But what other tactic would you suggest? The gunboat is not agile enough to dogfight with fighters, so the only way to deal with them is through the use of the turrets. And full speed, turret mode, and asteroid field makes for a very bad combo therefore I usually kill my engine before going into turret mode.
Ill be the first to admit that Im not that good a pilot. But my original question still stands: what are gunboats supposed to be used for now? They are not agile enough to function as a fighter, and they are not tough enough to function as a capital ship.