NAVIGATION | PRIORITIES & INITIATIVES | ACTIVATING TECHNOLOGY | FORMATIONS | FORMATION EDITOR
Squadrons
Squadrons make it easy for you to manage large numbers of ships. A squadron is created by joining two or more ships together as a team. Each squadron can have a name which will appear in Star Command with the ships in that squadron grouped below it.Squadron management is primarily for the purpose of arranging ships into formations, moving those ships as a group across the galaxy and for setting initiatives and priorities quickly and easily.
NAVIGATION
All navigation orders revolve around a squadron leader which can be any single ship in the squadron. The leader is only important when a new navigation order is given - at which point you can pick any ship in the squadron to be the leader.
When you issue a navigation order, you are really telling the leader ship to go to the specific coordinates you provide. The other ships in the squadron either 1) keep their relative distances from the lead ship or 2) align to a new formation based on where the leader will end up at the completion of the navigation cycle.
Note! By default, ships in a squadron keep their relative distances from the squadron leader. Always pick a formation - like Random & Scattered - if you want widely scattered ships to converge nearby one another.
When navigating to a point, your squadron has several different options for how fast they will arrive. Based on your strategy, pick the best one:
Expedient Arrival - All ships go at maximum speed and may arrive at different times.
Synchronized Arrival - Based on the maximum speed of each of your ships at the time the order is given, your fastest ships may wait one or more rounds before beginning their flight so that all ships will arrive at the same moment.
Escort Slowest Ship - Based on the slowest ship in the squadron at the time the order is given, your fastest ships will only fly as fast as the slowest ship in the squadron. This allows the squadron to move together and arrive together.
PRIORITIES & INITIATIVES
You can also use the squadron management page to reassign the priorities and initiatives of all of the ships in the squadron. This works just like it does if you were assigning it on an individual basis with one exception.
If your squadron contains both armed and unarmed ships (those without weapons) only the armed ships will be able to receive priorities and initiatives related to destroying and conquering. Unarmed ships will pretty much ignore the priorities and initiatives you set.
ACTIVATING TECHNOLOGY
Finally, you can use the squadron management page to activate or deactivate technology systems installed on each of the ships in the squadron. This, like priorities and initiatives, works exactly as it does on a single ship basis. The technology you select will either be activated or deactivated depending on the settings you pick.
Note! Only technology that is installed on every ship in the squadron can be activated or deactivated at the squadron level.
Formations position your ships in a particular shape with respect to the lead ship. There are a variety of common formations which are available to all races and these are detailed below. You can create your own formations using the Formation Editor if you would like something more advanced.
Depending on the size of your squadron, you will have access to different formations. Each formation has a minimum and maximum number of ships supported by that formation - so if you squadron is too small or too large, certain formations will not be available.
RANDOM & SCATTERED
Random & Scattered - Any number of ships
This formation is always available - regardless of your squadron size. This formation is totally random - your ships scatter with respect to the lead ship. The distance from the lead ship is entirely dependent on the size of the squadron. The more ships you have, the more likely the formation produced will be larger.This is a common formation if you just want to invade a solar system without a specific tactical strategy in mind.
These formations create squares of various sizes. Each of these formations require at least four ships - the lead ships is always in the upper-left corner and the first three ships in the squadron are assigned to the other three corners. Remaining ships are arranged around the edges of the box.
These formations create circles of various sizes. The tactical advantage of these formations is that the lead ship is protected inside of a ring of outer ships. The lead ship could activate an area-effect technology such as a Targeting Matrix and the otter ships would receive the benefit while protecting the lead ship.
Small Circle - 9 to 13 ships. | 
Large Circle - 9 to 17 ships. |
Line formations arrange all the ships in your squadron in a perfect vertical or horizontal line. The lead ship is placed in the center of the line and all of the other ships are placed alternating either up and down or left and right to form the straight line. These formations require at least three ships.
Vertical Line - 3 to 11 ships.
Horizontal Line - 3 to 11 ships.
You can gain significant tactical advantage when you have a proper formation when engaging an enemy fleet. The Formation Editor allows you to create your own custom formations for your fleets - giving you total control over where ships end up positioned. Formations are created in three steps:
- Position the lead ship
- Position required ships with respect to the leader's position
- Position optional ships with respect to the leader's position
When you open the Formation Editor, you are presented with a massive 15x15 grid which is the canvas you will create your custom squadron on. The Formation Editor guides you through the process and paints the completed formation as you proceed. Upon completion, you name your formation and it will be available to your race until the end of the game.
STEP 1: POSITION THE LEAD SHIP
The ships in all formations are positioned with respect to the lead ship. The first step in creating a new formation is to place the lead ship somewhere on the 15x15 grid.
STEP 2: REQUIRED SHIPS
The ships you position in this phase determine the minimum number of ships required before this formation will be listed for a squadron. For example, if you position five additional ships, then (including the leader) this formation will require a minimum of six ships in the squadron before this formation will be an option. Position as many ships as you would like anywhere on the grid.
STEP 3: OPTIONAL SHIPS
The ships you position in this final phase represent any additional, optional ships this formation can support. These positions are not required to be filled but will be filled if additional ships are available in the squadron.
COMPLETED FORMATION
After the formation was applied to a squadron, you can see that the ships line up as expected. Since there were only enough ships to fill in the required spaces, none of the optional spaces have a ship at this point. Adding additional ships to the squadron and re-applying the formation would solve that.
SQUADRONS | NAVIGATION | PRIORITIES & INITIATIVES | ACTIVATING TECHNOLOGY | FORMATIONS | FORMATION EDITOR
