The Avenger:
People have been arguing over this one lately so I am going to step in as moderator. Stop flaming each other please!
Currently we are just trying to balance the GCs and they will be balanced at their appropriate points value before adding on upgrades (If they go through), the upgrades will then be balanced. I hope that the upgrades will be slightly overcosted, to represent a rarity and lack of replaceable parts to the upgrades. As well that it costs you to get more out of the ships.
Anyways we will talk about the primary argument, increasing the ship to FP20@30cm
Argument Against: With firepower 20 the Avenger will compete too easily with the Retribution at FP18. Especially with a dorsal lance upgrade. A better way to compensate could be increasing the vessels range to 45cm. Unlike the Vengeance, who wastes a lot of off-side firepower, the avenger will have it by about 24fp.
Argument For: The Avenger is obviously underpowered at firepower 16, increasing its side batteries up to twenty is not a large difference, and will make it fulfill the fluff behind it much better. At range thirty it has a significant disadvantage when compared to the Retribution. Short range weapons batteries are always more powerful. The retribution is much better at taking damage, has torpedos and of course longer range, so it will be able to engage the enemy sooner and longer than an Avenger, which has a first strike attitude, and will get maybe one or two shots in before having to turn and reengage.
The Vengeance could go into the firefight, just the same as the Avenger, and have comparable firepower, at a total of eight less. Although the Vengeance has the option of this. The Avenger has to close, and will take a lot of damage in this process.
Also I want to put on a few tier levels of things that I don't think we should conclude until playtesting. Oh and my suggestions would be for the GCs; removing improved thrusters from the Retaliator and making it an upgrade for all GCs.