a good idea to try something you're interested in instead of believing what everybody else says.

Try it yourself and see what you think. It's always a good idea to try something you're interested in instead of believing what everybody else says.

That does not sound like correct group think, double plus bad bio.

Try it yourself and see what you think. It's always a good idea to try something you're interested in instead of believing what everybody else says.

Isn't that how the "meta game" got started?

Try it yourself and see what you think. It's always a good idea to try something you're interested in instead of believing what everybody else says.

That does not sound like correct group think, double plus bad bio.

Don't you mean double plus ungood?

The Tie/D with tractor beam is loads of fun. Especially if you're playing at PS 7 or better.

Running Vessery and Ryad (or Steele) as double-tap Tractor Beam Defenders with Omega Leader (Juke and Comms Relay) is tons of fun.

both titles are good

x7 is easier to use as you can literally bring any defender, slap that on there, and it usually works. With proper planning and specific pilots, it can be brutal.

xD can be brutal as well, but because its still on a ~35-40pt ship thats not super super tanky it becomes a lot harder to pull off. My usual issue is everything i try to do is slightly over 100pts

ive seen xD vessery in others' lists. If flown right so he isnt the first thing they can attack, he is utterly devastating.

Try it yourself and see what you think. It's always a good idea to try something you're interested in instead of believing what everybody else says.

That does not sound like correct group think, double plus bad bio.

Don't you mean double plus ungood?

Hmm i may have an old edition.

It's good. Not sure how the meta will play out, but I've put Vessery with an Ion Cannon in a few combinations to good use in eight casual games and have only lost once. The most ridiculous was Vessery with Rexler at 91 points (technically 97: I put Ion Pulse Missiles on both--with zero intention of using them--just to bring the points up).

i never understood that mentality. Why put upgrades just to bring the points up? If you arent going to use it just leave your points low for the uber init bid.

Played around with it last night. Had two Glaive Squadron Pilots with Ion Cannons and Predator, backed by a Fleet Officer TIE Shuttle with Mk2 engines. They caused very large amounts of pain.

The only downside is that no one except Vessery can modify both shots, but honestly the double-tap is still extremely potent. 2 Deltas with the D title strip tokens like nobody's business (most prominently when I used them against x7 Defenders haha). I actually haven't run Vessery with the new title yet. I can see why the x7 is so popular- You'll have Focus/Evade nearly every turn and it synergizes marvelously with Juke. But I loved having an x7 ace with a couple of gunship grunts.

How well would tractor beaming things your Academy Pilots bumped work? You could pull them off the ties and potentially shoot them?

More than likely anything that barrelrolls after bumping an academy will be out of said academy's arc anyway.

The only downside is that no one except Vessery can modify both shots...

Literally the post RIGHT ABOVE yours...

the thing about modding both attacks is you really dont need to.

Ion/Tractor/Fletchette are the only cannons we can use, and all of them dont care how many hits go through. Yeah its nice to have a reroll if it biffs but unless its a range3 attack, just keep the meh roll on the cannon and fire the main gun. If its range3 might as well lock down that cannon since the main gun will give bonus dodge.

the thing about modding both attacks is you really dont need to.

Ion/Tractor/Fletchette are the only cannons we can use, and all of them dont care how many hits go through. Yeah its nice to have a reroll if it biffs but unless its a range3 attack, just keep the meh roll on the cannon and fire the main gun. If its range3 might as well lock down that cannon since the main gun will give bonus dodge.

Right. I've been running TIE/Ds with Predator, lightly modifying both attacks with the option to seriously boost one with Focus. You really don't have to get max hits all the time for them to be good. Making the opposing player spend tokens on defense for the first attack opens up the second attack.

Right.

Only xD ive ran myself is with tractors. The fear of being hammered with a 4die attack on 1agi makes my opponent burn their evade/focus on their 2agi ship to avoid that 2nd hit because it could easily be worse if they took the tractor hit.

Which promptly bit them in the butt because they rolled 2-3 dice against my 4primary and rolled eyes/blanks lol.

the thing about modding both attacks is you really dont need to.

Ion/Tractor/Fletchette are the only cannons we can use, and all of them dont care how many hits go through. Yeah its nice to have a reroll if it biffs but unless its a range3 attack, just keep the meh roll on the cannon and fire the main gun. If its range3 might as well lock down that cannon since the main gun will give bonus dodge.

Right. I've been running TIE/Ds with Predator, lightly modifying both attacks with the option to seriously boost one with Focus. You really don't have to get max hits all the time for them to be good. Making the opposing player spend tokens on defense for the first attack opens up the second attack.

Low agility ships like B-Wings, Y-Wings, K-Wings and Punishers are - if you'll excuse my French - totally boned whether you modify the dice or not.

I've been running Vessery with xD, tractor beam, and ruthlessness. I've been doing pretty well with it but haven't played enough games yet for a proper sample size. So far though, more than holding my own and most importantly having a lot of fun with it.

i never understood that mentality. Why put upgrades just to bring the points up? If you arent going to use it just leave your points low for the uber init bid.

Is "meh" a good reason? They were casual games. It's unusual for the group I play with to run more than a two point bid on these nights. Going much beyond three would have been a touch too cocky. Now, if I ever decide to run this competitively, yeah, I'd throw off the missiles for the large bid (or at least the missiles off of Vessery since he's less likely to take a target lock on his own).

I've been using Vessery as a setup man in the few games I have played with the new xD. I've used VI on him to get him up to 8 and then the Inquisitor and Vader (using Adaptibility to put him at 8 if there are no aces). Vessery uses the lock from either Vader or Inquisitor to reroll the tractor, even if it misses like others have said it forces them to use their tokens more then likely so then his primary shot and subsequent shots from Vader and Inquisitor are either hitting a ship with no tokens or hitting a ship that has one fewer defense. I actually completely shredded a Y-Wing that had focus in one turn because he couldn't roll evade. If he could have rolled his evade there was a good chance the Y-Wing would have survived to shoot back.