Mar Tuuk Fleet - Red in Tooth and Claw

 Mar Tuuk  Fleet - Red in Tooth and Claw

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.

Red in Tooth and Claw (57/398/400)

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Recusant-class Light Destroyer (85 + 50: 135)

· Mar Tuuk (28)

· Shu Mai (4)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

· Spinal Armament (9)

· Patriot Fist (6)

Comms Frigate (70 + 18: 88)

· TI-99 (4)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

· Leading Shots (6)

· Quad Battery Turrets (5)

Battle Refit (52 + 7: 59)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

Battle Refit (52 + 7: 59)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

DIS-T81 (17)

5 x Vulture-class Droid Fighter Squadron (5 x 8)

Opening Salvo

Fire Lanes

Volatile Deposits

I'll start by saying that I think Mar Tuuk will see quite a lot of play. Especially owing to the difficulty that Clone Wars factions have with fixing their dice compared to their Rebel and Imperial... predecessors? Successors? Depends on how you look at it, I suppose. Anyway, CW factions always have the option of just throwing more dice at the problem, and Mar Tuuk does just that. He's not necessarily my flavor of commander, but I think he'll be effective because his ability forces tough decisions. Either make sure I don't have shields in that hull zone so Mar Tuuk can't add extra dice, or risk what that extra die can do. And by the time Mar Tuuk's penalty comes into play for attacking a ship with no shields, that ship is in trouble.

I know I want bigger dice pools because I think Mar Tuuk thrives with them. After all, even if I have to cancel a die when I attack, if I'm throwing enough red dice, one of them is sure to be blank anyway. I'm more than happy to cancel a blank die. It won't always be the case, of course, but the odds are good, so long as I throw enough red dice.

To that end, I know I plan on using Con Fire dials much more frequently than is my nature. I need at least a little dice fixing where I can get it. And I need several ships that can throw the dice so Mar Tuuk is worthwhile. I start with a Recusant just because I cannot wait for this ship to come out (tomorrow! It comes out tomorrow!!). Shu Mai is on there to fix my dice, and I tack on Spinal Armaments to add another red die. I chose the Light Destroyer chassis because I decided I didn't need the extra squadron value, it's cheaper, and I wanted the fourth red die it gives me out the front instead of the two blue dice the Support Destroyer lends me. With Patriot Fist, I'm throwing 6 red and 2 blue out the front at long range, as well as a ninth die (probably blue) with a Con Fire dial. I'll take it, because it's mean. If I pick my Shu Mai turns well, I can reroll up to 3 of those dice.

I can add more upgrades, but for now, I want to build out the rest of the fleet to see what shape it might take. I decide to roll with a Munificent Comms Frigate because it's more red dice, plus, I do plan on having some squadrons in case I run into someone who wants to throw bombers at my ships. I figure my upgrades will be better informed by my choice of squadron cover, so I move into squadron choices. I'm not looking for anything complicated; I just need something that can hold off an enemy for a round, maybe two. If I can make that happen without dialing up a squadron command, that's even better. I settle on DIS-T81 and 5 Vultures (because the Tri-fighters will just be too expensive for a fleet that needs ships with dice fixing or augmentation). This choice dictates my next couple of choices: I put TI-99 on the Munificent so that I don't need to command my Vultures for them to do some damage. Then I put Reserve Hangar Deck on both the Munificent and the Recusant so I can buy myself just a little more time and space from enemy bombers.

I put Quad Battery Turrets and Leading Shots on this one so I've got some reroll options. This feels like my weakest decision because it's a departure from what I described above. But for now, I'm willing to spend the 11 points on the upgrades and see what happens. Then I add two Hardcell Battle Refits, put LTT on each of them, and call it good. Honestly, I think I'll find that what I really want on these ships is XI7s so that Redirects don't allow opponents to maximize use of their shields and punish me with my own commander too quickly. But for now, I'm willing to run it this way and see if I find any promise in my ideas.

Objectives were uncommonly easy to pick, which is unusual for me. I'm sure I'll want to adjust them with experience if I end up liking the fleet, but for now, Opening Salvo felt like a good call since I'm throwing a bunch of red dice anyway and have 4 ships, so I'm throwing 8 extra dice on my first attack (when they still have their shields), and that sounds pretty good to me.  And as I am throwing a lot of red dice, Fire Lanes will force folks to come to me. Finally: Volatile Deposits. Maybe? With the number of red dice I'm chucking and the fact that I've got some reroll options, I feel as though I can hit on those red crits. And once they close on Patriot Fist, I've got black dice. This feels like the one most likely to backfire, but I'm willing to try it.