Federal GunshipCombat

The Federal Gunship is Core Dynamics' heavy weapons platform: take the Dropship chassis, bolt on more guns and armour than seems reasonable, and accept that it'll handle like a brick. Seven hardpoints (one large, four medium, two small), three military slots, a battleship-grade armour base and — crucially — a class-7 power distributor let it run a wall of weapons continuously.

It is the antithesis of the agile FAS. The Gunship is slow and turns poorly, so it doesn't chase or dodge; it anchors. Loaded with turrets, it saturates the space around it with fire while its enormous tank soaks everything in return. For holding a conflict zone, grinding AX, or any fight where you plant yourself and out-gun the opposition, few mediums are tougher or hit more total targets at once.

Four things make the Gunship a fearsome turret platform:

• Seven hardpoints. The most weapon mounts of any Federal medium — a wall of guns that, with turrets, fires on everything in range at once.
• Class-7 power distributor. Oversized for the hull, it feeds all seven mounts and boost without throttling — ideal for power-hungry turret and AX builds.
• Three military slots plus battleship armour. A 630 armour base and three reinforcement bays make it one of the hardest mediums to destroy.
• It can carry a fighter. Deep optionals allow a fighter hangar, adding a remote gun to an already saturating platform.

Seven mounts, a class-7 distributor and battleship armour make it a near-immortal turret-saturation tank; poor agility (171/282 m/s) is the limiter that caps it at 82.

The 82/100 headline is a verdict against the combat role's priority-ordered factors. Each factor carries a weight (its share of 100); this hull earns part of each based on how it performs against the whole field. The points sum to the rating.

Both tables rate ships for the combat role specifically. The role column is the hardpoint loadout — the raw weapon mounts behind the damage.

Same class — medium-pad combat ships

The Gunship is the turret-saturation tank of the medium class. The more agile mediums out-fly it and the premium hulls out-DPS it, but none match its combination of seven mounts, three military slots and a class-7 distributor. As a stand-and-saturate platform it has a clear, distinctive niche.

Other classes — the larger leagues

The Type-10 Defender is the Gunship's philosophy scaled to a large hull — an even tougher, more saturating turret tank. The Gunship is the medium-pad version: nearly as immovable, far cheaper, and able to dock where the Type-10 can't.

At ~34.8M Cr the Gunship is mid-priced, but it carries a higher Federal rank gate — Ensign — than the FAS or Dropship. A turret-saturation fit with three engineered military slots and seven weapons adds up, but its toughness makes the investment durable in the most literal sense.

Turret weapons are the natural fit and they reward the class-7 distributor; budget for a full turret loadout plus heavy reinforcement.

A turret-saturation tank fit using all three military slots and the class-7 distributor. Initial is buy-only; A-rated is the combat-ready baseline; Engineered applies the house combat pattern weighted to turrets and hull.

Earn Ensign, buy the hull, and keep the stock Lightweight Alloy bulkheads for now — Military Grade Composite is a later A-rated purchase. Fit the 6E shield generator with a single 0A Shield Booster, and put one 4D Hull Reinforcement in the first military slot — the other two military bays stay empty until the hull is paid off.

Load the five larger mounts with turrets — three turret multi-cannons (3E large, two 2F medium) and two 2F turret pulse lasers — so the ship fights while you concentrate on positioning. The two small mounts and the size-1 internal stay empty buy-only.

Even unengineered, the armour and five turrets make it a CZ anchor immediately.

A-rating priority for a turret tank:

• 1Power Distributor → A — The class-7 unit feeds seven guns; A-rate it so nothing throttles. ~5M Cr
• 2Power Plant → A — Power for seven mounts, a big shield and a fighter. ~5M Cr
• 3Bulkheads → Military Grade Composite — Base armour jumps from 630 to ~1,225 before a single HRP — the biggest single survivability buy. ~32M Cr
• 4Shield Generator → A — The first tank layer over the armour. ~3M Cr
• 5Thrusters → A — Recover what little mobility the heavy hull allows. ~3M Cr
• 6FSD → A — Reach fights and rank turn-ins. ~3M Cr

A-rating also opens the rest of the tank: the second military bay takes a 4D Hull Reinforcement, and the size-1 internal — no place for a surface scanner on a CZ anchor — carries a 1D Hull Reinforcement so every bay feeds armour.

The house combat pattern weighted to turrets and hull. Pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application; visit in person for experimentals.

Recommended order

• 1Distributor and plant to G5 first — seven turrets demand it.
• 2Shield generator Reinforced plus Heavy-Duty boosters for the first tank layer.
• 3Heavy-Duty reinforcement across the military hull-reinforcement bays for the second.
• 4Turret weapons last: Overcharged multi-cannons with one Corrosive, Thermal-Vent beams.

Approximate progression across the three states (figures are representative, not exact rolls):

The A-rated jump comes from Military Grade Composite bulkheads (~1,225 base armour) stacked with four reinforcement bays — two 4D HRPs in the military slots plus a 2D and the size-1 1D bay that replaces the old surface scanner. Engineered, the Gunship is a near-immovable fortress of fire: every bay rolled G5 Heavy Duty + Deep Plating drives effective armour into the thousands, an 850 MJ shield buffer sits on top, and seven sustained turrets saturate everything in range. It never becomes fast or nimble — that's the deal — but as an anchor it is almost impossible to kill.

• Embrace the turret identity — fixed weapons waste a hull that can't aim them; turrets let it fight while you survive.
• Fill all three military slots with Heavy-Duty reinforcement for its signature near-immortal tank.
• Don't try to chase or escape; the Gunship anchors and out-lasts, it doesn't manoeuvre.
• The class-7 distributor is a gift — build power-hungry turret/AX loadouts that other mediums can't sustain.