38 minutes ago, Jo Jo said:

I'm not sure you can find a better 22 points to spend than a Nu Sqd. with LRS and a Harpoon.

Nu Sqd with GChips within Rng 2 of Quickdraw equipped with Targeting Synchronizer? That was all over the Austin Regional stream when I watched it.

By itself in a squad not including that Quickdraw, yeah LRS is great, but there's enough Countermeasures in the meta right now that having the Gunboat(s) partnered with Quickdraw and Targeting Synchronizer is too good.

3 minutes ago, RStan said:

By itself in a squad not including that Quickdraw, yeah LRS is great, but there's enough Countermeasures in the meta right now that having the Gunboat(s) partnered with Quickdraw and Targeting Synchronizer is too good.

This could be a good call; as Poe was a pain; with the blackone title. plus Quickdraw isn't a bad ship at all. Quickdraw or another SF with Targeting Sync and FCS could be a useful.

Seems you'd need target synch for any kind of missile boat to work, for countermeasures, low ps locks AND blackone if optics Poe becomes a thing

Only played against one optics Poe, couldn't really hurt him with blackout and two deltas. Melted Rey, but he was a constant problem being very hard to kill and with easy access to full mods via lock

With b1 around, nonsynch nondeadeye missiles just eat it

Personally of the option that QD doesn't NEED her tech slot, so it's as good a home as any

Just now, the1hodgy said:

This could be a good call; as Poe was a pain; with the blackone title. plus Quickdraw isn't a bad ship at all. Quickdraw or another SF with Targeting Sync and FCS could be a useful.

There were a couple matches on the Austin stream that had a Vader/Quickdraw/Rho alpha list. Funny thing was there were 2 different players in a row (round 5 & 6) that played that exact same list that were competing for top 16.

2 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

Seems you'd need target synch for any kind of missile boat to work, for countermeasures, low ps locks AND blackone if optics Poe becomes a thing

Only played against one optics Poe, couldn't really hurt him with blackout and two deltas. Melted Rey, but he was a constant problem being very hard to kill and with easy access to full mods via lock

With b1 around, nonsynch nondeadeye missiles just eat it

Personally of the option that QD doesn't NEED her tech slot, so it's as good a home as any

Black One definitely is on my radar for any Gunboat build, because it neuters stuff that needs TL to work.

Black One is basically the reason i stopped running my Homing Missile + Crack + LRS Gammavets awhile ago.

It autocountered that list without even trying. I hate that upgrade, should not work on friendly ships since its a PAINT JOB causing it not some high-tech scrambler emitter.

Also the Rey/Poe combo really should be gunning for Poe first. No matter what build Rey has, shes not that hard to take down and shes only annoying out of arc, not lethal. Poe is friggen impossible to take out if you dont have multiple people gunning for him.

6 hours ago, the1hodgy said:

How I fixed it? Someone here suggested Lighting Reflexes; so i tried that. It did the trick, i was able to push more damage through in two turns than i would have done with crackshot. They crippled dash again in first attack using linked battery and a focus. I was then able to swing round (that dial is very white and green) and blast again using the TL to push damage; killing Dash. (Vessery helped by stripping tokens, and his Tractor Beam)

I might give Lightning Reflexes a try, but question for that card. How does it interact with the SLAM action? Also how does that work with the timing of Karsabi's ability if you can Lightning Reflex off a SLAM action?

Just now, RStan said:

I might give Lightning Reflexes a try, but question for that card. How does it interact with the SLAM action? Also how does that work with the timing of Karsabi's ability if you can Lightning Reflex off a SLAM action?

1: You can LR off a SLAM (probably). It's still a move on your dial, even if it's not one that you already executed this round.

2: Assuming you use Karsabi's ability on the WD token, you can't LR, because you're stressed.

WOuld be my interpretations, but neither has any official back, and both could use FAQing.

Not sure how i like the idea of LR.

Unless you can pull it off w/o needing SLAM to break the R1 bubble, XG-1 loses HLC (Karsabi ability is blocked by LR triggering first) and OS-1 will either need to not have fired the last round or have a 2nd ordnance to shoot since they probably need to reload the last one still.

On the note of Karsabi, Wired is hilarious on him. He's ALWAYS stressed.

On 11/14/2017 at 10:44 PM, Biophysical said:

I know that Harpoons are the sexy new toy right now, but I'm amassing a pretty sizable body of evidence that missiles are not the power build for Gunboats. You don't have the action economy to make use of the abilities. You either take Long Range Scanners to get the TL, but then you often can't spend it. You take Chips to modify shots better, but then you have no TL set up after you SLAM, or you take Advanced SLAM to get the action, but you're firing shots that are more lightly modified.

Then you run into the issue of getting the lock against ships that move after you.

What doesn't have this problem? HLC gunboat. You can have it between 26 points (Nu, Assault Title, HLC, LRS) and 32 (Rho, Crack Shot, Linked Batteries, HLC, LRS). It's easier to use, slightly more expensive, doesn't need to be reloaded, and doesn't run into those annoying action requirements that missiles do.

2 Rho Squadron Pilots + an Ace is a thing. It's going to be a big thing, I think. It's not a secret, or won't be for long, because holy crap, it burns **** down.

I haven't read through the entirety of this thread yet, but this is spot-on. I used missile gunboats in a tournament yesterday and went 0-3. I ran into every issue you pointed out. I think the only way to get missile gunboats to work well is to use an Upsilon with Weapons Engineer/Targeting Synchronizer. Even still, it will have issues. I did gain some good insights on the dial though. And now I know I can't rely on SLAM every turn, even with Adv. SLAM. I need to use it more sparingly.

I'm working on something along these lines now. There may be too many points invested here, but it's pretty cool to have Karsabi SLAM into Range 1 of a TLT ship, dump the disabled token, and be able to use the mangler and reroll up to two dice. Vynder can stay at a distance and rely on the HLC and SLAM out of arc/into Range 3 when neccessary.

Major Vynder (26)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Linked Battery (2)
Advanced SLAM (2)
XG-1 Assault Configuration (1)

Lieutenant Karsabi (24)
Wired (1)
"Mangler" Cannon (4)
Linked Battery (2)
XG-1 Assault Configuration (1)

"Omega Leader" (21)
Juke (2)
Comm Relay (3)
Stealth Device (3)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Dont put adv slam on karsabi, it doesnt work

The disabled token is part of the SLAM action, so he has to trigger mid-action before Adv Slam can kick in.

2 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Dont put adv slam on karsabi, it doesnt work

The disabled token is part of the SLAM action, so he has to trigger mid-action before Adv Slam can kick in.

Oh good catch. I meant to have ADV Slam on Vydner.

Quite interesting to watch the NC regionals and all of the gunboats at the top had harpoons and no cannons. I´m still a cannon fan but withou any title and harpoons they seem so much cheaper and still worth it ;(

were they Nu's with literally just harpoons and LRS?

Thats pretty popular too because its so dang cheap, and the reload action/slam for escape lets you potentially get it multiple times.

1 hour ago, Taiowaa said:

Quite interesting to watch the NC regionals and all of the gunboats at the top had harpoons and no cannons. I´m still a cannon fan but withou any title and harpoons they seem so much cheaper and still worth it ;(

Yeah, when I was originally looking at this, I didn't think at all about title-less boats. Most of the hype was for one title or the other, and that's what I had been testing and thinking about. Who knew that all the Simitar Squadron Pilot needed was some shields, SLAM, and reload.

It caught me out as well, but it took only 2 games with my hybrid Flechette/Harpoon boats to realise all the points spent on cannons were wasted.

22 is the magic number for Gunboats.

actually i tried the harpoon nu´s, and after firing you need 1 turn to reload, 2nd turn accuire TL, 3rd turn get focus and shoot again... its a **** hard cycle to only shoot every 3rd turn.

Harpoon LRS it is then

Aren't harpoons just such a great balanced card?

They'd be about as good at 23pts with Homing Missiles.

VI on Rhos seems odd. WHat are they jumping with that, from 4 to 6, that wouldn't be better with Crack Shot?

3 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

VI on Rhos seems odd. WHat are they jumping with that, from 4 to 6, that wouldn't be better with Crack Shot?

Other Rhos.

10 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

VI on Rhos seems odd. WHat are they jumping with that, from 4 to 6, that wouldn't be better with Crack Shot?

Because Crack Shot isn't as good as you think?

Outside of Crack Swarm I don't think Crack Shot has ever made a meaningful impact. It's a lazy EPT choice people default to where there's usually better options.

and not even one Rho with HLC