Big shuttle fan, but have never ran a naked shuttle before. I was trying to add a doomshuttle to the squad I've been working on but came off 2 points off. With the shuttle the build would have 29 HP and 14 attack.

I typically run a shuttle along the edge while slowly turning inward and zeroing as much as I can to keep center area in arc.

Are those 21 pts better spent elsewhere?

Bounty Hunter

Space Cow

Mauler Mithel + IV or initiative

Backstabber

Academy Pilot

I'm a fan of the shuttle, and I it's worth the points.

It's maybe the most point efficient ship in the game. I think you can run it naked but then you are missing a lot of opportunities with it. FCS and adv sensors help with action economy, EU keeps it in the game longer, Vader is just punishing... Sure ya can but if you can't scrape up 2-4pts maybe that's not the list for it.

In the above list I'd drop mauler to Nightbeast in a heartbeat to add a 3pt upgrade to the shuttle.

Are you kidding it is so cheap. You do have to know what you are going to use it for. There are ways to run the shuttle without upgrades, though I would recommend some upgrades, you do get better value, with some well planed out upgrades. But that doesn't mean it has no use in any build without upgrades.

However I am mot sure it plays much of a role in your list. It can be easily avoided or gotten behind and then just tailed until it is dead.

If all you have left at the end of the game is a shuttle, you are going to be in a hard position.

I run my shuttles with FCS and that is about it. 23 points for a 3/1/5/5 with auto-TL when attacking is quite good. And it has a huge footprint for area control such as bumping into other ships. My 23 pointer took out a Phantom list today.

It is not a nimble ship by design...if anything that would make it too good. But if I want nimble, the Empire has scads of those starting at the bargain basement price of 12 points each

And as others have said there are plenty of options available if you want to adjust the role of the cow.

I've just played a couple of games with the shuttle, using the standard doom shuttle build (just vader), but I find it quite regularly bumps into enemy ships. I've hence been thinking anti-pursuit lasers might be worth it too. What do people with more experience think?

Yes

You know what works surprisingly well?

4x Space Cow with Engine Upgrade

In the light of this - yeah, it probably is worth the points I generally prefer to fly it with Engine Upgrade by quite some margin though.

I've just played a couple of games with the shuttle, using the standard doom shuttle build (just vader), but I find it quite regularly bumps into enemy ships. I've hence been thinking anti-pursuit lasers might be worth it too. What do people with more experience think?

APL doesn't actually deal a lot of damage, because proficient flyers don't often bump into them, particularly with space cows and their relatively low maneuverability. But, what it APL still do is, they lock down airspace that the enemy doesn't want to fly into, and thus makes the opponent more predictable. That's a good thing, too.

Thanks Haslo. as I'm running it as support for echo, I think that area denial effect could actually be really useful

What other ship can come close to 3 attack dice and 10 hits? It's the best bang for the buck in x-wing.

What's a space cow?

Naekkid space cow; albino kind:

Whisper +vi +acd

Naked shuttle x3

I call this list Cow "Whisper"er and it is a blast. So yes I think naked cows are great if you know how to fly them and have a plan for them.