Gunboats

[RingoW]

The tasks gunboats are for cannot be simulated in the game. In RL a fighter or fighterbomber crew cannot opperate for a long time, because pilots become tired, and they are normally for short distances only, while the gunboats have more supplies and better equipment onboard and the crew can work in shifts.
This would make gunboats the favour ship of long range patrols, recon missions, surprising raids, i.e. all long time tasks and tasks requiring better equipment (sensors), while the use of cruiser for those tasks would be too expensive or the sensor profile too big.

In PVP their tasks are taken over by cruiser bomber and VHF.
If you want, you can consider gb's as multipurpose ships for different roles, but perform the roles worster, than a ship specialized for a certain role. So if you cannot decide what ship to use, fighter, bomber or cruiser, take a gunboat.

AoM