Ironclad vs Liberator: Settling The Debate in less than 15 mins 

A few general updates: "spawn" in the context of this video means the ships you store on the pads will still be there when you store the liberator and when you bring it out of your hangar. Second, please wait for the Q&A before you buy anything solid. Get a CCU to all three and then hold what you got until the Q&A is released. See you in the 'verse!

Liberator wins for being a spaceship hauler , while the Ironclad wins on hauling cargo.

Liberator with 2 prospectors extra bags and a Roc sounds like a great mining operation for 3 friends

They keep dancing around it, but let's all be honest. The Ironclad is meant for the after-the-attack portion of Piracy. You toss their cargo into space, and pull it into your cargo bay. The "High security" section is literally just a jail for hostages.

I am really enjoying the rock paper scissor of these ships. We don’t need replacements, we need options.

You can't spawn anything anything on the Liberator. What they said is, you will be able to spawn the Liberator with ships on the pads.

Two things about the Liberator I think you have some misunderstandings on: 1. With the trajectory of how CIG is physicalizing everything, I don't see their original vision of "spawning ships on the Liberator pads" would hold true. Imagine being able to store two Hull-A's that are loaded with cargo in the Libby's quantum realm and have their cargos untouchable by pirates, or "storing" a ship on each pad and parking more ships on top with them staying physically present. That'd be mega stupid. 2. There has never been such a thing as a ship being "magged down". From Q&A: Anvil Liberator - "Can the Liberator transport one big ship on both its upper decks providing the latter can touch down with all of its landing gear? Officially, this won’t be supported as large ships won’t be able to spawn there, but what players do after the initial spawn is up to them. So, while they can surely ‘Tetris’ larger ships onto the landing pads, it will likely not be supported as an official method of landing." Landing a ship and having it stay onboard another ship is enabled by one of Star Citizen's core tech: object containers. As long as the majority of an object's volume and its center of mass are captured by a ship's "onboard zone", it will inherit all of the ship's motion. And if all landing gears can touch the Libby's pads, a larger ship *will* be able to be shipped by it. Libby wins the vehicle shipping game, no contest.

Doing giveaways consistently is incredible. I appreciate the hard work you put into a community that I love.

They werent super clear, but im pretty sure during the q&a they meant the lib can be spawned with ships on it. It hasnt been spoken of since. Second, key thing unkown is the height of the ironclad's cargo area and how far apart the struts are that the the tractor beams ride on. I feel like the clads ship transport is going to be way more limited than people are imagining. I was tempted by the drake, but i habe no interest in mass cargo running. The flexibility of the lib, its crew requirements, and use made me stick with it. The dedicated cargo area unaffected by the ship storage, and its ability to be a mothership for multiple things such as mining, salvage, repair (vulcan/srv), fighter carrier, etc just too nice. Also with current dimensions you can put a redeemer and all sorts of other silly stuff on the top pad.

The social aspect of Star Citizen is what sets it apart. It's not just a game; it's a community, and videos like this are proof

These two ships are transport barges but don't have the same specialty at all and are therefore not competing but complementary! The assault version is too specialized in ground attack, so it's even less a competitor for the Liberator, and, even if it finally has a retractable roof and tractor beam (which is not sure), it will just be a competitor for the basic Ironclad version !

I am looking at the 3 ships to use as a salvage / storage . to stick a vulture in / on it empty it into the storage and go to the next salvage. instead of heading back after every salvage ship

For me the liberator sounds really appealing, I'd always seen it as a bit of a mobile base to get amongst the 'verse without needing to always head back to port. Park a vulture and do some salvage, a C8R/Nursa for med and respawn, medium/light fighter for some bounty hunting, maybe even a light cargo to shuttle freight back and forth planetside. With a 1 crew minimum it's your personal home in the stars.

Every update feels like an early birthday gift. Thanks, devs!

I really like both ships because they will function very similarly. With Pyro on it's way and more systems coming, a ship like the Ironclad is almost a must have for a Firefly/Serenity nomadic style of play. Having a very flexible jack of most trades, depending on what you put inside the 1500 SCU hold is great. Whether it be a fighter for bounties, a ROC/Prospector/Vulcher, a C8R/Nursa or any combination. Myself, I want to do the long haul cargo runs and while doing that, explore opportunities to discover derelicts, rescue others, scan for resources etc. The Ironclad has extreme long range, 4 large shields and armored. I really hope CIG goes the rout of individual bunk rooms like the Corsair. I feel that I will be able to pick up almost any mission in my journeys through the Deep dark of the verse.

Nice job in clarifying some of the details I did not know,I bought both the Ironclads/assault and because of what you stated, I decided to get the upgrade from the Assault to the liberator but not apply it until everything is known and then comes out in game,this way it is only 40 dollars upgrade and I had in store credit so no out of pocket and if I choose not to use it I can just melt the upgrade for the 40 bucks,thanks for your help.Just to clarify I did know you can't spawn anything on it but the fact it has dedicated ship spaces makes it valuable for transporting ships nothing worse than a ship or vehicles moving around in flight.

Minimum crew on the liberator is more interesting in a way

Liberator can also use the internal as a RoRo (roll on roll off) like the C2 and M2.

I got the just the regular ironclad, i'm just want a regular hauler.

Picked up an IronChad today.. ended the debate on my own terms.

You did something there..😊 Best Braid, Big Built, Billionaire Branded.

I just got it to the verse about a month or two ago and I thought I was fine with my c1 but the longer I play the more I need a big ship to truly live out of and make a profession

Star Citizen's multicrew gameplay is a blast. Videos showing coordinated team play are a great example of what makes this game special.

the pads and repair ability are realy big points here

Dude, I love the clear distinction between the three. I agree with you 100%. Thank you!

The Ironclad Assault would be a great mobile base. Imagine a (future) assault on a settlement with vehicles and troops while you can defend the base... The Liberator for bringing in (medical) ships and fighters.

Been looking forward to a video to compare the two, though I think they'll serve slightly different purposes overall.

Man i really love both of these ships. Star citizen is at its best when you can have a big clunky box that lets you do whatever the hell you want.

My friend and I have been having this discussion all week !

I was so close to melting my Lib for the Ironclad, but smartened up and just upgrade a combat ship I rarely use (Redeemer... Love it, but rarely use it). I'm happy to have both the Ironclad and Lib. Some people think you can land ships in the Ironclad, but I'm not so sure. Depends on how much room you have to the ceiling. It looks like it might be shorter than what a lot of people are thinking.

Need to remember aswell, Ironclad has been concept'd in a time where CIG has a pretty good idea where they want ships to go and how they work. Liberator had all the bells n' whistles when its concept was released, i wont be suprised if it gets sorted properly when it goes into production.

The Faterpillar is definatelly dedicated cargo hauler, not vehicle trasporter, but has also this capability as an addition.😉

The landing pads on the liberator and the ability to use them to spawn vehicles is such a great quality of life feature. You make some great points and with those, I come to the conclusion that the Ironclad is more of an all-around ship compared to the Liberator and you are getting much more bang for your buck.

First time here! Love, love love the intro! Please get a 4k cam. Thanks for the content bother!

Star Citizen's universe is a testament to the power of gaming.

Thank you, I really wanted to balance this question.

I think they all serve very different purposes. Ironclad is cargo, Liberator is ship transport, Ironclad Assault it ground assault. Decide what you want to do most and there's your ship.

Brotha! you are solving every debate out there. Yessir

Star Citizen's combat is a clash of titans.

Liberator has a tractor beam. It's located on the same side as the PDC opposite of the manned turret.

I love the update frequency!

the Ironclad's got the best looks, at least.

looking at the art, the Ironclad cargo has 2 manned dual turrets (one dorsal one ventral) and 2 dorsal remote dual turrets, plus the one interior remote turret that's likely dual. the Ironclad Assault has 2 dorsal manned dual turrets, 1 ventral manned quad turret, 2 dorsal remote dual turrets, and 2 ventral remote quad turrets (plus the interior one most likely). it has at least ten more guns than the cargo variant but who knows if it'll end up like the Reclaimer and not able to use all of the turrets at once.

Now I'm wanting a Liberator. Thx...

The Ironclad seems more usefull to me.

Being so indecisive, I took the only option available to me - I have both the Ironclad and the Liberator, and picked up a $5 CCU to an Ironclad Assault. Just need to get my Caterpillar back now...

I definitely went with the assualt mostly for the repair bay. I figure I can work around the lack of a tractor beam turret with keeping an Argo Tractor inside.

I am 100% looking at the standard Ironclad. My original vision for the Liberator was as a mobile base of operations; Somewhere to land a couple of smaller ships to have options for when doing different missions. At this point, I'm expecting the Ironclad to be out first. It also seems a more viable candidate with a dedicated area for ground vehicles (shown with Mules but should still fit an STV or hopefully an Usra/Nursa) along with the cargo area which seems could allow at least 2 smaller ships, or 1 medium ship. The shields are also a factor as, as of right now, the Liberator is only planned to have 2xS3 shields while the Ironclad has been given 4xS3. I fully expect the Liberator to be given more shields (either 2xS4 or 4xS3) to help bring it up to the new standard for ships, but we can only judge from what we know.

Your assessment of each ships primary function is spot on. As to cross function, with front and rear ramps the Liberator loads and deploys vehicles faster than either Ironclad. Between these the Liberator has more and better cross function than the rest.

I think that the less armed of the three is the Liberator (correct me if I'm wrong). The Ironclad have one dual S5 manned turret (I suppose is in the belly of the ship), one S3 dual manned turret and 2 x S3 dual remote turrets (all in the upper section of the ship). As an extra you get the internal dual S2 turret for "self defense" during boardings. The liberator only have one dual S5 manned turret and 2 x S2 dual automatic PD turrets... A very attractive feature of the Liberator is that you only need 2 people vs 6 on the Ironclards, but, as you say, each one is better in one role vs the others. For my needs the Ironclad is a no brainer. I upgraded my cat to the Ironclad base using store credits and the loaner is another cat, so I'm happy. Good video man, thanks for your work.

Just some points: - The component fabricator on the assault is a size 0, meaning it can only make components to for vehicles. - Ironclad base has more weapons than the liberator. - Liberator cannot spawn ships, but it can spawn WITH ships on it. Overall i think these points just highlight your base point. They are all for seperate purpouses. The ironclad base also has tractor beams and a brig with a person standing behind the gates in the concept video and brochure, making it a bit more catered for piract than the assault and the liberator.

with the liberator you need to count what ship scan sit on it to the weapon count. the top ships dont need pilots if the guns are manned could be a lot of extra turrets.

Ironclad opened up a whole windows for competition to fall into. And I'm ALL for that 1k-3k SCU hauler competition. ❤

I personally love the Liberator, every time I look at it all I can see is the mobile bases/FOBs that the UNSC uses in Halo Wars

To be fair, the best ship is the one the you like

Great video! Both IronChad variants look awesome and bring nice variety that we need in game. I can't wait for my Crucible and repair gameplay to disassemble and fix all of those ships.

I'm going to dock my liberator with my endeavor somewhere deep in space as my base.

People interested in the difference between the Liberator and the Assault should pay close attention to the shield(s) size and if that roof still opens on the Assault for secure resource delivery. Do not expect to bring vehicles back to life using the Assault alone.

Nice overview. Thanks very much!

tracker to go with my ironclad? yup! this is one of the few ships we have always needed.

The problem is that many people forget again the current state is "it fits in what fits in" but probably that will not be the case in the future so only ground vehicles and no spaceships go on Cargo Grid simply for balancing reasons because that would make every carrier ship useless e.g. Polaris, Liberator, Kraken, Idris and Javlin and that was once the statement of CIG has somehow a reason why it only says 4 Tonks.

For kicks, what you do is open up the lid of the ironclad/assault, and have the vehicles inside blast away at enemy ships from inside with missiles and bullets. And arm people with rail guns. Assuming it will remove atmosphere when open, the question is if people and vehicles will stay in place when top is open and ship is cruising, which is probably a yes. I think the developers stuck repair and reloading together in a non negotiable system, and for some reason, I think conjuring vehicles is a part of that system (requires separate computer). Unless they purposely make it so you can't fly a craft into the repair section of assault, then that will limit it to ground vehicles.

I already bought an Ironclad Cargo, I'm sold its going to be one of the most versatile ships when it releases

Here's the thing, Liberator can run perfectly fine with 1-2 crew, using it as a mobile base for industrial gameplay is a huge part too. Throwing on a Vulture/Prospector, Expanse and whatever else. And you got a moving Industrial ship with a fairly big cargo hold. So personally for me Liberator wins hands down, as I can run everything solo, just fly into space away from everything and salvage/mine until I have filled up everything. And of course, then we have the time spent, you can spawn the Liberator with the industrial vehicles you need on it, and just go =)

I hope if the roof is actually closed you could use it as a landing pad to repair even if it wouldnt be a permanent landing area

The Liberator sounds really appealing to me. However, I did not pull the trigger yet. Your video definitely helps a bit making that decision. Thanks.

Had no idea about spawning on the liberator!

I want the liberator. It can carry a few fighters, some ground vehicles like the nursa, and a bunch of cargo; all while having some good firepower, QT fuel, and looking awesome. I also like the more heavily armed version of the ironclad, because it looks cool, can carry a bunch of cargo, can carry ground vehicles like the nursa, and has good firepower. The liberator is way more exciting though, because of it's ability to carry both ground vehicles and ships. It'll basically be a mobile base.

The repair is not much of a bonus considering we will be able to repair using our multi tool anywhere. This is also part of the Liberator Q&A repair and refueling will be manual. The fabrication of component is a plus but I doubt they will be high quality components. I can see a clarification needs to be made regarding the Assault's roof but from listening to the interview with the ship team I am currently under the assumption that the opening roof will apply to both variants and the Assault will be able to carry small to medium ships internally too. The liberator only has XXS and XS pads and a larger ship may be able to span the two XS pads on top but it will have to be a skinny ship. I also see the Ironclad as a direct competitor to the C2 and M2 the Ironclad can do everything that these two ships can do but better. I find it interesting that you rank the Assault 3rd between these ships. I wonder how an opening roof would change your opinion if at all? I am ranking the Assault first! And I am also including the C2 and M2 ships in my pool. I will close my comments with... I think we also need more clarification on the Liberators ability to spawn ships. In the Q&A it was mentioned like it was an after thought and is not listed as a feature anywhere. I feel like ships spawning could possibly not quite be a mobile ship spawn but who knows. Keep your hangar fluid. No plan survives first contact. Plan for the future and changes to how the game currently works as we know it.

I get the comparisons between the Ironclad and Liberator, but to me the better comparisons for the Ironclad variants are the Hercules series. The focus is cargo and still transport in atmosphere. The Ironclad is roughly double the Hercules series for capabilities with the quick external access to cargo (for the regular Ironclad for sure) and the vehicle repair as a bonus for the Assault, but likely at the expense of in atmosphere handling. You could get four Nova tanks to a battle quicker with two M2s for example, but the Ironclad Assault will be able to plop those same four tanks down in one spot and provide a base to repair and move out from. To me the Liberator really only makes sense as a long range ferry and mobile work platform. The Ironclads can do both, but realistically in a worse way. In transit your vehicle crew can man fighters to defend the ship better than using the turrets likely for the Liberator. For the Ironclads when you use it for other than its intended purpose I think you will take significant hits to its usefulness. When you use it as a pocket carrier for example you take a massive hit to your cargo, but you also can't deploy the fighters quickly and likely can't service them well after. I lean pretty heavily towards the Liberator being a better base building platform most likely as well. Obviously it depends on how many resources it takes to build bases, but if 400 SCU can build you a competent starting base with land based base builders the Liberator is just better. If it takes more than 400 SCU the Liberator can have a Hull-A and a fighter come along to run errands at the cost of no building materials. If the Ironclad has ships in its bay or more building vehicles that is always at the cost of cargo.

This is just a guess in regards to the Liberator spawning ships. I don't think it will spawn ships on the fly. I think when you are in your Hanger you can spawn the ships on the liberator to avoid actually having to spawn and fly each and every one of those ships. So for the sole purpose of loading the liberator I believe it will allow for spawning when your in your home base/hanger.

CGI seems to have sufficiently differentiated the role of each vessel that they are individual and better at their intended role. However, each had the ability to overlap the other’s role but clearly inadequately when compared to the dedicated boat. CHI is forcing us towards orgs and then again smaller orgs will need to specialize. It will take a very big integrated Org to encompass all roles well, from mining to salvage, from bounty hunting to war.

We'll really have to wait for the Q&A, but given the description given by CIG, I do believe the Ironclad (at least the standard one) will be able to act as a light carrier for pirates, giving us proper landing pads in the cargo bay.

I seriously doubt the Liberator is going to keep the ability to spawn ships. I mean... where do they come from? Thin air?

I already got the ironclad base .

I feel the Liberator is my winner personally! But love both for their purpose. Curious to see larger Crusader ships hopefully also for these roles.

I think the best bet for people that can't decide between the two Ironclad ships is to buy the bass that get the CCU up to the assault but don't apply it

The Ironclad will be the winner!

I did see something about that repair bay thing. I wouldn't mind being a space mechanic.

I like the look and functionality of the Ironclad.

Good video Thanks 👍

To play it safe, I reclaimed my C2->Liberator CCU and converted it to a C2->IronClad->M2->IronClad Assault->Liberator CCUs for the same money. That should let me try out the different versions as they become available and to decide. I am not so sure about the respawn of vehicles of the Liberator, but if that is true, that is a significant value that will keep the Liberator in the run. The number of people required to operate the ship is also a significant factor.

Had me going there for a bit. I thought if the Lib can spawn ships, I'M IN! Love the Ironclad concept but not seeing the Assault is worth the extra $$ to loose the top doors and the Tractors... Need the Q&A to work out what Actually is there.

They are the perfect duo.

I have been preaching on the future ability of the A2 Hercules for years lol.. It's going to be such a flexible multi-role ship. The fact that they shot the price up on it so high is very telling, too. Behind the scenes, they know when a ship is average, above average, and S-tier. The A2 is what I'd call S-tier. It's small enough to be used regularly on the industrial front, and packed with offensive and defensive measures to be your go-to combat ship. Bombing runs by day and cargo runs by night. Plus the incoming armor is another slept on trait of ships in SC. That A2 is a true Swiss army knife.

Nice comparison

looking forward to more options in this size class.

Cargo will be more important and versatile. Ironclad wins for me.

It just like all SC ships, some are better suited for specific tasks.

thanks for making this

I just need the IronClad to take a Vulture and a C8R inside. We'll take care of the rest.

I don't think a ship will be able to land in the Ironclad, there is that "crane" framework going horizontally across the top of the huge cargo bay near the middle.

Liberator for those that only want to haul ships, Ironclad for those that want to do everything else along with that. Drake is the ultimate jack of all trades ship design, but is never the best at anything. That's why I love them and some ppl hate them. That being said, even the biggest Drake haters are admitting the Ironclad is one of the best ship designs ever. Overall it is far more useful than every other cargo ship we have seen so far

I think the liberator will be super valuable for moving fighters around the verse. Those things just don't have the range to get around.

The liberator is also 200 dollars more expensive...

I think the fact that the ironclad is more armored is more interesting

Liberator has one medium pad and two small pads also has Capital class components minimum required crew two Will be perfect for a mining or salvaging and refining operation. Expanse on the medium pad prospector and vulture on the smalls roc inside vehicle Bay. 400 SCU cargo space. The ironclad if you land vehicles inside will take away your cargo space. Most likely won't be able to get a medium vehicle inside six minimum crew I think you can probably get away with two crewman. It's listed as large, not capital. There are many differences between these two. I love them both so I own them both as well as every other Capital ship in the game I'm in for over $14,000 so far. And going. I'm a backer since July of 2013

I got the assault before the Q&A and the price increase. But also got a CCU for the base version to leave it in the buyback.

It is going to be crazy to see an Ironclad roll in, open it''s top door and 10 snubs leave. It is going to be a more potent carrier in the short game where the Liberator is going to win the long game spically with an Ursa Medivac onboard and repsawing destroyed ships... The Liberator is technically more of a threat as a result.

Some great updates , did not know about the potential to spawn vehicle's on these large ship. Can't wait till there all in the game