Marauder should be nerfed.

[turtle225]

I spoke about this a bit when I was reviewing the CSA fleet, but the Marauder is too good right now.

It is too cost efficient. 24 Turbolasers and a squadron for 1 pop and dirt cheap for credits is extremely hard to compete with. That's more Turbolasers than all small ships, many 3-6 pop frigate types, and even things like MC80A Mon Cals (according to the manual which I know is outdated but I assume is mostly still accurate). 3 of these out damage a Star Destroyer.

Their small size is another big upside. Having too many large ships in your fleet makes cohesion and pathing a nightmare and results in many space donuts. The pack/horde of Marauders allows you to get a ton of firepower in a very small amount of space and they don't get in the way of your other ships. Pack 30 of these in a death ball and you basically got a 30 pop Executor.

Its relative fragility isn't really a problem because the ai tends to shoot whatever is closest to them so it is pretty easy to get them shooting a tanky Mon Cal instead. They also have a dodgy hit box.

I know you can't judge a ship's value entirely on its Turbolaser output, but it does count for a lot. I know it is strange to call for nerfs in a single player game, but right now the Marauder outclasses too many other ships in the game.

Easiest nerf would be to up the pop cost. Somewhere from 3 pop to 5 pop depending on how harsh you want to be. I would still build them at 5 pop, I think they are that good. Strike Cruisers are 6 pop iirc and they have less damage output.

[Artigo]

2-month necro, but I'm wondering if there is a counter to spamming these.   I just got hit by a NR fleet that had |86| of these things vs my balanced overcap fleet.  I had 6 ISDs, 2 VSDs, 3 strike crusiers, 6 ton folk carriers, 8 or so lancers and a couple carracks.  Granted, they outnumbered me significantly, but once I easily dispatched their capital ships I had to sit there and literally fast forward while a hundred marauders, corellian corvettes, and CC2000s (or whatever they're called) poked my ISDs to death.  I was killing one per shot with the hypervelocity gun because I had nothing left to shoot.  Even had about 30 TIE bombers/scimitars that do almost no damage to those tiny ships for some reason.  Not sure what else to do, build VSDs or what?

[Zardnaar]

2-month necro, but I'm wondering if there is a counter to spamming these.   I just got hit by a NR fleet that had |86| of these things vs my balanced overcap fleet.  I had 6 ISDs, 2 VSDs, 3 strike crusiers, 6 ton folk carriers, 8 or so lancers and a couple carracks.  Granted, they outnumbered me significantly, but once I easily dispatched their capital ships I had to sit there and literally fast forward while a hundred marauders, corellian corvettes, and CC2000s (or whatever they're called) poked my ISDs to death.  I was killing one per shot with the hypervelocity gun because I had nothing left to shoot.  Even had about 30 TIE bombers/scimitars that do almost no damage to those tiny ships for some reason.  Not sure what else to do, build VSDs or what?

 The counter is large amounts of strike cruisers shooting over tanky units with strong shields.

 Also retreating vs NR and doing hit and fade is often good. This is because the left over X-Wings and other fighters
 disappear.

  My suggested Nerf is make them cost 3 points instead of one. They doubled the points from 60 to 120 but left these at one point when they should have been kicked up to two points minimum. They're still probably slightly two good at 3 points but they would suck at 4 and the NR lacks similar support frigates that other factions get.

[turtle225]

I've not seen NR ai spamming these myself. 86 at once sounds terrifying. Though the ai wouldn't be as smart at using them as the player would be.

Launching an SSD right under them would likely do the trick but that's usually not an available option.

It would likely require sacrificing a few tanky ships while you try to pick them off one by one with a strong frigate core.

  My suggested Nerf is make them cost 3 points instead of one. They doubled the points from 60 to 120 but left these at one point when they should have been kicked up to two points minimum. They're still probably slightly two good at 3 points but they would suck at 4 and the NR lacks similar support frigates that other factions get.

I would be ok with them going to 3 pop, puts them more in line with something like Carracks. I don't think they would suck at 4 even. Compare to Mc40 which costs 5 and is imo worse.

Speaking of odd pop costs, why do Tie Defenders cost 3 pop? I can get a Ton Falk that spawns 3-5 fighters at once depending on faction for 3 pop.

[Zardnaar]

My guess is they're struggling with balancing Defenders.

 They were two good at 1 point and eh at 2 points.

 3 points is more or less 1.5 points in the old system it's probably right for the Defenders use. I don't really build fighters carriers are cheap.

 I'm testing out the new units gut so far is saying most are pointless.

 SSDs seem to struggle with hordes of 1 point units. If the AI throes a horde at you it's probably because they have lost access to capital shipyards.