Admiral Yularen Fleet - Wulff Pack

 Admiral Yularen Fleet - Wulff Pack

Together again!

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.

Wulff Pack (109/391/400)

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Venator II-class Star Destroyer (100 + 50: 150)

· Admiral Yularen (24)

· Clone Commander Wolffe (6)

· Ruthless Strategists (4)

· Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

· Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

· Resolute (6)

Pelta-class Medical Frigate (49 + 21: 70)

· Bomber Command Center (8)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

· Projection Experts (6)

· FB-88 (4)

Pelta-class Medical Frigate (49 + 13: 62)

· Clone Navigation Officer (4)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

· Projection Experts (6)

Kit Fisto (26)

Anakin Skywalker (19)

2 x V-19 Torrent Squadron (2 x 12)

4 x BTL-B Y-wing Squadron (4 x 10)

Precision Strike

Contested Outpost

Doomed Station

I still haven't built a fleet around the fact that a Venator II and Yularen can activate 8 squadrons in one go, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Obviously, that means I've got a Venator II captained by Admiral Yularen. My first thought was to put Comms Net on a Pelta in order to continually toss a Squadron token over to the Venator. But that severely limits my options, and relegating a Pelta to token duty and basically only token duty for an entire match is very different than doing so to a flotilla. It's far more points, and feels entirely uninspired. I've only got 400 points for my fleet and Republic fleets are already point-starved on a regular basis. Why handicap myself by dedicating a 45 point ship to a Squadron token relay? Feels foolish. I thought about counting on Clone Navigation Officer, but it's the same problem: why is my Pelta dialing up a Squadron dial it isn't going to use? So I put the Resolute title on my Venator and decide that it will mostly take care of its own problems with regards to commanding 8 squadrons each turn.

It was at this point that I decided to upgrade my Pelta to a Medical Frigate. It would run Bomber Command Center for any bombers I was including, Projection Experts to help protect the Resolute, and FB-88 because the title is fantastic and allows for incredible flexibility. Most of which I figure I'll end up using for Yularen's ability to repair my squadrons. Then I built my squadron game, since I figured that would dictate the rest of my choices.

I'm counting on bombers to do some damage, which means they need to get to their targets. I include 4 Y-Wings as well as Anakin, which leaves three slots for other squadrons. I include Kit Fisto to grant my Y-Wings Grit, as well as a pair of V-19s to Escort said Y-Wings. At this point, I'm a bit worried I won't have enough anti-squadron tech to get my bombers to where they need to be, even with the assistance of Yularen's Repair ability. So I slap Reserve Hangar Deck onto FB-88. But why have one when two are better? Of course, I've already got Expanded Hangar Bay in the Offensive Retrofit slot on Resolute, so I pick up a second Medical Frigate, slap Reserve Hangar Deck on it along with another Projection Experts (to protect whatever ship needs protecting; but let's be honest and just say it'll be Resolute). I add Clone Navigation Officer (CNO) to help whoever needs it.

At this point, I'm still a bit worried about my anti-squadron tech, so I put Ruthless Strategists on the Venator. After all, I can heal my squadrons. My opponent likely has a tougher time doing that. Plus, my Y-Wings have the hull to spare. And if my opponent is attempting to pick off my Y-Wings instead of my V-19s or Kit, then hopefully, I can make them pay for that. I think about Clone Captain Silver to assist Resolute as needed, but the problem I've got there is that Resolute doesn't really want to be moving at speed 3 anyway, and if it is, it needs additional yaw, not speed changes. My second Pelta can help with speed changes, courtesy of CNO. So I decide to try putting Clone Commander Wolffe on my Venator. I haven't really seen this card in play much, so that's honestly the main reason I'm including it. It's expensive and it's niche, so I understand why it hasn't seen much play yet. Plus, there are usually better options. In my case, though, I'm commanding the squadrons anyway, and I get to command 8 of them. So if a couple are landing Raid tokens instead of damage, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not like I have to pick 3 of my 4 or 5 activations are landing Raid tokens instead of damage. I've got all 8 squadrons striking at once; this is worth a shot. Plus, if I'm flying against a squadronless fleet, my V-19s suddenly serve a purpose beyond hoping I plink away at a ship, given that I've got 5 Y-Wings. Finally, I put Reinforced Blast Doors on the Venator. I thought about Electronic Countermeasures, but don't want to rely on more token generation. Plus, ideally, those Engineering points are either keeping my squadrons or my ships alive instead of refreshing one of my upgrade cards. I thought about Thermal Shields, but in a meta that offers a ton of ways to add dice, Thermal Shields can often prove less useful than simply using the Brace token for its intended effect. I figured that RBD is the one card that will always be useful, and it's cheaper than many of the other upgrades.

I rarely have a large squadron contingent. Even now, while I've got 8 squadrons, it's only 109 points! Anyway, as such, the traditional triumvirate of objectives boasted by squadron-centric fleets makes me incredibly nervous. I've seen them used to great effect, but I'm honestly not sure this is a fleet that can properly leverage them. So while I start with Precision Strike, I chicken out in short order and pick Contested Outpost for my Defense Objective. I'm rarely a fan of Fighter Ambush anyway, as there can be a lot of downside to it if your opponent also has squadrons or knows how to take advantage of the fact that you cannot use your squadron deployments to stall. Since Resolute doesn't want to be running too fast anyway, and Contested Outpost allows me to score points while dictating where the battle will occur, I thought this was worth a shot. Then I got to Superior Positions. I thought about this one for awhile, because it's really tempting. My opponent deploys everything before I do, and I've got squadrons I can fly behind them in order to hammer at them. Very tempting indeed. Except if they bring an MSU fleet, there's a distinct possibility they can keep pinging me for victory tokens while I ineffectively wheel in an attempt to swat at them. I chicken out on this one too, and end up rolling with Doomed Station for much the same reason I chose Contested Outpost...

...because I'm a coward at heart.