Maarek's issue is hes overshadowed in the TIE Adv and in the TIE Defender theres no way to lock in a crit except Calculation or Palp (or forgo the amazing titles and put mangler on him).

Hes great, but because hes almost complete RNG, hes usually passed up. Vessery hits like a bloody truck and Ryad is super evasive.

Ryad is lower pilot skill and Vessery needs setup.

Defender Maarek is possibly strongest when you don't try to set up his ability: I'm fairly sure he doesn't actually pay for it. Since Wave 4ish you only pay points for your pilot ability if it's awesome: if it pays for itself with a setback it's free. Porkins is an example of this.

PS9 doesn't do a whole lot for defenders, honestly. Defenders are super predictable ships and they only have the barrel roll for repositioning, and they probably want to focus as much as possible anyway.

Maarek is functionally just a pilot skill for me. Can't afford Rexler, no TLs for vessery, but want a PS higher than 6 base? Hi Maarek.

X7 with calculation is actually quite good I've used it several times teamed up with vessery he clears shields and maarek delivers the death blow.

Predator Maarek with X7, Juke Vessery with X7 and a palp shuttle seems pretty tough to me (without playing it)

Plenty of re rolls on attack, evades and focus token stacking with a Crit for Maarek if needed.... Just a very quick thought

Sometimes a pilot's ability is a nice extra and not something you must build your list around. I would rather have a solid ship with an ok pilot ability than a crappy ship with an outstanding pilot ability.

Unless it is Horton, cause he's AWESOMES.

I tried a Ryad/Maarek/Inq list and it was smashed by a Ryad/Vessery/Palp list. As people have said, Vessery just hits too hard to pass up and between the 2 Defenders they can kill a lot of small ships between them before 1 of them is taken out.

The main problem with Maarek is that his ability is not very relevant. This ties into a much broader problem of why crits are not really much of a thing in this game. I mean, any of us can recall a situation when a lucky blinded pilot, direct hit or major explosion completely turned the game around.This adds a bit of welcome extra flavor to the game. But when you look at how often they really do matter, it turns out you might play an entire tournament and only see them do something once or twice. For a crit to work, quite a few conditions have to be met:

1. You need to roll a crit or invest points in something that will help you get one.

2. You need to actually hit the target - against some ships it's not that easy.

3. The target needs to have it's shields down already.

4. The target can't simply be killed by the attack (I mean, it's great if it is but the crit is effectively useless).

5. You need to draw a crit that is actually harmful to the enemy.

Maarek's ability only helps you with the last point and that's just not enough. There's always an opportunity cost somewhere, In case of picking Maarek over Ryad or Vessery you're effectively gaining his ability (and higher PS) for the price of losing an extra action, as both the colonel and the countess can get 3 actions per turn. In practice a 3 action ship is just more efficient than a 2 action ship with a cool but highly situational ability.

EDIT: Now when I think about it, in order to make Maarek competitive his ability should be something like this:

"When attacking, after rolling your dice, if you didn't roll any [crit] results you can change one [hit] result to a [crit] result. When your attack deals a faceup damage card to the defender, instead draw 3 damage cards, choose 1 to deal and discard the others."

I'm still not convinced that would trump the sheer accuracy of having both TL and focus during the attack but at least if Maarek did hit and the target was shieldless, you'd be almost guaranteed to slap some nasty crit on him. So Maarek would be somewhat competitive, especially with Predator - or at least Juke. Alas, as it stands now, he's just too unreliable.

I mean, I've had the perfect setup with Maarek a couple of times now - Major Hull Breach on a Ghost or Deci - and still failed to deal particularly relevant crits.

He has the same problems he had in the TIE Advanced. Situational ability with no reliable way to trigger it, and a high price point. He wants Mangler Cannon, but that pushes his price up more and then he can't have X7 and TIE/D doesn't allow Mangler. He's in two ships now, and each of those ships both have a pilot that greatly over shadows him and a craft that doesn't mix particularly well with his ability.

Edit: Others have reminded me of ATC. He's certainly much better off in the Advanced now, as are any of the other pilots, but he still competes with Darth Vader. You're only taking him if you already have Darth Vader on the table.

He has the same problems he had in the TIE Advanced. Situational ability with no reliable way to trigger it, and a high price point. He wants Mangler Cannon, but that pushes his price up more and then he can't have X7 and TIE/D doesn't allow Mangler. He's in two ships now, and each of those ships both have a pilot that greatly over shadows him and a craft that doesn't mix particularly well with his ability.

ATC goes perfectly with his ability though?

ATC does go perfectly with his ability. He has the same problem as he has in defender though. He competes with another pilot that has an extra action and he just can't beat that. Not to mention that ATC TIE Adv just isn't viable except for Vader. You simply can't afford to spend your only action on just making sure your firepower doesn't completely suck. And that's precisely what you have to do in the opening engagement and then every time you switch targets. That makes even Vader's action economy very weak compared to the oher aces. Outside of Vader, it pretty much kills the ship competitively which is why you don't see them much.

His ability sucks. That's really all there is to it.

Yeah, you can make him PS9 and give him x7. Or you could just make Brath PS10 and give him x7.

in the TIE Defender theres no way to lock in a crit except Calculation or Palp (or forgo the amazing titles and put mangler on him).

Marksmanship. And it's a better value on a TIE/D because it applies to both attacks.

Yeah, you can make him PS9 and give him x7. Or you could just make Brath PS10 and give him x7.

But Maarek would be 3 points cheaper, and that can make all the difference.

But Maarek would be 3 points cheaper, and that can make all the difference.

2 points. And that's a decent price to pay for a PS that pushes past 9, and an ability that doesn't suck as much.

I'd argue about Rexler's ability "not sucking so much". Since Rex also has just 2 actions (one of which is irrelevant when attacking unless you take Juke), his only modifier is a focus. As a result he will only trigger if:

1. Enemy is hit without any modifiers.

2. Enemy is already shieldless and was dealt some damage cards.

3. The attack did not destroy the enemy.

4. You don't choose to keep the focus token for defence.

Then you can spend your precious focus to turn the damage cards you dealt... and hope something useful to you is on them. I'd say that does suck even more than Maarek's ability.

I'd argue about Rexler's ability "not sucking so much". Since Rex also has just 2 actions (one of which is irrelevant when attacking unless you take Juke), his only modifier is a focus. As a result he will only trigger if:

1. Enemy is hit without any modifiers.

2. Enemy is already shieldless and was dealt some damage cards.

3. The attack did not destroy the enemy.

4. You don't choose to keep the focus token for defence.

Then you can spend your precious focus to turn the damage cards you dealt... and hope something useful to you is on them. I'd say that does suck even more than Maarek's ability.

Rexler's ability is great if you stick him in with a BOmber BUddy to chuck him a TL and a second focus token =)

Maarek's ability is very underrated. Definitely better than Rexler. Crits come up naturally easily enough.

I want to try a tractor beam defender + Tie mini swarm soon and Maarek is THE defender for the job cause PS9. I wouldn't take this list to regionals, but it would be very decent in a local tournament.

-- Maarek Steele --

VI + Tie/D + Tractor Beam + Guidance Chips + Advanced Homing Missile (for the LULZ) = 40 points

4x Black Squadron Tie Fighters + Crackshot = 60 points

= 100 points total

Maarek Steele Miniswarm

i think he would be valued more if ships were naturally beefier than they are.

One issue ive noticed is people pass up shenanigans like Stele's in favor of raw damage, because except against a Ghost, Decimator, Falcon, or Hounds Tooth ships tend to be squishy enough where only the first 2 crits even do anything, after that they tend to just blow up anyway.

If it took longer to blow up even a lowly TIE Fighter, Stele's ability might be considered gold. Or brath for that matter.

Who cares about the ability! Get him VI and you have a bloody PS9 Defender with free evade token,at 34 points.

Crits abilities ar just a funny add on when theme trigger (and they do, crits usually come's up).

I like him, so much! Don't be so focused onhim's pilot ability, guys, no needs to spent you'r elite or cannon slot for it. A free evade is always better than a mangler, and PS9 will be better than a Calculation/Marksmanship most of the times.

Imho.

I'd argue about Rexler's ability "not sucking so much". Since Rex also has just 2 actions (one of which is irrelevant when attacking unless you take Juke), his only modifier is a focus. As a result he will only trigger if:

1. Enemy is hit without any modifiers.

2. Enemy is already shieldless and was dealt some damage cards.

3. The attack did not destroy the enemy.

4. You don't choose to keep the focus token for defence.

Then you can spend your precious focus to turn the damage cards you dealt... and hope something useful to you is on them. I'd say that does suck even more than Maarek's ability.

Rexler's ability is great if you stick him in with a BOmber BUddy to chuck him a TL and a second focus token =)

Oh sure. After all you only need to spend 21+ points on a ship that somehow needs to stay in range 1 to Rex while performing green manuevers only and which is next to useless if Rex has been killed or, you know, if it can't keep up with a ship that is known for moving back and forth at high speeds. Now that I think about it, you can make pretty any imperial ship truly amazing this way...

/sarcasm off

I'd argue about Rexler's ability "not sucking so much". Since Rex also has just 2 actions (one of which is irrelevant when attacking unless you take Juke), his only modifier is a focus. As a result he will only trigger if:

1. Enemy is hit without any modifiers.

2. Enemy is already shieldless and was dealt some damage cards.

3. The attack did not destroy the enemy.

4. You don't choose to keep the focus token for defence.

Then you can spend your precious focus to turn the damage cards you dealt... and hope something useful to you is on them. I'd say that does suck even more than Maarek's ability.

Rexler's ability is great if you stick him in with a BOmber BUddy to chuck him a TL and a second focus token =)

Oh sure. After all you only need to spend 21+ points on a ship that somehow needs to stay in range 1 to Rex while performing green manuevers only and which is next to useless if Rex has been killed or, you know, if it can't keep up with a ship that is known for moving back and forth at high speeds. Now that I think about it, you can make pretty any imperial ship truly amazing this way...

/sarcasm off

Works fine for me, I've tried it. With TIE mk2, keeping up isn't that much of a problem given that it has green 3 straight, 3 bank, and you fundamentally don't care if it gets shots. It makes two 40 point aces enough better to be worth it IME. If people are burning effort focusing on double focussed aces, then great! If they kill the BB, then... great, that's two double focussed aces having a turn or two killing them without as much opposition.

But sure, do feel free to knock it without trying it.

In my opinion Rexler´s ability is worse than Maarek´s.

I would also say that Vessery´s ability is situational. It´s for example useless when Vessery is the last pilot on the board. You also need another target locking pilot and you need to be targeting the same ship for it to work.

Ryad is great but clocks in at 2 points more (with PtL and MK.II) than VI-Maarek. Sure Ryad gets possible 3 actions, but the target lock and barrel roll are not going to be 100% effective all the time because of the low PS of 5.

I guess both Ryad and Vessery are supposed to help you win you the game before it becomes a 1v1 duel in the end. In those 1v1 situations however, I fancy Maarek over both of those. PS9 is huge, both in terms of repositioning and also because people don´t know where you will move. Shields will also be down so Maarek´s crits (You are throwing 3 or 4 red dice so those crits will show up) will shine.

Brath's ability is bad because it basically forces you to get a bunch of hits WITHOUT modding any dice. That rarely happens.

Ive tried to abuse his ability. Lord help me i tried. Coupled him with a Tomax shuttle to feed him TL + Focus so he'd be double focused and had OL off on the side. I STILL never got his ability off becuase i either only hit shields or outright killed my target or i managed to land mostly crits anyway via luck.

brath's ability should have just been randomly pick one of the facedown cards you dealt during that attack and flip it up. Unable to "mass crit" but at least it actually goes off.

PS9 doesn't do a whole lot for defenders, honestly. Defenders are super predictable ships and they only have the barrel roll for repositioning, and they probably want to focus as much as possible anyway.

They are only predictable if you fly them predictable. Sometimes, it is better to do the 1 bank instead of the obvious K-turn with the free Evade.