Count Dooku Fleet - The Invincible

 Count Dooku Fleet - The Invincible

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.

The Invincible (61/395/400)

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Providence-class Carrier (105 + 43: 148)

· Rune Haako (4)

· Take Evasive Action! (6)

· Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams (6)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· Ion Cannon Batteries (5)

· Assault Concussion Missiles (5)

· Invincible (5)

· Thermal Shields (5)

Comms Frigate (70 + 48: 118)

· Count Dooku (30)

· Flag Bridge (0)

· Ion Cannon Batteries (5)

· Auxiliary Shields Team (3)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

· Jedi Hostage (3)

Battle Refit (52 + 16: 68)

· Tikkes (2)

· B2 Rocket Troopers (7)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

General Grievous (22)

DIS-T81 (17)

2 x Tri-Fighter Squadron (2 x 11)

Ion Storm

Abandoned Mining Facility

Solar Corona

I've been pretty sure for awhile now that I'm mostly going to be running Imperial and Republic lists. I just have a lot more ideas for both of those factions about which I'm excited. That said, the Providence dropped in St. Louis just last Friday and we've got a little longer to wait for the the Recusant, as well as the Republic counterparts for this wave. So while I think the Providence is a very strong ship, I wasn't giving the ship thought so much as I was giving thought to the upgrades that came with it. There's some really cool stuff in there! But the card that caught my eye was Tikkes. So cheap for (potentially) so many command tokens! I spent a lot of time messing around in the Armada Fleets Designer app, trying to figure out how I'd leverage him. Ultimately, I decided that the best way for me to use him was as a generator off of which Rune Haako could leech. I worried that if my centerpiece ship had Tikkes onboard, there was a good chance I'd paint myself into a corner and lock myself into a command I didn't want when I absolutely needed something else. Honestly, I enjoy the mental exercise of figuring out where tokens are coming from and where they're going! It was something I spent a lot of time puzzling through when I was running my Tarkin fleet, but it's a much bigger puzzle now with even more pieces given the rules changes in 1.5, the variety of new cards that rely on tokens to either power or refresh them, and the newly abundant ways to get Raid tokens out onto the field!

Don't worry, Gar: we'll always have Mandalore.

After figuring that out, I decided to use Dooku. I can't tell you at exactly what point I made that decision, but I thought it would be fun to set out to deluge my opponent in Raid tokens while having an abundance of my own to do whatever it is I need to do. I knew early on in this build that I would be counting on my ships to destroy enemy ships, so my squadron presence is mostly a fighter screen. Grievous should perform well against generic squadrons, and DIS-T81 could sit in a little sniper nest of an obstacle. The remaining Tri-Fighters will Screen for Grievous and occupy other squadrons for a minute.

The Providence got built to take advantage of having tokens to spend, as well as trying to apply pressure to an opponent who is trying to do the bare minimum to clear their Raid tokens. I really want to make sure that my opponent is sacrificing dials and not just being inconvenienced by having to discard tokens. And given that only some upgrades require tokens, it's clear that this approach will really cripple some fleets while only marginally hurting others. So it was important to me that I include Phylon Q7s so I could zap Navigate tokens off of enemy ships without having to worry too much about it. That's also what the Ion Cannon Batteries are there for. Obviously, given that I can't rely on blue crits, I've got it in there for options as much as anything else. Is it worth the 5 points without any sort of insurance? Not sure until I fly it! But I've got a 25% chance on each blue die I throw for it to either zap away a command token or zap away a shield. If neither of those are an option for me when I roll a blue crit, then I'm probably in good shape, honestly. I'm not sure about ACMs, but I know that the Providence is going to be flying up in peoples' faces, and so I want to make sure people are paying at close range. As the Tractor Beams are a Modification, that limited what kind of ordnance upgrades I could go with. So I decided on max damage with the ACMs. I plan on spending my commands Concentrating Fire because I use that command too rarely in my style of play, and I need all the hurt to come from my 3 ships. That means dice on targets. So I chose to equip Take Evasive Action! to put some of those tokens to good use as I help each of my ships get extra yaw to keep their guns on target. As the Providence will likely be my opponent's target in every single match, and I clearly plan on sailing this beastie directly into danger, I thought it would be fun to equip it with two defensive retrofit upgrades. ECMs is always useful, and I'll easily have the tokens to refresh it. Thermal Shields ensures I'll be able to use my Brace token against a big bruiser even if I've already exhausted my ECMs to prevent damage from a different attack.

After that, I turn to my Hardcell just because that's where Tikkes is sitting and generating tokens for Invincible. I thought a couple more Raid tokens couldn't hurt, and so added the B2 Rocket Troopers to it, and then Linked Turbolaser Towers (LTT) for good measure. I want to make sure that when this little guy chucks his red dice and harasses enemy ships, they have to worry about it.

Finally, I turned to my Munificent Comms Frigate. I've decided that's where Dooku will be sitting (he'd be too vulnerable on the Hardcell, and the Invincible can take a beating, but will definitely have all guns aimed at it, so why not keep Dooku somewhere a little safer to ensure he goes off for all three rounds?). This ship also gets Ion Cannon Batteries, despite the fact that they can only be triggered off of front arc shots. I sort of hate to just "roll and see what happens," but the game has changed a bunch in the last six months. There's going to be a learning curve, so I'm willing to take my licks now if I learn some things I can leverage later. However, I still don't trust my red dice, and so I've added LTT to this ships as well. Then I decide I want to try some more of the new stuff, and so I stick Flag Bridge and Jedi Hostage on here. I've got a lot of concerns about this card, because it feels all too easy for me to shoot myself in the foot with it. By the same token, since I'm messing about with stuff, why not see what it's like to walk on the edge of that particular knife? For just a little bit of extra protection (especially because I've got token generation anyway), I throw on Auxiliary Shields Team. I thought about Engine Techs, but just couldn't find the room for it. Plus, I plan on blowing stuff up instead of having to run from it, so I'm sure it'll be fine...

As for my objectives, I decided on some that I thought I could leverage against someone struggling with my Raid tokens. I didn't want Surprise Attack, because I don't think I need MORE Raid tokens out there. I think I've got enough Raid token generation. So I went with Ion Storm and Abandoned Mining Facility, because those are going to give you trouble if you can't use an Engineering command, amirite? Then I thought a lot about my Navigation objective, but decided to keep it simple with Solar Corona. I only have 5 deployments (3 ships and 4 squadrons), so if I can deploy after my opponent has, that sounds good to me. Plus, I know some players will dial up Concentrate Fire to try and even out the effects of Solar Corona if possible. Can't dial it up if I Raid Concentrate Fire, right? If I get in a match before the rest of this wave drops, I think this is the fleet I'll be using because I'm really curious to see what happens! I think Dooku will be used to good effect by a lot of people, but I suspect I won't be one of those people. That said, I also think he is likely to get pigeon-holed as a "squadron commander" because he can bust up other peoples' squadron command ideas. And while I think he can absolutely be used effectively that way, that wasn't the list I was interested in building. So I want to see what happens when he's used a little more flexibly!