Team Analysis - Hammers of Kuat

Continuing our analysis of the various teams, it's time to talk about the Hammers of Kuat, the R1 opponents for Full Jar Jar, and home to World Cup champion Clontroper5.

Members:

Clontroper5 - Team Captain 

Onca

Pilot No55389 

Clontroper5 has become synonymous with multi-activations, Raider swarms, a 98 point monstrosity of a GSD, and the plaintive cries of people everywhere who wanted to take Precision Strike or Fleet Ambush as an objective.  He leads the Hammers, backed up by Onca and Pilot No44389.  Both of these players are frequent sights on the forums, though neither has really made a splash in the Vassal community up to this point.

Lists:

Clotroper5 - IIG

396 / 400

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (75pts) 

 - Assault Proton Torpedoes (5pts)

 - Ordnance Experts (4pts)

 - Demolisher (10pts)

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (146pts) 

 - Flight Controllers (6pts)

 - Leading Shots (4pts)

 - Admiral Screed (26pts)

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (119pts)

 - Leading Shots (4pts)

 - Avenger (5pts)

Squadrons (56pts)

 - TIE Fighter Squadron (8pts) x5

 - "Howlrunner" (16pts)

A dramatic departure from Clon's previous World Cup winning list, the "IIG" does still adhere to his love of Imperial forces and close quarters Black dice shots.  Clon's favorite Admiral shows his critical effect loving face once more, and a lot of hull (27 total) and moderate fighter cover means that this list should be able to last, and brawl well enough.

The list also marks a departure from Clon's World Cup glory in terms of initiative bid (396), meaning that it is unlikely to go first as often as Clon has in the past.  In addition, the activations (3) mean that he has a real danger of being double activated on against a bad matchup  His deployments are also still low (6) though that hasn't really ever bothered him.

Onca - Scarecrow

391 / 400

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (79pts)

 - Assault Proton Torpedoes (5pts)

 - Engine Techs (8pts)

 - Demolisher (10pts)]

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (157pts)

 - Expanded Hangar Bay (5pts)

 - Gunnery Team (7pts)

 - XI7 Turbolasers (6pts)

 - Admiral Screed (26pts)

 - Relentless (3pts)

Raider I-Class Corvette (54pts)

 - Assault Proton Torpedoes (5pts)

 - Admiral Montferrat (5pts)

Squadrons (101pts)

 - JumpMaster 5000 (12pts)

 - TIE Advanced Squadron (12pts) x3

 - "Mauler" Mithel (15pts)

 - IG-88 (21pts)

 - Soontir Fel (18pts)

A slight error in Onca's list looks like it placed his ISD's value at 158 (or 162) instead of its actual 157, making the total value of his list 391 instead of 392.  Onca continues the list building with a 3 ship Imperial build, with a carrier spec'd ISD, Speedy Demolisher, and APT Raider, along with a group of elite Imperial anti-squadron pilots.

Onca looks to be built to counter bomber-heavy lists, both with a decent bid (391), flanking ships, anti-fighter based squadrons, and just enough activations (3) to out-activate a 2 ship carrier force.  His deployment advantage (6) is not spectacular.

Pilot No55389 - The Super Friendly Hugs Patrol

387 / 400

Gladiator I-class Star Destroyer (98)

 -  Intel Officer (7)

 - Ordnance Experts (4)

 -  Engine Techs (8)

 - Expanded Launchers (13)

 - Demolisher (10)

Gladiator I-class Star Destroyer (88)

 - Intel Officer (7)

 - Ordnance Experts (4)

 - Engine Techs (8)

 - Expanded Launchers (13)

Raider I-class Corvette (53)

 - Ordnance Experts (4)

 - Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)

Raider I-class Corvette (57)

 - Ordnance Experts (4)

 - Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)

 - Instigator (4)

Raider I-class Corvette (75)

 - Admiral Screed (26)

 - Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)

Squadrons: Bait Squadron (16)

Tie Fighter Squadron (8)

Tie Fighter Squadron (8)

This looks a bit familiar, doesn't it?  Pilot's take on the GRRRR drops the prohibitively expensive Expanded Launchers Raiders in favor of a stripped down APT Raider, and a second GSD.  Otherwise functionally identical to Clon's World Cup list, it maintains the same bid (387), activations (5) and deployment (6) of the original.  Admiral Monty also vanishes from the flagship, making it just a tad bit easier to bring down.

Look for this list to take advantage of First Player - it is going to try to avoid any list that is likely to have particularly bad objectives, and any list that can outbid it.

Overall:

Hammers have a decent team with some decent lists.  However, with Clon not playing the Clonisher Clone, it's not certain how many opponents it will clown.  As of writing this article, the Hammers have not had an excellent first round showing, going 0-3, but keeping it close and racking up 12 total tournament points, but no MOV.