Hey guys, I was talking with this friend who I am going to teach the game, and her favorite ship is the Lambda shuttle, so I told her when we play she can fly that ship.

I joked around about how she will need escorts for her precious shuttle, and then I came up with this.

Omicron group pilot: FCS, Gunner (28)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

100 points

Could this actually be a good list? This is a lot of firepower, six two dice attacks plus an FCS gunner shot from the shuttle. I dunno, seems crazy, but I like this list, might fly it at a tournament Monday.

In the past it would of been okay but these days 2 dice attacks are weak and the shuttle will get one round of attacks then forever try to turn to get something in arc.

couple of ships with harpoons would destroy you very quickly.

I think it could work for a beginner if she is playing someone else trying to be wholesome of course but I’d do a more support shuttle with hux, and intelligence agent and baffle just to make it easier to fly

its a good list to practice with because unless you are a god at flight path mapping in your head its at a huge disadvantage.

7 TIE's with 3crackblacks and howlie hits harder than that and doesnt have the massive 3 or so turns minimum the shuttle takes to turn around.

Its good to play with multiple ships though if learning because it forces the user to quickly learn how to spot maneuvers. Thats how i learned anyway, i ran as many as i could fit (mix of /ln and /fo because i didnt have 7-8 ln's yet) and my whole purpose was "Dont...crash..." - winning was second on my mind.

Which depending on how you look at it may be a detriment to my playstyle lol. I somehow end up in a formation every game...even when i started my ships at opposite ends of the board and at different levels (some butt against the board, some up as far as i can deploy them).

For a more casual game that would be awesome

Unfortunately, no. The presence of Harpoon Missiles and Auzituck Gunships means that you effectively cannot play swarms in competitive play. Even if you spread out, mitigating the effectiveness of Harpoons, consider the following scenario:

Imagine all 6 of those TIEs firing into an Auzituck with a reinforce token. At range 2, with a focus token, you'd do an average of .35 damage per shot. That's about 2 damage per turn, if all of your TIEs are firing at the Auzituck. That means you'd need at least 5 turns to burn down ONE Auzituck. Now imagine that there's 2-3 of them.

Swarms with low attack dice counts are DEAD. Super, mega, ultra DEAD. Reinforce just completely annihilates low attack dice ships.

Unfortunately, a 34 point Fenn Rau could almost single-handedly hold his own against this entire squad. (Push the Limit, Concord Dawn Protector, Autothrusters.) Trust me, been there.

From what others have said, 2 dice attacks just don't cut it anymore, which is sad but true.

However swarms are still good with swarm leader Vader/Quickdraw and a bunch of TIEs. They don't have to stay in harpoon range of each other, their red dice can still shred low agility ships and Vaders 4+1 red dice can deal with the Wookies.

11 hours ago, Favoritism Flight Games said:

Unfortunately, no. The presence of Harpoon Missiles and Auzituck Gunships means that you effectively cannot play swarms in competitive play. Even if you spread out, mitigating the effectiveness of Harpoons, consider the following scenario:

Imagine all 6 of those TIEs firing into an Auzituck with a reinforce token. At range 2, with a focus token, you'd do an average of .35 damage per shot. That's about 2 damage per turn, if all of your TIEs are firing at the Auzituck. That means you'd need at least 5 turns to burn down ONE Auzituck. Now imagine that there's 2-3 of them.

Swarms with low attack dice counts are DEAD. Super, mega, ultra DEAD. Reinforce just completely annihilates low attack dice ships.

Hey, I generally agree with this, but you're not considering that any swarm will block you! There's one thing that a tie swarm is good to, and is blocking you. That's meaning no action for you, no reinforce token, and a lot of r1 shooting.

Swarms still bad, but not SO bad.

Give her something like this:

Omnicon Group Pilot w/Operation Specialist, Fire Control System, Tactical Jammer 27

Howlrunner w/Crackshot 19

Black Squadron Pilot w/Crackshot 15

Black Squadron Pilot w/Crackshot 15

Accademy Pilot 12

Accademy Pilot 12

Total: 100

2 Accademy+Lambda for blocking

3 Crackshot for some power

Howlrunner for boosting your ties.

Put an operations specialist on the lambda shuttle. Drop to 5 ties and make one Howlrunner for about the most oopmh you'll get out of a lambda + buncha ties.

Probably won't ever pass the cut at a tournament, but It can win a game now and then.

Personally I would say to use:

Omicron group pilot, Darth Vader (24)

Howlrunner, crack shot (19)

Black squadron pilot, crack shot (15) (×3)

Academy pilot (12)

(100)

Crack shot really goes a long way towards making the 2 dice attack of the ties dangerous again, and howlrunner is a must if flying a swarm (even a miniswarm)

Shuttle might be a little self-destructive in this setup, but it will get work done

And the single academy pilot makes it easy to block opposing ships.

The Lambda Shuttle is awesome, especially in a non-competitive environment, but that is not because it dishes out damage, but provides support while occasionally throwign respectable amounts of dice without dying outright.

The TiE Fighter is awesome, especially in a non-competitve environment, because it is the cheap blocker and can still melt 0 and 1 Agility ships quite quickly, especially from Range 1. But they need support, both to push damage and survive.

You got a really cool idea on your hands, you nust need a few adjustments to play to its strenghts. @grandmoffjoe 's idea is a lot of fun.

Don't stop until you have four Lambdas in the list. Shuttle swarm!

Two Omicrons with Ops Specialist and Collision Detector with three unique Fighters can do some work. I like to pair up Youngster, Wampa, and Scourge or Night Beast, Chaser, and Mauler.

A really fun list I use a lot (no Lambdas but still fun for beginners) is two FO Test Pilots with PTL, AS, AT, PT and two Acadamy Pilots. If you explain how the Silencer combo works, you can really run with it. The Fighters are just there because I had a TIE Shuttle in there at first that was terrible in the build.

Or replace the Fighters with an OGP as a blocker (and you'd have a 3-point initiative bid!).

Harpoons are a real problem. Auzitucks you can block, and then they’ll burn. But yeah, autodamage against dudes with three health? Brutal.

11 hours ago, Cerve said:

Hey, I generally agree with this, but you're not considering that any swarm will block you! There's one thing that a tie swarm is good to, and is blocking you. That's meaning no action for you, no reinforce token, and a lot of r1 shooting.

Swarms still bad, but not SO bad.

True, blocking is important for swarms and can make the difference between life and death. I still feel like Reinforce is a BIG negative for this game. Too useful, too easy to use, too hard to counter, mitigates too much damage without any variance.

22 hours ago, Favoritism Flight Games said:

Unfortunately, no. The presence of Harpoon Missiles and Auzituck Gunships means that you effectively cannot play swarms in competitive play. Even if you spread out, mitigating the effectiveness of Harpoons, consider the following scenario:

TIE fighters are surprisingly resiliant to Harpoons compared to my preferred 'heavy' swarmer, TIE strikers.

It sounds stupid, but the key is to learn not to dodge the things.

If you take a 4-hit attack, you have a pretty good chance of losing the TIE to a single shot. If you refrain from spending tokens to save it, it dies before ever removing the Harpooned condition. By comparison, being left on one hit and then hit by another ship all but garuantees a damage splash.

Whilst removing a harpoon may kill you, it will never set off a damage splash even if you die.

22 hours ago, Favoritism Flight Games said:

Imagine all 6 of those TIEs firing into an Auzituck with a reinforce token. At range 2, with a focus token, you'd do an average of .35 damage per shot. That's about 2 damage per turn, if all of your TIEs are firing at the Auzituck. That means you'd need at least 5 turns to burn down ONE Auzituck. Now imagine that there's 2-3 of them.

Blocking, as noted is one reponse. The other is crossfire - having half your squad inside and half outside a target's arc can massively increase your punch

7 minutes ago, Favoritism Flight Games said:

True, blocking is important for swarms and can make the difference between life and death. I still feel like Reinforce is a BIG negative for this game. Too useful, too easy to use, too hard to counter, mitigates too much damage without any variance.

don't get me wrong; I like the reinforce mechanic, but I do have issues with it. The combination of 180 degree arc and the ability to field 3 or even 4 such ships is more of an issue than on an epic ship.

Compare with Rey/Finn, which is generally considered 'good but not broken' and gets close to a 'free evade' against every attack from inside its arc, but it's only a 90' arc and only a single ship.

Great ideas everyone!

I definately think is a more casual list, and I think if I took it to a tournament I would run this instead:

Omicron group pilot: General Hux, Advanced Sensors, Systems officer, Anti Pursuit Lasers (28)

Howlrunner (18)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

99 points

I really want to try Hux. Advanced sensors are so I can guartee Hux's action.

14 hours ago, Sir Orrin said:

Great ideas everyone!

I definately think is a more casual list, and I think if I took it to a tournament I would run this instead:

Omicron group pilot: General Hux, Advanced Sensors, Systems officer, Anti Pursuit Lasers (28)

Howlrunner (18)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

Academy Pilot (12)

99 points

I really want to try Hux, and I think Systems Officer will help the Ties get more damage to. Advanced sensors are so I can guartee Hux's action.

If you're considering a swarm + shuttle, you can do far worse than operations specialist. Massed 2-dice attacks tend to miss a lot, so you tend to get a lot of cheap focus tokens out of him.

Plus, combine with gunner/fire control system and you get a super-buzzsaw shuttle which can pull a red move, fire, miss, and fire again with a double-modified shot.

I ran two OGPs with Ops Specialist and four Obsidian Pilots. I lost...

... but looked good doing it!

One of my favorite old school lists was:

Doomshuttle: omicron + vader

howlrunner

ties to taste

It’s a great beginning list because it teaches blocking, self blocking, formation flying, red stop, and has minimal upgrades and abilities to remember.

2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

If you're considering a swarm + shuttle, you can do far worse than operations specialist. Massed 2-dice attacks tend to miss a lot, so you tend to get a lot of cheap focus tokens out of him.

Plus, combine with gunner/fire control system and you get a super-buzzsaw shuttle which can pull a red move, fire, miss, and fire again with a double-modified shot.

Thats so funny! Operations specialist is the one I meant to us not systems officer!