What does everyone think about the lambda shuttle currently? Is it hopelessly weak now with all the super maneuverable ships and crazy firing arcs and turrets? I haven't seen any success with them since U.S. Nationals in 2014. Please don't point to random casual store games please, in counter. I would love to know:

what are you all currently running with shuttles?

Do you dare play them in this day and age?

Is the shuttle due for a fix? If so what?

Also as a note. Variations of the U.S. Nationals list are known to still be good. But maybe not amazing in this meta.

I think a variant of the US nationals list won a Regional this season, so as you say,it still seems solid. It also might see more play when the Emperor hits. In a combat role, I don't know. I keep hearing that the buzz saw niche has been stolen by IG88s, but I don't see that much of an overlap.

I'd guess the lack of shuttles has more to do with the popularity of 2-ship builds more than anything else. A shuttle doesn't fit into those very well. If wave 7 shifts the meta to 3+ ships, I think shuttles will have a place.

Here's another question I want to ask: is the palpmobile shuttle viable? Or are we only going to see kenkirk lone wolf isard palpatine engine?

I made some thematic lists for palpshuttle but they don't look that great.

A variant again of nationals: palp shuttle vader soon tir or turr might be good. Phantoms ATM are also nerfed. So that means that wave 7 had better really put on the hurt for all those VI turrets and Han.

I think it will be viable if you can pack enough glass cannons in the list to punish people for killing the shuttle first.

A shuttle won a store championship here in Atlanta.

The pilot that requires you to target lock him, equipped with sensor jammer and Carnor/soontir. This was pre-thrusters.

Carnor swoops around back, denies actions, then the shuttle neutered all my attacks.

I don't think the emperor is worth 8 points but I do think shuttles might be worth it to help arc dodgers out.

try 4 space cows with accuracy corrector!! 4 cows make a blocking wall!! besides it looks cool.. add Mara or Vader

A Doomshuttle is probably one of the nastiest uses of 24 points in the game.

As Gecko says, the Doomshuttle is still incredibly viable. It doesn't care much about our hyper arc dodgers as it only needs a couple of chances per game to cause serious hurt. The 'dead zone' it creates in front of it and as a blocker against these types of ahips is worth two academy ties alone, without considering its ability to actually inflict damage.

I've had some success with the advanced sensors fleet officer build too, dishing out focus tokens with sensors and crawling forward to finish unstressed is useful, in certain lists at least.

The shuttle is an anchor, and being so cheap it's a perfect way to fatten out a list comprised of low health ships, and is has the upgrade slots to tailor it quite a bit, so I think I will always be viable. I love the shuttle and struggle to leave it out of my lists. I'm no amazing player or anything, but I took a shuttle to 17th in a regional going 4-2, losing to the UK 2014 champ and an absolute nail biter losing to a 1 hull remaining deci in a really close game. Despite losing my doom shuttle in most games it either caused enough damage or soaked enough attention to warrent a MVP nomination in every game

The Shuttle's main problem is keeping enemy ships in arc with it's limited dial. Engine Upgrade can help, but I find shuttles work best when they're kept as cheap as possible. The easiest way to help it out is a wingman with, er... Wingman.

Just for fun and to really tick off your mates.. run 4 Albino Cosmic Manatees with a TIE Bomber.. a friend recently did it and destroyed all our lists we were taking to regionals lol

It is a fun list to watch as the opponents wonder what to do with all those manatees flitting about.

I've seen Yorr do wonders with Whisper. Block, k-turn with actions, profit.

A loaded whisper, soontir, and doomshuttle I've seen work wonders

4 shuttles w/ 2 Tactician on each was top 4 in store championship in my area.

I played against it twice while flying bbbbz.

First game I lost

Second game in cut to top 4 I managed to beat it

It hands out a lot of stress

Really bad for bwing, with their awesome dials and all

Another player made top 4 in the spring tournament in my area using 4 shuttles and a tie

I do think Yorr is quite good for Whisper, though, a lot of people ended up using Doomshuttle instead in wave4 after Nationals.

I just have a problem with Yorr losing shots a lot. And also being totally unable to get sights on big boosters.

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As for oneway's idea of 4 shuttles + Tie Bomber, funny enough, I do think that actually WILL destroy a lot of meta lists. Just wayy too much HP to chew through for 2 ship builds. I really want to try this more and I really recommend others try it for giggles.

4 shuttles w/ 2 Tactician on each was top 4 in store championship in my area.

I played against it twice while flying bbbbz.

First game I lost

Second game in cut to top 4 I managed to beat it

It hands out a lot of stress

Really bad for bwing, with their awesome dials and all

Would Tact FCS be better than 2 Tact? I think so.

Or even....

4 FCS + PALPATINE.

Edit: 4 Tact + Palps is probably better than 4 FCS.

Palps

Tact FCS?

Tact

Tact

4 shuttles w/ 2 Tactician on each was top 4 in store championship in my area.

I played against it twice while flying bbbbz.

First game I lost

Second game in cut to top 4 I managed to beat it

It hands out a lot of stress

Really bad for bwing, with their awesome dials and all

Would Tact FCS be better than 2 Tact? I think so.

Or even....

4 FCS + PALPATINE.

Edit: 4 Tact + Palps is probably better than 4 FCS.

Palps

Tact FCS?

Tact

Tact

When I faced it, it really hurt the bwing.

Instead of just doing a green maneuver and getting an action I was stuck with no action.

He played it well.

Instead of focus firing down one bwing, he spread out his shots to hit different bwings that were range 2, giving 2-3 bwings 2 stress.

Really left them helpless.

At first I thought this was a good thing, not focus firing but soon realized it was getting harder and harder to get away, and no modifiers left me totally helpless to the dice gods.

The second game I changed up my tactics and it was still hard, and a very close game. I think I destroyed a shuttle 2 min left to give me a full win, and he definitely made me work for it.

Honestly I'd have rather one Tactician.

Not only does handing out two stress mess up builds like aggressors or anything with ptl or other stress mechanics, but even regular generic ships. I guess Tycho wouldn't care much, but honestly how often you see him in a tournament?

With the large base ships, he pretty well always had 1 or 2 in that range 2 bubble of at least 1 ship.

Once I had 3 bwings all with stress I just couldn't get away. They don't move fast, and not a lot of options as they don't have a great dial

Idk, but it seemed to work very well

I know I don't want to fly against it again lol.

That day I played 6 games, and after facing that twice my brain felt like it melted lol

Mark my words: Jax+Palpmobile will be nasty. Maybe not game-crushing, but it will steal a few tournies.

I really don't think jax and pal-shuttle will be all that it's cracked up to be.

I wasted a few turns trying to kill jax to no avail, only to switch up my tactics, focus down the shuttle and then turn my attention back to Jax.

I believe if it was really nasty those turns I wasted trying to kill jax, should have been enough for my opponent to capitalize, but even so I still managed to turn my attention to the shuttle instead.

Palpatine was not enough to prevent the shuttle from succumbing to the amount of red dice I threw at it

I believe I was flying 4z, r7-tarn, and stress bot ywing with title

The Shuttle still takes awhile to turn around, so once you get behind it, that's one less ship you need to worry about offensive wise leaving jax and whoever to do all the dmg

However that being said, usually at this point you no longer worry about the Shuttle as it's out of the action for a few turns, but with Palpatine on there, you no longer really can ignore it, not like you use to. Before it would be totally useless, but Palpatine makes it useful even while out of the action

Depending on what it's up against, but it still fall extremely quick to swarms which is what I've been using a lot lately.

It'll work best imo against two ship builds.

Palpatine can only prevent one dmg per round.

The Shuttle only has one evade dice and will still die very fast against swarms

Imo kirk with lonewolf, Ysanne, Palpatine will be nasty.

It's a lot of hp to go through, and guaranteed two evade a turn along with reroll on defense dice will make it a pain to kill.

Again swarms will be it's nemises

I think Jax + Palpatine needs Sensor Jammer on the shuttle to really blunt any attack against it.

I ran a Doomshuttle with Carnor Jax and Soonts at the Adelaide Regional. My first ever tournament after only playing the game for a month! Came 18th 2-3 record but only got wiped in my final game that was for top 8! (well the guy who beat me finished 6th)

The Doomshuttle is a Fel killer if you can get him in arc lol.

A Doomshuttle is probably one of the nastiest uses of 24 points in the game.

I agree, I was currently using a doom shuttle in my lists before scum came out. I think they are still worth it just been overshadowed by all the sparkly new ships is all.

The alabaster space bovine is a favorite of mine that stiĺl finds its way into lists. Hell for 32 pts you get the Buzzsaw, Gunner,FCS, EU, Omicron Space Pilot.

The beige star hippo is awesome.

Yorr, Vader, Fleet Officer, Fire Control System

Black Squadron, Wingman

Saber Squadron, Push The Limit x2

100 pts

Really fun to watch people underestimate the list out the gate. One opponent jousted the list with Outrider. Killed it in the opening volley. Also fun to have K-Turning boosting interceptors with a focus and then start combat with no stress. Vader as icing on the cake.