Definitive Imperial Squadrons Rankings

I've been taking forever to actually compile the votes and format this darn thing, but here's the definitive Steel Strategy Imperial Squadron Rankings.

Think we're wrong?  Argue about it in the on our discord.

Playing the Squadron Game: Squadron Task Forces

There's a bit of something I want to talk about that I think gets passed over in the squadron game, and that is the use of squadrons in groups larger than a single piece.  Specifically, I want to talk about the mentality of building a good fighter force as more than just "I need X number of points in anti-squadron" and think about "what can I effectively use" and "how will these squadrons work together to accomplish this mission?"  I know, easier said than done.

Theorizing a Rebel Pocket Carrier

I don't know about you, but I've been long frustrated by the lack of Flight Controller options for the Rebels. There's the AFII...and that's about it. The only other ship remotely capable of it is the Liberty with title onboard. I've tried it, but it is not the optimal use of the Liberty, which would much rather be using Navigate​ commands. In my never ending quest to use anything but the AFII, I've started looking toward the coming Hammerhead Corvette. Yes, you read that right. Don't you make that face at me.

It's always hard speculating on ships that haven't been fully spoiled. However, with the Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette we have quite a few known quantities. First, we know it has, at a minimum, a Weapons Team slot, an Offensive Retrofit slot, an Ordnance slot, and the usual Officer and Title slots. I'll ignore the Title slot for now because the only known title isn't of us for commanding squadrons. The first choice is, obviously, Flight Controllers in the Weapons Team slot. With a likely squadron value of 1, however, we need ways to command more squadrons. That makes the next choice easy: Expanded Hangars in the Offensive Retrofit slot. Squadron 2 still isn't the best use of points. You really want to be commanding at least 3 squadrons to make the Flight Controllers worthwhile. What you need for the final piece of the puzzle is tokens.

There are a few ways you could go. First up is the new Leia commander card. This is a simple solution that ensures that the Hammerhead will always be able to command 3 squadrons so long as the Aldeeranian princess has something to say about it. If her steep 38 point cost is too much for you, or you want a different commander, don't fret. There are a couple other options. A Comms Net flotilla will work just fine. It doesn't​ really save you points compared to Leia, but it does net you an extra activation. Finally, my preferred route is to take a Veteran Captain. The downside here is you only gain one extra use and then you're stuck at squadron 2. Still, two turns of adding a blue to 3 squadrons is significant. That's typically how quickly the squadron fight is decided.

Based on what we know about the Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette, I can't see it costing more than 37 points. Assuming that holds true and you go my preferred route (FC, EH, and Vet Cap), this will all likely cost you around 51 points or so. That's a pretty good price. An AFIIB with just Flight Controllers is 78 points and is only commanding one more squadron. A Liberty attempting to do 4 squadrons would cost well into the 100s. That means a carrier Hammerhead could potentially be very efficient. I would add External Racks to mine, making them a nice dual threat willing to work in at close range.

I can hear the arguments now: "Imperials could already do this with the Raider and they haven't." True, but Imperials already have two other effective platforms for Flight Controllers in the VSD and the ISD. Frankly, I'll never understand the hate for the VSD. It is the best Flight Controller platform in the game at the moment. Yes, that means it's often relegated to a carrier role, but at it's damned good at it. Baring a surprising point value, the Quasar will soon usurp that title with ease. The point is, Imperials don't need to even consider the Raider as a Flight Controller platform because they already have plenty of options. They aren't desperate like I am.

A lot is going to depend on the Nav chart. Like all carriers, the Hammerhead carrier would likely be too busy spamming the squadron command to Navigate. As a light ship with minimal shields and only 5 hull, the Hammerhead is perhaps more susceptible to this problem. I'll eventually go into the full list at a later date, but for now it is suffice to say I intend to pair it with my Lifeboat 2.0 concept Biggs talked about. I have to give full props to Shmitty for being the first to point it out, but Entrapment Formation's ability to adjust carrier speed cannot be undervalued

Squadron Keywords and You - How to Use Your Squadrons As Intended

A requested article from a new player and new reader, Brent Molnar!  Thanks for pointing out something that could be useful to the community and new players.  Today we will be talking about Keywords on our squadrons - the Black Text that tells you what they can do.  It gives a good bit of information on their role in the fleet, and what they should be doing.

Dancing with Dash and Rhymer - The Combat Air Patrol (CAP)

One thing that we have been seeing lately pop up in major tournaments is a sudden strong showing from Rhymerballs (Imperial) and YT-2400 spam (Rebel).  Today we are going to take a look at both of these archetypes for fighter cover, and discuss how to deal with them.

Building a Fleet - Squadron Composition in Wave 2

In our previous Squadron Composition article, we discussed how to build our lists with squadrons in Wave 1.  Well, Wave 2 brings us new toys, and new strategies necessary to work with and counter against those new squadrons.  Let's jump right in.

Commander's Guide - YV-666

Here's an odd one.  What is the point of an anti-fighter squadron that is hilariously slow and Heavy?  This is a question asked by the YV-666.  Let's see if we can find the answers, together.

Commander's Guide - Scurrg H-6

Coming down to the end of the squadrons, finally.  Time to talk about the final rebel squadron added in Wave 2, the Scurrg H-6, which has been lovingly nicknamed the "Silly Bomber" on the FFG forums.

Well, let's dive in.

Commander's Guide - Jumpmaster 5000

Continuing our discussion of Intel squadrons, it's the Jumpmaster 5000.   Not much to say, let's just jump right into it.

Commander's Guide - HWK-290

Having discussed the Big Names of the Rogues and Villains, and talking about the Rogue Generics, it's time to talk about the next set of fighters, with a new ability - Intel.  That's right, the next two articles for the Commander's Guide are going to be about the Rebel's HWK-290 and the Imperial's Jumpmaster 5000.

Today, we're talking about the Rebel's squadron.

Commander's Guide - Aggressor

Last time we talked about a 16 point rebel squadron with Rogue that has a role of hunting down enemy squadrons.  Well, much like with Wave 1, Wave 2 squadrons typically have an alternative squadron on the other faction.  So let's talk about the YT-2400's direct Imperial analogue, the Aggressor, and the named pilot for the squadron, IG-88.

Commander's Guide - YT-2400

Last time we talked about Squadrons for Rebels in Wave 2, we talked about the YT-1300 and Han Solo.  This time, we're going to talk about the "Han Solo Wannabe Hack" Dash Rendar and the YT-2400, the Rebel's first Rogue generic squadron.  Well, let's get to it.

Commander's Guide - Firespray-31

On Wednesday we talked about the rebel YT-1300 and Han Solo, so today we're going to discuss the Imperial Counterpart, the bounty hunter Boba Fett and the Firespray-31.

Commander's Guides - YT-1300

With Wave 2 hitting store shelves this week, it's time to start talking about Squadrons.  Yes, I know we haven't covered the MC30c yet, but frankly I want to actually spend some time playing with it and against it before I write about what it can do.

So today we'll start with the Rogues and Villains squadron pack, the first blister to contain both Rebel and Imperial parts, and talk about the iconic YT-1300 and it's named pilot Han Solo.

Obstacle Placement - Part 1 - Standard Obstacle Placement Objectives

By request, today we are going to discuss a frequently overlooked and honestly quite difficult topic - obstacle placement.  Now, we're just going to talk about normal obstacle placement, and not dive into more complicated obstacle based objectives like Minefields, Dangerous Territory, or Contested Outpost.  Hell, it doesn't even consider non-obstacle specific objectives like Hyperspace Assault or Firing Lanes.  Just where you want to place your obstacles to maximize your potential deployment and spoil your opponents.

What we will be working with.

Tournament Points and Winning - Part II - Squadrons?

The last time we looked at Tournament Points, we discussed why maximizing your points, and going for a 10-0 win would enable you to control your destiny in a tournament.  And we did so by looking at the winner of the US National's Tournament, the "GenCon Special" otherwise known as "VGGG".  We also looked at what a similar list would look like from a Rebel perspective.

To keep things simple for our calculations, we ignored squadrons from the equation all together.  No doubt, squadrons complicate matters.  They are worth nothing on the board if your list is tabled, and a viable strategy, popularized with the "GenCon Special" is to rush in at full speed and attempt to remove all enemy ships before your own are destroyed - against which squadrons are points that are not spent ensuring you have the hull left to survive a reckless attack.

But can squadrons be worked into the equation with the tournament points, and what would list with these squadrons look like?

Building a Fleet - Squadron Composition

Last time we covered general concepts in fleet building, but now it is time to dig into the details.  In this article we are going to be covering Squadron Composition for constructing a fleet - figuring out in what way the squadrons will compliment your ships and play style, what kind of squadrons you want to bring based on their role, and making it all come together for your finished list.

My apologies, I'm still in the middle of my move (everything is moved in, but Armada isn't unpacked and internet is installed later this week), so no pictures on the blog posts yet.

Edit:  With Wave 2 out, this article is slightly out of date.  Stay tuned for an update in a future article.

What Ships Will You Bring?

The most important decision for how many squadrons to bring are what kind of ships you are bringing for them to support.  Fighters work best when being supported by Capital ships through squadron commands, and the various ships have Squadron Values that determine how many of those squadrons they can reasonably support.  Let’s take a quick look at the different ships and see how many squadrons each one could reasonably command during an engagement:

Rebels:

CR90 Corvette – 1

Nebulon B Support - 1

Nebulon B Escort – 2

Assault Frigate MkIIA – 2

Assault Frigate MkIIB – 3

Assault Frigate MkIIB w/ Hangar Bay - 4

Imperials:

Gladiator Class Star Destroyer – 2

Victory Class Star Destroyer – 3

Victory Class Star Destroyer w/ Hanger Bay – 4

Everything else equal, the ships with higher squadron commands are the ones that could reasonably be though to be able to effectively make squadron commands on a regular basis.  There are, however, a few squadrons that work well independent of squadron commands, namely A-Wings, TIE Interceptors, and TIE Fighters, though all three of them do this in different ways and for different reasons.

“Unsupported” Squadrons

A-Wings and TIE Interceptors work because both have access to the COUNTER keyword, which allows them the ability to intercept other squadrons, particularly unescorted bombers, and deal damage on the bomber’s activation.  A-Wings are slightly better at this, having 4 hull to the TIE Interceptor’s 3, however Interceptors can be improved immensely by one key addition.

Because Interceptors have the SWARM ability, they can improve their COUNTER attack with rerolls if their attacker is also engaged with another ship.  This ship could be a second Interceptor, or a TIE Fighter that has also just engaged. 

The TIE Fighter, due to its inexpensive cost and the aforementioned SWARM boost to the Interceptor, make it a viable un-supported squadron as well.  Due to its cheap cost, the TIE Fighter can be used either to ensure a larger number of squadrons, giving you the option to go last during the squadron phase after your opponent has moved and activated all of their own squadrons; thus letting you engage enemy squadrons without fear of reprisal that turn, or attack any enemy that has already engaged you.  Finally, TIE Fighters can be used as sacrificial lambs, engaging high priority targets like Luke, Wedge, or B-Wing cover for a Nebulon B, making certain that while those ships will eliminate the TIE Fighter in short order, they won’t be using them against your higher value targets that turn.

What Will Your Squadrons Do?

Here, you have a decision to make regarding how your fleet is going to work.  What role are the Squadrons going to take, considering what ships you are bringing and what your own plan of attack is going to be?  Are you going to go with the intent on shooting down a bunch of your opponents fighters, to win the overall fighter duel and wind up with free points?  Are you going to launch a BOMBER attack on the enemy ships, adding your squadrons anti-ship battery to your own ship’s attacks?  Will you fly defensively, using your squadrons as a delaying force, keeping the enemy BOMBERs from your own ships?  Or will you protect your ships with a screen of BOMBERs, deterring an enemy ship that comes into close range?

There are a variety of options for how you will build an effective force of snubfighters, but for point values the roles are something like this for using the squadrons effectively:

BOMBER Attack – Max Points (~40% BOMBERs and ~60% Anti-Squadron) – This approach requires maximum numbers of carrier spec’d ships to establish squadron superiority and then send its bombers at the enemy ships it will be attacking for a one / two punch - for example a pair of AFIIs or a pair of VSDs.  The best combinations of squadrons for this role for the Rebels are X-Wings and A-Wings (both as an Anti-Squadron role and then to transition to bombers once the enemy is wiped out), with Y-Wings being the fast (relative to B-Wing) moving bombers.  For the Imperials, Major Rhymer lets you make the “Rhymer Ball” turning your squadrons into effectively a Medium Range shooting ship.  Aside from him, TIE Fighters and TIE Advanced make up the anti-squadron fighters (and can transition to fairly cost effective anti-ship squadrons once cover is eliminated) while TIE Bombers cover the heavy hitting.  Due to how many points are sunk into squadrons for this list, consider “Unsupported” ships to fill in the gaps and screen your flanks, like TIE Interceptors, lots of TIE Fighters, or A-Wings.  They can always be the recipients of Squadron commands if the needs arises or other squadrons drop to enemy fire.

For ship based support, you will want carrier spec’d ships all the way.  More activations means larger ships with hanger bays and flight controllers are needed, if you are going to take space superiority. 

Space Superiority – 50% to 70% Anti-Squadron and Interceptors – The Space Superiority role is all about taking out enemy squadrons.  The best fighters for this role are squadrons with large amounts of anti-squadron dice, and the ability to switch to an anti-ship role if the squadron fight is over faster than expected being a big plus.  X-Wings are the probably the best at this role, while TIE Fighters / Advanced and A-Wings are all good options as well, each having something that they aren’t particularly good at.  Interceptors work okay, though they are hurt by their low hull and poor anti-ship die if they have to serve in a pinch anti-ship roll.  Named Squadrons shine at this, with Darth Vader, Dutch, Soontir Fel, Wedge, Howlrunner and Mauler Mithel bringing considerable additional power to the mix.

For ship based support, you will also want carrier spec’d ships, though possibly not as many, for example one VSD1 spec'd as a carrier and a VSD2 built to murder enemy ships would be a reasonable build.  You may wind up having squadrons that are “unsupported” to tie down stragglers until your ball of death can catch up with them.  Going with named squadrons limits the number of ships you need support for.

Ship Escort – 30% to 50% Bombers, Interceptors to taste – The Ship Escort is usually seen with B-Wings keeping close quarters Imperial ships from closing into short range of Nebulon Bs or Assault Frigates.  There really isn’t a viable Imperial alternative to this, though.  This is especially effective with Yavaris and a double attack activation, allowing a pair of B-Wings to savage an enemy dumb enough to get that close with a total of 4 Blue and 4 Black dice.  Using A-Wings to screen the B-Wings from enemy fighters is almost certainly a part of the equation as well.

For ship based support, Yavaris is the biggest name on the list, though Gallant Haven is an option as well.  Flight Controllers can be useful if your bombers are engaged, though not necessary.  Adar Tallon can mean an extra attack for that B-Wing escort, and that can be an absolute deathblow.

Anti-Fighter Escort – 30%-50% Anti-Squadron – This build assumes you already have enough anti-ship capabilities, and just want a screen against enemy squadrons - for example, a VSD and two GSDs / or an AFII and a pair of NebBs.  In this case, you want to limit the amount of points you are giving up if the enemy brings a large fighter base, but still have enough to keep their bombers off of your ships.  TIE Fighters, A-Wings, TIE Interceptors (or Soontir Fel) with Advanced support works best in this scenario.  Tycho Celchu is also a good pick for his ability to lock down enemy squadrons and then run away once they are out of range of your ships.

Really, if you’re going this route you aren’t putting much down for ship support, though a timely squadron command can make all the difference.  Warlord / H9, Point Defense Reroute, or any of the 2 Dice Anti-Squadron ships can also help with this build.

No Squadrons – So, you went with a CR90 Corvette Swarm?  Consider this, an A-Wing flying with each Corvette would let you engage a Rhymer Ball, or the Corvette could use a banked squadron token to send the A-Wing to attack (and probably stick to) an enemy VSD or Nebulon B.  One command, banked until later, and the A-Wing is fine to go off and work its magic on its own after that, no further input required.

Bringing It All Together

So a quick summary of what squadrons you want to bring, and for what role:

X-Wings – Space Superiority / Secondary Bomber

Y-Wings – Bomber Attack

A-Wings – Interceptor & Escort / Secondary Space Superiority & Bomber

B-Wings – Ship Escort

TIE Fighter – Space Superiority & Anti-Squadron Escort / Secondary Interceptor / Emergency Bomber

TIE Interceptor – Interceptor (Bombers Only), Anti-Squadron Escort & Space Superiority

TIE Advanced – Support for TIE Interceptors / Secondary Bomber & Interceptor

TIE Bomber – Bomber Attack

Well, that is it for this round.  Let me know what you'd like to see for next time at the Steel Squadron HQ.  More advice for fleet building?  Covering more upgrade cards?  It's up to you to let your voice be heard!

Commander's Guide - B-Wing

This is it.  We've been working our way through the Squadrons, and we've finally reached the end.  After covering the rest of the Rebel Squadrons, we are finally on the last of them, the B-Wing.

The B-Wing makes an excellent backup for the Nebulon B Frigate.

 B-Wing

The B-Wing is the heaviest BOMBER of all squadrons, Rebel or Imperial.  Boasting an impressive 1 Blue / 1 Black for its anti-ship armament, it averages 1.75 damage per attack.  It also has a respectable 3 Blue anti-squadron attack and 5 hull.  Unfortunately it is also the most expensive squadron on either side, worth 14 points for the generic version.

The squadron also has one major Achilles heel, and that is its speed.  The squadron holds a speed of only 2, making it slower than the maximum speed of any of the Rebel ships or squadrons.  This makes the B-Wing best as a deterrent to enemy ships, flying along with the main Rebel line to match the Empire in close quarters damage output.

A pair of B-Wings flying with a Nebulon B Escort Frigate can not only keep it safe from enemy BOMBERs, but throw 1 Black and 1 Blue dice each at an enemy ship that pulls into close range.  What the B-Wings cannot do is go hunting themselves - their slow speed means that they won't outdistance your own ships.  At best you can direct them to where the opponent will go, and hope that they actually go there.

Keyan Farlander

Keyan manages to be an even better BOMBER than the generic B-Wing, sporting 2 Black dice for his anti-ship attack.  In addition to this, he has 2 Brace defense tokens to supplement his 5 hull.

What makes him even more of a terror is that if he is attacking a hull zone without shields, he can re-roll any number of his anti-ship dice.  That makes him by able o put up a consistent amount of damage on already damaged targets, setting up for a knockout punch.

Overall the B-Wing is a BOMBER and heavy hitter against ships.  But it isn't going to hunt them down, rather it punishes enemy ships that move into the wrong location without fighter support of their own.

And that is all for the Commander's Guide for now.  Next time we will finally start to get into the meat of list building, and since we just finished up with Squadrons, we will talk about how to fit squadrons into your list.  Stay tuned for next time!

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Commander's Guide - TIE Advanced

Well, we are almost at the end now, not very many squadrons to go and the Commander's Guide is about to wind to a close, at least until Wave 2 hits.  We are on now to the odd ducks of the fighter expansions, the two squadrons that really do not have a comparable analog on the other side of the fence.  Today, we will be talking about the Imperial red headed stepchild, the TIE Advanced.

TIE Advanced ESCORTs Soontir Fel's Interceptor Squadron

TIE Advanced

The TIE Advanced Squadron really has more in common with the Rebel X-Wing than the TIE Fighter does, aside from being the baseline for other squadrons.  The TIE Advanced has a similar cost (12 for the TIE Advanced and 13 for the X-Wing), similar average anti-ship attack (.75 average on 1 Black without BOMBER vs .75 average on 1 Red with BOMBER), and both come with the ESCORT keyword.  Arguably though, it is the TIE Advanced that can make the most use out of ESCORT, both from the stance of positioning and what it is protecting.

For the Rebels, the X-Wing is the most efficient "pure" squadron.  Without the COUNTER of the A-Wing to inflate its anti-squadron capabilities, the X-Wing is the best pure anti-squadron squadron per point that the rebels have, and the best by far if you factor in for the points you also wind up with a hull of 5.  Simply put, you don't really want your opponent to fire at your X-Wings, not while there are still enemy squadrons on the board, the Y-Wing has more hull, the A-Wing needs to be attacked for COUNTER to be useful, and the B-Wing is a border case.  Better to use the X-Wings to break up engagements - protect an A-Wing or B-Wing that is down to 1 hull.

The TIE Advanced though has a different role it can fill within the Imperial lists, protection of more valuable anti-squadron fighters.  The TIE Interceptor, while it does have COUNTER 2, is also 11 points for the enemy and only 3 hull to burn through, and 4 SWARM attack dice that the enemy wants to get off the board.  The TIE Fighter, is also a 3 hull squadron, and easy enough for even a generic X-Wing to swat out of the sky.  An Advanced escort can keep these squadrons in alive longer, to win the anti-air engagement.

The Advanced is even better when paired with Soontir Fel.  Suddenly the Imperial squadron with 5 hull has effectively been granted COUNTER 2 in terms of damage.  And more importantly Fel is free to save his defense tokens for anti-squadron fire from ships.

For other statistics, the Advanced comes with 3 Blue anti-squadron dice and 1 Black anti-shield die.  Speed 4 which allows it to keep up with the other TIEs, and keep close with a full speed Gladiator.

Darth Vader engages an enemy unique squadron.

Darth Vader

The Dark Lord of the Sith is the most expensive squadron for the Imperial forces, at 21 points.  For this, you get the best anti-squadron fighter in the game, with an average of 3.25 damage (Vader can use crits as hits, getting .75 average from his Blues, and 1.00 average from his Black die), and a maximum of 5 damage.  This means Vader can do some serious damage to high defense squadrons, and even put out a respectable amount of pain to named squadrons.

To keep himself alive, Vader has 2 Brace defense tokens in addition to the Advanced's 5 hull.  Vader also has 1 Black die for anti-ship, though with his special ability (criticals count as hits) he functions as a mini-BOMBER for purposes of anti-ship attacks.

Vader is definitely a bit of a one-trick pony, but he is especially good at his trick.


Overall, the TIE Advanced is an overall average squadron, who's big draw is the ESCORT ability and its exceptional hull value relative to Imperial squadrons.  But it is definitely one that you find a use for in your fleet - either Darth Vader's anti-squadron role, as a friend to your Interceptors, or as an all-around jack-of-all trades in an otherwise highly specialized Imperial fleet.

Well, that is it for this round.  Just one more to go, the Rebel's heavy BOMBER, the B-Wing.  Then we can get to the real fun - list building and strategy!

Commander's Guide - A-Wing

Well, we last talked about TIE Interceptor, so it's time to chat about the Rebel's interceptor, the A-Wing!

A-Wings keeping a TIE Bomber away from the Corvette.

A-Wing Squadron

The generic A-Wing, like the Imperial's TIE Interceptor, is an 11 point squadron, with the keyword COUNTER 2 and a speed of 5.  Unlike the TIE Interceptor squadron, the A-Wing doesn't have the SWARM keyword - and so does not benefit from rerolls when around other allied squadrons.

However, it does have one extra hull, and at 4 hull can maximize the number of COUNTER attacks it can make before it goes down.  For that extra hull though, it loses out on 1 Blue dice on its regular anti-squadron attack, giving it a total of 3 Blue dice.  With that and without SWARM, the A-Wing has less pure anti-squadron firepower on its activation compared to the TIE Interceptor.

The A-Wing is a better all around squadron though, as it boasts 1 Black die on anti-ship armament.  While it lacks the BOMBER keyword, it does still have 6/8 chance to do one damage per attack.  With the extra hull, it isn't as likely to drop against anti-squadron fire from enemy ships.  It is still the weakest of the Rebel squadrons for anti-ship attacks.

The A-Wing's best talent is engaging enemy bombers, which it can overwhelm with it's COUNTER attacks.  The A-Wing really shines with Gallant Haven and its COUNTER ability - because it takes less damage and its natural 4 hull, the A-Wing becomes the single most point efficient squadron in the game for anti-squadron power.

Tycho Celchu

Tycho maximizes the potential of the A-Wing as an interceptor, being able to move or attack ships, even when he is engaged.  Because he is impossible to lock down himself and with the A-Wing's natural speed of 5, Tycho's A-Wing can engage the most dangerous enemy squadron every turn.  And with both a Brace and a Scatter token - the only Rebel ship to have Scatter, he maximizes his COUNTER ability against any enemy that is engaged with him.

In this way, Tycho works best on his own, dividing your foes while your other squadrons engage a separate group.  If done right, you can have local superiority over the enemy, mop them up, and then turn to engage the group Tycho was already softening up.

Overall, the A-Wing is a balanced ship that relies on its speed and its COUNTER to engage enemy bombers and can participate in anti-ship fire when all opposing bombers are destroyed.  Not as good at anti-squadron attacks, or improved by non-A-Wing fighters working with it, the A-Wing functions best either as a homogeneous group, or as a small group of independent interceptors.

Well that is it for this round of the Commander's Guide.  Join us next time as we talk about the two red headed step children of the squadron families - the TIE Advanced and the B-Wing.