First I thought the 2.0 Defender is meh. Then I played Rexler Brath and everything changed.

I used Juke and Advanced Sensors on him which are both pretty good. Especially Adv. Sensors paired with his Ini5 makes him an outstanding arc dodger.

Because of that I want to put Outmaneuver on him.

Rexler Brath (84)
Outmaneuver (6)
Advanced Sensors (8)

102 pts. left. I prefer a strong bit (maybe 10 pts.)

I'm really not sure about his wingmans. Redline? Lt. Sai? Whisper?

Do you have any ideas?

You can squeeze in Fel and Major Rhymer with Barrage Rockets and Adv Proton Torpedoes.

With four points left, you could upgrade to Proton Torps on Rhymer, put Predator on Fel or just leave them off to give Fel a bit of a bid.

Alternatively, for a point less you could run Vizier instead of Rhymer to give Fel or Rexler an extra action via co-ordinate and really ramp up their tokens or reposition ability.

Alternatively alternatively, I feel like Whisper would be a really good wingman for Rexler as their Initiatives match. Juke Collision Detector Whisper instead of Fel comes to a few more points, so your third ship is a bit more limited. A Saber Squadron blocker / flanker might work - I think the jury's still very much out on whether generic Interceptors have a place in 1e or not. Either running an Alpha or Saber should still give you points for Krennic and FCS on Whisper too, though you might be sacrificing a first player bid.

Barrage Rocket + Seismic Charge Scimitar is also a really good list filler. Gives you an option to deal with all those annoying rock dependent abilities that are cropping up.

I had a look at Redline, but he's pretty pricey and I'm struggling to fill the rest of the list. Wampa and Markmanship Seyn Marana might be good bets, I'm not really sure how solo TIEs fare as list fillers in 2e. One thing I am kinda interested in here, actually, is Mauler Mithel. He's really not getting much attention with all the new hotness Inferno pilots, but with Predator he fits perfectly into the rest of a Rexler/Redline list and just happens to match them for Initiative. The challenge, as ever, will be getting him to range 1. But once you're there, bullseye should be no problem so with Predator and a focus he'll have a pretty mean, nicely modded four dice attack. He'll die if anyone so much as looks at him, of course. But if they're looking at Mauler, they're not looking at Redline and Rexler.

I actually think I might like that last list the best. I've always been a sucker for having everyone at the same PS/Initiative. And I think both Redline and Rexler look really scary with those builds.

I was in a very similar spot last night. Ended up without Rexlar at all

The frame and upgrades remained though.

Ryad + Onyx Squad Pilot, both with Outmanoeuvre, Advanced Sensors and HLC.

Rex could swap in for either, without the HLCs. Not for me, personally. The matching In is great and I use Ryads 5/3k like a crutch. The 4 die bullseye shot is a cherry on top that I sometimes luck into....

I honestly have no idea how it would fare in whatever the meta will be, but few of the various lists I've been trying have come close to fun and punch of this one. I think it might be my new favourite... till I get told all the ways it'll get wrecked, lol.

Compromising on the bid, 2x Cutlass Squadron Punishers with TrajSim, Proton Bombs, and Barrage Rockets at 50 points each. Seems like that'd chew through some swarms.

Hrm. What about a Palp Reaper? Vizier with Palp is 58 points, and either a Scourge Skutu with Predator or a Alpha Interceptor at 34 points brings the whole thing up to 190, for 10 point bid. Vizier can hand out some tasty coordinates, and Palp, while not the same strength as 1e, is still probably enough of a pest that folks feel like they've got to ding him early. Basic Alphas seem like good filler ships to me; they can move fast to flank, double-reposition, block like a champ, and have the no-joke 3 red dice.

Thanks!

Definitely wanna try out Rexler/Redline/Mauler.

@theBitterFig's idea is nice. What do you think about Lt. Sai with St-321 and Tomax Bren (CrackShot/Prot. Torp.)? Sai gets double action. Rexler gets E/F/Tl if all went well. Tomax can hit hard with i5 prot. torps.

I like running him with Outmaneuver and all tricked out with either a tricked out Whisper/Vader/Other Defender. As fun as that is, this is the list that I am running, which I will adopt as my first competitive list of the 2nd edition:

Rexler: Juke

Whisper: Juke

Soontir: Predator (2pt don't get you that far, so they are left over for a bid, bringing the total to 198).

It is so powerful against single tokeners or low-shield ships that sometimes Soontir can joust an opponent with his buddies converging from 2 other directions all of the sudden! Or, you can fly what I plagiarized for this list, which Jboring does on Vassal. You lose a lot of survivability/slipperiness in exchange for a good amount of initial damage by swapping out Soontir for a Proton Torp Redline.

With regards to Sai, I dunno. It's a different sort of list I haven't really given much thought to. I just feel like a Reaper flies better than a Lambda. They did add the rear arc, which ought to help. I kinda feel like Lambdas might be better for ships you don't want to die early. An Admiral Sloan carrier with a bunch of cannon fodder, for example. With more HP and potentially reinforce, is it really worth killing one of those first?

However, half the point of a Palp reaper is that it'll keep the key player Rexler Brath alive, both by being a more tempting target, and by tossing around those force tokens. This might be 1e thinking, but usually it's best to kill Palp first, since he can generate so much value over the course of a game. But if you're able to leverage an opponent killing the Reaper first into a Brath lategame, that seems like it could be potent.

6 hours ago, Ryuneke said:

First I thought the 2.0 Defender is meh. Then I played Rexler Brath and everything changed.

2.0 version of the Defender is the ultimate version of it, combining the slots of D with the survivability of X7 whilst slapping on a shield upgrade, engine upgrade, pseudo-TIE MKII, and the systems slot. On paper that is meh with over-costing for empty slots, but indeed playing it (and customizing it) changes everything! But the meh aspect that remains is that you can never field 3 beautiful, tri-wing, spinny, pointy Defender models in standard format again. X Wing will never experience that level of sexiness again (although Quickdraw is better than a 3rd defender in 1.0! ).

Just a suggestion for Rexlar, he can be brutal with homing missiles. They either take the (TL modded shot) or immediately suffer one face up damage (if they don't have shields) so it makes Rexlar's ability even better. (Its a very good combo with 2 charges).

Best,

What about a mini Tie swarm?

Howlrunner or Iden with Gideon husk and Seyn Mar.

11 hours ago, Ryuneke said:

First I thought the 2.0 Defender is meh. Then I played Rexler Brath and everything changed.

I used Juke and Advanced Sensors on him which are both pretty good. Especially Adv. Sensors paired with his Ini5 makes him an outstanding arc dodger.

Because of that I want to put Outmaneuver on him.

Rexler Brath (84)
Outmaneuver (6)
Advanced Sensors (8)

102 pts. left. I prefer a strong bit (maybe 10 pts.)

I'm really not sure about his wingmans. Redline? Lt. Sai? Whisper?

Do you have any ideas?

I really like the idea of this I5's squad:

• Rexler Brath (84)
  • Juke (4)
  • Advanced Sensors (8)
• Duchess (42)
  • Predator (2)
• Tomax Bren (34)
  • Crack Shot (1)
  • Barrage Rockets (6)
  • Fifth Brother (12)

This gives you a 7 point bid and all I5 pilots. If you like Duchess more, you could throw Fifth Bro as her Gunner instead of TB.

Otherwise the other two named Strikers could be solid wingmen built lean. Or Hask, Meeko, and Seyn for a few more bodies on the table.

I don't really have any issue with Outmaneuver, I think RB will get more mileage out of Juke.

Here's my 'best out of Rexler' list:

Rexler, Juke, Collision Detector
Howlrunner, Swarm Tactics
Del Meeko, Swarm Tactics
Seyn Marana, Marksmanship.

Everyone shoots at 5, everyone gets a reroll, Seyn goes first, hopefully plops a damage card on them (much more likely if he has bullseye), Rexler then flips it up, then when that ship attacks, everyone gets a defensive reroll as well. I had Iden in there instead of Del before, but it meant that Swarm Tactics wouldn't fit, and you don't then get that first-engagement synergy.

Collision Detector is basically there to let Rexler K turn when people won't expect him to be able to K turn. It's probably my favourite upgrade in the game thus far, it allows for some very unexpected and interesting tactical play.

Thanks for all of your ideas and suggestions.

Yesterday I tried Rexler (Outm., AS), Redline (Prot.Torp., TS, Prot.Bo.) and Scourge (Predator) against Soontir, Tomax, Countdown and 2 Academys. Sadly I couldn't get the Proton Torps. off. On the other hand the proton bombs did lots of damage. All in all Redline performed well (killed soontir with primary). He's a huge threat you really want to kill quick. This bought Rexler and Scourge time to do damage. Rexler finished 2 wounded Academys and a burning Tomax in the end all by himself.

The other list I want to try asap is:

Rexler (Juke, AS)
Whisper (Juke)
Countdown
(196)

Thoughts?

5 minutes ago, Ryuneke said:

Yesterday I tried Rexler (Outm., AS), Redline (Prot.Torp., TS, Prot.Bo.) and Scourge (Predator) against Soontir, Tomax, Countdown and 2 Academys. Sadly I couldn't get the Proton Torps. off.

That seems a little light.

I'm guessing you went for a bid there? I think I'd rather have taken Barrage Rockets on Redline while you have room for it, rather than the bid. Maybe even switch to Adv Torps to give you a range 1 option. I5 is a heavily contested space, sure, and ensuring Rexler can get round all those I5 threats is big. But at the same time, the only time that was actually relevant against the list you faced would have been on Tomax.

Would make it easier to get shots off, if you were struggling with the torps.

On the other hand, I can't believe I didn't think of Scourge as the I5 TIE pilot. How did you find him? Did his ability trigger at all?

My issue with Scourge is that, while he can bonus dice at more ranges than Mauler, the bullseye arc is tricky enough to line up that I feel you want to be pushing into close range with him anyway. The bullseye is easiest to line up at range 1, but if you're at range 1 anyway Mauler is better because you're getting even more dice.

If you were able to get three dice shots with Scourge at range 2 or 3 at all, then yeah I'd say he's a good choice.