First few thoughts.

It's a spaceship. The ball turret's weight is meaningless. In and out of gravity, it isn't using aerodynamics to fly. Much like a tie fighter. Not to mention metamerials and a lack of need for weighty ammunition or a gunner to man it.

Ugly is awesome. You want to talk ugly, lets look at the half eaten cheeseburger. The Millenium Falcon is ugly as sin. And that is its charm. It's a pirate ship designed to be heavily modifyable.

Why wouldn't the rebels try out a bomber with the same concept after seeing just how awesome the Falcon managed to be.

It's the same core concept minus the freighter. It's not sleek. It's not pretty. It's not cheap. But it can be made right for any number of scenarios and it does its job well.

I remember playing Empire Strikes Back for the NES. In the Battle of Hoth mission, the AT-ATs went and included a tail gun becuase weapon coverage was so bad (I think they based it on an Atari game that had the same issue).

"Tail gun" is waaaaay too literal on an ATAT.

"Tail gun" is waaaaay too literal on an ATAT.

...that's no tail...

First few thoughts.

It's a spaceship. The ball turret's weight is meaningless. In and out of gravity, it isn't using aerodynamics to fly. Much like a tie fighter. Not to mention metamerials and a lack of need for weighty ammunition or a gunner to man it.

Ugly is awesome. You want to talk ugly, lets look at the half eaten cheeseburger. The Millenium Falcon is ugly as sin. And that is its charm. It's a pirate ship designed to be heavily modifyable.

Why wouldn't the rebels try out a bomber with the same concept after seeing just how awesome the Falcon managed to be.

It's the same core concept minus the freighter. It's not sleek. It's not pretty. It's not cheap. But it can be made right for any number of scenarios and it does its job well.

The other thing that bugs me about the K-Wing is its in-universe history. This isn't a ship cobbled together by the resource-depleted rebels in a panic. This is a model produced by the de facto galactic rulers, the New Republic. Their resources may not be infinite but they are certainly better than the old rag-tag rebels days. Even the A-10 (our favorite real world comparison for the K-Wing it seems) was cobbled together to deal with the perceived threat of Soviet tanks. In some ways the USA were the underdogs when they built it. But the K-Wing fills more the role of the F-15 or even a B-52 (heavy strategic or tactical platforms). Those are purposeful designs that have an astetic informed by their function. The K-Wing doesn't and just seems out of place in-universe.

That being said, I will buy at least one.

First few thoughts.

It's a spaceship. The ball turret's weight is meaningless. In and out of gravity, it isn't using aerodynamics to fly. Much like a tie fighter. Not to mention metamerials and a lack of need for weighty ammunition or a gunner to man it.

Ugly is awesome. You want to talk ugly, lets look at the half eaten cheeseburger. The Millenium Falcon is ugly as sin. And that is its charm. It's a pirate ship designed to be heavily modifyable.

Why wouldn't the rebels try out a bomber with the same concept after seeing just how awesome the Falcon managed to be.

It's the same core concept minus the freighter. It's not sleek. It's not pretty. It's not cheap. But it can be made right for any number of scenarios and it does its job well.

How about butt gun then?

Tie oppressor has one?

Okay a change of direction. With another turret for the Rebels, that many hard points and weapons, what are the chances it will break something else in the game or push another ship so far down the list that it too will eventually need a buff just to see play?

Mass still matters in space, mostly for changing directions.

Indeed.

Serviceman Burnside: Sir! An object in motion stays in motion, sir!

Gunnery Chief: No credit for partial answers, maggot!

Serviceman Burnside: Sir! Unless acted on by an outside force, sir!

Okay a change of direction. With another turret for the Rebels, that many hard points and weapons, what are the chances it will break something else in the game or push another ship so far down the list that it too will eventually need a buff just to see play?

Well, with it's two-attack primary weapon, I don't think its 360 degree firing arc is going to be a problem competitively. I fully expect that its primary turret weapon was designed to supplement its Ordnance-based attacks, rather than be the main method it deals damage.

A good way to see how little of an impact a 2-attack turret can have on the meta, consider how many YT-2400s you see without the outrider title. Not many, and none that I know of are considered overpowered.

I think the K-wing's turret primary is just going to be a way it can ping back at enemies that get out of its front arc. It'll probably have a lumbering beast-style dial, so that's probably going to be very important for it.

Besides, who knows what "real reasons" there may be behind the design of the K-Wing? Like the F-82, the K-Wing might very well represent an attempt to use "off the shelf" components in order to fill a particular mission. The escape pod front end, the second canopy for the bombardier, the "bolted on" look of the turret, any of these could be a result of nothing more than simple expediency rather than an attempt to make something beautiful. Grab the command section from this ship (planetary lander perhaps), use off the shelf engines to save design costs, it needs a gun so we can add one here but most of its components will need to be external because there is no room inside the command section, have the engineers put together a frame that allows us to attach the engines to the command section and finally add some additional "wings" from one of our gunships that are already designed for hardpoints. Reinforce the whole thing with some unobtainium struts or a force beam of some sort and we have a functional ship that even the creators can't love the look of. Design shortcuts and compromises are ubiquitous in wartime where "good enough soon enough" is far more useful than "perfectly late".

We actually do know that about the turrets at least. The original K-Wings in the Black Fleet Crisis novels didn't have defensive turrets or even fixed "primary weapons" at all, they were purely modular ordnance-carriers. That lack of defensive armament resulted in extremely heavy casualties when Yevethan fighters overwhelmed their escort squadrons, and led to the addition of the turrets afterwards. The K-wing represented by the Wave 7 model is the post-retrofit design.

I like most of your post, Kinetic, but what's sillier than the K-Wing that was actually on-screen in a movie?

The B-wing? That rotating cockpit nonsense makes negative sense. It's got a bunch of cannons and the cockpit mass out on lever arms with high moments of inertia.

First few thoughts.

It's a spaceship. The ball turret's weight is meaningless. In and out of gravity, it isn't using aerodynamics to fly. Much like a tie fighter. Not to mention metamerials and a lack of need for weighty ammunition or a gunner to man it.

Ugly is awesome. You want to talk ugly, lets look at the half eaten cheeseburger. The Millenium Falcon is ugly as sin. And that is its charm. It's a pirate ship designed to be heavily modifyable.

Why wouldn't the rebels try out a bomber with the same concept after seeing just how awesome the Falcon managed to be.

It's the same core concept minus the freighter. It's not sleek. It's not pretty. It's not cheap. But it can be made right for any number of scenarios and it does its job well.

Mass still matters in space, mostly for changing directions.

Mass matters. Aerodynamics and gravity pulling on heavier sections do not.

And again. Meta-materials. That bulb on WWII plane would be heavy as hell. On a Star Wars ship it could weigh less than the standard non ball turretsbon other ships.

Basing a spaceship on Airplane practicality is a pointless exercise.

Basing a spaceship on Airplane practicality is a pointless exercise.

Unless of course it's role requires it be suitable for atmospheric flight and planetary landings as well...

I don't mind it at all. I don't love it, but will get 1 or 2 depending on what upgrades it has and how many.

But they are running out of ?-Wing ships, and so the K-Wing was kinda inevitable to see.

To be honest I'm not surprised to see another alphabet-wing ship. But I do like the K-Wing, it will definitely have fixes for ordinance included, and probably new ordinance. I wouldn't be surprised to see it being able to take a turret, it seems like a ship I would want to keep at range 3 to unload its payload of explosions. But I wouldn't be surprised if the turrets help it pick off flanking fighters, which would be useful for the type of ship it is meant to be.

... they bring another boring turret to the game.

I'll let YwingAce handle this one.

I live to serve

Perhaps I am the odd one here, but I don't hate the K-wing. I don't love it either mind you, but it does remind me a lot of a world war 2 bomber / warthog mashup. Overdone? yes. hodge podge? yes

I think this ship looks "star warsy" and bears some resmblence to the LAAT the clones got around in, including the silly looking bubble turrets that hung under the airframe on their ships.

Chin turrets, nose turrets and ventral ball turretts were all common fixtures on world war 2 airframes.

In space, dual isolated cockpits make sense. One guy takes a hit, the other one can still get the thing home, whihc should be a comfort if you are one of the other gunners along for the ride.

Redundant pilots don't make sense in space without redundant isolated enviornments.

I'm not saying I love the k-wing, I don't - but as someone else said, to me, it is the best looking ship of the wave, which says more about the wave than the ship.

It also dosen't feel like a direct replacement for something that already exists ahem. tie punisher.

I happen to love the K-Wing. It takes everything I like about the Alliance's heavy fighters, combines them, and leaves the stuff I don't like out. It looks like a cross between the B-Wing and Y-Wing, with turrets for defense and more ordnance than a typical fighter squadron.

Sure, it is ugly, but most real-world strike aircraft are less attractive than their fighter-bomber or fighter counterparts.

I get it now.

THE IMPS HATE IT BECAUSE IT ROCKS.

I happen to love the K-Wing. It takes everything I like about the Alliance's heavy fighters, combines them, and leaves the stuff I don't like out. It looks like a cross between the B-Wing and Y-Wing, with turrets for defense and more ordnance than a typical fighter squadron.

Sure, it is ugly, but most real-world strike aircraft are less attractive than their fighter-bomber or fighter counterparts.

Couldn't have said it better.

That new K-wing pilot ability is amazing.

Before attacking, you can spend a shield token to roll one additional attack die, or roll one less attack die to regenerate one shield token.

Wonder how that works with cluster missiles!

Although then your spending points on 2 shield upgrade tokens, that can also deal 2 tie fighter attacks to an opponent at the same time. Spend 2 more points to do that again, for a total of 4 shield tokens.

*whistles*

That new K-wing pilot ability is amazing.

Before attacking, you can spend a shield token to roll one additional attack die, or roll one less attack die to regenerate one shield token.

Wonder how that works with cluster missiles!

Although then your spending points on 2 shield upgrade tokens, that can also deal 2 tie fighter attacks to an opponent at the same time. Spend 2 more points to do that again, for a total of 4 shield tokens.

*whistles*

It's a once per round ability, so it's not going to power up cluster missiles too much. It does sound like a great ability though, especially for a hit&run style list. She could pair well with Corran Horn, actually.

Is... is it the same size as the Aggressor, but on a Small Ship Base?
How likely is it to just pitch-over?

Pair well with Corran, and give him shield regenerating as well.

Oh boy.

then give luke lonewolf + r2d2 or porkins with r5d8.