Talk:TIE Defender Expansion Pack/@comment-122.59.182.29-20160814032210/@comment-454133-20160814220500

AJones47's advice is quite good, minimizing the foe's agility while maximizing the dice you roll. It helps a lot with the ships that are really tough to tag with damage. I once one-shotted Darth Vader with my Six Dice B-Wing fleet. :D  (though then the player wised up and patiently arc-dodged me to death with his 2 remaining ships... b-wings amiright?)

Though that's not the only strategy. Bombs work great too, as they completely bypass agility and evasion. They're just tough to use, and they only come with certain ships. You can also just spray firepower at him and wait for the statistically likely times when he rolls poorly in evasion, and chip him to death.

Here's a quick fleet with things you have (99 points):


 * Chewbacca [Marksmanship, Luke Skywalker, Millennium Falcon (Evade Version)] (53)


 * Biggs Darklighter [R2-D2] (29)


 * Prototype Pilot (17)

Biggs is there to distract the Defender from your real weapon, the Falcon. The defender must shoot biggs, if able, and biggs can drag things out by healing shields on most turns, wasting the defender's time. The falcon's goal in life is to use Marksmanship, fire on the defender with 3 or 4 dice, and if that misses (e.g. he spent his focus/evade tokens to dodge the hit), he fires again. Marksmanship acts as a super-focus and covers both attacks on that turn. Even if you don't score a lucky super-hit, you'll be able to slowly chip the defender to death. The a-wing is just soaking up points and acting as an extra threat and agile target. The defender will have buddies (more defenders, or bombers, or friendly ties etc), and Chewy should make short work of them too.

Here's an example swarm, with just sending lots of ships (100 points):


 * Prototype Pilot (17)


 * Rookie Pilot (21)


 * Luke Skywalker [Plasma Torpedoes, Veteran Instincts] (32)


 * Ibtisam [Fire-Control System] (30)

Ideally you focus-fire on one ship until it's dead, then choose another target. In the real world your opponent won't cooperate like that, so try to think about where each of his ships will likely be, and position your ships to exploit one or more potential opportunities. Hopefully they'll all be shooting fairly frequently.

Working off of AJones' suggestions, here's an example 99 point fleet:


 * Ten Numb [Fire-Control System, Tractor beam, Veteran Instincts, B-Wing/E2, Ezra Bridger] (39)


 * Wedge Antilles [R2 Astromech, Push the Limit] (33)

*Jan Ors [Wired, Nien Nunb] (27) You have the advantage of having pilot skills 10, 9 and 8. You'll need to decide turn-by-turn with your b-wing whether to focus (for better damage) or barrel roll (to dodge his arc or get into position for a shot). The b-wing's 10 Pilot Skill gives it a lot of power in responding to the defender's maneuver using a barrel roll, so that it can exploit positions as often as possible. Even so, the b-wing is so unmaneuverable, it can be tough to keep it from being shot up quickly. But sometimes it's better to just take a hit and tag the enemy with the tractor beam, or 4 primary attack dice at range 1, as that's the b-wings purpose in the fleet.Wedge is the hammer that should shatter the TIE/DEAD any time he gets a shot on it. Over time you'll gain some practice in maneuvering your ships, and that's important in a fight with a defender or other absurdly maneuverable ship. The goal is to be able to keep out-thinking his moves and set mental traps for him, while avoiding flying your ships into his clutches or running into asteroids or other ships. It will take time and practice to learn this, so don't get discouraged if it doesn't come to you quickly; learn the basics and practice. When you can learn to operate at high-level play, you won't be worried about the minutia of the rules and individual steps; you'll will be getting into your opponent's head, knowing what they'll do even before they've decided. :D Best of luck to you!