Was curious to hear the views of the forums. What is more fun for the group to own - a sil4 or sil5 ship? Smaller ships can use evasive maneuvers and gain the advantage, while larger ships can have hanger bays, and have shields on four sides rather than two.

Well,my personal favorite ship is a Silhouette 5 ship; the CEC YZ-900. 54.3 meters long, two decks, lots of cargo space, room for 14 passengers, and armed to the teeth.

Sil 5 ship with the talent that lowers the shillouette. Best of both worlds.

Was curious to hear the views of the forums. What is more fun for the group to own - a sil4 or sil5 ship? Smaller ships can use evasive maneuvers and gain the advantage, while larger ships can have hanger bays, and have shields on four sides rather than two.

Depend imho on the group. We have 3 aces, another force user with a sil 3 scout ship, a bunch of speeder bikes, etc … our VCX-100 with a fully modified retrofitted hangar bay is definitely the way to go for us. Fighter escort, deploying bikes and ships directly out of the hangar, re-arming and refueling. That is all essential for us, especially as we tend to be quite loud rebel operatives and need to switch base of operation often especially as our force user tends to draw way to much attention.

But that does not mean that sil 5 is the only way to go, sil 4 is definitely a valid choice as well, especially for groups which don't need a whole mobile base with hangar, repair option, medbay and all. Sil 4 is certainly better for running away, harder to pin down, easier to maintain and a lot less expensive overall. We started actually with a sil 4 ship and upgraded later when we needed that hangar space.

For ship favorites in the sil 5 category: CEC VCX-100, about 50 meters long, three decks, decent space to store equipment and can take iirc two whole freight containers for cargo space, that should be iirc about 200 metric tons of cargo capacity. The encumbrance ratings for freighters are not meant for cargo anyway. Our retrofitted hangar added another deck with a ray shielded hangar entrance and space for 3 starfighters or 2 fighters and 2 speeder bikes. Depends on the mission what we keep ready operational and ready for emergence deployment and what we leave in a cargo room or on a alliance frigate.

Sil 5 ship with the talent that lowers the shillouette. Best of both worlds.

There is no talent which lowers the silhouette. You can make the sil appear smaller against incoming fire, but you can not decrease the silhouette, so evasive maneuvers, gain the advantage, certain astromech actions, etc is always denied from sil5 ships.

Well,my personal favorite ship is a Silhouette 5 ship; the CEC YZ-900. 54.3 meters long, two decks, lots of cargo space, room for 14 passengers, and armed to the teeth.

What book is it in? Never seen it before.

If you have no pilot characters and dont center much on space combat a sil 5 is a good choice, but if you are going to be dog fighting and want a pilot character to shine you need a sil 4 ship

If you have more than one party member that wants to fill the fighter-pilot archetype there's no reason that you can't go with multiple smaller ships. Three Y-Wings (or any other two-person ship) can transport a party of six. You might even get away with fewer ships if one of the party members is an astromech.

Larger ships are (usually) more expensive, but also somewhat more durable. A smaller ship can engage in dogfights and has more maneuvers to choose from, but can't take as much strain or damage. A smaller ship may also have limited options for everyone in the party to contribute to a combat, too, at least before modification.

I think that I am biased towards one ship. I'm just trying to figure out what's more fun / interesting from a mechanics perspective. I'd imagine a party that has 1 pilot, 1 copilot/engineer, and two gunners. A sil5 ship gives more stuff to do regarding deflecting shields but then has less interesting pilot actions. Are there any other considerations?

I think that I am biased towards one ship. I'm just trying to figure out what's more fun / interesting from a mechanics perspective. I'd imagine a party that has 1 pilot, 1 copilot/engineer, and two gunners. A sil5 ship gives more stuff to do regarding deflecting shields but then has less interesting pilot actions. Are there any other considerations?

Using shields isn't very exciting in this game. It's generally just a maneuver, sometimes a Mechanics action, but it's almost never something exciting like piloting or gunnery.

Think about the Star Wars character that's the best shield-angler in all of the galaxy...

Yeah, I've never heard of 'em either.

I prefer a sil5 if you can get a deckplan, there's a consular class cruiser (AoR corebook) deck plan on colonial chrome, and wotc made a matching "republic cruiser" miniature. I scaled up the deck plan to almost wotc minis scale (close enough that we can fake it). Ha Ving the 4 decks deckplan laid out on my "that's not a coffee table, it's a dinner table for hobbits" coffee table with the PCs minis on it is pretty fun. I'm going to have to run an encounter where the PCs have to repel borders sometime. THE set up is too perfect to not do it.

I think that I am biased towards one ship. I'm just trying to figure out what's more fun / interesting from a mechanics perspective. I'd imagine a party that has 1 pilot, 1 copilot/engineer, and two gunners. A sil5 ship gives more stuff to do regarding deflecting shields but then has less interesting pilot actions. Are there any other considerations?

Using shields isn't very exciting in this game. It's generally just a maneuver, sometimes a Mechanics action, but it's almost never something exciting like piloting or gunnery.

Think about the Star Wars character that's the best shield-angler in all of the galaxy...

Yeah, I've never heard of 'em either.

So you never heard of R2-D2? WTF is wrong with you.

Besides, a Sil 4 and even a Sil 3 ship gives you just as much to do. The Y-Wing is a great ship for that very reason and starts to shine if all of his crew of three are player characters. The combat system is build around the idea that doing 2 maneuvers and at least one pilot action per turn is usually the best choice of action for sil 4 and below. Having a gunner makes a ship much, much more lethal and having a astromech as support to deal with damage, strain, and boost the shps abilities greatly is more worth than adding another single seat fighter with just a pilot.

There are tons of really, really strong support abilities in this system and they really emphasis how helpful and powerful a strong crew on a ship can be. Besides those support roles effectiveness they can be pretty exciting in itself too. Example: An astromech who makes his "plot course" action can not only help his pilot greatly with his piloting roll and help to keep that x-wing running at high speed, but he can as well spend advantages to lead enemy ships into collision with the environment, get them of course, provide further boost dice, increase difficulty for enemies to hit them … simply because he plotted a perfect course, warns his pilot ahead of any difficulties and considers the enemy ships abilities, etc

As all those support actions are the ones who need their advantages the least for boosting the result of their own skill check, they are the ones which can be spended the most of narrative effects which are the bread and butter of the system. And they usually are tableturners. Disabling enemy weapon fire, keeping the ship operational, jamming, co piloting in large ships or fast fighters (try your dice in difficulty terrain once you get to speed 8 in an X-Wing thanks to that astromech and supreme full throttle), etc

That stuff is not only important, but the rolls themselves have huge impact on the outcome of space combat.

A worthwhile fun position for every PC in the party is what you need to insure you have.

If you're looking for the most interesting choice, then get a silhouette 4 ship unless you want all your PCs to be mechanics, leaders, and gunners.

Our first campaign, our PCs picked the Wayfarer. Most of them were pretty disappointed with the limited options whenever vehicular combat happened.

Long term, a silhouette 5 ship has more versatility with a large group 5-7 players.

Look at the Ghost from Rebels. There is enough that characters can fire guns, pilot, and a more agile starship that another player can detach and fly to take advantage of the smaller silhouette. Given the number of players, you can even have players doing repairs, angling shields, and a whole slew of other options.

Having a big, slightly more vulnerable ship also makes players more careful and less cocky... sometimes, anyways.

Now if you have a smaller group, the smaller silhouette ship is better. It can use more options availiable to the fewer players.

Well,my personal favorite ship is a Silhouette 5 ship; the CEC YZ-900. 54.3 meters long, two decks, lots of cargo space, room for 14 passengers, and armed to the teeth.

What book is it in? Never seen it before.

There aren't any official FFG stats for it yet. It originally appeared in the D20 system in Star Wars Gamer #2. There are some "unofficial" stats for it on This site ; specifically, here . That blog also did a much more accurate version of the YZ-775, keeping that ship's original passenger capacity of 14 (instead of the 0 passengers in the version found in Dangerous Covenants ).

So, I didn't hear a lot of voters for the Sil5 ship FFG mechanics speaking -- sounds like the different shield sides and the technician's role is not really incrementally interesting, while it definitely de-fangs a pilot character. Anything else that I'm not factoring in?

So, I didn't hear a lot of voters for the Sil5 ship FFG mechanics speaking -- sounds like the different shield sides and the technician's role is not really incrementally interesting, while it definitely de-fangs a pilot character. Anything else that I'm not factoring in?

guns, lots and lots of guns, 4 gunners is typical on small sil 5's

Exactly. Sil 5 ships tend to have at least twice the firepower of Sin 4 ships, if not more, on top of greater shields covering more arcs and greater durability. Some of them are even as fast or faster than many Sil 4 ships and even some Sil 3 ships. Some of the smaller Sil 5 ships are also quite maneuverable for ships of their size having a maneuverability rating if -1 or better. There YZ-775 and YZ-900 are both such ships, and are often classified as sub-capital ships, halfway between a standard Freighter and a true Capital ship.

Exactly. Sil 5 ships tend to have at least twice the firepower of Sin 4 ships, if not more, on top of greater shields covering more arcs and greater durability. Some of them are even as fast or faster than many Sil 4 ships and even some Sil 3 ships. Some of the smaller Sil 5 ships are also quite maneuverable for ships of their size having a maneuverability rating if -1 or better. There YZ-775 and YZ-900 are both such ships, and are often classified as sub-capital ships, halfway between a standard Freighter and a true Capital ship.

YZ-775 has a handling of -3 and a speed of 2, just one defense on all arcs and a really great armor of 4. And lots of guns + two hardpoints. I don't think that the YZ-Series is a good example for the point you are trying to make, while your point is still a valid and good one. They are more of really great gunships, smaller brethren to the CR series. Can't remember right now, did they gave the YZ-775 those oversized turbolasers in dangerous covenants?

if you house rule a mod to give a IR-3F (force and destiny core book page 267) a hyperdrive in exchange for some cargo, then it is an awesome party ship, speed 4 handling -1, defense 2 in all arcs, armor of only 3. 40 HT, 35 strain. 2 twin turbolasers, and 2 twin medium laser cannons in turrets, with 2 hard points and, 1800 enc. high powered ion turbine makes it a speed 5 cap ship, wow. and you can increase the armor 2 for with a forget which mod.

Feel like a recorder on this topic... oh well.

Sil4 - Citadel (best all around Sil4)

Sil5 - Gonzati (best Sil5 when on a budget) or Marauder (best Sil5 ship in the game, when money is no object)

No way. The citadel has speed 3 and handling -1 while the HWK-1000 comes with speed 5 and handling +1.

The high armor and tons of hull are nice, but in the end they just mean you die slower and not that you win in a dogfight with it.

The double twin ion turrets mean on top of it that you need weapon upgrades or some people might just negate all your damage with damage control actions …

… now if I would aim to raid imperial supply lines the ILH-KK Citadel-Class would be exactly the kind of freighter I am looking for, but if I would need a support craft for covert ops which might run into serious combat … HWKs all the way, both HWKs are incredible, the 290 as super small sil 3 transport with serious dogfight potential and the 1000 as super rare (Rarity 10), but incredible good space superior craft if customized right.

The citadel is just too slow for dogfighting imho.

But hey, my character is switching ships constantly, for each task there is the right ship, but it is not the same ship for all tasks.

Feel like a recorder on this topic... oh well.

Sil4 - Citadel (best all around Sil4)

Sil5 - Gonzati (best Sil5 when on a budget) or Marauder (best Sil5 ship in the game, when money is no object)

I'm forgetting what the exact crew requirements were for the marauder but remember that the crew requirements disqualified it when I was looking for a ship to give my PCs. Gonzalo might have been too slow

Personally I think Silhouette 5 ships are better, because they can have a hangar on them, which allows pilot characters to just get into a starfighter and have all their fun while the rest of the players also have access to serious firepower. Also if you use the barrage rules in AoR to allow a single character to control all turrets of the same type you can have a player crew effectively command a capital ship. (The only real downside to the barrage actions is that you still use Agility instead of something like Presence when you're commanding gun batteries instead of manually firing them)