I am prepping for a tournament and plan to fly Defenders for the first time. I am new and normally fly crackswarms. Any comments on the build or Defender strategies are welcome.
Col Vessary (35)
TIE/D (0)
Swarm Leader (3)
Ion Cannon (3)
Twin Ion Engine (1 )
Glaive Squadron Pilot (34)
TIE/x7 (-2)
Omega Leader (21)
Juke (2)
Comm Relay (3)
I'm not a Defenders flyer at all, but I would heavily consider an alternative to Swarm Leader. Defenders are good at token stacking to mitigate damage. Being able to do those 3+ speed maneuvers, to Focus+Evade. Why would you want to pull those tokens off? Especially in the case of Omega Leader who is paying 3 points to hang on to the evade at the end of the round. I'd never want to give up OL's evade to support another ship, even if the potential for 2 additional attack die is there. I don't see it as a viable strategy.
I'd go Predator instead. If you're worried about high agility ships avoiding damage, consider dropping the ion down to Tractor Beam and use the extra two points for an elite on the Glaive.
Either way, at least put Trick Shot on the Glaive (if you don't have it when you go to the tournament, I'm sure someone will let you borrow a copy. Never be afraid to ask for something ahead of time!).
Edited by jwilliamson12Juke is a really cool upgrade, I’d take two. Ryad is great for this meta of stress/turrets and the second best (imo) juke carrier of the game after OL.
In my experience swarm leader is hard to pull off so either Veteran Insctincs on Vessery and Push the limit on Ryad (second source of Target Locks) or pay two points for the equivalent of a Hull upgrade by taking intensity.
Colonel Vessery (35)
Intensity (2)
Ion Cannon (3)
TIE/D (0)
Countess Ryad (34)
Juke (2)
TIE/x7 (-2)
"Omega Leader" (21)
Juke (2)
Comm Relay (3)
Total: 100
good luck
My favorite is 3 defenders
Glavie Squadron, x7, Crackshoot
Glavie Squadron, x7, Crackshoot
Conel vessery , X 7 , Crackshoot
Hits like a truk!
By comparison - a super-tanky version:
I can't overemphasise how unutterably, aggravatingly hard to kill Ryad is in this configuration.
Expertise Vessery is the way to go on an offensive build.
Vessery - TIE/D, Expertise, tractor beam - 40 points.
He's alot more consistent, plus, you can get re-rolls and a focus on 2 attacks. From here, you could look at some X7 deltas. I recently have been running it with Quickdraw and a Nu squad starwing. The Nu has Long range scanners to give it a missile and Vessery locks. Of course QD has FCS, LWF, title. I have been debating VI/advanced optics to expertise to see which one is more effective.
I'm starting to lean towards this...
"Omega Leader"(29) ["Omega Leader"(21), Stealth Device(3), Juke(2), Comm Relay(3)]
Colonel Vessery(34) [Colonel Vessery(35), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II(1), TIE/x7(-2)]
Countess Ryad(37) [Countess Ryad(34), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II(1), TIE/x7(-2), Expertise(4)]
I would probably trade Omega Leader's Stealth Device for an EPT on Vessery. Juke has historically worked pretty well, given how easily he can get other dice modifications, but if you're willing to drop one of the TIE MkII's as well (probably Ryad's) you could go for double Expertise.
Vessery is by far the best, if not the only pilot, worth running in a TIE/D defender. That being said, the x7 configuration tends to perform better in tournaments. Assuming that is what you want the list for, and not just a beer and pretzels game night, we can try to optimize from there.
Both Ryad and Vessery are more than likely the pilots you will want to run. Being a middling PS hurts them a bit, but defenders can usually outmaneuver most ships with practice. Ryad's long green K turns in particular help keep arc dodging aces like Poe from being able to do a short 1 maneuver with a boost/br to arc dodge; you just put too much space between you. If you only have 4 points for EPTs, expertise on one ship is probably very lackluster compared to juke on both. Since your ships are relatively low PS compared to a lot of what you'll fly against in the current PS wars, you will probably be pretty free to spend whatever tokens you have left for offense by the time you get to shoot. The ships built this way want to spend tokens defensively if possible and just stay alive, getting damage when and where they can. Which brings us to Meg.
You have 2 very defensive oriented fighters already, that push decent dice if your opponent is not actively trying to stop target locks to feed Vess or remove the token stacks from both ships. Meg is a great defensive closer, but that isn't what your list needs. You need a hard hitting flanker who provides a big threat. Preferably with the ability to target lock, although a striker like Duchess wouldn't be bad in a list like this. With only 29-31 points available to you for your third ship, your options are a little sparse. Vessery likes a ship with a low PS or FCS so you never lose the opportunity to spend that target lock. You could quite possibly fit in a bomber or tie/shuttle if you feel you can make the ordnance or crew work, or an ace like Inquisitor who has slightly better damage than Meg. Keep him well behind your defenders, and that's a pretty hard call for your opponent.
Keep your original list but throw Ruthless on Vess instead of swar leader for a screwball upgrade no one is expecting.
On 6/12/2018 at 2:07 PM, Shockley said:I am prepping for a tournament and plan to fly Defenders for the first time. I am new and normally fly crackswarms. Any comments on the build or Defender strategies are welcome.
Col Vessary (35)
TIE/D (0)
Swarm Leader (3)
Ion Cannon (3)
Twin Ion Engine (1 )
Glaive Squadron Pilot (34)
TIE/x7 (-2)
Omega Leader (21)
Juke (2)
Comm Relay (3)
Glaive costs the same as Ryad, so Ryad is much better! X7 and Juke or Intensity are both dope AF builds that would fit alongside OL and Vessery with TIE/D, Expertise, and Tractor Beam, a legitimately PUNISHING build that softens up everyone after his first Tractor shot. Plus, its hard AF to kill.
Tractor is more of a quick-kill thing than Ion, and Omega especially, but Ryad too, DOES NOT want to spend their evade for Swarm Leader.