Should there be a Single Laser Turret?

By Frostweasel, in X-Wing

I've been thinking about turrets recently and I reckon we could use an SLT.

It would have the same stats as TLT 3 attack dice, range 2-3 but instead of the attack twice cancel all hits stuff it's just straight up regular damage that fires once but can deal crits etc. I was thinking about 4-5 pts.

My logic behind this weapon comes from the absence of excitement rolling TLT dice, if you wish to deal medium to long range turret damage with small based ships TLT is the only real option. Blaster turret is only range 2 and the focus requirement is prohibitive. Now TLT provides regular damage, but because of the Max of 1 damage per roll, there never feels like there's a whole lot riding on it.

I'd really like to have a 3 dice turret attack range 2-3 that, while not as reliable as the TLT, has the potential to inflict 3 damage and crits. I think that random element is what makes the game more exciting.

Patience young padawan, the turret in the ghost has not yet been revealed :)

3 attack dice for a single laser cannon? Doesn't fit the lore very well.

I will say, it IS annoying that there's no regular-ass attack turrets. I wanted TLTs to be 2-attack, 1-3 range attacks with no special rules. Just like a primary twin laser attack, but on a turret.

What the TLT ended up being, is what the Autoblaster Turret SHOULD have been. Just representing a rapid fire stream of low powered hits.

I would like to see a cheap turret that's average, but the blaster turret was made out of FFG fearing that people would take 5 HWKs with blaster turrets.

I'm quite confident we'll see more turret options in the not so far future. there is "design space", after all. ;)

now, if we only could get 1-2 primary-turrets LESS for that.. ;) not saying that they are overpowered, it's just not that satisfying to outfly them (a big part of the game for me) to just see them not care at all.

at least with the range1-2 or 2-3 bands of secondaries there ARE some ways to outfly them, and it's way more fun.

I would like to see a cheap turret that's average, but the blaster turret was made out of FFG fearing that people would take 5 HWKs with blaster turrets.

Yeah I get that, but if we had a 3 dice regular turret that could deal 3 damage and have a crit chance then I would happily pay 4-5 points for it. FFG weren't frightened of adding in a 6pt TLT so I can't see a problem with a 4-5 pt turret. More potential for damage but a lot less reliable, especially against evade tokens and highly evasive stuff.

Well you aren't going to get it for 4-5 points. You're talking about a gun that basically turns every ship with a turret slot into a 3 attack PWT. I wouldn't be surprised if it cost AT LEAST as much as the TLT.

Try it out for a couple of casual games. Fly 4 Ys with SLTs and see what happens. But realise that your putting a weapon on a small base ship that is normally seen on a Decimator or the Falcon. A 4 point SLT would allow you to take 4 Gray Sqdn Ys with a mech for 100 pts.

I don't think that would be a good idea and like Rippy said the Ghost and Phantom's turrets have yet to be revealed.

Well you aren't going to get it for 4-5 points. You're talking about a gun that basically turns every ship with a turret slot into a 3 attack PWT. I wouldn't be surprised if it cost AT LEAST as much as the TLT.

Do you really consider it that powerful? (Not being insulting here, I'm genuinely curious) It's going to be range 2-3 don't forget, not to mention all the ships it can be fitted to aren't able to turtle up in the same way as Falcons, decimators and outriders. Plus all the ships that can equip it are far more fragile than Most PWTs and have less forgiving dials.

You're only getting 3 dice versus the TLTs 6, I'm no good at probability but I'd imagine you're getting a better chance of dealing damage with the TLT as you don't get the first attack to strip tokens.

Try it out for a couple of casual games. Fly 4 Ys with SLTs and see what happens. But realise that your putting a weapon on a small base ship that is normally seen on a Decimator or the Falcon. A 4 point SLT would allow you to take 4 Gray Sqdn Ys with a mech for 100 pts.

I don't think that would be a good idea and like Rippy said the Ghost and Phantom's turrets have yet to be revealed.

I did specify the donut hole for this reason.

not to mention all the ships it can be fitted to aren't able to turtle up in the same way as Falcons, decimators and outriders. Plus all the ships that can equip it are far more fragile than Most PWTs and have less forgiving dials.

Yes, but they also cost half as much as most PWTs.

TLTs are great for penetrating highly defensive ships, since in order to avoid the first point of damage, the ship will likely need to use some defense up, leaving less defense for the followup attack. A SLT that operated on the same principle, wouldn't have the same penetration power since it would not exhaust initial a ships defenses in order to pierce with a follow up shot. 4 Y-Wings equipped with TLTs, could wipe out most small ships in a single round of concentrated fire, but four Y-Wings with SLTs wouldn't be able to bring down anything bigger than a naked TIE, and the TIE would survive half the time at that.

I don't think a single laser turret makes sense. It would be better to have a simple 3 dice turret with no other effects than to have a SLT as described (IMO).

... I want a gatling laser cannon.

4 attacks.

3 dice each

range 2

(not 3, not 1, 2)

does 1 damage per hit, always.

Bonus if fired from the side hatch of a dropship.

Edited by DariusAPB

TLTs are great for penetrating highly defensive ships, since in order to avoid the first point of damage, the ship will likely need to use some defense up, leaving less defense for the followup attack. A SLT that operated on the same principle, wouldn't have the same penetration power since it would not exhaust initial a ships defenses in order to pierce with a follow up shot. 4 Y-Wings equipped with TLTs, could wipe out most small ships in a single round of concentrated fire, but four Y-Wings with SLTs wouldn't be able to bring down anything bigger than a naked TIE, and the TIE would survive half the time at that.

I don't think a single laser turret makes sense. It would be better to have a simple 3 dice turret with no other effects than to have a SLT as described (IMO).

As others have pointed out a standard Laser turret with 3 dice would be comparable with PWTs I think we need to keep the range one donut hole as a drawback.

... I want a gatling laser cannon.

4 attacks.

3 dice each

range 2

(not 3, not 1, 2)

does 1 damage per hit, always.

Bonus if fired from the side hatch of a dropship.

While thematically satisfying having an upgrade such as this - which is clearly more powerful effective than an Heavy Laser Cannon, would probably be too much gun for an add on - even at (say) 10 SP.

I could see this as a range 1 only for 8 sp, but not not at range 2.

Power issues aside, I don't want there to be standard, boring, normal attack turrets, if you have that you take away what made secondary weapon turret ships interesting.

... I want a gatling laser cannon.

4 attacks.

3 dice each

range 2

(not 3, not 1, 2)

does 1 damage per hit, always.

Bonus if fired from the side hatch of a dropship.

While thematically satisfying having an upgrade such as this - which is clearly more powerful effective than an Heavy Laser Cannon, would probably be too much gun for an add on - even at (say) 10 SP.

I could see this as a range 1 only for 8 sp, but not not at range 2.

It'd be great as 90 degree from sides of a transport though.

roll an extra attack if you shout "LETS ROCK!!!!"

So basically you want a Blaster Turret with range 2-3 and no focus requirement. For 5 points. Yeah not gonna happen. It's gotta be at least 6 points and probably more. 4 of these things in a list will be able to land hits and crits at range three without giving the target that extra green, chewing up a lot of ships. Even autothrusters fail after 4 attacks a round.

not to mention all the ships it can be fitted to aren't able to turtle up in the same way as Falcons, decimators and outriders. Plus all the ships that can equip it are far more fragile than Most PWTs and have less forgiving dials.

Yes, but they also cost half as much as most PWTs.

I'm not trying to compare a single 3 dice secondary weapon turret attack with a PWT because it's not really a valid comparison. They're different things.

PWT has range 1 bonus, no donut hole, is included in the price of the ship,

A three dice turret attack would have range 2-3 no range bonuses, not included in ship price.

It makes far more sense to cost it based on existing turret upgrades rather than compare it to a PWT. I'll agree that 4 points is too cheap as it would enable 5 spice runners at 100 points but is 5-6 points too cheap? I don't think so, I don't think TLT is too cheap at 6 points and its damage is far more reliable than a single laser turret would be.

I would think something like this might be interesting:

Single Laser Turret: 3 dice, range 2-3

If this attack hits, cancel all dice results and deal one critical damage

4 points maybe? If its more, might be more worth taking the TLT, however at 4 points you can fit 5 hawks in a list with these... crit city! You'd lose the TLT's ability to strip tokens... and still have the donut hole... I dunno. I'll have to test!

I wish Ys synergized better with Blaster Turrets. R4 Agro kinda helped, but BT is still action dependent...

... I want a gatling laser cannon.

4 attacks.

3 dice each

range 2

(not 3, not 1, 2)

does 1 damage per hit, always.

Bonus if fired from the side hatch of a dropship.

While thematically satisfying having an upgrade such as this - which is clearly more powerful effective than an Heavy Laser Cannon, would probably be too much gun for an add on - even at (say) 10 SP.

I could see this as a range 1 only for 8 sp, but not not at range 2.

It'd be great as 90 degree from sides of a transport though.

roll an extra attack if you shout "LETS ROCK!!!!"

That sounds like a mechanic from Age of Sigmar.

I want a Turret Jammer. Something unique, so it doesn't become build-spam, and limited like an astromech, or an illicit upgrade, and it would only function against the ship that had the jammer (a ship cannot fire outside it's primary firing arc at a ship equipped with a turret jamming device - or something like that. I'd buy that for a dollar.

I would think something like this might be interesting:

Single Laser Turret: 3 dice, range 2-3

If this attack hits, cancel all dice results and deal one critical damage

4 points maybe? If its more, might be more worth taking the TLT, however at 4 points you can fit 5 hawks in a list with these... crit city! You'd lose the TLT's ability to strip tokens... and still have the donut hole... I dunno. I'll have to test!

It's nice to see a more constructive and positive answer, I didn't start this post to say I was right and that FFG should implement this straight away. I started this topic to create a discussion about the gap in the market for a damage dealing turret.

What about:

Single Laser Turret

Range 2-3

2 attack

1 critical hit cannot be cancelled by evade dice. (Tokens can cancel it) 5pts.

Max you can take is 4 in a list, 2 dice is a lot harder to hit than three but the rewards for rolling a crit are worth it but it's still not going to screw over evade-em-uppers too badly as long as they take evade actions.

I think now tokens add that result to your dice, so the last line may not make sense. Turning into a Ten Numb turret may not be the best though. Just like a regular TLT, seems both your SLT and mine may be able to take down a decimator in 2 rounds of fire (assuming the proper piloting), yours with some lucky rolls might take one down in a single turn which may seem a bit OP.

Not to mention that Gray squadron rebel y-wing + R2D6 + Calculation + SLT may be a Soontir killer at 27 points...

Edited by jonnyd