Over at Fantasy Flight Games, designer Brooks Flugaur-Leavitt talkes a closer look at the TIE/D Defender and the Dark Lord of the Sith for Star Wars: X-Wing.
“Anakin Skywalker was weak. I destroyed him.”
– Darth Vader [Twilight of the Apprentice]Darth Vader in a TIE Defender. After Timothy Zahn put the best star-pilot in the galaxy at the helm of the Empire’s most potent starfighter in Thrawn: Alliances, the idea both thrilled and terrified X-Wing fans. Even we as developers weren’t immune, and when the planning for the Skystrike Academy Squadron Pack began, I had to give it a shot! In designing Darth Vader, I aimed to strike a balance that would capture his terrible power while also allowing for his inclusion in normal gameplay.
The greatest hurdle in designing Darth Vader for the expansion was, of course, his pilot ability. Players who have fielded or faced Darth Vader, Black Leader , know how powerful his additional actions can be, and the TIE/D Defender’s ship ability, Full Throttle, also granted an additional evade action that matched its unique maneuver dial. The combination of Darth Vader’s Force Points, additional actions from the Defender’s generous action bar, a free evade, and the ship’s impressive statline was simply too much. Thankfully, the system of subtitles implemented in Star Wars: X-wing Second Edition gave me room to design a new pilot ability that would focus Lord Vader’s abilities in a way that would portray him thematically without being overpowered in gameplay.