If you could add one upgrade slot to the Nebuon, what would it be? Would it be the same slot for both versions, or would the Escort and Support versions have different upgrades?

Not that the Yavaris isn't worthwhile anymore, but how could we make other Nebulons truly competitive?

Nominations:

Offensive Retrofits would largely be mild counters to the Yavaris nerf with EHB or RLB. QLTs give a possible small boost to gun versions (or even Yavaris, if you're silly enough), but meh.

Yavaris with RLBs in Profundity probably makes this a no-go. Sticking that in Raddus-space needs a whole new Yavaris nerf.

Defensive Retrofits look to have amazing effects. Advanced Projectors would be sweet, if only the Nebuon-B had a Redirect token! ECM is nice. EWS can help a lot protecting those flanks, especially from squadrons. And Reinforced Blast Doors, well ... Sure, you have to survive a turn, but it's pretty nice.

Defensive Retrofits looks like a winner, with three good options.

Fleet support slot for the Support version.

One drawback is the lack of good and diverse Support Teams: FCT was more or less made for Yavaris, and ET can sometimes be useful on Salvation, but other than that? Now I've made myself think about Nav Team, and I almost start crying #sadpuppy

Another thing that could help us see more "generic" Nebs is a non-unique title. That's actually something that could happen.

So basically:

1. Some useful, low-cost Support Teams.

2. Non-unique titles for Neb-Bs

A weapon team?

- Caitken & Shollan would provide more reliability for red dice.
- Gunnery teams would give you two shots from the front arc.
- Flight controllers would make Yvaris better against squadrons without buffing bombers.

Yavaris

52 minutes ago, elbmc1969 said:

Yavaris with RLBs in Profundity probably makes this a no-go. Sticking that in Raddus-space needs a whole new Yavaris nerf.

Also, Yavaris cannot go in Profundity.

1 minute ago, ovinomanc3r said:

Yavaris

Also, Yavaris cannot go in Profundity.

??? it can't???

Just now, Geressen said:

??? it can't???

Command value of 2

4 minutes ago, ovinomanc3r said:

Command value of 2

Ah, yes. I was thinking that the limitation was small base. I keep being reminded of that and then forgetting again.

Guess that's why we never saw Profundity/Yavaris bombs!

1 hour ago, elbmc1969 said:

Ah, yes. I was thinking that the limitation was small base. I keep being reminded of that and then forgetting again.

Guess that's why we never saw Profundity/MC30 bombs!

FTFY.

19 minutes ago, elbmc1969 said:

Ah, yes. I was thinking that the limitation was small base. I keep being reminded of that and then forgetting again.

Guess that's why we never saw Profundity/Yavaris bombs!

same, completely forgot the other thing

Weapons Teams would let them take GT and make them legitimate front-arc threats for a phalanx-style formation.

Fleet Support would let them break the mold a little, and embrace the funkiness of their appearance. Plus, I think it's time to expand the roster of Fleet Support cards. If flotillas aren't primarily for activation spam anymore, then let's give them stuff to do in the arena of Fleet Support.

It would be nice to see them used for ship to ship combat. All these phalanx thoughts have been around since the 1st wave, but its not effective compared to other combat ships or Yavaris.

the Ion Cannon slot, oddly enough would suffice: Mostly since long range Quad Battery + HiE is pretty nice.

The Nebulon has not aged well, Yavaris was insanely too strong, and the other options are too flimsy to hold up to other ship to ship combat ideas.
The Pelta, while more durable, attacks like a wet noodle.

I wish Most Wanted had been changed to flotillas cannot be selected. That would increase objective diversity and give a tiny boost to ship swarms.

5 hours ago, FrightfulCommand said:

the Ion Cannon slot, oddly enough would suffice: Mostly since long range Quad Battery + HiE is pretty nice.

With only one blue die out the front (from QBT), HIE seems very expensive for a 25% chance of going off ... Much better if you manage to double-arc, but that's always a little tougher to line up and you really want to be at medium range so that you have two blue dice out the side. Better get the enemy out of that side arc after you fire, though.

5 hours ago, FrightfulCommand said:

I wish Most Wanted had been changed to flotillas cannot be selected. That would increase objective diversity and give a tiny boost to ship swarms.

Yeah, I was going to write a topic about this, but never got around to it.

6 hours ago, Nostromoid said:

Weapons Teams would let them take GT and make them legitimate front-arc threats for a phalanx-style formation.

You have to watch out for the effect on Yavaris. A Weapon Teams spot allows it to equip Flight Controllers, which can give Ten Numb 2 anti-squadron attacks with three blue dice each. That's a big increase in average splash damage.

Weapons team for Salvation

Having run Salvation a fair amount more recently than most (so, like, last wave?) You can get good results from QBTs and the title. It's cheap and it's a finisher, but you CAN do work with it. I liked it under Leia for con fire plus rerolls, and now that IF! Is out you can theoretically get a good swarm going with it all. Hmm, things to think about.

But to answer the question, @Snipafist and @GiledPallaeon were talking about this recently. A cheap support team that provides a redirect. Useable on an LMC80 or Arq or Glad, yes, but no Engine Techs? That's a trade off worth it I feel to get a second redirect. Might not be useable on a large, as an LMC80 with 2 redirects seems.... Unbalanced. But any small/medium ship would be fine I bet.

Well, the original question was, if you could add one upgrade slot to the Nebulon, what would it be? New upgrade cards are out of scope.

4 minutes ago, geek19 said:

Having run Salvation a fair amount more recently than most (so, like, last wave?) You can get good results from QBTs and the title. It's cheap and it's a finisher, but you CAN do work with it. I liked it under Leia for con fire plus rerolls, and now that IF! Is out you can theoretically get a good swarm going with it all. Hmm, things to think about.

You mean a Leia + QBT + IF! swarm, with Salvation on only one of them? Or just Salvation with those upgrades?

Oh, wait, these are existing slots, so they don't count. Zero points for you!

16 minutes ago, geek19 said:

But to answer the question, @Snipafist and @GiledPallaeon were talking about this recently. A cheap support team that provides a redirect. Useable on an LMC80 or Arq or Glad, yes, but no Engine Techs? That's a trade off worth it I feel to get a second redirect. Might not be useable on a large, as an LMC80 with 2 redirects seems.... Unbalanced. But any small/medium ship would be fine I bet.

As I recall, the hypothetical restriction on the support team idea was Command 2+ ships only, so there really aren't too many ships that would want it over Engine Techs for the most part. The only ships that might fancy an extra redirect with that restriction would be Nebulon-Bs (which would LOVE IT, although the Escort Frigate is likely sticking to Fighter Coordination Teams for the most part) and LMC80s (which would need to consider if a second redirect is more valuable than Engine Techs). I could see Interdictors maybe wanting it, but giving up Engine Techs on them is rough.

Edit: The end result being Escort Nebs would likely stick with FCTs and Yavaris for squad support and Support Refit Nebs would go with this hypothetical upgrade and Salvation for more of a heavy escort ship approach. 2 braces, 1 redirect, 1 evade is a very good defense token suite for a ship that wants to trade shots at long range. They still have that side arc weakness but with a redirect available, opponents would need a plan to get around that.

9 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

FTFY.

Thank God.

1 hour ago, Snipafist said:

As I recall, the hypothetical restriction on the support team idea was Command 2+ ships only, so there really aren't too many ships that would want it over Engine Techs for the most part. The only ships that might fancy an extra redirect with that restriction would be Nebulon-Bs (which would LOVE IT, although the Escort Frigate is likely sticking to Fighter Coordination Teams for the most part) and LMC80s (which would need to consider if a second redirect is more valuable than Engine Techs). I could see Interdictors maybe wanting it, but giving up Engine Techs on them is rough.

Edit: The end result being Escort Nebs would likely stick with FCTs and Yavaris for squad support and Support Refit Nebs would go with this hypothetical upgrade and Salvation for more of a heavy escort ship approach. 2 braces, 1 redirect, 1 evade is a very good defense token suite for a ship that wants to trade shots at long range. They still have that side arc weakness but with a redirect available, opponents would need a plan to get around that.

The other restriction I came up with later, which really only exists to disincentivize the Liberty when you have Endeavor, was having the token be the fourth token, forcing ships already with four (Endeavor and Interdictors) to discard one to take it.

It's time to make Neb-B great again!

A non-unique title, named Neb-Phalanx at 3 or 4 points that give to all Neb-B a weapon team slot

This way, you cannot give that bonus to Salvation or Yavaris.

If you want to buff the Nebulon without buffing Yavaris, just use the title slot.

Giving it an Advanced Projector style title would make it either incredably good or just pretty good for the base ship cost, exact wording and pricing dependant.

51 points for 3 reds out the front is very good value for money, so reducing its weakness even just a bit would be enough.

Could do the same for the VSD with a support team.

Something like a non-unique title named VSD Retrofit at 4 or 5 points.

Finnaly, the VSD could go faster than a turtle and it won't be OP.

How about a support team that makes you obstructed while defending at long range? Limit to small ships.

I dont understand the premise of this article as they are competitive. However the answer that no one has said yet is defensive retrofit for RBD or EWS, and offensive retrofit for boosted comms.

I dont understand why weapons team would be useful. You could take vet gunners I suppose