Firstly a forward: X-wing largely pays homage to the x-wing and TIE fighter videogames, as well as the OT Movies. Ships such as the TIE Defender and the TIE Phantom had their initial appearances in the video games (TIE Fighter and Rebel Assault 2 respectively). The Defender went on to make appearances in Games Star Wars Rebellion (Supremacy in the UK) and both the Defender and Phantom made appearances in Empire at war.

One ship that made it's first appearance in X-wing, and then TIE Fighter was the Starwing Assault gunboat. Basically a versatile hyperspace able Imperial ship. This is great! A Ship that moves a little away from the carrier dependent TIE Corps.

The Stats I would propose are as such:

Firepower 2: 2 Laser cannons.

Agility 2 (possibly 1). The Gunboat is more agile than a B or Y wing, yet a little less so than an X-wing. It is however a larger target than the X.

Shields 4: Slightly less shielded than a B.

Hull 3 (possibly 4). The gunboat was a flying tank.

The ship would be capable of Target lock and Focus. I can't justify Barrel roll or Evade. It did not have a cloaking device.

As for the Dial, something that looks like the Y and B-wing is really what's wanted. It's not as fast as an X, faster than a Y.

It would have to have a cannon upgrade, and additionally 2 missile slots, or one missile 1 torpedo. The Gunboat was more often armed with concussion missiles as the standard weapon. in games later than X-wing the ship was used for more of a bomber role escorted by TIE Advanced, but in X-wing it was largely a missile platform.

I would also give this ship a system upgrade.

For Fluff reasons this ship would make an amazing addon to the range, allowing imperial's to field tough long range Recon ships independent of any carrier support. The Gunboat is capable of long range patrol and Recon as well as able of getting into the thick of it.

For Game reasons, it's a tough heavy missile platform capable of toting a cannon, mixing an average agility of 2 (possibly) while maintaining high hitpoints.

Who knows. Maybe it could come with advanced concussion missile cards...

Nice stats.

You forgot the beam weapon.

As a pre Yavin hyperspace equiped ship I hope it makes it into the game.

Nice stats.

You forgot the beam weapon.

System upgrade.

I start with "Yes" and close with "Gimmee". Love the gunboat, and it would add some good options to the Imperials

Looks like a good working of gunboat stats to me. My only reservation with the gunboat is that it is built like a rebel ship. Rugged, with shields and a decent dial. So it encroaches on what is traditionally Rebel ship design space in the game.

That said, I think that FFG is moving away from defining the factions mainly by statlines and dials, and focusing more on abilities to distinguish the factions. So I think it's possible that we may see something like this. The only other factor working against the gunboat is the vast variety of TIE-like designs they could also draw on to expand the range.

For increasing the design space I would make the cannon slot an Assault Gunboat only title or modification. That way HLC is not auto include on a 2 attack ship.

While I think your proposed stats are appropriate...

I DO NOT want to see a Starwing in this game. While I liked TIE Fighter more than its predecessor X-Wing, I always felt the Star Wing was a cop out by the game designers and that the game would have been better without it. The Starwing doesn't feel like an Imperial ship and never did; not 20 years ago and certainly not now.

While I think your proposed stats are appropriate...

I DO NOT want to see a Starwing in this game. While I liked TIE Fighter more than its predecessor X-Wing, I always felt the Star Wing was a cop out by the game designers and that the game would have been better without it. The Starwing doesn't feel like an Imperial ship and never did; not 20 years ago and certainly not now.

That's a fair comment that I can understand, but I cannot agree with,

While I think your proposed stats are appropriate...

I DO NOT want to see a Starwing in this game. While I liked TIE Fighter more than its predecessor X-Wing, I always felt the Star Wing was a cop out by the game designers and that the game would have been better without it. The Starwing doesn't feel like an Imperial ship and never did; not 20 years ago and certainly not now.

That's a fair comment that I can understand, but I cannot agree with,

It should be pointed out that the gunboat was made by the same company that made the Lambda shuttle, and we all consider that an iconic imperial ship. The gunboat obviously has a lot of the same design elements.

Assault Gunboat seemed imperial enough to me...

It's like a mini shuttle, same designer too as mentioned..

2 dice attack but ion cannon slot, few missile and torp slots.

Prob 1 agility... It was a SLOW ship. In Tie fighter if you just put lasers at increased rate of charge, it's speed was like 76... Slower than an xwing slightly.

I would go 3 / 2 / 4 / 2

Upgrades: Missile, System, cannon

Dial:

1 Turn (red), 1 bank (white), 1 straight (white)

2 Turn (white), 2 bank (green), 2 straight (green)

3 Turn (red), 3 bank (white), 3 straight (green)

4 straight (white), 4 K-Turn (red)

5 straight (red)

Base model (for PS1) starting at 22 pts.

This makes it slightly more durable, but slightly less manouverable than the X-wing for a comparable cost.

One of their main distinctions was that they had ion cannons. Disabling ships was one of their primary mission profiles. They need a cannon slot.

One of their main distinctions was that they had ion cannons. Disabling ships was one of their primary mission profiles. They need a cannon slot.

good point. Fixed.

While I think your proposed stats are appropriate...

I DO NOT want to see a Starwing in this game. While I liked TIE Fighter more than its predecessor X-Wing, I always felt the Star Wing was a cop out by the game designers and that the game would have been better without it. The Starwing doesn't feel like an Imperial ship and never did; not 20 years ago and certainly not now.

That's a fair comment that I can understand, but I cannot agree with,

It should be pointed out that the gunboat was made by the same company that made the Lambda shuttle, and we all consider that an iconic imperial ship. The gunboat obviously has a lot of the same design elements.

Exactly. It's a smaller, combat version of the Lambda.

I quite like it. Certainly, a lambda with a flight of gunboats as escorts works well narratively - after all, normal TIEs can't fly escort via hyperspace.

Making it a 4 shields/4 hull gives it the heavy fighter durability of the rebel heavies but in a (currently) unique ratio - more importantly, it feels like a scaled down version of the 5/5 lambda. Which is good.

Agility.....Having agility 2 on a heavy fighter would make it much, much better than a B-wing or Y-wing. That said, as long as it's priced right, and it's got much lower primary firepower, I can't say I mind.

Firepower 2 is fine, but, as noted, that just makes a cannon an automatic choice, which voids the point of having lower primary firepower. As suggested, having a 'cannon mount' modification or title might be a way to do this - cannons are priced based on replacing a 3-dice attack, so you should have a surcharge (as I believe the Scyk does) if you swap out a 2 point on for it.

Target lock and focus seems right, and systems upgrade gives it the lambda-esque upgrade bar.

2 Missiles are okay. Concussion missiles are very strongly associated with the gunboat.

Advanced concussion missiles would be nice. I'm not sure what I'd do with them; I've seen several 'reduce defence dice' ideas, but that seems to intrude on homing missiles too much. I'm half tempted to suggest missiles which place a token down on the target if their attack misses (allowing them to 'come round again for another go').

You'd need to figure out the wording for how they'd interact with things like munitions failsafes and ruthlessness.

Good to see hope for this ship raising it's head again.

Your stats look similar to the ones I came up with, and for the same reasons:

Firepower 2 is fine, but, as noted, that just makes a cannon an automatic choice, which voids the point of having lower primary firepower. As suggested, having a 'cannon mount' modification or title might be a way to do this - cannons are priced based on replacing a 3-dice attack, so you should have a surcharge (as I believe the Scyk does) if you swap out a 2 point on for it.

This is the same issue I was having. I struggled to justify including the Cannon Upgrade, as there's no justifiying a HLC on a Gunboat. However they NEED that Ion Cannon.

Maybe a modification or title card unique to the gunboat, which allows them to use equip an Ion Cannon without having the Cannon Slot?

I got an idea. Screw the cannon slot. Give it a turret slot, and make it do the same thing as the BTL4A.

Also - **** is my setup similar to Gecko's. Same reasoning I guess.

What if the Gunboat had special ordnance considerations. It could only carry missiles, No torp or ordnance. either 2 or 4 slots, but you buy one get one free on missiles(concussion).

I would stand behind a gunboat,

I've always loved the Gunboat's design. Heck, I bought a 1:48 scale model of it once and put lights in it (still need to finish that one).

I would play the heck out of it, and I've been praying since Wave 3 for a Gunboat/Missile Boat wave.

This is what I came up with. Notice the Beam Weapon Upgrade slot.

I would stand behind a gunboat,

You certainly wouldn't want to stand in front of one.

What about a standard -1 /-2 points to any missile weapon for gunboats? Protons and CMs i can see being really good and stacking but still having a limit.

Of course bombers & B-wings should have this for torpedoes....

I think to make ordnance more viable on the Assault Gunboat and also the Tie Bomber they should introduce a 0 cost modification card that reduces the cost of ordnance by 1 or 2.

This is what I came up with. Notice the Beam Weapon Upgrade slot.

I think the card is dead-on for stats.

I WOULD give it at least 1 missile slot however. Or two.