For 35 points I like to use her with x7, Juke and Mk II. It keeps her cost down and firing on someone with an evade to power Juke and a focus token is just mean. Last game I played she faced off against a super pimped out Tyco and mopped the floor with him.

I've also toyed around with using outmaneuver on her, which works well because she's the champ of getting behind people. It also lets you worry less about holding your evade to power Juke.

I do like the x7 with Juke - only downside is that Palpy modifies the evade *after* you do. So if the enemy blanks out or rolls an evade and you convert it to focus - Palp can just flip it right back. Which, yeah, burns their once-a-turn use of Palp...but 2 points is kinda spendy for no real effect.

What you're saying is that your 2 point once-a-turn ability is negating their 8 point once-a-turn ability.

Juke is amazing - it either forces your opponent to spend his focus (and when the countess is firing at PS 5 it's possible the enemy already spent that focus), forces them to spend their evade token (again, your PS 5 defender might not have that problem), or it forces them to use Palpatine (and once again... PS 5 defender, at this point your Vessery and Glaive (because of COURSE this is a 3 defender list, why would you NOT have a 3 defender list?).

Or, even better, they're tokenless, without a Palpatine, and their lone evade result just got turned into an eyeball, and your opponent is regretting spending that eyeball on his attack, which you dodged anyway with your 3 dice, evade, focus and Palpatine.

She's imperial Sabine. I think that would be a good fight, it almost entirely depends on initiative. If Ryad has initiative, a well flown Sabine should cut her to ribbons. If Sabine has initiative, she'd be at a disadvantage, but not as bad as the reverse.

Countess with experimental interface, x7 title, ion cannon and marksmanship has been the most fun. Marksmanship every turn with target lock, evade or focus for defense dice. FUN!!!!

Apparently alot of us are having a good time with the countess then. That's excellent. Getting a mid-ps pilot that's really worth flying has been few and far between with the game for a long time. Maybe a sign of things to come.

Countess with experimental interface, x7 title, ion cannon and marksmanship has been the most fun. Marksmanship every turn with target lock, evade or focus for defense dice. FUN!!!!

Agreed. PTL is the only option for Ryad. I like to fly her alongside Connor Jax... Oh does that piss Recon Specialists off.

Palpmoble with Ryad (her usual loadout) and vessery with X7, Juke is all you could ever want in a list. She was great in the last game I played.

That's a solid list. I'm 11-0 with it (I think) between a combination of physical table play and vassal.

She's imperial Sabine. I think that would be a good fight, it almost entirely depends on initiative. If Ryad has initiative, a well flown Sabine should cut her to ribbons. If Sabine has initiative, she'd be at a disadvantage, but not as bad as the reverse.

I think of Ryad as Imperial Guri. She is definitely better than Guri currently... How many years till the starviper fix?

i tried her tonight with Carnor and a RG , both Squints had PTL,Stealth and Autothrusters and Ryad had the PTL,X7,MKII setup, was insane, i lost 1 shield on Ryad, thats it.

i pretty much have only used her in my duo defender + tomax shuttle list. No PTL but doesnt need it because of the shuttle, which lets her Juke instead.

I find it really hard to NOT do a constant k-turn with her lol....she flies circles around people!

I agree that everyone here is having fun with the Countess [iran] Ryad. Like everyone else, I love flying her.

I usually fly her like everyone else:

Countess Ryad + PtL + Twin Ion Engine, Mk. II + TIE/x7

But I team her up with:

Soontir Fel + PtL + Autothrusters + Royal Guard TIE + Stealth Device

Tetran Cowall + Adaptability (formerly Veteran Instincts) + Autothrusters + Royal Guard TIE + Twin Ion Engine, Mk. II
Total points: 98/100

(From time to time, I'll swapped out Cowall for Carnor Jax + Adaptability + Autothrusters + Royal Guard TIE + Twin Ion Engine, Mk. II [100/100 points].)

My opponent sure has a bad time when she and Vessery double team on a ship.

Just tried push the limit Ryad out last night. I knew going in that she would be good, I never expected how good though. I slotted her in soontir fel's typical slot in a palp aces list. She pulled more than her weight. First off she's a master of the waiting game. Just 2 k-turn until you are ready to pounce. Second, you really have no stress problems with tie MK2 on her there is always a green option available. Third, the feeling you get when you 3 k-turn and then barrel roll and catch a ps9 ship in arc (for me it was a han), and then doing it again and again because she is as close to unpredictable as echo... Man I think I am going to be flying this pilot in every game for the foreseeable future.

What is everyone elses experience with ryad?

Colonel Vessery

x7

Juke

Stealth Device.

It gives you the same token stack with no stress, I get to use Juke, I have no need for green maneuvers when I can just never stress myself since I'm not tied to PtL. The Defender has a WHITE 4 K-Turn, it being green means almost nothing unless you're stressing yourself out.

The optimal Imperial squad and overall best list in the game is likely:

OGP with FCS and Palpatine

31 point Inquisitor

Vessery with x7, Juke, Stealth Device.

You can fit PtL x7 TIE MK II Ryad in with a Juke x7 Vessery and a 29 point Palp Shuttle, it's still a great list. Ryad while being very good, is still just an inferior Vessery.

i tried her tonight with Carnor and a RG , both Squints had PTL,Stealth and Autothrusters and Ryad had the PTL,X7,MKII setup, was insane, i lost 1 shield on Ryad, thats it.

(to the melody of a Split Enz tune...)

"Countess Ryad and the Royal Guard,

I see red, I see red, I see red.

All they lost was a single shield,

I see red, I see red, I see red.

I saw red, now I'm dead."

Just tried push the limit Ryad out last night. I knew going in that she would be good, I never expected how good though. I slotted her in soontir fel's typical slot in a palp aces list. She pulled more than her weight. First off she's a master of the waiting game. Just 2 k-turn until you are ready to pounce. Second, you really have no stress problems with tie MK2 on her there is always a green option available. Third, the feeling you get when you 3 k-turn and then barrel roll and catch a ps9 ship in arc (for me it was a han), and then doing it again and again because she is as close to unpredictable as echo... Man I think I am going to be flying this pilot in every game for the foreseeable future.

What is everyone elses experience with ryad?

Here is how I run Ryad:

Colonel Vessery

x7

Juke

Stealth Device.

It gives you the same token stack with no stress, I get to use Juke, I have no need for green maneuvers when I can just never stress myself since I'm not tied to PtL. The Defender has a WHITE 4 K-Turn, it being green means almost nothing unless you're stressing yourself out.

The optimal Imperial squad and overall best list in the game is likely:

OGP with FCS and Palpatine

31 point Inquisitor

Vessery with x7, Juke, Stealth Device.

You can fit PtL x7 TIE MK II Ryad in with a Juke x7 Vessery and a 29 point Palp Shuttle, it's still a great list. Ryad while being very good, is still just an inferior Vessery.

I have been running her in a list with VI RAC... she is so fun to play, and despite her low pilot skill, she is by far my favorite Defender unique...

For me, i love setting that little red Defender down and having my friend say "Not this slippery ***** again..." LOL

That's exactly why I love her. Because of her pilot ability, it's almost impossible for just one ship to take her on no matter how good their dial is.

You clearly haven't tried to fly her solo against hyperdash

My opponent sure has a bad time when she and Vessery double team on a ship.

Ran this pair the other day against an opponent with a Jumpmaster and three kihraxz. Those kihraxz flew right into the maw and evaporated. I almost felt bad, he's a member of the local Padawan League...

heres the thing about Juke on mid-PS pilots:

Squishy ships such as Interceptors are pretty much mandated to Evade to survive, so they probably would ever get Juke unless it was Fel/Jax and he fired first (wtf wuld he have juke for anyway)

Defenders are not squishy, and being a mid-level PS means focus tokens might have been spent before they fire (which renders juke pointless unless you got more shots going in later). If such a situation exists where you are going to take a damage, but your target doesnt have a focus either because he didnt take one or used it to attack, just endure the attack and juke him. If they have a focus or youre taking a few damage, not really worth it.

Defenders weather attacks, they dont have to completely dodge everything. Ive done that quite a bit where i'll take a damage and juke you for heavier damage in return and it 9/10 of the time is the defining choice in the game. I do that with everyone that has a Juke but typically the tiefos/awings are too squishy to weather a hit so i rarely do it with them.

I love countess with lone wolf as my end game money ship. Same cost as the juke version but a bit more end game strength. Ptl is also obviously strong but the stress feels iffy once someone doubles you up and locally there's plenty of love for stressbot, tactician, and thermal detonators.

yaknow i always despised lone wolf but then i put it on FatHan instead of Predator and ok i love lone wolf lol. That defense reroll is mean.

I've been flipflopping between PTL Ryad and Inquisitor with Prockets.

I find the latter is more reliable against TLTs (including Miranda), Dash, and Dengar, and can arc-dodge UBoats more effectively.

Ryad is great, but I feel like against certain matchups, she has some big flaws.

Lately I've been flying Ryad+Juke+x7, Glaive+Juke+x7, Carnor+PTL+Title+Autothrusters+MkII (100).

Ryad's ability makes her awfully unpredictable, and Carnor combos well with Ryad and Glaive's Juke (as he shuts down opponent focus tokens, so juke always kicks in). The Mkii engines on Carnor give him access to the 3 bank green, which means he can lunge in more effectively.

Overall very happy. I want to try Ryad with engine though, as I'm certain it'll make her much more flexible. When she gets on a line and starts k-turning she becomes predictable -- she can use the engine to reposition herself for a different k-turn line.

theres like 5 people in my area that immediately put EU on ryad for a basically "turn on the spot" move (2k forward into boost, basically in the same spot facing the other way).

I never saw a point of EU on Ryad. Once in awhle i'll wish i had it so i could turn just a liiiiiiittle more but more often than not the 5K gets me the shot anyway.

I never saw a point of EU on Ryad. Once in awhle i'll wish i had it so i could turn just a liiiiiiittle more but more often than not the 5K gets me the shot anyway.

Same here. IMO, the opportunity cost of not having Twin Ion Engines is enough. Factor in the 3 points you're saving, and it's a no-brainer for me.

I never saw a point of EU on Ryad. Once in awhle i'll wish i had it so i could turn just a liiiiiiittle more but more often than not the 5K gets me the shot anyway.

Same here. IMO, the opportunity cost of not having Twin Ion Engines is enough. Factor in the 3 points you're saving, and it's a no-brainer for me.

If it were the same cost or 1 point more, I would take Engine Upgrade Ryad 100% of the time over Mk2 Engine Ryad. The speed combined with the flexibility while K-turning is just great. At 3 points more, it's tougher to take. It's awesome, but sometimes a list doesn't have the 3 points for Ryad to take the EU.