Imperial EagleCombat

The Imperial Eagle is Gutamaya's elegant reworking of Core Dynamics' dogfighter. It keeps the Eagle's tiny, agile airframe but tunes it for the Empire: faster top speed, a slightly tougher hull, and a hardpoint upgrade that swaps one small mount for a medium — meaningfully more bite. It's the same nimble dart, made quicker, prettier and a little more substantial.

It remains, however, a glass cannon. Its hull and shields are still thin, it has one utility and one small military slot, and its three guns — though now including a medium — still deal modest damage. The Imperial Eagle wins the same way its sibling does: through speed and agility, staying off the enemy's guns. It's the more refined budget dogfighter, but no less unforgiving of mistakes.

Four things define the Imperial Eagle as a combat ship:

• A medium hardpoint. Swapping one of the Eagle's small mounts for a medium gives it meaningfully more punch than its sibling.
• More speed. A 398 m/s boost — quicker than the base Eagle — sharpens its ability to dictate range and disengage.
• Excellent agility plus a little more hull. Nearly as nimble as the Eagle, with slightly better shields and armour — marginally more forgiving.
• Cheap and small-pad. Around 73k credits and able to dock anywhere — an accessible, stylish dogfighter.

Elite agility and a 480 m/s engineered top end carry it, but 1M·2S firepower on a class-3 plant with a ~104 MJ shield and 108 armour keep it bottom-bracket.

The 54/100 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 — small-pad combat ships

The Imperial Eagle and the base Eagle are the two budget dogfighters — the Imperial trades a sliver of agility for more speed, a medium gun and a little hull. It's the more refined of the pair, but both sit at the bottom of the bracket on durability. Buy either to learn agility cheaply; buy a pricier hull to actually win durable fights.

Other classes — the agile step-up

Like the base Eagle, the Imperial Eagle is a teacher and a stepping-stone. The Vulture keeps the agility while adding firepower and tank; the Imperial Courier is the natural Imperial-flavour step-up. Master the Imperial Eagle and more capable agile ships come easily.

At ~73k Cr the Imperial Eagle is very cheap — pricier than the base Eagle but still trivial — sold at Imperial-aligned stations with no rank gate. Its small modules keep engineering inexpensive.

It's a value-and-style pick: a near-free, stylish Imperial dogfighter to learn agility in, or a cheap thrill to fly for its handling. Few keep one long, but it's a charming budget fighter for Empire pilots.

A fast, agile dogfighting fit built around the medium gun. Initial is buy-only; A-rated is the combat-ready baseline; Engineered maximises agility, speed and the thin shield.

Buy the hull (~73k Cr) at an Imperial station and fit a 3E shield generator, the 0A shield booster, and the military-slot 2D hull reinforcement. Leave the stock Lightweight Alloy bulkhead on — the Military Grade Composite upgrade waits for the A-rated stage.

Arm all three hardpoints with cheap gimballed pulse lasers buy-only — a 2F on the medium and a 1G on each small. The multi-cannon comes at the A-rated stage.

Leave the four size-1 optional slots empty for now (—) and carry a cheap cargo rack in the size-2 bay; A-rating fills the internals with shield cells and a second hull reinforcement — no scanner, this is a pure combat fit.

Fly fast and agile — lead with the medium gun, stay on tails, disengage if shields fall.

A-rating priority for a fast dogfighter:

• 1Thrusters → A — Agility and speed are the identity; A-rate first. ~300k Cr
• 2Power Distributor → A — Sustain three guns and boost. ~180k Cr
• 3Power Plant → A — Headroom for guns, shield and booster. ~180k Cr
• 4Shield Generator → bi-weave — The thin shield needs fast regen. ~150k Cr
• 5FSD → A — Reach RES sites and turn-ins. ~180k Cr
• 6Bulkheads → Military Grade Composite — The biggest single armour jump on a fragile hull; fit before engineering. ~90k Cr
• 7Medium → multi-cannon (gimballed) — Swap the buy-only pulse for the 2F gimballed multi-cannon main gun. cheap swap

Fill the internals while you're at the yard: 2A and 1A shield cell banks, a second 1D hull reinforcement, and a 1D module reinforcement — the size-1 bay that carried a scanner now takes a third hull reinforcement.

The house combat pattern bent toward agility and speed. Pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application; visit in person for experimentals.

Recommended order

• 1Thrusters first — speed and agility are the Imperial Eagle's defence.
• 2Distributor and plant to G5 to run three guns on a class-3 plant.
• 3Bi-weave shield and the hull reinforcements for the barest tank.
• 4Weapons last: Overcharged Corrosive multi-cannon on the medium, Efficient pulses on the smalls.

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

Military Grade Composite plus three Heavy Duty hull reinforcements lift effective armour from a paper-thin 108 to ~490 — with Boss Cell shield banks topping the bi-weave on demand, the engineered hull soaks far more than the base Eagle. It's still fragile; it wins through speed and agility, and the extra pace, armour and punch make it the more capable of the two budget dogfighters.

• Thrusters and speed are the defence — the thin hull punishes any mistake; stay off the enemy's guns.
• Lead with the medium gun; it's the Imperial Eagle's edge over its sibling.
• Disengage the moment shields drop — the extra speed makes escaping easier than in the base Eagle.
• It's a teacher and a thrill — carry the agility skills up to a Vulture, Courier or Fer-de-Lance.