Am I misreading the rules?

Fighters can move or attack, but not both

Fighters act after all ships have acted

This means that ships will always attempt to make sure they aren't sitting within 1 unit (attack range) of enemy fighters, and they get to choose how they move.

This means that in order for fighters to actually attack capital ships, fighters need to play zone control and try and predict where capital ships are *going to be next turn* in order to position such that capital ships fly into them so they can attack.

That isn't terrible (and in some ways sounds a bit interesting), but it also means that at most they attack every other turn. Turn 1, position, turn 2 capital ship walks into them and gets attacked, turn 3 reposition, turn 4 get walked into again. Sounds a bit annoying.

In addition, you can of course use the squadron command to get a move/attack out of some number of squads. This is cool, but it sounds like it might be pretty hard to get fighters to attack without it, and makes fighters very reliant on having a control ship.

Thoughts?

What you say is correct...to really get flexibility from your fighters you will need to have them directed by one or more "command ships".

Will take a bit of practice to get the most out of them, but i dont think it's a bad thing. Should help restrict "fighter spam" (anyone thats played certain other fleet games knows how annoying this is), and emphasises even further the combined arms aspects of Armada.

Between this, the fighter roles, mission/objective system etc, it seems like a very balanced force will be needed. Which is awesome.

I agree that it should help prevent the spamming of fighters, and fits thematically as well with a capital ship game--you need the information coming in from capital ship fleet coordinators to be truly effective with fighter forces.

I am looking forward to carriers that pack high squadron command ratings to open up coordinated strikes to a higher degree. .

Don't forget that it'll be even worse than that when you have to take into account the opposing fighters. Setting up a good screen will keep you of the capital ships even more than the every other turn because of the engagement rule.

That isn't terrible (and in some ways sounds a bit interesting), but it also means that at most they attack every other turn. Turn 1, position, turn 2 capital ship walks into them and gets attacked, turn 3 reposition, turn 4 get walked into again. Sounds a bit annoying.

I agree with the premise but not the conclusion. The reason being that the range bubble can perhaps keep the capital ships in range before and after their movement, depending on where and how fast they're moving.

But I'm fine with the every other turn if that's how it ends up being.

Ships activated with the Squadron Command can move and shoot.

I am looking forward to carriers that pack high squadron command ratings to open up coordinated strikes to a higher degree.

The Kuat Drive Escort Carrier is one such ship, excellent squadron command rating [i would guess six squadrons for a full wing] but it would hard pressed to stand up to even an Nebulon B in a capital ship firefight.

My Victory Star Destroyers at Gencon could command three squadrons a round.

I am looking forward to carriers that pack high squadron command ratings to open up coordinated strikes to a higher degree.

The Kuat Drive Escort Carrier is one such ship, excellent squadron command rating [i would guess six squadrons for a full wing] but it would hard pressed to stand up to even an Nebulon B in a capital ship firefight.

Well, if an Neb-B Frigate is able to start firing on the escort carrier, then it sounds like the Imperial is doing something wrong. Do we know if there's a range on the ability to command squadrons?

I REALLY REALLY like the idea of zone control fighters and predicting where the caps will move. Makes it easy to swarm a victory, but harder to swarm a corvette. Also planning and plotting the shortest course from your ship to where the enemy might be in a few turns.

Oh, and using fighter screens to "discourage" movement in a certian area and play board control, oh.

GIVE ME THIS GAME!!!

ready for this game as well...wish I could play test it!

So for xwing movement templates are probably the main "bragging" point items for the top players...what would it be for Armada?

... Do we know if there's a range on the ability to command squadrons?

From the command article (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5084), the Squadron command operates as follows:

Squadron

A ship can resolve a squadron command during the Ship Phase, immediately after revealing its command.

Dial:

You can immediately activate a number of squadrons at short or medium range equal to your ship's squadron value. Each squadron activated in this way can both move and perform an attack.

Token:

You can activate a single squadron as above.

So you'll have to keep your fighters close if you want them to be able to take advantage of a squadron command.

Which makes sense - because a 'fighter screen' will have to keep moving to stay in a defensive shell around the ship using squadron orders - so it needs the extra bonus from the command to be able to do this and attack.

Yes....so far everything seems very logical and well thought out. It all sounds like it'll just feel right, from a thematic point of view.

I can see having a squadron command token being very useful to a ship that is moving with a fast fighter screen (ordinary TIE's should suffice for this). Spend the token and BAM, you may be able to engage several attacking squadrons before they can close for the kill, hopefully making the enemy have to convert a squadron command dial to a token as the fighters are already engaged.

That would probably be one very dead TIE, but you just foiled a critical bombing run of the enemy player, potentially for quite some time given the nature of the command dial stack. And I don't know about you, but I would gladly sacrifice a TIE squadron to avoid being targeted by 3 B-Wing squadrons in a bombing run. That's 6 black dice!!!

... Do we know if there's a range on the ability to command squadrons?

From the command article (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5084), the Squadron command operates as follows:

Squadron

A ship can resolve a squadron command during the Ship Phase, immediately after revealing its command.

Dial:

You can immediately activate a number of squadrons at short or medium range equal to your ship's squadron value. Each squadron activated in this way can both move and perform an attack.

Token:

You can activate a single squadron as above.

So you'll have to keep your fighters close if you want them to be able to take advantage of a squadron command.

We haven't seen any dedicated carriers yet though. Perhaps they will have an ability that allows them to use squadron commands at a longer range.

^This.

I would guess that carriers would most likely get title cards and upgrades that allow them to be more effective coordinators for the fighters they carry. That would allow for some flexibility in deploying the fighter screen further out, though the carrier itself would still be vulnerable to any capital ship that gets it in arc.