I've used them to great extent in a 400 point team epic tournament (almost the best time I've had in X-wing). I believe they were all running predator? and Ion Cannons. Despite having the misfortune of coming up against quad IGs and an ungodly 8 Falcon heavy swarm, they really pulled their weight. The trouble is that Gunboats do everything better.

For the price of a predator and Ion Glaive with MKIIs, plus three points, you could run two Ion cannon gunboats. Heck, for a meagre 28 you get a HLC boat, which is going to do more damage than the ion, primary and ruthlessness combined. They've just been outdated in a format where token stacks are meaningless.

If you want Defenders, then 6-8 naked X7 Deltas are the way to go, probably paired with some AOE munitions from gunboats and a small bid (3-4 points should do it). If you can squeeze in howlrunner and a way to keep her alive, all the better. The sheer hull and shield pool, combined with unblockable token stacks and howl rerolls, should melt just about anything before it dies down itself.

I ran with two Expertise TIE/D Ion Cannon Glaives at the European Championships. They're brutal.

The also had an Expertise TIE/D Tractor Beam Vessery in the squad.

TIE/D's can put out a lot of hurt, but ideally you want other threats to deflect attention away from them. In our case, it was a shedload of Gunboats.

On Saturday, June 09, 2018 at 4:02 AM, Astech said:

I've used them to great extent in a 400 point team epic tournament (almost the best time I've had in X-wing). I believe they were all running predator? and Ion Cannons. Despite having the misfortune of coming up against quad IGs and an ungodly 8 Falcon heavy swarm, they really pulled their weight. The trouble is that Gunboats do everything better.

For the price of a predator and Ion Glaive with MKIIs, plus three points, you could run two Ion cannon gunboats. Heck, for a meagre 28 you get a HLC boat, which is going to do more damage than the ion, primary and ruthlessness combined. They've just been outdated in a format where token stacks are meaningless.

If you want Defenders, then 6-8 naked X7 Deltas are the way to go, probably paired with some AOE munitions from gunboats and a small bid (3-4 points should do it). If you can squeeze in howlrunner and a way to keep her alive, all the better. The sheer hull and shield pool, combined with unblockable token stacks and howl rerolls, should melt just about anything before it dies down itself.

The thing about Ruthless in epic though, is you can damage high agility token stacked ships by shooting at low agility tanks next to them.

1 hour ago, MyPalValen said:

The thing about Ruthless in epic though, is you can damage high agility token stacked ships by shooting at low agility tanks next to them.

Also the omnipresent raider jonus combo gets called hard. Shoot the raider. If he's close enough for jonus buff 3 defenders can kill him without ever shooting him.

3 hours ago, MyPalValen said:

The thing about Ruthless in epic though, is you can damage high agility token stacked ships by shooting at low agility tanks next to them.

That's the trick; any opponent who's going to fly tanks directly next to evasive aces straight at your 130+ points of Defenders is a bit of a newbie. It's much more likely to see a separation into types of ship, rather than a clump all together. It makes it much more difficult to do more with Ruthlessness than with Predator or Expertise.

2 hours ago, Dabirdisdaword said:

Also the omnipresent raider jonus combo gets called hard. Shoot the raider. If he's close enough for jonus buff 3 defenders can kill him without ever shooting him.

It's a horrific combo, but munitions are a much better option when dealing with huge ships. Add in that the inevitable reinforce token on the Raider makes it very hard to push unmodified shots through and the Defenders lose out over punchier attackers like Gunboats. And, of course, Defenders would hate to be at range of such a Raider, given that it's capable of killing 2-3 of them in a turn.

Opspec baby, any misses improve later accuracy and defense, hits give ya free damage.

Also when I pack ruthlessness tie/d, everything else I bring is 2 agl or less. Help pull fire off the d, and generally means spammed cheapies to make up for the expensive d.

8 hours ago, Astech said:

It's a horrific combo, but munitions are a much better option when dealing with huge ships. Add in that the inevitable reinforce token on the Raider makes it very hard to push unmodified shots through and the Defenders lose out over punchier attackers like Gunboats. And, of course, Defenders would hate to be at range of such a Raider, given that it's capable of killing 2-3 of them in a turn.

First hand experience says Epic ships (of all stripes) hate TIE/D Ion Cannon Defenders. Losing energy each turn due to Ion tokens cripples Epic ships fast, and the majority of the time a Reinforce token isn't going to help in any way against an Ion Cannon attack.

5 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

First hand experience says Epic ships (of all stripes) hate TIE/D Ion Cannon Defenders. Losing energy each turn due to Ion tokens cripples Epic ships fast, and the majority of the time a Reinforce token isn't going to help in any way against an Ion Cannon attack.

Yep, Ions. I cant remember the last time I came to epic without at least 2 ships with some Ion control.

For Rebels, I usually have 3 Ion torp Y's (2 greys flanking Dutch).

For Imps, either Tie/D's or Tie/D's and a pair of bombers with torps.

For Scum, I like Unhinged Y's with turrets and/or Scyks with a tractor and a couple Ion cannons.

8 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

First hand experience says Epic ships (of all stripes) hate TIE/D Ion Cannon Defenders. Losing energy each turn due to Ion tokens cripples Epic ships fast, and the majority of the time a Reinforce token isn't going to help in any way against an Ion Cannon attack.

It'll cripple Tantives pretty rapidly, but a munitions Raider barely even cares, so long as it has enough energy to revive shields on the for section. The reinforce token gives a pretty good chance against the ion weaponry, but essentially guarantees that the total damage from each defender is around 2, and in return it wipes a Defender off the board, and then some.

2 hours ago, pickirk01 said:

Yep, Ions. I cant remember the last time I came to epic without at least 2 ships with some Ion control.

I've recently been preferring a serious alpha strike. 4-5 missiles destroy a Raider's fore section before it can shoot, or a spam of high-mod generics like Linked Battery B-wings at range 2. The splash damage from 5 harpoons going off is, in my opinion, a more effective deterrent to formation flying than Ruthlessness /Ds.

And, of course, if your opponent has been a spoon and brought, say, a GR-75 and a massive field of fighters, your TIE/Ds are going to be wiped in a round or two.