So....

Someone pointed out a very nice use for the Electronic Baffle - the Lambda.

I was wondering about resurrecting the infamous Albino Void Moose herd.

• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Gunner, Engine Upgrade

Is 31 points - so a herd of 3 of them can fit into 100 points with 7 points to spare. Even with the Baffle, I think Engine Upgrade is vital to get your nose around when you need it, and if you're spending a lot of actions on maneuvers and not tokens, gunner is good when you don't have an elite pilot talent for actionless dice modifiers.

That setup leaves two ways to spend the remaining points - filling the other crew slots, or taking the named pilots.

I don't think Kagi is a good idea - he's best on a shuttle built to be an unappealing target, and these aren't. Yorr is a possibility; if the shuttles are build as stress hoovers, yorr lets you redistribute it a bit.

Alternatively, if going stress heavy, a tactician in each ship might be nice.

How about Anti-Pursuit Lasers or Ion Projectors? With the option to stay put longer or go fast with the engine, your opponent may have a hard time predicting your moves and end up with damage or ion tokens.

I love EU on the shuttle as much as the next guy, but I think Baffle is one of those ones that make it less necessary. On named shuttles lime Kagi, definitely, on the OGP, I'd look at a different mod.

And probably load tacticians on all the shuttles.

How about Anti-Pursuit Lasers or Ion Projectors? With the option to stay put longer or go fast with the engine, your opponent may have a hard time predicting your moves and end up with damage or ion tokens.

Good thought.

I think Tactician pairs well with gunner - because double-tapping stress messes with people for more than a single movement phase (the shuttle isn't really manoeuvrable enough to take much advantage of forcing a target to pull a single green move)

I was actually looking at the recent upgrades. The other one that jumps out at me is Reinforced Deflectors. With Alpha Strike heavy squads quite a likely response to shield regenerating shenanigans, combined with the appearance of long range scanners to allow generic bombers to get locks easily, guidance chips for free, powerful dice mods, and so on, it might be worth having another look at Captain Kagi.

Kagi with Reinforced Deflectors runs to 30 points and can take quite a kicking - three-dice missiles can drop him but only if he doesn't make a single evade and your opponent doesn't miss a single hit.

• Captain Kagi - Reinforced Deflectors, Flight Instructor, Rebel Captive, Countermeasures
• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Gunner, Tactician
• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Gunner, Tactician

Leaves three points. Kagi is about as unappealing an alpha strike target as I can make him - he'll die but he'll almost certainly take 2+ turns to do it, and I have three points left to play with. I could put an Ion cannon on one Omicron for Ion/Stress shenanigans, or promote one to Yorr.

Slight modification - as noted, Engine Upgrade does help a lot on Kagi.

• Captain Kagi - Sensor Jammer, Rebel Captive, Gunner, Engine Upgrade
• Captain Yorr - Electronic Baffle, Gunner
• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Gunner

Ive been toying with

OGP - electronic baffle, tractor beam

For 23 points its cheap and hard to ignore because of potential control since it could still target lock. Set up in a good spot, it could help dictate you opponent's next position or gang up on his/her ship with PS 1 or 2 ships due to one less agility (advanced accuracy correctors could guarantee hits if the agility is low enough.

In the case of the herd, you could do

OGP - electronic baffle, tractor beam x2

OGP - gunner

OGP - gunner, tactician

Tactor beams help keep ships where you want them and gunners destroy. Might be a better build but I whipped this up on the spot.

Hmmm..... Not a bad thought - the 1-point cannon does sit very nicely on a shuttle.

The problem, of course, is that a tractor beam needs to fire first. This might be a reason to consider a higher PS shuttle....

• Captain Yorr - Electronic Baffle, Tractor Beam
• Omicron Group Pilot - Reinforced Deflectors
• Omicron Group Pilot - Reinforced Deflectors
• Omicron Group Pilot - Reinforced Deflectors

That's a lot of hull to chew through, especially if you're only doing it two hits at a time....

I like your squad. My two concerns are (a) a shuttle really needs either a baffle or an engine upgrade to be able to get its nose around in a sensible timeframe, and (b) one tactician in a squad doesn't really achieve too much; for stress to really hurt someone you either need to throw multiple stress tokens, hit with ion tokens and stress tokens at once, or pin someone who's already stressed (and a shuttle's not manoeuvrable enough to chase a koiogran turning or tallon rolling ship) .

Therefore, dump the tactician, and you can fit baffles to the other two shuttles - that gives you two 'pairs', one with a gunner and one with a tractor beam, both capable of turning or holding position in a firing line as needed.

• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Gunner
• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Gunner
• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Tractor Beam
• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Tractor Beam

I like the tactician + Gunner idea, but forcing your opponent into R2 of a shuttle is not always easy. I think maybe some PS1 blockers could really make this idea shine:

2 Omicron Pilots w/ baffles, tractor, gunner, tactician and ion projector = 32 x 2

3 academy pilots = 12 x 3

100

With the academies out front, the shuttles can bump them to go slow if need be (so you don't need your red moves early on). When its time to engage, get your mooks in position to stop opponents from getting closer than range 2. Set up your shuttles in as ideal firing spots as you can. With gunner, you can fire tracter first to move an errant enemy into a better spot (then tactician) and if it doesn't work, you get a primary shot (+1 more stress from tactician). Next turn, a double stressed ship will have a tough choice: run into the lambda (and possibly get ioned) or turn away to avoid the trap (and likely stay double stressed and out of the fight). Meanwhile, the academies should have no trouble k-turning behind the enemy...

Should allow you to dismantle the opponent in a slow, painful death spiral...

Electronic Baffle is the best upgrade ever. Just look at this thread title! Look at it!

Baffling Space Cows!

That's the list's name! Isn't it awesome!

(OGP + Baffle + Tactician + Tractor Beam) x4

40HP, 4 Tacticians, 4 Tractor Beams, many sad opponents.

I'm not sure if four tractor beams are worth it - just given the need to actually do damage at some point - but for sheer comedy value it has to be done at some point.

A Y-wing gets thrown across all four shuttle's arcs in sequence and ends up on a rock with four stress tokens. You can almost hear the comm chatter:

"Stay on target. Stay onnnnnnnnnwhaaaaatttthefuuuuuuuuuuuu........" [Crunch]

Blade_Mercurial - I like the idea; the interaction between tractor beam and gunner is a bit awkward, though; that's why I was considering putting them on different ships. Gunner/Tactician is a nasty combination, though, and stress is arguably more useful than a second shot; taking away opponent's ability to K-turn goes a long way to evening up the shuttle's critical weakness in manoeuvrability. I think you're right that the TIE wing as blockers is great support - I'm just trying a pure shuttle force.

Also - whilst Tacticians are awesome, if you're trying for a 'blocking trap' with the shuttles using Ion Projectors, I might suggest swapping one Tactician out for Mara Jade - her range 1 'stress aura' will catch the people who run into the shuttles, giving you the magical ion+stress combination that leaves a ship practically useless for a turn.

• Captain Yorr - Electronic Baffle, Tractor Beam, Gunner, Mara Jade, Ion Projector
• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Tractor Beam, Gunner, Tactician, Ion Projector
• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Tractor Beam, Gunner, Tactician, Ion Projector

Using Yorr with baffles as a stress hoover seems like a solid idea - Yorr + Baffles + Fleet Officer, maybe also a Tractor Beam if you have a point spare just to mess with positioning. 25 points just for the baffles leaves you with Soontir and Whisper fitting in, for instance.

I'm not sure if four tractor beams are worth it - just given the need to actually do damage at some point - but for sheer comedy value it has to be done at some point.

A Y-wing gets thrown across all four shuttle's arcs in sequence and ends up on a rock with four stress tokens. You can almost hear the comm chatter:

"Stay on target. Stay onnnnnnnnnwhaaaaatttthefuuuuuuuuuuuu........" [Crunch]

This doesn't work, the forced movement is only once per turn.

Ah, ****. I guess it's only fair. Still, nice to dream.

I'd probably not pair a Yorr Hoover with Soontir - Soontir's ability explicitely works because he receives the stress, so if you use Yorr to get rid of it, no free focus. It's good protection from a stressbot, but I wouldn't want to spend 1/4 of your squad points on a counter to a ship that you won't always face.

On the other hand, I guess it leaves Soontir and Whisper able to actually use their K-turns, which goes a long way to making unpredictable ships even more unpredictable!

Ah, ****. I guess it's only fair. Still, nice to dream.

I'd probably not pair a Yorr Hoover with Soontir - Soontir's ability explicitely works because he receives the stress, so if you use Yorr to get rid of it, no free focus. It's good protection from a stressbot, but I wouldn't want to spend 1/4 of your squad points on a counter to a ship that you won't always face.

On the other hand, I guess it leaves Soontir and Whisper able to actually use their K-turns, which goes a long way to making unpredictable ships even more unpredictable!

Yeah, Soontir's the wrong ace here; go with Carnor instead and but a beefier crew on Whisper or put a Fleet Officer on Yorr.

• Captain Yorr - Electronic Baffle, Tractor Beam, Gunner, Mara Jade, Ion Projector
• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Tractor Beam, Gunner, Tactician, Ion Projector
• Omicron Group Pilot - Electronic Baffle, Tractor Beam, Gunner, Tactician, Ion Projector

Oooh, that's nasty. Unfortunately, just 3 cosmic bovines....not sure it can cut it, but I'd be interested to see this monstrosity in action. I really think gunner is the only way to make Tracter Beam really worthwhile on a non TIE defender, and tactician is insult to injury...