Well this is more of theme and what not, but what if strategic allowed to carry the fleet commander? Right now only 2 squadrons have that trait, Lambda Shuttle and the VCX.

Just something for discussion not asking if it is a good or bad idea. I know there is a lot of contention of commanders on flotillias.

no commanders

only Emperors are cool enough to ride in lambdas

This may be possible Fluff-Wise but it wouldn't make sense game-wise. We already have a good portion of people not happy about Flotillas so this would only bring more contentious debating. (As you noted.) But if they had the ability to transfer the Commander from one ship to another that might be more interesting.

As it is only a six turn game with usually a quiet turn one I don't really see the point. If you want Screed on ship B rather than ship A you can do this in fleet design. Obviously situations change in the game and flagships become damaged and vulnerable. But you would need to almost predict this, have a Lamda nearby, dock, launch, travel and dock again to transfer to a nearby ship. Even if we are generous and say these 4 stages take only 2 turns, the games will probably have ended.

You could have a defensive or support upgrade called "executive escape"

Instead of revealing a command dial your ship may remove from play a friendly strategic squadron within range 1-2 and transfer your commander to a freindly ship within range 1-5 of your ship. 3 points.

I kept it cheap as you also discard the squadron so costing 15 points for a Lamda (though it may be a severely damaged one at the time). It avoids having to track docking or getting intercepted along the way.

As it is only a six turn game with usually a quiet turn one I don't really see the point. If you want Screed on ship B rather than ship A you can do this in fleet design. Obviously situations change in the game and flagships become damaged and vulnerable. But you would need to almost predict this, have a Lamda nearby, dock, launch, travel and dock again to transfer to a nearby ship. Even if we are generous and say these 4 stages take only 2 turns, the games will probably have ended.

You could have a defensive or support upgrade called "executive escape"

Instead of revealing a command dial your ship may remove from play a friendly strategic squadron within range 1-2 and transfer your commander to a freindly ship within range 1-5 of your ship. 3 points.

I kept it cheap as you also discard the squadron so costing 15 points for a Lamda (though it may be a severely damaged one at the time). It avoids having to track docking or getting intercepted along the way.

But Executive Escape sounds fun even if a little complicated.

You could also design a non tournament scenario with the commander transfer covered under special rules and a scenario 50 points extra if you transfer successfully to the chosen ship by the end of the game.

Edit: Make the starting flagship and the target flagship deploy at the extreme left and tight of the deployment zone. The enemy then try and interfere with the transfer.

As it is only a six turn game with usually a quiet turn one I don't really see the point. If you want Screed on ship B rather than ship A you can do this in fleet design. Obviously situations change in the game and flagships become damaged and vulnerable. But you would need to almost predict this, have a Lamda nearby, dock, launch, travel and dock again to transfer to a nearby ship. Even if we are generous and say these 4 stages take only 2 turns, the games will probably have ended.

You could have a defensive or support upgrade called "executive escape"

Instead of revealing a command dial your ship may remove from play a friendly strategic squadron within range 1-2 and transfer your commander to a freindly ship within range 1-5 of your ship. 3 points.

I kept it cheap as you also discard the squadron so costing 15 points for a Lamda (though it may be a severely damaged one at the time). It avoids having to track docking or getting intercepted along the way.

That sounds like a really balanced upgrade, actually. It costs you a squad, but might be worth it if you're really needing to keep your commander.

That idea brings back memories from playing x-wing. I would love that as a scenario.

A VCX-100 is only ever so slightly smaller than a gozanti.... People throw commanders on gozantis all the time. Theme doesn't mean anything to FFG, so, why not let commanders in squadrons!

The Issue with commanders in Squadrons, even the current batch of Strategic Squadrons, is the issue of durability and evasion over 6 turns. In common game scenarios, a speed 3+ squadron (don't forget All Wings On Me to make the VCX-100 a speed 4 8 hull ship) and other potential upgrades now and in the future makes it potentially impossible to chase down a single squadron without extraordinary luck in deployment and opponent flying. Just landing on top of an asteroid makes any potential attackers unable to engage and obstructed, preventing the squad from being locked down and potentially obscuring most or all incoming damage. if even a single squadron is Relayed to defend it, even something as fragile as a TIE fighter would make it nearly impossible to stop or kill an enemy commander in such a scenario.

What if the flagship could have a squadron with the Strategic trait on board (or docked - or a member of the flotilla - depending of the size of the flagship). Meaning you have that squadron off-board next to your flagship ship card. The fleet commander could then decide to dock off with this squadron. Of course BEFORE his ship gets destroyed. This should be a well-made descision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w_96yOUzRg

While in a squadron, the commander can't use his ability. The opponent need to destroy the squadron to earn the bounty.

That idea brings back memories from playing x-wing. I would love that as a scenario.

Kill the Emperor Scenario Must destroy, Palp's shuttle

A VCX-100 is only ever so slightly smaller than a gozanti.... People throw commanders on gozantis all the time. Theme doesn't mean anything to FFG, so, why not let commanders in squadrons!

I can understand not putting commanders inside squadrons, Sure Darth Vader flew a TIE but Tarken, Ozzel and Peit certainly did not. Now sure there are more transport options other than VCX and Lambda (Leia rode in the falcon many times) but there is no trait that specifies which squadron can have passengers and which ones can't. The best we got is well the strategic trait. So in strategic sure, just any squadron I think not.

This seems like a nightmare from a balance perspective. Not only do you have to hunt down a maneuverable, high hull squadron, you also have to kill everything with escort around it. It makes the commander unkillable for a lot of fleets. Maybe you can justify it from a theme perspective, but this would be horrible for the game.

A VCX-100 is only ever so slightly smaller than a gozanti.... People throw commanders on gozantis all the time. Theme doesn't mean anything to FFG, so, why not let commanders in squadrons!

to be very fair, it's a floatilla of gonzatis

so quite a few of em

course that implies either that there's a squadron of VCXs per model, or that a single VCX can kill entire squadrons of ships

though, given its performance in rebels, that's not too far fetched

IG88 would love for you to put your commander on a Lamda.

IG88 would love for you to put your commander on a Lamda.

IG88 is a single ship that would get murdered by any kind of effective defense. The nice thing about the transports is that typically, everything to defend them can stay in range of them (and thus anything wanting to attack them) pretty easily.

This idea long predates the advent of flotillas. The earliest proposal looked a lot like what is being suggested in this thread:

Eventually it was decided that this would not really work for a number of reasons, so the final Shipyards version works quite differently:

Feel free to print these and try them out to test your theories!