Kiting Venators!

 Kiting Venators!

Looks super cool on the table, but it just doesn't take much to sunder it to pieces...

Yeah, okay, so I'm sold on the premise. I know not everyone is, and I know it's not everyone's style, and that's all to the good. Different ways of building out ships and flying them is obviously best for the game. We don't hesitate to complain about the Victory Star Destroyer, after all, and how limited the options are for a feasibly competitive build.

I wrote awhile back that my friend Kyle and I had discussed how it might be best to kite Venators around combat instead of getting stuck in the scrum. There's so much fun to be had with these ships, but sometimes, all it takes is one unlucky shot to ensure that the Venator is DOA. And obviously, that can really take the wind out of your sails. Not just because that Venator is expensive and might be the linchpin of your fleet, but because it's less fun playing with a ship that can be such a glass cannon in practice when it doesn't necessarily come across the way on paper. Especially the Venator-I, which doesn't have the protection of a Defensive Retrofit slot.

Anyway, I had tried building a fleet around the notion of using a Venator to kite and detailed that build here. I've gotten to fly it several times, and while I've had varying degrees of success, I've also noticed there's one major factor in all of those situations: user error. It can often feel as though I'm not getting "full use" out of my Venator because I don't frequently get to use its front arc at close range and throw those black dice if I'm keeping my distance. But there's a sort of inverse relationship: the more often I throw black dice (outside of SPHA-T) at enemy ships with my Venator, the higher the likelihood that my ship will burn. And while it's certainly possible to win even with the loss of my Venator, it does get more difficult. Especially because if the Venator ends up too close to the action, once it's on fire, it burns down fast. So it's not like it throws punches for 4 rounds before dropping in the sixth or something like that; it gets off maybe a couple of shots, but unless it gets supremely lucky, it doesn't do enough to justify its cost or its destruction.

Yeah, CMC. I'm throwing shade at you. 2 seasons in a row I took you as the number one overall pick in my fantasy football draft, and 2 seasons in a row, you've not justified your cost before burning down.

So I've tried to be smarter about *actually* keeping it out of danger instead of skirting so close to danger that it can't help but get sucked into the sinking sand.

Too bad there's no Westley commander to save my sinking Venator...

I got in a game of Armada last night, which was a very pleasant surprise, given that I spent all day running the Armada tournament this past Saturday (about which I plan on writing soon!). In talking to my friend Scott, rather than Adepticon practice, he'd just brought a fleet that he thought would be fun. I had already left for the store, so decided to run this Luminara fleet instead of my Grand Moff Tarkin fleet. I didn't realize until I was setting it up that I'd forgotten to replace Clone Gunners on my Venator with something else. I love the card! But I just don't have any way to fuel it, given that I'm using my Con Fire tokens to refresh Clone Captain Zak and SPHA-T. So unless a very specific situation arises, I know my Clone Gunners will just be dead weight. Oh well.

Scott sets up with two Venators (one of each chassis), a Consular Armed Cruiser, 4 ARCs, and Anakin in a Y-Wing. He's flying Plo Koon and has every intention of dropping all 5 bombers on my face with Rapid Launch Bays equipped to the Venator-II. He's got me outbid and wants to go second, so I'm stuck with his objectives. Which is fine, honestly, because my Venator is happy to use it's SPHA-T shot before anything else happens each round. But I do worry about what he's got in store for me. It's a hard pass on Advanced Gunnery so he can't take two big shots on the same target each round, and that leaves me with either Fleet Ambush or Solar Corona. I really don't want Solar Corona just because I think it's very easy for Republic to lose on deployment, and I've got Scott outdeployed, even if I take Fleet Ambush and have to deploy all of my ships before I can deploy any of my squadrons. If I can take advantage of mistakes he makes during deployment, then that goes a long way toward me winning. So I choose Fleet Ambush. I don't love putting my Consulars way out there in the Ambush Zone as prescribed by the objective, but they're maneuverable, they're fast, and I'm first. I'll take the chance.

So I pick Fleet Ambush, I set up two of my Chargers in the Ambush Zone with my Venator and Luminara's Charger in the deployment zone, all 4 ships running parallel to my side of the board, ready to toss broadside dice at the oncoming enemy. I deployed a little conservatively with my V-19s and Y-Wings, setting them up in the No Man's Land between the Ambush Zone and the Deployment Zone. They're faster than the ARCs and I'm going first, so I can afford to be thoughtful about them instead of too aggressive. Predictably, this would end up costing me.

Long story short: with Scott's three ships rushing straight toward me at speed 3, I was confident that my fleet could outrun him to the right side of the board, and that I'd be able to take out his Venator-I (which was on the outside) as well as the Consular Armed Cruiser (which was between both of his Venators). Since his Venator-II was carrying 5 bombers and had Electronic Countermeasures, why would I head in that direction? So I just ran along on a parallel plane as my two Chargers in the Ambush Zone kinda tried to merge with the rest of my fleet as I ran for his right flank. But I just didn't pick up speed soon enough because I was trying to use Clone Navigation Officer to toss command tokens to my Venator. Now! If, in the squadron phase, I had pushed my V-19s into the face of his Venator-II, I could've forced a bad RLB drop of his ARCs. Sure, they would've eliminated my V-19s, but they never would've gotten those big bombing runs on my Chargers. And all with the benefit of Plo Koon's ability because his Venator-II was in range of both of those Chargers. They got off some decent shots, but at least one of them should've been able to get out of there safely. And maybe the Charger out to my left should've just made a hard cutback and forced him to either leave it be or make a futile attempt to chase it. Either way, both of those ships would die in the second round, and that was pretty unpleasant. However, my squadron ball and two remaining ships did have something to say about all of that.

I was able to wait long enough for his Ven-I and Armed Cruiser to stroll into danger. I thought about doing my best to immediately delete the Consular, but I figured it wasn't going anywhere. So I sent the majority of my squadrons after Anakin to take him out early. I missed once or twice, so it was a bit of throwing good money after bad, but I did get him down to one hull. My remaining Y-Wings split their fire between the Consular and the Ven-I. Luminara's Charger took one shot at the front arc of the Ven-I. When it was time for Tranquility to start taking shots, it did so in earnest. I had a double-arc lined up on the Ven-I with a SPHA-T shot out of the side arc and a medium range shot from my front arc. I took both, pouring damage into his Ven-I. At this point, I was very confident that I could eliminate his Ven-I with just my front arc shot. So I killed Anakin, then took a couple of shots at the Consular, and then (having placed my SPHA-T token in my side arc the previous turn), I took that SPHA-T shot at his Armed Cruiser. Between SPHA-T and Clone Captain Zak, I was able to finish that ship off. Then I killed his Ven-I with my front arc. At this point, I placed my SPHA-T token for what would be the last time in the game, but I thought I might get off one more shot at his Ven-II.

Ultimately, though, I played this too conservatively. I didn't want him to get my flagship if I wasn't confident that I could kill his Ven-II and table him. So rather than take shots against his Ven-II with Lumi's Charger and then follow up by activating Tranquility first for a SPHA-T shot, I skipped the shot so as to avoid the Salvo, and then activated Luminara's Charger first, fleeing instead of taking the shot with my Ven-II. So it came down to the squadron scrum as the 3 remaining ships circled the battlefield, unable to do much of anything at all. My squadrons fought valiantly, but they were never going to win that battle. He killed all but one of my Y-Wings (and that one likely only survived because I started activating my Y-Wings during the Squadron Phase, but not using them to attack) and in return, I killed Anakin and one of his 4 ARCs. We tallied up the points, and I'd managed to pull out a 17 point win.

We both really thought the way it broke meant he won, but the Consulars he got are so cheap (to say nothing of my squadrons, since I wasn't fielding any Jedi) that his Venator-I made all the difference. And that was the show! Again, I need to pull Clone Gunners, and I'll probably replace them with Veteran Gunners. I won't have a bid, but I think I'm honestly happy whether I go first or second. There's also the possibility that I use Veteran Gunners a couple of times, don't like them, and just leave the Weapons Upgrade slot empty and run with a 5 point bid. We'll see; I'm not certain either way. And also, I sacrificed positioning in this game just so I could feed tokens to my Venator, and that cost me. Again: user error. But overall, I am enjoying this Hell Kite fleet and I think there's something to it!