Hi all
Been wanting to try this squad for a while and would appreciate some thoughts.
Ryad/Vess/OL
First off I'm a big fan of the blog and your venture into defenders is the main reason I picked them up.
I ran the exact same list in a Regionals a couple of weeks ago and came in third after loosing to the winner in the quarter finals (he ran a Delta, Vess, Ryad list). I think there were two other Vess,Ryad, OL lists in the tournament where the other went to top 8 and the last ended up really far down the rankings. There were some variations in the builds, but as with every list is is more to do with the flying I think.
I found the list to be really good. I too was waffling between a delta for blocking and OL, but wanted to give him a try for his ability. I did not really get too much damage on my opponents from him, but where he really shone was as a fire magnet. Everyone seems afraid of him and will try to target him first even though the chances of getting hits in on the other defenders were better. I' hard pressed to say if SD was a better choice than Hull upgrade as I seemed to loose it very quickly (I did fly him very aggressively but again it forced my opponents to make some tough target choices). In several matches he was my Biggs.
He flies (obviously) very different from a Delta (which has been my regular list leading up to the regionals constituting some 50+ games), but I found him very enjoyable to use.
In hindsight I might play him a bit more conservatively and/or take SD off and either give Vessery the MK2 upgrade and have a healthy initiative bid against other defender lists. Seeing how there are so many defender/palps out there trading a 26 point OL for Palp shuttle or a Delta seems like a good strategy. One of my matches went to final salvo because I lost my 29p OL and he lost his 29p shuttle and we couldn't land hits on each other's defenders. A cheaper OL would remove that risk. Another option I am considering is putting HU on Vessery instead to keep him alive longer.
Anyways, I feel it is a very strong list, but you should expect (and indeed plan) for OL to be targeted hard and count him as expendable for the overall strategy. I will be bringing this list to my next regionals as well.