General Grievous Fleet - Dead Man's Party

 General Grievous Fleet - Dead Man's Party

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.

Dead Man's Party (127/389/400)

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Recusant-class Light Destroyer (85 + 25: 110)

· TI-99 (4)

· Ordnance Experts (4)

· Assault Concussion Missiles (5)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

· Gilded Aegis (5)

Comms Frigate (70 + 27: 97)

· General Grievous (20)

· Boosted Comms (4)

· Medical Team (1)

· Tide of Progress XII (2)

Transport (47 + 8: 55)

· Bomber Command Center (8)

DFS-311 (18)

DBS-404 (17)

Baktoid Prototypes (16)

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

4 x Vulture-class Droid Fighter Squadron (4 x 8)

Ion Storm

Fleet in Being

Infested Fields

I really just enjoy the hell out of the Recusant. I think it's a finicky thing to fly because those incredibly odd firing arcs mean it's so much easier for your opponent to keep hitting you in hull zones you would rather they didn't abuse. But it has so many tricks in the bag that I really think it'll be a terror on the battlefield. So I started with a Recusant Light Destroyer, mostly because I didn't really have a plan for the Offensive Retrofit slot, so why pick a chassis that has two of them? I know I want my opponent to murder-ize things so that Grievous makes himself useful, but obviously, I'd rather those murder-ized things be squadrons than ships. So I went off the deep end and crammed in nearly as many squadrons I could afford (while still leaving room to outfit my ships the way I wanted). I've got four Vultures and 4 Hyenas to fuel Grievous while giving me added deployments. But I also know that I want to get some use out of my bombers, otherwise, why'd I bother? 

So I add in a couple of Hyena aces (more for their defense tokens than anything else), and I include DFS-311. I love his ability, and combined with being able to recover his Scatter, I think it'll make him a real pain to kill so long as I don't overextend him. But I'm mainly including him for Intel. I've got a total of 11 squadrons taking up space out there. If my opponent is outnumbered (and they likely will be, though not for terribly long!), then I think it will be all too easy for them to lose track of which of my droids they've locked down, and which ones are suddenly free courtesy of Grit. Keeping track of that element of the game gets a little harder when I kill a squadron or two, thus freeing up a squadron or two for which my opponent may not have accounted.

I'm not building a fleet that will actually be able to command all of those squadrons, so I put TI-99 on my Recusant. I figure some of my droids will get jumped, but TI-99 will allow them to fire back before they die. This means I can maximize my squadron activations by activating the squadrons I want to activate rather than feeling as though I have no choice but to activate a couple of them before they die without firing another shot - even if they get jumped, TI-99 ensures they'll get to throw some dice. I do want to be able to command some of these squadrons, so I include a Munificent Comms Frigate with Boosted Comms. I worry that the Recusant will be a primary target because of its size and firepower, so I equip Grievous to my Munificent, which I then bolster with Medical Team and Tide of Progress XII. I know I'm not the first or only person to see the synergy between this title and Medical Team, but I'll absolutely take advantage of it if it will offer additional protection to my commander!

I mentioned previously that I need my bombers to do some damage, so I include a Hardcell Transport sporting Bomber Command Center so my dice are a little more reliable (especially given that they're red bomber dice!). Finally, I finish outfitting my Recusant: I definitely want the Gilded Aegis title, since I think that title and Grievous are absolutely made for one another! I picked the chassis that has an ordnance upgrade, so I decide to use it by fielding Assault Concussion Missiles and Ordnance Experts. Because I'm using ACM as well as Hyenas, I see no reason to use XI7s in my Turbolaser upgrade slot. But my Recusant does have an Evade token. And I don't mind spending it because Grievous should be bringing it back....Hmm....

...when I add Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (TRCs). I've got the Evade, I'm happy to spend it, and I want to maximize damage. So, let's just see what happens!

For objectives, Ion Storm feels like a great choice to me for a couple of reasons. The first is that my Recusant has TRCs, so at least one of my ships is guaranteed to crit. The second is that I get to place all of the obstacles, which means I should be able to create a situation in which my opponent won't be able to use this objective against my paltry three ships that can stay at distance 2 of those aforementioned obstacles. The third is really just reminding you that I place all of the obstacles AND have DFS-311 in the field, who LOOOOOVVVVVEEEEESSSSS obstruction. Fleet in Being with Grievous? Yes please! More ways to terrorize my opponent by getting that much more mileage out of my defense tokens. Finally, my safe and totally expected choice (if you read these blog posts with any sort of regularity): Infested Fields. I've got squadrons, I like moving obstacles to better advantage my ships and DFS-311, and I'm happy to have the exogorths chomp my opponent's squadrons if given the opportunity. Makes them a little softer and easier to blow up.