I get the sense that most people who have this problem are coming to Armada from and X-wing background, and want their squadrons to do X-wingy things. Is this a valid assessment?
I couldn't say, though I suspect there's something to it.
I always try to explain to people that one WHOLE GAME of X-Wing is wrapped up in a handful of dice rolls when playing Armada.
Your squadrons are doing a lot more than just flying to point A and shooting in the direction of enemy X.
Well, as one X-Wing player graduating to Armada I'm perfectly fine with reducing squadrons to an almost-afterthought. Again, all I wanted to do was Drive Star Destroyers without feeling forced in the engine. Now I have that. We can leave fighter importance to X-Wing.
I will agree that the feeling of X-Wings trailing a speed 3 Star Destroyer feels odd that they can't strike while on the move. However, I've also been in one of those X-Wings when enemy spacecraft decide to book it and I can't catch them, thanks to the flight sims.
For Armada I think this just suggests that fighters can't harm *real* capital ships unless they are supporting strikes by capital ships. Armada paints the picture that fighter squadrons are really insignificant in being able to take down capital ships by themselves.
I get the sense that most people who have this problem are coming to Armada from and X-wing background, and want their squadrons to do X-wingy things. Is this a valid assessment?
Not really.
The issue with squadrons is they require your ships to all become dedicated carriers to function correctly, especially against other squadrons. Now having a dedicated carrier is fine, but every squadron not receiving a squadron command is effectively not doing anything unless the enemy barges into it. So if you bring squadrons, you have to field dedicated carriers to do anything with them, taking no other actions but issuing squadron commands.
My issue with squadrons is that they are the least useful in the phase dedicated entirely to them. Instead, they have an outsized influence on the phase dedicated to ships. And that's WITH ROGUE. Without Rogue, squadrons just don't have much impact in the squadron phase at all. But they hog the majority of the action economy in the ship phase.
That IS counterintuitive, and it IS a thematic issue.
I get the sense that most people who have this problem are coming to Armada from and X-wing background, and want their squadrons to do X-wingy things. Is this a valid assessment?
Not really.
The issue with squadrons is they require your ships to all become dedicated carriers to function correctly, especially against other squadrons. Now having a dedicated carrier is fine, but every squadron not receiving a squadron command is effectively not doing anything unless the enemy barges into it. So if you bring squadrons, you have to field dedicated carriers to do anything with them, taking no other actions but issuing squadron commands.
My issue with squadrons is that they are the least useful in the phase dedicated entirely to them. Instead, they have an outsized influence on the phase dedicated to ships. And that's WITH ROGUE. Without Rogue, squadrons just don't have much impact in the squadron phase at all. But they hog the majority of the action economy in the ship phase.
That IS counterintuitive, and it IS a thematic issue.
If only this was true. But it's not.
You need only a few key squadron commands over the course of the game, nothing more.
Depends on your build.
Are you all-in with 100+ points of squadrons that you're counting on to kill ships for you? Then yeah, you should build dedicated carriers and expect to be spending most of your command dials on squadron commands to make them as good as you can get them.
Did you take 4 A-wings so you can nuke Rhymer and tie up his flying circus? Then you can get away with one, maybe two squadron activations. You can even get away with none, but your squadrons aren't going to be very effective without them.
You don't build a list around Demolisher/engine techs and then issue no navigate commands and expect it to be effective without the enemy blundering into your way. In the same way, you don't build a list around squadrons and then issue no squadron commands and expect them to be effective without the enemy blundering into your way.
Edited by ArdaedhelDepends on your build.
100 points of Squadrons may end up being 6-12 squardons. One number may require and benefit for having "carriers" that buff up the squadrons and the commands you give them, however, the smaller number of squadrons may not even need more than an Assault Frigate or VSD to run well.
Engine techs do not always need maneuver dials, sometimes a token will do, sometimes a squadron token may be all that is needed to keep your ship up and going while killing your opponents ship. Here we are talking tactics and there are no absolutes, you have to play to a dynamic situation. A fleet of ships with Engine Techs may not do all that well if the player spams maneuver dials as he may be wasting opportunities to add dice to his pools with well times concentrate fire dials.
Not really.I get the sense that most people who have this problem are coming to Armada from and X-wing background, and want their squadrons to do X-wingy things. Is this a valid assessment?
The issue with squadrons is they require your ships to all become dedicated carriers to function correctly, especially against other squadrons. Now having a dedicated carrier is fine, but every squadron not receiving a squadron command is effectively not doing anything unless the enemy barges into it. So if you bring squadrons, you have to field dedicated carriers to do anything with them, taking no other actions but issuing squadron commands.
My issue with squadrons is that they are the least useful in the phase dedicated entirely to them. Instead, they have an outsized influence on the phase dedicated to ships. And that's WITH ROGUE. Without Rogue, squadrons just don't have much impact in the squadron phase at all. But they hog the majority of the action economy in the ship phase.
That IS counterintuitive, and it IS a thematic issue.
All this can happen without a single squadron command...yes of course they're more effective if you issue the command, but you can fully operate fighters without them. You just need to change your game plan. Same goes for my bombers - they work just fine on their own. Better with commands of course, but I don't need more than a turn or two of commands for full effectiveness.
Meanwhile my ships are issuing concentrate fire or navigate commands and fighting their own battles for victory.
Edited by MaturinI like the game as it is.
I think upgrade cards for squadrons would be a great idea, but you have to think marketing: FFG need to slow down the release of new cards or mechanics for the game in order to have us keep purchasing expansions. 1 new mechanic every 2 waves would keep us all busy, happy customers and shake up the meta to avoid it going stale.
Hence, if the new wave 3 mechanic is squadrons docking to carriers to repair, for example, then maybe wave 5 could include upgrade cards for squadrons.
Possible new mechanics as examples:
Apologies for getting wish-listy, but you are expecting too much, too soon. Enjoy the game in its simple, early form and then enjoy the new mechanics that will inevitably come to expand it one by one. Rather than messing everything up too quickly, allow the time for development to be done right and not upset balance. We should be glad we don't have 30 factions, with one of them getting a new spam-rewarding super-unit every month.
I hate the idea that game development should be an ongoing thing. A game should be released as a final product, with a complete product line. Waiting for new mechanics in wave three or four should be seen as a necessary evil due to production and development costs, not a feature to be applauded.
I think part of the problem people have with the percieved "feel" of squadrons is that people are underestimating matters of scale here.
The Battle of Yavin only had 1 squadron of X-wings, 1 squadron of Y-wings (Actually, do we ever actually see more than 4 ywings in the movie?), and one elite partial squadron consisting of 7 ties and Vader. It's a game of X-wing epic with houserules for turbolaser turrets. That being said, I could swear I saw people on both sides looking at screens with data from the battle, suggesting that people were in fact getting fed information, it just wasn't pertinent to the film, so we didn't hear it.
The Battle of Hoth is already an X-wing scenario. That leaves the Battle of Endor.
Now, Endor has everything. Tons of Star Destroyers! Lots of starfighters! Lots of everything. But we only see glimpses of what happens, and rarely see more than 1-2 rebel fighters on screen at any one time. So we don't actually see much that can be translated to gameplay. It's more the idea of Endor we're trying to recreate than Endor itself.
That leaves Star Wars: X-wing and it's sequels as source material. Now, a lot of people claim that squadrons don't behave anything like fighters did in those games. I vehemently disagree. Why? Recall the larger battles. You had to pause like 5-6 times each mission and open up a 3D map of the battle in order to plan. And when you closed that map, no time had passed.
Is this just a game abstraction? It could be- But it could also represent data being fed to pilots by teams of analysts onboard capital ships*. And really, that makes more sense when you think about it; otherwise, Ace, Marek, and Keyan are analyzing a raging battle and formulating complex plans within the blink of an eye.
*What about missions without capital ships? Well, in those cases your ships computer is handling that, usually with the assistance of an astromech. But those missions also involved only a handful of ships on your side; at most, two squadrons, and they were usually partial ones.
So, when your squadron doesn't get activated, it's not that your pilots are twiddling their thumbs and just stopping in front of attack position; It's that without the vital information from your analysts, they're severely handicapped and have to rely on their own telemetry and chatter within the squadron. This makes them much less efficient, so they have to take time to line up attack runs. As for unique pilots, they are instructing other pilots- their own squadron. Wedge can't give random X-wing squadron 5 orders because he's too busy guiding his own squadron as they pounce on another group in poor position. The unique pilots who do force multiply other squadrons are doing so by having their squadron act as support for other nearby squadrons.
I hate the idea that game development should be an ongoing thing. A game should be released as a final product, with a complete product line. Waiting for new mechanics in wave three or four should be seen as a necessary evil due to production and development costs, not a feature to be applauded.
This I'll grant you. But the only place I see that happening in Armada is with the X-wing; Sure, it looks a little lackluster next to the A-wing, but that's because the escort keyword it's paying for didn't actually do anything in wave one. But in wave 2, where the X-wing has important force multiplying ships to escort and squadrons with intel allow enemy fighters to bypass an A-wing screen, escort suddenly becomes important.
Edited by SquarkThe author of this article would probably be more satisfied with X-Wing: Epic. It's zoomed in enough on a level that you have squadrons influencing capital ships (e.g., Dutch can give Corvettes target locks, Rhymer can give Raiders rerolls, etc), which fits the author's expectations of a Star Wars battlefield.
Giving Armada squadrons Rogue for a price, with a Squad-leader type of upgrade available, will not fundamentally change the way that squadrons "feel" on a thematic level. There's still no room for Lando to give commands to a distant rebel fleet, or even for a captain to alert his fleet of an impending trap. When your Alpha Squadron Darth Vader jumps on Luke during his bombing run, he'll still be destroyed by one round of fire from a handful of X-Wings - not really conducive to thematic storytelling.
X-Wing, and the movie battles that the author references, are about humans, about characters, who are making on-the-fly decisions and acting upon them. Armada is about the machines, the formations, the positioning, and pretty much everything removed from the human element. Sure, there are a few Officers or Ace Pilots who register a blip on the battle's landscape as something to be accounted for, but they are ultimately nothing compared to the whole Imperial (or Rebel!) war machine. They are tools, not stars. Instead, Demolisher, Foresight, Instigator, Jaina's Light, these are all the stars.
I'm not sure that a game with this focus can ever be turned around to fit a movie theme, nor do I think it would be necessarily a good thing. (Seriously, we have X-Wing Epic for that. Give it another year and we'll probably have as many capital ships for that game as Armada...)
Edited by RithrinArmada is about the machines, the formations, the positioning, and pretty much everything removed from the human element. Sure, there are a few Officers or Ace Pilots who register a blip on the battle's landscape as something to be accounted for, but they are ultimately nothing compared to the whole Imperial (or Rebel!) war machine. They are tools, not stars. Instead, Demolisher, Foresight, Instigator, Jaina's Light, these are all the stars.
I'm quite happy the characters are subservient to the capital ships in their effect on a game, especially after seeing that ridiculous SW:Rebels scene where Vader in his Advanced basically solo's an entire Rebel fleet... However I do agree with the OP that they could benefit from some thematic upgrades/rules to make them just a little bit more like we see in the movies. Vader and most of the Rebel aces would thematically be very much capable of independent action (i.e. the rogue rule) While most of the Imperial aces would probably be more restricted and more likely to follow the proper chain of command or risk...reprimand.
Good post, very well written, but I think ultimately the argument of "theme" is too subjective to warrant changes to an already solid ruleset. Keep in mind that a squadron moving and not attacking isn't just flying into range and doing nothing; they're manuevering, setting up attack angles and "accelerating to attack speed". A Ship command allows them to move AND attack by providing them a more overall picture of the battlefield, including their target.
Snubfighters don't carry in-depth tactical analysis programs or staff on them, Capital ships do. Snubfighters have to make decisions based on the information they're receiving, but that information also has to get to other squadrons, other ships and might be being jammed or intercepted. A Squadron command isn't as straightforward as someone getting on the comms and telling Wedge "Go here, shoot that guy." It tells him if his squadron is in the clear to make an unopposed attack run, if there's an enemy squadron arrowing in, if there's a weak point on the ship they should be targeting etc. All of the Rogue (Firespray etc) ships are much larger craft, able to carry more detailed information and even more crew to allow them to make better informed decisions on the fly. A TIE fighter doesn't have anything more than two lasers and the titular ion engines, their pilots have to wear breathing apparatus. Do you really think a TIE has the software or hardware to get more than a very basic picture of the overall battlefield?
That out of the way: I kind of like the upgrade card just as an idea. Might make squadrons too complicated for a game about Capitals, but I think you could get some traction with a single upgrade card that allowed them to command other fighters when activated. "Squadron Leader. Unique. When this squadron activates, two friendly squadrons at range 1 may interrupt to perform an activation."
The change we made to how squadrons work is if they are within distance 1 of a capital ship they can choose to activate just before that ship moves. If they do so they remain in the same quadrant and at distance 1 of the ship.
With this change the squadrons are able to stay on target until one side or the other wins the engagement. It feels more thematic and prevents ships from just outrunning squadrons.
^2
I think the issue comes down to what people think a dog fight consists of.
A dog fight can take anywhere from seconds to minutes. This means that when a squadron engages an enemy squadron (as stated earlier) they are both fighting for position.
Now, people tend to forget that the distance 1 is actually larger than the scale of a standard X-Wing game. This is because you have squadrons which by people's estimation of things is 12 fighters each. That isI anywhere from a couple to several hundreds of points in X-Wing duking it out.
Now in squadron combat where entire squadrons go at it, it can get crazy fast. That is a lot of fast ships turning, curving, swooping, rolling, etc in small areas.
So having squadrons that can't move and attack makes sense.
Aren't squadron stands meant to represent you know a squadron of fighters/bombers not just a singular craft? so i imagine they are zipping around dog fighting during the engaged step and dodging point defense turrets from ships. So if you gave a squadron a "rogue squadron" card to activate other squadrons, that would make rogue squadron leader a Wing Commander right? Hey theres already an upgrade card for that.
Also not thematic? Pretty sure Ackbar says "Green team, stick close to holding sector MD-7" green team being the Awing squadrons, kinda like a squadron command.
And hey in the first movie for the battle of Yavin we have a great example of what happens when squadrons disregard 'squadron commands'. Dodonna tells gold leader that enemy fighters were approaching, gold leader needs room to maneuver because being alive increases the chances of getting Proton Torpedoes into an exhaust port but Gold 5 of all people disobeys and tells gold leader to stay on target instead. And we all know what happens there.
We can argue all day whats thematic and whats not end of the day its in the mind of the beholder.
I'd generally agree with that sentiment, Irokenics, but we do only have the vague 'word of God as reported by his followers' that fighter units represent literal squadrons, rather than just being a generic term for 'amorphous unit'. After all, does a YT-1300 stand suddenly represent 3 of them, or 12 of them, or just 1? Justification for scaling that number into an absolute comes with the caveat that we have to take a number of other variables on faith. In the end, squadrons and their values are a game mechanic in a system exaggerated for playability and balance. I like them to represent X, others like Y instead, but the game works as well as it does because it is an abstraction of certain elements rather than a set ratio.
As a mild correction (not that it has any actual bearing, but I think it's kind of interesting that it was more careful than A New Hope was) Ackbar says, “Take evasive action! Green Group, stick close to holding sector MV-7.” There's a bit of a consistency in Return of the Jedi when it comes to fighter, the words 'flights' or 'squadrons' never show up:
Ackbar's command was after the fighters had already reacted to Calrissian's orders to “Break off the attack, the shields are still up!” and he had to say it twice to get Wedge to abort the attack.
More over, Calrissian was giving the majority of the orders in the battle: “Accelerate to attack speed, draw their fire away from the cruisers!” to which Wedge replies “copy, Gold Leader.” Wedge gives his units command in the whole, “Red Three, Red Two, pull in.” thing. Then we have Calrissian's while “Red Group, Gold Group, all fighters follow me.” thing to end it. So it seems that there is some chain of command subservient to Lando, wh happened to be 'Gold Leader'. Ackbar's closest order is, "We've got to give those fighters more time. Concentrate all fire on that Super Star Destroyer," where we see two A-wings attacking the round globy-dealy.
What can we take away from it? Well, nothing as far as Armada is concerned, but it does mean we have 4 on-screen groups in Return of the Jedi. If we take it to mean fighter groups in the modern sense (which they very well might not be), then we're talking about leaders of 2-4 squadrons giving orders to their subordinates, independent of capital ships. Granted, we also have Lando saying, "All wings report in." so a case could be made that it means 'fighter wings', though it could be countered that in the script it's capital 'G' for groups as a proper noun but a lower case 'w' in wings which makes it a common noun; furthermore Yavin had Red Leader saying 'all wings' despite the force being about thirty craft in 2 recognized units.
Yavin... yeah, that's a bit of a mess: 2 Gold Leaders, and “Dutch” which still sounds wrong to me compared to “Hutch”. Good point though, someone panicked and got "blown to smitheroons!" (sic).
We can argue all day whats thematic and whats not end of the day its in the mind of the beholder.
I'd say that's exactly right. The specific theme and elements best representing the Star Wars universe is almost certainly going to vary depending on exposure to different material. I have a hard time believing that there is an objective fact on what this game should be thematically, only what it can represent.
Back to the topic at hand, R2-EQ's suggestions are pretty much spot on with what I'd like: I'm all for the noble heroics of competent snubfighter leaders. As much as I'd have liked Aces to be able to spend defenses for short-range Squadron commands, we're not building from the ground up anymore. But R2-EQ's squadron upgrades are purely delicious and still possible in the future.
Post Scriptum: Just for the record, I still believe Armada works well even without any changes: having played a 750 point battle with 250 points of fighters, it was fun. We don't have to be disgruntled to question a finely balanced system.
Edited by VykesI think the issue comes down to what people think a dog fight consists of.
A dog fight can take anywhere from seconds to minutes. This means that when a squadron engages an enemy squadron (as stated earlier) they are both fighting for position.
Now, people tend to forget that the distance 1 is actually larger than the scale of a standard X-Wing game. This is because you have squadrons which by people's estimation of things is 12 fighters each. That isI anywhere from a couple to several hundreds of points in X-Wing duking it out.
Now in squadron combat where entire squadrons go at it, it can get crazy fast. That is a lot of fast ships turning, curving, swooping, rolling, etc in small areas.
So having squadrons that can't move and attack makes sense.
This is very true. Engaged squadrons are entangled in each other in a dogfight and can't simply get back to formation to move to a different location.
You could argue that it might be more realistic if faster fighters could fly from slower fighters - but a simplified similar rule is there in the 'Heavy' keyword.
Good article. I do not agree with all of it. I do like the idea of Leader card for squadrons.
But the one point of Luke skywalker or darth vader over the firespray...I think that maybe a point could be made that a firespray is freighter type ship. It doesn't need support like say an x-wing. It can handle itself in a fight.
Both luke and Darth vader had their wingmen in the movies. Luke would have never survived that trench run without his wingmen. So they do not get the rogue keyword in order to coordinate with his wing.
I think in this day in age of computers, we forget that those movies were made back when WWII was still fresh in everyone's mind and fighter coordination was a very "manual" thing.
There are people in the background (specifically the battle of yavin) directing traffic. The fighter coordination is coming from a base not a capital ship. The guy from the base even tells them Vader is coming.
You also have to remember it was a movie. It would be super boring if we heard the same command multiple times just to show that a base or cap ship was giving the orders to the squad leader.
Squadrons are fine. but Like I said I do like an upgrade card for squad leaders. That is a great idea.
Check out Worlds. 8 A-Wings won.
Check out Worlds. 8 A-Wings won.
...and that has what to do with the theme of squadrons in this game?
I agree that watching squadrons try to get after speed 3+ ships without squadron command is a bit weird since in the battle of endor, fighters are flying past and around those capital ships with ease. So bombers not being able to keep up with ships if they don't get a command is one problem I have with squadrons atm. However squadrons that only get to activate in the squadron face kan still move and engage other fighters, that will force them to stay in "base contact" until the next squadron face when they start to shoot eachother down so i don't see how that is unthematic.
Squadron commands make sense for me theme wise and I don't get how think that they are wasted commands, getting to attack with 3 squadrons is way better then one concentrate fire command IMO. Ackbar giving ordes and coordinating a focused attack on the SSD in Jedi is just like giving a squadron command to get some fighter groups to attack a ship in armada.
Sure I like the idea of uniqe squads like Luke and Wedge being able to give some boost to other squadrons as leader of squadron, so a squad leader upgrade would be pretty cool IMO. I also think that Lando if we (or when I hope) get him as pilot for the Falcon he could have som ability that helps other squadrons.
In my post, forgot to mention the one thing I really find strange with squadrons in Armada (think I posted in another thread): Why are attacks on ships at the same range as attacks against squadrons? Torpedoes, even the A-wings lighter missiles, have more range than the lasers vs fighters. I think it would already feel more SW when ships could be attacked from range 2 by all ships capable, ie all other than Tie Fighters and Interceptors. Making it even more "realistic" with even more range for Tie bombers vs A-wings is probably too complicated already.
Bur after playing so mich XWing and TieFighter on the PC, it feels strange that there is no differentiation.
That is, however, independent of the command issue. I am fine with this as it is.
I'd generally agree with that sentiment, Irokenics, but we do only have the vague 'word of God as reported by his followers' that fighter units represent literal squadrons, rather than just being a generic term for 'amorphous unit'. After all, does a YT-1300 stand suddenly represent 3 of them, or 12 of them, or just 1? Justification for scaling that number into an absolute comes with the caveat that we have to take a number of other variables on faith. In the end, squadrons and their values are a game mechanic in a system exaggerated for playability and balance. I like them to represent X, others like Y instead, but the game works as well as it does because it is an abstraction of certain elements rather than a set ratio.
As a mild correction (not that it has any actual bearing, but I think it's kind of interesting that it was more careful than A New Hope was) Ackbar says, “Take evasive action! Green Group, stick close to holding sector MV-7.” There's a bit of a consistency in Return of the Jedi when it comes to fighter, the words 'flights' or 'squadrons' never show up:
Ackbar's command was after the fighters had already reacted to Calrissian's orders to “Break off the attack, the shields are still up!” and he had to say it twice to get Wedge to abort the attack.
More over, Calrissian was giving the majority of the orders in the battle: “Accelerate to attack speed, draw their fire away from the cruisers!” to which Wedge replies “copy, Gold Leader.” Wedge gives his units command in the whole, “Red Three, Red Two, pull in.” thing. Then we have Calrissian's while “Red Group, Gold Group, all fighters follow me.” thing to end it. So it seems that there is some chain of command subservient to Lando, wh happened to be 'Gold Leader'. Ackbar's closest order is, "We've got to give those fighters more time. Concentrate all fire on that Super Star Destroyer," where we see two A-wings attacking the round globy-dealy.
What can we take away from it? Well, nothing as far as Armada is concerned, but it does mean we have 4 on-screen groups in Return of the Jedi. If we take it to mean fighter groups in the modern sense (which they very well might not be), then we're talking about leaders of 2-4 squadrons giving orders to their subordinates, independent of capital ships. Granted, we also have Lando saying, "All wings report in." so a case could be made that it means 'fighter wings', though it could be countered that in the script it's capital 'G' for groups as a proper noun but a lower case 'w' in wings which makes it a common noun; furthermore Yavin had Red Leader saying 'all wings' despite the force being about thirty craft in 2 recognized units.
Yavin... yeah, that's a bit of a mess: 2 Gold Leaders, and “Dutch” which still sounds wrong to me compared to “Hutch”. Good point though, someone panicked and got "blown to smitheroons!" (sic).
We can argue all day whats thematic and whats not end of the day its in the mind of the beholder.
I'd say that's exactly right. The specific theme and elements best representing the Star Wars universe is almost certainly going to vary depending on exposure to different material. I have a hard time believing that there is an objective fact on what this game should be thematically, only what it can represent.
Back to the topic at hand, R2-EQ's suggestions are pretty much spot on with what I'd like: I'm all for the noble heroics of competent snubfighter leaders. As much as I'd have liked Aces to be able to spend defenses for short-range Squadron commands, we're not building from the ground up anymore. But R2-EQ's squadron upgrades are purely delicious and still possible in the future.
Post Scriptum: Just for the record, I still believe Armada works well even without any changes: having played a 750 point battle with 250 points of fighters, it was fun. We don't have to be disgruntled to question a finely balanced system.
750 pts, sounds phenomenal. What size did you use for the battlefield? Approximately. Thx!
Good article. I do not agree with all of it. I do like the idea of Leader card for squadrons.
But the one point of Luke skywalker or darth vader over the firespray...I think that maybe a point could be made that a firespray is freighter type ship. It doesn't need support like say an x-wing. It can handle itself in a fight.
Both luke and Darth vader had their wingmen in the movies. Luke would have never survived that trench run without his wingmen. So they do not get the rogue keyword in order to coordinate with his wing.
I think in this day in age of computers, we forget that those movies were made back when WWII was still fresh in everyone's mind and fighter coordination was a very "manual" thing.
There are people in the background (specifically the battle of yavin) directing traffic. The fighter coordination is coming from a base not a capital ship. The guy from the base even tells them Vader is coming.
You also have to remember it was a movie. It would be super boring if we heard the same command multiple times just to show that a base or cap ship was giving the orders to the squad leader.
Squadrons are fine. but Like I said I do like an upgrade card for squad leaders. That is a great idea.
I think Upgrade cards for squadrons would be cool ... but at this point I doubt we will get something like that.
I'd love if Vader was able to get the Rogue keyword ... or lose the escort keyword .. by an upgrade card.
So, like named Squadrons may get a single upgrade card that can add or subtract keywords or other special effects would be pretty cool:
Engine Upgrade: You lose the 'Heavy' keyword.
Veteran Instincts: You gain the 'Rogue' keyword.
Squad Leader: When you get activated via a squadron command, you may activate up to 2 other friendly squadrons in range 1.
...
Okay, I'll go ahead and put in a dissenting voice here: I don't particularly want squadron upgrade cards. I think it will shift too much focus to the squadrons and off of the ships. The named pilots already have special abilities that distill all of their individual complexities into one or two lines of special ability, and I think that's plenty.
I'd much rather have squadron patches implemented as ship upgrades, like Independence and Flight Controllers.
Lando in the Falcon should definitely get squadron command and Rogue, though. 