The TIE Defender. Space superiority fighter developed by Sienar Fleet Systems. This ship is one of the only ships that came into second edition with a better stat line. Three attack dice, three agility dice, three hull, and a whopping FOUR shields making it the only ship in the game with more shields than hull. On top of those strong numbers, the ship has native boost, barrel roll, lock, focus, and evade. Drop on top of that the Full Throttle ship ability granting a free evade action for any maneuver that exceeds two speed, and you have a super tanky ship that can dish out the damage as well.

But… nobody plays them. Despite being ridiculously good on paper, the TIE Defender has one large flaw: the cost. The base naked cost for the I1 Defender is 72 points. Comparing that to other Imperial ships, you can get the I6 Vader for two points less, Whisper with Juke and Vader crew for two points less, Redline with Proton Torpedoes, Adv. Sensors, and Proton Bombs for six points less, or pretty much any good variation of Soontir for much, much less. All of these pieces are proven good ships that have found their way into the Meta. But no Defender.

When the Second Edition of X-Wing got announced, after some of the details of changed stat lines and nerfed chassis came out, the Tie Defender was widely expected to be a meta monster, but we’ve barely seen it on the table. This post will explore the Second Edition Tie Defender, with the help of Michael “Biophysical” Simon of the excellent Starfighter Mafia blog and Matt Cary, frequent guest writer of this blog (two men who know MUCH more about the Defender than I do).

Have either of you found any success with Tie Defenders in Second Edition?

MS – Defenders were among the first ships I tried in 2nd edition due to my history with them in 1st edition. I was a big fan of the TIE/D title and before that, the HLC equipped Defender. I took both types to tournaments regularly and did pretty well. I haven’t been able to hit many big tournaments in 2nd edition yet, but in the local games and small tournaments I’ve used one in, it’s been a solid ship.

MC – I’ve tooled around with two of the named Defenders: Colonel Vessery and more often Rexlar Brath. In both cases, the ships felt fairly underwhelming, leading to only a couple of victories with either. Largely, they feel disappointing compared to 1st edition where they somehow felt stronger.

What load-outs have you tried, and what elements seem to work the best so far?

MS – I focused on Rexler Brath, as he was the pilot I primarily used in 1st edition. I liked the combination of high Initiative with a brawny chassis. Defenders have a high base cost due to that huge durability, which means decent upgrades are a small percent increase in cost of the ship, and you should have plenty of opportunity to use them. Consequently I was pretty liberal with my loadouts. I started using Rexler Brath with Juke, HLC, Homing Missiles, and FCS for 98 points. This ends up being a pretty optimistic build, because it assumes most of your 3 speed moves won’t be blocked and that you’ll have additional ships leftover to take advantage of the token stripped by Juke. Too often, I’d see this build get down early and not be able to recover.

After a bit of testing, I settled on Lone Wolf and Advanced Sensors. Advanced Sensors is terrific with any talent, it gives a huge amount of flexibility in maneuvers. Lone Wolf triggers in a ton of useful ways. When the Defender is split wide from the rest of the squad, it triggers Lone Wolf pretty regularly. This gives the ship even better defense if it gets targeted, and if not, maximizes the offense by providing extra attack modification. It doesn’t make you lean so heavily on the Evade token, which means you get more out of the lower speed moves, making you more unpredictable. Homing Missiles are a great 3 points on Rexler, as they count as hitting, and so turn over a facedown card with his ability. This is terrific against ships with high defense (due to stats or situation), as it lets you force an easy crit through. It’s situational, but only 3 points. The HLC is pretty interesting because it’s a situational, but significant, damage bump compared to the primary weapons, while also being cheap. Triggering it regularly takes some time, but it has a large effect for 4 points. Rexler’s ability also works with the HLC, making it an effective way to push crits into targets.

I haven’t tried the generics and the other named ships as they seem too expensive for the capabilities.

MC – I have largely tried Juke and Advanced Sensors. Juke for when you can take advantage of the “Full Throttle” ship ability, and Advanced Sensors for when you will bump, to either take the evade action before bumping or to reposition with boost or barrel-roll. Juke feels like a trap since you shoehorn yourself into doing a fast maneuver. This has been a problem for the Defenders since the TIE-x7 nerf in 1st Edition, but the reduced action economy in 2nd really makes you want that free evade.

Advanced Sensors is great in an open field. Boosting before a 4-K maneuver can put you in a lot of places. For that reason, I tried Outmaneuver for a bit on Rexlar to better success than Juke. If you can get a boost in, unless a ship has a 180 degree arc, you will likely get Outmaneuver on them.

Any other upgrades that I have tried on on a Defender only served to bloat an already expensive ship. Missiles on Vessery is a fun choice, but missiles don’t seem especially strong for their point cost currently. FCS is cheap and viable, but pales to Advanced Sensors. Collision Detector is an avenue worth walking down, but having been thoroughly demoralized on Defenders, I haven’t had the motivation to try it.

What do you think it would take to make them viable?

MS – I think a price bump in some of the top tier ships would put Rexler Brath solidly into their ranks. He is extremely tough and flexible, and if you can make regular use of the HLC will do enough damage to be worthwhile. His maneuverability with Advanced Sensors combined with a formidable defense put him on the cusp of the upper echelon right now. The other ships probably need a price drop on top of points adjustments to other things, but I’m not sure how much they would need to drop.

MC – I think a minor downward tweak in price would would help a lot with the Defender and the other super starfighter types: the E-Wing and the IG’s Aggressor. Should we go back to triple Defenders? Hell, no. Let’s not fix one imbalance with a greater one. A one point drop in the generics would help them, but Vessery and Ryad need to drop to at least down to Rexlar’s point cost. They both had great abilities, but they have been downgraded a hair in 2nd Edition. Vessery has less friends with the lock action to activate his synergy, and Ryad’s K-turns aren’t green. Putting all three named pilots at 83 points feels like a good spot for them.

If the points drop, what load-outs will you expect to see on Defenders?

MS – Naked Deltas (maybe FCS), Onyx with Juke (maybe FCS), Vessery with Juke (system as points allow), Rexler/Ryad with Advanced Sensors, Lone Wolf, and secondary weapons.

MC – Largely what is being utilized now. For me it’s less of what load-outs can be used, but rather what can be flown with the Defender with a point drop. As they are, Defenders’ true problem is crippling the rest of the list by not leaving many points left over. Finding what to fly with a Defender will also depend on the points balance after that, as the likely candidates currently are Phantoms, Punishers, and Bombers, which are more than likely getting cost increases.

The chassis is so incredible. Do you think FFG will struggle to price it correctly?

MS – Yes. The easiest win state for the Defender to achieve is to kill enough stuff that it wins on time. If you drop their points too much, it lets you fit enough other things in a list that help you achieve that condition. That is not a fun way to play, as either the Defender or the opponent. If Advanced Sensors get a big bump in price, you can probably price Defenders more competitively, because it opens up a lot of counter-play to the opponent.

MC – Definitely. Why so many ships were priced out of usage at launch was to ensure that we wouldn’t have cheap overpowered ships. Some may have slipped through the crack, but I am glad they exercised caution and hope that FFG will show that same restraint by keeping most price adjustments mild, whether on a ship chassis or on an upgrade. My fear is that complaints by the community might be heard too well, leading to an over-correct.

Perhaps adding some complication to point changes as well is the existence of two formats. I think FFG will prioritize the Hyperspace format over Extended, so some point balancing that happens in Hyperspace might upset Extended balance. We may just need to deal with that and have faith in FFG’s wisdom to balance things to where at least most of the ships and upgrades are viable.

Back to the Scrub – But what about you? Do you think that the Defender is good where it’s at, and any price break will make them too powerful? Have you found anyway to make them useful that haven’t been discussed here? Or does the TIE Defender needs some love before it truly becomes usable? Hit us up with your answers, we want to know!

Don’t forget to check out Michael’s Starfighter Mafia blog. If you are in the St. Louis area or coming to visit, reach out to Arch Alliance X-wing on Facebook to find out where we are playing on any given night.