So....if I want to use Fleet Officer regularly, I get to pass two focus tokens to ships in my squad. It's range 1-2, so it's a lot less restrictive than other support abilities (like Howlrunner or Colonel Jendon).

However, it requires an action and comes with a stress token, so the ship in question must:

1. Spend its action every turn to trigger the Fleet Officer - meaning it essentially has no action bar
2. Clear the stress every turn by revealing a green manouvre - meaning it only has a fraction of its dial to play with
3. Allow sufficient points left in the squad to include two decent combatants to benefit from this ability

Well....there are four Imperial ships with crew slots.

1. The decimator is right out. Even a basic Patrol Leader with a Fleet Officer aboard is 43 points, nearly half the squad and far too expensive to be limping about on a VT-49's limited green manouvres and firing its attacks without any modification or rerolls.
2. The firespray is also out. 36 points for a fleet officer on a Firespray is more affordable, but still pushing it. Your paying for two 90' arcs, agility 2 and the evade action - which is great for a large ship, but kind of a waste if, again, you have no actions or white manouvres to play with.
3. The phantom might work. Phantoms don't like hanging in formation with other ships and really don't like having to manage stress tokens, but there are ways. Advanced sensors would let you immediately clear stress tokens, and decloaking 'bounces' makes up for much of the manouvreability that you lose. Of course, buying a phantom with a fleet officer, advanced sensors, and the inevitable advanced cloaking device is 10 points, so Echo would be 40 ponts and still not pulling hard turns - probably a bad move on the game's premier sabre-dancer.
4. That leaves the shuttle. An Omicron Group Pilot is cheap, tough, and - when considering green manouvres only - not all that much less manouvreable than any of the above.

So, an Omicron Group Pilot with a Fleet Officer and (to give a bit more flexibility) Advanced Sensors - this would let it clear stress immediately, leaving it unstressed at the start of a turn in case I absolutely must pull a white or even red manouvre.

That leaves 72 points for two decent combatants....putting them in the 25-30 point bracket. With only two ships, I'd want them to be decent pilots. For Imperials, that means one of two fighters; the TIE Advanced or the TIE interceptor.

I know the Advanced is going to get better with the Advanced TIE x1 title, but I quite like it now. Proton rockets has gone a long way to giving it the teeth it needed, so long as it can keep a focus token ready.

Darth Vader is an easy pick. The pilot who single-handedly kept the TIE advanced in play before Proton Rockets came out. An Engine Upgrade is what people always recommend, and for good reasons, and my preferred talent for him is Adrenaline Rush - it's one use, but cheap, and being able to come out of a Koiogran turn, then boost, barrel roll, and still have a focus token to arm the proton rockets should really put the wind up the TIE defender crowd..

Maarek Stele is the current only other named pilot, so he's in too. I ran him previously with Push The Limit when using missiles, because you needed Focus/Target Lock together to get the most out of them, but Proton Rockets are much more forgiving, only needing a focus token and not even insisting you spend it. With the Fleet Officer's shuttle, you arguably don't even need that as you get handed one free most turns. Furthermore, Push The Limit is more of a pain on an Advanced because unlike a TIE Interceptor, shedding stress tokens is much harder. As a result, Veteran Instincts strikes me as tempting; jumping from PS7 to PS9 vaults over the PS8 pilots - quite a lot of regularly seen characters would be left out in the cold by this. Equally, if moving last, then manouvring becomes as or more useful than toughness for defence - giving him an Engine Upgrade too might be better than a Hull Upgrade, especially for getting him into rocket range.

That leaves:

(29) Darth Vader

(1) Adrenaline Rush

(4) Engine Upgrade

(3) Proton Rockets

(27) Maarek Stele

(1) Veteran Instincts

(4) Engine Upgrade

(3) Proton Rockets

(21) Omicron Group Pilot

(3) Fleet Officer

(3) Advanced Sensors

99 Points

I can see weakness in this list - principally the fact that once the Rockets have fired, TIE advanced are just TIE advanced (the TIE x1 title will help a lot but it's not out yet) and secondly that the shuttle probably won't get to do too much itself other than fire the odd pot-shot in a game.

Could instead look at a pair of gunned-up Interceptors - I'd suggest Turr Phenir and Carnor Jax (because Soontir Fel doesn't really need even more extra focus tokens!).

keep in mind you can use one of the tokens from fleet officer on yourself and only pass one

So jendon with title and fleet officer would pass a target lock and a focus while keeping a focus for himself

keep in mind you can use one of the tokens from fleet officer on yourself and only pass one

So jendon with title and fleet officer would pass a target lock and a focus while keeping a focus for himself

And a lock for himself, if you also give him Weapons Engineer.

and combine him with vessery and academies

so would you rather have

jendon+FO+Tac+title

Vessery+HLC

2Xacademy

or

Jendon +FO+WE+title

vessery+VI

BSP+wingman

obsidian

I'd possibly take Kir Kanos over to APs. Well I'd entertain the thoughts. He's got a 'Free' and endless supply of Range 2 Concussion Missiles (the guidance system at R3 isn't so good).

Toss in the Focus from FO and it is almost like having a F+TL with a standard Conc. Missile

The problem with Jendon is that you've got to get the target locks in the first place - which requires your action, which means you don't get to use fleet officer.

In addition, the Shuttle isn't very good at getting free actions - Push The Limit isn't an option, Experimental Interface and Fleet Officer leaves you with two stress tokens to clear, and a Squad Leader would need to be PS7 or more and flying wing with an even-more-hobbled-than-usual Titanium Space Bison to give orders to Jendon.

Kir Kanos and Carnor Jax might work as a nice pairing once Autothrusters are available. Plus it would be a narratively nice force once the raider comes out, depending on what the Palpatine crew card does...

The ability to retain one focus token is a fair point; that makes a fleet officer a lot more useful in a squad with two large ships. Decimators don't really need focus tokens that much, but Firesprays like them a lot (hence the near-universal issue of Recon Specialists to them). A pair of named Firesprays with a fleet officer on one might work nicely.

(39) Boba Fett

(1) Veteran Instincts

(3) Navigator

(4) Engine Upgrade

(2) Seismic Charges

(36) Krassis Trelix

(3) Fleet Officer

(7) Heavy Laser Cannon

(4) Shield Upgrade

99 Points

Allows Fett to manouvre like a loon whilst still having a focus token available.

the idea is to get target locks early with the title and pass them around. by th etime first wave of attacks come there are plenty of red target locks on the board for vessery to regain target lock after he attacks.

example round one of the game. target lock twice with jendon. pass one to a tiefighter. round two slow roll your ships target lock again with title and pass one to tie fighter. round three slow roll and pass to vessery. If round three is an attack round well then the ties have target lock after vessery attacks so he aquires free target lock

If going with that plan, I'd definitely take the black squadron pilot with Wingman. Getting rid of that stress off the shuttle is a good thing to do.

My concern with

jendon+FO+Tac+title

Vessery+HLC

2Xacademy

or

Jendon +FO+WE+title

vessery+VI

BSP+wingman

obsidian

Is this: Jendon hands the TIE fighters target locks. Vessery gets his free from his special ability. He's getting focus free from the fleet officer. What's he actually using his action for? He doesn't have an action-triggered upgrade, so aside from barrel roll, or double-stacking focus tokens for return fire, he doesn't have anything left to spend it on - at which point either Jendon or the Fleet Officer is redundant.

If you're not using the sensor slot on the shuttle, you could also add in a Fire Control System, so even after the first pass, if you have someone in the arc of the shuttle, you get a new target lock.

I'll be honest, I don't see shuttles tend to get shots very often after the initial exchange of fire (not without an advanced sensors/engine upgrade 'dogfighting package', anyway).

It'd work with the weapons engineer - since that'd let you target lock someone other than your target as well - but you'll be waiting until the following turn. Which brings back the fundamental problem with Colonel Jendon - you're tied to range 1 of a Milky Astral Manatee, which is restrictive at the best of times. The Wingman Black Squadron pilot at least lets you clear the stress of using Fleet Officer - otherwise you'd be stuck escorting an Arthritic Milky Astral Manatee, which would be even worse.

Honestly, I think the Patrol Leader is the best platform for the Fleet Officer. The shuttle is really limited on the green maneuvers it can make to clear the stress and you almost have to put Advanced Sensors on it to ensure you can FO each turn. With FO, you can't complete your stop maneuver either unless you want double stress, which can pretty much take a Shuttle out of the fight.

The Decimator actually has a pretty good dial for clearing stress and its got that turret. It doesn't give a **** if its pointed at the enemy or not. A focus token isn't ideal on a Decimator, but its better than nothing.

I want to try:

Patrol Leader + FO + Gunner = 48

Brath + Predator = 40

Acad. Pilot = 12

= 100

The Patrol Leader passes a Focus to Brath and likely keeps one for himself. With Gunner you get will likely get two chances to spend that Focus. Brath should end up with 2 focuses and with Predator, should ensure he's able to pull off his ability. The Academy Pilot is just filler and a nuisance to block your opponents squad.