The other day, someone posted a note of their support for the Avenger as a drop ship, and I made a note to take a fresh look at that ship. I'm glad I did because I made an interesting discovery. I don't spend enough time looking at the cheaper ships because I don't want an entry level ride, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the Avenger. It's a fascinating bird.
Though the Avengers can't hold up to much pounding in combat, they are fairly fast, maneuverable, have passable weapons, and can be fitted for outrageous utility compared to other true fighters, since they have all that room in back. Be it prisoners, a boarding party, an EM suite with an EMP generator or just cargo, the Avenger is in my mind the best starter ship, or at least an equal to the various Reliant variants, and your choice might be made on whether you really need that second seat.
It is fantastically compact for a ship with cargo space. In void armor this ship's radar cross section (RCS) should disappear faster and better than the Hornet. It will certainly be smaller than any Reliant.
The big discovery for me however has to do with guns. The CIG info on available weapons load out is apparently wrong. It says in one place the ship has a pair of S1 fixed mounts and in another place the fixed mounts are S2. Here however, is a vid with someone flying with S3 Tarantulas on the wings:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYISQL83x6g
This was my key observation, that this bird can be made dangerous, especially when loading it the way Youngblood is here suggesting. This makes me wonder if you can't just put 3 S3's on it all fixed. 3 Omni IX's would make the weapons cheap to operate for someone who is flying on a budget and should be the max DPS the bird can carry. (We'll see when we get the next weapons rewrite, with 2.6.) With 3 Tarantulas the Avenger becomes a poor man's attack platform, as it can pound large targets from great distance and then land troops. If you're willing to leave your cheap ship, just two guys could take down a Star G's shields and turrets from 5km, spike the ship with all their S1 missiles and maybe, just MAYBE board 2 squads of 7. I would not leave my Redeemer or Hoplite unattended, but I have no compunctions about doing this with an Avenger. And of course if you can do this, players are going to test to see if they an actually attack, board and take targets alone.
Like the Reliant this is a fragile ship, but it is certainly a fascinating and useful one.
Though the Avengers can't hold up to much pounding in combat, they are fairly fast, maneuverable, have passable weapons, and can be fitted for outrageous utility compared to other true fighters, since they have all that room in back. Be it prisoners, a boarding party, an EM suite with an EMP generator or just cargo, the Avenger is in my mind the best starter ship, or at least an equal to the various Reliant variants, and your choice might be made on whether you really need that second seat.
It is fantastically compact for a ship with cargo space. In void armor this ship's radar cross section (RCS) should disappear faster and better than the Hornet. It will certainly be smaller than any Reliant.
The big discovery for me however has to do with guns. The CIG info on available weapons load out is apparently wrong. It says in one place the ship has a pair of S1 fixed mounts and in another place the fixed mounts are S2. Here however, is a vid with someone flying with S3 Tarantulas on the wings:
This was my key observation, that this bird can be made dangerous, especially when loading it the way Youngblood is here suggesting. This makes me wonder if you can't just put 3 S3's on it all fixed. 3 Omni IX's would make the weapons cheap to operate for someone who is flying on a budget and should be the max DPS the bird can carry. (We'll see when we get the next weapons rewrite, with 2.6.) With 3 Tarantulas the Avenger becomes a poor man's attack platform, as it can pound large targets from great distance and then land troops. If you're willing to leave your cheap ship, just two guys could take down a Star G's shields and turrets from 5km, spike the ship with all their S1 missiles and maybe, just MAYBE board 2 squads of 7. I would not leave my Redeemer or Hoplite unattended, but I have no compunctions about doing this with an Avenger. And of course if you can do this, players are going to test to see if they an actually attack, board and take targets alone.
Like the Reliant this is a fragile ship, but it is certainly a fascinating and useful one.
