The great thing about this game is the huge amount of variation and customisation available in builds. I know the the Tie Advanced is over priced for what it brings to the table but some of the fun in playing casually is trying things out.

Here is a squad I'm thinking of runnning over the weekend and the only non negotiable is that it MUST include Vader Tie/Adv. As yet I have no wave 4 stuff and 1 Firespray, 1 shuttle, 1 bomber, 6 ties and 4 interceptors.

Darth Vader tie/adv - 29

Expert handling 3

Concussion missiles

BH with ion cannon and gunner

RGP with swarm or squad leader (for helping out the BH)

I've a couple of variants with low cost tie fighters in place of the RGP.

I've had a pit of success with vader, only lost a couple of tournaments to people running the last two world champ lists.

The list I have run was

Vader , swarm tactics and cluster missiles

2 RGP with PTL

nightbeast

With list list kept them all close on the first pass to maximise damage , I lost one game by 3 points to an imperial list whose green dice were hots as and ( fel with stealth device ate and passed 3&2 hits from vaders clusters 4 hits from a RGP, 3 hits from night beast and 3 hits from the other RGP , that was on the first pass ) then to a bigs walks the dogs list where on the first pass I killed bigs straight up and then rolled all blanks for my green dice when a rookie and b wing fired on vader and he went down , I then had the same sort of Luke with a RGP and nightbeast and was left with just a RGP against a rookie and b wing on full health and got them both down to 1 hull just from out manoeuvring them then clipped an asteroid and died.it was the only game I lost vader he's a tank.

Then I ran

Vader, cluster

Fet recon specialist

2x AP

I lost vader against the swarm when I tried to joust with them which as stupid but I had not played a swarm before, the other games I had not lost vader either.

Vader , expose, EU

Krasis , HLC, recon specialist

Backstabber

Basically Vader is a great tank but has little damage output. To increase his effectiveness is hard to not spend to much on. Expert handling is probably not the best bet on him as the only benefit is the removal a target lock and at that point others will probably not TL him and just focus. I think the new EPT that have just been released with wave 4 could be the go ( outmanoeuvre or predator ) as they buff his damage output while leaving you to use his actions to either tank or manoeuvre but expose can work just as well on vader as you don't have wave 4, do you have access to recon specialist as on Krasis I have found it to give fantastic results (3/4hits just about every time he fires), and backstabber is another threat people don't want to ignore. Try to flank with vader, as this list will have 3 distinctive threats that can work well to draw attention toward either one of them and leave them open to the others, if they turn to vader don't use expose just tank and hit them with backstabber and Krasis if they don't turn to vader , get him behind them use expose and go to town.