My thoughts on the troubles the Gunboat might face

I'm hoping I'm wrong. And if somehow the gunboat is really good it better not get nerfed below the competitive line like some Imperial things have in the past... I'm all for balance, I'm tired of the over corrections to everything viable in the Imperial hanger.

Is "Crybaby 101" part of the requisite Imperial Academy course load? Imperial players have such a persecution complex, I swear.

Oh lol. Excellent counter point. I'll digest its finer points and give a reasoned counter of my own later

I feel your pain as a fellow Imp player but think it’s too early to call a DOA. We don’t know the price of the generic Gunboat yet. You assume a poor dial. You make reference to the lack of upgrade slots but don’t mention the titles which add slots. There’s too many unknown factors for any meaningful analysis.

13 hours ago, Sasajak said:

I feel your pain as a fellow Imp player but think it’s too early to call a DOA. We don’t know the price of the generic Gunboat yet. You assume a poor dial. You make reference to the lack of upgrade slots but don’t mention the titles which add slots. There’s too many unknown factors for any meaningful analysis.

I hope you're right, but I'm pretty confident 4 slots won't show up on any of those titles (especially since we have one revealed completely). I'm not calling it DOA, I'm trying to point out the hurdle this little engine will need to climb over

edit: if I’m wrong, and it gets another missile and a pair of torps, I’ll be thrilled. But unless they can fire out of arc or get a new power slide maneuver, it might not be enough.

There are some things you don't talk about, like the titles for the Gunboat being integral to the ship, giving it more slots and abilities.

Also imperials run Quickdraw (and rarely Backdraft), because of a strong ability on a solid chassis. Looking at the generic is a bit pointless (at this point, looking at any is, really).

Not saying these things drasticaly change the picture, but at least the first point gives the Gunboat some hope. What doesn't is that the pilot ability for the PS7 sucks hard and not having broken pilot abilities like Quickdraw, Dengar, and Miranda have seriously limits a ship. So let's hope there is some kind of Vessery (as in lower PS, strongest ability) in that pack.

I think the dial, missile title, and linked cannons, (basically all the stuff that hasn't been spoiled yet ) is going to be more defining for the ship rather than what we see right now. The fact the ship comes with cruise missiles means it at least has a 4 speed straight, because ffg rarely wastes pack space. So the gunboat should have a way to maximize cruise missiles naturally. So at the very least it should have an x-wing style dial, but obviously better action economy.

Of course GUNBOAT will come short if you scrubs keep posting GUNBOAT stuff outside the mighty GUNBOAT thread.

52 minutes ago, FlyingAnchors said:

I think the dial, missile title, and linked cannons, (basically all the stuff that hasn't been spoiled yet ) is going to be more defining for the ship rather than what we see right now. The fact the ship comes with cruise missiles means it at least has a 4 speed straight, because ffg rarely wastes pack space. So the gunboat should have a way to maximize cruise missiles naturally. So at the very least it should have an x-wing style dial, but obviously better action economy.

As others have pointed out too, the other title wasn't covered in my post, but I left Havoc out of it also... which is a stout title, IMO. To me, its just the linked cannons and the dial (because with SLAM and reload the dial really really decides their effectiveness too). If SLAM then linked cannons has good synergy and can hurt the current meta enough that it creates shift away from its current place... that could be really good for imps

I think the main feature of the Gunboat will be its Reload action...

Imo, it looks pretty dead/ Reload is utter dumb: Missing shots is horrible for your efficiency, which is known that if you dont fire every other turn, you lose: see Phantom without ACD.

Exception: Corran, but probably only if nathan eide plays him and theres regen involved.

You know what would be awesome? If reload also regenerated a shield. hahahahahahah.

6 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

Imo, it looks pretty dead/ Reload is utter dumb: Missing shots is horrible for your efficiency, which is known that if you dont fire every other turn, you lose: see Phantom without ACD.

Except you don't, at least not with XG-1 Assault Configuration.

42 minutes ago, haslo said:

I think the main feature of the Gunboat will be its Reload action...

Can't wait for those missile/torpedo runs!

Shoot, slam away, reload, turn around, shoot again!

I'm really, really concerned about the Gunboat.

Unless the second title we've not seen does something batcrap crazy (I was thinking yesterday, maybe 'you may fire [missile] and [torpedo] secondary weapons (worth 3 points or less?) whilst you have a weapons disabled token. If you fire those secondary weapons without a weapons disabled token, you may fire them outside your primary firing arc') it's going to really, really struggle to contribute. Nothing about it suggests it's going to have much to combat the 'two high PS bombing turrets' meta at the moment, nor does anything else in G4H or W12 or 13, and with no ability to shoot out of arc and no pilots with a higher skill than 7, it just feels like it's going to have great difficulty contributing.

Vynder's going to be great fun with Cannon title, Flechette Cannon, ASLAM, Linked Batteries, VI and that 3/3/4/3 statline, but he's still going to cost 32+ points and still going to be arc locked at PS9, without autothrusters.

The PS2 generic will have to cost 19 points or less to have much of a chance IMO, and I'm desperately hoping you'll be able to get the EPT generic with Flechette, Linked Batteries and ASLAM for 25.

1 hour ago, haslo said:

I think the main feature of the Gunboat will be its Reload action...

I don't see it, tbh. The gunboat's problem is going to be getting it's shots away at all, Reload isn't even going to come into it.

I tell you what. If there's 300 pages of begging for the Gunboat to be added there's gonna be 600 pages of whining when they find out it's been added but it's a bit rubbish.

25 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

I don't see it, tbh. The gunboat's problem is going to be getting it's shots away at all, Reload isn't even going to come into it.

We don't know about the second title (ordnance-based, probably), so let's wait before discussing their ability to release ordnance shots.

In the other hand, assault configuration allows to SLAM, focus/TL, then fire with ion/tractor(/jam probably too). That could be extremely efficient for flanking. I totally see this working with VI Major Vinder; with SLAM you don't have to commit yourself until the round you decide to strike, and set up a nice shot for your teammates.

1 minute ago, Giledhil said:

We don't know about the second title (ordnance-based, probably), so let's wait before discussing their ability to release ordnance shots.

In the other hand, assault configuration allows to SLAM, focus/TL, then fire with ion/tractor. That could be extremely efficient for flanking. I totally see this working with VI Major Vinder; with SLAM you don't have to commit yourself until the round you decide to strike, and set up a nice shot for your teammates.

Not with Ion, they're a point too expensive.

If you could do it with Ion, I wouldn't be quite so concerned, because ions are rarely useless, whereas Flechettes often are.

1 minute ago, thespaceinvader said:

Not with Ion, they're a point too expensive.

If you could do it with Ion, I wouldn't be quite so concerned, because ions are rarely useless, whereas Flechettes often are.

Yeah, your're right, but shooting at high PS, I will favor a tractor beam anyways.

Just now, Giledhil said:

Yeah, shooting at high PS, I will favor a tractor beam.

With what though?

WHat goes with that which will shoot after it and be able to actually get guns reliably on target?

TLT aggressors?

PS8 RAC?

Just now, thespaceinvader said:

With what though?

WHat goes with that which will shoot after it and be able to actually get guns reliably on target?

TLT aggressors?

PS8 RAC?

VI Vinder will be PS9.
But anything with a big gun shoud do, since you can redirect the target in front of your firing ship with the tractor beam shot.

My point stands - even with tractor beams, you have to get a good amount of other shots on target to make it worth skipping a damaging shot for - that's why people don't use them on anything other than TIE/Ds. So unless you're getting two or three guns on, what's the point of PS9 tractoring someone? You don't kill people that way.

Vynder's going to be fun, but I've grave doubts about him being useful unless that missile boat title is cray.

11 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

I tell you what. If there's 300 pages of begging for the Gunboat to be added there's gonna be 600 pages of whining when they find out it's been added but it's a bit rubbish.

Oh, do us all a favour and wind your neck in will you Two Accounts?

Very few people in the Gunboat topic were overly concerned with how "competitive" an option it would be - they just wanted the ship in the game.

Nerve struck?

13 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

Nerve struck?

Not really, just find it a bit ironic that it's you talking about "600 pages of whining". Surely that would be the title of your autobiography?

Edit: Two volumes. (obviously)