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DarthCatius
DarthCatius
3 years ago

I so love this TIE variant! Heavy Support fighter! 😛

di'Ce
di'Ce
3 years ago

Pretty

Steve
Steve
5 years ago

SFS was also approached and pointedly told to help resolve the current Rebel problem with regards to the Navy’s fighters. The TIE Fighter was a very dangerous craft in the hands of a good pilot, but most Pilots rarely survived a single tour in the very fragile fighter before they could learn to fully exploit the speed and manouvering quirks the TIE series offered. The far more capable TIE Interceptor was seen as a major improvement and a step in the right direction, but other craft were also to be developed to counter Rebel and Pirate fighters.

The biggest hurdle was the navy’s beauracracy and the Admiralty’s staunch opposition to fighters being equipped with hyperdrives out of concern that it would take funding away from capital ships. But SFS knew there was many ways to skin a Grek.
Their first offering was not a fighter but what SFS called a ‘Heavy Attacker based on the TIE series for ease of maintenance and supply’. What they designed was a monster 14 meters long and 18 meters wide with dagger like wings similar to a TIE Interceptor as well as an enlarged cockpit that, whilst visually similar to a standard TIE pod was larger and would fit the crafts two man crew. Almost half again as large as the TIE Interceptor the ship was more like a small shuttle and its hull section was packed with systems which included a shield generator that was roughly as capable of resisting fire as the older ARC-170 fighter as well as, most surprisingly, a hyperdrive motivator.
Here though the Admiralty and ISB insisted that the Hyperdrive be very limited in scope. A slow Class 2 drive, the drive had to be pre-programmed prior to launch and could only accept jump coordinates from the ship it was based upon and could only accept 2 jump coordinates.

Unlike the more versatile XG-1 Starwing the new TIE was seen as a heavy attack craft than a patrol craft and to do this the new design was very heavily armed. The chin mounted lasers were the more powerful L-s9.3 laser cannons and each ship also had a pair of launch tubes that could carry a total of six Proton torpedoes or twelve concussion missiles. But the main punch came from a pair of heavily modified H7 Light Turbolasers. These fearsome weapons could obliterate a fighter with a hit and cause heavy damage to shields and hull plating, giving the new craft, now designated the TIE Mangler a huge punch. Unfortunately the rate of fire of the H6 was reduced and needed recoil compensators as well as large gas reserves and their own power generators to operate Because of the power requirements of the H7’s as well as the other onboard systems an enlarged reactor was fitted and this drove up weight and five P-s5.6 engines were mounted to give the craft its speed and manouverability but the Mangler’s speed was not that high, being a little faster than the Rebel Y-Wing, which was still an accomplishment for a craft its size.
Expensive to produce the Mangler was put forwards to the Imperial Navy as a heavy attack craft and immediately Cygnus Spaceworks complained and pointed to the contracts already signed for the production and distribution of the Xg-1 Starwing in the same role.
Legal wrangling and bribes saw both craft enter production. The Xg-1 was more flexible and was easier to fly and its more capable hyperdrive and roomier cockpit made it an ideal patrol and quick reaction craft. And it had ion cannons which made it an ideal anti-Pirate craft.

The Mangler was a straight up attack craft, its turbo lasers gave it a huge punch but it was far less suited for patrols or interdiction duties, but the firepower of the turbolasers couldn’t be underestimated. The big fighter’s proponents also pointed to successful engagements where the ‘fighter’ had destroyed a CR-90 corvette with just their turbolasers when operating as a flight of six fighters without expending valuable ordinance which could be intercepted or fooled by jamming and other passive defences.

Several Imperial aces were part of the Mangler program and this helped set the TIE Mangler apart from the Xg-1, as the Mangler was seen as a craft for elite pilots and the Xg-1 was better for less skilled pilots.
This saw the Xg-1 being assigned to less elite pilots and less glamerous roles such as anti-pirate patrols or being based aboard older ships as well as space stations. This though, in turn saw a higher number of them in service and orders kept pouring into Cygnus. The TIE Mangler was seen as the domain of the elite of the Imperial Fighter Corps and TIE Bomber pilots who survived several tours would form the core of the Mangler pilots. Assigned to Command Dreadnoughts like the Executor or other large capital ships as well as prestige squadrons like Death Squadron, the Mangler was far less common and was only seen in fleets that were expecting to see heavy combat and was produced in far smaller numbers than the Xg-1. Because of their size, even an Imperator II could only carry a dozen Mangler’s in place of its Xg-1’s but this wasn’t seen as a drawback as Imperator II class ships were expected to see more combat and didn’t need a ‘patrol and interdiction’ craft.

And again, thoughts/comments are most welcome!

Tanner Redland
Tanner Redland
3 years ago
Reply to  Steve

I like your head cannon of this design and comparing this to the Xg-1. Even if the Mangler was a superior fighter I rather have my ship have squadron of Xg-1 then then a squadron of these fighter because you get more use out of Xg-1 then the maulers.

Grand Admiral Declann
6 years ago

I love this thing! A Squadron versus a Star Cruiser? No chance for the Star Cruiser!

Grand Admiral Declann
6 years ago

And I just noticed the Four Warhead launchers around the cockpit. I like the mean-looking wing mounting pylons.

Coulden Pettit
Coulden Pettit
6 years ago

I was really fascinated by this design you put in, Fractal. The TIE Mangler looks like an absolute beast that’s ready to annihilate and Rebel starfighter, or give the Corellian corvette a really rough time.

Though I do appreciate the TIE Mangler design, Fractal, by any chance, I would be very excited if this gets a bomber variant that’ll even put the Scimitar assault bomber to shame.

Coulden Pettit
Coulden Pettit
6 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

Okay. Thanks for letting me know.

Coulden Pettit
Coulden Pettit
6 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

Speaking of ‘not much bigger than the Scimitar.’, I was wondering how long, actually, was the TIE Mangler?

Jean-Luc Martel
Jean-Luc Martel
6 years ago

what a beast wow! are those turbolasers?!

Jean-Luc Martel
Jean-Luc Martel
6 years ago

plus could you give dimensions for this ship?

JOBe
JOBe
6 years ago

Hi Fractal, dya think you could do another design similar to this with the wings inverted by any chance. These designs are absolutely amazing. Definitely thinking of writing some of them into my fanfic if that’s cool with you

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago

Hey Fractal what do you think of the Nssis class Clawcraft?
:comment image/revision/latest?cb=20170411044633

PhantomFury
PhantomFury
6 years ago

This is far more gorgeous than a TIE silencer will ever be.

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago

Well done!

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago

Hey Fractal what do you think of the TIE Scout?

gorkmalork
gorkmalork
6 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

*squints at an X1 with shaved-down lower winglets, oversized *upper* winglets & a plus-sized dorsal refrigerator*

…Sithspew, no wonder I apparently memory-holed that one for a while. Even if your Avenger render wasn’t both slick & spacious, hard to do *worse* than the official Scout visual.

Speaking of TIE tangents, more/less agreed re: your SDnet commentary about upper-end variants needing *someplace* for machinery besides the cockpit ball & wing struts. Doesn’t even have to be much by non-Sienar fighter standards-I get the distinct impression you could hyperdrive & shield-retrofit an eyeball or squint with, say, the mini-trunk & rear wingroot extensions of Rebels’ Inquisitor TIEs. Not even sure said refits would hamper handling to the degree cited in Legends X-wing books.

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago
Reply to  gorkmalork

By away the TIE Scout is 24 meters in length.

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

Anyway Fractal what do you think of the TIE Vanguard that have a similar role to the TIE Scout?

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

Vanguard/rc being manned on the mothership huh so they will be less of the fighter then right?

Anonymous
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

(Very late response) Never mind manned as in being controlled by a pilot and since they are sensor nodes for a mothership then they most likely are independent.

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

Funny enough there was a TIE/rc the predecessor to the TIE Vanguard and it look like this:comment image/revision/latest?cb=20051212095557
Also there was a TIE/fc (Fire-Control) which work with with the other TIE variant known as the TIE/gt (Ground-Targeting) which is a bomber of some kind that can carry either 12 concussion missiles, 6 proton torpedoes, 18 air-deployed mines, 2 cluster bombs or I’m not making this up 20,000 plastic leaflets which are use for propaganda campaigns here more info on the gt: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/TIE/gt_starfighter
And here what they look like:
Fire-Control:comment image/revision/latest?cb=20071202205027
Ground-Targeting:comment image/revision/latest?cb=20061126202425

gorkmalork
gorkmalork
6 years ago

Missiles, triple modular fighter-grade mounts, and no small degree of streamlining despite the light-gunboat mass. Even sans those light turbos, one of the neater outward-winged TIE creations in recent memory.

Steve Bannon
Steve Bannon
6 years ago

A TIE that is conceivably a match for a CR90 Corvette in a straight-up gunfight. Now all we need to do is hope someone at Disney lurks these threads to put one of them in the next season of Rebels or the Han Solo movie.

gorkmalork
gorkmalork
6 years ago
Reply to  Steve Bannon

You’d probably want a flight of four to properly mob your average CR or Quasar Fire, but Force knows these brutes would ensure brown trousers on any YT freighter (or lighter) in their frontal arc. ‘Course, now I get to visualize one in a knife-fight with that micro-superlaser B-wing. Speaking of fiendishly hax small craft, how do we like this thing’s chances of whacking an XM-1 before it makes with the torpedo spam?

Little Grasshopper
Little Grasshopper
6 years ago
Reply to  gorkmalork

I like the odds, that’s an insane amount of firepower moving with Avenger-ish performance.

Is there any info on shield strength?

Eric Otness
Eric Otness
6 years ago
Reply to  Steve Bannon

Just so we’re clear, by “next season”, you mean Season 4, right? Only asking because Star Wars Rebels won’t have any more seasons after that, it’s the final season.

gorkmalork
gorkmalork
6 years ago
Reply to  Eric Otness

In that case, I’d be honestly surprised if more than one handful of original, OT or currently-Legends designs get (re)introduced. Most interesting development might be watching Scarif from the Ghost’s cockpit.

Astro1derboy
Astro1derboy
6 years ago

Outstanding (as usual)!!

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago

This is AMAZING. period

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

Also: Heavy fighter, gun boat, personal transport? I’d love to know it’s role.

George Apley
George Apley
6 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

On stardestroyer.net, Ansel said:

“Sniper. Cover dogfighters as they accelerate into the scrum, kill bombers, shuttles, transports, and escort corvettes, independent point and area defense for a capital ship. Instant kills on light fighters, extremely dangerous in close even vs high end fighters because it might have a lot of weight, but it has enormous power to move it, on top of the firepower and shielding. A flight of these with 2 flights of Defender to back them up and that’s a fighter squadron that’s dangerous at all ranges.”

Genjitsu17
Genjitsu17
6 years ago
Reply to  George Apley

Wicked. Thanks. 🙂

Jedman67
6 years ago
Reply to  Genjitsu17

Even Rogue Squadron would think twice before engaging them without backup.
Tycho would have nightmares for weeks afterwords.

George Apley
George Apley
6 years ago

Damn, that’s a beauty. Appreciate the scale comparison shots as well! Great work

Robert
6 years ago

Dear Fractalsponge

I get very excited everytime i’m seeing you create a (new) TIE Variant for the Empire. Your TIE Mangler is a masterpiece in the matter of innovation and combat strength. The Empire (as we can see it in Episode IV to VI) has a lot know-how when it comes to design of heavy and ultra-heavy battleships (Star- and Super Star Destroyer). But this is going at the expense of quality TIE Fighters. The only advanced TIE Variant we can see in the movies (IV – VI) is Lord Vaders TIE and so i’m very lucky every time i’m seeing you expand the Empires TIE Fleet with a more powerful variant.

You have posted (2nd Dec 2016) a TIE Variant which reminds some of us to the TIE Phantom/TIE Clutch. And so i like to ask you: Are you going to complete this one?

Yours faithfully
Robert