Well After listening to Episode 16 of the Steel Strategy's Un-named Armada Podcast. It got me on the the brain hurting attempt of trying to make Special K work again.

Name: Untitled Fleet
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral Konstantine

Assault: Rift Assault
Defense: Rift Ambush
Navigation: Doomed Station

Victory I (73)
• Harrow (3)
• Engine Techs (8)
= 84 Points

Imperial II (120)
• Admiral Konstantine (23)
• Captain Brunson (5)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
= 162 Points

Victory I (73)
• Agent Kallus (3)
• H9 Turbolasers (8)
• Warlord (8)
= 92 Points

Raider I (44)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
• Impetuous (4)
= 59 Points

Squadrons:
= 0 Points

Total Points: 397

Goal of the fleet: Choose 1 ship take it out, then run! While running keep ships away form you.

Warlord and Impetuous are for squadron defense then a little extra ship damage. ISD-II and Harrow (Red dice will fail for both) are the two main ship killers. It would probably be best to get all ships attacking one target.

Another set of objectives could be:

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation: Superior Positions

It is possible to change ISD-II for a Onager Testbed. (That might work better even!)

Just keep in mind Special K is Rank F for a reason....

People are down on Konstantine but I have had fun playing him. Speeding up the back and slowing down the front of a 3-AF Ackbar conga was the most enjoyable moment I had. I almost lost the game I was laughing so hard and forgot to move my Kuat after shooting.

This is roughly what I used:

Name: Untitled Fleet Faction:

Imperial Commander: Admiral Konstantine

Assault: Defense: Navigation:

ISD Kuat Refit (112) • Admiral Konstantine (23) • Strategic Adviser (4) • Electronic Countermeasures (7) • Leading Shots (4) • External Racks (3) • Relentless (3) = 156 Points

Victory I (73) • Skilled First Officer (1) • Ordnance Experts (4) • Boosted Comms (4) • Linked Turbolaser Towers (7) • External Racks (3) • Harrow (3) • Engine Techs (8) = 103 Points

Victory II (85) • Skilled First Officer (1) • Disposable Capacitors (3) • Leading Shots (4) = 93 Points

Squadrons: • Howlrunner (16) • Zertik Strom (15) • 2 x TIE Fighter Squadron (16) = 47 Points Total Points: 399

Just enough fighters to keep the other guy honest, and the same number of medium and large ships as your fleet, but with significantly more rerolling potential.

What objectives do you normal run? That’s one place that has improved since wave 5 came out, may new objectives!

Also great balance in upgrades and that SFC squad build! I kept running into that balance of ships and upgrades. Skilled first officer is awesome!

another thought I had was using Titus and The Grand Inquisitor in a build.

From an objective point of view what you want is something that reduces the value and effectiveness of their maneuver dials and tokens. So Minefields, where as 2nd player you can set things up so that they go all over the board, is fun. Fleet Ambush or Rift Ambush would both be effective. Ion Storm would be good, because it knocks tokens off ships and you can use this to strip enemy ships of their maneuver tokens so they're easier to fling all over the board.

Titus is worth having, particularly if you speed up an enemy ship who wants to spend their game doing something other than maneuvering - say an AFMk2 kitted out for being a carrier. On turn 1 they'll often take a maneuver dial as a token, so you can spend 2 points to deny them that, and then they're easier to throw off position later.

Grand Inquisitor I can't really see a use for in this fleet. I can see one use for him, and that's facing a Starhawk with its tractor beam of doom, and even then it's only a maybe-useful because it relies on the following sequence:

Starhawks slows to 0, shoots at you, Magnites activate, you drop to 0.

A second enemy ship changes speed.

Bit of a risk to hope that's going to pan out.

On 4/25/2020 at 12:50 AM, flatpackhamster said:

People are down on Konstantine but I have had fun playing him. Speeding up the back and slowing down the front of a 3-AF Ackbar conga was the most enjoyable moment I had. I almost lost the game I was laughing so hard and forgot to move my Kuat after shooting.

This is roughly what I used:

Name: Untitled Fleet Faction:

Imperial Commander: Admiral Konstantine

Assault: Defense: Navigation:

ISD Kuat Refit (112) • Admiral Konstantine (23) • Strategic Adviser (4) • Electronic Countermeasures (7) • Leading Shots (4) • External Racks (3) • Relentless (3) = 156 Points

Victory I (73) • Skilled First Officer (1) • Ordnance Experts (4) • Boosted Comms (4) • Linked Turbolaser Towers (7) • External Racks (3) • Harrow (3) • Engine Techs (8) = 103 Points

Victory II (85) • Skilled First Officer (1) • Disposable Capacitors (3) • Leading Shots (4) = 93 Points

Squadrons: • Howlrunner (16) • Zertik Strom (15) • 2 x TIE Fighter Squadron (16) = 47 Points Total Points: 399

Just enough fighters to keep the other guy honest, and the same number of medium and large ships as your fleet, but with significantly more rerolling potential.

I definitely think this fleet is a good starting point for Konstantine. I don’t have any confidence at all in VSD-I’s that aren’t named Harrow, so I think making the other one a VSD-II is the way to go. In fact, I’m not sure I like the VSD-I much at all... I’d probably run two identical VSD-II’s.

I would also trim out every single upgrade that isn’t ABSOLUTELY necessary, and add it all to the squadron cover. So...

VSD-II, Disposable Capacitors, Leading Shots (92 points). Two of those.

ISD-Kuat, Konstantine, Electronic Countermeasures, Leading Shots, External Racks (149 points).

Basically we’ve dropped Strategic Advisor, the two Skilled First Officers, Relentless, Boosted Comms, and reimagined the role of the Harrow, changing it from a knife-fighter to an artillery piece.

That leaves 67 points. I would definitely add Admiral Titus. He’s only 2 points, and he’s very on-plan here. That leaves 65 points, which gives us 18 more points than the above list to use on squadrons.

Now, you don’t need or want Boosted Comms with such a small fighter screen as this; your fighters should hang close to home, under cover of friendly flak anyway. So you won’t be missing that. You do have a bit of a problem in that your squadron command capacity is decent, but this is a fleet that would really prefer to be pouring the damage in with Concentrate Fire commands, or getting some decent maneuverability with Navigate commands. Squadron commands aren’t really where you want to be, here. But you could try and let your VSD’s command your squadrons. You could also rely on turning a some of those points into potent, self-sufficient, and superbly expensive Rogues, like Morna Kee, Bossk, or Boba Fett. You could also just double down on the Howlrunner plan, adding in some more TIEs and just accepting that they’re gonna bite it fast. Maybe TIE Interceptors? That way, even if you don’t manage to push them around with squadron commands, they can still get Counter attacks as they die (and if you position Howlrunner correctly, maybe even 3 dice on those Counters). You could also... and I think this last one is the one I would try first... go with Howlrunner, Valen Rudor, Ciena Ree, and Soontir Fel. Howlrunner is the one they’d like to kill, but if you keep her tucked in behind the others, they’re kind of forced to go for Fel, who throws Counter 3 as long as Howlrunner is close. They could go for Ciena, but not only will they take damage from Fel, she’s also always obstructed, and ALSO has Counter 3 while Howlrunner survives, and Rudor isn’t even an option for them. All together, that squad setup is 64 points. And they all have Scatter/Brace, so with a little luck, they might even survive for a minute.

Just remember: Squadron investments of this size are not meant to ‘win’ against larger squadron investments; they’re merely meant to delay the opponent’s squadrons while your ships kill his ships, and hopefully kill a few enemy squads, or weaken them to the point where flak fire might bring them down.

Oh, one more thought: I’d probably go with Surprise Attack as my Red Objective in this, as you’re already messing with speeds, and it can also really mess with opposing carriers for a turn or two.

On 4/25/2020 at 12:50 AM, flatpackhamster said:

People are down on Konstantine but I have had fun playing him. Speeding up the back and slowing down the front of a 3-AF Ackbar conga was the most enjoyable moment I had. I almost lost the game I was laughing so hard and forgot to move my Kuat after shooting.

That's got to be satisfying even if you lose.