There are many post about people asking about tie shuttle and whats good with it. I wanted to make a thread that has all the options the Tie shuttle can take crew wise and list out what type of list popular set-ups are used for.
Crew options for the Tie shuttle and small summery for their use: 21 currently
1 point crew options
**Bombardier: useless, no bomb slots.
**intelligence Agent: I spy on an enemy ship's dial, has its uses.
**Inspiring Recuit: Once per round double stress remove for a friendlyship at range 1-2. And it isn't limited or unique so you could double up to remove 2 stress on 2 ships
2 point crew options
**Agent Kallus: a semi-focus for the bomber's 2red/2green, ok but not the best use.
**Mercenary Copilot: Interesting but not highly used, less useful with no ords.
**Moff Jerjerrod: On a no shield ship this could be a life saver.
**Saboteur: Has potential for a ship that dives into the fray
**Systems Officer: TL dispenser. And has the best chance of use on a bomber with mk II upgrade. 9 total greens gives it the most flexible use out of all the imperial ships that can use it.
**Tactitician: Turn the bomber's 2 dice into an annoying 2 dice and still keeps it cheap.
**(NEW)BoShek: Looks like another solid crew card for a Mr.Magoo build of bumping into things.
3 point crew options
**Darth Vader: mini-doom shuttle, at most 3 shots.
**Fleet Officer: Focus dispenser. See Systems Officer for flexibility.
**Mara Jade: Another into the fray style card to an annoying stress dispenser, combo with tactitician for the annoying mosquito.
**Navigator: on a low ps bomber with Intelligence agent one could turn it into a bump ship. On the other hand on a high PS bomber it can be used to avoid bumping. With mk II mod you are pretty much getting a green maneuver regardless.
**Rebel Captive: Another style of the annoying mosquito, combo with Tactitician or mara jade to be even more of a pain. (less useful with mara jade but still good for >1 range)
**Recon specialist: Double focus on a bomber, gives it a use for offense and defense. I can see this useful with tomax and crack shot/whatever to keep him alive longer and hit better.
**Weapons Engineer: Two TLs on different ships is nice but to bad jendon isn't a pilot for the bomber. Not the best use since it can't do much with the multiple TL's.
**Kylo Ren: Could be pretty useful as a set-up for other ships to focus on for pilot crits. Sad it doesn't combo with vader.
**Operation Specialist: After a friendly misses an attack at 1-2 you may assign a focus to a friendly of 1-3 of the attacker. Can be good to give other ships more focus tokens or even give it to the ship that missed to give it a focus for defense. Has potential to mix with fleet officer.
4 point crew options
**Flight Instructor: I don't think I've seen this used on anything also Recon specialist is better as long as you have an action and agent kallus is better if you are defending vs your target ship. Might see some use vs ps 1 triple Defenders.
**Ysanne Isard: Not a bad choice if it lives past the first shooting trade off. Free evade action is nothing to scoff at (unless you're homing missiles)
**HotShot Co-Pilot: Another annoying mosquito crew card. Forces the attacker to use a focus token, or if the bomber is attacking forces the defender to spend a focus. Better on high PS bombers than lower PS
Current crew synergy that work and why:
Note: I am ignoring using Major Rhymer as a support ship for the most part since his special ability only works with secondary weapons. That with Tomax Bren having a higher PS and is cheaper there is no practical reason to use him. There is now a use for Rhymer with shuttle (9/19/16)!
Fleet officer + Systems Officer (+ MK II upgrade [optional but recommended])
Already stated above but the two officers work well together to hand out tokens to other ships, Systems Officer is an action that gives a stress and fleet officer needs green to toss target locks, now only if Experimental interface didn't give a stress too. Very heavily a support ship and can work on cheap bombers or the aces.
Point range before other upgrades/ept: 21-29 (22-30 with mk II)
Tactician + Intel Agent
This crew set-up lets the bomber become a tactical support ship rather than the token support ship (as above). Intel Agent lets you prep against high PS targets to either get in their way or set up a death box. Tactician lets the bomber's 2 red be more useful as a mosquito handing out stress to targets. Also can work well on cheap bombers or the aces.
Point range before other upgrades/ept: 19-27
Tactician + Mara Jade
Who needs Intel when you can just stress everything? A cheaper stress boat than the decimator but cheaper comes at a price. Small ship size means a small circle for range 1 stress, and only 6 hull 2 green makes it likely to be taken down with light focus fire as well as no turret. Still a cheaper stress boat can be very useful.
Point range: 21-29
Darth Vader + other (optionals)
Vader on a 6 hull ship turns it into a time bomb that you want to keep cheap. Up to three shots with vader on the bomber and can either be used as bait since some opponents would want to take care of this shuttle ASAP. You can either go on the cheap with Scimitar pilot and vader or you can take more toys to get more bang for your buck, but the more points you spend on it makes it even more of a target.Another good reason to take the cheaper/low PS bombers is so you can put his crit on hull instead of shields.
Point range: 19-27
+Rebel Captive: makes the shuttle a little less of a target to hopefully get off all three shots.
Point range: 22-30
+Agent Kallus: Lets you focus heavily on a single ship to try to do as much damage as it can, tomax with crack shot makes a pricey but painful primary weapon bomber.
Point range: 21-29
+Tactician: More offensive than the Agent setup giving damage and stress.
Point range: 21-29
+Ysanne Isard: Since you are going to be taking damage this can keep the bomber alive a little longer against on coming fire but also pricey.
Point range: 23-31
Navigator + Intel Agent
Meet Mr.Magoo, always bumping into things. Here is where a low ps ship is a must. If you have a loose idea where a ship is going set your dial for that direction and change as needed to get in its way. An arc dodger with no actions/tokens is a sitting duck. This is cheap to do but takes a good pilot to fly it.
Point range: 20-28
Major Rhymer
With the spoiling of the EPT Snap shot there is now a use for Rhymer with the shuttle title. The following list will be exclusively for Rhymer since he will be taking a more offensive support style and unless otherwise noted all of the following will assume use of Snap Shot EPT
Darth Vader
Gives Rhymer two shots with vader a turn.
Tactician
Double stress Rhymer and the best part is the first shot will give the target stress BEFORE they get to make an action! Keep an eye out for this one, I feel it can be quite powerful since it kills any arc dodger that have to land in range 2 zone. Can be great to pair up with Navigator.
That's currently it for the current Crew for the Imperial Bomber with Tie Shuttle title equipped. If I have missed any crew or any interesting notes please post here.
And for the distant future, the more crew cards are released the more options the shuttle can have to become better.
Edit: added points to crew cards and some shuttle set ups.
Edit:(9/19) added stuff for Rhymer
Edit: (10/24) added new crew cards from upsilon preview
Edit:(11/4/16) added hotshot co-pilot
Edit:(11/28/16) added inspiring recuit
Edit:(12/14/16) BoShek added
Edited by Oberron