7 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:

I'll have to force myself to put them on the table like I did with E-Wings. I only own 1 Imp II pack so I guess 2 will have to do.

2 is quite good. You know how late in the game you always need a spare squad for chasing ships or opping hurts squads? Phantoms are always spare squads unengaged.

I think Sloane will bring Phantoms into use more but they are still a little too expensive. 4 Blue dice gives a good chance to roll accuracies and spend enemy scatter tokens on squadrons like Tycho or Shara. There are 4 red crits results on the 2 red anti ship dice so the expected damage has a good chance of a reroll. Sloane Tie-P Average anti ship damage increases from 1 to 1.21875 which is almost as good as a Tie-B with a BCC (though with no face up damage cards).

Add to this the benefits of fighting in close proximity to the space station for repairs from the cloak movements. A little Escort from Tempest squadron or Zertek to take the edge off enemy fire and they could be a decent all round fighter. But an all round design is never quite as efficient as the specialist such as Tie-I or Tie-B. And a good thing too. If they were so good nobody would ever take the alternatives.

8 hours ago, xerpo said:

Im tired of reading that stament, wich is absolutely not true. The chances for accuracies are still there. While drastically increasing the damage output makes an average of almost 3 damage, wich turns a brace use into 2 damage, or forces a burn out on scatter tokens. 4 blue dices be rolling 2 accuracies + two crits, 4 accuracies, 4 crits, 1 accuracy + 3 crits, 3 accuracies+ 1 crit.

In fact, they are WAY better against aces.

If I want to kill squadrons, hands down I'd pick Interceptors over Defenders every time.

You're overlooking two important keywords: Swarm, and Counter. TIE Interceptors have a better chance of needing the one accuracy they need to stop scatter aces, they can re-roll a die to get better results with company, and anyone attacking them is going to suffer a counter, with swarm likely if you have friends.

I don't know about you, but having four blue die... each with the potential of rolling an accuracy... is a lot more useful to stopping scatter than two blue dice. With TIE/Ds you're better off trying to waste attacks against the scatter ace to force that defense token away than gamble on an accuracy.

Moreover Empire has tools like Howlrunner, which does not help Defenders.

You take TIE Defenders if you want a jack-of-all trades that can take a hit, be more of a threat to capital ships, and if you're shooting at a bunch of generics. But if your purpose is to kill enemy fighters, you must take TIE Interceptors. If for no other reason, consider there are three "ace" squadrons to take with Interceptors which are all very good, compared to the one-and-generic of the TIE Defender.

8 hours ago, Norsehound said:

If I want to kill squadrons, hands down I'd pick Interceptors over Defenders every time.

You're overlooking two important keywords: Swarm, and Counter. TIE Interceptors have a better chance of needing the one accuracy they need to stop scatter aces, they can re-roll a die to get better results with company, and anyone attacking them is going to suffer a counter, with swarm likely if you have friends.

I don't know about you, but having four blue die... each with the potential of rolling an accuracy... is a lot more useful to stopping scatter than two blue dice. With TIE/Ds you're better off trying to waste attacks against the scatter ace to force that defense token away than gamble on an accuracy.

Moreover Empire has tools like Howlrunner, which does not help Defenders.

You take TIE Defenders if you want a jack-of-all trades that can take a hit, be more of a threat to capital ships, and if you're shooting at a bunch of generics. But if your purpose is to kill enemy fighters, you must take TIE Interceptors. If for no other reason, consider there are three "ace" squadrons to take with Interceptors which are all very good, compared to the one-and-generic of the TIE Defender.

...we weren't talking about TIE Interceptors, though. We were talking about TIE Phantoms. They have the same (but worse due to lack of Swarm and Counter 2) anti-squadron dice, though.

Since the Phantom is a dualpurpose fighter it is not unusual to use it as an anti-fighter resource at the start of an engagement but then disengage and go after opposing ships after that first clash.

For this reason it can be well advised to escort them with some Tie-advanced.

It is not unusual that you need most of your anti-fighter firepower to take out the main threat and then let your regular Tie continue the fight while bombers and Phantoms start concentrating at enemy ships.

You take the Phantom for its diversity and investing in only Phantoms are probably a waste.

I could see myself using the Phantom in a fighter wing where I have no bombers but I like some combined anti ship/fighter abilities and I lack Intel. Without Intel any Defenders might get tied up and miss their opportunity to focus fire on enemy ship at a crucial moment or chase after a wounded squadron (especially in a campaign setting).