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Just started playing X Wing and I've got the starter, 2 TIE Interceptors, an A wing, and the Lambda. Reading through the lambda, it seems like it is surprisingly flexible and I'm not really sure how to use it. I like the idea of blasting away at long range with a heavy laser, as well as support builds taking advantage of its various buffs it can give.

Does anyone have some ideas for me to try? I think I can run both of my TIEs, both interceptors, and the lambda if I'm smart, I'm just not sure how to make the lambda gel with the rest of the list.

I'll be honest, I really have not figured out a use for the Lambda. As a support ship, I would really just like to have more TIEs or Interceptors. As a Gunship, I find it crippled by its total lack of maneuverability. It's a cool ship, I just haven't had much success with it.

So far the only time I've used the Lambda Shuttle and haven't spent the whole game wishing that I would have taken ANYTHING else, I was using 4 of them. As a one of, they are very lack luster in my opinion, but when I had 4 with pursiut lasers on all of them, they did a pretty fair amount of damage. It did take a little bit of manuvering but you can totally cripple an opponent's manuverability by moving a couple of large base ships into the way, or flying into the spot where a ioned ship will end up to get a "free" shot with the Pursuit Laser. Add on to that 20 shields and 20 hull and your looking at a lot of damage your opponent has to deal out before your out of the game, and your shooting with the same firepower as an X-wing. Just watch out for the really manuverable ships getting behind you. The lack of a quick turn makes in really hard to get them back into a good fireing position again.

So four Lambdas is good, one is bad...I see what you did there, FFG!!

Yeah I learned about the lambdas complete lack of maneuverability the hard way today.

I did have some success giving my interceptors target lock using the one guy's special ability alongside a trait to hold two target locks at once which was awesome, but it costs a lot of points. Plus I got the one to target lock anything on the board and a heavy laser and that really pushed it over the limit on points. It would probably be better with a lot less extra stuff tacked on and taking more TIEs instead

Figured I would bump this instead of starting a new thread, but I had an idea.

would using captain Yorr with Soontir Fel be a viable idea? Captain Yorr's ability allows you to take stress tokens from a friendly ship within 1-2 of it. If you keep doing green maneuvers with the lambda, Fel could literally fly circles around it watching its back and being allowed to PTL every turn.

Not really sure where to go from there though, maybe throw an anti pursuit laser on the lambda since it will be in the middle of the fur ball, maybe even Vader or Engine upgrade to give it some offensive ability as well. From there the points would just be put into some cheap wingmen to watch Fel's and the Lambda's back, like some basic TIEs or interceptors.

Does this idea have merit or am I missing something critical here?

I'd say give it a try one game and see how it goes. You might be onto something cool! Running that Lambda, Fel and Fennar could be dirty.

Fennar? Never heard of him. I'll have to look up what he does

Turr Phennar. Sorry, mistyped. He's the other awesome Intercepter. He shoots THEN boosts or barrel rolls after firing. Giving him Veteran Instincts is generally cruel. He becomes PS9 and gets to dodge before opponents can shoot him.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
would using captain Yorr with Soontir Fel be a viable idea? Captain Yorr's ability allows you to take stress tokens from a friendly ship within 1-2 of it. If you keep doing green maneuvers with the lambda, Fel could literally fly circles around it watching its back and being allowed to PTL every turn.

You don't want this. Yorr takes the stress token instead of the ship, he doesn't let them get it and then take it away. So Fel's "get a focus when stressed" ability never triggers, and that ability is one of the biggest reasons to use him at all.

Plus, then you're spending a lot of points to keep Fel un-stressed when you have tons of greens to clear that stress already

Ah, well that kills that plan then.

Man there has got to be a way to make this ship useful...

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
Ah, well that kills that plan then.

Man there has got to be a way to make this ship useful...

I also have a lambda, and I'm trying to figure it out as well.

This is coming from a complete noob, but one of the pilots forces your opponents to lock onto the shuttle instead of fragile tie-fighters. I'm thinking a lambda + tie swarm. Perhaps the shuttle could be use to mitigate a missile/torpedo strike from A-wings/b-wings. I don't have enough sense of points cost know if this would be worth it or not. But a captian kagi lambda with four black squadron TIEs (all with marksmanship). Could be something, although, I may rather just have more tie fighters instead of the shuttle.

Another option is Col. Jendon with the shuttle title and some TIE bombers, allowing to get a target lock anywhere on the board, and then transfer the lock it to a tie bomber. Then use proton bombs or mines and anti-persuit lasers to make following the the not-so maneuverable shuttle a real pain to follow.

One of the issues with the Lambada is the same issue you see with the HWK.

At 100 points, it's hard to really justify a support ship in your list. Those points could almost always be better spent elsewhere.

The best you tend to see is that the support ship keeps the list on par with other options.

I use a HWK in my 100 point list, and it's proven to be rotten so far. The trick is figuring out which pilots mesh well. Garvin in an A-Wing, Salm in a Y-Wing and Kyle in a Moldy Crow have done me justice.

Vanor wrote:
At 100 points, it's hard to really justify a support ship in your list. Those points could almost always be better spent elsewhere.

Actually it's pretty easy with the HWK since you have two good options. Roark is a solid bonus that is dirt cheap with an ion turret (only +1 point over a gold y-wing with an ion turret, and +2 PS), and Jan is just amazing because of the way X-Wing's math works*. If you have her boosting a HLC b-wing the extra firepower against the average TIE from Jan's bonus attack die is about the same as the total average damage from Wedge. And that's on top of the ion turret.

The problem with the shuttle is that the bonuses aren't as cost-effective and you can't use a 360* turret to make up for the poor maneuverability.



*As a rough approximation one defense die cancels one attack die. So a 3-dice x-wing at range 2 of a TIE has near-zero average damage and needs some luck to get even a single hit. A 4-dice x-wing at range 1 now has a one-die advantage and can start to expect to see some consistent damage. A 5-dice x-wing now has a two-dice advantage, or about double the effective firepower of the 4-dice x-wing despite only rolling 25% more dice. How much adding or subtracting a die is worth depends greatly on how many dice your opponent has, and it is not a linear scale.

Due to assorted supply reasons, all I've got is a Lambda and 3 TIEs. - So I'm really interested in getting real use out of the lambda for smaller games.

It seems the most playable force I can work out is:

Mauler Mithel with Swarm Tactics
Winged Gundark
Black Squadron Pilot with Marksmanship
Colonel Jendon with Ion Cannon and 5 points of upgrades.

The plan being very much a case of the ships sticking together around the shuttle, it handing out target locks to the other ships. - So I imagine I'll likely be taking ST-321 as one upgrade.

I tried this list:

X2 Lambda Shuttle-Omicron Group pilot w/ Heavy Laser Cannon (54)
TIE bomber -Captian Jonus w/cluster missiles (25)
TIE Interceptor Alpha squadron pilot (19)


With Captian Jonus's re-rolls and the focus on the shuttles, you get 6/8 chance to hit per die with re-rolls. That's a consistent 3-4 hits at range 3. If you play it right, you'll get 2 or 3 turns of shooting before the enemy fighters make it out of the shuttles firing arc. The lambdas are devastating on the first pass. I was impressed. After the pass, the trick was to clean up with the interceptor. Even if my opponent was fairly good at piloting, I could usually get a shuttle around for the killshot after 2 or 3 turns.

 Compel wrote:
Due to assorted supply reasons, all I've got is a Lambda and 3 TIEs. - So I'm really interested in getting real use out of the lambda for smaller games.

It seems the most playable force I can work out is:

Mauler Mithel with Swarm Tactics
Winged Gundark
Black Squadron Pilot with Marksmanship
Colonel Jendon with Ion Cannon and 5 points of upgrades.

The plan being very much a case of the ships sticking together around the shuttle, it handing out target locks to the other ships. - So I imagine I'll likely be taking ST-321 as one upgrade.

Anti pursuit lasers might be a good upgrade for that as well. If the lambda is going to be in the middle of the fur ball you can try and trick people into flying into him and getting free swings with the laser.

Rebel captive could also be handy by stressing out a ship that shoots it, making it an easier target for your escort fighters next turn

Funnily enough those were the exact 2 upgrades I was thinking about. Either the rebel captive or... Vader.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
Rebel captive could also be handy by stressing out a ship that shoots it, making it an easier target for your escort fighters next turn

The problem with the captive is that it only works if they shoot the shuttle, and the shuttle probably isn't the best target in your list. So they're free to shoot the escort fighters and let the shuttle fly out of arc, and then finish off the shuttle in a position where picking up stress doesn't matter. Or they can just take the stress on one ship right away (and dump it right away next turn) and focus fire on the shuttle, taking it off the table in 1-2 turns.

IMO the best uses for the rebel captive are on a Firespray (usually a high-priority target) or the shuttle that forces you to target lock it (as an expensive hard counter to missile spam lists).

I can totally see all of you having frustrations with the shuttles lack of maneuverability. It handles like a yacht!

I have to say I have had incredible performance with engine upgrades and advanced sensors on mine. The boost actions opens so many options it is almost absurd. And in conjunction with AdvS something resembling a K-Turn starts to shine. Boosting before or after a maneuver allows tight turns, blocks that your opponent would have never seen coming and startling speed for straight shots. On an Omicron Group Pilot both of these keep it under 30 points which is none too shabby.

To turn it into a legitimate threat I add a heavy laser cannon (at any range I am getting 4 attack dice) the title (opening turn target lock, turn 2/3 getting a TL and Focused four dice shot, ouch!) and rebel captive to make people pay for shooting me and limiting their maneuvers. Come to 41 points, which is by no means cheap, but my experience has been that it pays for itself in the course of the game.

Hope this helps.

Problem with the Gunshuttle is that it still does nothing to survive an X-wing sitting behind it blowing it to pieces.

 Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
Problem with the Gunshuttle is that it still does nothing to survive an X-wing sitting behind it blowing it to pieces.

Well, the engine upgrade does help, if nothing else it at least makes you less predictable and more likely to gain separation and line up for another pass. With rebel captive tossing stress on a pursuing ship the shuttle is actually faster than most ships unless your opponent is willing to start accumulating multiple stress tokens and never get another action. And with advanced sensors you can boost before making the red 2-turn, which is almost a k-turn (though with a much more awkward shape). It's a bad situation and it really comes down to luck in whether your opponent keeps you in arc long enough to get those last hits in, but it's not certain death like with shuttles that don't pay the engine + advanced sensors tax.

The downside of course is the 41 points. That's getting into Firespray territory, for a much weaker ship.

I am going to try the stationary Gun Turret approach at CANCON on Monday.

Two shuttles, Jendon and Yorr. Place Yorr in the very bottom right corner facing directly left. Place Jendon against him facing down the map.

Every turn Jendon does a ZERO manoeuvre and Yorr takes the stress token. Yore then does a 1 forward and fails to move, but does lose the stress token.

Both shuttles get FCS, Gunner and Heavy lasers. Add Vader to Yorr. Take Dark Curse with a stealth device, he also stays at the bottom facing down the board not moving till the end game.

Try the gun turret, good for solitaire play.

Hi,

Im having a tournament this Saturday and Im taking a Shuttle and a Decimator. Here is my list

Colonel Jendon (43)
Lambda-Class Shuttle (26), Fire-Control System (2), Heavy Laser Cannon (7), Weapons Engineer (3), Tactician (2), ST-321 (3)

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (57)
VT-49 Decimator (46), Marksmanship (3), Ysanne Isard (4), Rebel Captive (3), Tactical Jammer (1)

Im thinking my tactic will be
1. Move ultra slow and close to the border to maximise Jendon shooting
2. Keep decimator ahead as spearhead to block opposing aircrafts, obstruct enemy fire and obtain free target locks from shuttle.
3. Focus fire on the main strength or combo aircraft to disrupt enemy fire.
4. Break formation later on game to save shuttle or decimator.

I know this may sound naive or noob. So please shoot back pointing my weaknesses and your recommendations.

What do you think?

spiderglow wrote:
Here is my list

Sorry, but this is really bad. Your shuttle is way too expensive and contributes almost nothing. Sure, it can hit hard for a turn or two with the HLC, but then it's going to be outmaneuvered and spend the rest of the game with its arc pointed away from the fight until it dies. That's an acceptable drawback for a 23 point Vader shuttle that is probably dead anyway after a turn or two, but not when you're spending half your points on that ship. And you're not getting much benefit from the target lock passing because RAC has a built-in "focus" and his only other possible action is to take a target lock. So that's wasted points unless RAC bumps a ship and loses his action.

Meanwhile your RAC setup could also use some work. Marksmanship is a terrible upgrade, especially when you're already turning an {eye} result into damage, and the tactical jammer is almost worthless in this list. The standard setup is to replace marksmanship with engine upgrade and veteran instincts. Do that and turn the shuttle into Whisper or Soontir Fel and you have a solid tournament list.

A 'Buzzsaw' shuttle can be a handy mop up ship, some mix of FCS, a cannon, vader and/or gunner, you just durdle about slightly behind your other ships
and try to pick off damaged ships after the first pass, but like everyone else has pointed out if something does get behind it the ship is pretty much done for even with
an engine upgrade

I ran a shuttle with Palpatine, supporting Vader and Fel against a list with a Vader, a Decimator and 2 TIEs. I lost Fel thanks to a misstep that took me in the middle of everything but Vader was able to clean up, thanks partly the Palpatine helping him out where needed. When the opponent's Vader changed tack and tried to drop in behind the shuttle, Palpatine switched so he was boosting the shuttle's green dice when needed, given Vader's usual low damage output it meant the shuttle was able to keep going, giving my Vader enough time to circle back and finish him off.

I like Palpatine, and would put him on a shuttle in a variety of lists.

Try this

35 points
Soontir Fel

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Push the Limit (3)

Stealth Device (3)

Autothrusters (2)


34 points
Carnor Jax
8 3 4/3 3 0


Push the Limit (3)

Royal Guard TIE (0)

Stealth Device (3)

Autothrusters (2)


31 points
Omicron Group Pilot

“Mangler” Cannon (4)

Rebel Captive (3)

Darth Vader (3)

OR

31 points
Omicron Group Pilot

HLC (7)

Darth Vader (3)

OR

31 points
Omicron Group Pilot

ion Cannon (3)

Rebel Captive (3)

Darth Vader (3)


making either 100 point or 99 point list (i'd go withbthe ION option personally)

I'll have to see what happens with the shuttle on the field. My buddy has one, but it's never been put into play yet, but I just got one for myself on a lark to add to my "pirate" squadron as a sort of command and control ship, gaining and giving off target locks to wingmen with Jendon and the title.