How do you fly lone wolf countess in the early game though? I feel like you need the concentrated firepower.

How do you fly lone wolf countess in the early game though? I feel like you need the concentrated firepower.

You just ignore Lone Wolf, mostly, or if you want a flanker, you use her as the flanker.

I am curious to see how Defenders do in the wave 9 meta though...

Do you think there's something in Wave 9 that looks like a particular threat to defenders?

There really isn't

However, seeing how competitive x7s are, I'm very glad ARCs have been able to stand up to them exceptionally well

[...]

Bodes well for the competitive quality of the ARC, which really only hates torp scouts

That's good to hear except.

Don't you think that thematically the Defender should really out class a ship that is about a generation behind?

Nope

Gameplay >>>>>>>>>>>>> fluff

Outclassed the hell out of the ARC ito speed though. Games resemble a herd of cows pursued by hornets

How do you fly lone wolf countess in the early game though? I feel like you need the concentrated firepower.

I fly the Inquisitor and shuttle together with her sweeping in wide from the side. She can either engage one of their ships 1v1 if they're foolish or she swings in beside their main force while the shuttle beefs it and the Inquisitor snipes. When it gets dirty in the middle you ignore lone wolf and don't miss out that much, but generally use the shuttle as a brick and swing her wide on the flank.

I just won a small tournament (16 players)

in Malmoe, Sweden with:

Vessery, Juke, X7

Ryad PTL, Twin Ion Engine X7

OGP with Palpatine.

It's a really good list.

Went 4-0 with 728 MoV

Only lost 2,5 shuttles the entire day.

No defenders where killed.

I am curious to see how Defenders do in the wave 9 meta though...

Do you think there's something in Wave 9 that looks like a particular threat to defenders?

Not in my estimation.

Old Teroch is very, very good against x7

TIE Defenders are finally "there".

I want to test this soon:

Vessery + Ion Cannon + Snap Shot + TIE/D + Stealth Device (3 attacks per turn, 2 of them with lock)

Ryad + Adaptability (+1) + TIE/x7 + Stealth Device (ain't she slippery?)

Epsilon Leader + Stealth Device (blocker and to make sure Vessery always get that ability triggered)

I just won a small tournament (16 players)

in Malmoe, Sweden with:

Vessery, Juke, X7

Ryad PTL, Twin Ion Engine X7

OGP with Palpatine.

It's a really good list.

Went 4-0 with 728 MoV

Only lost 2,5 shuttles the entire day.

No defenders where killed.

This is the same list that won both the Canadian and Australian nationals a couple of weeks back. It should probably be considered one of the defining Defender lists by now. I think I´m going to give it a try myself.

I feel like the Defender has killed the a-wing. A Defender with 3 dice, a focus and an evade should be able to repel every shot from a ship that's only throwing two dice at it.

I feel like the Defender has killed the a-wing. A Defender with 3 dice, a focus and an evade should be able to repel every shot from a ship that's only throwing two dice at it.

If that's what it takes to kill the A-wing, I think that PTL Aces would already have done that job.

a lot of people have mentioned how powerful the unblockable evade is

while it is, there is something not being said for how powerful the blockable focus is too

having played a LOT of stress ARC v A LOT of x7s, I've started to notice how wimpy they get without focus tokens. It's a real **** show slap fight stall fest when you get 2-die primaries v no mod sans evade defenders

and just last saturday, I took a break from ARCs to fly...x7 defenders (with "Deathfire" though!!!) and had a particularly memorable moment of PTL Ryad taking 0 damage from a range 1 Rau expending all his modifiers for 4 hit results because I rolled 3 focus. And then focused juke Vess just ruined him in one shot

in short, blocking still matters v them because that focus can be huge

I feel like the Defender has killed the a-wing. A Defender with 3 dice, a focus and an evade should be able to repel every shot from a ship that's only throwing two dice at it.

If that's what it takes to kill the A-wing, I think that PTL Aces would already have done that job.

Plus, A-wings are basically half the points.

A wings can block those 4K moves pretty well, and are quite cheap. However, if you're trying to use a pencil as a hammer you probably won't be very happy. Don't forget the hero A wing from nationals last year. TIE Fighters are completely outclassed by comparison as well, but being able to block and focus fire is their only hope of survival. Point for point, I think 2 crackshot blacks would struggle against a single x7 Delta, but then again they are totally different tools designed to take down different foes.

Defenders don't particularly like TLTs, so it might signal a resurgence of TLT Y wings, especially if there are new pilots in the works with Rogue 1 coming out. Scum have access to the aggromech, which makes their TLTs hit much more reliably, too. Scum large ships are just fine with zuckuss to push damage through, and even 4Lom to prevent use of the evade token.

Ironically enough, I think the cards that came with the ship do the best job taking it down. Tractor beams, outmaneuver, and other ways to reduce agility really make Defenders sweat a little more. The shadowcaster, Latts Razzi, and Wedge all come to mind as well. If anything, I think defenders gaining popularity will push 2 ship lists out of the meta a bit, as defenders are great at weathering 1-2 strong attacks. I don't think that we will see squads of entirely 2 attack dice too much either, as they will struggle to push consistent damage through, but having 1-2 blockers and 1-2 heavy hitters seems to be the direction Rebels and Scum will likely go. Imps will just keep using Palp +2 most likely. Tie Ds do a good job against x7s, but x7s are superior against a lot of other matchups, so we have a bit of a rock/paper/scissors situation.

Yup, I agree with the general tone of this thread... Defenders are about as good as A-Wings in terms of worth. And that's saying a lot, because A-Wings are probably my all-time favorite ship!

I don't know how well they do against brobots, palp aces, or U-Boats. I haven't been able to try those out. I bet they're OK.

Defenders seem funny to me... They seemed good enough as is, and then FFG created a major fix for them! They're really fun now. I'm not saying they're broken... They're just really really good.

Defenders don't particularly like TLTs, so it might signal a resurgence of TLT Y wings,

Played 2 TLT y-wings against a pair of X7s that had Juke. The y-wings just melted because they were essentially 0 evade ships.

Defenders don't particularly like TLTs, so it might signal a resurgence of TLT Y wings,

Played 2 TLT y-wings against a pair of X7s that had Juke. The y-wings just melted because they were essentially 0 evade ships.

PTL Ryad and Vessery with Juke have so consistent attacks. Almost always 3/3 or 4/4 hits. That is one of the biggest strengths of Palp-Defenders. No other aces has such consistent defence AND attack.

I faced tlt last Thursday with my x7's they struggled to do one damage and never did two, the defenders however had no issue getting hits on the y-wing's.

Pre titles tlt was lethal against defenders, these days it's really not.

I faced tlt last Thursday with my x7's they struggled to do one damage and never did two, the defenders however had no issue getting hits on the y-wing's.

Pre titles tlt was lethal against defenders, these days it's really not.

I ran into two different lists with TLT with my 2 x7 Defenders and Inquisitor list last tournament. I don't recall ever being hit by one.

it's been a long time since wave 7 and people still can't get their heads around r4 aggromech it seems

personally, I've had no issue killing x7s with TLTs

but that's specifically Palob

with Zuckuss

motherlover killed Ryad at range 1 with his primary, so who knows what good the tlts actually were

Andrew Harding just took 2nd in a very competitive tournament with a vessery and glaive, both with tie D and Ion cannon. I'm gonna try out a variation of that list tomorrow night.