The Big Guy: Unboxing the Lambda Shuttle Expansion for X-Wing

It’s been nearly 3 waves into Fantasy Flight’s X-Wing Miniatures Game expansion and with the exception of the Slave 1 (Firespray Class); the Imperials haven’t been given much of a heavy hitter or support to compliment our TIEs. Thankfully, that all changed with the announcement of the Lambda shuttle expansion pack and from what I can see, it’s been worth the wait.

1. Contents, Cards and Careful Examination

The very first thing I noticed upon opening the box, was just how big this thing is - compared to the rest of the ships in the fleet, the Lambda shuttle dwarfs even the B-Wing in size. Not only was I impressed by the scale, but the paint on the shuttle is impressive as well, nice detailing and sculpts.

The only gripe I have is minor; as the wings on the shuttle I own are somewhat fragile, preventing me from folding them all the way down.

In the game, the Lambda shuttle is a flying tank with 5 shield tokens, 5 hull value, 3 attack value, and only 1 agility. The usual assortment of tokens are included; 1 focus, 2 target-lock (M/N), 3(!) stress tokens, 5 shield tokens, the maneuver dial and the pilot tiles for the base.

The Lambda shuttle comes with four pilots; Captain Kagi, Colonel Jendon and Captain Yorr, along with the Omnicron Group Pilot acting as this set’s “rookie.”

One aspect, where this ship shines the brightest, is in its high-customization potential. It plays heavily to this strength heavily with its arsenal of 12 upgrade cards.

2. The Pilots

The most important part of any ship is its pilot, and the Lambda includes 4 of them, all with different support abilities that all make important contributions to fielding a strong squadron.

• Captain Kagi is first, with a Pilot Skill Value of 8 and the ability to force enemy ships to lock onto him, rather than the smaller and less durable TIE Fighters. This ability is my personal favorite of the bunch, as it allows the much sturdier shuttle to take the brunt of any missile attacks that would otherwise shred through your TIEs.

• Colonel Jendon is next, with a Pilot Skill of 6 and the ability to pass his blue target-lock tokens to friendly ships, including ships that don’t have a target lock action in their action bar. Any squad fielding a TIE Advanced or the upcoming TIE Defender would make great use of this ability to acquire target-lock tokens and punish the opposing fleet with their missiles. If combined with the ST-321 title card, as seen above, this ability has the potential to be near game-breaking, as it allows you to gain a lock on any ship, anywhere on the board, no matter your position or theirs.

• Captain Yorr, no slouch himself, has a Pilot Value of 4 and the ability to take a stress token from a nearby friendly ship (range 1-2), as long as he has less than 2 stress tokens himself. Yorr’s ability looks like a game-changer for any Imperial player who fancies himself a daredevil, but is held back by those pesky stress tokens.

• The last pilot is the non-unique Omicron Group Pilot with no special ability and a Pilot Skill of 2. There is not much to say about him, other than his (not much) smaller squad point value.

 3. Final Thoughts

Having purchased this ship on a whim, I was pleasantly surprised by its versatility and plethora of options to slot into any number of Imperial fleets. From damage tanking for your smaller ships to chewing its way through enemy ships like a buzz saw, the Lambda makes its presence known when it shows up on the board.