Gunboats, was Re: RE[FT]Starfire...

> I was reading some past mail, and reading some of the comments about

[snipped Bug Gunboat stuff]

Another idea is to treat them as shuttles from B5:EFSB

Essentially treated as fighters with 2 damage points instead on only 1.

Now I diverge into FT2.5-speak...

I think that keeping basic fighter movement 24/12 is more in keeping
with their "built for speed" concept.

Groups of 3 works for me. 3 Gunboats require a standard "Mass 9" hangar.

May only be attacked by Class 1 batteries from any ship, but only during the
normal fire phase. Only ships being attacked may use Class 1s for defensive
fire. This is more simple than adjusting all the rolls. PDS treat them as
"Heavy" fighters. Rolls of 6 always kill one gunboat, as they do 2 points of
damage to the same one, but otherwise damage is allocated as desired by the
defender. [NOTE: I'm thinking about saying that PDS have no effect on
gunboats. This makes up for the fact that everyone can shoot at them during
the turn. Opinions?]

Acts as a heavy fighter in dogfights.

Weapons. I'm torn between these two ideas: Option 1) Each gunboat has the
equivalent of 2 Class 1 batteries. Option 2) Each gunboat has the equivalent
of a "Class 1.5 Beam" (acts in all ways as a submunitions pack, but is
reusable so long as the gunboat has the CEFs to attack).

POINT COST: 12 each (36 per squadron of 3)