Plo Koon

So I have decided to take a brief break from covering the Confederacy and talk a little bit about the Republic as I started to get some playtime with them. I have become particularly partial to Plo Koon. he's a really interesting commander and has an interesting playstyle when did I think suits me. we will get back to finishing the rest of the Confederacy Commanders after this week we're taking a slight detour and talking about Plo Koon of the Galactic Republic.

Obviously, it becomes very apparent from just reading his card that he is very focused on squadrons. however, you also want ships that are willing to get fairly close to enemy ships to trigger his ability. this does not necessarily mean that you want ships that have black dice however if you need to drop a payload at close range Plo Koon seems like a good choice if you're also taking a lot of squadrons.

I want to talk just briefly about adepts giving Grit to Friendly squadrons without adept. when building a Plo Koon list I would almost always put at least one adept squadron in you're list. that is almost always going to be Anakin Skywalker in a Y-wing. Anakin Skywalker is just so good on its own end plug Coons secondary ability just makes him even a little bit better and your squadron group a little bit more versatile. if you really want a second adept Ahsoka Tano is a really good choice I feel like she pairs really well with Anakin as Anakin can roll two dice and since he has a depth to get to reroll both of them when Ahsoka triggers him to attack. aside from that I don't have a whole lot to say about his secondary ability it's nice but I do rarely use it.

Venator II (100) • Plo Koon (26) • Flight Controllers (6) • Flag Bridge (0) • Thermal Shields (5) • External Racks (4) • XI7 Turbolasers (6) • Mercy Mission (0) = 147 Points

Acclamator I (66) • Flight Controllers (6) • External Racks (4) • XI7 Turbolasers (6) • Nevoota Bee (5) = 87 Points

Consular Armed Cruiser (37) • Hondo Ohnaka (2) • Radiant VII (1) • Munitions Resupply (3) = 43 Points

Squadrons: • Anakin Skywalker (19) • Ahsoka Tano (23) • 3 x ARC-170 Starfighter Squadron (45) • 3 x V-19 Torrent Squadron (36) = 123 Points

Total Points: 400

What we're really taking him for is that accuracy that we get with our Squadron attacks. so what are we going to use this accuracy for? Well, that really depends on your target if you're attacking a small ship that has an evade locking up a evade can be very helpful in making sure your squadron deals damage. what if you're attacking a larger ship? I've generally found the best use of the accuracy is to lock up redirects. this is not always the case sometimes it's accuracy can let squadrons that are hurting attacked without fear of being Salvo debt and dying however I do think it is a general rule of thumb you're looking to lock down redirects on larger ships that don't have an evade.

Even while a ship that has multiple redirects this accuracy can really start to overheat redirect defense tokens very fast. I do think there's also an argument to just always lock up redirect tokens even on smaller ships with evades. locking up a brace on a squadron attack generally isn't going to do much and if a proponent does decide to spend the brace on a squadron attack you're probably pretty happy with that. contain maybe if you're trying to get a crit through would be okay to lock up but really that redirect seems like the go-to as it keeps damage all on the same hull Zone which is hopefully the Hull zone your ship will be targeting after your squadrons finish their bombing run.

Venator II (100) • Plo Koon (26) • Clone Captain Silver (4) • Flight Controllers (6) • Expanded Hangar Bay (5) • Thermal Shields (5) • External Racks (4) • Triumphant (5) = 155 Points

Pelta Medical Frigate (49) • Bomber Command Center (8) = 57 Points

Consular Charger C70 (45) • Radiant VII (1) • Munitions Resupply (3) = 49 Points

Consular Charger C70 (45) = 45 Points

Squadrons: • 7 x BTL-B Y-wing Squadron (70) • Anakin Skywalker (19) = 89 Points

Total Points: 395

Because your ship will generally follow up your squadrons with an attack it has been very hard for me to justify not taking XI7s on all of my combat ships in a Plo Koon list. XI7s Really increase the value of the accuracy squadrons gets while locking up redirects. following up a bombing run against a hull zone that can't redirect thanks to Plo Koon his accuracy with an attack that can only redirect one damage because of XI7s is absolutely devastating.

Shields are a very powerful resource to keep ships from dying. What Plo Koon does in tandem with his ships and squadrons is he makes them very difficult for your opponent to utilize shields. I think that this is Plo Koon’s greatest strength and even while trying different things I always come back to XI7 on all of my ships it just seems to be what works best with Plo Koon.

Venator II (100) • Plo Koon (26) • Flight Controllers (6) • Advanced Transponder Net (5) • Thermal Shields (5) • External Racks (4) • XI7 Turbolasers (6) • Triumphant (5) = 157 Points

Venator I (90) • Intensify Firepower! (6) • External Racks (4) • XI7 Turbolasers (6) = 106 Points

Consular Armed Cruiser (37) • Hondo Ohnaka (2) • Radiant VII (1) • Bomber Command Center (8) = 48 Points

Squadrons: • 7 x BTL-B Y-wing Squadron (70) • Anakin Skywalker (19) = 89 Points

Total Points: 400

so is blow Koon you definitely want to go to squadrons and since we're taking XI7s on most of our ships meeting we won't be able to take linked turbolaser Towers where are we going to get our thanks fixing for our ships from? personally, I have done one of two ways you have a Venator with intensify Firepower and some type of support system feeding it tokens or I have even simply just used Munitions resupply ship to pass out confire tokens and spend the conveyor tokens for rerolls when I need them. I personally prefer the intensify Firepower method however I know not everybody wants a Venator 1 in their list.

Venator I (90) • Plo Koon (26) • Clone Captain Silver (4) • Flight Controllers (6) • Intensify Firepower! (6) • External Racks (4) • XI7 Turbolasers (6) • Triumphant (5) = 147 Points

Acclamator I (66) • Flight Controllers (6) • External Racks (4) • XI7 Turbolasers (6) • Nevoota Bee (5) = 87 Points

Pelta Medical Frigate (49) • Bomber Command Center (8) = 57 Points

Squadrons: • 3 x BTL-B Y-wing Squadron (30) • Anakin Skywalker (19) • Ahsoka Tano (23) • 3 x V-19 Torrent Squadron (36) = 108 Points

Total Points: 399

So what about squadrons? right now is closed Coon you're really looking at taking y-wings or Arc-170s. if you're dealing with more y-wings You're going to want to have some way for them to reroll their black dice whether that's through Nevoota Bee or bomber Command Center you really need damage to make the accuracy the plug Coon gives worth it that should be fairly straightforward. however with arc-170s you can generally get away without any rerolls as to blue dice are very consistent at producing at least one if not two damage. I can see an argument for V-19s with Plo Koon however I have personally found either y wings, arc-170s, or a combination of both to be a bit more effective with Plo Koon, but V-19s are good way to add more anti-squadron firepower if you feel you need it.

because Plo Koon with his squadrons that can generate accuracies so easily pair with xi7 and because why wings and arc-170s are really what he wants in his list I have found the list that I have the most success with tend to be a bit samey. it's always 2 battle carriers with one support ship and a big group of squadrons with some mix of acrs and y-wings. that's not to say I haven't tried other things however I always come back to that exact archetype when playing Plo Koon as that just seems at his best place to be, and it's a really fun archetype that I enjoy.

Venator I (90) • Plo Koon (26) • Clone Captain Silver (4) • Flight Controllers (6) • Intensify Firepower! (6) • Expanded Hangar Bay (5) • External Racks (4) • XI7 Turbolasers (6) • Tranquility (3) = 150 Points

Acclamator I (66) • Boosted Comms (4) • Expanded Hangar Bay (5) • External Racks (4) • XI7 Turbolasers (6) • Nevoota Bee (5) = 90 Points

Consular Armed Cruiser (37) • Radiant VII (1) • Munitions Resupply (3) = 41 Points

Squadrons: • Ahsoka Tano (23) • Anakin Skywalker (19) • 3 x BTL-B Y-wing Squadron (30) • 3 x ARC-170 Starfighter Squadron (45) = 117 Points

Total Points: 398

With my limited playtime with the Republic Plo Koon is currently my favorite Republic Commander. I feel like Plo Koon is kind of what Sato wanted to be. Namely, a commander that wanted to take a lot of squadrons to help support its ships a very combined-arms type feel and that is very much my play style. If that sounds like your playstyle I would highly encourage you to check out Plo Koon. Looking at the other Commanders there are some that I definitely have interest in and that I think are fun however I think a well-built and well played Plo Koon list it's probably going to be towards the top if not the top of the competitive meta for the Republic faction. Until next time have a great week.