Either:

Nu

- LRS
-Harpoons

for 22 points,

or:

Nu

- XG1

-Jamming Beam

-Tractor Beam

One does raw damage, one has control. Which is more effective?

I've never flown a cheap Harpoon boat... I've only shot a couple dozen of them right out of the sky. Not to say that they weren't worthy opponents. As far as I know, that's still the only GUNBOAT to win a major competition.

My favorite cheap cannon boat is definitely the Flechette Cannon. But I can understand why you might not own a Scyk - I personally could not bring myself to buy a fourth of the little things just to have enough Flechettes to fulfill my GUNBOATs' dreams...

I'm on the side for control because you can do something after a Slam action + with the linked battery you have some reroll for both primary and canon attack. LRS is not a good idea with Black One title here to shutdown your lock.

My friend love using Poe this is why I play more with a deadeye Rho/Xg1. Shoot a missile, slam/reload thank to advanced slam and can shoot with a canon. Or if you are on budget remplace advanced slam by a guidance ship.

Nu with Assault config, Mangler, linked battery. 25pts. Times 4.

I've only actually flown Vynder as yet, and only have 2 gunboats.

3 minutes ago, Gilarius said:

Nu with Assault config, Mangler, linked battery. 25pts. Times 4.

I've only actually flown Vynder as yet, and only have 2 gunboats.

I've flown the quad Mangler build a lot, and my own personal experience is that it's even better with Flechettes than with Linked Battery. You end up SLAMming so often that it's a lot better to get a shot when you SLAM than that one reroll is (since you've usually got LRS on there anyway).

I intend to try Vynder, Quickdraw, and a Nu out next time I get to play. Still trying to work out the builds, particularly since Poe with Black One is fairly prevalent in my vicinity.

I will have to compare how flechettes do.

Just now, Gilarius said:

I intend to try Vynder, Quickdraw, and a Nu out next time I get to play. Still trying to work out the builds, particularly since Poe with Black One is fairly prevalent in my vicinity.

I will have to compare how flechettes do.

Hey, at the risk of getting a little off-topic from the thread, how is Vynder? I've never flown her and I haven't seen anyone else fly her around my FLGS either, so I'm not sure what to expect. Is there an optimal build for her?

Vynder with OS title, harpoons and ion pulse, VI, and advanced slam. 38pts. But I want to fly her with RAC and my preferred RAC build makes it 103pts. I'm going to try dropping Dauntless and ion pulse for extra munitions and see how she does.

She is great fun - last time I chased down a pair of lancers!

1 hour ago, Celestial Lizards said:

One does raw damage, one has control. Which is more effective?

It is not always so simple because the rest of the list has to be taken into account, but a ship which has been destroyed is not shooting back and is contributing points towards your victory.

I’d say Harpoons is probably better. Control is good because it means a ship will be dead next turn. Harpoons are good because it means the ship will be dead this turn. I love flying control lists, but I don’t think the Gunboat is best used that way. At low PS particularly, jamming and tractor beams aren’t gonna do much for you. Unless your whole list is PS 2, but...that may not be a good idea.

Try 2 control Nus and 2 Delta X7 Defenders.

Ps2 for the GUNs and ps1 for those beasts. It's a really tough nut to crack.

Harpoon by about 100%.

2 hours ago, Arma Quattro said:

Try 2 control Nus and 2 Delta X7 Defenders.

Ps2 for the GUNs and ps1 for those beasts. It's a really tough nut to crack.

Unless you come up against Intensity/BO/BB8 Poe and Countermeasures Rey and have the worst dice you've ever had while your opponent had the best dice he'd ever had and pull blinded pilot when you finally have lined up a harpoon shot...... /issues

I've found the 26 point HLC Nu to be the best of the cannonboats:

26 Nu w/ LRS, XG-1, HLC.

You can put on linked batteries if you have the points spare, but I find LRS to be enough. They're really good for 26 points, especially running them in pairs.