In my ongiong efforts to make Vader and his shuttle work, I keep playing it, and keep winning.

My list:

Omnicron +Vader + Advanced Sensors = 27

Howlrunner + PTL = 21

Backstabber = 16

Academy x3 = 36

Battle 1 Vs. My friends 8 year old

Han + chewie

Biggs + R2d2

Rookie

Kid can fly a the falcon for sure. Doesn't have the Biggs nuance down but kept him near enough to matter.

Rnd 1 and 2

I did my shuttle scuttle with the 3 academies taking turns doing 1 turns in front of the great white space bus to keep it creeping along with howlrunner bringing up the rear. I put backstabber out on his own on the left behind some asteroids to see if he would break for stabber. He flew towards the middle asteroid with the falcon in front and biggs/rookie back a little and on the inside.

Rnd 3

I set a dial wrong and 2 of my academies collide and are now out of place. I salvage the third with a barrel roll but also not where I want him to be. Kid slow rolls 1's forward with the xwings meaning only one academy and howlrunner have a shot after my howlrunner now shoots forward since the academies didn't block her bank 2. I 5 K with backstabber and the kid does another "crazy move" by turning a hard 3 right past meaning stabber has no shot. He proceeds to land 3 hits on stabber. Dead without a shot. I strip a shield off biggs who will just regen it next round and a shield off the Falcon. Smart kid.

Rnd 4

I get the ties out of the way and overlap the space bus onto an asteroid to set up a decent firing angle but take no damage and target lock beforehand with advanced sensors. yep. So good. Sadly my wrong maneuver last round means howlrunner's effect will only be useful to 1 academy and the shuttle. Biggs and the rookie stare down the meat of my swarm while sticking tight and target locking while regening. Han takes long range shots at Howlrunner but at range 3 with focus and evade not even rerolls help him get through. Howl strips a shield from Biggs, Biggs and rookie focus on the shuttle and strip all of its shields. Shuttle lays down 2 hits and a crit on Biggs and Vader adds another. Biggs rolls 2 evades and his shields are gone again. Academies can't finish him off and one is able to target the rookie but doesn't hit.

Rnd 5

Academies do kturns to keep the xwings in the sights. Space bus turns to where the falcon should be in two turns. Biggs regens and the rookie far banks out of arcs instead of kturning (the kid is pretty crafty, or just doesn't care... both are effective and make piloting against him more difficult). Howlrunner gets the hell away from the Falcon who is swinging back around. Firing sees the Falcon find an angle on a damaged academy and take it out. Howlrunner tries to finish off Biggs in vain. Both Biggs and the rookie get some damage in on the remaining academies getting a reduced agility and a reduced fire power crit respectively. Not good. The academies manage to finish off Biggs and strip a shield from the rookie. Space bus puts the pain on the falcon at range 3 with the help of a howlrunner reroll and a focus: 3 hits, no evades.

Rnd 6

It's mostly positioning while my swarm tries to regroup and shed a crit. Falcon and rookie end up with range 3 shots at the shuttle and an injured academy. Falcon takes 2 hull off the shuttle and the rookie hits but all evades for the academy. For the imperials Howlrunner ticks the falcon, The Great White Space bus lays all kinds of hurt on the falcon after a target lock full stop and another howlrunner special = 2 crits and a hit + a Vader crit vs only 1 evade. This strips his last shield, and the direct hit damage crit gets canceled by Chewie but another one takes that shield right off and puts the falcon at 5 with a damaged sensor array. My remaining 2 academies pull off 2 more damage vs. the rookie.

Rnd 7

Academies flee away from the rookie and towards the Falcon. Kid doesn't anticipate this and the rookie is out of position. Space bus clears stress with a 1 bank and focuses but won't have a shot. Holwrunner banks hard and barrel rolls to get a shot on the rookie. Falcon flys far far away from the bus and manages to take a hull out of howlrunner at range 3. Howlrunner finishes off the rookie.

Rnd 8

It's been almost an hour and a half. We end the game with the Falcon at 5 vs. 2 injured academies and a space bus at 1 hull but likely out of the game for another 2/3 rounds.

This is barely a win for the shuttle. Vs. a more seasoned opponent probably not. Die were pretty hot for me at the beginning and then the swarm just smooth rolled consistent damage every round. Shuttle was the MVP. TL/Focus shuttle with Howlrunner rerolls is just icky.

Second fight over the weekend was shuttle vs.

Dagger squad + advanced sensors x2

Rebel Op + Chewie + Ion

Rookie

Set up: 3 astroids on my side making formation flying harder, 2 in the middle of the battlefield clogging up my shuttle lane, and one on the right on his side. He set up bwing/xwing/hawk on my right making me maneuver the asteroid field to bring the shuttle to bear and baited with the other bwing on the left. After losing stabber last game I kept him with formation this time to ensure me getting some actual milage out of him.

Rnd 1 and 2

He did a full advance up the right side. I shuttle scuttled and utilized a lot of 1 turns and barrel roll backwards to make him come to me while turning the shuttle ever so slightly around the first asteroid. He did lots of backwards barrel rolls with his other Bwing to keep it back and out of range until the position of the furball would be decided.

Rnd 3:

I lined up 2/3 academies and used the 3rd for a shuttle bump and to cover the lonely bwing.

He turned toward the field but had flown far enough out that it was still all range 3 shots. He unloaded on the shuttle's 2 agility dice with everything on the right. He stripped it down to one shield in 1 round and that was the first time that has happened. The other bwing put a single point of damage on the tie facing him. My return fire put 5 on the rookie right away. I opted not to vader since he had been focusing on the shuttle, If I had it would have been gone round 1.

Rnd 4:

Sent one academy to block the hawk. Sent the other 2 after the lonely Bwing, TL and full stop on the shuttle, and kept howlrunner in the middle with a barrel roll and evade. Stabber was able to turn and barrel roll into range 1 out of arc vs. the lonely bwing. Firing saw Howlrunner looking into space, Stabber taking 3 shields from the bwing, bwing 1 bringing the shuttle down to 2 hull, bwing 2 putting 2 damage on howlrunner despite focus and evade, and the shuttle blowing itself up to ensure the rookie didn't get to shoot; rookie ended up not evading anything so it was a lot of overkill. hawk did get blocked so nothing was in range it could shoot at except howlrunner through an asteroid to no avail. Academies chipped away at the lonely bwing.

Rnd 5

2 Academies covered angles on the bwing, the other 1 turned and barrel rolled to have a shot on the other bwing that now had to "rush" over (as much as bwings can rush) to the new furball. lonely bwing advanced sensored focused and then bumped an academy. Howlrunner ran ran ran away with a bank 3 and then focus + evade but no shot. Stabber did the range 1 out of arc death dance and put the formally lonely bwing within finishing range for the remaining academy. Rushing bwing put 2 on an academy, bwing 2 put 2 on another which wiped it out. The remaining academy put the final damage on the beat up bwing.

Rnd 6: barely scratched bwing and untouched hawk vs. 4 ties.

swarmed around the convergence point of the other bwing and pretty much ignored the hawk. Bwing had to barrel roll to avoid collision and that left an opening for backstabber to barrel roll into for an out of arc but still range 2 shot. Holwrunner cleared stress turn 2 and barrel rolled to be back in range next round. Bwing got a big scratch from backstabber put a single damage on one of the academies and the hawk was ineffective again. One academy put more damage on the bwing.

Rnd 7:

Lots of bumps and out of arc shots. Howlrunner boosted in range and put a single damage on the bwing. Stabber finished the job thanks to the reroll. Opponent conceded rather than try to outfly my 4 ties.

So... not the best lists but 2 wins* is to 2 wins. I've been pretty good at getting enough mileage out of the shuttle as either a BIG hitter or just damage soak so that the mini swarm can do it's job. Stabber is either targeted early and killed or just deadly. With Focus and Evade and not being particular about her adding offense early it's nice to hide howlrunner behind the bus or hang stabber out there to keep her around.

I get the ties out of the way and overlap the space bus onto an asteroid to set up a decent firing angle but take no damage and target lock beforehand with advanced sensors. yep. So good.

...

Shuttle lays down 2 hits and a crit on Biggs and Vader adds another.

A ship overlapping an asteroid isn't allowed an attack.

I knoe you are using the shuttle scuttle technique and i love backstabber but you could drop backstabber for an academy and give the shuttle engine upgrade.

I've hardly used the shuttle myself but just a thought

I get the ties out of the way and overlap the space bus onto an asteroid to set up a decent firing angle but take no damage and target lock beforehand with advanced sensors. yep. So good.

...

Shuttle lays down 2 hits and a crit on Biggs and Vader adds another.

A ship overlapping an asteroid isn't allowed an attack.

Must have run 2 rounds together or something... sorry for the mis-report.

I don't like the engine upgrade much as the point of the shuttle in this list is to die early. Using the bump technique you should be getting 3-4 rounds of firing which should kill or almost kill the shuttle with Vader usage. I use it pretty much every shot. If you get all 5 shots off you paid ~5 points for each point of auto damage, less if you actually hit with your shots, even less if you are able to make them crits. Engine upgrade only matters if the shuttle lives through the initial pass, it shouldn't.

I like backstabber because he shoots before the shuttle. Even if he comes up with only a hit or 2 that is enough for the shuttle to start piling on damage or for the damage to be crits if shields are stripped. I would look to add another, higher PS pilot first but that would be reducing howlrunner and the howlrunner + shuttle combo means a lot of damage.

Must have run 2 rounds together or something... sorry for the mis-report.

I get the ties out of the way and overlap the space bus onto an asteroid to set up a decent firing angle but take no damage and target lock beforehand with advanced sensors. yep. So good.

...

Shuttle lays down 2 hits and a crit on Biggs and Vader adds another.

A ship overlapping an asteroid isn't allowed an attack.

Ah, ok, that makes sense. I would be hard pressed to remember rounds in that much detail, it was a good report. :-)

Yeah. I usually try to do them within 24 or they start getting blah. Battle reports aren't getting much use lately it seems. Not a lot of discussion around them or about them. I try to put up most of my fights that aren't just vassal messes or one that just go all according to plan. I think those ones are pretty useless but odd lists, or times when new/different tactics were used it's good to note. Or like right now when everyone is still looking at the shuttle.