Vulture - still better than the CM5 at combat against large ships due to its large hardpoints, so doesn't suffer damage loss due to size difference.
FAS - still an excellent combat ship and one in my regular rotation for bounty hunting and CZs. 4 short range inertial impact burst lasers and the speed/agility to remain close to targets and delete them.
FGS - another of my favourite combat ships. Lasers plus 4 concord cannons do a nice job. Plus it can fit a SLF bay, which the Challenger can't. Maybe you meant the Crusader, but the Crusader is probably the weakest of the Alliance ships.
FDS - not a bad ship at all, a good medium multirole ship, not primarily a combat ship. I've used it in the past for mining, but these days i use it as a dropship. Multiple SRVs, missile racks for taking out ground personnel.
Out of the Alliance ships, i do have them all fitted for combat, and i find the Chieftain to be the best all round. This is also in my regular rotation for combat, the other two Alliance ships less so.
Bruh...
I mained a pvp FAS back before engineering was a thing, believe me I want to love the FAS, I still have one, I don't use it. The Vulture is a victim in pvp compared to the cobra V and in no way comparable in combat (if you ever want a demonstration fo this, let me know
), plus the limitation of only 2 hardpoints makes weapon variety a real problem, it's a weak ship now in every way.
Yeh I love the FGS too, but that doesn't change the fact it's a suboptimal choice compared to several more recent ships for ANY role its capable of.
No I didn't mean the crusader, and being able to carry a fighter is not technically related to the strength of the mother ship. The FGS has a very small hardpoint size advantage as well, but the challenger is just better. Also the Corsair, Python 2 and Krait are all much better, too, the challenger is the lowest ship that's better, that's how irrelevant the FGS is now. The chally even has the same excellent biweave recharge as the FGS.
The FDS is a ship not even a mother could love, like the Crusader, since you mentioned it. But Lakon doesn't need the love, Core Dynamics does.
These ships are nothing but nostalgia and novelties in the current game, to say otherwise is a bizarre position to take, you know my complaints aren't coming from lack of experience, plus the fact that Core Dynamics has had NO love, ever. It's their time
How are we supposed to spread freedom across the galaxy in these archaic tanks
I combine them with one small corrosive MC for even more module slapping and one feedback cascade railgun for dealing with the SCB spam of NPC-s. Sometimes I just go full psycho and take all the modules out one by one: FSD to prevent escape, then shield, then life support, then engines, and finally--if the hull hasn't lost all the HP-s yet--the power plant.
