3 hours ago, GrimmyV said:@Norsehound, that’s actually a well thought out plan for the GUNBOAT anti-bomb patrol. But you need to put some whining and doom and gloom in there because thread is about how everything sucks before it even ships.
Oh good, I still got it 
I can sympathize with Imperial whining, though. In Armada Empire's supposed to be the faction with big ships, but the game rewards spamming key upgrades (Assault Proton Torpedoes as I mentioned, Dual Turbolaser Turrets), for lighter ships that hit harder than they should, and attrition attacks against limited pools of defense resources. The Victory Star Destroyer out of the starter kit has been impotent ever since the Imperial was released. And since no medium ship can out-perform the already poorly performing Victory, half the Imperial faction is "tricky" to fly.
And before any other Armada players call me out, think of how great Victory is when defending against an XI7 battery that rolls a natural accuracy. What are the VSD's defense options then?
3 hours ago, Rinzler in a Tie said:Welcome back. Enjoying it?
You'll be able to field three of them when properly upgraded.
Sadly, I don't see their dials allowing them to be able to stay in the fight and not just run over bombs/fall prey to TLT carousel'ing around the map.
My boss and I are playing casual games in my office with outdated(?) wave equipment. I've been snapping up modern minis (except scum and TIE Aggressors, all of that can die in a fire) for some new play but we've avoided meta power lists. Probably because we don't want to fly those fighters.
I think Gunboats getting the option to SLAM for an action may enable to them to get out of tricky situations at-will when faced with a lot of bombs. The problem is making those moves when Nym/Bombers has a lot of freedom to react to what you're doing with the higher pilot skill, which is probably where everyone's having problems (I haven't flown against this combo, so I don't know particularly how it works). Still, two things I want to learn about the Gunboat dial are:
+How well does this thing turn around? S-Loops, T-Rolls, what speeds are the K-turns?
+How much red/green is on the dial and what are the tightest turns it can perform?
One thought is to use Gunboats in large sweeping manuvers where if one is getting cornered trying to bait fighters in, his wingmate is right behind you hitting you at long range. One approach to facing bombs is to spread out and try to limit the number of ships that bomber can attack. SUre, Nym can go delete one fighter, but if that puts him in a position where he's facing a board edge or away from play...?
2 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:It's Armada, man. You're taking damage regardless (though there is an upgrade that lets you Contain crit effects now)
You dodge assault protons same way you dodge bombs, don't be in close range of the super deadly thing
Though Armada does this better because you have more ships to burn and can therefore deal with high power close range ships just by foddering a crappy raider or hammerhead and then lighting the bastard up. Said close range ships also can't hurt you for **** at long range (for their cost)
In xwing we got less ships to lose and, more importantly, the high damage close range bomb ships ALSO get TLTs for some of the best long range offense in the game (or have dash/dengar torps)
Not having defense dice isn't the problem (it's the opposite), it's that turrets are just too powerful an advantage that also happen to simultaneously exploit and counter bombs
Damage Control Officer works only on ships that have a contain already... another point towards the VSD's poor predicament over the ISD.
Another difference between here and Armada is that Armada doesn't have area effect cards for the most part. It's just in fighter land with "their" version of Mauler Mithel and Ten Numb.
2 hours ago, NakedDex said:DCO is your friend. Contain that APT before it even has a chance. I've a funny feeling that'll be more common once Profundity/Raddus hits the tables...
ANYWHO. At the very least, the Gunboats can SLAM, so if they at least have a white hard anything, they can turn around, albeit at the cost of a shot (ignoring the title). I doubt they'll be as fast as the Defender, but if they have something comparable to the Bomber dial, I'll be pretty darn happy. A white 2turn would be nice over the red of the Bomber dial, but if it's a carbon copy, I won't be unhappy. It's not the most maneuverable, but I've found it to be remarkably efficient when lining up for ordnance.
As I mentioned above, you can have sweeping Gunboats making large high-speed passes where they attack something once and fly away. It'll be a thing if Gunboats end up faster than TIE Strikers with their Slam maneuver, but they must not have as many maneuvering options since SLAM is locked at the same speed as their current move. Still, the option is nice.
