Tie Shuttle think-tank. What are the options?

[Oberron 628]

There are many post about people asking about tie shuttle and whats good with it. I wanted to make a thread that has all the options the Tie shuttle can take crew wise and list out what type of list popular set-ups are used for.

 

Crew options for the Tie shuttle and small summery for their use: 21 currently

 

 

1 point crew options

**Bombardier: useless, no bomb slots.

**intelligence Agent: I spy on an enemy ship's dial, has its uses.

**Inspiring Recuit:  Once per round double stress remove for a friendlyship at range 1-2. And it isn't limited or unique so you could double up to remove 2 stress on 2 ships

 

 

2 point crew options

**Agent Kallus: a semi-focus for the bomber's 2red/2green, ok but not the best use.

**Mercenary Copilot: Interesting but not highly used, less useful with no ords.

**Moff Jerjerrod: On a no shield ship this could be a life saver.

**Saboteur: Has potential for a ship that dives into the fray

**Systems Officer: TL dispenser. And has the best chance of use on a bomber with mk II upgrade. 9 total greens gives it the most flexible use out of all the imperial ships that can use it.

**Tactitician: Turn the bomber's 2 dice into an annoying 2 dice and still keeps it cheap.

**(NEW)BoShek: Looks like another solid crew card for a Mr.Magoo build of bumping into things.

 

 

3 point crew options

**Darth Vader: mini-doom shuttle, at most 3 shots.

**Fleet Officer: Focus dispenser. See Systems Officer for flexibility.

**Mara Jade: Another into the fray style card to an annoying stress dispenser, combo with tactitician for the annoying mosquito.

**Navigator: on a low ps bomber with Intelligence agent one could turn it into a bump ship. On the other hand on a high PS bomber it can be used to avoid bumping. With mk II mod you are pretty much getting a green maneuver regardless.

**Rebel Captive: Another style of the annoying mosquito, combo with Tactitician or mara jade to be even more of a pain. (less useful with mara jade but still good for >1 range)

**Recon specialist: Double focus on a bomber, gives it a use for offense and defense. I can see this useful with tomax and crack shot/whatever to keep him alive longer and hit better.

**Weapons Engineer: Two TLs on different ships is nice but to bad jendon isn't a pilot for the bomber. Not the best use since it can't do much with the multiple TL's.

**Kylo Ren: Could be pretty useful as a set-up for other ships to focus on for pilot crits. Sad it doesn't combo with vader.

**Operation Specialist: After a friendly misses an attack at 1-2 you may assign a focus to a friendly of 1-3 of the attacker. Can be good to give other ships more focus tokens or even give it to the ship that missed to give it a focus for defense. Has potential to mix with fleet officer.

 

4 point crew options

**Flight Instructor: I don't think I've seen this used on anything also Recon specialist is better as long as you have an action and agent kallus is better if you are defending vs your target ship. Might see some use vs ps 1 triple Defenders.

**Ysanne Isard: Not a bad choice if it lives past the first shooting trade off. Free evade action is nothing to scoff at (unless you're homing missiles)

**HotShot Co-Pilot: Another annoying mosquito crew card. Forces the attacker to use a focus token, or if the bomber is attacking forces the defender to spend a focus. Better on high PS bombers than lower PS

 

 

                                                                                                                                                  

 

Current crew synergy that work and why:

 

Note: I am ignoring using Major Rhymer as a support ship for the most part since his special ability only works with secondary weapons. That with Tomax Bren having a higher PS and is cheaper there is no practical reason to use him. There is now a use for Rhymer with shuttle (9/19/16)!

 

 

Fleet officer + Systems Officer (+ MK II upgrade [optional but recommended])

Already stated above but the two officers work well together to hand out tokens to other ships, Systems Officer is an action that gives a stress and fleet officer needs green to toss target locks, now only if Experimental interface didn't give a stress too. Very heavily a support ship and can work on cheap bombers or the aces.

Point range before other upgrades/ept: 21-29 (22-30 with mk II)

 

Tactician + Intel Agent

This crew set-up lets the bomber become a tactical support ship rather than the token support ship (as above). Intel Agent lets you prep against high PS targets to either get in their way or set up a death box. Tactician lets the bomber's 2 red be more useful as a mosquito handing out stress to targets. Also can work well on cheap bombers or the aces.

Point range before other upgrades/ept: 19-27

 

Tactician + Mara Jade

Who needs Intel when you can just stress everything? A cheaper stress boat than the decimator but cheaper comes at a price. Small ship size means a small circle for range 1 stress, and only 6 hull 2 green makes it likely to be taken down with light focus fire as well as no turret. Still a cheaper stress boat can be very useful.

Point range: 21-29

 

Darth Vader + other (optionals)

Vader on a 6 hull ship turns it into a time bomb that you want to keep cheap. Up to three shots with vader on the bomber and can either be used as bait since some opponents would want to take care of this shuttle ASAP. You can either go on the cheap with Scimitar pilot and vader or you can take more toys to get more bang for your buck, but the more points you spend on it makes it even more of a target.Another good reason to take the cheaper/low PS bombers is so you can put his crit on hull instead of shields.

Point range: 19-27

+Rebel Captive: makes the shuttle a little less of a target to hopefully get off all three shots.

Point range: 22-30

+Agent Kallus: Lets you focus heavily on a single ship to try to do as much damage as it can, tomax with crack shot makes a pricey but painful primary weapon bomber.

Point range: 21-29

+Tactician: More offensive than the Agent setup giving damage and stress.

Point range: 21-29

+Ysanne Isard: Since you are going to be taking damage this can keep the bomber alive a little longer against on coming fire but also pricey.

Point range: 23-31

 

Navigator + Intel Agent

Meet Mr.Magoo, always bumping into things. Here is where a low ps ship is a must. If you have a loose idea where a ship is going set your dial for that direction and change as needed to get in its way. An arc dodger with no actions/tokens is a sitting duck. This is cheap to do but takes a good pilot to fly it.

Point range: 20-28

 

Major Rhymer

With the spoiling of the EPT Snap shot  there is now a use for Rhymer with the shuttle title. The following list will be exclusively for Rhymer since he will be taking a more offensive support style and unless otherwise noted all of the following will assume use of Snap Shot EPT

 

Darth Vader

Gives Rhymer two shots with vader a turn.

 

Tactician

Double stress Rhymer and the best part is the first shot will give the target stress BEFORE they get to make an action! Keep an eye out for this one, I feel it can be quite powerful since it kills any arc dodger that have to land in range 2 zone. Can be great to pair up with Navigator.

 

That's currently it for the current Crew for the Imperial Bomber with Tie Shuttle title equipped. If I have missed any crew or any interesting notes please post here.

 

And for the distant future, the more crew cards are released the more options the shuttle can have to become better.

 

Edit: added points to crew cards and some shuttle set ups.

Edit:(9/19) added stuff for Rhymer

Edit: (10/24) added new crew cards from upsilon preview

Edit:(11/4/16) added hotshot co-pilot

Edit:(11/28/16) added inspiring recuit

Edit:(12/14/16) BoShek added

Edited December 14, 2016 by Oberron

[Sciencius 1,075]

Like the idea of an overview post. Suggestions:

1. Perhaps divide the crew options into two seperate lists: a) usefull (e.g. tactician) and b) useless or near useless (e.g. Bombardier as there is no bomb slots).

2. Sort your list(s) by ascending point cost.  
3. Add point cost in bold face. 

Edited July 7, 2016 by Sciencius

[thespaceinvader 17,568]

Fleet/Systems (or Tactician or nothing if Systems isn't much use)

Intel Agent/Tactician

Vader

 

That's basically it for making it useful based on my (albeit somewhat limited) testing.  Virtually everything else is either largely ignorable (Mara), makes the shuttle a lower prioty target when it's already pretty ignorable (Captive) or is just outright bad either in this context or in general (everything else).

 

You could MAAAYBE say Weapons Engineer as a spotter for Vessery, but Fleet Officer is going to be way better in that context, as is Systems Officer to give a lock to someone else who can actually meaningfully *use* it after Vessery's shot.

 

The real thing to consider here is that the TIE shuttle needs to be points-efficient.  Overspending on something as fragile as it is, is a really, really bad idea.

 

In some order:

Fleet Officer: Owns

Systems Officer: good in the right context, combos with Fleet Officer

Intel Agent: Capable blocker and/or Tactician Enabler

Tactician: Solid but not amazing these days when stress is a lot less useful than it used to be, and a lot less so on something this squishy.

Vader: Funny, decent, but prone to being annihilated.  Captive might help here, but then you're spending three points on something you fully inted to die after its third shot, max.

Captive: OK i guess, but unless you're packing something else to make the bomber a desirable target (Vader, Tactician, Fleet officer) just makes the bomber less tempting when it's already probably the weakest and most ignorable ship in your list.

Kallus: solid crewman but this is a very low-offense ship and it's never going to do a vast amount regardless.  Potentially an interesting combo with a shuttle Tomax, but shuttle Tomax is probably too expensive for his own good anyway.  WOuld be amazing though if you could get half the ordnance and a single crew slot...

RecSpec and Weapons Engineer: about the same in that they're great crew but not here, they're so situational here as to be a massive waste of points.

Jerjerrod: again, making an already non-tempting target turtle harder without benefitting the rest of your list commensurately just means the bomber gets ignored until the opponent fininshes everything else off, and can then murder Jerjerrod at his leisure.

Isard: too expensive, too risky, too turtley, see above.

Navigator: marginal benefit at best, only worth it if you're comboing it with Fleet Officer, and only then if you're facing other PS2- pilots or ships which can decloak.  ALso, changing speed doesn't help as much if you're about to bump a large ship or fly into the teeth of a swarm.

Merc Copilot, Flight Instructor, Saboteur: lol, they're all terrible anyway.

[Oberron 628]

Like the idea of an overview post. Suggestions:

1. Perhaps divide the crew options into two seperate lists: a) usefull (e.g. tactician) and b) useless or near useless (e.g. Bombardier as there is no bomb slots).

2. Sort your list(s) by ascending point cost.  

3. Add point cost in bold face. 

 

Wanted to include everything even if it isn't good just for a complete list. The crew listed is already in ascending point cost but added groups for them. Bold face is good idea, done and done.

[Raven19528 158]

Why not combo Vader with Jerjerrod? If they completely ignore the shuttle, you can off Jerjerrod to get a fourth shot in. If they go after the shuttle, they now have to blast through essentially 8 hull, which ties them up for an extra turn or 2, allowing the rest of your list to do what it does. At 21 points on the Scimitar, I think it's cost effective as a shuttle and versatile enough to not be dead weight against any list.

Thoughts?

[Oberron 628]

Why not combo Vader with Jerjerrod? If they completely ignore the shuttle, you can off Jerjerrod to get a fourth shot in. If they go after the shuttle, they now have to blast through essentially 8 hull, which ties them up for an extra turn or 2, allowing the rest of your list to do what it does. At 21 points on the Scimitar, I think it's cost effective as a shuttle and versatile enough to not be dead weight against any list.

Thoughts?

 

Won't work Jerjerrod doesn't remove the damage, it turns a face up(crit) face down without resolving its effect. It doesn't give the shuttle more health and won't do anything to vader's 2 damage. But I like the way your thinking, a hull upgrade can give it another shot.

[Raven19528 158]

Won't work Jerjerrod doesn't remove the damage, it turns a face up(crit) face down without resolving its effect. It doesn't give the shuttle more health and won't do anything to vader's 2 damage. But I like the way your thinking, a hull upgrade can give it another shot.

Ah, see this is why I need to sleep occasionally, like now.

Hull upgrade makes it 22 points on the Scimitar, which does make a nice 22 point target for the enemy. You just need something to strip shields first so you're putting the crits onto the hull with Vader.

EDIT: Otherwise, it's a free 22 points to the enemy. I like the idea of the mini doom shuttle. Too bad some cards are huge ship only. Vader with WED-15 Repair Droid would be lolz for days.

Edited July 7, 2016 by Raven19528

[Oberron 628]

 

Won't work Jerjerrod doesn't remove the damage, it turns a face up(crit) face down without resolving its effect. It doesn't give the shuttle more health and won't do anything to vader's 2 damage. But I like the way your thinking, a hull upgrade can give it another shot.

Ah, see this is why I need to sleep occasionally, like now.

Hull upgrade makes it 22 points on the Scimitar, which does make a nice 22 point target for the enemy. You just need something to strip shields first so you're putting the crits onto the hull with Vader.

 

Another reason to keep it on the cheap and low PS so it shoots last, i'll make a note of it in the list.

[costi 1,297]

A friend of mine runs Fleet Officer + Tactician with TIE MkII. Gives avay focus tokens to his buddies and can make life irritating for other ships.

[Oberron 628]

Updated!

 

Added: Kylo ren.

[Whippoorwills 83]

I think they talked about a similar list to this on S&V podcast, got the idea from them anyway. There's a lot of hull to go through. Block with some and shoot with the rest. Deals much stress though the damage output isn't very good.

 

Scimitar Squadron Pilot — TIE Bomber     16
Intelligence Agent     1
Tactician     2
TIE Shuttle     0
Ship Total: 19
     
Scimitar Squadron Pilot — TIE Bomber     16
Intelligence Agent     1
Tactician     2
TIE Shuttle     0
Ship Total: 19
     
Scimitar Squadron Pilot — TIE Bomber     16
Intelligence Agent     1
Tactician     2
TIE Shuttle     0
Ship Total: 19
     
Scimitar Squadron Pilot — TIE Bomber     16
Intelligence Agent     1
Tactician     2
TIE Shuttle     0
Ship Total: 19
     
Scimitar Squadron Pilot — TIE Bomber     16
Darth Vader     3
Agent Kallus     2
Hull Upgrade     3
TIE Shuttle     0
Ship Total: 24

[Smytus 24]

There is a 6pt "crew" with Jonus, he hets you ant EPT, +4PS and range 1 mates can reroll 2 attack dice on secondary weapons.

[Oberron 628]

Minor update. Decided to add possible future crew cards that haven't been entirely revealed yet and the sets they come from that people might have passed over.

[Oberron 628]

Update with new strats with major Rhymer with the new snap shot EPT + shuttle.

[Oberron 628]

Update added new crew card from upsilon shuttle preview.

[Raven19528 158]

So I put together some of the ideas on here, and while the squad below doesn't seem very competitive, it would be REALLY fun to play:

 

Major Rhymer — TIE Bomber 26

Snap Shot 2

Tactician 2

Systems Officer 2

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II 1

TIE Shuttle 0

Ship Total: 33

 

Captain Jonus — TIE Bomber 22

Wired 1

Darth Vader 3

Fleet Officer 3

Hull Upgrade 3

TIE Shuttle 0

Ship Total: 32

 

Tomax Bren — TIE Bomber 24

Crack Shot 1

Plasma Torpedoes 3

Extra Munitions 2

Cluster Missiles 4

Guidance Chips 0

Ship Total: 34

 

Yeah, Bren is loaded, and will likely be the first target. Which is why the other two would be a good way ahead of him. So they can try focusing on Bren, and they can eat Snap Shot Rhymer Tactician stress to the face and Jonus Vader damage, or they can go after one of those two, and eat munitions. Many many munitions. The officers allow for a lot of good action economy, though I think the operations specialist will replace the Fleet Officer when it becomes available. Only thing that would make it better is if there were a way to grant locks later in the phase, so Bren could crush the higher PS pilots.

 

Again, not competitive, but would be a great game to play, I think.

[Magnus Grendel 11,679]

New 4-point crew card - Hotshot Copilot - may be worth considering. Forcing an opponent to spend a focus whenever they attack or defend against you is a nasty little trick, especially if the rest of your squad is heavy on Juke and Sensor Jammers.

 

 

Ideally wants to be on a high-PS character - Bren? so you can clear off a focus before the rest of your squad fires. 

 

Veteran Instincts Bren with Hotshot Copilot essentially becomes an Imperial version of Wes Janson. Not that he can be annoying or anything....

Edited October 28, 2016 by Magnus Grendel

[Oberron 628]

Added Hotshot Co-pilot

[iamfanboy 1,302]

So for Epic games as a teammate for the Raider, this is the guy I'm hopefully testing this weekend:

 

29 Captain Jonus - Draw Their Fire, Tie/Shuttle, Systems Officer, Fleet Officer, TIE mk. II

 

The theory is simple. DTF lets him take a crit for the Raider - and Huge ship crits are nasty. Fleet and System Officers pass off more modification to the Raider, as does his ability. He is disposable, but for those first few turns he'll allow the Raider to output damage at ridonkulous levels, allowing all four shots to cause havoc. I'm not even sure that TIE mkII is necessary, with how the Raider's just going to be slowrollin' forward, taking shots with its Single Turbolasers and main battery...

[Magnus Grendel 11,679]

So for Epic games as a teammate for the Raider, this is the guy I'm hopefully testing this weekend:

 

29 Captain Jonus - Draw Their Fire, Tie/Shuttle, Systems Officer, Fleet Officer, TIE mk. II

 

The theory is simple. DTF lets him take a crit for the Raider - and Huge ship crits are nasty. Fleet and System Officers pass off more modification to the Raider, as does his ability. He is disposable, but for those first few turns he'll allow the Raider to output damage at ridonkulous levels, allowing all four shots to cause havoc. I'm not even sure that TIE mkII is necessary, with how the Raider's just going to be slowrollin' forward, taking shots with its Single Turbolasers and main battery...

 

I like it. 

The other option - if you want to be unpleasant - is Swarm Tactics. Because PS6 raider, shooting before the other guy's epic ships.

[snowydude 7]

somewhat recently i've been using a vader shuttle in a tie swarm list. and have been quite happy with a vader fleet officer combination.
it allowed you some flexibility to push damage on evasive low hull aces like soontir or fen rau and in games where you fight larger things like falcons you can just devote to the support game. nobody wants to trade a 40 point ace for a 20 point shuttle and its kind of hard to justify shooting at the shuttle when your getting swarmed by other tie's
 

at 23 points it leaves the possibility of running 2 expensive aces in the classic palp style or 3 moderates like omega leader, inquisitor and such.

List ive been playing for reference

"Zeta Leader" — TIE/fo Fighter 20

Adaptability 0

Ship Total: 20

 

"Howlrunner" — TIE Fighter 18

Swarm Tactics 2

Ship Total: 20

 

"Youngster" — TIE Fighter 15

Expose 4

Ship Total: 19

 

"Scourge" — TIE Fighter 17

Adaptability 0

Ship Total: 17

 

Scimitar Squadron Pilot — TIE Bomber 16

Darth Vader 3

Fleet Officer 3

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II 1

TIE Shuttle 0

Ship Total: 23

[ficklegreendice 34,362]

soon, kylo ren (crew)

[McFoy 672]

So for Epic games as a teammate for the Raider, this is the guy I'm hopefully testing this weekend:

 

29 Captain Jonus - Draw Their Fire, Tie/Shuttle, Systems Officer, Fleet Officer, TIE mk. II

 

The theory is simple. DTF lets him take a crit for the Raider - and Huge ship crits are nasty. Fleet and System Officers pass off more modification to the Raider, as does his ability. He is disposable, but for those first few turns he'll allow the Raider to output damage at ridonkulous levels, allowing all four shots to cause havoc. I'm not even sure that TIE mkII is necessary, with how the Raider's just going to be slowrollin' forward, taking shots with its Single Turbolasers and main battery...

You could definitely give the raider a target lock but it can't use the focus at all.

[Oberron 628]

soon, kylo ren (crew)

I've been messing around with the Kylo Ren crew with rebel captive, it is silly good with tie adv vader. It really does work

Edited November 4, 2016 by Oberron

[ficklegreendice 34,362]

 

soon, kylo ren (crew)

I've been messing around with the Kylo Ren crew with rebel captive, it is silly good with tie adv vader. It really does work

 

 

"does work" as in at all or "does work" as in "does a lot of stuff"

 

 

but yeah, Kylo is an exciting upgrade. Completely neutering anyone thinking of running those exasperating 2-ship builds (esp with the Hotr falcon) is something I cant look forward to enough