C-ROC'n the night away!

By HappyDaze, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

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MERCHANT ONE

Space vessel of the crime lord Azmorigan, the Merchant One was a C-ROC carrier ship featuring powerful weapons and a few surprises. The craft was equipped with one dorsal laser turret, two forward laser cannons, and two rear laser cannons -- essential heavy weaponry in Azmorigan's line of work. The Merchant One also carried a number of escape pods, which the Lothal rebel Hera used to escape the gangster's clutches.

Hmmm, do we have any information how the standard placement for those guns is? The star wars site suggest having twin heavies forward and stern, and a dorsal (+ most likely a never seen ventral) quad laser turret. But that might be just the Merchant One and not the general C-ROC configuration.

Another page-2 bump from me, but speaking as a player who's currently captain of a Gozanti, the as-written ship is horribly OP in every way except speed, what with the ginormous armament and HTT/SST. So, who wants to help me make some more accurate stats for it?

Here's my first go:

Stock (Prequel/Clone Wars version): 5/2/-2 and 2/1/1/1 (maybe 1/1/1/1), 5 armor, HTT 30, SST 20, no weapons and 6 customization hardpoints.

Imperial (Rebels version): 5/2/-2 and 2/1/1/1, 5 armor, HTT 35, SST 25, one dorsal turret-mounted twin medium laser cannon (Damage 6, Fire Arc: all, Range [Close], Critical 3, Linked 1), one ventral turret-mounted heavy laser cannon (Damage 6, Fire Arc: all, Range [Short], Critical 3); 2 customization hardpoints; 4 TIE docking clamps.

I don't know enough about the C-ROC to say what kinds of weapons are on it in on-screen material (or visible on the X-wing mini), so someone else will have to help there...

Those stats are actually much more reasonable than the ones we have from the books. I like the look of the C-ROC (except that I wish the fifth engine--the one on the vertical spar--was the same size as the other four since they're all described as being thee same turbines/engines), but I think the stats are absurdly overdone.

So are the three engines on the original Gozanti IIRC, and the one in the stern is noticeably smaller there as well.

This is my first stab at the C-ROC after looking it up properly on Wookieepedia:

Gozanti C-ROC type (stock): 5/3/-1, shields 2/1/1/2, 5 armor, HTT 38, SST 25, no armament, 6 customization hardpoints, and more Encumbrance Capacity (though I'm not sure how much).

It's bigger, faster, and more maneuverable than even the Imperial version, but still unarmed to start with.

Also, do all Gozanti types have the ability to dock cargo containers on top of the wings like in the picture of Merchant One, or is that a specific modification?

The stats of the gonzanti are imho not the big issue, the issue is that you can load them up with turbolasers, that they are dirt cheap, low crew vessels with can take the role of cruisers for less than 300,000 credits, meanwhile a CR90 is 3 million credits. That's the real issue, the C-Roc is a 100m long cruiser, it is designed to kick ass in small ship skirmishes.

BTW, I think a YV-929 Armed Transport would ripp appart a stock Gozanti-C-Roc, GtA and maneuvers are always a problem for those larger sil 5 vessels. Though the 6 hardpoints are really … too much. ^-^

The CR-90 is only 1.2M Cr. It's a very affordable capital ship, but still nowhere near as cheap as the C-ROC.

The C-ROC is also smaller than you think: It's only 74 meters long, which again makes the HTT and SST values look like they belong on a much larger ship.

I have no idea why I wrote about the CR90 when I was looking at the vigil for the price ^_^

Thanks for catching that. Anyway, my point is that for 600,000 credits base price the stats of the C-Roc would not look nearly as much out of place. Reducing the price compared to the old gozanti strikes me as something really, really odd. As small consolation, the C-ROC is almost useless for fights with engagement ranges of turbolasers, but Kuat will hate CEC for making their lancer design obsolete before they even started selling them.

For true comparisons, you need to be comparing the C-ROC to other Sil 5 freighters like the Suwantek from Lords of Nal Hutta or the Wayfarer from the Edge Core because that's what it is.

In comparisons to those, it's ludicrously tough and powerful for its cost.

Now the wayfarer is an unfair comparison, this one is a failure in lore, an overprice piece of junk which screws you over with its "modular" container, which is incompatible with standard containers. And yet, it might still be the better freighter … clearly not the better armed transport to bring low amounts of highly valuable cargo through areas with a high combat chance. The niche for the ship are the custom containers, which could for example be a free hangar bay attachment or similar narrative explained stuff. It is still supposed to be a piece of junk.

Still the comparison to a medium freighter does not fit imo, the C-ROC is designed as something which can operate as cruiser and is much more in the ballpark of a smaller alderaan, consular or defender cruiser than a medium freighter. The amount of containers it can take is small, the size of the containers is small, the armand is heavy … the hardpoints are a little insane, just as the price tag.

Either way, we both totally agree that the price is bonkers.

BTW, the TL-1200 has a giant hold with life support for 100 persons. Slavers dream ship.

Edited by SEApocalypse
39 minutes ago, SEApocalypse said:

BTW, the TL-1200 has a giant hold with life support for 100 persons. Slavers dream ship.

Specimen containers-complete with integrated life support and stasis--make it easy to carry inactive passengers at 3 Encumbrance a pop. The C-ROC can carry quite a few of those, and they are both low Rarity and low cost considering the security benefits they would offer in transporting unwilling passengers. They also ensure that those passengers arrive safe and undamaged by the tansit.

I still can't agree that the C-ROC is supposed to be a warship. Sure, it's capable of being used in that manner, but I still see it as an overgrown light freighter by design intent, and its fairly low price tag puts it in that realm as well. Sure, it has a fairly high crew requirement compared to most ships of that class, but most of those don't list gunners even when they could obviously use them, and gunners account for half of the C-ROC's crew. Compared to true capital ships, the C-ROC has very short legs with a Consumables rating of only 2 months. This again fits in fine with it being an overgrown light freighter.

Edited by HappyDaze

Not a warship, the C-ROC is completely useless as warship, it gets ripped apart by turbolasers without having a chance to fireback, thanks to its low sensor range which makes it completely unsuited as platform for turbolasers. It could be modified into a great torpedo boat though.

It is more a armed transport cruiser (the designers use cruiser interchangeable with frigate in AoR, actually classify frigates as sub-section of cruisers), something which can operate independently and is its own armed escort in itself. But it's hardly a warship. Now that long-range one with the torpedos on top, that comes actually pretty close, but is at least more reasonable with it's hardpoints.

And for the design intent, was this thing not the posterchild of black sun to have something which resembles an armed fleet while still doing business? The original one I mean, which is the base for the imperial one too.

Edited by SEApocalypse

Medium range sensor are all that's needed to fully utilize light turbolasers--the largest that can be retrofitted to it through Upgraded Weapons attachments. If you don't plan on doing anything else with the C-ROC, you could add six light turbolasers (plus as much Linked on those as you want to pay for). That's pretty nasty for a conversion of a civilian ship.

I'd also recommend letting go of sensor range for limiting anything more than detailed scans and slicing as the rules for them are total crap. Fighters have it the worst if you don't. Independent starfighter strikes of the kind the Alliance favors are jot going to work if the fighters can't even detect their targets until they are tripping over them.

52 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

Medium range sensor are all that's needed to fully utilize light turbolasers--the largest that can be retrofitted to it through Upgraded Weapons attachments. If you don't plan on doing anything else with the C-ROC, you could add six light turbolasers (plus as much Linked on those as you want to pay for). That's pretty nasty for a conversion of a civilian ship.

I'd also recommend letting go of sensor range for limiting anything more than detailed scans and slicing as the rules for them are total crap. Fighters have it the worst if you don't. Independent starfighter strikes of the kind the Alliance favors are jot going to work if the fighters can't even detect their targets until they are tripping over them.

I was thinking more along spending two hardpoints and adding oversized a twin medium or even iirc quad heavy turbolaser, which perform amazing. Though I was as well thinking of short instead of medium range, so you are right that light turbos would be an option to retrofit it into some amazingly cheap light support frigate. Add armor, upgrade the broadsides to 4 single light turbos (twins cost if I remember correct at least theoretical extra hardpoints). Tough as nails little warship you get this way. And way to cheap with about 300,000 credits. And still room for a advanced targeting array on a medium quad-ion. But as I said, the sensors limit it to light turbos.

Now for the sensor range, that is the reason why you need reconnaissance or intelligence mission. If you look objectively on it, the rebel alliance would else have an easy time to destroy thousands of imperial sector fleets by just dropping onto them with a fighter wing with torpedos for alpha strike and be gone before they even fully comprehend what hit them. That seems as well the intention when the devs answer that sniper shot might allow you to shoot beyond your range, but will still be a blind shot if the sensors don't support it. So personally I would recommend to encourage the sensor range limitation, this creates tension when in low sensor range ships and even more tension when you are trying to avoid sensor grids of opposing ships with superior firepower. In this context, I think it is very intentional that there is no mod to enhance sensor range.

Edited by SEApocalypse

Sorry to revive an old topic, but I feel like the stats for the Broken Horn in Dawn of Rebellion are far closer to what was intended.

Armor drops to 3, HTT to 38, SST to 22, capacity to 1,500, passengers to 12, only 4 hard points, and only one weapon system. In exchange, you get long sensors range, 4 speed, -1 handling (instead of -3), rear shields in line with the forward shields, and a better hyperdrive.

Of course, I’m sure the Horn is modified beyond what the base C-roc, but it’s a better baseline for fixing it.

9 hours ago, Kesin said:

Sorry to revive an old topic, but I feel like the stats for the Broken Horn in Dawn of Rebellion are far closer to what was intended.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

I'm planning on a future campaign that will have a full table of 6 players and an ostensibly Traveler-esque premise, and honestly a stock light freighter feels a bit too cramped for that. I've been tempted by the C-roc to give everyone more elbow-room, and it's certainly a liability as much as an asset.

Edited by Lorne

So I messed around the C-ROC using the Broken Horn as a base template and came up with this using Oggdude's character generator. Thoughts?

CROC Fix.png