Over the last year or so, squadrons in Star Wars Armada have become an absolute must in fleet building. As the need for squadrons increases so does the need for a fix to the common frustrations of using them. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say there are few things more annoying than digging a squadron out from a group of squadrons carefully stuffed between two large ships. Many players suffer from having large hands or clumsy fingers, bumping or nudging ships and squads just to twist a dial or push a slider has become an accepted part of the game. In squadron heavy fleets it can become a point of no small amount of frustration. Over the course of the last few months, I have developed an idea to alleviate some of that frustration.

This idea I've deemed the "Squadron Command Plate".

It's a 3D printed custom card holder. The card holder is a clearly defined color, and has set numbered slots. These slots correspond with a numbered infill that shares the same color. The idea is this: The player removes the cardboard dial and slider from the squadron base and places them in one of the numbered slots. Then places the corresponding numbered infill in the squadron base. The card holder now holds all of the necessary information off the play area, allowing the player to activate and use this squadron without interfering with other squads or ships in the play area.

These are the prototypes I had printed:

The single: designed for unique units only come in black or white and can be numbered 1-8

The double: designed for standard fighters that typically don't get used in high numbers, such as intel, relay, escort, ect.

The 4 wide: designed to be the perfect middle ground, perfect for bombers and anti fighter squads maybe even escort fighters.

The 4 long: alternate version of the 4 wide, designed to be the perfect middle ground, perfect for bombers and anti fighter squads maybe even escort fighters.

The 8: This is your typical zerg rush plate. for squads you run in high numbers.

Holy crap those are awesome! I love the matching dials next to the card.

Only suggestion might be spots for defense tokens for aces.

Superb work!

This is a fantastic idea, though I imagine it's the sort of thing one clears with TOs before tournaments. Those are 3D printed parts; what program did you design them in? And perhaps to the point many will ask, are you planning to either provide the design file or sell these widgets?

1 minute ago, CaribbeanNinja said:

Holy crap those are awesome! I love the matching dials next to the card.

Only suggestion might be spots for defense tokens for aces.

Superb work!

What he said about aces. Given that aces have to be by themselves, perhaps a modified version of the single, using that blank space below the dial?

Just now, CaribbeanNinja said:

Holy crap those are awesome! I love the matching dials next to the card.

Only suggestion might be spots for defense tokens for aces.

Superb work!

During the test play the defense tokens used sat unintrusively over the bottom of the card, though a slot for them may be added to future designs.

Wow dude. Tremendous. Brilliant and innovative. Positive adjectives abound and yet fail to express the depth of awesome I see here.

shut up and take my money.

1 minute ago, GiledPallaeon said:

This is a fantastic idea, though I imagine it's the sort of thing one clears with TOs before tournaments. Those are 3D printed parts; what program did you design them in? And perhaps to the point many will ask, are you planning to either provide the design file or sell these widgets?

They are currently for sale on ETSY, the current design uses a metal peg system to prevent snapping which is common with 3D printed goods.

10 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

They are currently for sale on ETSY, the current design uses a metal peg system to prevent snapping which is common with 3D printed goods.

Where on Etsy? Link and take my money!

Wow, kudos on your creativity here!

My only concern is that it makes is a little bit harder for your opponent to see the status of each squadron on the table. Which could be an acceptable tradeoff.

I think I'd keep the initiative tabs on the squadron itself at least, so that my opponent can tell at a single glance, which squadrons have activated and which have not. Sliding the tabs doesn't usually necessitate lifting them off the map.

But yes - please link the etsy page and you shall have my money too!!

6 minutes ago, Maturin said:

Wow, kudos on your creativity here!

My only concern is that it makes is a little bit harder for your opponent to see the status of each squadron on the table. Which could be an acceptable tradeoff.

I think I'd keep the initiative tabs on the squadron itself at least, so that my opponent can tell at a single glance, which squadrons have activated and which have not. Sliding the tabs doesn't usually necessitate lifting them off the map.

But yes - please link the etsy page and you shall have my money too!!

This was actually one of the concerns originally brought up during the design phase. During play testing (which is about 10 matches by now) Players commented they actually didn't have that difficult of a time seeing squad activation or HP, and on occurrences they did, said it was as simple as asking "what's Red 3 at?" There was some feedback to put black behind the slider could make it even easier though, which I plan to implement on current designs.

11 minutes ago, geek19 said:

Where on Etsy? Link and take my money!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArmadaFix

This is some great click bait that pays off!

I love this design and I'll have to check out the link when I'm not at work.

really like this idea!

Was bracing myself for another negative thread about squadrons and their place in the game.

Was pleasantly surprised instead.

Fantastic stuff here, looks awesome!

And finally a visible representation for Red group, Gold group, etc..

The one suggestion I would offer is to center the 8-plate. All the others, too. Instead of the card, with a long tail hanging off, make it more like a T on it's side, or an H.

Of course, that's much easier to suggest than to implement, so proceed at your discretion.

Just now, Eggzavier said:

Was bracing myself for another negative thread about squadrons and their place in the game.

Was pleasantly surprised instead.

Fantastic stuff here, looks awesome!

I was typing up a response that said literally the same thing. I done got ninjaed.

Good work, though. I am intrigued...

This is an awesome idea!

I wonder if you could sell the card plates separately from the number and health dial. That way it's easier to customize the numbers of fighters per card. People could basically buy several card holders, then a ton of dial holders and numbers.

Order placed.

Incredibly rad bud.... incredibly rad.

Outstanding! Buying some after I get paid!

Thank you all so much for your praise, honestly I didn't think they'd be so popular!

and to those of you making suggestions, if I don't get back directly I'm not ignoring you, I'll definitely consider suggestions.

Very cool. My only disappointment is that I can't use my own printer for them.

Very nice idea and design. I do like OccasionallyCorrect's idea, that way customers can just buy the dial-docks and set them next to their cards without using the card holder.

Also, I didn't see this anywhere, does an order also include the same # of discs to put on the fighter bases?

These are very awesome and innovative, but as much as I love them I'd be uncomfortable if I or my opponent was using them in the game. I fear it adds a lot of time to the assessment-taking and decision-making aspect. As obnoxious as all the dials and sliders are, there is a non-negligible value to having all of activated vs unactivated squadrons be immediately visually accessible when looking at the field. Similarly when assessing the health of enemy squadrons, which can inform decisions about whether to use AA Fire or attack a ship.

I just shudder a bit thinking about a field of 8 A-Wings vs 10 TIE Fighters in a big tangled furball.

"So which TIEs have activated already?"

"TIEs 1, 3, 4, 6, and 9 are activated."

"Umm...okay...so here's 1, there's 3, uhh who else?"

...

"Okay...how many hits do these TIEs around me have left?"

"TIE 1 has... "


It's clever, it's elegant, it prevents bumpage and slidage, and it speeds up not needing to fish squadrons out of big tangled clumps to alter their stats. That being said, there is something to be said for the objective visual clarity and time-saved in assessment and decision-making by having all the relevant stats of a fighter on the board. I suspect that'll be a personal preference, kind of like people who like command tokens on their ship cards and people who like command tokens next to their ship models.



I come from a long background of Blood Bowl, and the community there had a strong preference for marking certain key relevant skills (Block, Dodge, Guard, for instance) onto model's bases or through adding colored bands to their bases or models. Sure, you could just use the Player # on the model's base and cross-check that with the opponent's roster, but it was so much faster and easier to scan the field and think about options when it's immediately visually apparent to everyone who has what skills.



For that reason, I'd be uncomfortable allowing an opponent in a tournament to use these. And I'd feel like a total jerk for doing it, of course, in no small part because these are beautifully executed and ingenuous solutions and I appreciate the effort that went into making them and the money folks will spend to acquire them. I just feel like, in the PROs/CONs trade-offs, the immediate visual assessment of stats and activation state on the base wins out, despite all its flaws.

The holy grail of squad maintenance, and this addresses not knowing which squads have activated and what their HP is by examining the battlefield, is to have each squad have LEDs on them, a strip for HP and a Red and Blue LED for activation. A command console (phone app) could be used to communicate with each registered squad and change it's HP and activation LED (Red/Blue for not activated, and turned off for activated.

I'd love to make such a system but don't have the time to (work) and play and paint and do something like this,. Maybe when I'm retired, .... in 10+ years (I'm old)? :|

18 minutes ago, Greatfrito said:

Very cool. My only disappointment is that I can't use my own printer for them.

Well, they're not terribly hard to design. I'd prefer if people bought mine, I worked very hard to prototype, test, and fix these designs so that they'll last, but I'm sure there will be knock offs. All I can say is with mine, you'll never have bad shells or cheap infill, the pegs are metal and use rubber caps to hold the dial and slider in place.

2 minutes ago, Thraug said:

Very nice idea and design. I do like OccasionallyCorrect's idea, that way customers can just buy the dial-docks and set them next to their cards without using the card holder.

Also, I didn't see this anywhere, does an order also include the same # of discs to put on the fighter bases?

It's something I'll have to consider.

Yes, The plates will come with their matching infills. No point in selling them separate lol