Ship could be given to both the Rebel faction & Empire (or just Empire ? ) ~ they appear in canon from “Rebels” specifically modified and equipped for Lord Vader by Grand Admiral Thrawn with the Emperors blessing, and of course like anything Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren tried to steal one on Lothal.

All unique pilots

Darth Vader / Grand Admiral Thrawn / Maark Steele / Countess Ryad / Rexler Brath

(minimum starting point 80 points and yes Vader could get 2 Force maybe?)

Then....

Sabine Wren / Ezra Bridger

(minimum starting point 75 points, Ezra could have 1 Force)

Anyone with me ....

Nerp

What if the one we have already is the elite?

Now, I don't mind at all if an eventual release has a sculpt and paintjob based on the version from Rebels, with straight rather than angled spars in the middle of the solar panels, and with that yellow trim. That'd be pretty sweet. I'd probably have to buy two, despite already owning five TIE/D, so I could fly a pair with any Classic Grey, Glaive Red, or Elite Yellow.

Vult Skerris should be a pilot, when they eventually re-release a TIE Defender expansion.

But Sabine? Vader? NEAUXP! That **** would be broken AF.

And I don't really think there needs to be two different versions of this ship. I see a single title "TIE Defender Elite," which might do something like Virago or Afterburners, providing some kind of boost action under certain conditions.

//

I don't necessarily need a Thrawn ship, but here's how I'd do it:

He'd be Init 3. "In the system phase, choose one: * Activate at Initiative 0 in the Activation Phase, and Engage at Initiative 7 in the Engagement Phase; or * Activate at Initiative 7 in the Activation Phase, and engage at Initiative 0 in the Engagment Phase." So you choose: Move first and shoot first, or move last and shoot last. Seems like a Thrawn-style pilot ability, with a lot of potential for cunning tactical use.

Init 0 can't be blocked, and then you'll still shoot first. With the strong positioning tools of a TIE Defender, that could be really nice. But then maybe you get arc dodged. So activate last, intending to dodge arcs and wait your turn. But maybe you **** up your move and get trapped, and you'll be PS-killed. Might be too strong of a pilot ability on a TIE Defender, but it seems like a really cool ability to explore.

Sure, I'd love the longer variant.

But keep the Rebels OUT of it.

Putting a force user into a ship with the Defender's stat line is just _begging_ for trouble. 3 attack, 3 defense, and can modify dice every round without needing an action?! That's... a lot.

1 hour ago, TallGiraffe said:

What if the one we have already is the elite?

The current TIE/D is not the elite version. The Elite TIE/D was commissioned by Grand Admiral Thrawn. Tested, and modified specifically for Darth Vader.

1 hour ago, theBitterFig said:

Now, I don't mind at all if an eventual release has a sculpt and paintjob based on the version from Rebels, with straight rather than angled spars in the middle of the solar panels, and with that yellow trim. That'd be pretty sweet. I'd probably have to buy two, despite already owning five TIE/D, so I could fly a pair with any Classic Grey, Glaive Red, or Elite Yellow.

Vult Skerris should be a pilot, when they eventually re-release a TIE Defender expansion.

I see a single title "TIE Defender Elite," which might do something like Virago or Afterburners, providing some kind of boost action under certain conditions .

These are all great suggestions. Especially the Title that is the easiest way to do things.

Change the sculpt to the Rebel version then just release it. As to Vader dont give him any force that's fine but I6 would be nice if it ever occurred.

6 minutes ago, Cgriffith said:

These are all great suggestions. Especially the Title that is the easiest way to do things.

Change the sculpt to the Rebel version then just release it. As to Vader dont give him any force that's fine but I6 would be nice if it ever occurred.

Personally, I don't want Vader unless he's VADER . Now that we have the force, dude needs 3. He needs to be a holy terror. But that won't be balanced in 200/6 tournament-style X-Wing.

If Vult Skerris was a Init 6, I could live with that. But I'm also fine with the Defender topping out at Init 5. Lots of ships out there don't have a full range of pilot skills.

//

But what if they have ways to put Vader in a TIE Defender which doesn't make it to tournament formats? Maybe they'll eventually do campaign sets for X-Wing.

• Lothal to Scarrif - Rebels content, Rogue One content, and stuff like the Thrawn novel
• Yavin to Endor - Original Trilogy content
• Jakku to D'Qar (well, use some system from the eventual Episode 9) - Sequel-era content
• Geonosis to Coruscant - since Prequel content is on the way, gotta have one of those in here

Because these would be missions, you could do stuff like Sabine or Vader piloting TIE Defenders, since you don't care about the balance of the tournament game. There ought to be some new pilots and upgrades for standard play, but it'd be free to go into some wacky places with stuff you couldn't normally use.

//

I'll also go back on "no Vader Defender in Tournaments" a bit. I can see a cool place for it in some sort of a quick build format, maybe even in some sort of randomized, draft-style format. But at the same time, have something like a Luke E-Wing, and other extreme deep cuts. Stuff that might be too hard to balance in standard play, but would still be wicked cool and fun.

Using your 80 pts baseline and factoring the cost spread on the Advance x1, Vader TIE Defender Elite would likely be 109pts bare, at a minimum. That is before adding Supernatural Reflexes... That being said... HECK NO! Even with the same stat line as the standard Defender, 2-3 fracking recurring force pts boosting agil 3!?! On a 9 hp, 3 red beast with that dial... Do you want to play the game XWM or just curb stomp? Because this looks like you wishing to do an old fashioned, GW Favored faction, curb stomp...

Vader never flew a Defender Elite. He did fly a base Defender, and demanded improvements that led to the creation of the Elite.

When was Vader in a defender?

It would be awesome to see an "ace" pack for the TIE Defender, with the Elite TIE Defender title and a miniature with a new mold and new painting scheme (based on Rebels).

BTW, Vult Skerris needs to be in it. Vader? - I don't know... Thrawn? - I want to see him in the game, but as a crew card.

AND NO FREAKING REBEL PILOT!!

1 hour ago, Forgottenlore said:

When was Vader in a defender?

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/TIE/D_Defender_Elite

1 hour ago, Forgottenlore said:

When was Vader in a defender?

Thrawn: Alliances

And it almost made him giddy like a schoolgirl.

1 hour ago, Forgottenlore said:

When was Vader in a defender?

As Above, plus the original Tie Fighter videogame.

Briefing officer: DO NOT GIVE LORD VADER WINGMAN ORDERS.

As much as I would love to have Darth in a Defender, with his Initiative, pilot ability and the Force, that would be some crazy ***** s*** right there.

Then, make the Vaderfender as a Quick Build card, and make him legal only in that format. You know, like those 'purple 6 threat' quick builds ships the other factions have. Everyone happy.

Brath is hard enough to deal with. No thanks.

1 hour ago, Jehan Menasis said:

Then, make the Vaderfender as a Quick Build card, and make him legal only in that format. You know, like those 'purple 6 threat' quick builds ships the other factions have. Everyone happy.

Rainbow 8 Threat.

I'm a Rebel player, I don't want the TIE Defender on my lists... I don't think we'll get a new mold or recolor (if 1.0 were still a thing, you bet we'd get another aces pack with this thing eventually though), but I can see this being a title or configuration with a point boost.

No idea what this thing could do that the current version doesn't do already though...

I don't want a Rebel Defender; I'd be open to more Imperial Defender pilots down the line.

20 minutes ago, stuffedskullcat said:

I don't want a Rebel Defender; I'd be open to more Imperial Defender pilots down the line.

We're getting them. It's insane to think that we'll only be using pilots that came in the conversion kits. I doubt many other ships will have as many pilots as the X-Wing and TIE Fighter, but we'll get more than 4 options per ship

2 hours ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

I'm a Rebel player, I don't want the TIE Defender on my lists... I don't think we'll get a new mold or recolor (if 1.0 were still a thing, No idea what this thing could do that the current version doesn't do already though...

Kinda this.

Current frame doesn't leave mucb room for improvement. The only real option would be to make it different.

I might trade a shield and full throttle for the cannon double tap and white hard 2's. Would especially love doing some 2 turns occasionally. Tractor Beam stuck in the on position....

The Elite config should probably up it to 4 red dice, as that thing has 8(!) laser cannons on it. Also, yes to Vader, **** no to rebels.