I was looking forward to their whining, stirring up the angst and aggro on here is what gets me through the working day!

Please, stop complain, I am not an experte, but I play good imp, and I always find a inventiv way to counter the curent meta ( obviously it's always hard and risky, but this is what imps do). I am kind of sick of constant complains, and it bring shame on me. I don't care about the lack of imps in the finals, it just make victories much more glorious and valuable.

Gunboat as I see it has two direct avenues to the competitive table

First is linked reroll HLC, which we already sort of know is going to give us basically deadeye SCURRG but at ps 4 and who don't need focus to fire

Second is we pray that the ordnance title is easy on the point restriction of whatever it lets you fire through weapons disabled.

The point limitation on xg-1 assault's cannon makes it impossible to deal significant enough damage while SLAMing, to the point that I guess you'll see the title more for linked batteries (or for fun)

But if the ordnance title has none, you could imagine ptl aSLAM boats just flinging themselves all over the board like ships with far better dials, SLAMing into ASLAM into RELOAD into PTL into targetlock for immediate results (or full mods if you don't reload).

Even with just a 2 green foward to clear stress, you'll get a full range of turns to work with when it comes to setting up your shots. If the boat comes with green 2-banks...*drool*

Sure, the boat ain't a turret but as long as it does the damage it will always have a chance at your local scene

DoA? The gunboat looks the strongest ship in the wave.

eeeh, idk about strongest (phantom 2, r3-a2 boogaloo might be a giant pain in the ***) but I do believe it has far more potential than the g1-a 2.0

the absolute dream scenario is fitting 3 Rho Squadrons with HLC, linked batteries, LRS (because why not) and Crackshot

they're not dengar, but they're also kind of terrifying

need more info (get on with the preview, ffg!)

4 minutes ago, Cerve said:

DoA? The gunboat looks the strongest ship in the wave.

They're all pretty close to DOA in the current bomb/turret game we have. Phantom MAY find a role, but TBH I think the bar is set too high now.

6 minutes ago, Cerve said:

DoA? The gunboat looks the strongest ship in the wave.

Phantom 2 is better just by having a second arc, not to mention cheap Coordinate and cheap multi-arc stresshog.

1 minute ago, Stay On The Leader said:

They're all pretty close to DOA in the current bomb/turret game we have. Phantom MAY find a role, but TBH I think the bar is set too high now.

A ship that can slam and shoot? Try to get it with any bombs.

To me there's a lot of understimating about the Gunboat

3 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

the absolute dream scenario is fitting 3 Rho Squadrons with HLC, linked batteries, LRS (because why not) and Crackshot

I don't get why that's game-changingly better than 3 HLC B-Wings. There's something close to that template already available and it's frankly awful, the Gunboat is a bit better than a B-Wing but enough better to transform utter awfulness into something fearsome?

Just now, thespaceinvader said:

Phantom 2 is better just by having a second arc, not to mention cheap Coordinate and cheap multi-arc stresshog.

Slam is actually the best action in the game. And this ship will even shoot after that.

The Phantom is strong, but the Gunboat is better for me.

2 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

I don't get why that's game-changingly better than 3 HLC B-Wings. There's something close to that template already available and it's frankly awful, the Gunboat is a bit better than a B-Wing but enough better to transform utter awfulness into something fearsome?

hlc B-wings don't get linked batteries (or LRS)

not having re-rolls completely invalidates them as being anywhere NEAR the xg-1 assault configuration. It's almost the difference between having or not having gchips (especially if it's more than one re-roll)

also the B-wing dial is atrocious and we can probably hope for something better (white 3 bank already)

Just now, ficklegreendice said:

hlc B-wings don't get linked batteries

But do get FCS.

3 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

But do get FCS.

takes turn to set up (no alpha strike)

cannot flip targets on a dime (kinda important when everything is a two ship super arc-dodgy list)

and again super awful dial

all reasons why deadeye SCURRG are a better comparison, especially if FFG gives the boat an ept at ps 4 (crackshot!)

I mean, it just gave the ps 3 wookie and SCURRG epts...

But when oh when do we get the article from ffg?!

Tomorrow at the earliest but given that it's not even on the boat yet, not soon.

I'm just hoping Guns for Hire goes to shipping soon.

10 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

takes turn to set up (no alpha strike)

cannot flip targets on a dime (kinda important when everything is a two ship super arc-dodgy list)

and again super awful dial

All true, but FCS also has better dice mods and we don't know the gunboat has a much better dial, in fact with SLAM on there it's likely to be quite limited I'd expect.

Like I said, the Gunboat is better in a lot of little ways. But it needs to be BETTER in a really really big way.

At the other end of the scale you've got HLC Brobots who are also achieving nothing despite having a ton of other strengths (and yes, one less HLC obviously). So unless there's some wierd sweet spot for HLC ships somewhere in the middle that the Gunboat can occupy it's a dead end.

You know what the only thing is making HLC playable at the moment? Outrider.

Gunboat generics at 22 points? I firmly believe they will be 20 points.

I still think the potential of cheap ion cannons is being undervalued, titles aside. Ion control is death on a stick to almost any of the current powerhouse ships.

4 minutes ago, Biophysical said:

I still think the potential of cheap ion cannons is being undervalued, titles aside. Ion control is death on a stick to almost any of the current powerhouse ships.

Agreed. Gunboat may be a cheaper route to get Ion cannons in than the TIE/D, but it's a shame the title cuts of at cost 2.

10 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

Agreed. Gunboat may be a cheaper route to get Ion cannons in than the TIE/D, but it's a shame the title cuts of at cost 2.

It is. 3 points would be very exciting. I'm not sure if it matters hugely, though. Once something is Ioned, the extra maneuverability from SLAM is generally less important.

Alright, I'm not up on the EU, games, legend and other stuff. What do you guys think the Gunboat should have to make it a good ship? Not pre nerf Phantom good but a solid, viable, go to ship?

Right now I'm hearing a lot of speculation mixed with some doom and gloom and a dirge playing in the background.

24 minutes ago, Biophysical said:

I still think the potential of cheap ion cannons is being undervalued, titles aside. Ion control is death on a stick to almost any of the current powerhouse ships.

If cheap ion cannons were worth bringing, they'd be worth bringing on Scyks, and they're not, by and large.

Why are people convinced the Gunboat dial will be bad? The rest of the complaints with the Gunboat I can see, compared to other ships. But the dial is not yet known.

I'm really hoping to see the Gunboat do well. I want them to be great. I'm not overly optimistic but I reserve judgment for the actual release article.

17 minutes ago, Stoneface said:

Alright, I'm not up on the EU, games, legend and other stuff. What do you guys think the Gunboat should have to make it a good ship? Not pre nerf Phantom good but a solid, viable, go to ship?

0-2 point linked battery upgrade for 2 rerolls (also great for Bs)

Ordnance title with no point restriction on which ordnance you get to shoot through weapons disabled tokens

A kturn; green 2 banks would be amazing and make ASLAM ptl viable (combine with titles to shoot through disabled weps)

Combine all this and the ps 7 would actually make an interesting pilot instead of a bizarre underwhelming ability

You'd have to nerf the too-easy-to-use game dominating turrets to see them (or much else) at top tables but they'd be very solid

19 minutes ago, Stoneface said:

Alright, I'm not up on the EU, games, legend and other stuff. What do you guys think the Gunboat should have to make it a good ship? Not pre nerf Phantom good but a solid, viable, go to ship?

Right now I'm hearing a lot of speculation mixed with some doom and gloom and a dirge playing in the background.

Like I've said elsewhere, it's not really a Gunboat-specific issue but a mechanics that handicap front firing arc ships issue. If the game changes sufficiently to bring in jousting primary arc ships (like was the case pre Wave-7) then things like the Gunboat will be well-equipped to take advantage.

Objectively the Gunboat is fine. It's just a nigh-obsolete style of ship.