Is it crazy to run,

PS1 Delta Squadron Pilot (30) Ion Cannon (3)

PS3 Sigma Squadron Pilot (25) Adv Cloaking Dev (4)

3x - Acd Pilots (36)

Or

2x Scim (16) Fletch Trop (2)

I hate only running three Ships. I feel like the defender can ion, the bombers can stress and the Phantom can flank, or run a mini swarm with the ability to flank and ion still.

X-wing has taught me, when you have more ships you have a better chance to win.

Yesnot for trying to increase your ship count but because ACD on a sigma means you just had your 2 agil 4 hp ship hammered by anything ps4 or higher before you shot ACD should only be used on Shadow+the uniques, Stygium Particle Accelerator can be used on any of them (almost 1000% on the Sigma and on the Shadow in either high PS environments or when trying to shave points, probably not as frequently on the unique pilots)

For the Rebels, it seems pretty obvious that HSF is the best build to nullify the Phantom. For the Empire, what do you run? I'm partial towards grabbing Rexler to mess with Han, not worrying too much about putting points into the Phantom (other than ACD), and then using... a shuttle with Vader? Some TIE fighters? I'm not sure.

I've tried a few empire lists. Basically, I am trying to find something that can reliably bring down falcons, but its hard to up the ship count when you have to take both Phantom & Defender. One of the lists I tried had Rexler and he sure was a beast. Unfortunately, He can't take a Falcon down all by himself, so he needs support. Flanking the phantom is also tricky...I'm starting to feel it might be better to keep everything in formation so you can concentrate your fire on the falcon more effectively. FWIW, my list was:

Brath w/ HLC & Predator

Sigma pilot w/ Intelligence Agent & Stygian Particle Crystal

2 Academy Pilots (for blocking mostly)

Its 99 pts and if I used it again, i would probably drop the intel agent to squeeze in FCS....phantom really seems to need it.

For Imperials I was thinking

Whisper-VI+ACD

Brath-Predator

Royal Guard Pilot

99pts, maybe drop the Royal down to a Saber to go to 98 because 6vs4 probably won't matter against a HSF build but gaining initiative against it with Whisper is crucial then you have Whisper and Brath pumping shots into the Falcon while the Interceptor tries to eliminate the z-95 and distract the E-wing

and against a non-HSF list well then it is just a matter of pump everything into the E-wing (most likely Corran loaded with Toys)

Something the Rebels need to be slightly concerned with is freak dice rolling, because potentially both of the Rebel Wave 4 Ships can be oneshotted as far away as range 3 by the Wave 4 Imperials(Phantom gets 3 hits and crit on the E-wing, and the Defender 2 hits and crit on the Z-95) or a lucky Bomber with proton bombs could take them out as well. Once again very low probability but anything could happen in a dice game