Ok

Imagine a combat focused party that does the tough dirty jobs: mercenaries/bounty hunters/smugglers or transporting valuable cargo (persons or things) that will make the party a target

What official ship would you recommend... I'm thinking either the YT-2400 (core book) or the HWK-290 (Far Horizons)

The HWK-290

is

silhouette 3

speed 4

maneuverability +1

shields (1 - - 1)

HT 18 ST 18

armor 2

no weapons but 5 HP

75 enc

Hyperdrive 2 (no back up)

th 5 HP would be spent on: high output ion turbine, hyperdrive generator, 3 medium laser canons linked on a turret

I think the 5 speed, +1 maneuverability HT 18, ST 17 and 75 enc are pretty impressive

do you have other suggestions?

I've discounted the firespray because of too small enc

Is this a starting group? Or do you guys have the creds to buy stuff?? If you have the credits, then what you have for the HWK is good save 1 change...Get Hyperdrive, Engine & Shields then get guns...Shields will save your @$$ and you could get them to 2/3 or 3/2 after modifications. Also get Quads instead of Med Lasers...That way more dmg long term.

If you wanna go YT-2400/1300 use the same mods, but you can lose the Hyperdrive since in the game it is not totally necessary unless you have an anal GM then you can outfit with a good balance.

Our ship...

YT-1300 "Midnight Saber"

2 - Shields (Fully Mod. 2 Fore / 3 Aft)

1 - Engines

1 - Adv. Targ. Array

1 - Hyperdrive or Missiles Note sure yet

Quad Laser Turret (Replace the cannon it comes with)

With my PCs ability to Imprv. Full Throttle it can get to SPD 5 & hold it for 3 rds. Next lv up will get Supreme. F.T.& bump SPD up to 6

Is this a starting group? Or do you guys have the creds to buy stuff?? If you have the credits, then what you have for the HWK is good save 1 change...Get Hyperdrive, Engine & Shields then get guns...Shields will save your @$$ and you could get them to 2/3 or 3/2 after modifications. Also get Quads instead of Med Lasers...That way more dmg long term.

If you wanna go YT-2400/1300 use the same mods, but you can lose the Hyperdrive since in the game it is not totally necessary unless you have an anal GM then you can outfit with a good balance.

Quads are silhouette 4 and higher, HWK-290 is a silhouette 3

YT-2400 with smuggling compartments, upgraded hyperdrive and ion turbine and shields. Worked very well.

I thought Sil 3 ships were Starfighters, not freighters.

I thought Sil 3 ships were Starfighters, not freighters.

They're a freighter the size of a starfighter. And by "freighter" I mean only that they can carry more passengers or cargo than crew.

Think of the HWK like one of those dinky little planes used for sightseeing flights. Just big enough to carry passengers and what you could charitably call cargo, but not many, much, or for long.

Imagine a combat focused party that does the tough dirty jobs: mercenaries/bounty hunters/smugglers or transporting valuable cargo (persons or things) that will make the party a target

What official ship would you recommend... I'm thinking either the YT-2400 (core book) or the HWK-290 (Far Horizons)

There are a lot of good ships. I guess the first factor is how much money can be spent? The page at http://swrpg.viluppo.net/transportation/starships/?order_by=-equipment__price&flattened=true which is sorted by price is a pretty good first approximation of how powerful the ships are, from most to least. You could also look at that list sorted by the number of weapons they have by default, (see http://swrpg.viluppo.net/transportation/starships/?order_by=-weapon_count&flattened=true )

Is the GM okay with the party having a Sil 5 ship? How much extra crew is the GM willing to allow? The DP-20 Gunship is pretty **** nasty, and actually slightly less expensive than a Consular Class Light Cruiser. But the Consular could relatively easily be manned by the PCs plus a small number of droids, while the DP-20 would need more than just a small number of droids. And both of those are more expensive than a Rendili Stardrive Neutron Star-Class Bulk Cruiser, but do you really want them to have a Sil 7 Capital Ship?

If the party will top out at Sil 5, then the Lancer-class Frigate is **** powerful, but it’s pretty slow. It also has higher crew requirements. The CR-90 Corvette is a favorite, if only because of the first scene in Episode IV "A New Hope". Likewise, other Corvettes, Frigates, or Light Cruisers could be considered. But these are pretty much all heavily militarized ships, and are likely to have high crew requirements. Myself, I would think that a ship with around 10-12 crew would be the maximum I would be likely to let the party have, in which case the Gozanti-Class Armed Transport looks nice, if a bit slow.

You also want to look at the combined amount of default weapons installed plus the default amount of available Hard Points. More Hard Points means more capability to customize the ship as desired, but more default weapons means that it would be better "out of the box" before any customization is done.

If the players are restricted to a ship that is not large enough to reasonably mount a Turbolaser, then they’re stuck at Sil 4 or smaller. Yes, they could use the external mount option from DC, but that would be pretty **** obvious and would put a huge target on their backs. In the Sil 4 range, the GAT-12H Skipray Blastboat and the Incom A-36 Pathfinder-Class Force Reconnaissance Vessel are a bit faster at Spd 4, but at Spd 3 the 4R3 Light Assault Transport has 5 weapons by default and 4 available HPs, which is a little better than the YV-929 Light Freighter which has six weapons by default but only one available HP.

Overall, I think maybe I like the ILH-KK Citadel-Class Light Freighter best — it has a pretty good combination of all of the above factors. Not as fast as the Blastboat, but well armed and 4 available HPs, small crew requirements, decent cargo space, and decent passenger capacity.

Of course, the creators of the game have clearly tilted the tables in favor of the YT-1300 and its close relative the YT-2400. They’re quite good for the money they cost, but to me they seem a bit bland and the obvious choice, and I personally like to be a bit more individualistic.

So, I think it really comes down to how the party works and how they would be likely to use the ship. Some of the examples above are obviously much more militaristic, and if they would definitely attract a close inspection in more civilized systems. Some of the examples are more likely to be seen in an Imperial setting, while others are more likely in a Rebellion environment — that might be important if they’re trying to blend into the background and not attract too much attention.

The HWK-290 is great as a large fighter/small freighter carrying highly specialized cargoes, but it may or may not be a good fit for the party. Likewise with every single other example above — you need to know how they work and how the ship is likely to be used.

The only thing I would hope is that the GM doesn’t intentionally shackle the party with some particular ship just because the GM thinks it’s "AWESOME", but the rest of the party hates it with a passion.

[ Edit: for clarity ]

Oh, and what about a used ship? There have been some interesting rules being discussed on this forum recently regarding used ships and their potential quirks that could accompany their reduced cost.

I'd like to see official stats for the yt-2000... I think it has a shot at speed 4... in Saga that was a ship I would have chosen... one thing I liked about far horizons was the large number of speed 4 ships I think there was 3 or maybe 4 of them. Yt-2400 is pretty impressive and if it had speed 4 as a starting point (upgradable to speed 5) then I don't think there would be much of a discussion about the best ship. It looks like I'm going to be the GM and I always ask my players what they want out of the game (where they want to go, what they want to do with their characters) but the idea I have so far is mercenaries/bounty hunters/smugglers. .. a little bit firefly but in a ship with guns

I was thinking about normal character creation then, here's 50 xp, and you each pick a second spec for free (or 10 Xp if it's outside your career, and you each get 3000 (instead of 500) credits of gear (can't keep more than 200 credits as cash (use it or lose it) and a ship that is fairly appropriate to the type of jobs they take. .. at the moment I'm expecting 3 players (but some could back out or bring friends)

I've always been a fan of the YT-2400, and the HWK is lacking in cargo space.

That's just for considering smugglers, though. For mercenaries or bounty hunters, I'd go with the HWK.

I'd take the ILH-KK Citadel any day of the week. A bit expansive but worth every credit.

My group is puttering around in a highly tricked-out Ghtroc 720, and it's working great for them. Lots of hull trauma and a high armour rating is a definite plus. So far it has Speed upgraded to 4, a 0.5 hyperdrive, an extra quad laser in a turret and some smuggling compartments.

In my last group we started out with a Wayfarer that we tricked out with some new turrets, sheilds, and target array. That lasted us a good 3/4 of the span of out campaign, then we got our hands on a citadel. We decked that out with the countermeasure suite, target array, and smuggling compartments.

Our favorite ship, the Viridian Viper, was a Ghtroc 720 with High-Output upon Turbine, Hyperdrive Generator, forward-mounted Concussion Missile Launchers (Linked 1), and forward-mounted Heavy Laser Cannons (Linked 1). The forward-mounted weapons are operated by the pilot while the turret is operated by the copilot. We wanted a ship that can be entirely operated from the cockpit by a crew of two. This gives us that while still carrying a lot of cargo (for a light freighter) and ten passengers.

you could use the ht-2200 im not sure its stats in FR but it might a nice starter two med light laser cannons and pretty decent cargo capacity from what wookiepedia says and had speed of 750 km/h nog sure how convert that fkr the game though

It really depends on what you want to do more then which ship is "better."

A YT series can be loaded out to do almost anything well, but rarely as good as a purpose built craft. An armed HWK-290 is practically a heavy fighter. A Wayfarer with port mounted a Heavy repeating blaster, autoblaster, and heavy turbolaser can go AC-130 and obliterate ground targets, but might have trouble when fighters show up...

So what do you want to do?

Wayfarer with the Hanger Bay attachment.

There is no "best" ship. It's all dependent on the group and what they want/need.

If I were a bounty hunter and I expected to be trying to intercept my acquisition in transit, I'd want something fast, with one or more of the following to disable their ship:

• ion cannons
• powerful guns with low crit
• tractor beams

I'd also want a boarding tube (Dangerous Covenants).

Mercs and smugglers may want different things. Mercs are probably going to want an all-around powerful ship if they expect ship-based combat; a smuggler is likely to prioritize something fast, with a good hyperdrive rating, decent cargo space and enough defenses to hold up while they run.

Oh, and what about a used ship? There have been some interesting rules being discussed on this forum recently regarding used ships and their potential quirks that could accompany their reduced cost.

I had read that post earlier but didn't follow it do you happen to recall which one it was?

I had read that post earlier but didn't follow it do you happen to recall which one it was?

I think it was the thread titled "Second-Hand Ship Rules" at http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/112787-second-hand-ship-rules/#entry1189409 .