Welcome to Flight School. I know you are furious that you were promoted from prestigious fighter pilot to shuttle pilot. The shuttle is an extremely difficult craft to fly well and it is easy to make a game ending mistake. Here, I want to talk about Engine Upgrade, what it means for your Lambda and how to avoid common initial mistakes.

First, though, I need to speak on firepower. The Lambda's main weapon is on par with the strongest primary weapons in the game. 3 dice attack is quite potent, the same as the much lauded X-Wing, Named Falcon, and the Firespray. It's a potent main weapon. The shuttle enhances this by being the only craft that can currently possess both a crew slot and a systems slot. My recommendation here is always Fire Control System and Gunner. But why?

Fire Control System gives a ship a wonderful ability. After any attack, you may gain a target lock on your target. Sadly, this is after an attack. Still, free target locks are great and makes the use of your action to boost less painful. Still, this upgrade doesn't help you unless you can target the same victim twice, right?

Gunner is another great upgrade. If you miss an attack (All rolled Hits and Crits are avoided by Evade dice or tokens), you may immediately make a PRIMARY weapon attack. It doesn't have to be on the same target.

Together, these two upgrades create an incredibly powerful combination. This is because, when you have multiple effects that activate following an attack, you get to choose which order they are resolved. This results in the following order of operations.

1) Declare Target

2) Initiate Attack 1

3) Resolve Attack 1

4) Gain Target Lock from FCS

5) If Attack 1 missed, Initiate Attack 2

6) Use Target Lock gained in Attack 1

7) Resolve Attack 2

8) Gain Target Lock again

Against high evade targets, you become far more likely to hit and it insulates you from a single bad roll or excellent defense roll. But the shuttle has a notoriously bad dial. Now we have to orient these heavy guns. Well first you need to understand your craft, it's propulsion capabilities, and most importantly you must stop trying to fly this like a fighter craft.

A note on naming convention. From here on, this craft will affectionately be known by <synonym for white> <space term> <large herbivore>.

Most people think the albino stellar cow is a slow craft. However, with enhanced propulsion, what they mean is that it doesn't turn well. Take, for example, the A-Wing. Often lauded as one of the fastest craft in production, we shall assume both are burning full out, moving their maximum distance followed by a boost. How much further ahead does the A-Wing get?

As you can see, they are dead even at the end. This is because of the large base of the alabaster void bison. The boost means that you add the distance of your base twice to the total distance moved. Here, our lovely ship moved 3 forward plus 1 forward plus 2 for the base plus another 2 for the base for a total of 8. The A-Wing moves 5 forward, plus 1 for boost, plus 1 for it's base twice for 2. A total of 8. That's right, our snowy stellar reindeer can keep pace with some of the fastest craft yet devised. Indeed, this is fast enough to move outside the firing range of a craft behind you.

Unfortunately, this ghostly star oryx simply does not have the turning radius to out turn such a craft. As we can see here, the diameter of a turn of 1 bank plus 1 bank boost is significant:

You will not be able to out-turn most craft. But not that, while you can't perform a Koiogran turn in this craft, the degrees of turn are on par with most craft using this method. You cover an incredible amount of distance with this ship moves.

Unfortunately, this leads to one of the single biggest piloting mistakes. During the initial approach to engagement, one should never, ever be in the center of the formation. Why you ask? The center seems perfect. It gives you options whether to go left or right. It puts you in the center of the region and able to control it. Or does it?

Here's the problem. The turning radius is so sharp and the engagement area is so small, once you commit to a turn either direction, you must complete that turn. This makes you extremely predictable.

If you refer back to our A-Wing race, you can see that the shuttle's speed is such that it spans half of the distance between forces in a single turn. This shall be used as the reference point for the rest of this lesson.

Let us assume you raced forward only to find that your opponents have veered off to one side. Your fighter instincts kick in and you decide to use this to your advantage. After all, it seems you are in a perfect position to flank them. So you continue full out for another round. Now you just need to turn to face the delicious hindquarters of your prey. Taking the lessons you learned about the turning you learned early, you bank one and boost and...

Oh, Vader is not going to be pleased about that. The only way to avoid it is to turn as hard as possible with a 2 bank, but that puts you still close to the edge and now stressed and facing ships that may well have lured you into a trap. You don't want this to happen to you.

But that's not the only danger. You began this fight by boosting into the center from the middle. This means that you quickly must choose to turn. But as we saw, the standard turn, while fast, is huge. And our prey may double back on it. If so, it leaves you with a single way to handle this turn. Sheep help you if there are asteroids, debris or mines waiting for you.

Once you commit to this path, you have zero capability of doing anything else. You are committed. And your opponent will know this. You will get maybe one shot before you have to maneuver and you are out of the fight for far too long trying to recover even if you don't find rebels clawing at your tail fins. Not only that, but the necessity for tight, stressful turns means that you cannot use the incredible speed of the craft to escape

I'm here to tell you, from the very first turn, you made a serious mistake which will hamper your maneuverability for the entire engagement. But there is a better way.

Start by hugging the very edge of the engagement zone. This gives you the maximum amount of room to maneuver. Ah, but you dispute this. After all, you can only turn a single direction instead of two. True, but you can make that turn at any time. Ideally, if the opposing force is across from you, you can move very slowly while the rest of your force arcs in to meet them. However, they may believe that you are incapable of rapid engagement and setup in the middle or far from you. In which case, we begin by moving 3 forward followed by an inward boost.

After a single turn, you are almost able to shoot at their starting area. Your deadly arc searches. But, if they were cowardly, you do not yet have a shot. Continue full throttle and move 3 followed by a boost if appropriate. You have now moved from your corner to the middle of the field deep in their territory facing to the side. They will almost certainly be in firing arc and range.

Further, you should likely find yourself behind them now. As your other forces engage the enemy, your extremely powerful white space cow is in a perfect position to begin civilizing the savages. You have taken a much derided craft and outmaneuvered them. From this position you can turn in any way necessary to continue fire. There are other considerations, such as obstacles and maneuvering, but those will come in future lessons. Here is the basis, the foundation, of many of the more advanced tactics. Study this. Fly it a couple times. Understand this and you will be one step closer to being a truly potent pilot for one of the finest ships in the Imperial fleet.

...

What do you think? Was this helpful? Was there something I could have clarified better? Do you want to see more of this?

This is amazing. I'd offer cookies if I had any. Bravo, good man.

I think I will be giving my single Pale Void Narwhal a run next time I get to play and start learning how to move it gracefully. I look forward to the day in which I get to run an entire herd.

nice. g8 post SableG. some out there are probably frustrated and unable to get the most out of their shuttlebus.

im still developing my understanding of which support/complementary ships to use depending on what upgrades u have on your shuttlebus - using a Doom Shuttle (omicron + Vader crew) imo requires different support ships compared to the Buzzsaw Shuttle (omicron+FCS+Gunner+EngineUpgrade). I think the Pilot Skills in general of support ships with Vader Crew need to be 3 or more. Having enough firepower to strip enemy ships of shields is also desirable when using Vader Crew on a shuttlebus but it can be tricky to get the balance right.

The riddle of the best support ships for these shuttle variants (Doom Shuttle or Buzzsaw Shuttle) is what has really made me look for better synergy within my own squads.

Im starting to see the intercepters used a bit in support of the hipposhuttlemus which is logical when u think about it because the intercepters high agility and speed counterbalance the sluggish turning abilities of the Majestic Manatee.

Nice writeup!

I like pictures.

I've tried it starting sideways to try and get another early turn of shooting in which has worked though of course once to near the center from a nearly head on engagement turning is all it ends up doing for awhile.

I'll have to give this a try with my Pale Space Bovine.

"You ever dance with the Milky Way Manatee in the pale moonlight?"

Love this, Sable! For 102 I would request extrapolated lines displayed side by side with your own analysis of their pros and cons. The flightpath in your last image you've frequently recommended for opposite corner setups. In these scenarios the goal is to flank with the shuttle. If after turn 1 it's apparent you opponent (for example a 4X rebel squad) will not indulge and is gunning for that Bleached Stellarphant ASAP with a hard turn toward the center of their side, looking for a long bank to close range turn 2, analysis of alternate options for turn 2 maneuvers would be welcomed by myself and many others.

For this example, comparing plan A (straight 3, boost right) vs a stall or a (bank 2 left, boost right) or a (bank 1 right, boost left).

Thanks. Lately I'd committed myself to trying to learn the shuttle better and fly it in a much more deadly game (hence my Walk The Plank build earlier). This will shave lots of time off of my education.

Thanks Sable, I knew I could count on you to provide valuable insight on the absolute privilege of flying the creamy nebula rhino. Even though I'm a Rebel player I'm looking forward to giving my shuttle a spin, supported well of course, but still armed and ready for devastation. :3

That is an exelent write up! And I would like to encourage you or others to make similar articles about the other spacecrafts in the game

And now I know how to decipher the naming of the Lambda, sorry Whitewashed Space Manatee

Cheers

Though a rebel player, I picked up two of these alabaster pelicans for the myriad of upgrades included, along with a Slave I. What would you guys suggest I pick up to complete a viable Galactic Empire list? (I'd wager it won't include both bleached seals). Would Imperial Aces be the best way to finish a squad? (I need them PtLs anyway!)

Nice!! you need to do one for EACH ship!! lol also got to give a shout out to my wife for picking me up another blanco bovine this weekend for me... She found it at Barnes & Nobel off topic but that is one good thing about non-gaming stores carrying X-wing stuff... She would NEVER venture into a game store on her own unless i had specifically asked her too.. but seriously back on topic, do one for each ship..

Welcome to Flight School. I know you are furious that you were promoted from prestigious fighter pilot to shuttle pilot. The shuttle is an extremely difficult craft to fly well and it is easy to make a game ending mistake. Here, I want to talk about Engine Upgrade, what it means for your Lambda and how to avoid common initial mistakes.

First, though, I need to speak on firepower. The Lambda's main weapon is on par with the strongest primary weapons in the game. 3 dice attack is quite potent, the same as the much lauded X-Wing, Named Falcon, and the Firespray. It's a potent main weapon. The shuttle enhances this by being the only craft that can currently possess both a crew slot and a systems slot. My recommendation here is always Fire Control System and Gunner. But why?

Fire Control System gives a ship a wonderful ability. After any attack, you may gain a target lock on your target. Sadly, this is after an attack. Still, free target locks are great and makes the use of your action to boost less painful. Still, this upgrade doesn't help you unless you can target the same victim twice, right?

Gunner is another great upgrade. If you miss an attack (All rolled Hits and Crits are avoided by Evade dice or tokens), you may immediately make a PRIMARY weapon attack. It doesn't have to be on the same target.

Together, these two upgrades create an incredibly powerful combination. This is because, when you have multiple effects that activate following an attack, you get to choose which order they are resolved. This results in the following order of operations.

1) Declare Target

2) Initiate Attack 1

3) Resolve Attack 1

4) Gain Target Lock from FCS

5) If Attack 1 missed, Initiate Attack 2

6) Use Target Lock gained in Attack 1

7) Resolve Attack 2

8) Gain Target Lock again

Against high evade targets, you become far more likely to hit and it insulates you from a single bad roll or excellent defense roll. But the shuttle has a notoriously bad dial. Now we have to orient these heavy guns. Well first you need to understand your craft, it's propulsion capabilities, and most importantly you must stop trying to fly this like a fighter craft.

A note on naming convention. From here on, this craft will affectionately be known by <synonym for white> <space term> <large herbivore>.

Most people think the albino stellar cow is a slow craft. However, with enhanced propulsion, what they mean is that it doesn't turn well. Take, for example, the A-Wing. Often lauded as one of the fastest craft in production, we shall assume both are burning full out, moving their maximum distance followed by a boost. How much further ahead does the A-Wing get?

As you can see, they are dead even at the end. This is because of the large base of the alabaster void bison. The boost means that you add the distance of your base twice to the total distance moved. Here, our lovely ship moved 3 forward plus 1 forward plus 2 for the base plus another 2 for the base for a total of 8. The A-Wing moves 5 forward, plus 1 for boost, plus 1 for it's base twice for 2. A total of 8. That's right, our snowy stellar reindeer can keep pace with some of the fastest craft yet devised. Indeed, this is fast enough to move outside the firing range of a craft behind you.

Unfortunately, this ghostly star oryx simply does not have the turning radius to out turn such a craft. As we can see here, the diameter of a turn of 1 bank plus 1 bank boost is significant:

You will not be able to out-turn most craft. But not that, while you can't perform a Koiogran turn in this craft, the degrees of turn are on par with most craft using this method. You cover an incredible amount of distance with this ship moves.

Unfortunately, this leads to one of the single biggest piloting mistakes. During the initial approach to engagement, one should never, ever be in the center of the formation. Why you ask? The center seems perfect. It gives you options whether to go left or right. It puts you in the center of the region and able to control it. Or does it?

Here's the problem. The turning radius is so sharp and the engagement area is so small, once you commit to a turn either direction, you must complete that turn. This makes you extremely predictable.

If you refer back to our A-Wing race, you can see that the shuttle's speed is such that it spans half of the distance between forces in a single turn. This shall be used as the reference point for the rest of this lesson.

Let us assume you raced forward only to find that your opponents have veered off to one side. Your fighter instincts kick in and you decide to use this to your advantage. After all, it seems you are in a perfect position to flank them. So you continue full out for another round. Now you just need to turn to face the delicious hindquarters of your prey. Taking the lessons you learned about the turning you learned early, you bank one and boost and...

Oh, Vader is not going to be pleased about that. The only way to avoid it is to turn as hard as possible with a 2 bank, but that puts you still close to the edge and now stressed and facing ships that may well have lured you into a trap. You don't want this to happen to you.

But that's not the only danger. You began this fight by boosting into the center from the middle. This means that you quickly must choose to turn. But as we saw, the standard turn, while fast, is huge. And our prey may double back on it. If so, it leaves you with a single way to handle this turn. Sheep help you if there are asteroids, debris or mines waiting for you.

Once you commit to this path, you have zero capability of doing anything else. You are committed. And your opponent will know this. You will get maybe one shot before you have to maneuver and you are out of the fight for far too long trying to recover even if you don't find rebels clawing at your tail fins. Not only that, but the necessity for tight, stressful turns means that you cannot use the incredible speed of the craft to escape

I'm here to tell you, from the very first turn, you made a serious mistake which will hamper your maneuverability for the entire engagement. But there is a better way.

Start by hugging the very edge of the engagement zone. This gives you the maximum amount of room to maneuver. Ah, but you dispute this. After all, you can only turn a single direction instead of two. True, but you can make that turn at any time. Ideally, if the opposing force is across from you, you can move very slowly while the rest of your force arcs in to meet them. However, they may believe that you are incapable of rapid engagement and setup in the middle or far from you. In which case, we begin by moving 3 forward followed by an inward boost.

After a single turn, you are almost able to shoot at their starting area. Your deadly arc searches. But, if they were cowardly, you do not yet have a shot. Continue full throttle and move 3 followed by a boost if appropriate. You have now moved from your corner to the middle of the field deep in their territory facing to the side. They will almost certainly be in firing arc and range.

Further, you should likely find yourself behind them now. As your other forces engage the enemy, your extremely powerful white space cow is in a perfect position to begin civilizing the savages. You have taken a much derided craft and outmaneuvered them. From this position you can turn in any way necessary to continue fire. There are other considerations, such as obstacles and maneuvering, but those will come in future lessons. Here is the basis, the foundation, of many of the more advanced tactics. Study this. Fly it a couple times. Understand this and you will be one step closer to being a truly potent pilot for one of the finest ships in the Imperial fleet.

...

What do you think? Was this helpful? Was there something I could have clarified better? Do you want to see more of this?

Thank you for the promotion! after having just graduated from the academy, I was verymuch looking forward to my first tie assignment. imagine my surprise and chagrin when I was assigned the protype rambling pasty cosmic Bevo (texans get it). However, sable has proven to be every bit the pilot as the pioneering Doolittle and am fully on board with jockeying this beast. my question is: what support ships (ironic since the lambda has always been viewed as a support ship) do you reccommend for the buzzcow?

First up, I'm glad everyone liked this. I will look at beginning on Flight School 102. I'm trying to figure out a better way to do the pictures. My old camera just isn't up for the job and the angles I used make it hard to get a feel for the distances involved. I may need to look into vassal to see if I could screenshot that.

The biggest question I'm seeing is what crafts should accompany the snowy nebula peccary. This is a good question. I have some preliminary answers and they've been discussed in a number of other shuttle threads. First, however, there are a couple other important aspects of manuevering that I need to explore first, so that may need to wait. After all, this just explored the very basics of that concept and there's more to know to wield these beasts appropriately.

Nice!! you need to do one for EACH ship!! lol also got to give a shout out to my wife for picking me up another blanco bovine this weekend for me... She found it at Barnes & Nobel off topic but that is one good thing about non-gaming stores carrying X-wing stuff... She would NEVER venture into a game store on her own unless i had specifically asked her too.. but seriously back on topic, do one for each ship..

Oh sweet fluffy sheep, every ship? I'm nowhere done with this one. I should also point out I'm not an expert at most ships. I may consider it, but not just yet.

Great write up. One thing I've been looking at is using asteroids to benefit the Great Alabaster Galaxy Bovine.

(Never understood why anyone would fight in an asteroid field mind you)

Also, the lessons learned here can also be useful in general terms for understanding the Firespray. It has a better dial, but the principals of turn radius and boost still apply. In the case of the Firespray, it is useful as it shows how you can bring both fire arcs to bare and where the blind spots end up.

Very nice! Now the secrets will spill and when I bring a Shuttle to a tourney, my opponents will be ready for it...and they'll feel fear instead if confidence...

Would Imperial Aces be the best way to finish a squad? (I need them PtLs anyway!)

The Interceptors seem a good pairing (possibly with some Fighter fodder) but I would probably look at Imperial Aces and the existing Interceptor.

just a quick clarification.

with your opening maneuver with the cream cosmic carabao, is my intent right in keeping it out of the first engagement (positioning wise), and have it join in the battle after it has already begun?

such a tactic would make sense, especially when you pair it up with Yorr or Kagi, but with Jendon it would be a bit tricky to use / not appropriate at all

just a quick clarification.

with your opening maneuver with the cream cosmic carabao, is my intent right in keeping it out of the first engagement (positioning wise), and have it join in the battle after it has already begun?

such a tactic would make sense, especially when you pair it up with Yorr or Kagi, but with Jendon it would be a bit tricky to use / not appropriate at all

A good question. The answer is generally no. Keep in mind that that final picture is your position at the end of round 2. That is generally the first round of engagement. You just aren't hitting them from the front, you are now either beside them or behind them. You just want to keep it out of a head on engagement in the middle of the map. Hit them hard and fast and from angles they don't expect.

Start a YouTube channel, Sable! Especially since X-Wing Strategy Tips doesn't update often enough.

Thank you for the promotion! after having just graduated from the academy, I was verymuch looking forward to my first tie assignment. imagine my surprise and chagrin when I was assigned the protype rambling pasty cosmic Bevo (texans get it). However, sable has proven to be every bit the pilot as the pioneering Doolittle and am fully on board with jockeying this beast. my question is: what support ships (ironic since the lambda has always been viewed as a support ship) do you reccommend for the buzzcow?

Please don't quote the entire OP when it's so long.

Awesome class, I'm really looking forward to learning how to use my shuttle, the pics you provided were really helpful to my understanding, Thanks for all the effort you put into this.

So if we pass the class can we go into Shuttle? Or Advanced Shuttle?

So if we pass the class can we go into Shuttle? Or Advanced Shuttle?

Advanced Shuttle has a number of pre-requisites you need to pass first:

Shuttle

Shuttle 2: The Quickening

Intermediate Shuttle: Through the Portal of Time

TIE Economics

Shuttle Husbandry

Hi,

I'm still fairly new to x-wing(started just after Christmas 2013). I've been following these x-wing forums since shortly after that, first time posting. I haven't felt the need to contribute anything until now. All I'd like to say to you now Sable is;

WOW, thank you SO much for this thread. As I said, I'm still quite new and a "Flight School" thread is exactly what I've been looking for and needed. Not only have both yours and The_Brown_Bombers threads lately been instrumental in helping me choose a squad I feel suits my play style nicely(Scarlet Cowgirl), now you're teaching me to fly a major component of the squad.

So, again, thanks for this. I look forward to possibly more posts such as this.

Cheers

First, though, I need to speak on firepower. The Lambda's main weapon is on par with the strongest primary weapons in the game. 3 dice attack is quite potent, the same as the much lauded X-Wing, Named Falcon, and the Firespray. It's a potent main weapon. The shuttle enhances this by being the only craft that can currently possess both a crew slot and a systems slot. My recommendation here is always Fire Control System and Gunner. But why?

Fire Control System gives a ship a wonderful ability. After any attack, you may gain a target lock on your target. Sadly, this is after an attack. Still, free target locks are great and makes the use of your action to boost less painful. Still, this upgrade doesn't help you unless you can target the same victim twice, right?

...

Against high evade targets, you become far more likely to hit and it insulates you from a single bad roll or excellent defense roll.

Great article on maneuver - I'm still leaning towards the opinion that the shuttle is to exploitable to be a truly competitive ship, with far too many vulnerabilities, but it's a good overview on how to (try and) fly this beast.

I think the combat section above, while not the main point, glosses over a serious weakness in the offensive nature of the build - specifically, that it may perform well against high-agility targets, but it actually suffers against low-agility ships. You're frequently going to end up scoring a hit or two, leaving you without the option for Gunner and with that target lock sitting idle on a ship that will often be able to maneuver away from your guns. Since the maneuverability of the shuttle relies so much on boosting, if your FCS/Gunner can't deliver you've got a 3 Attack ship that cannot reliably reinforce that attack with actions.

There are two problems with this, IMHO. First is that low-agility ships are very popular in the meta right now - B-wings and Falcons most obviously, but even X-wings and TIE Bombers are low enough agility that the Gunner may not activate reliably. Second is that the ships this offense works best against - high-agility - are exactly the ships which are going to have the speed and maneuverability to exploit the horrible handling of the shuttle.