I had an interesting discussion with a local player about the idea of having a couple of squadron types that could take upgrades. In the discussion we talked about how the Y-wings in Rogue One basically dropped an Overload Pulse on the Imperial class they disabled, yet one movie later, in A New Hope, that same squadron was seen participating in the trench run equipped with Proton Torpedoes . We talked about how it would be interesting to give a squadron or two on each side access to some of the Ordnance, Ion, or Turbo Laser upgrades.

We decided the squadron should have an extremely high base cost, as the ability to take an upgrade card would be extremely valuable in game. We also decided that the squadron should be very focused. For example, it would have good bomber stats but very basic dice to really help in against squads. The squad we developed is very similar to the H-6 bomber already in the game except in cost. Taking away 1 hull and the keyword grit, but adding the ability to add either an ion or ordnance upgrade we made the base cost 9 points more.

This serves 2 functions. Firstly balance, since squadrons are not as restricted in terms of movement and keywords, compared to a small ship equipped with the same upgrade, they needed a high cost to add an edge of danger to losing them. Secondly spam prevention. At the base cost with no upgrades you can only stuff 5 into a fleet. Since their stats at base are worse than the H-6, it makes little sense to even try. However once equipped with an upgrade, say External Racks , or APT , they quickly gain value in higher numbers. This higher base cost prevents large spammy fleets of upgraded squads.

This is the card I made on Kuat Drive Yards to represent this idea. I chose the Y-Wing, but in reality there may be better squadrons.



I'd be interested to hear any thoughts or opinions on this idea!

Do we really need External Rack Y-wings?

Norra Wexley is basically ICB for squads when you compare the effect... That’s how they seem to work uogrades in.

18 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

Do we really need External Rack Y-wings?

Make Overload Pulse Great Again (for the first time).

If you thought Sloane Avenger was crazy, now you can do it without her!

I think squads are not needing help at all

7 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

Do we really need External Rack Y-wings?

What really get's me excited are these:



Cards I'd never really use on a ship because the only ships that can use them are either too fragile or need the slot for something better...

22 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

What really get's me excited are these:



Cards I'd never really use on a ship because the only ships that can use them are either too fragile or need the slot for something better...

On a potentially 35 point squadron?

4 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

On a potentially 35 point squadron?

Why not? Heck most builds locally are either 134 in squads or no squads, sounds fun to have just a couple specialized squads.

1 hour ago, Darth Sanguis said:

or need the slot for something better...

Still true on a squadron base.

1 hour ago, Darth Sanguis said:

What really get's me excited are these:



Cards I'd never really use on a ship because the only ships that can use them are either too fragile or need the slot for something better...

Just now, ovinomanc3r said:

Okay now where are the other 2?

1 minute ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Okay now where are the other 2?

Actually it is fun so I will see where I am able to go:

7 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Still true on a squadron base.

I would be curious to see what you mean. The turbolaser, ion, and ordnance slots are almost entirely committed to dice modification either by adding dice, adding crits or changing the effects of their defenses. Is there an upgrade that prioritizes more than the rest for each slot?

1 minute ago, ovinomanc3r said:

I mean, I get what you're saying. Many aces give you the chance to bring 1 of these effects to the field... that's dandy and also not what I asked. Nim brings one copy of NK-7 to squadron play, Luke brings 1 copy of APTS, Jonus brings one of H9s/HO now where are the other 2 or 3 squads that do the same thing per ace?

5 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I mean, I get what you're saying. Many aces give you the chance to bring 1 of these effects to the field... that's dandy and also not what I asked. Nim brings one copy of NK-7 to squadron play, Luke brings 1 copy of APTS, Jonus brings one of H9s/HO now where are the other 2 or 3 squads that do the same thing per ace?

Well I am not pro-let's-complicate-squadron-play-even-more. I think generics could need a boost of some kind though as it seems they are not the most popular but I usually tend to support the we-didn't-try-enough school of thinking.

1 minute ago, ovinomanc3r said:

Well I am not pro-let's-complicate-squadron-play-even-more. I think generics could need a boost of some kind though as it seems they are not the most popular but I usually tend to support the we-didn't-try-enough school of thinking.

I guess I just don't see squadron play as terribly complicated. It's all just range bands. With the right tools it goes pretty smoothly. At least for me.

4 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I guess I just don't see squadron play as terribly complicated. It's all just range bands. With the right tools it goes pretty smoothly. At least for me.

So this thread is just subtle spam, isn't it? ?

9 minutes ago, ovinomanc3r said:

So this thread is just subtle spam, isn't it? ?

I'M NOT SHAMELESSLY SELF PROMO- **ahem** I mean, no.

Jokes aside it was a neat discussion about the ability to run a cluster of squads with Overload Pulse instead of trying to rely on a raider or wasting an entire VSD, INT or ISD just for OP...

We expanded from there. I still like the idea, I don't think aces should be be the only access to the upgrades, they should just be the most efficient.

The last thing squadrons need is more variance and execution complication. Their use already doubles the time to play.

8 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I'M NOT SHAMELESSLY SELF PROMO- **ahem** I mean, no.

Jokes aside it was a neat discussion about the ability to run a cluster of squads with Overload Pulse instead of trying to rely on a raider or wasting an enter VSD, INT or ISD just for OP...

We expanded from there. I still like the idea, I don't think aces should be be the only access to the upgrades, they should just be the most efficient.

Ok, as long as you need new squadrons cards or/and an Armada 2.0 to make this work why not just create a keyword.

y-wing DS refit: basically an y-wing, maybe some stats changed, I dunno, and the keyword.

How about, no.

4 minutes ago, Thraug said:

The last thing squadrons need is more variance and execution complication. Their use already doubles the time to play. 

I honestly understand where this is coming from, but I'm not convinced it's 100% of the picture any more.

Locally we've had max squadron builds come out a bit more lately after wave 7 created a squadronless meta here. Heavy squadrons don't seem to be the cause. If anything, I'd say more ships seem to slow games more than the squadron play.

If anything, from what I've seen, it's a solid combination of player familiarity with their squads, the number of ship activations and number of squadron activations. We have a players that run 2 ISDs and full 134 and blow through games where others have 7 activations and either no or a small fighter compliment that takes the full allotted time in matches.

I like the idea, but almost a more general version of it, what I would like to see is a removal of all the keywords from all generic squadrons, and have them as potential upgrades - so a base TIE/f with no swam at 8 points, but add the "Swarm Upgrade Card" and now all your TIE/f have swarm. Make the upgrade card affect every generic squad it's attached too , (So if you're running 5 TIE/f at 40 points, adding Swarm to all 5) and have the upgrade card worth 9 or 10 points, effectively making the five TIE/f 10 points with the upgrade. Have the upgrades make sense, so TIE/f could be equipped with Swarm, and Escort, TIE/i get Counter 1-3 and Swarm, A-Wings with Counter 1, Counter 2, or maybe an expensive Snipe 2, , VCXs can get Relay 1 or 2, etc.

The more of one type of squad you have the more effective and cost efficient that particular upgrade will become. It would open up a lot of play without changing much.

11 minutes ago, ovinomanc3r said:

Ok, as long as you need new squadrons cards or/and an Armada 2.0 to make this work why not just create a keyword.

y-wing DS refit: basically an y-wing, maybe some stats changed, I dunno, and the keyword.

Not a bad idea