Fleet setup in Incursions

This page should be updated due to game changes.
Reason: Possible rewrite needed due to Ascension changes

Fleet Structure in Incursions

Below are a few examples of how you can setup the fleet. Remember that each command position unlocks the use of a booster, but is not limited to being the booster themselves.

Also if you assign someone other than the commander to be the booster, remember that you need to reset all booster roles below that for the chain to initiate correctly. So for example, everytime you set or change a Wing Booster, revoke and reset all Squad Boosters. If you change the Fleet Booster you'll have to reset everything else, Wing Boosters first, then all Squad Boosters.

Basic fleet supporting a single wing booster

Fleet structure	Description
Fleet (13) Fleet Commander (empty slot)	This is the basic fleet setup we use for our community. It offers good flexibility for additional support roles as well as convenient use of fleet functions. Two potential taggers. Ability to utilize the Wing Commander to warp the entire fleet. Squad and Wing Commanders can invite people to fleet, in addition to the waitlist manager who's the fleet boss. Booster won't automatically get boss if someone leaves. Everyone gets the wing boosts. Only requires one person with Wing Command II (Wing Commander) and another with Leadership V (Squad Commander of the ongrid squad). This setup can easily be expanded by putting a secondary booster in the Fleet Command position and add more squads to transition into an assault or headquarters fleet.
Wing (13) Wing Commander (warper and tagger)
Ongrid Squad (10) Squad Commander (tagger)
Squad Member (waitlist manager) Squad Members ...
Offgrid Squad (2) Squad Commander (scout/hacker)
Squad Member (wing booster) Squad Member (picket)

Fleet supporting multiple boosters

Fleet structure	Description
Fleet (25)  Fleet Commander (fleet booster)	By having a Fleet Commander you unlock the ability to give both Fleet and Wing Boosters to most of your fleet. This example is for a Nation Consolidation Network-capable fleet, but apart from the naming the same setup applies to any fleet as long as it stays within the limits of a single ongrid wing. The most common use of this is to have both a Siege/Skirmish booster (with the Republic Fleet Warfare Mindlink implant) as well as a Armour/Information booster (with the Imperial Navy Warfare Mindlink implant), so you can get perfect boosts for both. Preferably you put the Siege/Skirmish booster as your Wing Booster to make sure that everyone gets the defensive bonuses, then the Armour/Information booster in the Fleet Command position (remember that the Wing Commander won't get his boosts). More flexibility in adding multiple offgrid boosters. At least three people can be taggers. You retain the ability to utilize the Wing Commander to warp the entire fleet. Everyone but the Wing Commander will get the fleet boosts (bug, no way around it). Requires Fleet Command II on one person, Wing Command II on another and two people with Leadership V. The exact setup can be more flexible. If you have a damage dealer with Fleet Command II trained, you can assign anyone in the fleet to be the Fleet Booster for example. The second squad doesn't necessarily need to be a logistics squad either, and one of the boosters can easily be the Squad Commander for either squad. If you have someone with Wing Command III or IV trained, you can split up the squads even further. Move the scout/hacker into the main wing and remove the need for Fleet Command II. Keep logistics in a squad of their own, making it possible for them to warp independently. Move brawlers, snipers and strategic cruisers into separate squads. Minimum for a headquarter fleet would be Wing Command IV, as you'll need up to 40 people in the ongrid wing.
Ongrid Wing (23) Wing Commander (warper and tagger)
Battleship Squad (10) Squad Commander (tagger)
Squad Member (waitlist manager) Squad Members (snipers) Squad Members (brawlers)
Logistics/Cruiser Squad (10) Squad Commander (tagger)
Squad Member (wing booster) Squad Members (logistics) Squad Members (cruisers)
Offgrid Wing (1) Wing Commander (scout/hacker)
Offgrid Squad (1) Squad Commander (empty slot)
Squad Member (picket)

Fallback solution if you're lacking leadership

Fleet structure	Description
Fleet (25)  Fleet Commander (fleet booster)	If you lack people with Wing Command II or more, or simply cannot afford to let the Wing Commander lose the fleet boosts, you could always resort to sticking with a normal setup like this. Everyone receives boosts from both boosters (fleet booster is optional). Leadership III - IV is enough in vanguards, as you could split the fleet over two different squads (8 + 2 for dps and logi or 6 + 5) Leadership V needed on 2 - 4 people for assaults and headquarters. Limited to 10 people on grid and a single tagger in vanguards unless you use multiple squads. Each squad commander needs to warp their own squads.
Ongrid Wing (23)   Wing Commander (wing booster)
Ongrid Squad (10) Squad Commander (tagger)
Squad Members ...

Improving fleet efficiency

Gang links and utility modules offer tremendous effects for a fleet, easily capable of increasing efficiency for individual pilots or the entire fleet. Be that by pushing range of certain modules past a critical threshold to fleet-wide increases that allow you to operate effectively with fewer people, or simply be that much stronger with the people you already have.

Below are lists of skills required for and the effects of gang links, stacking penalties for webs and various utility modules and their effects.

Warfare Links

Gang links, or so called "warfare links", are immensely powerful modules that improves the efficiency of ever single ship that receives their boosts. The links themselves boosts anything from armour and shield defenses, efficiency of remote repairs, electronic warfare, propulsion modules, locking ranges to reducing the signature radius of ships and making them harder to jam.

The combination of several links can create very powerful effects, like making logistics capable of operating with twice the efficiency thanks to the boosts. The combination of increased resists, reduced signature, faster cycle times etc all adds up.

Even single links can be tremendously useful, like the skirmish link boosting web range making it possible to use webs efficiently, or the information warfare link increasing locking range thus giving most snipers enough locking range without fitting a single sensor booster.

Relevant skills

Below are the skills required to become an incursion booster. If you're only going to use one implant, it's enough to train just two of the specialization skills. The Fleet Command skills aren't strictly needed for one-boost setups, as you'll never be in the actual Wing Command position. But if you want to be use a two-boost setup one of the boosters will need to have those skills trained.

If you want to go for a truly perfect booster you'll need to train all four specialization skills as well as taking fleet command to V. You'll also need jump clones so you can setup the appropriate mindlink implant clones.

Warfare Gang Links	Command Ships	Warfare Mindlink implants	Fleet Command
Leadership V Armored Warfare V Information Warfare V Siege Warfare V Skirmish Warfare V <primary> Warfare Specialist V <secondary> Warfare Specialist V	Spaceship Command V <racial> Frigate III <racial> Destroyer III <racial> Cruiser III <racial> Battlecruisers V Command Ships V	Science III Cybernetics V <primary> Warfare Specialist V <secondary> Warfare Specialist V	Wing Command V Fleet Command II

Command Ships vs Strategic Cruisers

Below is a breakdown on the differences between running in Command Ships and Strategic Cruisers. Keep in mind that the Command Ships are slightly better than Strategic Cruisers and have a much easier time fitting 6-7 links while fielding a decent tank (to ward off suicide gankers).

The following will assume you have all the relevant skills trained to V and using tech two gang links, then show the difference between the various ships with or without (numbers in parenthesis) the appropriate mindlink implant. You can read more about warfare links and the details on the warfare links page.

Type of Ship	Skirmish Links		Armor/Siege Links		Practical effects (bonus with correct implant):
	Web range	Signature	Resists	Cycle & cap
Claymore (siege, skirmish) Astarte (armor, skirmish)	+27.6% (+34.5%)	-27.6% (-34.5%)	+20.7% (+25.88%)	-20.7% (-25.88%)	Federation webs go from 14km to 17.86 km (18.83 km). True Sansha webs go from 15 km to 19.14 km (20.18 km). Meta 4 reps go from 5 sec to 4 sec (3.7 sec). Tech 2 reps go from 4.5 to 3.6 sec (3.3 sec).
Damnation (armor, information) Vulture (siege, information)	+24% (+30%)	-24% (-30%)	+20.7% (+25.88%)	-20.7% (-25.88%)	Federation webs go from 14km to 17.36 km (18.20 km). True Sansha webs go from 15 km to 18.60 km (19.50 km). Meta 4 reps go from 5 sec to 4 sec (3.7 sec). Tech 2 reps go from 4.5 to 3.6 sec (3.3 sec).
Loki (skirmish, siege, armor) Legion (armor, information, skirmish) Tengu (siege, information, skirmish) Proteus (armor, skirmish, information)	+26.4% (+33%)	-26.4% (-33%)	+19.8% (+24.75%)	-19.8% (-24.75%)	Federation webs go from 14 km to 17.70 km (18.62 km). True Sansha webs go from 15 km to 18.96 km (19.95 km). Meta 4 reps go from 5 sec to 4 sec (3.8 sec). Tech 2 reps go from 4.5 to 3.6 sec (3.4 sec).

Bonused webs and stacking

The primary percentage is from using a 60% base reduction web, like the Federation Navy Stasis Webifier and the percentages in grey text is for 55% base reduction webs, like the True Sansha Stasis Webifier.

Velocity bonused ships like the Vindicator, or any of the Serpentis shiplines, have a 50% stronger reduction in speed. This leads to velocity reductions of 90% and 82,5% respectively for the two faction webs. The practical differences of different web types and bonuses are enormous.

Type of ship	Effective speed for webbed targets with stacking						Practical effects of multiple webs (Given a base speed of 1000 m/s)
	x 1	x 2	x 3	x 4	x 5	x 6
Vindicator	10,00% 17,50%	2,18% 4,95%	1,06% 2,62%	0,79% 2,01%	0,71% 1,83%	0,69% 1,79%	Federation reduce speed to 100, 22, 11 and 8 m/s. True Sansha reduce speed to 175, 50, 26 and 20 m/s.
Unbonused	40,00% 45,00%	19,14% 23,49%	12,59% 16,11%	10,45% 13,61%	9,78% 12,81%	9,61% 12,60%	Federation reduce speed to 400, 191, 126 and 104 m/s. True Sansha reduce speed to 450, 235, 161 and 136 m/s.

Due to stacking penalties it's impossible for a non-bonused ship to get anywhere near the same result as two bonused webs, no matter how many webs they use. And while the True Sansha variant on a bonused ship can match the power of two Federation webs, it too falls short and cannot possibly match three.

Remote tracking computers and sensor boosters

Both remote tracking computers and sensor boosters can be a tremendous asset to your fleet. See Anatomy of Incursions for more information about how best to spread these among your fleet members.

Remote tracking computers

Remote tracking computers are extremely useful to push the range on weapons or give battleships a much needed boost to their tracking. Worth noting is that a max skilled Scimitar pilot gets a 50% bonus to remote tracking computer efficiency and range, which combined with the stronger Shadow Serpentis or Federation Navy variants make quite a difference.

Remote tracking computers	Scripted			Unscripted			Type of module
	Tracking	Optimal	Falloff	Tracking	Optimal	Falloff
Scimitar	+52,5% +45%	+24% +22,5%	+48% +45%	+26,25% +22,5%	+12% +11,25%	+24% +22,5%	Shadow Serpentis or Federation Navy Remote Tracking Computer II
Unbonused	+35% +30%	+16% +15%	+32% +30%	+17,5% +15%	+8% +7,5%	+16% +15%	Shadow Serpentis or Federation Navy Remote Tracking Computer II

Remote sensor boosters

Remote sensor boosters aren't quite as good, but can still be useful to boost a battleship's scan resolution, allowing them to actually lock frigates in time or push targeting range for snipers. None of the ships used for incursions have a bonus to remote sensor boosters however.

Remote sensor boosters	Scripted		Unscripted
	Scan Resolution	Targeting Range	Scan Resolution	Targeting Range
Remote Sensor Booster II	+66%	+81%	+33%	+40,5%
F-23 Reciprocal Remote Sensor Booster	+64%	+76%	+32%	+38%

While stacking penalties apply to both these type of modules, their bonuses are higher than local modules, so they put themselves on top of the stacking hierarchy. So while the bonuses might not be as high as this table indicates, they are still very effective in boosting individual fleet members. The exception is when you have unscripted modules, then they end up last in the stacking hierarchy due to being lower than the local variant.