I've been inspired by the recent 101 articles to come up with a way of doing a local tournament using the Senator's Shuttle mission from the core set. For those of you who never look at it, you have to transport a shuttle (1.5 bases long by 1 wide, I believe) from one side of the board to the other and off your opponent's starting edge without it being destroyed. It has 6 hull and six shields, and friendly ships at range 1 can perform the "protect" action on it to assign it one evade token.

I'm thinking something along the lines of:
1. Whoever wins the initiative bid chooses whether they want to be defending the shuttle or trying to kill it.
2. Set up like normal, with the shuttle having a permanent PS of 0.
3. Begin the round. If the shuttle escapes the opposite board edge, the defending player either gets a win (no MoV necessary for 2^n players and sufficient rounds), or a 50 Mov boost when time is called (for wonky player counts or more fine-tuned placings).

This popped up on the forums a while ago, and a lot of good builds were discussed. It's interesting as you have to build a single 100 pt list that can be good on both offense and defense. The prevailing theory was that a TIE fighter swarm would be very strong in either role (7 evade tokens on the shuttle...), as would Kanan/Biggs. At the moment I'm leaning towards:

Green Squadron Pilot (21) x 3
A-Wing (19), A-Wing Test Pilot (0), Chardaan Refit (-2), Juke (2), Snap Shot (2)

“Zeb” Orrelios (17)
Sabine's TIE Fighter (13), Sabine's Masterpiece (1), Operations Specialist (3)

Bandit Squadron Pilot (17)
Z-95 Headhunter (12), Assault Missiles (5), Guidance Chips (0)

At 97 points I'm hoping to be on the offense, but on the defense I can give the shuttle 4 evade tokens and 3 focus tokens before the combat phase starts, so that's okay too.

Can the internet think of any lists that would break this format?

Offense or Defense this could be ugly.

https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Rebel Alliance&d=v4!s!4:-1,3:-1:20:;64:17:-1:25:;64:17:-1:25:;64:17:-1:25:;64:17:-1:25:&sn=Unnamed Squadron

TLT spam would be my fear. That said, I want this to work.

A thought... Five Ywings with auto turrets... Close escort evades, and accept the punishment. And on attack recklessly dive at the shuttle and pound any foolish to get between.

In this format I would really like to try a squad that has Howlrunner, and two Black Squadrons all with Crack Shot. Supported by two Gamma Squadron Vet Bombers with Proton Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, Deadeye and Guidance Chips.

Gives you some good long range damage from the Bombers who can hang back on offense and be fairly safe, or be used to split the defense up. On defense the Bombers can lead the attack and get some good burst damage in early to rattle your opponent.

Have the shuttle flanked by the two Black Squadron pilots with Howlrunner hanging a bit back. You can always block with the TIEs and punish with the Bombers. But even if you don't block, they can still lay some hate.

To me that seems fun, thematic and fairly flexible.

If I was in your area, hell, I might have five it some consideration.

7 hours ago, CJKeys said:

Offense or Defense this could be ugly.

https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Rebel Alliance&d=v4!s!4:-1,3:-1:20:;64:17:-1:25:;64:17:-1:25:;64:17:-1:25:;64:17:-1:25:&sn=Unnamed Squadron

I love the idea - but the danger is that 2 bandits can be PS-sniped by an opposing list of higher firepower - especially if they use their action to target lock instead of focus. 2 Homing missiles and Biggs won't kill the shuttle, and you're left in a sticky situation.

You could be a troll and take 4 Lambdas with FCS and one of them carrying Palp. Block every action and wipe the shuttle away...

I dont know how any list could stop 3 torp scouts from destroying the shuttle after at most 2 rounds of firing.

They are guaranteed to get a lock on the ps0 shuttle. They ignore biggs. Their damage output vs the shuttle is crazy.

Maybe a "black one" poe plus biggs combo, but I dont think so.

23 minutes ago, MaxPower said:

I dont know how any list could stop 3 torp scouts from destroying the shuttle after at most 2 rounds of firing.

They are guaranteed to get a lock on the ps0 shuttle. They ignore biggs. Their damage output vs the shuttle is crazy.

Maybe a "black one" poe plus biggs combo, but I dont think so.

True... I don't think it's quite as cut and dry as a standard dogfight.

Untested strategies:

• You can add a stack of evades on the shuttle with 'protect' actions which lowers the damage of the torps. Not much for sustained fire there after those are gone...
• you could potentially joust the scouts with all but one ship to buy time and potentially waste their ordnance on your forces instead of the shuttle

Each torp averages 4 damage, including guidance chips and target lock. The shuttle averages 14/16 evades, meaning that the Torpboats can do about 6.75 damage a turn. At that point your analysis is correct, but Evade tokens haven't been factored in yet. Considering you're only making three attacks a turn, you can safely assume each Torpshot is against an evade stacked shuttle, reducing the total damage per turn to 3.75, so you'll barely kill it in three turns of Torpedo fire. Needless to say, one of the boat will die before unloading its secon torpedo, given any kind of decent opposing list. At which point your torpless scouts will never do a point of damage again.

The reason homing missiles are popular in this build is because they ignore the evade tokens on the shuttle.

Put Countermeasures on the shuttle? Or maybe "protect" tokens add an Evade result but can't be ignored, and multiples can be used per attack?

I really like the idea of a tournament based on this mission -- figuring out how to keep it balanced is a challenge.

I think you have to randomize attacker/defender initially, then figure out a rotation so that everyone has games as both attacker and defender. Otherwise someone PS bids as attacker and four bombers with homing missiles wins every game.

Just now, Hawkstrike said:

Put Countermeasures on the shuttle?

I really like the idea of a tournament based on this mission -- figuring out how to keep it balanced is a challenge.

I think you have to randomize attacker/defender initially, then figure out a rotation so that everyone has games as both attacker and defender. Otherwise someone PS bids as attacker and four bombers with homing missiles wins every game.

Can't equip the shuttle with anything... BUT you can have Black One escorting!

Yeah, I'm suggesting modifying the setup so each shuttle has a Countermeasures card that can be used once.

I'd play this tournament. Something different just for the fun of it.

55 minutes ago, LagJanson said:

Can't equip the shuttle with anything... BUT you can have Black One escorting!

That sounds really strong! Helps Biggs, too.

Maybe it should be randomized when determining who is defending the shuttle. If it always goes to initiative for determining it might be an issue.

Also maybe radomly have half the games as 100/6 and the other half being the escort missions, just to shake up the list building.

23 minutes ago, GrimmyV said:

Maybe it should be randomized when determining who is defending the shuttle. If it always goes to initiative for determining it might be an issue.

Also maybe radomly have half the games as 100/6 and the other half being the escort missions, just to shake up the list building.

Or make it so the 100/6 games every other round give whoever did better the option of being attacker or defender.

I suggest listening to the relevant parts of this episode of the Shuttle Tydirium podcast (run by the author of the recent 101 article and me), where we discuss this mission in great detail: Episode 3

In general, I think the mission is in pretty good shape, but you should probably make some tweaks before putting it into a tournament setting. The main things you should think about are:

-Increasing the shuttle's overall durability (offensive power has increased significantly since wave 1)

-Preventing the shuttle from being blocked, or harshly punishing ships that block its movement

-Change the protect rule to prevent it being sidestepped by homing missiles.

-Eliminating the reinforcements rule. It's not necessary, and makes it a bad idea for the escorting player to shoot down enemy ships, which feels wrong thematically.

We always play it where only ships through wave 3 can be used, and, most importantly, no Biggs allowed. It's fun to have Imperials running with the shuttle too; a very different strategy works best ?

I would actually like to see a Battle for Yavin trench run Tournament.

Also one thing about the senators shuttle. Would scum be attacking or defending?

Okay so we got senator's shuttle and trench run.

So my thoughts on trench run.

• Rebels are always attackers
• Imperials are always defender
• Scum are either depending on their opponent.

So that being said because it is possible not knowing if you are attacking or defending (especially on the mirror) you need to put in strategems both attack and defense to give lists some flexibility. For example I can see an attack strategem of munitions load out. You may add up to 10 points of <missile> or <torpedo> secondary weapons to your ships that have no more than one <missle> or <torpedo> weapon slot. These do not count towards your squadron point cost. and a defense strategem such as scramble fighters place up to 4 ships that cost no more than 12 points. These ships come out at the end of turn 4.

So on to scum and the senator's shuttle.

• Rebels are always defenders
• Scum are always attackers
• Imperials are either.

There we go. Now we jsut need some more strategems for that.

17 hours ago, Marinealver said:

So on to scum and the senator's shuttle.

• Rebels are always defenders
• Scum are always attackers
• Imperials are either.

There we go. Now we jsut need some more strategems for that.

Disagree. Scum could try to protect a corrupt senator (which had shady deals with pirates or syndicates, now on the run from being arrested by jurisdiction forces (Empire, or Rebels in rebel controlled space)), or its actually not a senator in the shuttle, but a crime boss.

I find it bad for balance, regardless which wargame, if one faction never has to defend. Defending is often the more difficult challenge.

What could be done vs Oicunn with APL, Daredevil, Dauntless and tomax with crack shot, homing missiles & LRS? It seems unbalanced really, but that is the power squad I think.

6 hours ago, Managarmr said:

Disagree. Scum could try to protect a corrupt senator (which had shady deals with pirates or syndicates, now on the run from being arrested by jurisdiction forces (Empire, or Rebels in rebel controlled space)), or its actually not a senator in the shuttle, but a crime boss.

I find it bad for balance, regardless which wargame, if one faction never has to defend. Defending is often the more difficult challenge.

Scum would never do that. A politician that got caught as is going to be disposed is of no use. Also the idea that Rebels defending the deathstar fro Scum? No.

One faction would could be attacking even if their roll in the mission was defending. In the faction mirror well one would have to attack and one would have to defend so even in this structure where a faction does defense five-sixths of the mission there is still the possibility they attack in that mission. That is why I think such missions should also have defense and attack stratagems to well add balance and make a list flexible enough to change an attacking list to defending and visa-verse.

So for balance in these mission sections which would often have one faction mostly defending and another faction mostly attacking. Have more missions with diffrent attackers and defenders and have a balanced set of attack and defense strategems.

53 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Scum would never do that. A politician that got caught as is going to be disposed is of no use. Also the idea that Rebels defending the deathstar fro Scum? No.

One faction would could be attacking even if their roll in the mission was defending. In the faction mirror well one would have to attack and one would have to defend so even in this structure where a faction does defense five-sixths of the mission there is still the possibility they attack in that mission. That is why I think such missions should also have defense and attack stratagems to well add balance and make a list flexible enough to change an attacking list to defending and visa-verse.

So for balance in these mission sections which would often have one faction mostly defending and another faction mostly attacking. Have more missions with diffrent attackers and defenders and have a balanced set of attack and defense strategems.

May not be a politician in the shuttle when scum is defending. Somebody stuffed the seats with spice.

Just now, LagJanson said:

May not be a politician in the shuttle when scum is defending. Somebody stuffed the seats with spice.

That would be a smugglers mission. I'd say make a different mission and let the Scum always be the pirates, Arrg!

8 hours ago, ThalanirIII said:

What could be done vs Oicunn with APL , Daredevil , Dauntless and tomax with crack shot , homing missiles & LRS ? It seems unbalanced really, but that is the power squad I think.

That's actually super weak on defense - pretty much an auto-loss, in fact. On offense, once Tomax goes down all you need is to give the shuttle one protect action and Oicunn can't kill it before he dies.