The rulebook claims that the Firespray, while less customizable than the other starting ship ideas, is the most dangerous of them to start. Can anybody explain to me why the Firespray is so dangerous compared to the other two options? Its cannons only do 3 damage, which even against a target as lowly as a simple TIe fighter is going to be reduced to 1 from passing through armor, correct? I understand that autofire is nice but if each hit is only dealing 1 damage to something as basic as a TIE how exactly is this ship the most dangerous of the starting ships? Is it the Tractor Beam that is the primary factor here? Or am I missing something else or misinterpreting the way armor applies to ship damage? Or do they mean that it's a dangerous choice for the group because it can only deal 1 damage to a TIE?

The base damage if 3, which means they do at lest 4 if they hit - they need one uncancelled success to hit and this is added to damage. Additional successes additional damage. It might also be referring to the tractor beam, which is pretty nice: hold your enemy still while pounding them with blaster fire.

Also it has speed 4 which means it can use Gain the Advantage action against other ships, which means the opposition lose the benefit of angled shields (unless they can Gain the Advantage too of course). So you can partake in dogfights much more effectively than the Wayfarer and the YT-1300 - as these are slower and the Wayfarer a lot bigger. The Firespray also has more armour than the YT-1300.

So a solid hit with 3 successes and 2 advantages from the Firespray takes out the Tie on one roll; 6 damage -2 from armour = 4 damage. 2 Advantages spent on auto-fire equal double hit, damage is applied twice = Tie dead. Of course this also requires +1 difficulty dice on the combat check - so it's a Hard check [Average due to silhouette comparison) +1 from auto-fire. Add in the Tractor beam to make the target Tie become immobile, and I'd think the difficulty is lower - a generous GM would only add the 1 difficulty die from auto-fire, a meaner would require a base of easy +auto-fire, so average.

So at the very start without any mods it is pretty good compared to the Wayfarer or YT, but of course it has its limitations. I won't say that it is necessarily better or worse, but it is pretty powerful.

I've been running a sort of house rule that starships which cannot take maneuvers (such as those suffering from System Strain overload OR stuck in place from the Firespay's tractor beam) are vulnerable to the Boarding Action [average piloting check].

So in my home game, when the Crew is flying around and get tagged by a tractor, they have a collective "oh noooooo!" Moment as they fear a squad of something nasty is about to come on board and absolutely ruin their day.

Fly a Firespray; that could be you, you old pirate!

I've been running a sort of house rule that starships which cannot take maneuvers (such as those suffering from System Strain overload OR stuck in place from the Firespay's tractor beam) are vulnerable to the Boarding Action [average piloting check].

So in my home game, when the Crew is flying around and get tagged by a tractor, they have a collective "oh noooooo!" Moment as they fear a squad of something nasty is about to come on board and absolutely ruin their day.

Fly a Firespray; that could be you, you old pirate!

I like this thought, but I would think that the boarding action may take a bit more time than a single action would allow. Maybe an action for effectively grapping with the victim, one for the breech, and then send in the stormies.

Cue the Imperial March...

Very interesting to see the Firespray given the "tough guy" marks by the game set up. Partially because ove liked that ship since the first time I saw it...and I was somewhere between 4 and 6 years old at the time. The other reason comes from things ive read on the ship....it was used highly as ai planetary security vessel (space cop car). With that I can picture a Firespray as the Star Wars equivalent to that big Dodge Ram Charger that Chuck Norris drove in "Lone Wolf McQuade"

For me it is also difficult to understand, and we where discussing this with my players.

It looks like in all instances that the YT-1300 is always a better choice for the long run. Since it comes with more hard points, enc capacity, hull trauma and strain threshold, and in my opinion better weapons. True that it starts with speed of 3 and armour of 3, but nothing you cannot solve with attachments.

I am not saying that every single aspect of the game has to be perfectly balanced. Yet, I would have preferred a combat oriented ship which is "clearly" better than the YT-1300, in a similar way as the Wayfarer is the best option for cargo transportation purposes.

As Jegergryte said, the Firespray is pretty good compared to the Wayfarer and YT-1300. I see them as a "balanced" choice in the sense that if the group wants to start with a combat oriented ship they should select the Firespray. If they want to start with a ship for a "space-trucker", then start with the Wayfarer. If you want a little bit of both, go with the iconic looking YT-1300.

As has been covered by others in this thread, out the box it's the most combat orientated. With a bit of upgrades all the ships can become pretty deadly.

My two player RP group settled on a Firespray because it supports a crew of that size pretty well. One person to do the Piloting and shooting, the other to do everything else.

Also it has speed 4 which means it can use Gain the Advantage action against other ships, which means the opposition lose the benefit of angled shields (unless they can Gain the Advantage too of course). So you can partake in dogfights much more effectively than the Wayfarer and the YT-1300 - as these are slower and the Wayfarer a lot bigger. The Firespray also has more armour than the YT-1300.

The speed thing is vital. Ships at speed 3 are at the mercy of faster fighters.

Also it has speed 4 which means it can use Gain the Advantage action against other ships, which means the opposition lose the benefit of angled shields (unless they can Gain the Advantage too of course). So you can partake in dogfights much more effectively than the Wayfarer and the YT-1300 - as these are slower and the Wayfarer a lot bigger. The Firespray also has more armour than the YT-1300.

The speed thing is vital. Ships at speed 3 are at the mercy of faster fighters.