Why the Gunboat might come up short...dang it (blog)

By Lobokai, in X-Wing

Here's hoping that Linked Batteries is free in order to offset the 2 point tax the title has. Not a huge fan of our cannon carriers having a 2 point tax on their cannons.

edit: I could have sworn that the title was 2 points when the article went up, but perhaps I'm just hallucinating again. Still, we're paying a 1 or 2 point tax on our cannon carriers.

Edited by HolySorcerer
22 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

I wouldn't

seems identical to the assault config, (adds slots, can shoot torps and missiles even while weapons disabled) minus the point restriction to the weapons you get to fire

Assuming that's how it works we can still set up a decent alpha strike with Cruise missiles and a SLAM 3-4 forward (assuming you line it up right which, with good flying, you can)

9 minutes ago, HolySorcerer said:

Here's hoping that Linked Batteries is free in order to offset the 2 point tax the title has. Not a huge fan of our cannon carriers having a 2 point tax on their cannons.

honestly, same boat here

not only would it help the boat, but it would give the B-wing a new lease on life other than being an objectively worse version of the g1-a and now the kim

1 minute ago, ficklegreendice said:

honestly, same boat here

not only would it help the boat, but it would give the B-wing a new lease on life other than being an objectively worse version of the g1-a and now the kim

Let's hope Linked Batteries is good at all. We still don't really know what it does.

8 minutes ago, Biophysical said:

Let's hope Linked Batteries is good at all. We still don't really know what it does.

we have some idea

swx69_spread_legal.png

we got small ship only (maybe more, some people say the text is too long far just that"

we got "When"

"a primary"

"[cannon] secondary (weapon)"

"may re(roll)"

basically, if I were a betting man,

"When attacking with

a primary weapon or a

[cannon] secondary weapon, you

may re-roll an/X attack die/dice"

I do hope it is zero. The gunboat is way overpriced at a base level as you're expected to load it with 2ndaries, so paying too much more just for reliable mods would overburden it. The b-wing is itself utterly obsolete and paying points for attack dice re-rolls won't help it at all

Edited by ficklegreendice
2 minutes ago, Biophysical said:

Let's hope Linked Batteries is good at all. We still don't really know what it does.

Reroll 1-2 dice at hopefully 0 points since it needs a cannon slot.

5 hours 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.

I think what the Gunboat really needs is:

CTRL+S

Imperial Only

Discard this card to deploy two Assault Gunboats from flight group Rho as reinforcements.

23 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

honestly, same boat here

not only would it help the boat, but it would give the B-wing a new lease on life other than being an objectively worse version of the g1-a and now the kim

I'm betting it's two points, because of course it will be. They'll justify it by comparing it to FCS, but they'll be wrong.

Speaking of which, I'd feel a lot more confident in the Gunboat if it had a systems slot.

3 hours ago, Rinzler in a Tie said:

Can someone tell me why Scum gets jam-packed upgrade bars and Imperials two or three if they're lucky?

And don't waste anyone's time saying "fluff"

Well, would you waste upgrades on pilots whose primary purpose seems to be to get blown up into enough space debris that it damages the enemies' engines or something?

4 hours ago, Stay On The Leader said:

B-Wing dial is much better than the K-Wings dial. What are you talking about?

No way, when you consider the slam. Without slam, K dial sucks. But with slam, is great and all you need for shine.

The B dial is just poor.

I think one thing that could really make that Assault Configuration work well would be some sort of Alpha-class Star Wing only modification that made cannon upgrades one point cheaper. Too bad none of the cards look to include that.

Maybe in the future we'll get an Imperial Reinforcements box with two Gunboats and some new toys for them!

13 hours ago, Lobokai said:

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.

100% agree. I've been saying that for weeks now. Imperials keep getting worst and there is nothing on the horizon that gives any kind of hope (only rebelions are built on that :-) All numbers indicate poor performances and no Imperial build has won any major event since the FAQ removed the only competitive options they had. Yet some players still argue that they are fine.

The gunboat looks like an ordinary ship so far. Not bad but also not comparable to what's dominating the current meta. There needs to be some seriously good upgrades (or title) in whats left to preview because the 2 other ships looks better (again) so far.

Then there is also the insult that is the Tie Silencer. It doesnt take a math genius to see how that ship wont perform yet most non imperial players seem to think otherwise. Logic would dictate to look at Corran and wonder how he would perform with Kylo's ability and thrusters instead of regen. Logic would answer just as badly as the other ewing. But no, we are whining for no reason. It's an incredible arc dodger and for some myterious reason it will perform even if grosly overpriced.

At the same time rebels are getting another bomber that already look amazing with just the 1st preview. Slam Miranda was a problem and it seems like it's about to get corrected but before that they released a pilot thats worst (Nym) and a 2nd one is on the way... Because Sabine wasnt enough, there seeded to be a crit added to her undefendable dmg.

Balance would have suggested that the Imperials were in need of some bomb boosting ability like that but.... again.

Edited by Thormind

Eh, calling the res bomber "amazing" is a huge kneejerk

Compared to the k, and especially miri, it's utter trash

2 dice pwt with no TLT at all nor any other way to improve its craptastic 2 dice primary, no room for Sabine, bomb launcher that can't launch ACTION bombs and lower ps with no ept and even the pseudo Sabine requires arc

Resistance bomber has some STARK weaknesses and is incredibly specialised

Basically its balanced as ****

Edited by ficklegreendice

Since so little is revealed yet.im just looking at what we know for sure...

And that pilot ability on the high p.s. dude just doesn't look that great compared to the high p.s. guys that normally are so broken that they can be used for competitive play.

Without a completely off the chain amazing pilot ability...this ship can't compete.

This is subject to change as more info comes out. But so far the ship is leaving me disappointed in the imperial offering.....again.

The inability of the devs to price pilots and abilities continue to baffle me. Sure, it is difficult, the ever increasing number of upgrade cards that can be combined in an exponentially increasing number of combinations makes it difficult to prevent that ONE UBER combination to slip through.. but as I see it the main problem resides in getting even the basic stats+dial+actions+ no of upgrade slots(esp Ept) priced correctly.. even simple comparisons and balance across factions could help with this...

2 hours ago, Warlon said:

Assuming that's how it works we can still set up a decent alpha strike with Cruise missiles and a SLAM 3-4 forward (assuming you line it up right which, with good flying, you can)

I really doubt Slam + cruise will be a thing. If thats the case this ship went from "ok" to really good. Especially if the dial has a white 4 straight. Double 4 + TL + cruise , ouch :-) And after that you can do a 180 with a double 2 hard and be ready to shoot again the next round.

1 hour ago, ficklegreendice said:

Eh, calling the res bomber "amazing" is a huge kneejerk

Compared to the k, and especially miri, it's utter trash

2 dice pwt with no TLT at all nor any other way to improve its craptastic 2 dice primary, no room for Sabine, bomb launcher that can't launch ACTION bombs and lower ps with no ept and even the pseudo Sabine requires arc

Resistance bomber has some STARK weaknesses and is incredibly specialised

Basically its balanced as ****

Well i dont know, being able to drop proxi mines at range 5 that do 1-4 + 1 crit undefendable dmg (sabine does not have to be on the same ship) seems pretty good to me... It also seems to have a much lower pts cost. IMO it's definitly better than the Silencer.

1 hour ago, RedHotDice said:

The inability of the devs to price pilots and abilities continue to baffle me. Sure, it is difficult, the ever increasing number of upgrade cards that can be combined in an exponentially increasing number of combinations makes it difficult to prevent that ONE UBER combination to slip through.. but as I see it the main problem resides in getting even the basic stats+dial+actions+ no of upgrade slots(esp Ept) priced correctly.. even simple comparisons and balance across factions could help with this...

More and more i believe that each faction has different designers. They need to switch the one for scum with the one for Imperials for some waves :)

6 minutes ago, Thormind said:

Well i dont know, being able to drop proxi mines at range 5 that do 1-4 + 1 crit undefendable dmg (sabine does not have to be on the same ship) seems pretty good to me... It also seems to have a much lower pts cost. IMO it's definitly better than the Silencer.

at a lower PS than most "Aces", it is completely "defendable" as you can react to it. Speed 5 (range 2) is long but it is also limited by where you are facing at the start of the round, only genius can change that

as for lower point cost, it is priced exactly the same as the K (ps 7 is 29 points)

course sabine can be on another ship, but you have to bring that other ship with a bomber. From what we've seen, I highly doubt anyone would take the Nebulon B-wing over Nym and especially not over miranda. It's a drastic downgrade from how rather obscenely versatile miranda is

and really, that's more the core issue. Ships like Miranda and Dengar just do way too much for their cost and their turrets +extreme damage output (sabine bombs, torps + pilot ability) make counterplay next to impossible. We should not really be looking forward to a gunboat that is broken. We should be wanting nerfs for the crazier stuff so more ships can be used and a more varied, entertaining competitive scene can be created

I feel the resistance bomber is ideal in how specialized it is and how obvious its weaknesses are. I feel we should be encouraging ships more like it and less like miranda

Edited by ficklegreendice
15 hours ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

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

See how you feel after getting your Bothan massacre erased and losing 3 super gun mega bases to a rag-tag bunch of rabble. Such things leave scars!

15 hours ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

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

It seems to be pretty par for the course.

Never hear Rebel players complain for longer than a week, and can we talk about how Rebels constantly get DOA ships? U-Wings in particular should have been PRETTY BOSS but kinda fell flat (according to everyone I've talked to anyway.)

Like, come on.

We're getting the gunboat.

And we're complaining it won't be perfect?

Starting to wonder if Imperial players deserve it at this point.

TBF people aren't complaining about the gunboat not being perfect, as much as it not being immediately appreciable broken and therefore on par with meta game defining pilots

which is a silly thing to complain about, since really you should bring said meta gaming defining pilots down rather than power creeping up to them

7 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

TBF people aren't complaining about the gunboat not being perfect, as much as it not being immediately appreciable broken and therefore on par with meta game defining pilots

which is a silly thing to complain about, since really you should bring said meta gaming defining pilots down rather than power creeping up to them

Sure, my preference would be to nerf the OP stuff in order to prevent a runaway OP race like we have now, the problem is that FFG just doesn't nerf stuff when it needs to. The Jumpmaster was five waves ago, and it's still an undercosted, overpowered mess; TLT is still the most powerful turret by a wide margin. Nym, has several years ahead of him before they would even consider a nerf. I'd just like something that can compete.

Edited by HolySorcerer
16 minutes ago, Thormind said:

Well i dont know, being able to drop proxi mines at range 5 that do 1-4 + 1 crit undefendable dmg (sabine does not have to be on the same ship) seems pretty good to me... It also seems to have a much lower pts cost. IMO it's definitly better than the Silencer.

Reread how those cards work. It might bring you off the ledge about the bomber.

you know what's funny?

Captain Jonus is a ps 6

Major Rhymer is a ps 7

Major Vynder is a ps 7

but Lieutenant kass...karasa...Kashew something is a ps 5

ps based on rank confirmed

except for Vess, guy's a **** up...and captain kagi, guy's a prodigy

so this is why Empire can't have nice things, they don't promote the right people!

Edited by ficklegreendice
1 minute ago, ficklegreendice said:

you know what's funny?

Captain Jonus is a ps 6

Major Rhymer is a ps 7

Major Vynder is a ps 7

but Lieutenant kass...karasa...Kashew something is a ps 5

ps based on rank confirmed

except for Vess, guy's a **** up

Lt Kestal is 7, you're confusing her with double edge.

Lt Lorir is PS5, but Captian Yorr and Captian kagi are way different PS.

3 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

I do hope it is zero. The gunboat is way overpriced at a base level as you're expected to load it with 2ndaries, so paying too much more just for reliable mods would overburden it. The b-wing is itself utterly obsolete and paying points for attack dice re-rolls won't help it at all

Actually, having some rerolls on a B-wing would be really nice. Both for the standart effect, and since it will open the sensors slot for something else than FCS.