View source for Talk:Alliance Crusader/@comment-165.225.0.71-20181203080048

So for some reason, everyone insists on comparing this thing to the Federal Assault Ship. Perhaps they're just looking at the cost increase of FDS>FAS>FGS and assuming that the cost increase of Chieftain>Crusader>Challenger means that's how you should be comparing them.

Instead, let's compare them by role. Compared to the Federal Gunship, the Crusader is about 10 million credits cheaper, has a bit more jump range, considerably more manueverable, a little faster on the throttle, significantly faster under boost and has superior armor and slightly higher armor hardness. Downsides are the fact that it loses two medium hardpoints and only gains one small hardpoint, has moderately weaker shields, and cannot support a Class 6 fighter bay alongside a Class 6 shield, nor can it support a good enough Shield Cell Bank to back up a Class 6 shield. It also has a Class 6 Distributor compared to the Gunship's Class 7 but the reduced hardpoints make this a non-issue.

I have found that the Gunship's higher number of hardpoints don't always result in higher damage output. The Crusader's mobility allows it to easily employ fixed weapons that the FGS would struggle to bring on target. Additionally, without ditching the SCB, the FGS can have a hard time powering all it's weapons. Four medium railguns on an FGS do almost the exact same damage as two medium and three small rails on a Crusader and the FGS can't really support any more rails beyond that. 

The FGS is far more reliant on it's SLF while the Crusader is more capable of holding it's own, and in my opinion, the Crusader is just a lot more fun to fly. Plus, it's cheaper and there's no rep grind.