With the german Nationals coming up this weekend I tossed some ideas around and stumbled upon a variant of the Lambda Shuttle which I find pretty interesting. I call it the "Tazer-Shuttle":

Omicron Group Pilot (21 points)

- Gunner (5 points)

- Tactician (2 points)

- Ion Cannon (3 points)

The idea is pretty simple with an enemy ship getting an ion token and a stress token at the same time. Even if that first attack doesn't go though you'll get a second one with your primary weapon and will thereby dish out a second stress token. I think that's the perfect antidote to nasty Phantoms. Even if both attacks on a Phantom don't go through since it's cloaked it will receive 2 stress tokens and is effectively paralyzed for one round.

Of course you could put an additional fire-control system on the Shuttle to ensure that a second attack leads to some damage.

The only other ship that could currently make use of that combination is a YT-1300. Unfortunately tactician only works with the front arc of the YT though. Despite of that I think Gunner and Tactician might be worth using on an Outer Rim Smuggler that also has Anti-Pursuit Lasers. You could use it for blocking and dishing out stress. The weaker attack of 2 red dice might also be put to use when you don't modify the dice throw for the first attack on purpose to make sure you'll get another attack and thereby deal 2 stress tokens to an enemy ship.

Sounds cool to me! It would be even cooler with APLs so you can stun them, then block them (hopefully for damage). Not necessarily better, but cooler.

I used the same shuttle during the early days of wave 4 (sans Gunner, because Gunner doesn't with Ion Cannon; and I find Gunner to be cheesy); it falls flat as Phantom counter due to the fact that if you ion AND stress a Phantom he can just walk it off

OGP will shoot after any Phantom so odds are high that he has already recloacked; if you ion him he won't be able to de-cloack but keeps his additional green dice for the turn becaise he cannot decloack; and as soon as he can choose his maneuver again he will make a green one, sheding stress (dealing a 2nd stress extends this by one or two rounds)

You will have the Phantom out of the maneuvering for two (four with two stress) turns tops but will have accomplished nothing to bring its defense down which will be a problem since you still don't get to do any reliable damage to it

EDIT: note: turns not successive turns

Yeah, this was my problem with doing any double stress shenanigans with a Phantom.

Yup this is something I have been thinking of trying out too. Thought about trying it without the Gunner on a Firespray also. Ion and Stress means no options. I wouldn't call it a hard Phantoms counter though, as you need to get the shot first and then, both of which are difficult against a Phantom, especially with something like a Shuttle.

Gotta catch it in Range 2 first.

Those are all good points but even when we leave the Phantom out the possibility to ionize and stress ships at the same time is great. Personally I also think that any combat round where a Phantom can't attack because it's stressed is a win. It's one 4 or 5 dice attack less and in addition to that it's movement becomes much more predictable.