Yesterday night, in a game with a friend, I tried a squadron setup I've been quite fond lately: I was the imperials, and brought Vader + Dengar + Mithel + Fel. That's just 4 squadrons to command, so that I don't have to commit to squadron commands with multiple ships, and packs quite a punch in a well timed alpha strike with its 2 AoE auto dmg (assuming Vader survives for more than 1 round). This setup is also resilient because of abundance and quality of defensive tokens (3 scatter, 5 braces in all), and even when fired at can respond effectively due to counter from Dengar. All this for 74 points.

So I was wondering, what do you guys feel like the optimal squadron setup? I understand that there are different levels of commitment with squadrons from list to list, ranging from the full 129 points fireball to Bwing spam in some rebel list, and those are perfectly ok too. Since wave 2 dramatically changed the squadron meta, I would like to hear what do you think about squadrons in general (useful / trash), what would you bring if you only had a few points to spare (ie: optimal token screen) and what is your dream setup in a squadron dedicated build.

Also, it seems to me that squadrons are mostly ignored on these forums, and it's nice to have a dedicated topic.

Test it out vs Jan and 4 xwings. That should tell you if its enough of a screen.

If i need a screen on the cheap i typically go with howlrunner plus 3 interceptors (49pts), if i can squeeze in a flight controller that really makes em really deadly for a small investment.

Mid range points i'm a fan of mithil and admiral chiraneau with howlrunner and small swarm of tie fighters. Mauler, howl, 6 ties and chiraneau run you 89 points. Chiraneau and mauler is ruthless. (Or dengar)

For large fighter and bomber wing: howl plus 9 ties and rhymer plus 3 bombers runs 131 points. Im sure there are better builds, i typically don't play with this large of a fighter wing.

I have heard rumors of people running 15 tie fighters with good results. I only have 10 so i can't confirm.

I've been running a pretty effective screen of Howlrunner, 4 interceptors, and Dengar. If I can manage to engage my opponent first I can strip the tokens off of Jann and take out an X-wing or two and then mop up with counters during the squadron phase. My only issue is getting them in range of the capital ships once I've taken care of the fighter screen. Even if my carrier is still in range with Boosted Comms I've been pretty bad about remembering to set up another squadron command.

All depends on my list but I have been at the 70 point range recently

All my Reb lists so far, has had 6x A-wing squadrons as standard. + any other fighter squadrons if points allows it.

Being able to deliver an Alpha stike of 3-5 black dice, before Acbar sends 5-6 red dice with XI7, down range at the same target. Has the curious effect of making ones opponent slightly unhappy to what happens to his ship.

I like to focus on squadrons more than most players, I take at least 100 points but usually around 120 points which is ideal for me. If you build your fleet to work with the squadrons they are extremely potent. I usually go for 2 or 3 bomber squadrons + rhymer, enough to threaten any capital ship, and then 6 or 7 anti fighter squadrons including 1, sometimes 2, named characters to support those squadrons. Only 2 capital ships unfortunately (ISD-II + VSD-I) which is a bit daunting when facing lists with 6 or so ships It's usually enough to dominate the squadron phase, and gives the list a lot of flexibility. Vs heavy bomber lists you can lock them down easily enough even with an intel+escort guard, and vs no squadron lists yes the fighters are lacking but they still dish out 0.5 damage per round per squadron. To put it in perspective, when all my squadrons fire at ships it equals the frontal firepower of an ISD for roughly the same amount of points. And while vulnerable to anti-squadron fire from ships, they usually only suffer 1 round of fire before my capital ships are in range as well at which point every shot fired at my squadrons is one less heading for my ships.

I think that Armada is sufficiently balanced to not have any optimal squadron setup, and that squadron set-ups depend mostly on the composition of your fleet.

As a Rebel, with squadrons that are very decent on their own with excellent aces, I find that combos aren't particularily effective. The Jan Ors with X-Wings is cool because it's versatile, but I'm not finding it particularily effective in terms of pure damage capabilities. On the other hand, with extremely competent Aces, Rebels will benefit most when timing their attacks properly with less squadrons than their opponents. It's also less effective poitns for points than the Empire per squadron activation (you activate less squadrons and when you activate them, each point does less damage because Rebels are more expensive than each Imperial squadron for similar damage). On the other hand, they have the capability to tank more damage than the Imperials so they can afford to wait until the time is right to strike. This is where Jan + X-Wings shine, because she allows to buy more time with the X-Wings.

So, they're very reliant on timing for anti-ship effectiveness, rather than relying on an Alpha Strike. I actually like A-Wings for that matter, because they have the speed and the Counter to be good Alpha Strike platforms, especially with a solid black dice.

As an Imperial, squadrons get more interest of being buffed and are actually only sensitive in squadron activation when it comes to dealing with the enemy fighters. TIE Fighters are a decent proposition against enemy squadrons, but the timing has to be perfect in order to actually deal damage. I haven't got much experience with the Imperial squadrons yet (but fielding 7 of them tonight, woohoo ), so I can't go in more details yet. I'd rather have numbers on my side than Elite however, and even though Vader + Fel + Mithel + Dengar will go damage, I'm concerned about how many points you give out to the enemy as soon as Vader is down.

I'd rather have numbers on my side than Elite however, and even though Vader + Fel + Mithel + Dengar will go damage, I'm concerned about how many points you give out to the enemy as soon as Vader is down.

Same for me as a general rule, at least as Imps (Rebels, with the addition of Rieekan, are a class unto themselves). 74 points will buy you nine generic TIEs (with room to spare). They're easier to kill individually than any of the heroes, but mustering enough damage to kill all of them is a tall order, since they outnumber the elites by more than 2-to-1, and Imp elites can only attack once per round (no Adar or Yavaris ). That means the elites are looking at at least two rounds of combat to kill them, unless everything breaks right for them (every TIE takes auto-damage from Mauler, every TIE takes auto-damage from Soontir, counter-damage procs at more than 50% odds, etc). Vader will die if he takes 4-5 TIE Swarm attacks (just a fact of life), and a single Escort can be avoided by fast squadrons with relative ease. The other three have Scatter which offers a chance at totally avoiding all damage up to twice in a round, but with low hull values their margin for error is slim (especially against squadrons with Swarm). If the opponent spends just an extra 20 points on squads, the elites can be tripled-up (12 TIEs for 96). Even if you have the initiative advantage, taking down that many TIEs before attrition sets in is a really tall order.

All that said, it's a very nice low-activation anti-squadron combo that can deal a lot of anti-squadron damage if things break right, and has superior survivability than what Rebels get with their elite units. The other consideration is supporting fire from ships, which will mow down TIEs if you can force the fight to stay near your own ships--but that gets into fleet composition and such, which is a broader topic. Thanks for sharing!

There is no optimal number or mix.

Two rules I stick by:

* If I'm bombing I want to activate X bombers/black dice where X=Squadron Value.

* A fighter screen has to be resilient enough (through numbers, abilities) to actually impact/trade with bombers (jan/rhymer/rouges) or there is no value running it.

I'm mostly playing imperials at the moment. I've had good luck with:

Dengar

Mithel

IG88

Tie advanced

Tie interceptor

This comes out to 79 points. IG88 is there to kill Jan, and Mithel is almost worth his points just by flying him into her ball of escorts one time, however, with Dengar and an advanced escorting him he can usually manage to do that a couple of times at least. If you've got the points add more interceptors or advanced if you think you will be playing against a fighter heavy build. This list is good at chewing up fighters, but has limited potential against ships. Throw in Rhymer if you have the points and want to threaten capital ships.

I've also seen some really nasty anti-fighter builds with Howlrunner, Dengar and as many interceptors as can be afforded. The counter/swarm benefits are insane, but only good as an anti-fighter build. You will constantly give your opponent hard choices as to who to attack because of all the counter dice coming his way.

So far, I have little use for the Firesprays everyone is obsessed with. I was playing rebels the other day and three of my A-wings went head to head with 3 generic Firesprays and wiped them off the board with only 1 loss. Granted, I rolled well.

I'll be testing a theory where every ship in my fleet will get a fighter escort as big as the number of squadrons it can activate. Not necessarily aces (maybe one here and there), but squadrons nonetheless. I'll run tests on both the Imperials and Rebels and might include some Rogues in the mix !

To me, it feels not only elegant to have that, but also it offers tactical flexibility. Sometimes you feel that you might want to activate a squadron, but you're unable to because each ship doesn't have an assigned squadron to activate.

I have been taking a different approach running MSU ships and a force of squadrons as a sweeper force. I've been using either 5 Firesprays or 6 Aggressors.

Both have pro's and con's but as small ships do not command squadrons well, the Rogue ability is important.

They can be used quite efficiently in these numbers to tackle enemy squadrons or form a solid attack on a ship.