Admiral Sloane Fleet - Leviathan Wakes
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.
Leviathan Wakes (106/393/400)
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Command Prototype (220 + 67: 287)
· Admiral Sloane (24)
· Damage Control Officer (5)
· Captain Needa (2)
· Commander Vanto (7)
· Take Evasive Action! (6)
· Entrapment Formation! (5)
· Boarding Troopers (3)
· Leading Shots (6)
· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
· Executor (2)
Dengar (20)
Howlrunner (16)
2 x TIE Phantom Squadron (2 x 14)
3 x Tie Interceptor Squadron (3 x 11)
Black Squadron (9)
Advanced Gunnery
Capture the VIP
Intel Sweep
Wanna see something dumb? Great; me too! Here we go!!
To be clear from the start, we agree that this will not work, yes? Ok, excellent. Now that's out of the way, let me tell you a little bit about how and why I built it. I enjoy flying the SSD; it's fun, it can be mean, and the model inspires awe. I've had to explain to multiple people that, unlike in X-Wing, this ship actually can be used in standard games. It's just damn impressive. I'm familiar with the various Ravager builds, so one doesn't need to convince me of how effective they can be. But I almost never see the Command chassis hit the table. So I'm invested in that and have been for awhile. (See here) Further, all of my most recent builds have been centered on Clone Wars factions. I've tried going back and building Imperial and Rebel fleets, but just haven't gotten very far lately before quitting on an idea. But it occurred to me that any time I've considered an SSD build, it predominantly features Admiral Piett as a commander, or I sometimes consider Moff Jerjerrod or General Tagge. Every Ravager build I've seen has featured Jerjerrod for his sweet turning action and low cost. And I haven't seen Ozzel commanding an SSD, but I can see him as a choice in the wake of changes made to him in 1.5.
In all my time playing Armada, I've never once flown with Sloane. I've steered real clear of her. I know she's incredibly effective, and I think she's a terrific commander. The reason I've avoided her is because I've seen the Sloane builds, I think they're great, and I don't think I can build her out any better than other folks have, so I've not tried. So: enter my attempt at a Sloane fleet.
I start with Dengar. I know that Intel is very much out of vogue since it got nerfed, but honestly, I love Grit. It's not perfect, but it gives me a lot of options I didn't have. Plus, Dengar's Counter shenanigans, defense tokens, blue anti-ship die, and non-Rogue status all check out with Sloane. Next up, I know I want a couple of TIE Interceptors, which means I'm taking Howlrunner. But a funny thing happened while I was scrolling down to TIE Interceptors in my Armada Fleets Designer app (easily the best one; go get it and give money to the designer if you haven't done this yet) - I noticed the TIE Phantoms sitting there. And I so enjoyed flying them in my Palpatine fleet experiment that I find myself thinking it might be quite a lot of fun to fly them again. So I add in a couple of Phantoms in addition to Howlrunner and the Interceptors. Finally, I think Dengar and Howl can probably use just a little bit of help. But TIE Advanced don't work particularly well with Sloane. So I decided to pull in Black Squadron. They've only got a couple of hull to eat damage, but they throw a blue anti-ship die, they're fast, and they're cheap. I'm willing to give them a shot in this list. Only 106 points worth of squadrons, but I've got 8 squadrons and the max I'll be able to command without a flotilla is 7 (if I take Expanded Hangar Bay and have squadron tokens on hand). I don't want the flotilla, so I'll leave the option open, but also currently stick with flying 8 squadrons.
Back to my SSD! Damage Control Officer (DCO) is basically a staple on the SSD, so I start there. Knowing that I won't have any other sources for tokens, I take Commander Vanto because he's flexible and gives me options. I don't want to be limited to only one of each token at a time when I could spend the first turn or two banking two tokens a turn (per huge ship rules gifting me a token that matches my revealed dial), so I equip the Executor title. That allows me to use Vanto however I want, regardless of the tokens I've already got on me. I've got token generation, so now I can take fleet commands with impunity. Sort of, anyway - I obviously still need to bank the correct tokens, which will require two separate dials. Feels a bit limiting if engagement happens early and now I have to choose between token prep and actual engagement.
Unless, of course, both of my fleet commands use the same type of token.
My squadrons are fast enough, so I don't need AFFM. StM doesn't sense, since spending a single Engineering token would have exactly the same effect. IF could be useful, but I had already decided to equip Leading Shots, so I've got some dice control. IF is a guarantee, of course, but is it one I need? I decide to go without. TEA is huge for the SSD, given that the ship has no native yaw in its movement profile. I enjoy EF, but know it's rarely used because the effect feels fairly pedestrian and there are so many other ways to address the need to change speed. Even in this case, I can just spend the Nav token to change my speed since I've only got one ship. So why bother? Well, in my case, I'm doing it for the *free* free speed change. Instead of burning a token on it, I can just discard the card. Will I really change my speed often enough for that to matter? I'm not sure, but I want to try a slightly more nimble than average SSD. And yes, I know that Jerjerrod works, but Imma try it this way anyhow.
I can already hear the detractors: "A nimble SSD, Chris? What the hell are you on about?" Those are fair questions, but Imma double down on my answer by putting Captain Needa on here. I'll end up replacing one of the Contain defense tokens with the Evade, which decreases the effectiveness of DCO, but I'm going to mess with it anyway. Might help in the face of Onagers. Plus, it allows me to meaningfully equip Turbolaser Reroute Circuits to the SSD. It's probably too much work for too little effect, but I also think it can just be mean alongside Leading Shots rerolls.
Finally, I consider just putting Gunnery Team on here and being done with it, but how often am I going to dial up Concentrate Fire? Especially given my lack of command flexibility. Instead, I decide to try Boarding Troopers so I can exhaust someone's defense tokens and then only need a couple of Accuracy rolls from my squadrons to finish spending the ship's defense tokens before my SSD takes its shot(s). I'll be dialing up Squadron commands anyway, so I can spare a token to use Boarding Troopers. Let's give it a shot.
Finally, the objectives. The first one is easy because I don't have Gunnery Team, and I only have one ship. If they get my SSD off the table, I'm dead anyway. So I pick Advanced Gunnery. Ain't nobody picking that if I can shoot three times from the same arc into the same arc. Especially if they're not gonna have any defense tokens left after Sloane's squadrons and Boarding Troopers. So that's one. Next, I figure I've got the biggest, tankiest ship I can field, so I'm rolling with Capture the VIP and Intel Sweep because it'll be fairly easy to collect the points from either objective with the massive SSD, and then I need that ship to hold on anyway because it's the only thing keeping me on the table. It's very likely that even if I win, my opponent will get half points for crippling my SSD, and that's 144 points right there. To say nothing of my TIEs being picked off. So either of those last two objectives will help mitigate point bleed from squadron loss or a crippled SSD.
P.S. I recently finished re-reading all of The Expanse books in preparation for Leviathan Falls being released THIS MONTH.
*MINOR SPOILER ALERT*
I'm kinda freaking out with excitement. But I was thinking about how silly it is for an SSD to have an Evade token, and in my head, I equated it to Eros jumping out of the way of the Nauvoo in the first Expanse book, "Leviathan Wakes." Hence the fleet name. And now you know!
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