Armada possible 2.0 fixes?

So, following the huge let down of the HYperspace report, I've basically just stayed away from Armada.  The fact the FFG has continued to keep under wraps "something big", has further hlped spur my lack of interest lately.  However, a recent thread on the Forums speculating about changes people would like to see in a Armada 2.0 got me thinking as to what my wish list would be. 

I honestly don't think there are any ships that need drastic overhauls, barring the Vic 1.  Which, I think could be fixed by releasing a similar App like they have with XWing 2.0 to give a quick point redo for it.  It seems like if it was more aggressively priced like a Quasar there is at least an argument to bring it as a battle carrier.  The AFMk2 A could also use a point reduction, so there is at least some choice between it and the B variant for general usage.  The Assault Pelta could likely use a Weapons team, maybe at the expense of the support team slot.  These though are some minor tweaks, because I dont think the Ships in Armada are in a bad spot really.  Most are well balanced and can see at least some play.  I also think the flotilla changes cleaned up the big issue with activation spam that was starting to drive the game towards a very bland spot.

There are several  ideas in the thread that I found intriguing, the ones about changing some of the squadron commands were the best.  Allowing ships to activate up to their native squad -1 every turn without command would be a way to boost some of the battle carriers that need some help.  It however I think really diminishes the value of Thrawn, and then of the Quasar and Pelta, ships that really want to be just pushing squads all day.  Changing the squadron play during the squad phase I think would be interesting.  The suggestion had been allow move and shoot during squad phase, but just at half speed.  It would still allow full speed move and shoot during a command activation.  This idea has traction really, because if FFG then allowed Rogues to still move at full speed in squadron phase their value moves up again. 

The biggest change I would like to see besides getting the app to do quick card re-costing, would be a re-balance with fighters.  The biggest issues I have with the current fighter framework are just how much more cost efficient they are against Capital ships, how pervasive full Ace lists are, and how there is a pretty stark dichotomy between min and max squad builds.  As to the first point, fighters occupy a special niche when engaging capital ships.  They perform the same ping style damage MSU lists enjoy, but can typically cause more damage over an activation than MSU lists can thanks to the multitude of re-roll options they have and the ability to hit more vulnerable arcs consistently.  This, along with small based ships high vulnerability to ping damage has helped push MSU out of most competitive areas.  One quick fix I see is making ships able to fight off fighters a bit more effectively. By making crits count as damage, I think we now would see some real hesitation to simply take max fighter builds and throw them at large based ships with no real second thought.  Its also a bit more thematic, when you see squads being removed and largely aces escaping the fight in the end. 

This solution though might exacerbate my second issue, Max Ace lists though.  World's and many other tournaments have been largely dominated by max Ace lists on both sides, with Rieekan and Sloane fueling both.  I hate hard limits placed on list building, but it might be time to experiment with restricting lists to 4 unique squadrons to help the imbalance as they did with flotillas.  The final piece to the puzzle is to somehow re-strengthen the middle fighter group capability.  I think the Ace restriction actually strengthens the case for taking the four aces and a couple of generics to sit at around 80-100 points, because the overall composition is now much more level to max builds that fill out with generics.   Likely, either of these changes I do think helps out the game by large margins to reduce the overall time with squads and helping to re-balance from pure ace lists since they face more danger from flak and become less efficient, or from just not being so prominent.

Overall Armada doesnt need a huge re-boot to contineu its success, just some small tweaks to help move the game along and increase the efficiency of several lists.