Obi-Wan Kenobi Fleet - Cost Ben-efits
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.
Cost Ben-efits (59/399/400)
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Venator II-class Star Destroyer (100 + 51: 151)
· Obi-Wan Kenobi (28)
· Expert Shield Tech (5)
· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)
· Electronic Countermeasures (7)
· Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
· Tranquility (3)
Acclamator II-class (71 + 21: 92)
· Expert Shield Tech (5)
· Electronic Countermeasures (7)
· Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
· Implacable (4)
Charger c70 (45 + 4: 49)
· Radiant VII (1)
· Munitions Resupply (3)
Charger c70 (45 + 3: 48)
· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)
Luminara Unduli (23)
3 x V-19 Torrent Squadron (3 x 12)
Advanced Gunnery
Fleet in Being
Solar Corona
I've written here before that I've known for awhile that Republic will likely be my dominant Clone Wars faction. Not that I don't like Separatists, but much like how I feel about Imperials versus Rebels, I've been confident I'll enjoy Republic more than Separatists. But I've found myself trying out way more Separatist builds as of late, and haven't really been thinking much about Republic. It's probably mostly because Invisible Hand dropped before anything else from this wave, and one of the Republic commanders I'm really excited about won't be coming out until June when the Pelta drops.
Anyway, I thought I'd revisit some Republic ideas. The damnedest thing happened though when I did that: I actually came back to Obi-Wan Kenobi. I think that's odd because I genuinely am not *that* interested in him. I think he can be strong, but I just don't think I'll be the one who best exploits his ability. I don't know if that just feels like a challenge to me or what, but I'm trying another build with him in it, and this one is centered on a Venator fielding the Tranquility title.
So, Obi-Wan on a Venator. I know I'll want a couple of other ships if I'm going to try leveraging Obi-Wan's ability. So I add an Acclamator (because I just can't quit that Implacable title), and I decide to roll with an Acclamator II because I want to be able to outfit it with Electronic Countermeasures (ECMs) so I'll be able to use Obi-Wan's ability when I need to. It's the same reason I chose a Venator II instead of a Venator I; those defensive retrofit slots are just too valuable for something like this. Originally, I chose the Armed Cruiser variant of the Consulars for the same reason, but the cost of running 4 ships that each run ECMs adds up really quickly. So I opted instead to run the Chargers. It's true that the net point cost of the Chargers running naked and the Armed Cruisers running ECMs is the same - ECMs is 7 points, and the cost difference between the two chassis is also 7 points. But the Chargers are throwing red dice, which means I can more reliably use Evade AND Redirect (with Obi-Wan) than with the Armed Cruisers, who have to fly into reroll dice territory instead of staying in cancel dice territory. Plus, the Chargers have an offensive retrofit slot, and that informs my squadron contingent.
I roll out a bunch of V-19s because I really like them. They're formidable enough to hold their own for a turn or two, and that endurance is only increased by having Luminara Unduli lead them in her Delta-7. Tack on a couple of Reserve Hangar Decks (RHDs), and now we're cooking with gas. This also means I've got 6 deployments. Nothing brilliant, but it'll do.
My biggest concern with running something like this, as always seems to be the case with Republic, is dice fixing. I'm just limited in my choices, but I need my ships to do damage, because my squadrons aren't taking down any ships any time soon. So one of my Consulars is running Radiant VII so it can hand out rerolls via Munitions Resupply. It's a cheap way to give ships rerolls for a turn, maybe two (depending on who gets tokens and who doesn't). Then I put Linked Turbolaser Towers (LTT) on Implacable, but not the Venator. Why? I was just running out of points. I had already put Expert Shield Tech (EST) on both my Venator and Acclamator (and had originally put them on the Consulars as well, but without ECMs on those, I worried that any Accuracy would mean another 5 wasted points, and points are always at a premium in my Republic lists) in order to better take advantage of Obi-Wan, as well as ECMs. I put Tranquility on the Venator because if I'm using Expert Shield Tech to reduce damage, I'm not actually moving damage onto other shields. Tranquility offers a workaround for that.
I'm mostly happy with the fleet, but I'm still faced with that one problem of additional dice fixing. Again, I keep trying to fit in LTT, but it's just not working out in a way that I want it to. Would it be better to drop an upgrade somewhere to get LTT on both Tranquility and Implacable? Probably. But I'm sort of already running as slim as I want to. I don't even have Gunnery Team on my Venator! Mainly because I want to close with the Venator anyway, which means I'm less likely to need to load up in one arc, sort of like running a Kuat. But anyway, I've still got this problem! There's got to be a solution somewhere...
Yeah, okay, Dual Turbolaser Turrets (DTTs) isn't really a solution to the problem so much as something I can throw at it and see if it sticks. DTT used to act as a sort of informed reroll for red dice (because you add a red die, then cancel 1 attack die; you'd roll an extra red, then cancel a red die that didn't behave). But then LTT came along and blew it out of the water because there's basically no reason to use DTT with LTT around. LTT offers a red reroll without exhausting, so it can be used on multiple attacks in a turn, which is not true of DTT. LTT is also not a modification, and it offers a cool and useful flak ability that is nowhere to be found with DTT. So why use DTT? Well, two reasons. Not great reasons, but they do exist and I'll acknowledge them here: DTT is two points cheaper. 98 out of 100 times, it's worth finding the two points somewhere else in order to field LTT. But that's just not always possible. And that obviously gets a little harder when you're trying to fix dice on multiple ships rather than just one ship. The other thing about DTT that is worth noting is this: we call it an informed reroll, but technically, you ARE adding another die to your pool. Yes, you cancel a die, so the math should basically work out the same. But let's say I roll 3 red dice for my attack, and roll one Accuracy, one hit, and one crit. Not a bad roll! But maybe I was really counting on that double or a second Accuracy to really make something stick to my opponent's ship. I don't trust red dice enough to reroll any of those with LTT, so I let the roll ride. With DTT, however, I can "reroll" without any risk to my initial roll. I add a red die to the pool and roll it out. If I get what I want, I ditch something from the original roll; if I don't, then I ditch the die I just rolled. Again, it's a small distinction to make, and more often than not, it's irrelevant. But it's still worth noting. In the case of this fleet, I didn't want to put modifications on any of my ships anyway, so that element of DTT doesn't bother me. Overall, this choice saves me 4 points, which I genuinely didn't want to find anywhere else. I'd trimmed as much as I wanted to for this initial build, and using DTT instead of LTT allows me to maintain my choices while still giving me a 1 point bid (which will give you the choice of first or second player more often than you'd think!).
As was pointed out by my friend Chris, whenever I'm second, I'm most likely to be playing Fleet in Being. Which, with Obi-Wan, is awesome. Happy to do it. Sure, it's unlikely to score me points as far as objectives go, but man, being able to use Obi-Wan's ability multiple times in a turn could really make the difference between life and death for some of these ships. It's possible someone will pick Advanced Gunnery because they're in a similar position to me and don't have Gunnery Team on their biggest ship, but I think it's more likely people will discount it because they don't want to eat 12 dice from the front of my Venator over the course of two attacks. Solar Corona is a pretty safe choice that I usually don't roll out because this objective is EVERYWHERE. But in the case of this fleet, it really serves a pretty important purpose: if you want to lock down my Redirect so I don't get to use Obi-Wan's ability, Imma make you work for it. You're going to have to roll not 1, but 2 Accuracies in order to lock down that Redirect whenever you're shooting into the sun. I'm not in love with this fleet or anything, but I'm excited to try it nonetheless!
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