Do you like all your ships to be able to operate as autonomous, manouverable combat vessels? Go Firespray. Do you want a strong support vessel, that can be configured in a multitude of ways (and price ranges)? Go shuttle.

Basically, the shuttle is good as a support vessel, meaning that it works best when there is something around it which it can support (and get support from). Conversely, it is not as good a game finisher all on its own as the Firespray.

I had to make the very same choice myself when I both wanted to get a large Imperial ship and also the HLC. Looking for an HLC did not help me choose. I liked the Firespray itself, but it doesn't fit into the Empire quite as well as the Lambda (had I known about Scum and Villainy I would have chosen Firespray without question, but that's just me).

In the end, the decider was that the Firespray came with Stealth Device. Not just one, but two, even though it can only use one, which won out over the Lambda's anti-pursuit laser, which I like the look of, though I don't know how useful it is in actual play.

Oh, I didn't think about scum & villainy. That Firespray may come in handy there.... But a pure imperial fleet seems cool too... **** this game and it's multiple attractive options!