An Imperial Gunboat
Game Info[]
Imperial Ye-4 Gunships, commonly known as gunboats, are fierce mid-sized NPC ships that can shred most player fighters within a matter of seconds. They heavily populate the Kessel and Deep Space sectors, and occasionally show up in player missions. Gunboats have seven turret weapons that deal heavy amounts of damage at tiers 4 and 5, though gunships may be found as low as tier 1. Most pilots rightly fear these ships, but veteran pilots know how to handle them with ease.
Surviving a Gunboat Encounter[]
Gunboats have two weaknesses that make them easily soloable, with practice. The first is a completely exposed bottom side. Of the seven guns on a gunboat, two are forward-firing (guns 0 and 1), four can fire in a 180 degree arc above the ship (guns 3 through 6), and one is aft-mounted and shoots backwards (gun 2). This leaves the bottom side of the gunboat (the side with the slightly shorter tail fin) open to attack. As long as you approach at a close to 90 degree angle, the gunboat should be unable to return fire. A number of repeated strafing runs should take the ship down in no time.
The second way to handle a gunboat is to park your ship behind it and slowly wither its shields. While you can hit the gunboat from 560m away, the gunboat itself can only hit you if you close within 530m. With this in mind, it is easily possible to match speed with the boat, maintain a distance of 540-560m, and slowly destroy it. Destroying gun 2 is recommended, which will give you a little more room to maneuver, but keep in mind that guns 3 through 6 will shoot you at around 450m. Solo gunboats tend to travel at a speed of 300, while grouped gunboats (found in Deep Space) move at 200m in formation.
These tricks only work against a gunboat(s) that flies straight and level. Gunboats that turn are much harder to deal with, with the biggest threat coming from those who actively hunt you down. Fortunately, such overzealous ships only appear in a handful of missions and never in Kessel or Deep Space.
Star Wars Lore[]
The term gunship described a variety of vessels. The term was used for small troop deployment and attack carriers or for small capital ships. The capital ship variety was generally heavily armed for its size and built explicitly for ship-to-ship engagements, while the smaller variety generally combined infantry deployment and close combat support for ground forces.
Barring a distinct resemblance to the Imperial landing craft, the Ye-4 gunship was most likely designed to counter Rebel and pirate fighter attacks on Imperial convoys. The top of the craft carries 5 double laser turrets, covering every angle of attack from above or to the sides and can focus fire to kill large and tough targets, such as modified Action-4 freighters used by pirates, as well as the smuggler-favored YT-1300 and YT-2400 series.