This is a 3 ship list I came up with intended to take advantage of the phantoms firepower and keep it alive as long as possible to do lots of damage. I think it has some weakness against swarms, and I am trying to think of what to use for the remaining points.

tie phantom echo 30
veteran instincts 1
sensor jammer 4
advanced cloaking device 4
rebel captive 3

omicron group pilot 21
darth vader 3




delta squadron pilot 30

Assuming I have correct numbers for all of these it comes to 96 points, I was considering a couple options for alternatives or additions, like substituting enhanced scopes for sensor jammer on the phantom to make it harder to block.

Another possibility I was thinking of was giving the delta squad pilot a stealth device to give it better survivability against tie swarms, or alternatively, giving it an ion pulse missile + munitions fail safe to let it be a little scary to the large turret ships that are hard for my phantom to avoid shots from.

I also considered giving my shuttle anti pursuit lasers since one of the things I want it to do is block.

What do you all think of this list and these ideas for filling points and do any of you have any alternative suggestions?

Thoughts:

Enhanced scopes might make a phantom harder to block but at a cost of losing its biggest advantage - a huge move that you can declare after you see where other people are. Advanced sensors lets you work round blocking (by pulling your barrel roll move forwards) but is generally a better buy in my mind.

I wouldn't put anything else on the shuttle. By design it's supposed to kill itself: I see no reason to make it more valuable when it does. If you could trigger vader from an Anti-Pursuit Laser shot, maybe.

The Delta Squadron Pilot is likely to be going head-to-head with the main enemy force. Toughness upgrades are good, but I'd recommend hull upgrades over stealth devices; the stealth device has a good chance of not doing anything for you.

decloak is already taken before the move action so I don't believe advance sensors would have any effect on when the barrel roll occurs.

As far as the shuttle killing itself, I was planning to only selectively use Vader's ability since the return is fairly low per use, so if anti pursuit lasers lets it do one or two points of damage over the course of the game I figured it might be worth it, and I didn't necessarily have anything else to spend the points on anyway.

You can use advace sensors before or after you decloak (they have the same trigger (before you reveal your dial)), then you do you normal move.

I'm slightly confused, are you suggesting using advanced sensors to take the cloak action then immediately decloaking to gain a large barrel roll?

imo you need two major threads in a 3 ship squad. You can easily trade de defender 4 a full equiped Soontir or Firespray with Recon.

In my experience, I'm 17-1 with a 3 ship build with Eco but instead of VI on him using decoy and bringing a PS10 ship just in case, Eco does not need SJ as RC is usually enough to prevent shots from Whispers and PTL interceptors. Furthermore if you bring another big gun to the table it's ok if your enemy allocates lots of resources to bring Eco down as your other 2 ships will be able to get better shots. My 3rd ship is usually either Backstabber or Mauler, cheap and deadly if ignored because some other ships look more dangerous.

I love Doomshuttle but if you only have 3 ships killing your own is usually a bad idea. But you know, fly what you like!

I'm slightly confused, are you suggesting using advanced sensors to take the cloak action then immediately decloaking to gain a large barrel roll?

That is one of many things you can do with it.

I've so far only gotten to fly with the phantom once, but I based this list off that experience, in that game I didn't have sensor jammer, rebel captive or vader, and I had colonel Jonus with the shuttle title and munitions failure and an ion pulse missile on the defender.

I had been expecting my opponent to field a falcon and I was hoping to force him off the map with the ion pulse missile, but he surprised me by fielding to x-wings with stealth devices and a y-wing. He focused everything on my phantom, but I was able to keep it alive until he pulled an exposing wedge up into range one of it and took it out in one shot.

I kind of wanted Vader to help break the stealth devices but I just realized based on the wording for stealth device that what I wanted to do doesn't work so I might get rid of it. would a firespray really be a better ship in this then the defender? granted its got more health and a rear fire arc, but the defender has a white k turn and higher agility, add to that it has a smaller base and I figured it was a fairly good choice for a heavy hitting durable filler.

I see what you are saying about the decoy with a high ps rather than veteran instincts, but most of the time I didn't have my phantom within range 3 let alone range 1-2 of either of my other ships. I had sensor jammer with rebel captive because if they are stressed they can't take focuses, and if they don't have a focus, sensor jammer is effectively a free evade every time you get attacked, so I thought it would help keep my phantom as a long term threat.

you said you run a 3 ship build with echo, how long do you usually find echo surviving with the way you build him?

I'm slightly confused, are you suggesting using advanced sensors to take the cloak action then immediately decloaking to gain a large barrel roll?

That is one of many things you can do with it.

What I believe he was suggesting was using advanced sensors to take the regular barrel roll action in addition to the 2 template barrel roll you get from decloaking. I think he was mentioning this as a very flexible way to avoid being blocked because you get to choose what order to resolve these effects before revealing your dial, so you can pick either barrel roll that puts you in the best position given your current situation.

As to the list, I agree with some of the sentiments so far: a doom shuttle in a 3 ship list might just be asking for trouble. Enhanced scopes doesn't really help you since you want to move last with a phantom, so you can see exactly where all the enemy ships ended up. As for a defender, an engine upgrade is much more beneficial since it makes it very slippery (generally better to avoid firing arcs altogether than to rely on agility dice/hull/shield to save you).

If I were to do a list like this, I would go with:

Onyx Squadron Pilot w/ Engine Upgrade

Omnicron Group Pilot w/ Vader

Echo w/ veteran instinct, adv. cloak & rebel captive

That leaves you 2 points. Probably put an FCS on echo, intel agent on shuttle or leave as is for initiative bid.

you said you run a 3 ship build with echo, how long do you usually find echo surviving with the way you build him?

I'm no pro but usually dies the moment I expect or not at all. I'm flying Fett+VI so it's easier to get in range of a big ship. if I can kill my opponent MVP I'm glad to sacrifice Echo, to me RC needs to be used at least twice as if not then tactician is better and cheaper crew . Boba is a mighty end game piece!

Btw, I did very well at regionals with Doomshutlle but it was a 5 ship squad. I believe has it's place but not on 3 ship builds.

Have had a pretty good run with the following band. Still learning the nuances with Echo. That is a fun ship to fly.

Echo w/ ACD

Jonus w/ Concussion Missile, munitions failsafe, swarm tactics

PS1 Defender w/ HLC

This is a variation of my favorite list.

Actually, I've had good times with the following list:

Echo and Turr do about the same thing, swoop in from an odd angle and blast the snot out of their targets. Turr zooms into Range 1 of the target, fires, and boosts out of their fire arc. Fel is the main power-house with the Targeting Computer and can do more damage. "Echo", with his movement ability, can hit anyone anywhere. Oh, and they attack on 8 and 9, so most anything is dead before it has a chance to do anything other than die.

To the OP. Have you considered, swapping the Delta Defender for another Space Cow? A pair of Lambdas covers a good deal of the play area, plus they are tanky. And you can leave your Phantom as a flanker.

Also Captain Yorr (24 points) has a very useful ability on case your opponent tries to stress your Phantom. Yorr can take the stress instead. Spend 2 points each shuttle for Fire Control Systems, 4 points each shuttle for Engine Upgrade and you have reliable firepower plus decent maneuverability.

Granted still a 3 ship list.

I do like the Lambda, but using two of them with just one phantom as back up makes me concerned that my opponent might be able to just fly circles around me, I suppose I could put engine upgrades on them which might give them the maneuverability to keep up with more agile ships, but at that point wouldn't swapping the defender for a bounty hunter be better since its only a two point increase, I had some to spare, and it has the same health, more agility, and better maneuverability then the lambda?