Star Wars Armada: Gozanti Invasion
With Wave III about to hit we talk about using the new Gozanti in your Armada Fleet.
Hey BoLS fans! Hope everyone out there is having a great day. This week sees some exciting developments in the world of Aramada. Though Waves III and IV won’t hit retailers until a bit later this month, GenCon is this weekend and people attending will have a chance to get their hands on the new goods. That means this coming week should see the first games using the new ships! Oh happy day! With that in mind I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’m going to fit flotillas into my fleets. A few weeks ago I talked about how I was planning on using the GR-75. Since then I’ve been giving the Gonzanti a lot of though as well.
Stormy seas ahead. Good thing we’re a space ship!
The Fleet
Now both the Gozanti and the GR-75 fill the same overall role in their fleet. However while each is well equipped as a light support vessel, the Gozanti is a little more offensively balanced than it’s rebel counter-part. This is of course in keeping with normal Imperial fashion and should come as no surprise to anyone. Fluff wise however they filled very different roles. While the GR-75 was a mainstay of the Rebel Fleet and acted as support vessels in majors battles, such as Endor, the Gozanti was not. By the time of the Rebellion in fact Gozanti cruisers where past their prime and mostly relegated to back waters and occupation forces. Going along with that idea I wanted to play around with what a typical Imperial occupation force, or a force designed to conquer a small world, might look like. Here is what I came up with:
Our Commander
Imperial Invasion Fleet
Commander: General Tagge
Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions
Flagship Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
– General Tagge ( 25 points)
– Devastator ( 10 points)
– Captain Needa ( 2 points)
– Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
– Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams ( 6 points)
– Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
– X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
– Leading Shots ( 4 points)
187 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Assault Carriers (28 points)
– Vector ( 2 points)
– Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
– Comms Net ( 2 points)
37 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Assault Carriers (28 points)
– Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
– Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
41 total ship cost
10 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 80 points)
6 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 54 points)
Points: 399/400
We’ll be using the shooty version today
One of the main roles of both Imperial Star Destroyer classes was planetary invasion and occupation. Due to that I’ve built the fleet around a single powerful ISD II supported by a pair of Gozantis for support and to help enforce the blockade. Since this fleet is operating in a bit of a backwater they don’t have access to some of the newer models of TIE’s, but make up for it a bit in sheer numbers. The fleet is a generally fast and flexible force good for chasing down any blockade runners or insurgent forces. Part of the inspiration for this fleet in fact comes from an amazing bit of Star Wars Rebels concept art.
The fleet in action around an occupied world.
Using the Fleet
In game terms the main focus is based on the killing power of the souped up Devastator. The idea if for Devastator to burn through it’s tokens as fast as it can. Needa allows you to switch the contain for an evasion and use that up quickly, to spare a few hits. Tagge lets you burn down your tokens early game for a few powerful shots with the Devastator title ability, but also to get some defences back up later when needed. In addition he lets you really make good use of the scatter tokens on the Gozantis, don’t be afraid to burn them.
+4 dice is nothing to sneer at. Oh wait, we’re Imperials, we sneer at everything!
The fighter force can’t be entirely ignored either. 16 squadrons gives you a lot of placement and movement options, and does put out a ton of dice. While they lack any fancy tricks they do have a fair amount of brute force behind them. A dedicated trick fighter build, might beat them eventually, but they should be able to put the hurt on to smaller fighter forces and Fireballs. Unopposed they can also really mess up any ships, six bombers, benefiting from the Bomber Command Center upgrade and controlled by the Gozantis will start to wear down enemy ships.
I think some Rebels got into our command center…
In addition the ten normal TIEs put out enough firepower to chew up enemies. If the enemy happens to pick most wanted as the objective, your TIE’s will double their firepower and it will be awesome.
Double the fire, double the fun.
Lastly the Gozantis provide some useful support in the fleet. Bomber Command Center Supports the TIE’s well, while the Comms Net can be useful in helping the IDS II out in a pinch. While the ISD II can use fighter commands, it mostly should be leaving that up to the Gozantis. While they can’t control all the fighters they should be able to control the key ones. The fleet has enough squadrons that with proper placing some will always be able to attack without moving. In addition I picked the Assault Carriers class to add a little more offencive fire to the fleet. Sure a single red dice isn’t much, but sometimes it can finish off that last enemy ship.
You can tell it’s an old ship cus it’s got a round dish, all the new ships had to go with rectangles.
Now is this fleet perfect? Of course not. A few possible changes could be switching the X17s on Devastator for Turbolaser Reroute Circuits or Gunnery Team for Ruthless Strategist to make the most out of Needa and the TIE swarm. In addition keep in mind I wanted to go with a sort of themed fluffy use of the new wave III stuff, rather than the best tournament build. With that in mind however I think the list can play alright and should lead to some fun and interesting games.
Well that’s all for today folks! Let us know what you think of the fleet concept and how you plan to use the Gozanti down in the comments!
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