In XWA online, the Defender was considered a Noob fighter by everyone. Like using a BFG in Q3. When two players wanted to have a good match it was the Tie Interceptor (almost exclusively), or for old school fun it was two Tie Fighter's in an asteroid field. Occasionally, you'd have an x-wing duel, but they usually took too long.
A little know fact is that the X-Wing will turn tighter than most of the Tie's if you cut the shield recharge to 0-33%. But the sheild factor made them a 2nd choice to the Tie.
X-wing vs. Tie Fighter & XWA were great games. It's hard to name very many realtime multiplayer games in the last decade that you could host decently on a 33-56K modem.....
God this thread brings back the geek.....Long live the Emperors Hammer!!!!!!