Doom is at hand in the form of the end of the life boat, so just a couple of thoughts around flag ship options.

1) safely first, fun later........small light and out of the way. This is back to the pre flotilla life boat model, so you have a nice little raider or CR90 corvette pottering around the edge of the battle. Ok unless it gets cornered and a waste of a ship/points. In my mind the worst option, but it has a low chance of getting cornered and if it dies your points loss is minimal, but your fleet Is functionally down 40-50 points. Low risk-low reward. Only worth playing in Swarm fleets to my mind.

2) play it clever....A support type ship that you plan to keep at long range. If you are running something like salvation, a kitten or medium carrier with boosted comms/relay. These ships don't lose any function while being kept safe/ish and are in many cases tanky enough (can be tanked up a bit) to survive a small swift flag ship hunter coming after them and if you do loss it your points loss will not be an instant game loser. This is a very respectable option( in my mind the most sensible). but these ships tend to not be able to stay out of hurt range for the whole game. Medium risk-high reward. I would always take this option if my fleet has this type of ship as it's the best balance of risk vs reward.

3) The beast ....... If your going for the biggest baddass tankiest ship you can ( combat upgraded ISDs and MC80s) this may be the spot for your leader. This seems a good idea as your ship is not losing function/being wasted, but you are putting your leader in harms way and tanks can't run if they get in a bad spot. You are putting your all your money on red or black and spinning the wheel. If you loss your flag ship supper tank you have probably lost the game by giving almost half your fleet points away. in my mind this is not the best option if your fleet has a ship that supports option two,if not it's a goer. Meduim/high risk-high reward option.

4) The mad fool....this a a niche option, for the fast attack players, if you have an expensive fast attack ship that can get in and out and that you plan on keeping alive after its attack run you can potentially risk your leaders on it, so a tanky MC30 or full fat ( with blast doors) Demolisher. It's very high risk- high reward, you get max investment in fast attack combatants with all cheaper combatants becoming disposable, but you are putting your leader in harms way. The risk is you loss a 120+ point MC30 or Demo, one advantage over the "The beast"is that you can leg it if it all goes wrong. I have played this way in my earlier wave Gladiator/raider fleets, as I found demo was the only ship I really wanted to keep alive, putting the admiral on a second ship seemed intuitive at first but it just gave me a second ship I needed to keep alive. Again if I had a ship that supported option 2 in my fleet I would default to that.

Thats my thoughts on flag ships. I'm very pleased we have lost the flotilla life boat option, not because it's unbalanced ( as I don't think this was the real balance issue with flotillas) but because an admiral should be in a combat ship, even if that's speeding around the battle field in a cool little raider.

Option A: Something tanky.

Option B: Something at long range.

That's pretty much it. It's the same as it's ever been. The only difference until now is that Flotillas were generally both tanky (because Scatter/Evade) and at long range.

They have to change the Wookipedia entry for the Gozanti now

Gozanti-class cruiser :
Role(s): Cruiser; Evac ship; Transport; Command ship

A command ship was a vessel which served as the flagship of a fleet. Command ships were typically larger and better armed than other warships. The Invisible Hand served as the command ship of General Grievous during the Battle of Coruscant. The Executor-class Star Dreadnought Executor was the command ship of Darth Vader during the Battle of Hoth and the Battle of Endor.

for the rebels there is only 1 choice

For rebels:

• 1) Looks like the option, Jainas Light spitting at long range and flanking out of trouble.
• 2) If you have played rebel enough you should know the rule number 1 of the rebel rulebook: Never, ever put your commander in a Nebulon B. Its cathastrophically easy to finish these in two turns in a several unexpected ways. These ships are meant to blow. Use them as baits. Not flagships.
• 3) Back to the old times. A whale is a realiable a cheap ship, best option here if youre going to treat it as a carrier with boosted comms + FCT from behind the line. Not a front liner for sure. MC80... meh I just dont like to put 33% of my points in a single place. It's too obvious.
• 4) Your comparison between Demo and Admonition is funny. A realiable Admotnition for hit and run is around 15-20 points more expensive than a Demo, has less survivavility and less chances to actually deliver the punch. If able to hit, it has less damage output. Not mentioning that you will need either activation advantge and/or initiative to run this ship properly. If you want to put it in a MC30 do it better on a Foresight and keep it at distance. Still, too expensive.

18 minutes ago, xerpo said:

For rebels:

• 1) Looks like the option, Jainas Light spitting at long range and flanking out of trouble.
• 2) If you have played rebel enough you should know the rule number 1 of the rebel rulebook: Never, ever put your commander in a Nebulon B. Its cathastrophically easy to finish these in two turns in a several unexpected ways. These ships are meant to blow. Use them as baits. Not flagships.
• 3) Back to the old times. A whale is a realiable a cheap ship, best option here if youre going to treat it as a carrier with boosted comms + FCT from behind the line. Not a front liner for sure. MC80... meh I just dont like to put 33% of my points in a single place. It's too obvious.
• 4) Your comparison between Demo and Admonition is funny. A realiable Admotnition for hit and run is around 15-20 points more expensive than a Demo, has less survivavility and less chances to actually deliver the punch. If able to hit, it has less damage output. Not mentioning that you will need either activation advantge and/or initiative to run this ship properly. If you want to put it in a MC30 do it better on a Foresight and keep it at distance. Still, too expensive.

Option1 is better for Rebels with an CR90 but not so much for imps and I tend to play imps. But even for Rebels it's still a risk putting the leader on a frail ship if you are planning to bring it into red range.

Option2 Never did like allowing my salvation to get shot up at close range as I tend to use it as a trailer not bait. Yavaris was always my Neb b of choice to lose.

option4 imp and rebel fast attack ships are different in style and play but the principe stands for both, I've seem leaders on MC30 torps admonition as it can get in and out safely if played properly. I'm not comparing the benefit of different ships just the type of ship different lists can place it's leader on.

You can still use a Hammerhead Torp Corvette or CR90B if you want to go for a lifeboat.

Irrelevant. My Admiral always goes in the largest ship on the fleet, because theme and history, hehe. Historically, a fleet flagship has always been the biggest ship available, and still mostly is. Same in Star Wars, per the movies. The one exception is the Pelta, and that was a specially modded command ship.

If I have several ships of the same size, I pick one, but my Admiral is going into combat, doggone it, and not skulking in the rear. Just the way I roll.....lol. And if he dies, well, the Empire appreciates his sacrifice.

1 minute ago, Darth Lupine said:

Irrelevant. My Admiral always goes in the largest ship on the fleet, because theme and history, hehe. Historically, a fleet flagship has always been the biggest ship available, and still mostly is. Same in Star Wars, per the movies. The one exception is the Pelta, and that was a specially modded command ship.

If I have several ships of the same size, I pick one, but my Admiral is going into combat, doggone it, and not skulking in the rear. Just the way I roll.....lol. And if he dies, well, the Empire appreciates his sacrifice.

I like mine in my Demo as its my most expensive ship, first into battle.....

5 minutes ago, Jondavies72 said:

I like mine in my Demo as its my most expensive ship, first into battle.....

When running two Gladiators I put Demo in one and the Admiral in the other, just to even the points. They are both going into the fire, often jointly. I don't believe in piece meal attacks!

I generally go for option 4 (sometimes to my detriment) - the likes of Mothma on a fully loaded MC30 makes a fine flagship, either Admo or Foresight plus suitable defensive officer makes them far tougher than their hull four would suggest.

Foresight.

I only run Ackbar.

Either that or Jaina is back in duty

20 minutes ago, Darth Lupine said:

When running two Gladiators I put Demo in one and the Admiral in the other, just to even the points. They are both going into the fire, often jointly. I don't believe in piece meal attacks!

I can see both options, for me I like to be able to work to keep one ship alive and use others as potential sacrifices if needed. There is nothing worse than having to choose between saving Demo or your admiral.....then again losing demo and your leader at the same time also sucks eggs..... You takes your choice and pays your money.

Look through the ships for Rebels

CR90 - cheap, speed 4, capable of scaring off small predators if rocking TRC.

Hammerhead - if for some reason those 3 points saved compared to the cheap CR90 were critical, it's an almost strictly worse choice than a CR90

Pelta - I have a hard time for this as the flag. No ECM or redundant defense tokens. Typically already points-heavy for its durability due to command upgrades

Neb - This would be great if you could guarantee no flank attacks. So no

MC30 - Yeah. With titles, durable and fast enough.

AFmk2 - For the worlds list, this would be it. But it is my last choice unless the rest of my fleet is Nebs, Peltas, and flotillas.

MC80 Star/Battle - Maybe on an engine tech Liberty. Then you have a disturbingly mobile platform.

MC80 Command/Assault - Yeah. My standard and a safe bet.

So to me, Rebels have 3 ideal options to me and 3 tolerable ones out of 9 ships.

For Imps, I think the best platforms are Raiders, Arqs, ISDs with GSD and Interdictors being tolerable alternatives in a pinch. I just don't see VSDs or Quasars being a good call outside of baiting an opponent.

When you bring them, I think both factions have the heavy option down. The ISD and MC80 are both excellent command ships.

Other than that:

Imps -

Raiders can be good lifeboat and flotilla hunters. With relay still here, there will still be fleets that use and abuse it that can be hunted down.

Arquitens can be a decent command ship. With defensive retrofits it is actually pretty survivable, especially since they want to stay at range.

Glads make decent command ships, but i'd never put my commander on Demo. Demo dies way to often and is in the think of the fight always.

Interdictor - Yes especially with Tua

VSD - Yes Especially with Tua.

Quasar - I don't think so. These don't have the defense tokens to stay alive.

Nothing has really changed for me, I've run my admiral in the lifeboat before, but I've had him on my Liberty or Guppy and even a Vette more times than my transports just based on my fleet makeup.

I've always felt the transport should do more than lifeboat, so I'm a big proponent of slicer tools or BCC, squadron controllers, etc.

Well.. I didn't put my Admiral on a lifeboat for some time, as I expected lifeboat hunters to be really prevalent in the meta.

In my recent fleets I put admiral on a Raider, Christmas tree ISD, ET Interdictor and ET Arquittens and feel that all these options are good for a right fleet. I'm really impressed with command Arquittens and expect to see them to become one of the most common Admiral flagships going forward.

I would be sceptical about the use of Light Cruiser Arquittens (as it's too predictable and is not fast enough) or VSD (as it's too slow). However I can see VSD as a working solutions in some types of fleets for points-balancing purposes.

Light Cruiser Arquitens are good with Jerjerrod. But with any other admiral they are, indeed, too predictable.

As an imperial only player, my commander is almost always on a electronic countermeasure ISD. If I'm not running an ISD, I'll put him on the tankiest alternative. I never had success placing him on a riskier small ship like the Arquittens or Gladiator.

Forget using a raider for that too. Too expensive to serve as a lifeboat and it dies when being looked at.

Jaina's Light has always been my flagship.

The beast is my choice. That super ISD already costs 150, who cares if it is not 180, come at me.

With the list I favor running, my Admiral will be going on my rear guard, which just so happens to be an ISD1. It's protected on the approach, and is my normal follow on attack vessel., if it's not on rear guard, it's assaulting a weak flank at high speed to cut off escape routes by positioning.

34 minutes ago, Destraa said:

With the list I favor running, my Admiral will be going on my rear guard, which just so happens to be an ISD1. It's protected on the approach, and is my normal follow on attack vessel., if it's not on rear guard, it's assaulting a weak flank at high speed to cut off escape routes by positioning.

Or getting decoyed off target by Insidious....??????

I'm a fan of tossing my Admiral into a tanky Interdictor, and simply forgetting about his safety - as he is now Defended. I have yet to have it destroyed, it's simply a big dumb object that can be entirely too frustrating to actually kill