I brought this up in another thread, but I think it deserves it's own thread for discussion. I think Wave 2, especially with Intel and Rogue being added to the mix, is going to mix this up with squadrons significantly. However, should squadrons still be sub-optimal to pure ship lists, I think this idea could be a fix for those wishing to play squadron heavy without changing the core rules of the game. The main complaint I'm seeing is the dependency of squadrons on the squadron command. Without the command, capital ships can mostly avoid squadrons. However, to use the command, the commander has to risk his capital ships to greater risk. He probably has fewer ships if he's squadron heavy, so risking a ship to give squadron commands means he's even more likely to get tabled.

What if we had a commander on each side that added the Rogue keyword to all squadrons in the fleet? As of now, commanders are almost entirely ship centric, with only Dondonna doing anything that remotely affects squadrons. This would allow a player to go explicitly squadron-centric without being at a disadvantage. This would fix squadrons for those that really want to use them heavily without having to change the core rules of Armada. Rogue would be a very big deal, so 35-40 points for such a commander I think would be a good starting point.

If they come out with a Commander that does that, fine. Until they do, nope.

Go play a few 400 point games. Try all levels of squadron from, none, some, many, and max. Then come back and tell us what worked best and felt right to you.

How about having a Squadron Leader to go with the Fleet Commander? Maybe we can designate a named pilot as the Squad Leader and have him grant his/her ability to all squadrons sharing the same starfighter type as his.

Set aside casual play for a moment, as you should do whatever tickles your fancy without regard for meta.

Why is there such a large push to "balance" squadron based lists with all ship lists after a single tournament? At the moment, perceptions of the meta are purely conjecture and supposition, based on next to no data from actual tournaments. As far as I am aware, Gencon has been the only 5 round tournament so far, with most other tournaments being in the mid teens for participation. Maybe wait and see?

Why is there such a large push to "balance" squadron based lists with all ship lists after a single tournament?

The sample remains small, and it could be too small to allow concrete conclusions to be drawn, but it's not just a single tournament result.

For just one other example, here are 2 photos for you to compare, taken at last weekend's tournament in WA.

Top Table

Bottom Table

Slow moving carriers with no ships covering for them. Meanwhile the squadrons consist heavily of fighter that melt easily to even the lightest anti-squadron fire.

Execution is that guys problem...not squadrons in general.

The field is rife with people, competetive people, drinking the all Cap kool aid. Not surprising for top table.

Slow moving carriers with no ships covering for them. Meanwhile the squadrons consist heavily of fighter that melt easily to even the lightest anti-squadron fire.

Execution is that guys problem...not squadrons in general.

FYI both fleets on the bottom table were squadron heavy; the pic captures just part of the great squadron melee.

"The field is rife with people, competetive people, drinking the all Cap kool aid. Not surprising for top table."

It's tricky to say what is cause and what is effect (are less experienced players taking more squadrons or are players who take squadrons performing worse?), but as one of them I can tell you that the two players on the top table each put in a dozen games with fleets from 50 to 100pts of squadrons before fine tuning their tournament fleets to the chunky monkey parade you see in the top image.

The field is rife with people, competetive people, trying out all sorts of fleets in advance before picking what works to take to tournaments. It's not all kool aid, and I am speaking as someone who'd love to see Squadron fleets win more consistently.

I run squadron light because I don't see the tools I would need to make them push the DPT I would need them to. With Jan's and Dash coming out though I can use them effectively with X-Wings and make them well worth their points. Not to mention the squadron cards coming out in the MC80 and ISD expansions that will make them good.

The issue with squadrons is that currently, of you lose all 2 to 3 ships you have your opponent gets 300 points on top of objective points.

The main Issue I have is when I reveal a Squadron command it never activates enough squadrons to make it worth it maybe when we get ships the activate 6 or more squadrons (with out upgrades to do so) then we might see more squadrons in the game

Yes the following is another rebellion reference

lets get ships that can activate 6 or more squadrons like the Liberator Cruiser and the Ton-Falk-class escort carrier