Today is the Empire's counter to the Rebellion's T-65 X-Wing, the TIE/Hu Hunter Multi-Role Starfighter (wow I've done 3 X-Wings in a row now, I may be a little obsessed...). The Hunter was designed specifically to deal with the X-Wing's deadly efficiency compared to the Empire's standard Tie models, because of this the Hunter took many physical and technical designs directly from the Rebel's X-Wing. However, these aspects of its design caused the Hunter to cost considerably more and take much longer to build than standard TIE models, it became regulated to being another of the Empire's many special but rare TIE variants.
The Overall Design:
Like with the in-universe design, I tried to take as many cues from the X-Wing in-game as the Hunter took from the in-universe X-Wing. That being said, this ship will have similar stat lines, actions and upgrade slots to the rebellion's T-65 X-Wing, however incorporating the Empire's more standard TIE designs whenever needed. This makes the Hunter both a very familiar yet unique ship to fly, making it an interesting addition to the Empire!
The Stats:
Like I said the Hunter sticks to a similar stat line to the X-Wing, nevertheless, I did make some distinct changes to reflect its creators who were more use to building TIEs. This ended up with the Hunter having the following stat line:
2 Attack
2 Defence
3 Hull
2 Shields
The hull's weakness reflects the empires preference towards more flimsily craft that can be mass-produced, and although the Hunter was meant to be more of a heavy craft, if you look at its space frame, it is VERY thin and spindly!
The attack and defence values are a sort of deception, as the configuration you'll see later on will heavily adjust these values.
The Actions:
These are just the X-Wings actions. (That's all I have to say!)
Focus
Target Lock
Barrel Roll
The Ability:
This is the part of the ship I took the most liberty with as the Hunter had access to both standard and ion cannons. I decided to distinguish between this ship and other starfighters by making the cannons an integral part of the ship. This made a lot of sense to me as the Empire would be willing to change out their ship's weapons for mission-specific weapons. However, they would not be willing to increase the cost so that the ship could have both primary and additional secondary weapons (outside of torpedoes), especially with its already expensive frame.
It also gives the Hunter a distinct disability, letting you take a cannon that could be much more powerful than your primary arc, however you can only use that cannon's arc restrictions. Therefore if you wish to bring a Heavy Laser cannon, you better be good at getting bullseye arcs on your enemy!
The Dial:
This ship gave me a problem, I wanted to make it use a dial almost identical to the X-Wing, however out of nowhere its suddenly meant to be the fastest ship in the Empire? So to counter this I decided to use the S-foil card to aid the increase in speed of the Hunter's dial, so although its current dial is practically an X-Wing's dial, it will get better!
The Modifications:
As I've already said a hundred times, the Hunter is an Imperial X-Wing, because of this, its modifications are very similar, only exchanging the astromech for a cannon slot.
The Pilots:
Soontir Fel:
Here he is again, the ace of legend, the bullseye god, the glass cannon, Soontir Fel!
Although he didn't fly this ship all that often due to its almost exclusive use by the Empire's Storm Commandos, he was one of the main test pilots for the Hunter and many other newer TIE projects because of his known skill. I decided to change his ability slightly from his Interceptor's or my own Clawcraft's ability, giving him an ability that works well for the Hunter. It lets him flip the S-foils, so he can smoothly transform from his attack mode to his defence mode after dealing with a pesky enemy ship, or vice versa if he needed his S-foils closed to pull off a trickier manoeuvre.
Tam Blackstar:
Tam is a strange pilot who we know very little about in legends, however he was plucked from there and brought back into cannon to be a TIE Defender pilot. The few things we do know about Tam is that he was a TIE Hunter pilot who leads Dark Blade Squadron, an ace who amassed a large number of kills during his time and was infamous for his complex manoeuvres, so I took all this information and put it into his ability!
Tam can use his kills during the game to increase his manoeuvrability, letting him perform white K-Turns and Tallon Rolls, making him able to fly similarly to the TIE Defender that he now flies in cannon!
Crix Madine:
An ex-Imperial army officer who in legends formed the Storm Commandos who primarily flew the TIE Hunter. Crix lead the Storm Commandos for many missions before realising the Empire's horrors. He would then defect to the Rebellion where he would later help plan the attack on the second Death Star's shield on Endor.
I designed Crix's ability around a story where he once hid his and his fellow Storm Commando's TIE Hunters underwater, then recovering them after a week with no damage. It's a bit of a stretch but his ability is showing this by allowing him and his allies to pass through obstacles without damage if their S-foils are closed. This makes him perfect to pair with the Marg Sabl Closure upgrade and Soontir who can open his S-foils for a better attack after moving!
The Generics:
As with all ships, there must be generics and these two are especially skilled ones. The Storm Commando Ace, like with all of the unique pilots (except Crix Madine) will have access to the talent slot, however, as they are test pilots, the Trapper Squadron pilots would have never got used to their Hunters, not allowing them access to the slot.
The Upgrades:
Solar S-foils:
This, as with all X-Wing styled ships, is by far the most important upgrade for the ship, but it goes double for the Hunter! The Solar S-foils give the Hunter both much more agility and firepower compared to most other S-foils in the game. When open the S-foils can increase both your primary or cannon attacks in your bullseye arc, making those attacks very heavy-hitting and deadly, especially for a Heavy Laser cannon. But as I said before, that will mean you'll only have a very small arc of attack, making it a risky weapon for the hunter to bring!
When closed, the S-foils suddenly make your Hunter an ace, letting you gain access to both a SLAM action (making this the fastest TIE in a straight line) and increasing its agility, at the cost of attack dice on your cannon or primary attacks. This makes the Hunter perfect for hit and run tactics, letting you hit hard, then lock your S-foils closed and run away at greater speeds.
"Mangler" Cannon:
This first edition cannon has a special place in my heart as it was the core upgrade of the list I took to my first tournament years ago. I liked the first edition ability, giving you a three attack dice attack that lets you change a hit to a crit, however I decided to go along a slightly different direction for the second edition. Letting you use crits to strain your opponent (mangling them!) and making it harder to evade your allies' attacks. I did decide to reduce the range a little, but otherwise this cannon is a solid powerhouse that would love Marksman on your ships!
Arc Caster:
If the Mangler Cannon would be a safe choice for the Hunter, the Arc Caster is a massive but fun risk. Another first edition cannon, the Arc Caster was a deadly weapon that could cause massive damage that could rebound on you or a friendly ship if no other targets where available. It would then require you to recharge the cannon to let you fire it again. My second
edition version is very similar, however decreasing the strength of the first attack, to then let you perform a second attack, even if it's out of your arc. However like with the first edition it can easily be a risk to yourself or an ally if there are no other enemy ships nearby to take the second shot. Although its a risk to take this weapon on a TIE Hunter, it's hit and run nature makes it gel with the ship very well.
Homing Torpedoes:
A way around the reduced attack arcs of the Hunter is by also taking a Torpedo with a wider or longer distanced arc. The Homing Torpedo is a weapon very similar to the standard Proton Torpedo with the payload slightly reduced to fit in a superior guidance system. The ability I gave it shows this, making it a solid 3 attack dice with an increased arc to the standard Proton Torpedo and still retaining the normal effect. This lets it easily make up for any shortcomings in a cannons arc!
Reduced Profile:
A large part of why I made the Solar S-foils the way they are is because I love the idea of all ships with S-foils gaining an extra advantage with their S-foils closed for a more skilled pilot, allowing them to take advantage of the smaller shadow when the foils are closed. This is useful for the Hunter due to its higher agility compared to most with S-foils.
Twin Ion Engines MK II:
Another first edition upgrade that I have converted to the second edition. The original version decreased the difficulty of any TIEs bank manoeuvres massively improving all the TIE's manoeuvrability for a relatively cheap upgrade. I felt that just a direct transition to second editions would be a little too powerful, so I tweaked it so you can change how hard you turn, letting you increase the precision of your TIEs.
Conclusion:
I was uncertain how I'd feel about the Hunter when I started to look at it to make this article, I had always felt Legends had gone a little far with its better and better starfighters. I just felt that for the Empire who "rarely" used ships with shields and hyperdrives, they used a lot of ships with shields and hyperdrives.
However I actually found myself starting to like the design of the Hunter, I can imagine the very uninventive Empire just copying their biggest threat in a desperate attempt to emulate the success of that threat.
I tried to make this pack around knowing when to engage and retreat, with the Hunter being perfect for hit and run attacks, recharging their weapons like Arc Caster and catching their opponents at opportune moments, making this ship an unconventional ace!
As normal feel free to use the cards in friendly games to show the rest of the X-Wing community that the Rebels aren't the only ones who can use the power of the X!
Thank you all for reading,
Watcher Leader out.
Battle Of The (Tiny) Titans!
Also, comment below or on my Reddit or vote on my Instagram for the topic of my next article. The options are big ones this time:
EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate: OR Arquitens-class Light Cruiser:
I'll make these two (tiny(compared to a star destroyer!)) titans over the next couple of weeks then see if I can set up an epic game on Tabletop Simulator where I can test them for you all to see! If you'd like to participate in the epic battle I'll announce it closer to the time!