Count Dooku Fleet - Bright Choir

 Count Dooku Fleet - Bright Choir

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.

Bright Choir (133/398/400)

=========================

Providence-class Dreadnought (105 + 18: 123)

· Shu Mai (4)

· Flight Controllers (6)

· Lucid Voice (8)

Comms Frigate (70 + 39: 109)

· Count Dooku (30)

· Hondo Ohnaka (2)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

Gozanti-class Cruisers (27 + 6: 33)

· Flight Controllers (6)

General Grievous (22)

DFS-311 (18)

DBS-404 (17)

DIS-T81 (17)

Belbullab-22 Starfighter Squadron (15)

3 x Hyena-class Droid Bomber Squadron (3 x 11)

Tri-Fighter Squadron (11)

Surprise Attack

Planetary Ion Cannon

Superior Positions

Every fleet I've considered recently is squadron-heavy, which means I'm hedging toward the squadron maximum of 134 points. Not necessarily because they're good or because it's what I *want* to fly (I've got some other fleets lighter on squadrons that I can't wait to try!), but because I decided I need to fly squadron-heavy fleets for awhile after flying Tarkin with only IG-88 and Hondo for squadron support. The addition of a Separatist flotilla is a pretty big damn deal and I'm excited to see them on the table. I'm sure a lot of people feel differently at the prospect of seeing more instead of fewer flotillas on the table, but I really believe the Separatists could use the help to push their swarms.

Of course, the flotilla is a bit of a weird one, so we will likely be seeing some creative upgrade combos on it. But for now, I'm content to use the Weapons Team slot for Flight Controllers. It's already a 33 point flotilla, so I'm inclined to leave it alone for now. I build my squadron contingent next knowing I can always change it later depending on the makeup of my fleet. I love Grievous as a commander in fleets with squadrons, but as a result, I almost never have him flying a Belbullab despite how awesome he is an ace. So I start with him as an ace and resign myself to using a different commander. Since I'm going squadron-heavy, I know I'll be using Hyenas, so I pick up DBS-404 because I prefer its ability to that of Baktoid Prototypes and it gives me a bomber with Scatter. I consider doubling up on Hyena aces, but since I don't have any way to protect them (ie. Escort), I decide that I'll be better off with the remaining Hyenas being generic. I figure 4 bombers should be enough to have an impact, so I add in 3 Hyenas and leave it at that. But I also know I want an anti-squadron presence, so I add DIS-T81 for Snipe and a nasty attack bolstered by Swarm. Originally, I had added in 2 generic Tri-Fighters and 1 generic Bulbullab to round out my squadron contingent, but it wasn't quite where I wanted to be. I ended up removing one Tri-Fighter so that I could add in DFS-311. DFS' attack isn't as potent as that of a Tri-Fighter, but it is a Scatter ace and it has Intel. I'm not counting on DFS springing everyone if I come up against another squadron-heavy fleet, but if it can spring the right squadron here or there by handing out Grit, that might make it worth it. I'm willing to try it, anyway. I've got 9 squadrons, which isn't ideal (I'd rather have an even number for deployment purposes), but I'll try it before I bury the build.

I do want to field a Hardcell with Bomber Command Center to help out those Hyenas, so I add it in. But by the time I'm done building the rest of my fleet, it's clear to me that I'm going to be flying those Hyenas naked and just not expecting any heroics from their red dice. If it happens, it's great! But I can't count on that if I'm going to fly this fleet this way. Back to ships! Lately, my builds have featured Invisible Hand as a centerpiece. It's really gimmicky, but I like the idea, so I've just been tinkering with it. So I thought I'd try something different. 4 Hyenas aren't enough to kill an enemy, so they'll need some help from the capital ships. The Gozanti won't be doing much, so I put Lucid Voice on the Providence (incidentally, I had difficulty coming up with a name for this fleet, so "Bright Choir" is just a placeholder, as it's basically an equivalent of "Lucid Voice," though it includes the squadrons, thus the "choir of voices"). I chose the Dreadnaught so that I could take Flight Controllers on this as well as the Gozanti. I figure with this setup, either the Providence or Gozanti can activate either the anti-squadron fighters or the Hyenas without losing much. Leaves me a little more flexible in activation order and squadron command coverage. I want some dice fixing on here, especially with the Lucid Voice title. So I put Shu Mai on here. It's a gamble, I think, to run this ship with Lucid Voice without a consistent reroll buff such as with LTT, but Shu Mai lets me reroll more dice and she does last for 2 rounds. The more practice I get with her and with Separatists, the more comfortable I'll be with whether or not she offers enough dice fixing for what I'm trying to accomplish.

I don't have much left in the way of points, but I do have enough for a Munificent. I pick the Comms Frigate for that higher Squadron value and know I've got to decide on a commander at this point. Obviously, Grievous is out. I look at the others, but I really struggle for a minute even though my decision is sort of made for me. I don't have the points to spare for Trench and I'm also certain I don't have the room for token generation in addition to equipping him, so why am I taking him? I don't have enough ships well-equipped for Kraken. Plus, I'm squadron-heavy - why am I counting on crit effects or an Accuracy from only 2 combat ships? That leaves Mar Tuuk, Count Dooku, and TF-1726. Definitely not TF without some apparatus to hand out Raid tokens (forgetting the fact that, again, I've only got a couple of combat-worthy ships). Mar Tuuk is a possibility, but I've got bombers and no Accuracy tech. Shouldn't be too hard for my opponents to burn through all of their shields, thus robbing my pair of ships of a red die with each attack. So Count Dooku it is. I think my hesitation is that I don't really like feeling as though I'm picking a commander by default.

Don't mistake me - I think there's plenty of usefulness for Dooku! And I appreciate that he doesn't necessarily *need* to be paired with a specific fleet archetype. But I don't exactly have a plan on how to use him when I pick him up for this fleet. So it just sits oddly with me. But like I said, I'll try it out before I bury it. So Dooku it is! I've got a few points left, so I tack LTT onto the Munificent since it's mainly throwing red dice and I'll need it to do at least some damage, and then I roll out Hondo. More likely than not, I'll be using him to hand someone a Squadron token to help push an extra squadron as needed as well as a Concentrate Fire token for a reroll.

Since I'm using Dooku, that all but assures I'll also be using Surprise Attack as an objective, so let's go ahead and just bank that one off the bat. I decide to go with Planetary Ion Cannon because I can use all the help I can get in shooting up my opponent and it can't be turned on me. And finally, I decide Superior Positions is worth the risk of having it turned on me. My ships aren't going to be flying fast anyway, I've got 9 squadrons that can exploit the objective for points, and since I've only got 7 deployments, it'll help to see my opponent completely deploy before I put anything on the table.