Adventures of the Decoy Shuttle Squad

By Hobbyist, in X-Wing Battle Reports

I finally got the chance to go to the X-wing casual game night at my FLGS. I haven’t had a chance to play a game of X-wing for 7 Weeks or so. Paired with the newfound ability to listen to Podcasts (i.e. Nova Squadron Radio) I’ve been chomping at the bit.

I really wanted to create a list that was more thematic than super competitive, but also wanted it to have some some tricks up its sleeve to keep things interesting. Over the last week or so, I put this together:

Decoy Shuttle

Captain Kagi (27)

Sensor Jammer (4)

Rebel Captive (3)

Countermeasures (3)

Carnor Jax (26)

Calculation (1)

Royal Guard Tie (0)

Autothrusters (2)

Stealth Device (3)

Turr Phennir (25)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Autothrusters (2)

Stealth Device (3)

The Idea here was to encourage the opponent to go after the shuttle, but punish him for doing so. I was a little nervous about running a high PS shuttle because the few times I’ve flown a shuttle, It’s usually only been a basic one with enhanced scopes and anti pursuit lasers just to be an annoyance. But either way I was determined to not get super competitive, because I didn’t want to have less fun if things didn’t go well.

Upon arrival, I didn’t have to wait to play, since Chris was waiting for an opponent. He was running a list I’ve been tempted to try myself,

Corran Horn

Shield Upgrade

Fire control System

R2-D2

3x Prototype Pilot

Chardaan Refit X3

Autothrusters x3

This game was super fun. I set my Lambda up on my left across from his squad, and my interceptors on the right. I slow played the Lambda and threw those interceptors as fast as I could. After a few turns of fire, Corran was out of the picture, followed a little later by Jax. At the end it was the Shuttle and Turr against an Awing, and the A and turr were flying in a circle chasing each other, a game that cannot be won against Turr Phennir. The shuttle really shined in this game. It didn’t shoot a lot, but it really freed up the interceptors. Sensor Jammer was amazing, It’s like I had 4-5 more Hit points. Countermeasures was useful, I’d estimate it saved me about 2 hits, you just have to know when to use it. It seems like it was designed for Kagi.

After the first game, we swapped lists. I ended up winning this one somewhat decisively, it was his first time playing Imperials, after all, and my username IS 'Awing Test Pilot' Once the interceptors died, he wasn’t interested in flying just a space cow with 4 agile ships pummeling it, and I can't blame him.

3rd game I played against Peter,

Palob Godalhi

Blaster Turret

Recon Specialist

Moldy Crow

Calculation

2x Syndicate thug

Ion Turret

BTL-A4

Unhinged Astromech

Syck Interceptor

Flechette Cannon

Stealth Device

It was getting late, so we agreed to a 60 minute game. My tactics had to change a little due to the control aspect of his list. Basically the entire game was us dancing around each other, Me getting whittled down to a combined 4 Hit points between my 3 ships on the last turn, when I finally blew up the HWK in the last combat phase. That Sensor Jammer was Priceless. I meant to use Countermeasures 3 times and forgot. If it was a tournament, I technically would have won, since the only ship destroyed was his HWK but there was not much of a chance of me winning if the game went longer.

Overall, It was a great time, and I didn’t get too competitive. Also, I think I’ll try flying this list again next time. It’s fun, pretty effective, though 3 ships is a little sparse for my comfort zone. The stealth/autothruster combo worked pretty well, though I didn’t use Calculation more than once, since there was a lot of shields. But for 1 point, I’ll keep it, since I think there’ll be times where I’ll be grateful for it.Again, Sensor Jammer was the star of the show, because of it, the shuttle never died.

Hopefully It won’t be another 7 weeks before my next game!

Interesting reports! Shuttles are surprisingly fun to fly, despite (or perhaps because of?) the worst dial in the game.

I'm really surprised at Calculation though - I love Carnor Jax but his true value is not in his attack but in his debuff effect, and for that staying alive is key. I'd have to think very hard before taking anything but PTL - and even then next on the list would be Daredevil...

I'd have to think very hard before taking anything but PTL - and even then next on the list would be Daredevil...

As for calculation, it's 1 point, I think it got me 2 crits in the evening, I don't feel too bad, and i didn't have any better options, either.

Edited by Awing Test Pilot

Maybe intel agent instead of calculation to help your fighters?