A New Hope Fleet

 A New Hope Fleet

I decided to try something new and build a fleet inspired by each movie. Honestly, the first one I built was based on The Empire Strikes Back because that's the film that gave me this idea in the first place. The thing I'd like to share about these fleets is that they're not based on their respective movies, but inspired by them. For me, the difference is that the inspired fleets sometimes include ships and squadrons included in the film and sometimes not, whereas any fleets based on the film would be more grounded in what we actually see on screen in that film. Let's see what nonsense I've come up with below!

ANH Fleet (111/393/400)

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Imperial I-class Star Destroyer (110 + 55: 165)

· Darth Vader (36)

· Minister Tua (2)

· Boarding Troopers (3)

· Devastator (10)

· Reactive Gunnery (4)

Quasar Fire I-class Cruiser-Carrier (54 + 13: 67)

· Flight Controllers (6)

· Boosted Comms (4)

· Disposable Capacitors (3)

Raider I-class Corvette (44 + 6: 50)

· External Racks (4)

· Corvus (2)

Morna Kee (27)

Captain Jonus (16)

Zertik Strom (15)

Tempest Squadron (13)

Tie Advanced Squadron (12)

Gamma Squadron (10)

2 x Tie Bomber Squadron (2 x 9)

Precision Strike

Jamming Barrier

Superior Positions

So I think it's pretty obvious where I started this fleet. But I'll also say that it was very hard for me not to build a Rebel fleet around Tantive IV and X-Wings. I built iterations of that a couple of times, but I thought those were kind of not really in the spirit of the exercise and I was bored doing it. Obviously, this fleet was still inspired by the pursuit of Tantive IV, because the centerpiece of this fleet is Vader aboard his flagship, Devastator. Additionally, I've got Boarding Troopers on there. Feels appropriate for the film, but it also makes good use of the ISD-I chassis and its squadron value of 4. It felt a little difficult to build an ISD-I because normally, I'd be using a Kuat if I wanted a brawler. Ultimately, I went with an ISD-I because my understanding is that Devastator is an ISD-I according to the lore.

It's been a real long time since I've flown Vader, so I'm looking forward to using him in this abominable little fleet! But I also want to get through my defense tokens quickly if possible, so I thought Reactive Gunnery might be a good add because any readied token can be a Salvo, which means more damage. And it's an additional attack, which means Vader can reroll that as well and get through defense tokens even more quickly. Devastator is already so expensive between Vader and the title that I knew this would also be a decently squadron-heavy fleet because I don't have the points I need to buy up a bunch more ships to do the damage I need. I could probably add a couple of Arquitens for that to leverage Vader better, since squadrons don't benefit from him, but Imma try this anyway. So I add in a Quasar to push the squadrons that Devastator does not. I go with the pretty standard build of Flight Controllers, Boosted Comms, and Disposable Capacitors. Nothing inspired there, but it's effective.

At this point, I start looking at squadrons. I began with a contingent of 4 TIE Fighters because the attack on the Falcon as it escapes from the Death Star is one of my favorite scenes in the movie (largely owing to the brilliant way that Williams scored it). But it just wasn't coming together in a way that I liked. I knew I planned on using TIE Bombers and TIE Fighters just weren't going to cut it in terms of protection. So I went with TIE Advanced instead. All 3 of my TIE Advanced can protect the bombers for a moment, but if I'm flying against a squadron-less fleet, Zertik can plunk away at the unleaded TA for rerolls against ships and Tempest is a bomber. Then I've got a couple of generic TIE Bombers, but also bring Gamma (because I love Grit!) and Captain Jonus (I still love Grit, but now I'm also buffing my ships' attacks!). I'm at 7 squadrons and still have points left. I sift through aces to see if there's anyone I really like. Nobody in particular really feels connected with ANH in a way I can't resist and I end up picking an ace I never really fly, but I know is hugely effective: Morna Kee. Ruthless and beastly, she at least gives off Vader-like vibes.

I still have points left and decide to add a Raider to my merry band. I've wanted an excuse to use the Corvus title since it dropped with Rebellion in the Rim several years ago, so Imma use it now. I attach External Racks, counting on Vader to help me with rerolls, and call it good! Honestly, it's not a great Vader build, given that I only have one ship that can really hang around for more than one round of combat. But this exercise is for fun and I'm basing it on how I connect with a particular movie rather than it being balanced or anything like that.