In looking through this forum and in my own games, I'm noticing a surprising trend. That is people taking very few Squadrons or even none. Worse still, I'll see people take Y-Wings or TIE Bombers when they really need a fighter screen protecting their vulnerable Ships. I know the game focuses on the Ships but Squadrons can play a big role too.

If I don't have at least 6-7 Squadrons(Rebel) or 8-10(Empire), I feel exposed. Even then, my last tournament Rebel list had 7 Squadrons and I was nervous until it became clear that everyone else had less and/or few threats to my Squadrons. Many people seem to think Squadrons are worthless unless they are dedicated bombers. In some builds I see the need for bombers but those bombers need fighter cover too.

As an example, in my last pick-up game I had 3 X-Wings, 2 A-Wings, Han Solo and Dash Rendar(a favourite build). My opponent had 4 TIE Fighters but did bring two Raider I Corvettes. I'll leave most of the specifics out but by the middle of turn 4 all his Fighters and Raiders were dead(all mine survived the game, though I did lose my MC80). This allowed my Squadrons free reign to target one of the two ISDs.

I want to point out that my Ships were beyound Squadron Command range and were heavily focused on Engineering Commands by this point. Anyway, on turns 5 and 6 my Squadrons dealt 5 Shield and 7 Hull damage to their target, destroying it. Most of the damage was dealt by the Xs and As(the none Rogues); granted the ISD was moving slowly. But by getting them in position, they dealt almost as much damage as my Ships and won the game for me.

TL; DR:

I don't see a lot of Squadron use in my gaming group. Why do people dislike Squadrons? If you use Squadrons, what are your favourite builds around them?

People are reacting badly to Dengar/Jan's Intells effect on fighter screens. Bombers become harder to tie down now those two around.

It will level out over time I reckon, this is just a kneejerk. I personally tend to go with a smattering of ace pilots as the only carriers I like playing with are the Neb Escorts.

I play fighter heavy. Typically between 80 - 100 points (120+ if im running a bomber wing).

I try to blance between raiders and a fighter screen I am just not super impressed with what the Empire has in the way of fighters so far.

People are reacting badly to Dengar/Jan's Intells effect on fighter screens. Bombers become harder to tie down now those two around.

It will level out over time I reckon, this is just a kneejerk. I personally tend to go with a smattering of ace pilots as the only carriers I like playing with are the Neb Escorts.

I guess the fear of Intel makes sense. But abandoning even defensive fighters feels crazy. But I do always bring a Rogue along to deal with troublesome Squadrons. And Intel is just a new spin to Rhymer ball+Corruptor+Chiraneau.

I try to blance between raiders and a fighter screen I am just not super impressed with what the Empire has in the way of fighters so far.

I play a couple of guys who feel the exact opposite. They heavily dislike when I use Mauler, Boba or 4 Interceptors+Flight Controllers. They claim the Rebels don't have good Squadrons to counter these. But whenever I play Rebels, my Squadrons slice through the Empire Squadrons. So I'm more inclined to your view I guess.

People are reacting badly to Dengar/Jan's Intells effect on fighter screens. Bombers become harder to tie down now those two around.

It will level out over time I reckon, this is just a kneejerk. I personally tend to go with a smattering of ace pilots as the only carriers I like playing with are the Neb Escorts.

I guess the fear of Intel makes sense. But abandoning even defensive fighters feels crazy. But I do always bring a Rogue along to deal with troublesome Squadrons. And Intel is just a new spin to Rhymer ball+Corruptor+Chiraneau.

I try to blance between raiders and a fighter screen I am just not super impressed with what the Empire has in the way of fighters so far.

I play a couple of guys who feel the exact opposite. They heavily dislike when I use Mauler, Boba or 4 Interceptors+Flight Controllers. They claim the Rebels don't have good Squadrons to counter these. But whenever I play Rebels, my Squadrons slice through the Empire Squadrons. So I'm more inclined to your view I guess.

I am not saying that imperial fighters are not scary but other than the rouge stuff they just don't have the versatility that rebel fighters have. I just like raiders because they give me the versatility my fleet needs with out breaking the bank.

That's true. When nearly every Rebel Squadron is a fighter/Bomber, the Empire becomes too specialized. Maybe they'll get the Defender in a future Squadron pack. A Defender should pack a punch against both Squadrons and Ships.

Weird people. I use a scalpel style of play with my squadrons. Just the right amount to do the job I need.

I know in my group the Rouge pack is getting some use. But the basic fighters just pop so easy, with so many ships having two anti-fighter dice and the basic fighter (Tie, and Interceptor) having only three hits, also when one ship can in theory shoot every single fighter. So again in theory two ships can shoot down every single fighter you have with just average rolls. On the other side (Empire shooting Rebel) it would take at least three ships against most of there fighters and two with perfect rolls against there weakest. So this added to the fact that Rebel fighters are multi-purpose, and the Empire are not just makes it hard for most Empire players in my area to use them. One other thing is that Galent Haven it is a must include in every Rebel fleet in the area, with it reducing every attack by one, why take fighters who are now in range of the ships and doing less damage. Where as if they go with Raider you get the anti-fighter, and some anti-ship.

I know in my group the Rouge pack is getting some use. But the basic fighters just pop so easy, with so many ships having two anti-fighter dice and the basic fighter (Tie, and Interceptor) having only three hits, also when one ship can in theory shoot every single fighter. So again in theory two ships can shoot down every single fighter you have with just average rolls. On the other side (Empire shooting Rebel) it would take at least three ships against most of there fighters and two with perfect rolls against there weakest. So this added to the fact that Rebel fighters are multi-purpose, and the Empire are not just makes it hard for most Empire players in my area to use them. One other thing is that Galent Haven it is a must include in every Rebel fleet in the area, with it reducing every attack by one, why take fighters who are now in range of the ships and doing less damage. Where as if they go with Raider you get the anti-fighter, and some anti-ship.

That pretty much describes my local meta as well. Basic Ties are only used as drop filler. Then its just bombers escorted by Advanced. Interceptors have gone extinct. Rebels on the other hand make use of pretty much all their fighters depending on the build. Though A-Wings, and Silly bombers are most certainly the ones I see int the biggest numbers.

In looking through this forum and in my own games, I'm noticing a surprising trend. That is people taking very few Squadrons or even none. Worse still, I'll see people take Y-Wings or TIE Bombers when they really need a fighter screen protecting their vulnerable Ships. I know the game focuses on the Ships but Squadrons can play a big role too.

If I don't have at least 6-7 Squadrons(Rebel) or 8-10(Empire), I feel exposed. Even then, my last tournament Rebel list had 7 Squadrons and I was nervous until it became clear that everyone else had less and/or few threats to my Squadrons. Many people seem to think Squadrons are worthless unless they are dedicated bombers. In some builds I see the need for bombers but those bombers need fighter cover too.

As an example, in my last pick-up game I had 3 X-Wings, 2 A-Wings, Han Solo and Dash Rendar(a favourite build). My opponent had 4 TIE Fighters but did bring two Raider I Corvettes. I'll leave most of the specifics out but by the middle of turn 4 all his Fighters and Raiders were dead(all mine survived the game, though I did lose my MC80). This allowed my Squadrons free reign to target one of the two ISDs.

I want to point out that my Ships were beyound Squadron Command range and were heavily focused on Engineering Commands by this point. Anyway, on turns 5 and 6 my Squadrons dealt 5 Shield and 7 Hull damage to their target, destroying it. Most of the damage was dealt by the Xs and As(the none Rogues); granted the ISD was moving slowly. But by getting them in position, they dealt almost as much damage as my Ships and won the game for me.

TL; DR:

I don't see a lot of Squadron use in my gaming group. Why do people dislike Squadrons? If you use Squadrons, what are your favourite builds around them?

Lately, there's been a trend towards fighter screens. Nothing wrong with that. But when you start looking at the math of things, there's an argument to be made that an equivalent cost of ships can also be a benefit. If you don't have points to really mess up bomber wings, you can instead field an additional ship to give activation advantage, and if you face another low squadron group (or am anti fighter group) you will have a big advantage.

Different strokes. Around here we're finding that if you don't take fighters, there's something wrong with you. The amount of damage they can put out is absolutely staggering, and while what was said about rebel ships having 2 anti-squadron dice is true, when facing someone with ackbar you can arrange to have your fighters hang around in the front or rear arc of enemy ships. If they want to use ackbar, they can't fire at the fighters at ALL. So you're really making them choose whether they want to sacrifice the 2 extra dice they've likely built their fleet around to start dealing with your fighters, or ignore them and try to do more damage to enemy ships. Plus ships have limited activations. It's heartbreaking for my ISD to have to use its front armament to kill an enemy ship with ONE hull point remaining and no shields, preventing me from doing the serious damage I wanted to do. But if I have a fighter token, that's one friendly fighter that can zip in and finish them off, freeing me to blast something else. They're great for cleanup.

Different strokes. Around here we're finding that if you don't take fighters, there's something wrong with you. The amount of damage they can put out is absolutely staggering, and while what was said about rebel ships having 2 anti-squadron dice is true, when facing someone with ackbar you can arrange to have your fighters hang around in the front or rear arc of enemy ships. If they want to use ackbar, they can't fire at the fighters at ALL. So you're really making them choose whether they want to sacrifice the 2 extra dice they've likely built their fleet around to start dealing with your fighters, or ignore them and try to do more damage to enemy ships. Plus ships have limited activations. It's heartbreaking for my ISD to have to use its front armament to kill an enemy ship with ONE hull point remaining and no shields, preventing me from doing the serious damage I wanted to do. But if I have a fighter token, that's one friendly fighter that can zip in and finish them off, freeing me to blast something else. They're great for cleanup.

Yes, but for this are they using the Tie Fighter, or Tie Interceptor? Or the Tie Bomber, maybe with an Advanced as an escort? The lack of hull, with the lack of anti-ship capabilities has removed them. That is why I think we are seeing more use of the rogues and the bombers, but have not done enough looking at it to say for sure.

Looking at the odds, if a 1-blue anti-squadron ship is shooting TIE fighters, it should statistically kill one in a 6 turn game. 6 rolls, 50% chance of getting a hit, so 3 hits. That's when they get 6 shots. If you aren't throwing the fighters in until turn 3, they aren't statistically going to kill them all. Sure, some he might get lucky and in 3 turns get 3 hits in a row and if he does, good for him! But shooting at squadrons means not shooting at a ship, and if he's got gunnery teams, then make sure you've got two ships there ready as well as your fighters. Again, force them to make choices. Will he shoot the two ships, or a ship and fighters, sparing the other ship? And that's only IF he has a gunnery team. And like I said, if you put your fighters in the front or rear, he's going to have to lose his ackbar bonus if he wants to devote fire to anti-squadron.

Yes, if the ship has two anti-fighter this all changes. Not every ship does, you know. And while the odds are still better for them to kill fighters faster, they won't kill them in ONE salvo, and again your fighters could spare you the deadly double-arc sometime, too. Make your opponent make choices. If you just feed him your fighters, without ship support, you deserve to lose them all.

I use pretty heavy squadron based lists with the Rebels. Y-wings are pretty much flak immune with six hull, and are super cheap black dice in the attack. Boosted comms and spam squadron orders when battle is joined and it's super cheap firepower. 2-4 of those are a pretty minor investment in points but can do heavy damage against people who don't have adequate starfighter defence. I kinda consider them almost as upgrade cards for ships, effectively letting you replace the concentrate fire order with something better. If the enemy take 0 squadrons and you bring a cheap Y-wing bomber wing then he's handed you a huge gift.

I tend to use fighters who can also bomb ships as well, so if you're wanting to protect your bombers, Wedge, Luke, Dutch Vander... That way everything is potentially able to contribute to the cap ship destruction, which is after all their primary goal.

The meta near me is for Imperial players to run with very low numbers of squadrons, quite often 0 or just a handful of cheap TIEs. They've been very roughly handled by the Y-wings of late combined with a small number of A-wings (who just suicide into them to tie them up for a few rounds) so I think it might change in the future to more balanced lists.