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TIE Fighter pilots are suicidal. TIE Defender pilots are bloodthirsty. But TIE Interceptor pilots are bloodthirsty and suicidal.
Sienar Fleet Systems TIE Interceptor; CL8
Huge starfighter
Init +11; Senses Perception +6
Defense Ref 18 (flat-footed 11), Fort 24; +3 armor, Vehicular Combat
HP 90, DR 10; Threshold 34
Speed Fly 16 squares (max. velocity 1,250 km/h), fly 5 squares (starship scale)
Ranged laser cannons +7 (see below)
Fighting Space 3x3 or 1 square (starship scale); Cover total
Base Atk +2; Grp +26
Atk Options autofire (laser cannons), fire-linked (laser cannons)
Abilities Str 38, Dex 24, Con --, Int 16
Skills Initiative +11, Mechanics +6, Perception +6, Pilot +11
Crew 1 (skilled); Passengers none
Cargo 75 Kg; Consumables 2 days; Carried Craft none
Availability Military; Cost 120,000 (50,000 used)
This vessel has two unused emplacement points
Laser Cannons (pilot)
- Atk +7 (+2 autofire), Dmg 6d10x2
The TIE/In Interceptor phased out the TIE/ln as the primary starfighter of the Galactic Empire sometime between the Battles of Hoth and Endor. Far more capable than the TIE/ln starfighter, the TIE/In features four Medium Laser Cannons, is faster than anything but an A-Wing, and more manoueverable than an X-Wing. It still lacks shields, hyperdrives, life support and ordinance weaponry, though.
The TIE/In is a mixed bag. An ace pilot in the TIE/In is far more than a match for lesser pilots in superior starfighters, and some aces (notably Baron Soontir Fel) would easily go on to rack up hundreds of starfighter kills in their vessels. Rebel and Alliance X-Wing and A-Wing aces were unafraid to use the TIE/In when the situation called for it, though to a sentient they would as soon scrap the TIE and go back to their own vessels; X-Wing pilots found their proton torpedoes, armaments, and addition of astromech to be more than worth the trade-off in lesser speed and agility, whereas A-Wing pilots found their additional agility, missiles and shields to be worth the trade-off in lesser cannon power. To a sentient they all also preferred life support and hyperdrives.
The TIE/In did have some advantages. It has two unused Emplacement points instead of the typical one, and factory-built variants were numerous. The Empire did field Hyperdrive-capable TIE/In in later years and in small numbers, whereas Palpatine's own Royal Guard pilots used brilliant crimson variants to good effect. In the end, though, nobody who had ever flown a stock X-Wing and a TIE/In would ever voluntarily choose the TIE over the X-Wing. Erisi Dlarit, a legendary spy and pilot who infiltrated Rogue Squadron before defecting back to the service of Ysane Isard, argued long and hard for Iceheart to equip her and her squadrons with X-Wings instead of TIE/In Interceptors, and her death at the hands of Corran Horn can likely be attributed as much to her being forced by Isard to use an inferior starfighter as to Horn's superiority, even though she defected with her X-Wing.
One of the later models of the TIE/In swapped the quad laser cannons for quad blaster cannons and added chin laser cannons in the place where the TIE/ln had it's own lasers. This baffled everyone, most especially those who flew the TIE/In's original model, as not only was the refit more expensive but the differing range profiles made it impossible to use both weapon systems effectively at the same time; at longer range the refit had weaker firepower than the original, and at shorter ranges it had no greater firepower, and the refitted models were universally field-refitted back to the original model's armament the moment the bureaucrats looked away.