I don't get to play nearly as much as I would like, so I am going to draw on the collective experience here and ask:

For an imperial fighter heavy fleet, what would be the best carrier or support structure for that fleet. I realize the answer may vary depending on the intended role of he squadrons, but what do you use as a way to command those squads?

Victory: It's tanky and can take hangar bays or boosted comms, as well as support officers. relatively high squadron value and can wade in with the fighters and still live. (if it can keep up)

ISD: One stop shopping. tanky, faster, more powerful but more expensive. You are paying for a lot of big guns when you are trying to use it as a carrier. Perhaps less points efficient than a victory.

A flotilla based solution with 2 or more flotillas : Lots of awesome support options but fragile, and relatively expensive when kitted out. They add little raw offense of their own as well.

Other "multiple" setups: Glads, or raiders? takes a lot of ships to get the squad commands you need, but you can bring a lot of AA fire along with you as well.

These are my admittedly limited observations. What is the "ideal" squadron value to aim for? With rouge as an option, you no longer need to be one for one for squadrons to be effective.

thoughts?

Impstar 1s are great because of the dual offensive retrofit slot and high squadron value. As you mentioned, they are also pretty killy.

Vicstar 1s are a pretty good cost/activation efficiency.

One thing that I have been realizing with this wave, is that while flotillas are efficient squadron pushers, sometimes you really do need/want to activate more than 2 squadrons at a time. The flotillas are great, but I think that the bigger carriers are going to be coming back into the heyday this wave to drop 4 or 5 squadrons on something really quick.

In my experience, which could be off, for Imperials I generally find success with:

Gladiator II with Flight Commander and Fighter Coordination Team shuttling around Dengar and Mauler for Move-Move-Shoot shenanigans in the middle of the opponents squadron ball. (Preferably a ball that already has an Advanced in it to screen them)

Flotillas for bombers.

ISD-1 with Flight Controllers for the Howler/Interceptor big fistful of dice alpha strike.

I also tend to have them be mutually exclusive. Maybe it is just me, but when I fly Imperials I try to have the list focus on doing one thing very well for the minimum required amount of points.

The exception being my new found love for Defenders as an all 'rounder, but I have yet to actually use them. Only have them used against me.

ISDs and to a lesser-but-easier-to-afford-extent VSDs are the best means of applying upgrade benefits to every squadron activated all at once (like Flight Commanders, but also Admiral Chiraneau and the Corrupter VSD title). TIE Fighters and other anti-squadron equivalents like being activated all in one big clump as well so they can improve the size and effectiveness of their alpha strike, which makes them better commanded by a big ship. If you want to put a big hurting on some enemy squadrons before they can do much back, try dropping 3 TIE Fighter squadrons + Valen Rudor + Howlrunner + Mauler Mithel on your enemies with the +1 blue dice from Flight Controllers all in one go with an ISD-I with a squadron token and Expanded Hangar Bays (and maybe Boosted Comms too if you're feeling it).

Gozantis are far more cost-effective than VSDs or ISDs, however, for simply pushing squadrons. They also have a slot for Bomber Command Center, which really makes your TIE Bombers reliable (alongside the tried-and-true Rhymerball). They can do fine for pushing regular TIE Fighters as well, but I find a consistent source of squadron tokens (Tarkin) and/or Expanded Hangar Bays helps them get the quantity activated all at once you'd like. They do fine naked too, though.

Relay 2 on Lambda shuttles offers up some big potential benefits that haven't been meaningfully explored yet. Two of them allows an entire ISD or VSD+Expanded Hangars squadron command to be funneled through from anywhere else on the board, and that can apply the on-board squadron upgrades to work too. Similarly, a single Lambda allows each Gozanti to command 2 squadrons through it, which gets interesting with things like the Vector title, for example.

Gladiator II with Flight Commander and Fighter Coordination Team shuttling around Dengar and Mauler for Move-Move-Shoot shenanigans in the middle of the opponents squadron ball. (Preferably a ball that already has an Advanced in it to screen them)

I would like to note that Fighter Coordination Team doesn't work on engaged squadrons (even if their engagers are Heavy), so if you're using it to double-tap Mauler on people in the middle of a furball, you're using it incorrectly because he's engaged after the first move.

Egg puts forth an excellent point. Best in what regard? Efficiency or leverage?

The Gozanti is your most efficient squadron pusher. 2 for 23, or 11.5 pts per activation, or 3 for 28 (expanded hanger bays) at 9.333 pts per activation, sans token. With a token you can push 4 squads. Also worthy of note is the native value of 2 fits perfectly into a Lambda's Relay.

An ISD-1 on the other hand, is far more expensive in terms of activations. A native 4 for 110, or 27.5 pts per. But you can give it expanded hangers to bring her up to 5 at 23 per. Thing here though, you can also give those same five squads a flight controller boost thanks to its Weapons Team Slot, and activate the whole shebang from long range with boosted comms. Or drop them from your hanger bay with Rapid Launch Bays. Plus, its an ISD. So she gets to fire a non inconsequential amount of dice depending on board state. And with a token or course, you can activate up to six squads on one activation. Which can be one heck of an Alpha strike depending on your squadron component.

So it comes down to what you want. The Vic isnt bad either.

Edit: Man i got ninj-obliterated.

It's a tricky bit of flying - but doable.

1) Mauler starts off unengaged.

2) Carrier has FCC and Flight Commander.

2) Move Carrier

3) Use FCC to shuffle Mauler forward one, engaging enemy fighters and doing 1 auto-damage.

I will stick to Adar Tallon and Ten Numb

It's a tricky bit of flying - but doable.

1) Mauler starts off unengaged.

2) Carrier has FCC and Flight Commander.

2) Use FCC to shuffle Mauler forward one, engaging enemy fighters and doing 1 auto-damage.

3) Move Carrier

4) Give squadron Command: Move Dengar to free up Mauler. Move Mauler and do another 1 auto-damage.

You'd have to resolve "move carrier" before step 2 due to how Fighter Coordination Team is worded as the ship needs to finish its maneuver before it can trigger. You also need Mauler able to move distance 1 to engage squadrons but also not currently engaged. It's possible but it's very fragile and thus seems unreliable to me. A single Mauler tap is definitely quite workable whenever Intel is involved, though.

My note regarding the Glad II Mauler/Dengar combo was assuming alpha strike Snipa, and I did leave that off. Getting Mauler within distance 1 of a ball without being engaged can sometimes be tricky, but I've seen it done more than once so with practice is far from impossible. . That said, it is very fragile if left unprotected, thus the "Ideally with a Tie ADV already there to screen it" note.

Even as a one and done with no other support, however, Dengar/Mauler with Glad II punches way above it's weight class if allowed to alpha. It is either 1 or best case 2 auto damage to the ball from mauler, plus mauler and dengars AS attacks, followed up by the two blue AS dice from the Glad II (if you threw Demolisher on it) can decimate an entire ball with no recourse. Then they have to chew through both Dengar and Maulers brace and scatter while eating counter dice if they focus Mauler.

Gladiator II with Flight Commander and Fighter Coordination Team shuttling around Dengar and Mauler for Move-Move-Shoot shenanigans in the middle of the opponents squadron ball. (Preferably a ball that already has an Advanced in it to screen them)

I would like to note that Fighter Coordination Team doesn't work on engaged squadrons (even if their engagers are Heavy), so if you're using it to double-tap Mauler on people in the middle of a furball, you're using it incorrectly because he's engaged after the first move.

I like the big alphas of the ISD and VSD the most... Getting the bulk of your squads activated all in one go is important and powerful... When I flotilla I Try to get 4 off it as well... The less hull your squads have, the less they are able to wait around for you to activate them... Activating 2-3 tie fighters at a time with flotilla for instance can spell death for the ones in wait... You just don't do enough damage to neutralize the threat, and then you provide a window for your opponent to go get the unactivated ones... Tie defenders biggest plus is condensing 2 tie fighters into a single squad, allowing flotillas that activate 2 at a time more concentrated firepower, while also leaving the remaining unactivated defenders enough hull to survive through until the next squadron command... I guess what I'm really trying to get at is that the squads you activate with the carrier matter just as much as the carrier itself... So imo there isn't a best or worst, just a bunch of tools in the kit each with their own specific purpose...how you use them and what you want to make is up to you!

My personal choice is the ISD 1 with expanded hanger and boosted coms. Add in Wulf for the token and activating 6 bombers per turn is simply amazing...

I have not had enough experiments with the Phantoms and Defenders to tell if this applies to them (I expect it to, but to a far lesser degree), Imperial carriers have to be considered with the alpha strike ability in mind.

If you're running a Rhymerball, activating two or three bombers at a time isn't a huge deal, provided you aren't locked down by the enemy screen. Plinking away with black dice doesn't change much either way, though you should still consider when the heavy starships will get shots into your plans. The cheapness of flotillas means you can devote fewer total points to shuffling them all around. However, everything changes when you're dealing with squadrons.

TIE Fighters and Interceptors can both be oneshot by every Rebel fighter save the Y-wing, while they are unable to return the favor, with the exceptions of the Z-95s now and the A-wings for Interceptors. Thus, it is critical for an Imperial space superiority wing to make sure all of its fighters are able to shoot first, lest they never have the opportunity to do so. To that end, activating four, five, or six squadrons all at once, and providing desperately needed firepower boosts like Howlrunner and Flight Controllers can make or break the squadron game for an Imperial commander. With that alpha strike, you can destroy one or more enemy squadrons without losing any opportunities from their alpha strike option. For that reason, whenever I run a dedicated Imperial space superiority squadron build, I bring an I-1 to play carrier to maximize the force of the initial strike and hopefully win the squadron engagement with the first shots fired.

Considerations from Wave 5: the advantage is bare millimeters, but E-wings can nearly match a Speed 5 squadron for attack range with the Distance 2 range of Snipe. They give up 25% of their offensive power to do this, but this is a possibility that cannot be discounted. Defenders' high hull and speed leave them as superfighters without par, but you're paying for it. As many have noted, Phantoms are actually the fastest squadron in the game right now. And the capabilities of Strategic and Relay I agree are as yet quite unexplored. And the variability of Z-95s does not mean they can be discounted.

TL;DR: Moving a lot of squadrons at once has a lot of value for fighters, but the efficiency of flotillas works well too, especially for bombers.

I am in the ISD I camp., the VSD (Corrupter) is also not bad for fleet carriers. For light carriers I kind of like the GSD, and for jeep carriers the Gozanti.

ISD-1 with an ISD-2 covering it

Nebulon B