Imperial Squadron Groups

Time to get hip with the new Clone Wars kids and break out the example Imperial squadron groups into their own separate thing. This is also a good chance to update them to 1.5 compliance, which means a max of 4 aces for 400 points. This is going to result in a fair bit of changes to these examples given how ace-heavy a lot of 1.0 Imperial squad groups got at higher points values.

So fancy!

Going with our earlier definitions, I'll provide some example groups for Small Fighter Coverage (SFC), Medium Fighter Coverage (MFC), and Large Fighter Coverage (LFC).

Small Fighter Coverage (30-70 points)
At this small points investment level, most Imperial groups are looking to use their cheap anti-squad specialists to contest enemy squadron groups and shoot down bombers when possible. You won't typically have the kind of points available to have any good options against ships. The good news is you can stretch even an SFC group further than expected with Reserve Hangar Decks with your TIE Fighters and TIE Interceptors. Speaking of them, you'll see them a fair bit in this section and here and there even in more expensive groups. Please review my TIE Commandments in the TIE Fighter article for tips on how to use your fragile but fast dogfighting squads or else they're just gonna die 🙁.

Group A: Life is cheap
• 4 x TIE Fighter Squadron (32)
= 32 Points 

It's important to understand what you're getting here: the absolute bare minimum of squadron coverage. No more, no less. This will not perform miracles. It won't slow down a heavy squadron fleet for long at all, especially if you just run the TIE Fighters right into certain doom. What you get is 2 deployments for 32 points and the ability, if you're clever, to cause a little trouble before every last TIE Fighter dies. That's it. Ideally, your TIE Fighters should pounce on important squadrons with an eye towards taking out an important model or two and forcing the enemy squadron group to actually deal with them. You absolutely have to keep commanding them as early and as often as possible until they all become the flaming wreckage they were born to be or else this group will do nearly nothing of worth.

If you're willing to commit the extra points to upgrading all four TIE Fighters into TIE Interceptors (brings you up to 44 points) and a few Reserve Hangar Decks, this group becomes a fair bit more potent and persistent but at a higher points and opportunity cost. It's fun, though.

Group B: Aces high
• Mauler Mithel (15)
• Valen Rudor (13)
• Ciena Ree (17)
• Howlrunner (16)
= 61 Points

This is effectively the super deluxe version of the previous group, using all four of your ace slots on four fighter squadrons with scatter tokens to ensure maximum annoyance value. 

Group C: Howlrunner and friends
• Howlrunner (16)
• Saber Squadron (12)
• Black Squadron (9)
• 3 x TIE Interceptor Squadron (33)
= 70 Points

Your goal is to drown your opponent in blue anti-squadron dice with Howlrunner buffing both the regular attacks of your Interceptors but also the Counter attacks as well. Black Squadron is in to eat a shot (or two, if you're lucky) and die to prolong Howlrunner's life.

Medium Fighter Coverage (71-100 points)
MFC has traditionally been an awkward position for the Empire as their squadrons are overwhelmingly specialized in what they prefer to attack. If you take a little bit of everything to try to come out with a medium fighter group, you run the risk of hitting a heavy squadron player who blows through your meager fighters and helpless bombers or if you hit a light to no squads player, your fighters just kind of durdle around wishing they had something better to do than throw a pathetic blue die at ships while getting flakked. It's not altogether hopeless, mind you, but it does mean going MFC with Empire requires a careful build and a good answer to the question "why aren't I going for more squads or less squads?"

Group D: Friends to all
• Captain Jonus (16)
• Hondo Ohnaka (24)
• Maarek Stele (21)
• Colonel Jendon (20)
• 2 x TIE Fighter Squadron (16)
= 97 Points

All of the aces in this group can go after ships pretty well, being either bombers or allowing bombers another attack (Jendon). That said, Hondo and Maarek are also pretty respectable going after squads and Hondo offers you some shenanigans potential with his special rule. The TIE Fighters are in to round it out to six squads and they can get in some kicks early before they get vaporized and you're left with only needing to command 3 aces long-term (as Hondo is a Rogue, so it's optional there). Jonus is not mutli-role but what he brings to the table in MFC is you're not going nearly so hard on squads here as you are in an LFC group which leaves you enough points for some more combat ships, which Jonus is happy to buff. This group doesn't really need a Bomber Command Center either, and is happy enough without the extra logistical baggage.

Group E: Defender bender
• Maarek Stele (21)
• 4 x TIE Defender Squadron (64)
• Mauler Mithel (15)
= 100 Points

This group is pretty unoriginal, but it gets the job done. You're basically just spamming Defenders plus Maarek and Mauler. Defenders themselves aren't amazing against ships (one blue die Bomber is 0.75 average damage, just as good as a TIE Advanced) but they're fast and have high hull so they're not too worried about flak. It just means you need to look for nearly-dead ships to push over or you need to be persistent if you want Defenders to add up against a low- or no-squadron fleet. Basically, if you want to keep the number of moving parts to a minimum and focus more on anti-squad with an anti-ship backup plan, this group is for you.

Group E2: Defender Bender from a Gozanti Friender
• Maarek Stele (21)
• Darth Vader (25)
• Colonel Jendon (20)
• Tel Trevura (17)
= 83 points

This is a similar group to the one above, Group E, with the fact that it's cheaper and has 2 rogues/2 non rogues.  Fast, high hull, not worried about flak. Theoretically you can push this entire squad group with just a Gozanti throwing squad commands for a few rounds, which frees up your other ships to do what they want/need.  The anti-ship from Maarek and Vader is helpful, for sure, and the third attack from Jendon can cause some HURT on enemy ships.  However, you need to be cautious in anti-squad with this group as a focused attack on these squadrons may cause you some issues; only one escort squad protecting Vader can result in a dead Dark Lord of the Sith while you wait for the squadron phase to activate your Rogue(s).

Group F: Ruthless strategy
• Mauler Mithel (15)
• 3 x TIE Bomber Squadron (27)
• Zertik Strom (15)
• Tempest Squadron (13)
• Major Rhymer (16)
• TIE Advanced Squadron (12)
= 98 points

With eight squadrons in this group, it's not to be considered willy-nilly. It's also not exactly doing great against enemy squadrons, either. This group is specifically tailored for running a bomber-heavy mid-investment squadron group when you're leaning hard on Ruthless Strategists to melt enemy fighters if and when a dogfight happens. With 7 squadrons at 5 hull, you've got hull to spare if you need to eat your own for Ruthless Strategists. Mauler is tagging along to add in his splash damage as much as he can to help Ruthless flak kill enemies faster. Bomber Command Center is mandatory here.

Large Fighter Coverage (101-134 points)
Okay, here's the points level where you definitely need to care about bombing enemy ships so you'll need to devote at least 1/3 of your squadron points to bombers and maybe up to 1/2. Support upgrades like Chiraneau, Reserve Hangar Decks, and Boosted Comms become extremely helpful and should be strongly considered.

Group G: Ace ship hunters
• Maarek Stele (21)
• Morna Kee (27)
• Hondo Ohnaka (24)
• Colonel Jendon (20)
• 2 x TIE Interceptor Squadron (22)
• Saber Squadron (12)
• TIE Fighter Squadron (8)
= 134 Points

What we're looking at here is a group where all four aces are quite capable of going after ships (again, Jendon helps someone else but you get the idea) without any real need for help from Bomber Command Center. The generics are specialized against squadrons but that's fine (I'd also consider Reserve Hangar Decks if you can). Despite the fact that all the aces are good against ships, they can also throw down against squadrons pretty well (Morna less so but she's still all right), meaning the group is pretty flexible.

Group H: Deci-mates
• Morna Kee (27)
• 2 x VT-49 Decimator (44)
• Ciena Ree (17)
• Mauler Mithel (15)
• Valen Rudor (13)
• 2 x TIE Fighter Squadron (16)
= 132 Points

We went the opposite direction here, focusing most of our ace slots on cheap efficient fighter aces and counting on Morna Kee and a pair of Decimators to get our anti-ship damage in and help against squads when necessary. The big upside of a group like this is even though we have 8 squadrons, 3 of them are Rogues: the squad command burden is relatively light. It also doesn't request Bomber Command Center, as there are no bombers, just squads that roll 3 dice against ships.

Group I: The dirty dozen
• 6 x TIE Bomber Squadron (54)
• Dengar (20)
• Howlrunner (16)
• 4 x TIE Interceptor Squadron (44)
= 134 Points 

Okay, let's be clear: this build is... it's a lot. It's a dozen squadrons. This is for only the most determined and insane carrier fleet. That said, you've got 6 bomber squadrons and 6 fighter squadrons and Howlrunner and Dengar are teaming up to make the Interceptors 5 blue dice on the attack and Counter 4, both with a Swarm reroll. This build really wants additional outside support - not just lots of squad commands but also Bomber Command Center, Ruthless Strategists, and Reserve Hangar Decks. Ideally you're prioritizing which squads need commands at the given stage of the game: it's going to be tough to make a fleet that can actually command a dozen squadrons consistently. Generally fighters get priority early and bombers once you've cleared a lane. Squads will die so the command burden will decrease over time.

You can tone this insanity down a notch by replacing the 6 TIE Bomber squadrons with 3 Firesprays. You lose the synergy with Ruthless Strategists and your anti-ship damage goes down but you get down to only 6 squadrons that need commanding, which is easier on your ships.