Squadron Keywords

Each squadron has one or more keywords with matching keyword icons. Each keyword produces the following effect for that squadron:

Adept X: While attacking, you may reroll up to X dice.
AI: Battery X and AI: Anti-Sqadron X: While attacking with the indicated armament(s), if you are activated by a Squadron Command, you may add X dice to your attack pool of a color or colors that are already in your attack pool.
Assault: While attacking a ship, you may spend 1 die with a Hit icon. If you do, the defender gains 1 raid token of your choice.
Bomber: While attacking a ship, each of your Crit icons adds 1 damage to the damage total and you can resolve a critical effect.
Cloak: At the end of the Squadron Phase, you may move up to distance 1, even if you are engaged.
Counter X: After a squadron performs a non-Counter attack against you, you may attack that squadron with an anti-squadron armament of blue dice equal to X, even if you are destroyed.
Dodge X: While you are defending against a squadron, during the “Spend Defense Tokens” step, you may choose X dice to be rerolled.
Escort: Squadrons you are engaged with cannot attack squadrons that lack Escort unless performing a Counter attack.
Grit: You are not prevented from moving while you are engaged by only 1 squadron.
- A squadron with grit is prevented from moving while engaged with multiple squadrons if at least 1 of those squadrons lacks Heavy.
Heavy: You do not prevent engaged squadrons from attacking ships or moving.
Intel: While a friendly squadron is at distance 1 of you, it has Grit.
Relay X: When a friendly ship resolves a Squadron Command, if you are in range to be activated, up to X of the squadrons it activates can be at distance 1-3 of you.
Rogue: You can move and attack during the Squadron Phase (in any order).
Scout: While deploying fleets, you can be placed outside of deployment zones and do not need to be at distance 1-2 of a friendly ship, but must be placed beyond distance 1-5 of enemy ships or squadrons.
Screen: While you are defending against a squadron, for each other friendly squadron the attacker is engaged with that lacks Screen, up to 3, you gain Dodge 1.
Snipe X: You can attack squadrons at distance 2 with an anti-squadron armament of blue dice equal to X. This attack ignores the Counter keyword.
- A Snipe attack can be modified by effects that modify a standard attack, such as the Swarm keyword.
- A squadron with Snipe that is engaged with a squadron with Escort cannot perform a Snipe attack against another squadron that lacks Escort.
Strategic: When you end your movement at distance 1 of 1 or more objective tokens, you may move one of those tokens so that it is at distance 1 of you.
- A squadron with Strategic cannot move objective tokens that are assigned to a ship.
Swarm: While attacking a squadron engaged with another squadron, you may reroll one die.
- A Counter attack can be modified by effects that modify a standard attack, such as the Swarm keyword.
Keywords with a numerical value (an "X" value) are cumulative with themselves. If a squadron that has a numerical-value keyword gains that keyword again through an effect, that keyword’s total value is the sum of the value the squadron already had and the value gained.
- Example: a Delta-7 Aethersprite squadron has the adept 1 keyword. That squadron gains adept 1 again from another effect. That squadron now has adept 2 for the duration of that effect.
Keyword text on squadron cards is reminder text. The reminder text is not an exhaustive description of the rules for a keyword. If reminder text contradicts that keyword’s rules found in this Rules Reference, the Rules Reference takes precedence ^[1].

FAQ

Q: How does the squadron keyword Bomber work?

A: When a squadron with Bomber attacks a ship, it can resolve the standard critical effect before totaling damage if it has at least one critical hit result. To determine the total damage of an attack against a ship, it sums the number of hit and crit results instead of only the hit results.

Q: When a squadron with Counter performs its Counter attack, can it resolve abilities that affect an attack?

A: Yes. A Counter attack functions just like a normal attack, except that the dice gathered for the attack are indicated by the squadron's Counter value instead of its anti-squadron armament. They can be affected by the Swarm keyword, Howlrunner's ability, etc.

Q: Can a squadron with Rogue move and attack in either order when it activates during the Squadron Phase?

A: Yes.

Q: Is a squadron with Grit prevented from moving while engaged with two squadrons, one with Heavy and one without Heavy?

A: Yes.

Q: Can a squadron with Strategic move objective tokens that are assigned to a ship?

A: No.

Q: If a squadron with Snipe is engaged and another squadron is at distance 2, can it attack the squadron at distance 2?

A: Yes. However, if the squadron with Snipe is engaged with a squadron with Escort, it cannot attack another squadron that lacks Escort.

Q: Does a squadron with Relay need to be at close-medium range of the ship that is activating squadrons so that those squadrons can activate?

A: Yes. The relay squadron must be in range to be activated by that ship, but that ship's squadron activation range can also be affected by other effects, such as Boosted Comms.

Q: Can a card effect or a squadron with Strategic move objective tokens to or from a position where they are overlapped by a ship?

A: Yes. If necessary, that ship's owner may mark that ship's position and lift it out of the way, then return it after the token is moved.

^[2]

#ffg Rules Reference Guide 1.5 Page 19-20 ↩︎
#ffg Rules Reference Guide 1.5 Page 34 ↩︎