Count Dooku Fleet - Chain Gang

Count Dooku Fleet - Chain Gang

Let's start with the list itself, shall we? Quick note: If you're familiar with the most excellent Armada Fleets Designer app, then you'll be familiar with the format of the fleet list. If not, then you should know that the numbers in the parentheses next to the fleet name are as follows - number of points invested in squadrons/total number of fleet points/maximum number of fleet points.

Chain Gang (129/397/400)

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Star Frigate (73 + 40: 113)

· Count Dooku (30)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· Medical Team (1)

· Tide of Progress XII (2)

Transport (47 + 8: 55)

· Bomber Command Center (8)

Transport (47 + 3: 50)

· Parts Resupply (3)

Transport (47 + 3: 50)

· Munitions Resupply (3)

General Grievous (22)

2 x Belbullab-22 Starfighter Squadron (2 x 15)

4 x Hyena-class Droid Bomber Squadron (4 x 11)

3 x Tri-Fighter Squadron (3 x 11)

Station Assault

Abandoned Mining Facility

Infested Fields

I want to be clear about something: I was far, far more certain this would work when I built this fleet a month or two ago. Looking back on this list now, I'm sort of not entirely certain how I ever expected to win a game with this build. Like, at all. But! It's in there, so at some point, I definitely thought it was worth building! I don't know that this ever hits a table because I've got so many fleets I'd like to play with after so much time away from the game, and this one is not starred as a priority. Nonetheless, I said I was going to share all my fleets on this page, so, that's what y'all are getting!

My apology is not sincere, but I sincerely hope this cute doggo helps soften the blow of my insincerity.

I've read through this fleet a couple of times, and I'm fairly certain my hope was to create an extended supply line for tokens as well as for my squadron commands (hence the name of the fleet). Basically, I really enjoy the Belbullab squadrons, and I'm not sure I've ever used the Relay keyword in the past (I was not playing Armada at the time Relay was being abused and had to be nerfed). And Grievous as an ace squadron is just nasty. So I've got Grievous and 2 Belbullab squadrons who can help Relay squadron commands from a safer distance (ideally). And while Belbullabs can be absolute squadron-killers with their two blue and two black dice, they can use a little help. It feels foolish to not take advantage of most of their aspects and abilities, but leave the Screen ability on the table, since they cannot Screen for each other. So I add in 3 Droid Tri-Fighter squadrons. These are nasty in their own right, but if they're also running interference for the Belbullabs, I think that can be downright deadly. If I'm trying to keep a little distance between my ships and those of my opponent (otherwise, why am I bothering with Relay to increase my reach?), then I need bombers, too. So I put 4 Hyena Bombers in there. That's 129 points and a decently robust squadron contingent at 10 squadrons (and 5 deployments to boot!).

The Munificent-class Comms Frigate seems the obvious choice for this fleet, given the 3 squadrons value as well as the offensive retrofit slot. However, I really want to make sure my Muny stays alive. I decide that I did not have specific plans for an offensive retrofit slot, so I'm going to be unconventional, pay a few extra points, and take the Munificent-class Star Frigate instead for the defensive retrofit slot. That'll be Dooku's flagship, so I also give it Electronic Countermeasures (ECM), Medical Team, and Tide of Progress XII. I know this doesn't suddenly make my Munificent a tank, but it does give a couple of "get out of jail free" cards that it can play as needed. Obviously, I need a way to feed Tide of Progress Repair tokens to refresh ECM, so I start adding Hardcell-class Transports who can support my fleet as well as help push my 10 squadrons. I add one with Parts Resupply. Before tricking that out, I want to see how many other Hardcells I can fit in here, so I end up adding 2 more. I'm happy to do it, because one of them will be fielding Bomber Command Center to back up my Hyenas, since they'll be tossing some pretty fickle red bomber dice. I've got one more Hardcell and decide to outfit it with Munitions Resupply because my ships are also throwing red dice, and being able to reroll some of those red dice to support my Hyenas isn't a bad idea.

I mean, this game is Star Wars based - this joke had to come up at some point, didn't it?

Again, I look at this fleet, and I can't imagine winning any games with it. I really like the idea, but man, I leaned in SO hard to something that is SO unlikely to work. Anyway, my objective suite is pretty obvious: Infested Fields so I can use my squadrons to easily nab objective tokens, Station Assault so I can dictate where the battle happens (though, in this fleet, I think this is actually a really terrible idea, so I should change that...not to put a diatribe in parentheses, but I think I'm about it...if I'm trying to leverage Relay so that I can maintain some distance between my ships and those of my opponent, then rolling out Station Assault will likely work counter to my aims. My opponent will close distance on the station(s) to destroy it/them, and I want to be within range of the station so I can attack them, so I might end up incidentally closing the distance just so I can engage, which works contrary to my plan? I don't know what I was thinking here because it's not like I wrote it out, and I think I need to change this objective), and Abandoned Mining Facility because I'll easily be able to mine point tokens every round (though I think this is also a mistake if I'm trying to maintain distance from my opponent, plus, I really don't have the luxury of mining objective tokens AND pushing my squadrons with this particular build, so what was I thinking?!).