so basically its a "Space cow" that can turn slightly better?? does look cool though.
Made by the same company, the gunboat shared many superficial similarities. Folding wings, the cockpit, ECT. In the games it had two ion canons, two lasers, and a warhead launcher. For Xwing it'd be kinda like a mix between the bomber and the shuttle. 18-25 points, 2/2/3/3 stats, upgrades in a canon, bomb, torpedo, and torpedo.
It was the Imperial's first hyperspace-capable starfighter, and the first that used shields - essentially the first that could perform deep space escort, assault or patrol missions without the support of a captial ship or carrier. Almost all the Rebel starfighters were hyperspace capable up to that point, so the issue of the Assault Gunboat allowed the Imperials greater options when it came to combating Rebel hit-and-run tactics.
It was similarly sized to an X-Wing - and similar in role - single pilot, 10 metres long, 15 metres wide, with two laser cannons, two ion cannons and concussion missile launchers.
It first appeared in the original X-Wing PC game I believe, and all it's sequels.
You can see the bad boy in this little video at the 3:10 mark (along with a hell of a lot of other Star Wars EU ships):
Well, not exactly the first Imprial starfighter with hyperdrive and shields. Maybe the first to be deigned under the Empire but there were a few starfighters flown by the Empir as legacy ships from the clone wars including:
Y-wing BTL-B (hyperdrive and shields)
Z-95 head hunters (clone variant) (shields, possible hyperdrive or ring)
ARC-170 (both)
Don't know about the V-wing having shields but it did have hyperdrive rings and some models had their own hypedrives (they escorted the Emperor's shuttle)
Delta-7 and eta-2 had no shields but did have access to hyperdrive rings.
The V-19 had shields and also relied on rings, but was on its way to being replaced alread by the end of the CW.
I guess the XG-1 is supposed to predate the TIE Advanced, but as we see in rebels the V1 and X1 models were around 5 and 4 yeas before Yavin, respectively. That makes a very early date for the Gunboat compared to what we see in the games.