Is 1/3 of the point total for squadrons realistic?

By Payens81, in Star Wars: Armada

I know that FF made it so that you can only spend 1/3 of your fleet points on squadrons to make a level playing field. However my food for thought is that does not go with the Star Wars universe. What do I mean by this? Well we all know that Tie fighters, interceptors, and bombers do not have hyper drive. Where all the rebel star fighters had hyper drive. We also know that the rebels typically relied on their squadrons more as the did not have the ships that the Empire had and typically had more of them in battle. This brings 2 questions to mind.

1. In a 300 point game the Empire can spend 100 points on Tie fighters. Which is about 12 squadrons. Now we take a look at the rest of the points and say you bring in 2 VSD's. Well VSD's can only 2 squadrons each so that is only 4 squadrons how did the other 8 get to the battle field? That is why the Empire had carriers to get fighters into battle. Which should cost the Empire side some points.... in my mind.

2. Why is there the cap on squadrons with the rebels if their ships have hyper drive? It should be unlimited.

Now with all that said I think FF did it right for the game and I do not think the rules should change just my inner geek coming out.

Gameplay >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> fluff

Otherwise feel free to geek out :P

Edited by ficklegreendice

Perhaps there is a nearby station or planetary garrison that provided the extra fighters

Can only move OR shoot...very realistic, no?

I know that FF made it so that you can only spend 1/3 of your fleet points on squadrons to make a level playing field. However my food for thought is that does not go with the Star Wars universe. What do I mean by this? Well we all know that Tie fighters, interceptors, and bombers do not have hyper drive. Where all the rebel star fighters had hyper drive. We also know that the rebels typically relied on their squadrons more as the did not have the ships that the Empire had and typically had more of them in battle. This brings 2 questions to mind.

1. In a 300 point game the Empire can spend 100 points on Tie fighters. Which is about 12 squadrons. Now we take a look at the rest of the points and say you bring in 2 VSD's. Well VSD's can only 2 squadrons each so that is only 4 squadrons how did the other 8 get to the battle field? That is why the Empire had carriers to get fighters into battle. Which should cost the Empire side some points.... in my mind.

2. Why is there the cap on squadrons with the rebels if their ships have hyper drive? It should be unlimited.

Now with all that said I think FF did it right for the game and I do not think the rules should change just my inner geek coming out.

:P

Sorry for the bad font.

Edited by xenosfear

That they are called Squadrons doesn't inherently denote that they are full 12 Fighter Squadrons.

"realistic"

what? This is a turn based table top space ship game. If you are having a good time playing then FFG has done it's job.

"realistic" jeez.

SciFi fantasy. Space wizards with laserswords. Realistic?

I know that FF made it so that you can only spend 1/3 of your fleet points on squadrons to make a level playing field. However my food for thought is that does not go with the Star Wars universe. What do I mean by this? Well we all know that Tie fighters, interceptors, and bombers do not have hyper drive. Where all the rebel star fighters had hyper drive. We also know that the rebels typically relied on their squadrons more as the did not have the ships that the Empire had and typically had more of them in battle. This brings 2 questions to mind.

1. In a 300 point game the Empire can spend 100 points on Tie fighters. Which is about 12 squadrons. Now we take a look at the rest of the points and say you bring in 2 VSD's. Well VSD's can only 2 squadrons each so that is only 4 squadrons how did the other 8 get to the battle field? That is why the Empire had carriers to get fighters into battle. Which should cost the Empire side some points.... in my mind.

2. Why is there the cap on squadrons with the rebels if their ships have hyper drive? It should be unlimited.

Now with all that said I think FF did it right for the game and I do not think the rules should change just my inner geek coming out.

I've bought more stuff for that reason. If I want to play more freely with my buddies, makes a real full scale war like the Movies, I put a lot of Fighters and Capital ships... maybe it's total chaos... but man, it's your game and it's fun ! :P In tournament, it's more structured to be more fair and more strategic.

Man, I love this game.

And you sir just won the award for Most Difficult Post To Read of 2015!

That font is impossible to read on a mobile.

I think we're going a little too hard on the poor word choice of "realistic"

OP acknowledged gameplay priority and his inner geek griping

...well fine, just one more for the road

TIE-LN_Fighter.jpg

get this design in to NASA a.s.a.p! It'll kick the **** out of their spaceships! :P

I think we're going a little too hard on the poor word choice of "realistic"

OP acknowledged gameplay priority and his inner geek griping

...well fine, just one more for the road

TIE-LN_Fighter.jpg

get this design in to NASA a.s.a.p! It'll kick the **** out of their spaceships! :P

Just look at those solar panels! It uses green energy! Also shoots it. A surefire hit with the politicos. NASA will be up to its eyeball in funding!

I know that FF made it so that you can only spend 1/3 of your fleet points on squadrons to make a level playing field. However my food for thought is that does not go with the Star Wars universe. What do I mean by this? Well we all know that Tie fighters, interceptors, and bombers do not have hyper drive. Where all the rebel star fighters had hyper drive. We also know that the rebels typically relied on their squadrons more as the did not have the ships that the Empire had and typically had more of them in battle. This brings 2 questions to mind.

1. In a 300 point game the Empire can spend 100 points on Tie fighters. Which is about 12 squadrons. Now we take a look at the rest of the points and say you bring in 2 VSD's. Well VSD's can only 2 squadrons each so that is only 4 squadrons how did the other 8 get to the battle field? That is why the Empire had carriers to get fighters into battle. Which should cost the Empire side some points.... in my mind.

2. Why is there the cap on squadrons with the rebels if their ships have hyper drive? It should be unlimited.

Now with all that said I think FF did it right for the game and I do not think the rules should change just my inner geek coming out.

What if I told you that 3-4 stands of fighters = 1 squadron?

I know that FF made it so that you can only spend 1/3 of your fleet points on squadrons to make a level playing field. However my food for thought is that does not go with the Star Wars universe. What do I mean by this? Well we all know that Tie fighters, interceptors, and bombers do not have hyper drive. Where all the rebel star fighters had hyper drive. We also know that the rebels typically relied on their squadrons more as the did not have the ships that the Empire had and typically had more of them in battle. This brings 2 questions to mind.

1. In a 300 point game the Empire can spend 100 points on Tie fighters. Which is about 12 squadrons. Now we take a look at the rest of the points and say you bring in 2 VSD's. Well VSD's can only 2 squadrons each so that is only 4 squadrons how did the other 8 get to the battle field? That is why the Empire had carriers to get fighters into battle. Which should cost the Empire side some points.... in my mind.

2. Why is there the cap on squadrons with the rebels if their ships have hyper drive? It should be unlimited.

Now with all that said I think FF did it right for the game and I do not think the rules should change just my inner geek coming out.

I've bought more stuff for that reason. If I want to play more freely with my buddies, makes a real full scale war like the Movies, I put a lot of Fighters and Capital ships... maybe it's total chaos... but man, it's your game and it's fun ! :P In tournament, it's more structured to be more fair and more strategic.

Man, I love this game.

And you sir just won the award for Most Difficult Post To Read of 2015!

That font is impossible to read on a mobile.

Yeah, sorry for that. Now it should be fine.

At least, it wasn't a very long post. :P

I know that FF made it so that you can only spend 1/3 of your fleet points on squadrons to make a level playing field. However my food for thought is that does not go with the Star Wars universe. What do I mean by this? Well we all know that Tie fighters, interceptors, and bombers do not have hyper drive. Where all the rebel star fighters had hyper drive. We also know that the rebels typically relied on their squadrons more as the did not have the ships that the Empire had and typically had more of them in battle. This brings 2 questions to mind.

1. In a 300 point game the Empire can spend 100 points on Tie fighters. Which is about 12 squadrons. Now we take a look at the rest of the points and say you bring in 2 VSD's. Well VSD's can only 2 squadrons each so that is only 4 squadrons how did the other 8 get to the battle field? That is why the Empire had carriers to get fighters into battle. Which should cost the Empire side some points.... in my mind.

2. Why is there the cap on squadrons with the rebels if their ships have hyper drive? It should be unlimited.

Now with all that said I think FF did it right for the game and I do not think the rules should change just my inner geek coming out.

This is why to me they are three to four fighters each.

Actually when you have no more ships you lose, so a points limit on squadrons is somewhat arbitary and just not needed.

However, not having a limit to the points you spend on fighters would become a problem quite fast as players would just have a go at one ship with waves of squadrons. Which has the potential to become a snooze fest of a game. In my opinion at least.

I think this comes back to the "how many ships does a base represent?" question. To me, even if it's called a squadron, there is clearly only three ships on the base. So as far as I'm concerned, 4 bases of TIEs is 1 actual squadron.

I now have to make a tie fighter in Kerbal Space program. (It has ion engines which I believe the TIE is supposed to have)

Edited by Tranenturm

a TIE fighter with real world ion engines, would have a hard enough time getting out of it's hanger

I don't think the Squadron rating on a ship is supposed to represent how many squadrons it can carry. I think it's supposed to represent the effectiveness of the ship's flight deck and small craft coordination ability. A ship only has so many air/space traffic controllers, and that limited resource is what is giving the Squadron command its punch.

Now is a stand a flight, or just 3 ships?

Usually rebels/imperials are organized where a squadron has 3 flights, with 2 pilots each with 1 wingman.

But in episode 4 they did the trench run with just 3 ships, 1 leader and 2 sacrificial lambs.

My head cannon wants to say that each stand is a flight, but then i feel like i need to search out where i can get 4 pronged stands.

...

Hey look a shapeways... Must resist erge to kill piggybank...

The 1/3 squadron point rule, is it like 300 + 100 or that 100 is part of the 300 point?

Two thought,

The first is that have watched a good debate take place within another thread and hold to the idea that 1 squadron model is not 4 or 12 fighters but a complaint of many fighters it's strength or actual models attached.

The later is that more then 1/3 squads would make the game worse not better. We would have far to many ships to move if someone drops 37 tie fighter squads at 300 points, we would lose the point of the game being fleets focused.

No the 1/3 limit is more then enough.

Two thought,

The first is that have watched a good debate take place within another thread and hold to the idea that 1 squadron model is not 4 or 12 fighters but a complaint of many fighters it's strength or actual models attached.

The later is that more then 1/3 squads would make the game worse not better. We would have far to many ships to move if someone drops 37 tie fighter squads at 300 points, we would lose the point of the game being fleets focused.

No the 1/3 limit is more then enough.

Yeah, but 37 TIE fighters would be an instant loss. As soon as your last capital ship is destroyed, you lose the game. So fighter squadrons are self limiting in that way. Take too many, and your capital ships become vulnerable.

I mean, the point stands that 200 points of fighters would be a lot of clutter on the table, but I don't know that it needs an arbitrary limitation during list building.

The later is that more then 1/3 squads would make the game worse not better. We would have far to many ships to move if someone drops 37 tie fighter squads at 300 points, we would lose the point of the game being fleets focused.

And the Imperial player has lost the game as he has no ship.

I mean, the point stands that 200 points of fighters would be a lot of clutter on the table, but I don't know that it needs an arbitrary limitation during list building.

The problem is if you take a Corvette and Mon Montha and then 240ish points of fighters and bombers. The Corvette just spends 6 turns running away from everything. Once the Imperials get their version of the Corvette you could end up with two fleets running away from the fighters and otherwise having a game that ends up being far from enjoyable. You could experiment with a Rebel v Rebel fights and have no limits on squadrons, have one player take a "normal" fleet and the other a Corvette and Squadrons.

I would give most players a game or two before the metagame broke down to squadron wars.