Plo Koon Fleet - Victory Pyre

 Plo Koon Fleet - Victory Pyre

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.

Victory Pyre (111/400/400)

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Venator II-class Star Destroyer (100 + 23: 123)

· Ruthless Strategists (4)

· SPHA-T (7)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· Triumphant (5)

Acclamator I-class (66 + 45: 111)

· Plo Koon (26)

· Flight Controllers (6)

· Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

· Hyperspace Rings (3)

· Nevoota Bee (5)

Armed Cruiser (37 + 18: 55)

· Clone Navigation Officer (4)

· Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

· Radiant VII (1)

· Bomber Command Center (8)

Kit Fisto (26)

Odd Ball (23)

Delta-7 Aethersprite Squadron (17)

3 x ARC-170 Starfighter Squadron (3 x 15)

Precision Strike

Fighter Ambush

Infested Fields

So this fleet was built on a challenge from a friend of mine, Lewis, who also writes over at It's A Trap. He sent out a message to the lot of us that read:

"Challenge for you lads!

Make a republic list that doesn’t use the same ship type twice (ACC1 & ACC2 is allowed, etc)

Banned list: Skilled first officer, Boosted Comms, LTT, External Racks

Max 2 unique squadrons

Max 1 unique upgrade per ship, not counting commander, distributed among ships as you choose. (So 5 total ships allows 5 total unique upgrades)

Aaaand go"

So, I went! And the above list is what I came up with. Mostly. In the list I sent him, that generic Aethersprite was another genetic ARC, but otherwise, that was the list. Usually when I'm answering some sort of list challenge, I build something and forget about it as soon as I'm done. It is rarely something I actually want to fly because I've got limited play time and so many ideas I want to try! But in this case, after I sent it to Lewis, it stuck in my brain a bit. I realized that the 4th generic ARC made no sense because Nevoota Bee couldn't activate it through Triumphant anyway. So I swapped it to a generic Aethersprite to better take advantage of the second part of Plo Koon's commander ability.

I knew I was going to be using a Venator in this fleet, and I vacillated between both chassis, but ultimately decided on the II because I wanted the defensive retrofit slot. I suspect that will be a common theme with the Venator. In this case, I knew I needed a defensive retrofit slot on it because the Venator was also going to be sporting the Triumphant title. It's a way of Nevoota Bee reaching out and touching some friends with my ARCs without Nevoota Bee being within easy reach of danger. So Triumphant becomes that much more of a target. I want it to bristle a little bit more beyond the threat it poses through its faux-Relay ability, so after putting Electronic Countermeasures (ECMs) on it to protect it, I put SPHA-T on it as well. I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about this upgrade. Yes, it's got some upkeep, but it gives me more options than "make sure I keep my front arc on the enemy." Which is great, because my Venator wants to do more than just navigate. I'm going to return to my Venator in a second.

First: my contingent of squadrons. I don't really think this will work, but I want to try it to understand precisely why it doesn't work. I have wanted to leverage ARC-170s since I saw them, but while they're *like* B-Wings, they're not B-Wings. Additionally, points are ALWAYS at a premium in Republic lists, so why go for ARCs instead of Y-Wings? I'm doing it because I want them to be able to go in un-Escorted - a luxury that Y-Wings don't really have. They aren't killer when it comes to other squadrons, but they can hold their own. On the other hand, if I give them Swarm with Nevoota Bee, as well as put Flight Controllers on my Nevoota Bee, they can absolutely be deadly. But what if that's not enough? Enter Ruthless Strategists on my Venator. My ARCs can absolutely afford to eat some of that damage if I guarantee that I'm raining fire on EVERYONE. I also want to make sure that my ARCs aren't easily tied down, so I throw in Kit Fisto, as he's real hard to kill, he hands out Intel, and he can help with any enemy squadrons. Between Kit and the generic Aethersprite, I'm doing what I can to ensure that my ARCs all have Grit for as long as they need it. I love everything "Odd Ball" brings to the table, so I make room for him. I'm counting on the Grit Kit Fisto grants "Odd Ball" so he gets the rerolls from his native ability in addition to BCC (since "Odd Ball", as a named squadron, will not be a beneficiary of Nevoota Bee).

The rest of my Acclamator build is pretty easy to determine: Flight Controllers to make sure my ARCs get to where they need to go. Expanded Hangar Bay to make sure I can maximize not only my squadron command, but also make sure ALL of my ARC-170s can take forward positions through Hyperspace Rings. It'll take a bunch of practice to ensure I don't outkick my coverage, but I'm willing to invest the time so it pays dividends.

With continued focus on ensuring my ARCs do the damage I need them to do, I throw in a Consular-class Armed Cruiser with the Radiant VII title so it can bear Bomber Command Center (BCC). Between Nevoota Bee and BCC rerolls, if my ARCs and Venator can't do enough to take down my opponents, then I was never gonna win anyway. Radiant is also going to carry Reinforced Blast Doors to keep it up and running just a couple minutes longer. Clone Navigation Officer (CNO) is a delightfully flexible card, and while I can see plenty of Republic builds that won't include it, I really like the flexibility of the clones and their synergy. CNO is how I will fuel the various needs of Triumphant: whether it's tossing over a Concentrate Fire token to refresh SPHA-T or a Squadrons token so I can activate the odd man out, CNO will absolutely have use every match.

It's perfectly fine to crossover from Star Wars to Star Trek and back again, right?...Y'all? Where'd you go?

For my objectives, I roll with Precision Strike and Fighter Ambush so I can really leverage the threat that my ARCs pose to my opponents. Plus, with only the Venator and fighter presence leading the charge, that's precious few targets for my opponent's squadrons unless they break through to my Acclamator and Consular. So I figure it's less likely that my opponent can also take advantage of either of these objectives. I round out the objectives with Infested Fields because, again, it's a fairly squadron-centric objective, and I'll take it almost every opportunity I get. It can seem a little lazy, but I also thought it was the best way to earn points and put more hurt on my enemy's squadrons. If they don't have squadrons, then my generic Delta can run around and collect more tokens. Unless my opponent wants to run their ships over obstacles to gain tokens, in which case, they're welcome to it.

So, major thanks to Lewis! I don't know that I'd have come up with this notion without his challenge. I say that because while I think Plo Koon is going to be everywhere, and he's going to be extraordinarily effective, it's much more likely that I'll mostly be flying Luminara Unduli. I absolutely adore her commander ability and know I'll need a LOT of practice and different builds to figure out how best to use her. And after Luminara, my brain is sort of working on using Yularen. So Plo is going to be great, but he's lower on the list of my commander priorities. All of that said, I'm looking forward to testing out this build when the Venator is released in St. Louis!