I watched this squad on vassal recently take apart Kath Scarlet + mini swarm pretty handily.

Soontir Fel + PTL (30)

Omicron Group Pilot + Vader Crew (24)

Omicron Group Pilot + FCS (23)

Omicron Group Pilot + FCS (23)

Pretty impressive. Its the best/most competitive squad I have seen that uses at least one shuttlebus. I am curious to figure out what are its best options for setup/asteroid placement versus the top squads out there.

4 ships with 3 Attack is very strong, the high durability of the shuttles is similar to taking on 3 B-Wings, shuttles have more hull but B-Wings have better movement dial so its pretty even id say.

DoomShuttle will be especially devastating versus other imperial squads that typically run unshielded ships.

Three PS 2 large base ships that can stall are pretty effective blockers versus just about everything and would be especially useful versus Falcons letting you adopt an action denial strategy when its needed.

1. Has anyone out there flown this squad?
2. Any tactical tips?
3. What are its weaknesses?
4. What are its worst matchups?
5. How would you play against it?

Competitively I have flown a somewhat similar list last tournament:

Soontir+PTL&shield

2x Shuttle; FCS/Gunner/engine

Worked very, very well. Winning 3 out of 4 games.

The one time it let me down was vs a well flown tie swarm who did get hot red dice.

Both shuttles down, albeit not without a fight, leaving Soontir to mop up the rest.

Something he was easily capable of was it not for that darn time limit. (losing draw)

So my version now at the testing grounds is downgrading one shuttle to a Doomshuttle and adding a 4th ship.

Tonight I will test & try this:

-Soontir + PTL/shield (no shield means your most important ship is vastly easier critted/damaged/taken out)

-OGP shuttle+Vader

-1 (preferably 2) points for initiative bid

-> leaves 40-41 pts.

-2nd shuttle with Engine @ 25 pts

-Tie fighter @ 12 pts

-3 or 4 pts to play with

1st version:

upgrade the AP to Backstabber

2nd version:

add AS to shuttle

3rd version:

FCS/tactician to shuttle

I watched this squad on vassal recently take apart Kath Scarlet + mini swarm pretty handily.

Soontir Fel + PTL (30)

Omicron Group Pilot + Vader Crew (24)

Omicron Group Pilot + FCS (23)

Omicron Group Pilot + FCS (23)

Pretty impressive. Its the best/most competitive squad I have seen that uses at least one shuttlebus. I am curious to figure out what are its best options are setup/asteroid placement versus the top squads out there.

4 ships with 3 Attack is very strong, the high durability of the shuttles is similar to taking on 3 B-Wings, shuttles have more hull but B-Wings have better movement dial so its pretty even id say.

DoomShuttle will be especially devastating versus other imperial squads that typically run unshielded ships.

Three PS 2 large base ships that can stall are pretty effective blockers versus just about everything and would be especially useful versus Falcons letting you adopt an action denial strategy when its needed.

1. Has anyone out there flown this squad?
2. Any tactical tips?
3. What are its weaknesses?
4. What are its worst matchups?
5. How would you play against it?

This list, the Alabaster Hippo Ballet as the pilot, Dom, coined it, is probably the list I'm most excited about playing right now. Dom won the recent Galactic Cup, a 140+ player Vassal Tournament hosted by Mr. Froggies on Team Covenant using this list primarily. He also came in 2nd at the Chicago Regional (70+ players) with a variant of the list, dropping the Omnicron w/Vader for Captain Yorr.

I've played it once so far and won without losing a ship. Not enough to offer tips yet but it's such an awesome list.

I don't know. Whenever I take the shuttle its just wasted points. It gets burned down so fast, im never pointing in the right direction, its always stressed. I honestly dont know how to fly that thing.

This list, the Alabaster Hippo Ballet as the pilot, Dom, coined it,

Heh. I named my version the Soontirs Shuttle Show.

No offense but I like my name better.

I started a topic concerning the use of Carnor Jax and one of the answer was to pair him with three shuttles, all of them onmicron pilot with Fire Control System.

I do not have three, so I tried with two and even if I lost the game due to a poor performance by my side and a very well laid feint by my opponent I liked the idea a lot. The game was fun and the shuttles show me that they have huge potential.

My error was to let a shuttle alone in front of a group of 4 headhunters full of missiles. Pachow !

But for the rest, the other shuttle did fantastic.

In the games I was able to watch this played, it seemed that players consistently fell into the trap. You can't just line up and fly at one of the shuttles. If you do, your opponent pinches the other two down trapping all your ships in the kill zone. It gets hard to escape because of how big the lambas are. They choke up all the lanes and are hard to jump over.

With that in mind, my thoughts against this list are:

1) I think for asteroids, you want to try to place them range 1.5 -2 apart from one another. This keeps your opponent from being able to mostly fill the space between asteroids with a single shuttle.

2) I think you want the asteroids on your side of the board. One, he can't just line the shuttles up at the gaps on his side and take them out of play for several rounds. Two, this keeps them spread out, which keeps them relevant.

3) This is one situation where I think it is not too unreasonable to split your squad so he can't point all the lambdas at a single kill zone. It also makes things harder on Soontir.

4) I think you need to make the lambas commit to an angle of attack before you move up the board. I even think feinting a direction and k-turning early for no good reason other than to reverse direction is a decent idea.

5) ignoring asteroids and flying over them to "shoot the gap" I think is valid if it gets you behind the shuttles. Don't let a couple of damage keep you in his kill zone.

6) Take every shot you get at Soontir.

Whew. There are an awful lot of "I thinks" in there. I don't know, but these are the things I have thought while watching this squad on vassal.

Keep in mind that the galactic cup was run in a pre wave4 build

Keep in mind that the galactic cup was run in a pre wave4 build

He ran it at the Wave 4 regionals and finished 2nd. (Chicago?). So the list is still valid and you will see copycats. I believe there he had Yorr in place of the Doom Shuttle.

Once Decimator is released I'm going to try this list (Ruthlessness might be replaced with something other but the general idea is there):

Keep in mind that that list is not an I-win-button.

Dom flew it superbly in the GC and made it look easy, but it is a difficult list to fly and not forgiving to pilot error.

I beat it in a store championship earlier this year with a 4 ship rebel build. I rolled really good on defense which helped and didn't lose a single ship I think, or maybe 1 at most. The big thing was my opponent did the stall move a lot, and I did the 1 move a lot, so that often means range 1 shots for me with actions vs no actions for him, and with me shooting first I could take down the shuttles pretty quickly.

I also one-shotted Fel with Wedge early in the game after I used a bwing to block where I thought he'd be. That was pretty key too.

I've only played it one another time since with a imperial build and got beat pretty bad. Although it was mostly my fault for some bad flying, although my opponent rolled 3 hits every attack WITHOUT actions most turns which really hurt.

Never doubt the shuttle in the hands of a pilot who has put in he 100+ games to unlock its potential.

Keep in mind that that list is not an I-win-button.

I think that goes without saying for every build in existence.

I have found this to be highly effective.

Omicron Pilot (21) Engine Upgrade (4) Adv. Sensors (3) Gunner (5) x 3

The ability to command the board is awesome. It is highly effective at delivering shots that stick and moves very well.

30 hit points is nothing to sniff at either.

I haven't tried it against Predator, where it will grant 2 rerolls, but I have smashed 4 ship rebel builds, mini swarms and full swarms.

This is not an easy build to fly, but if you master it, it is evil.

I took my mama said stress you out to a tournament and went 3-2, finishing 6th out of 28

Fel, ptl

2x ogp, adv sensors, engine upgrade, gunner and tactician

The speed of a shuttle with advanced sensors and engine upgrade has to be seen to be believed, When my opponent set up in the opposite corner I would flank them with shuttles, often attacking them turn 2 from the center as they moved down the flank. I lost to a twin defender with hlc build and mauler and a tie swarm with fel.

I'd be interested in trying out a 3 or 4 shuttle build, but I really don't think I'll be buying another one with the decimator out sooner or later

Post Tramatic Cattle Disorder

Captain Yorr

FCS

Tactician (x2)

OGP

FCS

Tactician (x2)

Whisper

-Adv. Cloak

-Rebel Captive

-VI

-FCS

You could fit Vader in as a trade on the OGP, but it would kill the spirit of the build

Post Tramatic Cattle Disorder

Captain Yorr

FCS

Tactician (x2)

OGP

FCS

Tactician (x2)

Whisper

-Adv. Cloak

-Rebel Captive

-VI

-FCS

You could fit Vader in as a trade on the OGP, but it would kill the spirit of the build

Hey that looks familiar!

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/112490-scum-and-villainy-podcast-interview-series-2012-world-champion-doug-kinney/?p=1186275

Anything that uses "Cattle" in the name has to be cool. My suggested wave 5 variant uses Mara Jade + Intelligence agent instead of 2x Tactician, on one of the Shuttles.

The main issue is that 3 shuttles + Soontir has a ton of firepower and durability. 2 shuttles + Whisper has slightly less firepower and durability, so you definitely need to be able to leverage the stress shenanigans to your favor. It is going to be much harder to close the "trap" with only 2 shuttles instead of 3.

So another idea could be:

100 points

Whisper + Veteran Instincts + Advanced Cloaking Device

3x Omicron Group Pilot

You lose the FCS on the Lambdas, and lose Yorr/Vader, but you upgrade Soontir to ACD Whisper.

Soontir Fel + PTL (30)

Omicron Group Pilot + Vader Crew (24)

Omicron Group Pilot + FCS (23)

Omicron Group Pilot + FCS (23)

I like the addition of Vader Crew in the place of Capt Yorr. u lose 2 pts of PS and the ability to take some stress (which is perhaps a bit restrictive/situational anyway) and in return u get more firepower, the ability to take out a problem ship fast and perhaps less obvious - now all ur shuttlebuses have the same PS making them easier to fly in close/semi-close formation because you can choose the most favourable order u want to move them in. Doomshuttle is also nasty versus the phantom. Any crit on an unshielded ship is potentially game changing.

100 points

Whisper + Veteran Instincts + Advanced Cloaking Device

3x Omicron Group Pilot

You lose the FCS on the Lambdas, and lose Yorr/Vader, but you upgrade Soontir to ACD Whisper.

Soontir Fel + PTL (30)

Omicron Group Pilot + Vader Crew (24)

Omicron Group Pilot + FCS (23)

Omicron Group Pilot + FCS (23)

I like the addition of Vader Crew in the place of Capt Yorr. u lose 2 pts of PS and the ability to take some stress (which is perhaps a bit restrictive/situational anyway) and in return u get more firepower, the ability to take out a problem ship fast and perhaps less obvious - now all ur shuttlebuses have the same PS making them easier to fly in close/semi-close formation because you can choose the most favourable order u want to move them in. Doomshuttle is also nasty versus the phantom. Any crit on an unshielded ship is potentially game changing.

That is the Galactic Cup list exactly.

if only Stygian particle accelerator and echo were actually viable...was with advanced sensors before the newest FAQ and would be a great fit here but still a touch too many points.

This is a fantastic list, but it's really about the Pilot. Dom is an excellent player, and make flying this list easy. If you really want to learn how to fly this, I would download the log files of his matches for the Galactic Cup and look them over. One of things that Dom was able to do in most of his games, was for all the shuttles to come at his opponent from different angles to box them in. This lets him cover lots of firing arcs, and lets them protect the flanks. He also fly Soontir to protect him and keep him to the end game. The Vassal games aren't timed, so you have the luxury of taking more time when you play. IRL you may have to fly Soontir a little differently.

I think I like Yorr more then the Doom shuttle now for a couple of reasons.

1. With so many stress weapons out now the ability to move stress and protect Fel from being double stressed.
2. With the new Tournament rules, I'm not sure I want a sacrificial ship.

This is a fantastic list, but it's really about the Pilot. Dom is an excellent player, and make flying this list easy. If you really want to learn how to fly this, I would download the log files of his matches for the Galactic Cup and look them over. One of things that Dom was able to do in most of his games, was for all the shuttles to come at his opponent from different angles to box them in. This lets him cover lots of firing arcs, and lets them protect the flanks. He also fly Soontir to protect him and keep him to the end game. The Vassal games aren't timed, so you have the luxury of taking more time when you play. IRL you may have to fly Soontir a little differently.

I think I like Yorr more then the Doom shuttle now for a couple of reasons.

1. With so many stress weapons out now the ability to move stress and protect Fel from being double stressed.
2. With the new Tournament rules, I'm not sure I want a sacrificial ship.

good tips MrF. cheers.

any chance u can post a link to a few of those vassal files? im gonna test the vader version this wknd. might be right on the timed rounds thing. ud need to be more aggressive with Soontir early id say.

This is a fantastic list, but it's really about the Pilot. Dom is an excellent player, and make flying this list easy.

I agree Dom's piloting was excellent, and it is that piloting that makes this list a tournament winner. But it is still strong enough with an average pilot to give you some serious troubles, especially in a timed setting. It takes time to exploit the shuttles' weakness that Dom's piloting compensated for. His Soontir piloting was also tremendous, but I've seen a lot of tremendous Soontir fel pilots. Tremendous shuttle pilots are a different matter.

I'm curious about tweaking this list with Tactical Jammers when they arrive.

Soontir + PtL + SD (or Hull if you want to rely solely on numbers and not meta-gaming your opponent)

OMG + Tactical Jammers (22) x3

Can you imagine trying to fire at Range 3 at Soontir with Stealth Device behind a moving wall of obstacles? The TJs and SD are a real deterrent to even thinking about firing at Soontir most of the time, especially turtled up.