How many fighters are represented by a Squadron in the game? I'm sorry if there's an immediate answer or already a discussion on the forum. I'm a newb.

I'm an advocate for patent a one model to one fighter representation. 12 X-Wings is a lot of X-Wings in a battle the scale of which Armada represents. 40 TIE fighters in the battles the scale of which Armada represents is a lot of TIE fighters.

If the three models per squadron represented more than one fighter each, you run the risk of representing an enormous number of the Rebellion's fighters in one battle. I can't imagine there being the entirety of Red, Blue, Gold, Green, etc. squadrons in a battle the scale Armada represents, each and every time. One squadron = 12 fighters is hard to imagine for me.

Let me know what your thoughts are. Thanks.

There is a massive old thread on this somewhere...

I think the general conclusion was "the stand represents whatever you want it to".

There have been many discussions on it, and unfortunately, none of them have actually got anywhere.... Although, to be fair, there hasn't been one for a couple of Months, if I recall correctly

... Effectively, the only "official" guidance we've got on the subject From FFG is "Enough to make a difference"...

They're represented by 3 Models, and 1 Model, respectively... Wether or not that entails Escorts, Missing fighters, bits and pieces... We Simply Do Not Know, and can only Hazard guessing

Its just as nebulous as what a ship's Squadron Rating represents.

12 fighters in a squadron, broken down in flight groups of 4 I think. Based on my TIE FIghter knowledge.

But I'm in agreement with the popular sentiment that there's only enough fighters there to make a difference. 12 TIEs vs 6 X-Wings, 3 TIE Defenders, in their respective stands.

The grouping of three represents a "bunch" of fighters. Clearly as they lose health you lose fighters or they simply all get damage at the same rate.

In the end, they are just a squad of undefined number of fighters with given stats on the card. No need to think beyond that, unless you are playing me, then by all means, be very distracted by some philosophical question about fighter numbers and forget that you are just playing a game.

I think a true "squadron" like the depicted on screen is bigger than a stand of fighters in Armada. Red squadron probably brought three stands worth of xwings to the Death Star, and each one made its own trench run.

well, considering even the movies cant keep it straight how many TIE fighters appear out of *insert ship name here* the exact number could be anything.

Definitely isnt 3, since 3 xwings would ravage 3 tie fighters any day.

I am more than OK with ambiguity. I think that's a fine approach by FFG. Numbers and health could be related to things like shields going down, individuals withdrawing like Wedge did from Yavin (spoiler lol). Thanks very much for your quick responses.

A USAF squadron is 12-24 depending on aircraft model. So I would say you could imagine it as such. i.e. Tie fighters would be more swarmy so 24, while it would be harder for rebels to get a hold of advanced fighters like X-Wings and A-Wings so more on the 12 count. Light freighters like the YT-1300/2400 and Punishing One would be a squadron of 1, due to their unique nature.

From my old Star Wars lore:

There are 12 TIE Fighters in an active squad, with a few spares to represent shift swaps, leave and a rotating schedule. When Darth Vader ordered the men to their ships in Episode 4 that was one squad, from an old version of the original book, Darth couldn't launch any more than his own personal group without the Moff's permission.

The Rebels try to stick with 12 because so many of them are from the Imperial Academy that it's easier to work with what they know - although squads were often made up of whatever was flying at the moment.

I reckon in Armada, the idea of a 'Squadron' is any part of 20 fighters for the Imperials and 12 for the rebels (really, even if you weren't rostered on, I bet a condition red would get everyone to their fighters).

From X-Wing/TIE Fighter games: 12

from vote in this forum: Clear majority see a sqaudron as a squadron of 12.


I doesnt matter for gameplay, but anything less then 12 would be strange in a fleet battle with captial ships.

A squadron represents a unit of fighters, except when they don't. That's as non-nebulous as you're bound to get. Anyone who says different pushes opinion as fact and hearsay at this point.

For me, it's 3-8 and most of the time 3-4.... Hark, didst thou hearst that? I swore I heard a voice through the mists of the forum thread, and it doth say, 'Vykes, shut up. No one cares!' Aye, 'tis the wisdom of the ancients.

I guess I can mention that Rogue One's little scenes seem to show a lot of units of 4 when fighters are moving together. For what that's worth.

Well, best way I look at it is as follows:

A Victory in tech specs has 24 TIE's.

A Imperial has 72 TIE's.

So I take the average squadron to be around 3 fighters ( a Vic having 8 squadrons, and an Imp having 24), but the movies seems to show squadrons of 3 (Vader with Black 2 & 3 in the death star trench)

A USAF squadron is 12-24 depending on aircraft model. So I would say you could imagine it as such. i.e. Tie fighters would be more swarmy so 24, while it would be harder for rebels to get a hold of advanced fighters like X-Wings and A-Wings so more on the 12 count. Light freighters like the YT-1300/2400 and Punishing One would be a squadron of 1, due to their unique nature.

Basically along these lines - crew count makes a big difference, so Y-Wings requiring two crew each (and being bombers, carrying heavier ordnance) likely have smaller squadrons than more 'superiority-oriented' fighters such as X-Wings.

Looking at the Order of Battle of Yavin provides some clues: the Rebels flew out 22x X-Wings and 8x Y-Wings. We can presume the Battle of Scarif survivors from Blue Squadron participated in the battle, meaning we'd roughly expect Red and Blue Squadron X-Wings (IE., for organizational purposes 11 fighters to a squadron) and Gold Squadron Y-Wings (so 8 fighters to a squadron for the heavier units).

From what few hints we see in other places (IE., "Phoenix Squadron" in Rebels, etc) that seems consistent.

In any case, especially in the situation of a 'ragtag rebellion', nevermind a Galactic Empire spreading most of its resources on garrison duty, the concept of a 'fixed' squadron size which all squadrons align with is...fictional, at best. Even in peacetime, small, and professional militaries - squadron sizes vary WIDELY. Once you start losing units, and taking onboard surplus survivors from previous battles and organizing them into your air wing...*oof*. 'Squadron size' is pretty much a random number generator...

I know there has been in ages past posts here linking to a shapeways page that produced "better scale" fighter for Amada, which were basically just mini 3-fighter trees with a single-squadron peg so you could mount 9 more appropriately sized squadrons on a single base.

I google-fu'd as hard as I could, but couldn't turn it up, however.

I know there has been in ages past posts here linking to a shapeways page that produced "better scale" fighter for Amada, which were basically just mini 3-fighter trees with a single-squadron peg so you could mount 9 more appropriately sized squadrons on a single base.

I google-fu'd as hard as I could, but couldn't turn it up, however.

j-roncho on shapeways is what you are looking for.

Also:

to me a stand of fighters in the game is not a full squadron, If it were a full squadron a single stand attacking any ship in the game should kill it in one go or two.

Just look at the damage fighters do in the movies and books and the FPS flying games. They are fast very powerful weapons. So its what you see is what is there.

Is it possible "squadron" was a generic term, I think in practice one stand is closer to a section of fighters.

If I remember correctly, it used to be one element was 2 fighters. Two elements formed a section, 4 fighters. Three sections formed a squadron, 12 fighters. Six squadrons formed a wing, 72 fighters.

A wing had 4 TIE squadrons, 1 bomber squadron, and 1 interceptor squadron. But I'm not sure that is accurate anymore, but if it is then three stands of fighters would be one "true" squadron. Thus a Star Destroyer wing would have three stand of bombers, three stands of interceptors, and twelve stands of TIE fighters.

You're trying to tell me one Firespray can hit harder than 12 Tie Bombers? I don't think so!

You're trying to tell me one Firespray can hit harder than 12 Tie Bombers? I don't think so!

There are 12 Firesprays in the Firespray squadron!

I would guess "up to twelve" sounds about right, what with rogue squadron and the like being unique units, their squadron wouldn't be split over multiple bases.

Then if the victory carries 24 ready ties with replacements for losses, say half that again, that makes its squadron value of 3 make sense. Launching all 36 in a code red situation with relief pilots out as well...

I would guess "up to twelve" sounds about right, what with rogue squadron and the like being unique units, their squadron wouldn't be split over multiple bases.

Then if the victory carries 24 ready ties with replacements for losses, say half that again, that makes its squadron value of 3 make sense. Launching all 36 in a code red situation with relief pilots out as well...

Part of the problem is that (as far as I'm aware), none of the ships in the universe have a 'canonical' number of fighters they can carry. (Well...maybe a few ships. Gozers can carry 4 each, CR90s can tow along 3 each...that's about it)

The '24 fighters for a Victory-class' or '72 fighters for an Imperial-class' all originated with the (non-canon) West End Games RPG back in the 80s/90s.

I think it various based off whatever size battle you have.

In a smaller 200-or-so point game I think of them as the 3 fighters shown on the stand, but for larger games they may represent 12 or more. Heroes are always one IMO because they are special.

I would guess "up to twelve" sounds about right, what with rogue squadron and the like being unique units, their squadron wouldn't be split over multiple bases.

Then if the victory carries 24 ready ties with replacements for losses, say half that again, that makes its squadron value of 3 make sense. Launching all 36 in a code red situation with relief pilots out as well...

Part of the problem is that (as far as I'm aware), none of the ships in the universe have a 'canonical' number of fighters they can carry. (Well...maybe a few ships. Gozers can carry 4 each, CR90s can tow along 3 each...that's about it)

The '24 fighters for a Victory-class' or '72 fighters for an Imperial-class' all originated with the (non-canon) West End Games RPG back in the 80s/90s.

Yes it did, and before that, there was nothing to classify squadron sizes for various ships. Cred it where credit is due

My thought is that it is what you see. So for me it is three fighters per stand (or one for the large squadrons). And at least to me that feels about right, I think that most of the ships carry about twenty four so that is eight bases if they are all deployed. This just feels more "real" than telling me that two bases are twenty four fighters. Having said that to me it is not a real big issue, if you want to say it is twelve to one hundreds and forty four each is just fine, as they all play the same.