Vess has been one of my favorite Imperial pilots for some time. His action economy is great on a platform like the Defender. Recently I won a small 3-round tournament with him juiced up with Expertise and Ion Cannon on the Tie/D title.

As long as he remains stress free he is a monster damage dealer and control piece, getting target lock and focus for both attacks plus usually a focus for defense. Has anyone else tried this out and like it better than Tie/X7? What else would you pair him with? Here's the list I flew:

TIE Defender: · Colonel Vessery (35)

Expertise (4)

Ion Cannon (3)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE/D (0)

TIE/sf Fighter: · "Backdraft" (27)

Adaptability (Increase) (0)

Fire Control System (2)

Lightweight Frame (2)

Special Ops Training (0)

TIE/fo Fighter: · "Omega Leader" (21)

Juke (2)

Comm Relay (3)

-- TOTAL ------- 100/100p. --

Solid.....if it weren't for Fenn Mindlink Plasma Boats, I'd love it!

5 hours ago, Skeether said:

Vess has been one of my favorite Imperial pilots for some time. His action economy is great on a platform like the Defender. Recently I won a small 3-round tournament with him juiced up with Expertise and Ion Cannon on the Tie/D title.

As long as he remains stress free he is a monster damage dealer and control piece, getting target lock and focus for both attacks plus usually a focus for defense. Has anyone else tried this out and like it better than Tie/X7? What else would you pair him with? Here's the list I flew:

TIE Defender: · Colonel Vessery (35)

Expertise (4)

Ion Cannon (3)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE/D (0)

TIE/sf Fighter: · "Backdraft" (27)

Adaptability (Increase) (0)

Fire Control System (2)

Lightweight Frame (2)

Special Ops Training (0)

TIE/fo Fighter: · "Omega Leader" (21)

Juke (2)

Comm Relay (3)

-- TOTAL ------- 100/100p. --

I played it the same way the first time i got him. Except i did flechette cannon because the ion wasnt good for large ships. The stress was. And i used Quickdraw because of the second attack if he was hit. But pretty much the same list. I won some and lost some. Depended on how i flew and how my opponent flew.

What about dropping the Ion for TB? Makes that expertise laden main gun hit harder.

You could use the 2 points to go to QuickDraw or a better EPT on Backdraft like Lone Wolf, unless you a triple teaming. Maybe crack shot and an initiative. I like the all 8s synergy with adaptability. You could do QD with adapt down to 8. Just spitballing. Or pattern analyzer on Backdraft.

I need to stop.

23 minutes ago, Rolotamasi said:

What about dropping the Ion for TB? Makes that expertise laden main gun hit harder.

You could use the 2 points to go to QuickDraw or a better EPT on Backdraft like Lone Wolf, unless you a triple teaming. Maybe crack shot and an initiative. I like the all 8s synergy with adaptability. You could do QD with adapt down to 8. Just spitballing. Or pattern analyzer on Backdraft.

I need to stop.

TB works great on Vess in my opinion, but I like to run it with VetInst so he can fire first to help everyone else. Considering OP wants Expertise, I think Ion or Flechette works better here. I will say I really like the Expertise Idea on Vess!

11 hours ago, MHamerR8 said:

I played it the same way the first time i got him. Except i did flechette cannon because the ion wasnt good for large ships. The stress was. And i used Quickdraw because of the second attack if he was hit. But pretty much the same list. I won some and lost some. Depended on how i flew and how my opponent flew.

I've been using Flechette on TIE/Ds a fair bit lately, and I agree that the stress is suler-solid against Mindlink and large ships.

I do like TB but as some have stated, running him with Expertise leaves him at PS 6 so I'd have to get wingmates down there to benefit from it. Ryad is an option there with another cheaper fighter.

Hadn't really thought about Flechette mostly because I actually don't have any yet (not big into scum ships). But I can see that being powerful too, especially against mindlink lists.

On the other hand they actually can recover pretty easily from it sometimes. Only one of a mindlink list really needs to shed the stress (and Flechette can't double stress) and then they all get focus again. I realize now that it does still deal damage too (thought it was only stress for some reason), which is something I really like about the Ion as well.

5 hours ago, Skeether said:

On the other hand they actually can recover pretty easily from it sometimes. Only one of a mindlink list really needs to shed the stress (and Flechette can't double stress) and then they all get focus again.

This is true but it can stop ships like Fenn K-turning or T-rolling behind you after the first joust which can blunt their firepower significantly.

Doesn't help against U-Boats and their pesky white sloop however.

You have to actually hit to assign a stress, good luck hitting 3 dice on Fenn most of the time~

Biggest issue with Expertise being that Asajj can shut it down very easily and he's very popular.

2 hours ago, Kalandros said:

You have to actually hit to assign a stress, good luck hitting 3 dice on Fenn most of the time~

Biggest issue with Expertise being that Asajj can shut it down very easily and he's very popular.

You dont have to hit fenn, you can hit a scout to stress the entire list.

I think Ion cannon is your best bet as your squad is now.
Tractor beam is great value (it gives you something against every ship in the game), and gives you more points to play around with.
But what are you really going to add to the list with 2 more points?

Here is a list you might want to try. Adds token and TLs, and takes better advantage of Vessery's Ion Cannon. Enjoy!

Colonel Vessery (35)

Expertise (4)

Ion Cannon (3)

TIE Mk II (1)

TIE/D (0)

Captain Jonus (22)

TIE Shuttle (0)

Fleet Officer (3)

System Officer (2) (You could probably substitute Squad Leader here.)

"Backdraft" (27)

Calculation (1)

Fire Control System (2)

Spec Ops Trng (0)

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