Mindful of the current meta - Fat Han, Dash, and Phantoms - here's my list for a Store Championship on Saturday 28th March 2015. Comments please!

• Lambda Shuttle Omicron Group Pilot + Heavy Laser Cannon + Tactician
• Howlrunner
• Obsidian Squadron Pilot x4

The plan is that the Lambda patrols the edge of the board, sniping with its HLC at range 2-3. The TIE swarm stays away from the shuttle, and puts out as much damage as it can as fast as possible. I'll target the highest-point ships first.

The rationale is that Fat Han, Dash and Echo can be taken down both by a swarm of fire, and by a powerful weapon like the HLC. Tactician is to make Han and Phantoms stressed, to deny them their actions. I've opted for Obsidians over Academy Pilots, for the higher PS as a defence against Predator. I've kept the points on each ship as low as possible, to deny tiebreaker points to my opponent.

I've competed in previous tournaments with the same basic list, but with Soontir Fel + PTL in place of the Lambda: but I think Interceptors may be too vulnerable to turrets in the current tournament meta. I'm tempted to go back to the Interceptor though, or even a 6 named TIE swarm: as I have zero experience with flying large-based ships.

Possible changes are to drop Tactician from the Lambda, and demote the 4 Obsidians to Academies. That would free up enough points to buy the Lambda a Gunner, plus 1pt in change. However, I'm wary of making the Lambda into a high-point target.

What do you suggest?

I'm also considering:

Defender Rexler Brath + HLC + Veteran Instincts

Howlrunner

Academy Pilot x3

Squishier, but I like the Defender's white K-Turn for jousting to keep in arc.

Sigh. Maybe I should just take a 7-8 TIE swarm and have done with it.

8 fire arcs and 16 red dice is a good counter to Fat Han, Dash, Decimators and Phantoms.

Personally I'd stick with the first list and deploy the shuttle in the corner, if you can get it in behind a Falcon/Donut/Decimator then you're golden.

If your going to load up the pail void bison (lamda) then gunner + FCS is a better combo than a HLC. If you have the points then put on a Engine upgrade and now you have the ever trusty buzzsaw.

Or just put vader (crew) on a OGP and now you have the doom bus.

You could also try the dog fighter bus, advanced Sensors and the engine.

Sensors to boost then do the hard two, **** that thing can cover some space very quickly like that.

Sadly cannons are not very efficient on the space bus.

You should check out Sable Gryphon flight school thread for some great advice on how to fly the shuttle.

Thanks Keffisch, Stegocent!

I had forgotten about SableGryphon's shuttle flight school. I am swayed by the advice to replace the HLC with a Gunner and FCS:

• Omicron Group Pilot + FCS + Gunner + Tactician
• Howlrunner
• Obsidian Squadron Pilot x4

Tactician is staying because (a) I don't own an Engine Upgrade card, and (b) giving Phantoms, Han and Dash stress tokens sounds like a good idea. It remains to be seen whether they allow me to get shots off at range 2!

We'll see how this goes tomorrow. The list should work fairly similarly to my usual Swarm + Interceptor flanker list, but instead of trying to maintain range 1, both contingents will be be trying for range 2. I don't want to get within range 1 of Han, and Dash and Phantoms will just dodge out of my firing arcs at range 1.

I would go with FCS and Gunner too. Esp in this meta, FCS is great against big ships. You can keep the tactician.

I don't know how many people ACTUALLY use Predator, but I feel like its not enough. So you may consider dropping to PS1 for better blocking and bring up one of the APs to Black with DTF (3 more points). This upgrade is incredibly incredibly incredibly powerful. Ridiculously powerful. Helps all your ties survive longer.

If you decide to drop Tact, you can have two. I guarantee you'll like the way you look.

Thanks again for the responses guys. Thought I owed you a debrief!

On the day I bottled it, because I hadn't flown a large ship before. Instead of the Lambda, I flew a 7-TIE Fighter swarm: Howlrunner, Dark Curse and 5 Obsidians. I was tabled by 3 Bounty Hunters; narrowly lost against 2X2B; lost against a list which must have had a Phantom in it (who went on to get the wooden spoon!); won against a Lambda; and chewed through a Fat Han and Luke. Placed 20 out of 30.

I didn't see any Predator cards: on reflection they're expensive to come by. Upgrading my APs to Obsidians just ensured I lost the initiative, and found myself being blocked: a weird experience!

In fact, I only saw perhaps 3 Phantom lists, and 3 Fat Hans. A few decimators with Phantom wingmen. A good spread, not representative of the reported web meta. Someone pointed out I was running a Wave 1 list: I'm thinking of getting a 'Wave 1 until I die' tattoo.

So looking ahead to the Regionals at the end of April. I played two games last night, to get to grips with the shuttle:

Omicron + FCS + Tactician + Gunner

Howlrunner

Dark Curse

3x Academy Pilot

Dark Curse is going to tag out for Backstabber. The majority of my opponents either don't know his rule, or have forgotten it since Wave 1: so he dealt a decent psychological blow when a Phantom or Cannon would fire at him, and be denied those rerolls! But it only works once, and Backstabber is just so good for the points.

I had serious trouble flying the shuttle. Both times, I hugged the board edge, with my TIEs on the opposite side. I just couldn't get my shuttle where I wanted it: range 2-3! I was outside range 3 for the first few turns. Then I'd end up at range 1, one-shotting my enemies. This would be a good thing, but it means my upgrades didn't trigger: that's 9 points I could have spent elsewhere. My shuttle is meant to be a sniper, but I ended up with him blocking and brawling like a TIE!

One thing I did enjoy was off-roading: just drive over those asteroids! A shuttle has the same chance as anyone else to suffer a hit, and can soak them up. With such a limited dial, especially when stressed, it was an easy choice to go through the rough. My opponents didn't expect it either.

Blail Blerg, I didn't respond to you directly. +1 on dropping HLC for FCS+Gunner. Ditto Predator: nowhere to be seen, and not readily available.

Draw Their Fire would be great, but I only buy Imperial Ships. So I'm also missing out on Engine Upgrade and Autothrusters. I'm not competitive enough to buy ships just to get their cards, but I might do better if I were!