Forgotten ships- Lambda shuttle

Welcome to a series I am going to start called “Forgotten heroes” it could be a specific ship, pilot, or an upgrade card. I would love to hear from you guys on this topic, be it ships or upgrades you want me to test or swear by on the ship I am reviewing. If I have not used them (Be it the ship, pilot or upgrade card), I promise I will be straight on TTS testing them out to write up about it. Now, I thought I would start with a ship I have actually found relative success with in a list. The humble Lambda shuttle.

 

The humble boat of a ship: The LAMBDA

Ah yes, the tri-fold wing design infamous with the raid on Endor to destroy the shield generator. The wings give a beautiful elegance to the craft. Doing research for this, I actually stumbled upon the fact that this craft actually had about 3 different designs in the film, each slightly different from the other. It made me chuckle, realising that we, as a fan group, had worked that out, through looking at schematics. I read an intern did all the calculations for the scaling up and down of models, hence the discrepancy. The model used for the space scenes had a sleeker nose than the set Lambda, seen in the landing pad. The wings on the set was also smaller than the space model.

 

Now, in X-wing the lambda is a three front arc and two rear arc ship with one agility; with six hull and four shields, the ship has the hull to make up for the one green dice it rolls. The lambda has slots for two crew, a sensor, cannon armament, modification and a title. The only title that it can take is ST-321 which states “After you perform a co-ordinate action, you may choose an enemy ship at range 0–3 of the ship you coordinated. If you do, acquire a lock on that enemy ship, ignoring range restrictions.” This is the only title that the ship can take. Which really works well with Captain Sai because you really only ever want to co-ordinate him.

 

My favourite pilot of the Lambda

Now, the lambda has four pilots: three unique and a generic. The highest initiative pilot is Captain Kagi, coming in at initiative four and forty-eight points. While we are unsure on the looks or age of Kagi, their pilot ability is as follows, “At the start of the Engagement Phase, you may choose 1 or more friendly ships at range 0–3. If you do, transfer all enemy lock tokens from the chosen ships to you”. This is pretty simple to understand, if a friendly ship as been target locked, you can take all those locks off the ship and put them on to you. Now, having never used Kagi, I cannot state how useful that would be, however I have feeling that this could be a lifesaver if a focused, target locking Vader at range one is about to tear into a ship, I’m sure you’d love every single point you spent on him. Next on the list for initiative is colonel Jendon who is initiative three and comes in at forty-eight points. His ability is this, “At the start of the Activation Phase, you may spend 1 energy. If you do, while friendly ships acquire locks this round, they must acquire locks beyond range 3 instead of at range 0-3.” So first turn, you pop that and get target locks outside of range three. However, this will very quickly however alert your opponent to your target intentions and what you want to do, so you may want to use it as a misdirect, then just before you engage, spend the next charge to reveal your new target, just before you move in and swoop for the kill. The last unique pilot is Lieutenant Sai (I spend far too much time around Americans, so I started an argument on how to pronounce Lieutenant). He sits at initiative three and forty-seven points, his ability is as follows, “After you a perform a co-ordinate action, if the ship you chose performed an action on your action bar, you may perform that action.” This can be used in fun ways, if a ship bumps and works perfectly with ST-321 as you will be looking to co-ordinate every single turn, as it could save a ship or give a ship the target lock and focus it needs. Last and certainly least important (Sorry dude) is the Omicron Group Pilot at initiative one and forty-three points. This is your standard pilot that honestly, will never truly see the light of day when you fly the lambda.

Look at that awful dial

What I want to go over here is the dial of the Lambda. This ship is the definition of a flying boat. With limited movement the main drawback of the Lambda lies- the dial. As the picture above shows, you want to hard turn? Well you can only do a two hard turn and it’s red… Good luck! So, if somethings on your tail? I would try and swing a ship around to get it off, as the lambda will not lose it. Which is quite awful, however the rear two dice arc can help be a deterrent but becomes better if the enemy ship is range one (Most arc’s work better that way).

 

Now the lambda is a brilliant support ship that can help bolster other ships, whether that be by giving them two mods through a co-ordinate actions, taking away target locks from a more valuable target or target locks outside of range 3, giving you in a joust a double mod on attacks or the ability to fire torpedoes with focuses. This leads to many possibilities. So, I thought I would show you my favourite list with a lambda and build some lists using the other pilots (including the omicron pilot).

 

So, I’ll show you my favourite imperial list- Vader, Sai and three Academy pilots!

 

Lambda, vader 3x AP

 

(47) Lieutenant Sai [Lambda-class T-4a Shuttle]

(8) Perceptive Copilot

(5) 0-0-0

Points: 60

 

(67) Darth Vader [TIE Advanced x1]

(5) Cluster Missiles

(2) Fire-Control System

Points: 74

 

(22) Academy Pilot [TIE/ln Fighter]

Points: 22

 

(22) Academy Pilot [TIE/ln Fighter]

Points: 22

 

(22) Academy Pilot [TIE/ln Fighter]

Points: 22

 

Total points: 200

 

This is my favourite list with a lambda in it, with the plan being that Vader and Sai help the TIE’s, when they stop the key flyers of the list from getting actions. It’s quite fun watching Fenn getting zero actions and then getting blasted by the lambda to kill him! Also, this was local league build, so the clusters are there for some fun and they have actually killed things, which means they work.

 

Captain Kagi (48)   

    Collision Detector (6)   

   

Ship total: 54

   

Darth Vader (67)   

    Hate (3)   

    Fire-Control System (2)   

    Proton Rockets (7)   

    Afterburners(6)   

   

Ship total: 85

   

Maarek Stele (45)   

    Marksmanship (1)   

    Fire-Control System (2)   

    Shield Upgrade (8)   

   

Ship total: 54

Total: 197   

Now, here is an attempt at a Kagi list. The plan is, that Kagi stops all target locks to keep Vader and Maarek stay alive longer. Honestly, I haven’t flown this list, but Vader is always fun and Maarek can be a pain. Now, for my Colonol Jendon list.

 

Lieutenant Sai (47)   

    Collision Detector (6)   

    0-0-0 (5)   

    Darth Vader (14)   

   

Ship total: 72

   

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (27)   

    Proton Torpedoes (13)   

    Munitions Failsafe (1)   

   

Ship total: 41

   

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (27)   

    Proton Torpedoes (13)   

    Munitions Failsafe (1)   

   

Ship total: 41

   

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (27)   

    Proton Torpedoes (13)   

    Munitions Failsafe (1)   

   

Ship total: 41

Total: 195

This list works with the fact you can target lock just outside of range three, then pop it gain the locks and then go into the round at about range 3 and have a double mod on your proton torpedo attack. This could be fun at jousting, as you just hit one target with three proton torpedoes (Say goodbye to your prize ship if that happens).

 

Now my last list is dead simple, it is four of the Omicron pilot. Yes, I have been assured that the list would never work. But, just imagine four lambdas with collision detectors so you can just rock hop and then just be annoying with four large base ships. It sounds like hell to fly and fight, with that amount of 3 front attacks, but could easily be flown around.

 

So, now I’m coming to the end of my ramble. So, I’ll keep it shortish and sweet. The lambda is never going to be your damage dealer; instead it is your ship that can help bolster or completely take away a target lock induced attack coming your way on your main dame dealer who could just pop. I think that the lambda is underplayed because your opponent always knows where your going (That blasted Dial!) and the one agility means if you get focused you easily die. I think however the Lambda has its uses; you just need to fly it. The best way is with some things more agile, so you can easily save it. But, from that is all! Thanks for reading, have a great day. And Remember: The best green dice, are the ones you never roll!