testing out a possible list,

Omicron Shuttle with Vader, Gunner and Shield Upgrade

Dark Curse

Backstabber

Mauler Mithel

Winged Gundark

Beware. The shuttles 3 dice are surprisingly accurate (especially when they are rushing to get behind you). Gunner doesn't trigger as often as it should to justify sinking 5 more points in the great white space bus.

I think I would drop it and upgrade mauler to something with umph. He's the clear 1st target with dark curse and the shuttle thing for last. Not sure about the sheild upgrade either, 1 extra hit isn't going to last long. That's 9pts- turn mauler into a bomber with homing missiles and seismic charge? Give ya a little variety. Few more points to play with. Could go with howlrunner and PTL. I don't know. Nothing jumps out despite me really really trying to get a Vader shuttle list to work well.

First thought is drop the shield for an engine upgrade.

Second, i agree about gunner but without thought not sure what to do with points yet.

You get one pass, maybe two with the shuttle then you spend the rest of the game trying to turn it around. I would swap gunner for Engine upgrade so you can at least manage a 90 degree change in facing per turn.

A list that is doing really well with Vader in a shuttle is:

Omicron shuttle with Vader

Obsidian pilot x 3

Academy pilot x 3

So... I totally didn't follow my own advice and did this today:

Omicron + Vader + Advanced Sensors

Howlrunner + PTL

Back Stabber

Academy Tie x3

Loved it. I used advanced Sensors to always take my action with the shuttle and then bump the backside of an to stay orientated and farther back.

Played against another ABXY build. Those things are getting popular!

Green + PTL + concussion

Blue + shield upgrade + advanced sensors

Rookie + r2

gold + Ion Turret

first 2 rounds were positioning with only the Bwing and one tie having shots on round 2, both misses.

Round 3 saw stabber positioning from the mini swarm and lambda, Awing get behind howl and the shuttle (too close for missiles though), and the rest just positioning forward. Howlrunner collided behind shuttle when I didn't quite clear an academy, which was bad since the awing was back there and didn't have a shot. Stabber took a longer shot at the y instead of the x since he was out of Y's arc and 1 less defense die and put some damage on it. Awing got some hits but howl dodged them all, Vader's shuttle erupted with 2 crits and a hit on the xwing and then added a vader crit. only 1 dodge back and the xwing was at 1 hull after a direct hit crit. xfired back at stabber for 1. Bwing took an academy to 1 and the Y missed everything. Academies only put 1 damage on the bwing even with the howler rerolls on 2 of them.

Round 4

Swarm does its thing, xwing high tails it out of the shuttle arc or face autodeath, bwing gets behind some academies, y wing slow rolls. Shuttle target locks Ywing and bumps. Awing goes after the wounded stabber. Backstabber flys through an astroid to get to the wounded xwing and howlrunner Kturns out of range of everything. Stabber finishes off the xwing. Vader's shuttle lays 4 hits and an auto crit on the Ywing for some big pain. Bwing puts damage on another tie. Awing does nothing against stabber. Academies put maybe one more on the bwing.

Round 5

Swarm swarms in front of the bwing and shuttle. Y turns away from the fray and the B uses advanced sensors to end up somewhere completely unexpected out of all arcs but 1 and behind an academy. Shuttle bumps so that it orients just enogh to cover the ywing. Awing goes for broke with focus and TL on Howlrunner. Howlrunner tries to flee but just can't get out of the way, takes a pot shot at the bwing but misses, backstabber had turned around and has no shot. Awing one shots howlrunner with a concussion missile. Shuttle starts the long long long Uturn. Bwing puts down an academy. Academy strips a shield from Awing.

Round 6-9

Bwing tussels and tangles with the 2 remaining ties ensuring only one has a shot at a time while getting 3-4 dice with them. Advanced sensors makes blocking with only 2 ships pretty impossible. Takes one down while suffering minimal damage. Awing get's hit with a Weapon Malfunction from backstabber and is immediately reduced to uselessness. The shuttle actually does make it back around to put the bwing in it's arc at range 3 and takes enough damage to kill itself to put 1 crit on the bwing before exploding. Things go downhill fast for the Bwing when Stabber gets back into the mix with a long range 3 die followed by a 4 die. Opponent concedes with a 1 att die awing a full health academy and Stabber at 2.

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Lessons learned:

Howlrunner is not an interceptor. Not quite mobile enough to do some of the things I'm used to doing with a PTL pilot.

A targetlocked or focused shuttle at range 1-2 with a howlrunner reroll and the Vader auto crit is devastating. Couple this with the ability to bump for advantage and it's much much more manageable. Probably still dead points against 3-4 interceptor lists or bombs list. Advanced sensors is a must here. Always Always Always use Vader's crit unless it will kill you and you are 100% certain to have another shot next round (seldom good odds after they watch you lay down 8-9 damage and auto crits).

Stabber just stabs and stabs and stabs things to death. He's almost always priority target 1 or the MVP. A big scary shuttle bus and howlrunner take just enough attention elsewhere.

BWing + advanced sensors with a skilled opponent is a big deal. Not interceptor or awing crazy by any means but had for only 2 ships to pin down. It's slow speed is actually a pretty big boon when basic ties only have 2 speed 1 maneuver options (left and right).

I'd figure out how to trade around some of your Tie points to pick up Howlrunner.

The shuttle with Vader and Gunner means Vader might be able to be used twice in a round. But i would think Engine Upgrade would be better than Shield Upgrade.

Gunner is just too much of a maybe. Each game I've played with the shuttle it's been 2-3 shots at most on that opening pass, with 1-2 of those at range 1 you're just not going to miss that often with 3-4 dice rerolls/focus/target locks. And sometimes your 3-4 dice just flat out finish something off so there is no need for Vader.

3 pts for advanced sensors and 5 points for engine upgrades are gauranteed to get used if you don't Vader yourself out. With the swarm you can bump yourself enough to Vader out of the game (or close enough) and then the 5pts from engine is t needed. But adding gunner means your running only academy ties. Losing howlrunner or backstabber is a big downgrade for the possibility of1-2 autocrits that may never happen with gunner or that will just happen later in the game with an engine upgrade.