I've been playing a while but am new to these forums. So if anyone else has had this idea, let me know or direct me to the thread.

I was thinking of a "Squad Title" or "Squad Ability." The idea is it would be a single higher priced upgrade that applies to every ship in your list. My friends and I have tried some of these in friendly games and they can really change how certain ships work with each other. Some examples:

Unit Cohesion

Squad Title, 6pts

Your squad cannot have more than 5 ships and must not contain any large ships.

When one of your ships is defending, if 1 or more friendly ships are at a closer Range Band to the attacker than the targeted ship, then you may roll 1 additional defense die for each closer ship. (Adapted from Tactical Jammer modification and Biggs)

Thematically it simulates a flight of fighters that have practiced together and cover for each other during a dogfight by either blocking firing lanes or distracting the enemy. Note that it is measured by range band, so if 3 ships are at R1 of an attacker, none of them gets the bonus but a 4th ship at R2 would roll 3 extra dice if targeted. Picture an Academy Tie screen protecting some Bombers coming in behind them.

Combat Data Feed

Squad Title, 6pts

All ships in your squad must have an equipped Astromech or Salvaged Astromech upgrade.

When you declare an attack with a torpedo secondary weapon, if the defender has at least 1 red target lock token assigned to it, then you may ignore any instructions that require you to spend a target lock or focus token to perform this attack and you may reroll any or all of your attack dice. (Inspired by "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron" books.)

Thematically it would be similar to one ship 'painting' a target with a laser or radar signal and all other ships using that as a tracking signal for their ordnance to home in on. This gives you a way to get off ordnance on lower PS ships and to modify the dice without having to use actions or spend tokens.

I am not sure how these would fit MoV scoring for tournament play since the point cost is not attached to any one ship, but like I said, it can make for some interesting games.

Over all I like the idea of having a global effect in the game.

I like this idea. I reminds me to the House cards in the Game of Thrones card game (also from FFG).

Your idea could be basically the same as that. A card that a player can choose to have in play. It can have negative cost, positive cost, or zero cost, depending on its effects.

For example, I could think of something like

Hit and Fade Operation

Only Rebel

0 points

The cost of each (torpedo), (missile) and (bomb) upgrades is reduced by 3 points to a minimum of 0.

At the end of each round, place a tracking token on this card.

At any moment, if this card has 7 tracking tokens on it, you lose.

or

Star Destroyer escort

Only Imperial

40 points

During the placement of asteroids, place also a tracking token withing range 1 of your border, to represent the relative position of your star destroyer batteries.

Treat this token like having PS 0. Cannot move, be attacked or destroyed. With Attack 4: Range[1-3]. Perform this attack twice. Defenders double their agility score when defending from this attack.

Then place 3 tracking tokens on this card.

When any of your ships is destroyed, you may discard one tracking token (two if it is Large) from this card to deploy an unupgraded ship of the same type with the lowest pilot skill available within range 1 of your border.

Re the hit and fade sqd card.... With extra munitions card coming do you really want people with 2 sets of missiles for 0 points?

Not a terrible idea but some things to consider might be amount of text on the card, with all the conditions for squad size then the actual rules for the squad will that fit on the current tiny upgrade cards with the artwork.

Also in a tournament setting if the squad has one of these titles isn't that points tied up that the opponent cannot remove like with other upgrade cards being tied to a ship?

Re the hit and fade sqd card.... With extra munitions card coming do you really want people with 2 sets of missiles for 0 points?

Considering that you have 6 rounds countdown to defeat, and the first round you basically just move forward without chance for attacking... It would need lots of testing, of course, to decide the final number, but it is a high risk gamble that can go well or bad. I see the other player just running away from the player's bombers and letting his Hit and Fade countdown expire for an easy win.

Not a terrible idea but some things to consider might be amount of text on the card, with all the conditions for squad size then the actual rules for the squad will that fit on the current tiny upgrade cards with the artwork.

Also in a tournament setting if the squad has one of these titles isn't that points tied up that the opponent cannot remove like with other upgrade cards being tied to a ship?

I see these cards being different size than the upgrade cards. At least like Pilot Card big. There is plenty of room on a standard card for text.

Good question about the "undefeatable point vault" thing... I guess, in a defeat, the Squad card should be considered defeated also, and added to the modified victory. But maybe FFG could come also with some tricks (ship upgrades, squad cards) that allows a player to "destroy" the opposite players squad card.

It's a Trap!

Imperial Only

0 points

During the deploying phase, play a different Squad card than this one that has non negative cost. At the beginning of the first round's activation phase, you may discard your Squad card and replace it with this one. In that case, your opponent immediately discards his Squad card if it's cost is equal or lower than your discarded Squad card cost.

Fully armed and operational battlestation!

Imperial Only

20 points

Place 5 tracking tokens on this card.

At the end of the End phase, remove a tracking token from this card.

At the beginning of the Activation phase, if this card has no tracking tokens, you may either destroy one enemy Large or Huge ship of your choice or make one opponent discard their Squad card. Then place 10 tracking tokens on this card.

Place 1 tracking token within range 1 of your border. Treat it as an immobile ship with 0/0/20/0. It can only be attacked with ordnance weapons. If it is destroyed, you lose.

Not a terrible idea but some things to consider might be amount of text on the card, with all the conditions for squad size then the actual rules for the squad will that fit on the current tiny upgrade cards with the artwork.

Also in a tournament setting if the squad has one of these titles isn't that points tied up that the opponent cannot remove like with other upgrade cards being tied to a ship?

One way might be to select a 'Squad Commander' and assign the big title to that ship. Makes him a target but the effects are not lost when he is destroyed. That way you take a MoV risk when using it. I would like to think if FFG did something like this they would find a way to balance the strength, point cost, opportunity cost of the whole thing.

Re the hit and fade sqd card.... With extra munitions card coming do you really want people with 2 sets of missiles for 0 points?

Considering that you have 6 rounds countdown to defeat, and the first round you basically just move forward without chance for attacking... It would need lots of testing, of course, to decide the final number, but it is a high risk gamble that can go well or bad. I see the other player just running away from the player's bombers and letting his Hit and Fade countdown expire for an easy win.

Not a terrible idea but some things to consider might be amount of text on the card, with all the conditions for squad size then the actual rules for the squad will that fit on the current tiny upgrade cards with the artwork.

Also in a tournament setting if the squad has one of these titles isn't that points tied up that the opponent cannot remove like with other upgrade cards being tied to a ship?

I see these cards being different size than the upgrade cards. At least like Pilot Card big. There is plenty of room on a standard card for text.

Good question about the "undefeatable point vault" thing... I guess, in a defeat, the Squad card should be considered defeated also, and added to the modified victory. But maybe FFG could come also with some tricks (ship upgrades, squad cards) that allows a player to "destroy" the opposite players squad card.

Yes that was my thought, make it a larger card since it would affect the whole squad. And there are many ways that one of these could be done without long complicated text. One that mimics IG-2000 for all ships comes to mind.

This is pretty much WonderWAAAGH's formations idea from a few weeks back.

Meeting requirements is the drawback, rewarding the player for meeting those requirements through special abilities is the advantage.

I tested out one of his ideas on a Defender lists and it worked out great. It offered a "fix" without needing a bajillion roundabout upgrade cards to address whatever problem the Defenders had, such as PS and lack of an EPT. Basically, squadron titles are a way of providing fixes and rewarding synergetic lists while leaving design space open on the rest of the card so as little things like Chardaan Refit and A-Wing Test Pilot don't eat up the limited upgrade space on pilot cards.

For reference: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/173452-is-it-time-for-formations-tier-lists/

For those of you who play 40k or Warmachine, you should already understand the concept. While there are certainly no end to the legitimate gripes concerning the former game, formations are one of the few things they've managed to get right in recent years. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, a formation is an element of design space that uses list building considerations outside the normal upgrade paths to balance out possible benefits. Consider some of the current ships that require "fixes": the design space for implementing those fixes is becoming narrower and narrower, with the possibility of becoming redundant with preexisting fixes. To wit, there are only so many combinations of titles and modifications that can be implemented to reverse the bloated point cost or lack of value of current ships. So, what I'm advocating is a new kind of card that is attached to the list as a whole, rather than independent ships. Restrictions would be list based ("must take X number of Y ships," for example), and would provide a benefit to any and all ships in that list that match the given criteria.

If anyone is confused, here is an example of a formation card I mocked up:

Formation: Elite Defender Squadron

Cost: 1 point

Restriction: Your list must include at least two TIE Defenders.

Benefit: All TIE Defenders in your list have an increased pilot skill of 2, and an Elite Talent slot if they do not already have one.

Edit: As an aside, formation cards would have the added benefit of increased potency in epic matches, where some serious TLC is required right now.

I hope that you guys will spare some time and energy to read through the thread and contribute there.

This thread is now officially BUSTED

... but I liked the idea

Yes. Thanks for leading me to WonderWAAAGH's thread.