Welcome back to Special Modifications!
Han Solo once said he’d made a few “special modifications” to the Falcon. Some good, some bad, all of them interesting. That’s the spirit behind this new series: exploring nonstandard Armada. Not just fleet lists or tournament meta, but the underlying strings that hold the game together. What if the designers had pulled them differently? What might have worked better? What happens when you tinker with the system in ways it was never quite built for?
What Good are Snub-fighters Against That?
Before we tear into Rebel generics, we need to hit pause. Squadrons don’t exist in a vacuum — they’re inseparable from a handful of critical upgrade cards and keywords that shaped the entire squadron game. I wasn't going to address this directly, but when writing the other entries, I realized that without addressing these tools first, any rework risks sounding half-baked, or worse, confusing.
This post is about establishing the baseline: the three most important upgrades, the most warping keywords, and a quick look at the economics of generics. Once that foundation is set, we’ll have the language we need to start cutting and tuning.
The Big Three Upgrades
Yes, there are lots of upgrades that affect squadrons. But if you really boil it down, three cards tower above the rest:
Flight Controllers
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Currently: add 1 blue die to all friendly squadrons activated by this ship.
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Problem: rewards “ALL THE SQUADS AT ONCE” activations, where one carrier supercharges an entire wing, wipes out the opposition, and we're left wondering where the counterplay went.
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Fix: Cap at 3 squadrons per ship. This is consistent with modern design (see Sniper Ahsoka and other “max 3” caps). Now the card still rewards squadron commands, but encourages spreading activations across multiple ships instead of piling everything into one mega-activation.
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Currently: aura reroll for bombers.
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Problem: a patch for single-die bombers being underwhelming. It works, but it’s clunky, repetitive, and warps design space.
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Fix: Total redesign. BCC becomes a Weapons Team/Offensive Retrofit double-slot Modification. Instead of rerolls, it adds 1 blue die to up to 3 bombers commanded by that ship. Basically Flight Controllers, but for bombing.
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Effect: No more reroll spam. Bombers get a direct firepower boost, but only when actively commanded. Few ships can take both FC and BCC; the Quasar-II (and Rebel Requsant) can, but that’s fine — it’s a carrier by design. And since it can’t also pack Boosted Comms or Expanded Hangars, tradeoffs remain (well, the Rebel Reusant could, but that ship has other issues).
Boosted Comms
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Currently: cheap, near-mandatory aura extender.
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Problem: lets carriers sit at the back, issuing commands from safety.
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Fix: Becomes more expensive and “Comms only.” Partially to make ship tags an integrated part of the game, but also to encourage ships to work alongside squadrons rather than away from them, as was the case in the early days. Some ships, such as the Quasar and Munificent, will still play at standoff range, and that’s fine as it's part of their carrier identity.
There are other cards that are important, of course, there are, but I just wanted to touch upon the three I feel are the most game-warping.
Squadron Keywords
Keywords are the other half of the equation. Most are fine (Swarm, Escort, Counter). Others warp the game around them. Here are the ones we need to talk about:
AI
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Currently: “Add 1 die of a color you already have.”
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Problem: massively warps design space. A black-die droid bomber with AI? Instantly busted. Even the humble Vulture with AI is basically 1 blue + 2 black with Swarm out of the gate. Compare that to a TIE Fighter and… ouch.
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Fix: AI = Add 1 blue. Cleaner, safer, less abusive. I suppose AI was designed the way it is to differentiate it from other card effects, but it doesn't help the game. Make AI blue only, problem fixed.
Example: Let's assume the Hyena is still a 1 die red bomber with AI: Battery 1. Not it chucks 1 red + 1 blue, instead of 2 reds. More consistent, lower roof, works with the revised BCC without breaking the game (said BCC would for example fit the Providence DN version, and be capped at 3 squads per activation).
Rogue
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Currently: full activation in Squadron Phase, but also commandable by ships.
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Problem: too efficient. They “rogue last, then command first” with no counterplay in between. It’s why Rogues are everywhere.
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Fix: Rogues cannot be activated by squadron commands (Han would still be an exception since his card text overrides the general rules). They still act independently in the Squadron Phase, but no more "double-dipping". This makes them good, but no longer no-brainer auto-includes, and might even affect the price of some generic rogues.
Intel / Grit
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Grit is currently too weak. Allowing one move while engaged is fine, but it rarely comes up.
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Fix: Stackable Grit, up to 3. Suddenly multiple sources matter, and Intel becomes worth fielding again, even in the guise of multiple generics (which obviously need some rework themselves). Squadron fights loosen up, but don’t revert to the “no-counterplay” of old Intel.
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Alternative (not preferred): Grit = “may move even while engaged.” But this is dangerously close to old Intel, especially for fast squads, and I’d avoid it.
Dodge
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Currently: useless against flak. Which makes squadrons like the Delta-7 eternally overpriced.
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Fix: Dodge works against flak too. Suddenly it’s a real keyword, and priced squadrons can justify having it. (No, Deltakin doesn’t get to keep Dodge under this fix. Sorry.)
We could also discuss stuff like Assault (let CRITS be spent), Cloak (what about Dodge added to squads with Cloak?), and that damn Strategic, but let's do that separately as they don't impace the overall squad game to the same extent.
The Economics of Generics
A quick reminder of the numbers:
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400-point game = 134 squadron points max.
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In practice, most fleets bring 60–80 points of true generics, sometimes up to 100. Rarely the full 134.
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“Generiques” (uniques without defense tokens) blur the line — stronger than generics, not ace-capped, and often crowd out the true baseline.
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The ace cap (4) was bolted on because aces were too cheap compared to generics. Ideally, everything should be costed properly so no cap is needed. In practice, the cap is probably here to stay — but we design toward the ideal of a cap-less game.
And here’s the key point: generics need to be slightly cheaper.
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Mass is their value. They only shine when you can bring enough of them.
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Aces are better in small numbers; generics are better in bulk. But only if bulk is affordable.
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GAR and CIS proved this: better generics → more mass → healthier squadron game.
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In the 2022 VASSAL Fantasy League (450-point fleets, 150 squad cap, cheaper generics), people actually brought lots of generics. And they were good. Not broken, not oppressive — just viable through numbers.
What does “slightly cheaper” mean? Think of a Rebel Y-wing dropping from 10 to 9 points. Not a huge change, but if every generic across the board receives that same nudge, suddenly there’s room for more mass — enough to feel impactful. It’s about making squadrons worth taking in numbers, instead of as filler behind aces.
How Low Is Too Low?
One fair question: how cheap can squadrons go before things break?
Take the Z-95. It’s 7 points today, and it’s definitely not dominating. That tells us one of two things: either it needs to get better at the same price, or it can drop to 6 without causing issues. With only 3 hull and middling firepower, Z-95s live and die by mass. Even at 6, the sheer number of squad commands you’d need to keep them relevant acts as a built-in limiter.
What about TIE Fighters at 7 points? Same story. Fragile, dependent on commands, and only scary in a swarm. Cheap doesn’t automatically mean good — not when a single flak volley or squadron counterattack can wipe them out in chunks.
So while we need to be careful at the bottom end of the scale, there’s good reason to believe that 6–7 point generics wouldn’t break the game. If anything, they’d finally deliver on the fantasy of true swarms — overwhelming in numbers, but brittle and heavily reliant on carriers.
Where This Leaves Us
With upgrades streamlined, keywords clarified, and the economics of generics rebalanced, we now have the foundation we need.
The principle is simple:
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Generics get slightly cheaper across the board.
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Aces may get nudged upward in some cases, but the ace-vs-generic gap widens even without this.
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Carriers still matter, but they no longer supercharge “all the squads at once,” and we encourage the "combat carriers" to head into the thick of the action.
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Keywords open design space instead of closing it.
Next Up: We’ll finally put this to work by rebuilding the Rebel lineup from the ground up — starting with the most iconic fighter of all: the X-wing.
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