2 minutes ago, BadMotivator said:

You cannot formation fly gunboats.

I would respectfully disagree. Based on my experience, 4 Nu are pretty good in formation.

....

5 hours ago, MalusCalibur said:

I remain unconvinced by the Star Wing. Munitions are a dead end given the number of hoops you have to jump through, relegating it to a cannon platform, and 28pts is a lot (and that's the minimum for a decent HLC version) for a ship that gets one shot at best and then spends three-four turns not contributing as it Lambdas it's way around the board.

I find it quite sad that what was supposed to be a munitions carrier is terrible at doing that unless you completely ignore its tricks and go as cheap as is possible (22pt Harpoon+LRS, no titles). Anything more than that starts comparing infavourably to the TIE/SF or Aggressor - certainly the named pilots are far too expensive for what they can do and how often they'll actually fire.

Yes it does seem a bit of a shame that the ship does seem pretty rubbish with munitions as it just doesn't seem to have the action economy..

Now when I played the ship in the various games, you used lasers, ions and missiles. Never did I have any heavy cannons so it is a shame that the ship isn't that thematic.

1 hour ago, Thormind said:

Poe would move after Kylo. Try it with a friend... Its actually the opposite. Vs higher ps and regen, Kylo doesnt stand a chance.

The problem with the stressbug is the protection he can get from lowrisk. It's almost impossible to focus it down fast enough to limit the kind of dmg he can do to imperial lists. Oh and it has a rear arc just to make sur it can stress as much as possible. Im not a bad player at all and i got screwed by double stress in most matches i played. I played half of my matches with double defenders and the other half with RAC as partners. Blackout+RAC vs stressbug is not fun at all.

IMO nothing beats ptl+advanced sensor on Kylo.

R2 or BB8 Poe both wins vs Kylo :-)

Dont know, im more scared when facing 4x Gunship flying in formation with that crazy 180d arc than i am when facing triple HLC gunboat. At least vs the gunboat if you play your approach carefully you can get into the range 1 bubble of at least 1 or 2 ships (3 if you are lucky).

To me playing vs triple HLC Gunboat is a bit like playing vs 4xTLTs. Its scary until you figure out how to correctly plan the 1st engagement. I think 4x TLT aggressors are actually better than 3xHLCboat. With a better dial (kturn + white 4 speed) and barrel roll, they are impressive when flying into obstacles. I've surprised more than 1 opponent by flying through a thigh asteroid field instead of going around it... Especially when comming out of that field in an almost perfect formation :-)

1v1 Kylo wins. He's worth more and Poe will never catch him.

34 minutes ago, PT106 said:

FTFY.

The cost of using any crew for imperials is to dedicate a ship for it.

What are you talking about?

Decimator and Phantom are only for transporting crewmen? Last I heard these are pretty potent ships in it's own right.

5 minutes ago, Embir82 said:

What are you talking about?

Decimator and Phantom are only for transporting crewmen? Last I heard these are pretty potent ships in it's own right.

Phantom has a host of other issues and the Decimator is half your friggen list if not more if you want it to be remotely viable. Which completely neuters listbuilding ideas.

Only time ive ever seen a decimator in a 3ship list was when it was a naked Oicuun or the third ship was an academy pilot.

2 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Phantom has a host of other issues and the Decimator is half your friggen list if not more if you want it to be remotely viable. Which completely neuters listbuilding ideas.

Only time ive ever seen a decimator in a 3ship list was when it was a naked Oicuun or the third ship was an academy pilot.

What 3 ship list got anything to do with what I said?
I just prove my point that Empire got a ships that provide crew slot and are not only carriers for them.

5 hours ago, Schu81 said:

My built was super heavy armed, but somehow I have lost anyway. Guess that's a clear proof for the underpowereness of these ships.

They can't even win with all these weapons.

Major Vynder (26)
Expose (4)
Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)
Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)
Unguided Rockets (2)
Long-Range Scanners (0)
Os-1 Arsenal Loadout (2)

Lieutenant Karsabi (24)
Ruthlessness (3)
Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)
Assault Missiles (5)
Autoblaster (5)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Long-Range Scanners (0)
XG-1 Assault Configuration (1)

Total: 97

My son likes to pull this with his B-Wings and it never goes well for him. 35% or more of your points tied into weapons that you will never get to fire. Mostly because the 3-5 ships you are facing have blasted you to oblivion by turn 2. Of course watching your two 50 point Swiss Army Knives get melted to slag a few times definitely helps one to learn the age old adage that there is strength in numbers. Or you buy the kid some Brobots.

"The dark side is strong in me, for I am Sith."

This list was influenced by the fact that I didn't have a third expertise or long range scanners card. I was pleasantly surprised by Karsabi's performance. I usually have him zip out in front of the other boats right before the first engagement.

3 hours ago, Warlon said:

I see your problem.

You had Expose.

That will make any build lose.

Oh come on.. I've had a lot of fun with this on the Decimator. Expose and Experimental Interface is great fun on that ship.

"The dark side is strong in me, for I am Sith."

8 minutes ago, Crimsonwarlock said:

Lieutenant Karsabi — Alpha-class Star Wing 24 Deadeye 1 Proton Torpedoes 4 Proton Rockets 3 Advanced SLAM 2 Ship Total: 34

Curious, why karsabi instead of another Rho? His ability both doesnt work with adv slam or deadeye as he kills any bonus actions before hes done with SLAM action. I mean it still works with Reload on its own but then no focus token.

4 hours ago, Warlon said:

GUNBOATS are built off of hope...and strength. You must have both if you're going to succeed.

THIS.

21 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Curious, why karsabi instead of another Rho? His ability both doesnt work with adv slam or deadeye as he kills any bonus actions before hes done with SLAM action. I mean it still works with Reload on its own but then no focus token.

Hrm... You're right, I was playing the timing incorrectly.

I'm going to go home and rethink my list...

btw tracktorbeam vessery and 2 gunboats or backdraft/Sabaac deal with every stresshog very effectively. you bring lowrick to protect your stressbug? tractorbeam doesn´t care

Sigh...

Gunboats haven't been released where I live yet.

Sad.

I still haven't flown the GUNBOAT yet! My schedule has been so busy lately. But, my wife played it last night (PTL Missile Boat, Quickdraw, Vessery) against me and my Slender Norra list (PS10 Poe with Adv Op, Fenn Rau, Slender Norra). We played the 75 minutes and I won because I blew up her GUNBOAT. I almost lost Norra... that version of Norra (Intensity+EI+BB8+Jyn Erso) has tons of potential I feel but it's a little too fiddly for me.

Anyways, she played a missile version and got one missile off, then proceeded to self-bump then get hung up on a rock, and Poe took it out. Mrs. Rick is pretty new to the game and last night said she wanted to go back to playing two ships (Dash/Miranda), but then today told me she wants to try the GUNBOAT again but with cannons. We're going to go with a Rho + Mangler + Linked B + Debris Gambit + LRS for 30 points leave the rest the same.

I think she feels the power of the GUNBOAT and wants more.

4 hours ago, Warlon said:

I see your problem.

You had Expose.

That will make any build lose.

Thanks dude!

I have just tried it against my dog and lost again. But I was doing better than the first time.

You a pro, bro? Best advice ever.

3 hours ago, Celestial Lizards said:

Your build is terrible. Try something that's less carazy on points.

No why? I have already got 3 points for initiative.

8 hours ago, Warlon said:

As soon as the Gunboat was announced my first thought was "How many can I fit into a squad?" I don't think very many people were really hoping for the names pilots to be much better than the generics, we fly the GUNBOATS to see the glorious model and shout the name "Nu" or "Rho" whenever we emerge victorious.

I'm just more or less assuming both of the named pilots are actually from Rho squadron, anyway.

7 hours ago, Schu81 said:

I have played Gunboats and lost all matches. They suck.

Just can't freaking turn them around, can't fire when I need to (stupid token, who has invented this?) and they can't recharge shields.

Which Imperial ships can recharge shields? I want to try them out!

8 hours ago, Warlon said:

One extra thing I got from my games was that the GUNBOAT is extremely fun to fly.

Being an Imperial main I always dreaded when my opponent got a good attack roll, considering our ships are always so fragile. We either had to spend all our upgrades into making our ships impossible to hit and pray that we never rolled all blanks, or we spent minimum 40 points to have a flying brick of health.

In both games I played I was able to make extremely bold maneuvers with my squadron, at one point a lone Rho veteran and Rey we're staring at each other at range 2. For our average ship this would spell disaster, but the hardened Imperial pilot in the cockpit of the Gunboat just gave Rey the middle finger after her volley just barely scratched the paint off his vessel and replied with a barrage of fire from his heavy laser cannon.

I agree that they are a blast to fly. Personally, I've been trying out the OS-1 title, and it didn't seem too bad to me (other than against one opponent's Poe, who had the upgrade to strip off Target Locks every turn). I think if I focus more on performing bombing runs (rather than trying to turn around and attack every turn) and swap out my Lambda's Ion Cannon for a Flechette Cannon and Tactician (my opponents' twenty extra actions every turn tended to hurt me far more than their standard maneuvers), they'll be pretty viable in my local group, at least. Of course, I do want to try out the XG-1 title too at some point.

2 hours ago, PT106 said:

FTFY.

The cost of using any crew for imperials is to dedicate a ship for it.

2 hours ago, Vineheart01 said:

Yeah imperials are the only faction that lacks a cheap ship for crew.

TIE Bomber is 100% dead weight when its using crew. It cant do ANYTHING except its crew effects (Rhymersnapping w/ Tactician is a slight exception but thats 33pts)

2 hours ago, thespaceinvader said:

Yup. Imperials don't have floating extra crew slots to devote to ignoring stress.

And the Stressbug is why Primed Thrusters will be essential on the Silencer I think.

Merci!

8 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Personally, I've been trying out the OS-1 title, and it didn't seem too bad to me (other than against one opponent's Poe, who had the upgrade to strip off Target Locks every turn).

Throw in some tracers and show Poe a finger.

29 minutes ago, Boba Rick said:

Mrs. Rick is pretty new to the game and last night said she wanted to go back to playing two ships (Dash/Miranda), but then today told me she wants to try the GUNBOAT again but with cannons. We're going to go with a Rho + Mangler + Linked B + Debris Gambit + LRS for 30 points leave the rest the same.

I think she feels the power of the GUNBOAT and wants more.

If you didn't already I would say "marry that woman!".

16 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Which Imperial ships can recharge shields? I want to try them out!

Pros only, bro.

Sorry.

4 hours ago, RunnerAZ said:

1v1 Kylo wins. He's worth more and Poe will never catch him.

Your definition of a best ship/pilot is one that can outrun another ship and play with the clock? Sure then Kylo might win.

4 hours ago, Embir82 said:

What are you talking about?

Decimator and Phantom are only for transporting crewmen? Last I heard these are pretty potent ships in it's own right.

Both ships need their crew slots for other options. And you are not bringing them just to add inspiring recruit, thats 100% for sure. Of the 2 ships only the decimator is a decent partner for Kylo. You already sacrifice a lot on RAC to have enough pts for Kylo. Also Inspiring recruit would require Kylo to fly at range 1-2 of RAC (or Whisper), not something you do that often with a 2 ship build...

What people meant is we dont have something like a Gunship, a bug, an attack shuttle, a Kwing, a Scurrg, etc. that is low cost enough to bring a low impact situational crew without building a whole squad around a specific ship or loosing much effectiveness.

Had chance to fly a couple of gunboat lists a couple of days ago.

First list out of the gates was 4x Nu squadron; os-1 loadout and advanced slam all round, 2 had cruise missiles, 2 had plasma torps.

As predicted, the list ran into huge problems getting target locks for the initial engagement. The gunboats were pretty tough by imperial standards, but they all went down in the end. 4x gunboat list might work for cannons, not for ordnance.

Second list was ordnance based again;

Major Vynder w/ adaptability, os-1, homing missiles, advanced slam, ion pulse missiles

2x Rho squadron w/ VI, os-1, homing missiles, advanced slam

This one did much better, not only because it had superior ps to the opponents list, but also because i'd actually paid the good money for the homing missiles. Admittedly i did not get chance to fly against a proper high ps list (which would be a much better test of the list) but the game i played with these was a pure & simple slaughter. Getting towards the end game my gunboats were circling his remaining ships like missile laden sharks. Pulling out for an attack run when they felt comfortable, and never ending a turn in a firing arc thanks to the slam.

The take away from that game (and really both games in general) is:

The ability to slam around and still blow stuff up ks really cool

However, action economy is an issue, and needing to reload really makes you want to break off to regroup after attack runs.

Having superior pilot skill with the ordnance loadout feels super important (i know... obv, right?)

Getting enough dice modification can be a problem because expending your target lock is a big deal (unless you expect the target to die this turn).

Ordnance loadouts do not get as much focus as you might think, which can make them weak defensively

Anyway, the second list feels like something i can keep together. Although i am stripping the IPM's from vynder and using the extra points to switch out his ept for something as-yet undecided.

Next project js to see how the cannon loadout plays