SW Armada: Slumming With Sloane
Admirals to the bridge! Sloane and her fighters bring the pain.
As I mentioned last week I am not as comfortable with squadron heavy lists as I’d like to be. Today I’ve continuing to work on that weakness by looking at Imperial Squadron lists. Now when looking at an Imperial squadron list Slaone seems to be a pretty obvious choice for Admiral. And in fact I did do up a couple of list with her before. Both of these lists were however swarm lists, based on massed TIE attacks. Today I wanted to mess around with a more ace oriented build. Here is what I’ve come up with.
The List
The Fleeting Fleet
Commander: Admiral Sloane
Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Fighter Ambush
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions
flagship Quasar Fire I-class Cruiser-Carrier (54 points)
– Admiral Sloane ( 24 points)
– Admiral Chiraneau ( 10 points)
– Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
– Disposable Capacitors ( 3 points)
-Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
102 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
– Vector ( 2 points)
– Expanded Hangar Bay ( 5 points)
30 total ship cost
Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
– Demolisher ( 10 points)
– Minister Tua ( 2 points)
– Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
– Engine Techs ( 8 points)
– Reinforced Blast Doors ( 5 points)
– Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
90 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Assault Carriers (28 points)
28 total ship cost
1 Lambda-class Shuttle ( 15 points)
1 Colonel Jendon ( 20 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
1 Tempest Squadron ( 13 points)
1 Maarek Steele ( 21 points)
1 “Mauler” Mithel ( 15 points)
1 Soontir Fel ( 18 points)
1 Saber Squadron ( 12 points)
Points: 384/400
Squadrons
So the core of this list is pretty obviously built around the squadron game. I’ve packed a pretty ace heavy fighter build in, with only the Lambda being non-unique. I think this build should give me a pretty potent hit vs either squadrons or ships. It’s one of the tougher Imperial squad builds, with a lot of hull and some scatters, and isn’t likely to get locked down. I think it does better vs squadrons than ships, but between Slaone and the couple of bombers it can stick to and focus down enemy ships. There’s not a huge trick with the squadrons either, keep them together and they benefit from Dengar and Tempest has escort, Soontir is Soontir. Saber and Mauler give you a couple of other ways of taking on enemy squadrons. Use Jendon to let Steele (or in some cases Saber) attack twice. Profit.
The Ships
Where as the squadrons in the lists really want to get stuck in the ships are going to play a much more conservative game. In general you actually want to run away with most of your ships avoiding contact with the enemy if possible. The exception to this is of course Demolisher. With such a high bid you’ve got a good chance at being first player and either avoiding combat or hitting with Demo. I’d most likely hold Demo back till mid game then use its speed to make a pass through the enemy fleet either finishing off a target the squadrons had worn down or crippling one for them to finish. After that pass Demo most likely needs to hightail it out of dodge. As for the carriers, they can stay far away and relay through the Lambda’s.
Redundancy
The fleet is build with a lot of redundancy in it. For instance I’ve got a lot more squadron activation than squadrons. Even if I lost a ship I can still keep the squadrons going. I’ve also got dual Lamdas for protection, and while I’ve only got one escort ship, Fel kind of doubles as a second. Both Dengar and Chiraneau help make sure my squadrons don’t get locked up if they don’t want too be. I’ve even got TWO admirals, just for kicks. While I like the redundancy I do wonder if I’ve crossed a line to being inefficient.
Final Thoughts
Hey, at least he’s still good in Armada.
I’ll have to play around with the fleet a bit, but it seems like it could do well. Of course with the bid I have I do have a number of options for switching things up. Aside from changing up the squadrons, drop Saber for an Advanced or fit in Storm (maybe dropping the Lambda), there are changes to the ships I could do. I could drop the Assault Carriers down to Cruisers for a few extra points there. I could also swamp out the defensive retro fir on Demo for a different one. I could even drop the Quaser all together, taking maybe a 2nd Glad and a 3rd Gozanti, or even a VSD. Lots of options.
Overall I’m looking forward to trying this fleet out. The big thing I worry about is that it won’t fair well in tournaments. It seems like a list that is very good a avoiding bloody slaughters and gets a lot of minor wins. Fine in casual play but not enough to cut it in competitive. Still, time will tell if it plays well at all.
That’s all for this week Armada fans. Let me know what you think about the list, down in the comments!
