We are back to looking at the republic as a faction and this week we are going to be talking about Commander Kenobi. Kenobi has been a commander that I have really wanted to make work so I have been putting this off for a while to really dive into the options that are available to Kenobi so without any other delays let’s dive right in.
I started off with an LMSU type of list it felt like EST was necessary to make Kenobi work at least at first, but to take it on every ship was a bit expensive. So I thought what if I just took it on my large ship and used it to sure up my defense tokens that might work. It was actually pretty nice particular on the Venator I who lacks a defensive retrofit and the brace gets locked up fairly regularly. EST, Kenobi, and Tranquility in effect made it so I nearly always had some way to reduce incoming damage while using Tranquility to redirect.
Venator I (90)
• Obi Wan Kenobi (28)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Intensify Firepower! (6)
• External Racks (4)
• Tranquility (3)
= 140 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Munitions Resupply (3)
• Reactive Gunnery (4)
= 52 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Parts Resupply (3)
• Reactive Gunnery (4)
= 52 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Slicer Tools (7)
• Reactive Gunnery (4)
= 56 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Reactive Gunnery (4)
= 49 Points
Squadrons:
• 4 x V-19 Torrent Squadron (48)
= 48 Points
Total Points: 397
Peltas also become very durable under Kenobi because each token the brace, redirect, and evade all do something to reduce incoming damage. With my build, I put reactive gunnery on all the peltas to use the redirects as a salvo that also reduced the damage it worked pretty well.
One of the big issues that I kept running into using Kenobi in an LMSU list was the constant question of why am I not taking Bail to superpower my large? Kenobi fleet-wide effect with reactive gunnery and the pelta felt like enough to justify Kenobi over Bail though that is a question that you will need to answer when building LMSU Kenobi lists.
After my avengers with LMSU with Kenobi I wanted to see if I could make a super tanky list with Kenobi work. I found fairly early on that if you have Kenobi and a defensive retrofit Thermal shields is not a very good pick. This is because thermal lets you spend the brace without having to worry about accuracies but any accuracy that does get rolled will lock up your redirect the majority of the time making Kenobi ability mostly useless. With all the add dice effects that are popular in the game that get around thermals anyway, this made ECM with Kenobi the best pick.
Venator II (100)
• Obi Wan Kenobi (28)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Local Fire Control (4)
• Flak Guns (3)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• External Racks (4)
• DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers (3)
= 154 Points
Acclamator II (71)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• External Racks (4)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 98 Points
Acclamator II (71)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• External Racks (4)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 98 Points
Squadrons:
• 4 x V-19 Torrent Squadron (48)
= 48 Points
Total Points: 398
ECM with Kenobi and expert shield techs let you mitigate a bunch of damage you can take 8 damage even with an accuracy down to 2. If your meta is filled with what I call one punch man ships like patriot fist Kenobi with ECM and EST can really give those lists a hard time. It is also not terrible against lists that are death by a thousand cuts as a brace can reduce a little damage and est+kenobi can also reduce some damage it’s fairly flexible. Just remember that if you are taking Kenobi you should always take ECM over thermal shields in my opinion and you can have one tanky list.
With some success with super tanky lists with ECM and expert shield techs and the pelta with Kenobi, I was ready to try something crazy MSU.
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Obi Wan Kenobi (28)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Munitions Resupply (3)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
= 88 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Munitions Resupply (3)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
= 60 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Munitions Resupply (3)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
= 60 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Parts Resupply (3)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
= 60 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Slicer Tools (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
= 64 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Slicer Tools (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
= 64 Points
Squadrons:
= 0 Points
Total Points: 396
The above list really makes your opponent work to get points between ECM, Kenobi, EST, and the peltas evade they are going to have a very hard time getting damage to stick to your ships. Even when they do it won’t be very much damaged it forces your opponent to really work hard to get points out of your small ships. While you spam con fire and use con fire tokens for re-rolls.
Consular Charger C70 (45)
• Obi Wan Kenobi (28)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 80 Points
Consular Charger C70 (45)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 52 Points
Consular Charger C70 (45)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 52 Points
Consular Charger C70 (45)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 52 Points
Consular Armed Cruiser (37)
• External Racks (4)
• Swift Return (3)
= 44 Points
Consular Armed Cruiser (37)
• Clone Captain Silver (4)
• External Racks (4)
= 45 Points
Consular Armed Cruiser (37)
• External Racks (4)
= 41 Points
Squadrons:
• 2 x ARC-170 Starfighter Squadron (30)
= 30 Points
Even without EST Kenobi can get work done for MSU he makes consular deceptively though particularly when no accuracies are in the attack pool, even without est. Kenobi is currently by far the best MSU commander that the republic has.
I really enjoyed my time with Kenobi, and I think he is better than people give him credit for. Kenobi can make both the pelta and consular more durable even without EST. Once you get into the bigger ships I think it becomes a bit more difficult to not take EST with Kenobi as a 4 hull ship mitigating one damage can be very impactful, however, it becomes less impactful as you gain more and more hull, so the investment in EST becomes more valuable. In addition, Thermal shields are a no-go in a Kenobi list for me ECM is Kenobi’s defensive retrofit of choice, and Kenobi is the Republic’s king of MSU. How have you used Kenobi? What are some of your favorite lists that you have run Kenobi in? How much success have you had with Kenobi? Until next time have a great week!