4. FLEETS AND SQUADRONS
Fleets are part of the strategic level of organization and you don’t see those on the map, all of them have Head Quarters on the imperial capital on Terra. You can have up to 9 fleets, each lead by an Admiral accompanied by a Vice Admiral. Each fleet has its own squadrons, modernizations, officers, etc. It’s best to not mix squadrons from different fleets in a military operation because of combat penalties.

Squadrons are the moving parts of your fleets. You see them on the map and can send to strengthen defence or conquer a system. Each squadron belongs to a certain fleet, its composition is determined by the fleet shipyard orders. Frequently squadrons have lower ship count than dictated by the fleet command due to combat loses.

To form a new squadron go to Fleet/Squadrons tab. A new squadron will appear on Terra and a suitable commanding officer will be selected from the fleet’s officer pool. The squadron will have no ships, you need to wait till new ones are constructed and send there (it’s done automatically). To speed this up you can use “Reorganize” option but it means some ships will be taken away from other squadrons.

To move a squadron click on it on the map (left mouse button), move the mouse over the destination system (you will see how many turn travel there will take) and click again (right mouse button). The squadron will change its icon to indicate the pending warp order. The next turn the squadron will enter warp and disappear from the galaxy then, after indicated number of turns passes, it will pop up on the destination system. To cancel the order just right click on the original planet. Note that you can’t change movement orders once the squadron enters warp.
Once a squadron is over an enemy planet it will engage all enemy squadrons there and all planetary defences. If victorious the Empire will control planet’s orbit and a ground invasion can start.

To change the composition of squadrons go to Fleet/Shipyard tab and select how many of what ship types should be in a squadron (all squadrons in a fleet are supposed to have identical composition and size, but it rarely happens because of combat loses). Those ships will be constructed over time. To speed this up you can increase the fleet’s priority, but it means squadrons of other fleets will get fewer new ships.

Ships are fully automated and are of no concern of yours. Those will move to their squadrons, return to the shipyard for repairs and so on. One thing worth keeping an eye on is the distance from the imperial capital (imperial communication range), the farther a squadron operates from imperial shipyards the longer ships will have to travel.
