I think they would be more like gunboats than fighters, given that they'd have to follow more complex movement rules and have weapons with longer ranges than 1 hex.

-Tim

What's the firing arc?

A bunch of one hull ships may not be as effective as you might think.

With an FR arc, you still have to maneuver them effectively, and one hull with little to no defense is fragile.
My guess is that any good sized ship with decent dice could blow several of them up each turn, especially if using the splitting fire optional rules.

That'd be an interesting experiment though.
Ten of the little guys against an average 110 point ship.

Kevin

I think the idea of "gunboats" is a good one. Seems like we have nearly enough for an initial supplement before the actual rulebooks have shipped...

I'd probably go 50 and 100. Since these are meant to be "carried" into battle, they are likely smaller than a comparable 1- or 2-hull starship would be.

I like the idea of them being "carried" into battle.   In Star Fleet there were PFs that were towed by a mech link (a special tractor beam).  Now not saying we should model mech links, but essentially its being able to carry another ship for less space than it takes because its on the exterior of the ship.

Just be careful that gunboats are not getting the best of both worlds.  I know that one group (Warlords) implemented gunboats into Full Thrust and they ended up dumping them because they were too good. 

Oh ya, so these would also make the adaptation to SF even easier.  "interceptors" (the smaller ones) could be the 1 hull boats and the Fast patrol ships (PFs) could be the 2 hull variant.

-Tim

For now, no. The minimum hull size is 3.

It would be very interesting if gunboats could be grouped in to flotillas of 3 or so - just sayin' 

-Tim

A tiny bit, yes  :cry:

I too would like to see gunboats, if only because those types of ships turn up A LOT in science fiction. Some genres use these types instead of the classic "starfighter". I'm thinking that simply grouping them in a flotilla-type arrangement of sections where a hit or two (depending on the 1 or 2 hull size) just kills one and the flotilla is reduced proportionately would be the way to go. Treating gunboats individually seems like it would horribly muck up games using the initiative system.
Erik

In my mind, yes. Reason: gunboats are usually portrayed as having starship scale weapons while fighters cannot. For an example not from SFU there are arachnid gunboats (and later Gorm) in the Starfire books that are stated as mounting "all up", warship scale antiship missiles rather than fighter missiles, as well as point defense. I'm not looking to create outlandish eggshells with sledgehammers, but convert things that exist elsewhere.
Erik

Its the weapon range that is the problem.  Tough is good for a very sturdy fighter (or maybe one with shields) or perhaps a very agile fighter.

I realize we are throwing a lot of stuff at you, in what is essentially a finished product that just needs a few i's dotted and t's crossed.  That's fair enough - but perhaps you can take all of this stuff as inspiration for Nova's first supplement?

-Tim