SW Armada: The Imperial Patrol Fleet

Today we look at a design for an Imperial Patrol Fleet for Star Wars Armada.

There’s a line in the one of the old Star Wars books, either Heir to the Empire or X-wing: Rogue Squadron I can’t recall which, about how the Interdictor was designed to pull ships out of Hyperspace and hold them there while TIE fighters shot them up. Close to twenty years later and images that line brought to mind are still with me. A ship held helpless in space while swarms of TIE’s crawl over it, taking it apart shot by shot. Now with the release of Armada wave IV I can finally play out that fantasy on the tabletop and make that fleet come to life.

A Star Wars classic

The basic idea behind this fleet is a kind of fun/fluffy list meant to represent an internal support fleet. Obviously the ship is built around an Interdictor, that’s how they trap their enemies. Aside from that however I figured that this sort of fleet wouldn’t have accesses to newer stuff, it’s chasing smugglers and raiders, not fighting on the front lines. So we get a nice Victory I to back up the Interdictor. It’s an old ship, but it’s been retrofitted a bit and it’s aged commander is wily. Several old Gozanti cruisers from the Republic days have been upgraded for combat and added to the fleet for support and to add a little speed. And of course there is a good complement of TIE’s to do the killing, but they’re just basic TIE fighters, this is the backwater after all.

And there are so, so many types of TIE to choose from. 

Put that all together and you get this little fleet.

Galactic Empire  Patrol Fleet

Commander: Admiral Konstantine

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective: Minefields

flagship  Interdictor-class Suppression Refit (90 points)
–  Admiral Konstantine  ( 23  points)
–  Interdictor  ( 3  points)
–  Admiral Titus  ( 2  points)
–  Fighter Coordination Team  ( 3  points)
–  Targeting Scrambler  ( 5  points)
–  G-8 Experiemental Projector  ( 8  points)

134 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Assault Carriers (28 points)
–  Suppressor  ( 4  points)
–  Expanded Hangar Bay  ( 5  points)
–  Slicer Tools  ( 7  points)
44 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Assault Carriers (28 points)
–  Expanded Hangar Bay  ( 5  points)
–  Jamming Field  ( 2  points)
35 total ship cost

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
–  Warlord  ( 8  points)
–  Wulff Yularen  ( 7  points)
–  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
–  Expanded Launchers  ( 13  points)
105 total ship cost

10 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 80 points)

Points: 398/400

The fleet might look a little like this

I’ve talked about using both the Interdictor and the Gozantis before and I tried to use some of those ideas in this list. Overall I wanted something a bit fun and a bit fluffy that would let me try out the new stuff. The basic idea is to shut down the enemy movement using the G-8 and Konstantine’s ability. With the enemy slowed the Victory I should be able to close and deliver some heavy blows. Interdictor can also deal out some damage, it does do eight dice on a two arc attack. The Gozantis are there mostly to command the TIEs but hopefully Suppressor with it’s slicer tools can throw a few wrenches in the enemy’s plan.

Time for some riveting slicing

The 10 TIEs should be an active part of the list. There is enough of them that if the enemy has invested heavily into squadrons they can tie them up and maybe win. If the enemy doesn’t have any squadrons they should be able to really hurt the enemy capitals ships with a vast number of blue dice. Between the Fighter Coordination Team and the lists ability to shut down enemy movement hopefully once engaged you won’t have to give too many orders to the fighters.

Time for some precision formation flying

I did struggle a bit while making this list. If I wanted to be really true to the idea of a backwater fleet, I probably shouldn’t have used any titles or named officers, but you do have to take an admiral. In the end I figured that A) I wanted to have a chance at winning, and B) if it came down to it I’d really use these as like counts as, it’s a big Galaxy there are lots of talented officers out there.

Or maybe galaxies, since they seem to be looking at one, from a different one?  

Again the idea behind this list wasn’t to make the most powerful or meta busting fleet, but rather to recreate a fluffy idea that I’ve had for a long time and get to try out the new options. I do think this list could put up a good fight if flown right, and I can’t wait to give it a try. Both Wave Four and Wave Three are out now and have me super excited for the game. I could totally see myself taking a list like this in a campaign for fluff, or just for some random fun. When wave V comes out I’ll check this out again, I think an Arquitens would be a perfect fit.

That’s all for today BoLS fans! Let me know what you think of the fleet, or any cool fleet ideas you have, down in the comments! 

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Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.