Double-stress Shuttle

By Intys Rule, in X-Wing

I was wondering -- anyone flying with a Shuttle with 2 Tacticians? Have you made it work yet?

While being able to double-stress an enemy ship sounds like a nasty little plan, well, I've found that combined with the Shuttle's maneuver dial, it is very hard to do this. Maybe I can do one, at the very most two in a fight, but that's it.

I wonder what I'm doing wrong, or if I should scrap this idea and go for something else?

Decimator with Tactician x3 - triple stress and much easier to accomplish with the turret

Nah....I plan on flying a Decimator with Gunner and 2 Tacticians.....for a possible 4 stress on a ship.

Remember that with the Decimator it still has to be within the forward firing arc.

Decimator with Tactician x3 - triple stress and much easier to accomplish with the turret

I believe Tactician only works on shots made within the Decimator's printed front arc.

Omni beat me to it.

Edited by Bjorn Rockfist

Decimator with Tactician x3 - triple stress and much easier to accomplish with the turret

Also beaten to this.

Edited by ZombieHedgehog

I much prefer Tac Gunner. Tac is only good in the range 2. Gunner gives you good reliable damage AND two stresses if R2. Gunner makes R3 good too. And R1 is always good for shuttle.

The shuttle is cost effective if it shoots.

I play mine without Engine, but apparently most people dont like that. I do. Never helped me any.

I fly the shuttle on one corner and the rest of my squad in the other. creates a pincer effect where the shuttle can attack the enemy ships that are on the other side of the board engaging the rest of your squad. then your rest of your squad can simply turn or move forward to deal with any ships that get behind the shuttle. delays your k-turn for longer. gives you better action economy, likely a k-turn that is after his (so he must be going forward now away from your k-turned ships), and makes the shuttle cost efficient by luring enemy ships into its front... which deceptively is the engagement of the rest of your squad

I much prefer Tac Gunner. Tac is only good in the range 2. Gunner gives you good reliable damage AND two stresses if R2. Gunner makes R3 good too. And R1 is always good for shuttle.

The shuttle is cost effective if it shoots.

I play mine without Engine, but apparently most people dont like that. I do. Never helped me any.

I fly the shuttle on one corner and the rest of my squad in the other. creates a pincer effect where the shuttle can attack the enemy ships that are on the other side of the board engaging the rest of your squad. then your rest of your squad can simply turn or move forward to deal with any ships that get behind the shuttle. delays your k-turn for longer. gives you better action economy, likely a k-turn that is after his (so he must be going forward now away from your k-turned ships), and makes the shuttle cost efficient by luring enemy ships into its front... which deceptively is the engagement of the rest of your squad

Yeah, the shuttle is cost effective IF it shoots. I'm not very good at flying it, unfortunately.

What do you mean "shuttle in one corner and the rest of the squad in the other corner"?? Like, one in the extreme left and one on the extreme right? In my current group, people tend to set up on one side of the board. Only a few set up to cover the entire board and fewer still set up with two groups, one on each side. So in this case, with my opponent setting up on one side of the board (usually Falcon + X + E/Z), where do I put the Lambda? In front of his guys?

The other hard thing about making Tactician work is (in addition to being in your front arc) the target ship must be at range 2, not withing range 2. That in a little harder to do, even more so, for the difficult to fly, Shuttle.

AT Range 2 is easier than putting an enemy WITHIN Range 2. AT means closest part so if the front forward edge is 2mm in Range 2 and the rest of the base is in Range 3, he is AT Range 2 and Tactician will work. WITHIN means the entire base is inside Range 2 (no part is in Range 3 or Range 1) which is obviously harder to do.

I suspect you've got both terms interchanged, Hrathen?

I prefer ogp with gunner and tac. This way you can add a stress to 2 different ships, or 2 stress on the same. Or if the dice hate you like they hate me, you'll end up hitting an e-wing through and asteroid with a single hit.

Combined with fcs, you still have a very powerful platform even if you're not at range 2.

I guess it's not really what's ON the Shuttle but more of actually flying the Shuttle in such a way that it get more chances of activating whatever ability is on it. The biggest problem here is that once they blow past my Shuttle, it's basically a non-factor for 2-3 rounds as it turns its slow-ass around. I can probably "extend" the shooting to another round by doing the red STOP maneuver, but then after that I'm faced with 2-3 turns as it turns around again.

I guess it's not really what's ON the Shuttle but more of actually flying the Shuttle in such a way that it get more chances of activating whatever ability is on it. The biggest problem here is that once they blow past my Shuttle, it's basically a non-factor for 2-3 rounds as it turns its slow-ass around. I can probably "extend" the shooting to another round by doing the red STOP maneuver, but then after that I'm faced with 2-3 turns as it turns around again.

That's where your blockers come in. An Academy Pilot, Night Beast or a Black Squadron Pilot with Wingman makes for a good, eh, wingman. Halt the shuttle, move the blocker, deny them their action, shoot, stress.

I much prefer Tac Gunner. Tac is only good in the range 2. Gunner gives you good reliable damage AND two stresses if R2. Gunner makes R3 good too. And R1 is always good for shuttle.

The shuttle is cost effective if it shoots.

I play mine without Engine, but apparently most people dont like that. I do. Never helped me any.

I fly the shuttle on one corner and the rest of my squad in the other. creates a pincer effect where the shuttle can attack the enemy ships that are on the other side of the board engaging the rest of your squad. then your rest of your squad can simply turn or move forward to deal with any ships that get behind the shuttle. delays your k-turn for longer. gives you better action economy, likely a k-turn that is after his (so he must be going forward now away from your k-turned ships), and makes the shuttle cost efficient by luring enemy ships into its front... which deceptively is the engagement of the rest of your squad

Yeah, the shuttle is cost effective IF it shoots. I'm not very good at flying it, unfortunately.

What do you mean "shuttle in one corner and the rest of the squad in the other corner"?? Like, one in the extreme left and one on the extreme right? In my current group, people tend to set up on one side of the board. Only a few set up to cover the entire board and fewer still set up with two groups, one on each side. So in this case, with my opponent setting up on one side of the board (usually Falcon + X + E/Z), where do I put the Lambda? In front of his guys?

Let's assume he's on your-left.

Yes. I'd put the shuttle on your-left.

The rest of your squad on your-right.

Slow fly the shuttle. Go ahead and take those early red stops if you want.

slow fly the first time with the rest of your squad. You want to be able to jump towards helping your shuttle if he decides to go for it. (You may wish to experiment with starting slightly closer than extreme right). I like to make my first move a hard 3 left so that it throws him off on where I might go. From there, you have a choice to go hard turn back to forward, or even go forward and go around the map on him. It makes you unpredictable and actually gives you lots of room to change your plans!!

Again: If the lambda shoots, its cost effective.

ASSUMING: the rest of your squad comes to help it out form dying alone. If most of your ships don't have shots when the first engagement starts, you do not have effective flying. Aim for this as a general goal to fly better: A majority of your ships have shots on the first engagement round.

Someone should check the FAQ btw. I believe Tactician actually works like this: When you measure an attack you must measure form the closest point attackable (if turret, in 360). So if the ship's closest point is R1, the attack is considered R1 and not R2 even if part of the ship is in the R2 range.

Again, if you are in a turreted ship, and you can only attack them at a point of theirs that isnt in your firing arc even though they may be IN your arc at R3, Tactician won't activate.

Tantive with three tacticians and double quads. Say hello to twelve stress tokens!

Someone should check the FAQ btw. I believe Tactician actually works like this: When you measure an attack you must measure form the closest point attackable (if turret, in 360). So if the ship's closest point is R1, the attack is considered R1 and not R2 even if part of the ship is in the R2 range.

Again, if you are in a turreted ship, and you can only attack them at a point of theirs that isnt in your firing arc even though they may be IN your arc at R3, Tactician won't activate.

That's pretty much right, yeah. The FAQ says the card means "In your firing arc" and "at range 2" and the FAQ treats them as separate. If you shoot them with a turret and closest to closest is R1, no stress, even if the part of their ship in your firing arc is at Range 2.