"GUNBOAT" -Every forum member ever

Welcome to card of the day!
Today's card is the Title for the Gunboat, OS-1 Arsenal Loadout, which reads:
- ALPHA-CLASS STAR WING ONLY. TITLE.

Your upgrade bar gains the Torpedo and Missile upgrade icons.

You may perform attacks with torpedo and missile secondary weapons against ships you have locked even while you have a weapons disabled token.

What do you think of it? Is it weak or strong in this meta? What squads and builds would you use it in? Any neat interactions to note? What strategies should you use in a game? Any rules questions you have? How does it compare to the cannon title? Anything at all you want to say about the missile title, or the Alpha-class in general, this is the place!

UNLOAD ALL THE MISSILES!!

I'm becoming a big fan of the OS-1 title. I worried when it was revealed that the Gunboat's ordnance mechanics were clunky - Target Lock / SLAM / Reload all being required on a chassis that struggles for action economy - and that PtL combined with Advanced SLAM would barely be enough to leverage the title. After getting quite a few games in with it, I'm thinking I was dead wrong.

The XG-1 title is cheaper and relies less on action economy; it rewards slow play. If you're damage cannons (Mangler/HLC etc) you're going to be using slow speed moves a lot, banks or turns to try and keep targets in arc, and you're going to SLAM only when you need to quickly reposition. OS-1 ordnance users can find themselves SLAMing every other turn, using it to create distance to reload or to open up shots. They have the mobility to flank very quickly or chase down otherwise uncatchable targets. The two playstyles the titles open up really are very different beasts.

I've been running OS-1 on Rhos with Push the Limit, Harpoons and Guidance Chips, with (so far) sexy results. At 30 points a piece, they're not cheap, but their damage output is obscene.

Unlike the XG-1 title though, OS-1 has a couple of pretty strong counters - notably Black One and Countermeasures when it comes to match ups - but also range. Most ordnance is range 2-3 and Reload and SLAM both cause weapons disabled, so get to range one of an OS-1 Gunboat - even in arc - and you're often in a safe zone.

Apt vynder jank is good jank

I'm getting such good value from 28pts HLC Nu Squadron that I struggle to see how much better it can be in missiles and having to faff around reloading.

PTL Vynder IS good jank, though.

Not a terrible card, but one I've not found much use for. Ordnance rarely pays off for me, so I find myself using the XG-1 title far, far more often.

Hatchet-Man / PTL Vynder is so much fun, but I absolutely suck at flying him.

Alpha-class Star Wing: Major Vynder (26 + 14) + Push the Limit (3) + Proton Rockets (3) + Os-1 Arsenal Loadout (2) + Advanced SLAM (2) + Harpoon Missiles (4)

Anyone had any success with him?

Oh right, forgot to mention how extra silly Vynder jank is going to be once Reaper Palp starts protecting him and letting him shoot at tokenless targets (jam)

Outmaneuver adv slam os1 title, missiles of your choice. Best flanker

4 hours ago, player2072913 said:

‘ GUNBOAT " -Every forum member ever

But.... that’s my wacky catch phrase.....

I love ❤️ how GUNBOAT has many, many viable builds even in this restrictive meta. It just shows how versatile this beautiful lady is.

I do think the ordnance title works better with an aggressive play style (like my style of always flying straight at em no matter what I’m flying....), very much like the Missile Boat it emulates. I also love that the cannon title allows beams to work even when flying around super fast (like in the TIE Fighter game) and how you have the option to go heavy, Mangler or even traditional ion control (though Ion Pulse Missiles might be a better option in the large ship Meta).

GUNBOAT. I loved YOU before I met YOU, but not that YOU are here I’ve died and give to heaven ?.

If I gotta make on gripe with the Os-1 though, other than Black1 and Countermeasures existing, it's Systems Officer being range 1 only

Seriously shouldn't have to binge on striden to get some good boat synergy going

I like the Arsenal Loadout. It provides a good bonus to having it beyond just more ordnance slots, and causes the player to make an important decision. On one hand you can not use it, and still have an effective and low-cost Apha Wing. Or you can take it, and it will synergize wonderfully with Advanced SLAM, allowing you to Target Lock after the reposition (or simply use Deadeye for higher PS).

It’s the kind of title/upgrade that makes me scratch my head and wonder whether I value cost efficiency without it, or the bonus it provides.

Long range communication array

Large ship only

For the purpose of your actions and Upgrade cards, you may treat friendly ships at Range 2-3 as being at Range 1.

System. 3pts

2 minutes ago, It’s One Of Ours said:

I like the Arsenal Loadout. It provides a good bonus to having it beyond just more ordnance slots, and causes the player to make an important decision. On one hand you can not use it, and still have an effective and low-cost Apha Wing. Or you can take it, and it will synergize wonderfully with Advanced SLAM, allowing you to Target Lock after the reposition (or simply use Deadeye for higher PS).

Deadeye doesn't really synergise well with the OS-1 title I'm afraid. The title has a fixed Target Lock requirement regardless of whether you're rolling with Deadeye or not.

53 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

Deadeye doesn't really synergise well with the OS-1 title I'm afraid. The title has a fixed Target Lock requirement regardless of whether you're rolling with Deadeye or not.

I meant using Deadeye as an alternative to Adv Slam + OS-1. You are correct in that OS-1 requires the Target Lock.

6 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

Unlike the XG-1 title though, OS-1 has a couple of pretty strong counters - notably Black One and Countermeasures when it comes to match ups - but also range. Most ordnance is range 2-3 and Reload and SLAM both cause weapons disabled, so get to range one of an OS-1 Gunboat - even in arc - and you're often in a safe zone.

I'm experimenting with taking advantage of the second missile slot OS-1 delivers to try out thread tracers. All gunboats then just focus as their action (when not reloading), and take turns trying to stick a thread tracer in the target (which only needs a focus token). Once one does, then everyone gets the TL they need for their harpoons (or whatever), and Black One/Countermeasures/Kagi have no means of blocking it.

24 minutes ago, xanderf said:

I'm experimenting with taking advantage of the second missile slot OS-1 delivers to try out thread tracers. All gunboats then just focus as their action (when not reloading), and take turns trying to stick a thread tracer in the target (which only needs a focus token). Once one does, then everyone gets the TL they need for their harpoons (or whatever), and Black One/Countermeasures/Kagi have no means of blocking it.

I flew 4 NUs set up this way for a bit. you could pull off one **** of an alpha but it was hard to follow up with, at least it was for me. Once folks in my area had an idea of how to fly against it, I started losing a lot and went back to 3bqd. that ace makes a difference.

I've been playing around with various ways to get gunboats target locks at high PS/in the combat phase to make OS-1 work better, but there's fewer good tools on imperial than other factions. If there was a cheap PS11 coordinate ship or something... of course that'd break the game design, right?

The best tool is probably tracers. Keeping with the gunboat theme I've been playing around with some Nus or Rhos that have both harpoons (or something else) and tracers and trying to basically align their "parity" such that one that doesn't SLAM in a given turn grabs locks for others that SLAMmed or reloaded as appropriate. It feels good to reload both tracers and harpoons at once as well.

While this is fun and brain bending to set up (due to all the ranges and variables and arcs involved), ultimately it's way more difficult to do than it is good. So highly recommended for funsies and leveling up your own skillz, but an HLC Nu is way more reliable a piece for any serious squads.

Vynder jank is fun jank though, I agree. Won a tourney with it last week and it feels like it's about in the right place between "fun, but not really good enough to be top tier competitive". That's where I'm happy for it to sit as if it was truly competitive it would probably not be much fun for people to play against.

So yeah, it's a neat-ish card that could potentially get more utility in the future if imperials get more ways to get target locks in the combat phase or otherwise, or just some cheaper tracer carriers. I'm not sure it had to be 2 points, but being a fan of cannons, I'm also fine with it not feeding the "harpoons are overpowered" (baseless) rhetoric any further