From memory when this came up at the 3DG the consensus was GB are always engaged as starships by automated weapons (with the -3 mod).  I'll check my version of the consolidated rules later ( gotta go work!)

Well Starslayer and I were looking at this topic and there is a bit of a rules mess here....

04.18.02.1 says "IDEW of the laser buoy and IDEW types may only fire at large units and cannot engage fighters or small craft."
28.01 Weapon Range and Hit Probability Table has a (1) in it and that (1) says "GB are engaged at -3 to hit except with AFM types which use the AFM vrs other line."  IDEW to hit is listed in this table.
The rules for GBs (27.14.06.5 in the UTM 1.11) specifically state they may be engaged by anti-starship weapons at a -3 to hit number (table 28.01).
The definitions in 01.05.02 are:
Gunboat is a type of small craft.  It is targeted differently from a small craft and has its own rule section in ISW4.
Large units are any large spacecraft pus PDCs.
Large spacecraft include Starships, Warships, Freighters, Carriers, Bases, Space Stations and Asteroid Forts.
Starships include any large spacecraft which can have engines installed in it.
A Gunboat is defined as being a small spacecraft.

Based on the books and on 04.18 there seems to be nothing against a SBMHAWK pod firing on Gunboats.
In the scenario for 5th Justin in ISW4 it states that the IDEW-aP and DSB-L treat the gunboats as starships not fighters.  But the bases in question have DCS2 and DCS2 says you can engage like a pod can (by hull type).

What do people think?

1.  Can DSB-L, IDEW-x and IDEW-ax engage GB at -3 to hit?
2.  Can the above do so only if controlled by DCS2?

thanks!  the installer did indeed default to program files (x86) and picking a different venue cured that problem

im still in some kind of trouble, though.  i have i believe followed the installation instructions for SA6 and the two patches (with one ambiguity, details to follow).  when i try to launch SA, there is no game, when i hit the "New" button i am running into (apparent) trouble.  it will let me modify the checkboxes on the right, but i can't edit any of the text fields (like game name).

the one obvious place i might have screwed something up is, when installing SA6, a couple times i was given messages like "you have a newer version of this file already on your computer, we recommend you keep yours".  the only one i really noted was a .dll file.  i kept my existing files in such cases.  was that a wrong decision, do you suppose?

Where exactly is that folder?
I have SA installed on a Win 10 system, but it's on D:/Starfire Assistant.

I never install anything on C:/ if I can help it, since this is the drive dedicated solely for the OS and never, never, EVER in C:/Program Files/ or C:/Program Files (x86)

I noticed today that classic 3rd edition starfire is available on Drivethru-rpg for 19.99. I know my old copies are largely on paper so I thought it may be of interest

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/9056/Starfire-Design-Studio