I was playing with some themed squadron ideas in the squad builder and I came up with an idea that is maybe not the best squadron around but could be a pretty cool themed mission
The essentials:
Colonel Jendon, Darth Vader crew, ST-321 Title
5x Academy Pilots
total: 92 points
the remaining 8 points can be spent as you like. I'm leaning toward adding a weapons engineer and fire control system to the shuttle for another 5 points, and anti-pursuit lasers brings it up to 99. Bump an academy pilot up to obsidian squadron pilot to simulate a "squadron leader" for an even 100. Yes that's a 39 point shuttle, but it's a scenario mission so who cares.
Imperial objective: destroy all attacking rebels
Rebel objective: destroy shuttle
Special Rules:
This is where it still needs tweaking, and I could use some suggestions. In order to prevent the rebels from just rushing the shuttle and focus firing it to bits in the first couple turns, and to encourage them to try and clear out some of the ties before they start going for the shuttle, it would probably need some special "escort mission rules." A few ideas:
-at the start of each combat phase, measure the number of ships from each faction in range 1-2 of the shuttle (I will call this the "escort zone". If the number of rebel ships in the escort zone is greater than the number of imperial escort fighters in the escort zone, they may fire on the shuttle
-alternately, a number of rebel fighters may fire on the shuttle that is equal to how many more Rebel fighters are in the escort zone than Imperial fighters (example, 3 rebel ships and two imperial fighters are in the escort zone, therefore one rebel ship may attack the shuttle this turn)
-another, potentially simpler way to do it might just be "if a rebel ship is within the firing arc of an imperial escort fighter, it may not fire at the shuttle." This could serve both purposes of keeping the shuttle alive longer and encouraging the rebels to clear out the TIEs.
some variation of these systems should hopefully give both players a few options on strategically maneuvering their ships and giving them a few more decisions to make: do you fire on the low-agility shuttle whenever you have the chance, or do you focus on taking out the escort TIEs and then start focusing your attention on the shuttle when it gets easier to actually shoot at it? Do you maneuver your TIEs to hopefully get the best possible shots on the rebels, or do you space them out more strategically to prevent the rebels from getting shots on the shuttle?
Lastly, I am not sure what kind of points or other limitations to give on this mission. Is it potentially balanced at 100 points per side? Does there need to be a time limit to give the rebels a sense of urgency in accomplishing their mission, i.e. the shuttle escapes after 10 turns? Perhaps someone with more experience in playing and/or designing scenario missions could give some input