Commando ships, well I disagree with Dog the D6G is not good, its bloody marvelous!( 9 trannies is usually one more than the defendingship has Marines) but seriously if anyone in PvP, in the ships many fly allow themselves to be "captured" by a D6G, don't you think the quodos should go to the D6 pilot or whatever Commando ship! capturing a CC or BCH piloted by a player in an old ship by boarding would be so cool. As for PP farming, what the hell difference does it make if you have a Gazillion PP, there are only so many ships, bases etc you can lay down, and while farming the player is usually out of the action. Lets face it we all farm to get the ships we want just to a lesser extent.
No one has mentioned Tugs. Have they ever been used in a campaign? What are the views
I don't think kudos are really deserving to the commando pilot.
Consider this:
1. 7 Ph-2s, all 7 fire directly out the rear centerline. At range 0, those 7 Ph-2s are enough to knock down any CL or smaller's shield, and on a decent roll enough to scrap most CAs rear shields. If not, the 3 forward Ph-2s in a shot or 2 can finish the job.
2. Maneuverability class B, along with 35 power, means the D6Gs probably going to fly 31, trickle charging phasers. If the enemy's not doing 31, they can slow down and put up some ECM / reinforcement. Once they're in range, the speed / maneuverability advantages of this ship are going to let him dictate what shield and range he's going to stay at (which is probably 5-5.99 on the hurt / down shield. Counter strategy is to phaserboat yourself, doing speed 31 to keep the enemy outside of the magic range. It takes a while of phaserboating to weaken the commando ship enough to be able to kill him in the 2-minute window at close range...
3. In SFCs double internal environment, the D6Gs barely going to feel the first alpha strike, and, if he does take a second one, is going to be mildly hurt, not severely crippled and basically ineffective like it would be in SFB.
4. Once the shield is down, the D6G's putting 36 marines (more than just about anyone's CA carries) in 2 minutes, and can dump enough marines to cap just about any ship in the game within 3 minutes (6 turns). At that point, the D6G's taking off out of effective range of all weapons and letting the clock run on the enemy ship.
Therefore, in the hands of even a mildly experienced pilot, the commando boat is quite a lethal weapon, as it can take damage (don't forget the barracks are hit on hull, doubled internals, and do not automatically kill off 10 marines with each blown up box...), can effectively kill most any ship in 2-3 minutes of engagement without relying on actual weapons, and, outside of Klink / Hydran / Lyran, all commando boats are armed with Ph-1s, not Ph-2s...
From what I remember (as I was thankfully not the victim of a commando boat myself), this was par for the course / SOP from just about any race's commando boat.
Tugs, on the other hand, have only been flown for "novelty" so far. They are quite powerful ships, but oftentimes much slower / less maneuverable than an equivalent counterpart. I don't know if they would be flown as cheese if left unrestricted, as most admins have been keeping them off the lists for now...