Ive been playing rebel nearly exclusively, and my buddy imperial. i think the part of this game ive enjoyed most has been creating good, synergistic lists.

ive really enjoyed playing with synergistic heavyweights like dutch, garven, biggs, cracken and etah. now that ive switched to imperials, im finding myself unable to really make balanced, satisfting lists like i can for rebels.

mainly, ive been drawn to defenders, firesprays, bombers and darth in the advanced. i have never flown a tie swarm of any respectable size, and ive had great success with the phantom, though i dont really enjoy flying it. ill get to that ship later.

for now, what can my fellow imperials suggest for mr to get a handle on the ships? I know i just. have to get used to them, its a matter of time.

but can someone share some general tips for setup and flying? I figure flanking is much more relevant to imperial players - how can i keep interceptors where they can hit hard and avoid being shot?

Any good starter list suggestions? Something resilient and hard hitting, forgiving of the mistakes i seem to keep making?

Thanks!

Its a little restricting to fly synergistic lists.

Practice with highest PS ships first or Royal Guard with PTL. Stay out of your opponent's firing arcs by considering where you expect your opponent will move, and try to be on the side of it, so that with a barrel roll or a boost you can get out of most of the arcs.

Its better to use both actions to get out of arc than it is to be in arc and take damage.

Its better in an untimed game to get out of arc and have no one shoot, than take damage.

Think about getting along the side of firing arcs.

2 wise men once said

"dont give into hate, that leads to the dark side"

"strong is Vader, mind what you have learned, save you it can"

"I find your lack of faith.... Disturbing"

Imperials don't focus on synergy like the rebels do, maneuvering and arc dodging is more their thing. Howlrunner and Jonus are obvious, depending on what they're supporting, and Vessary can utilize his squad mates' target locks. Vader with squad leader is nice but most don't use it. The shuttle has some support elements but they're not terribly useful in most lists. Black squadron TIEs with draw their fire are a cheap way to mittigate some damage.

The rules for synergy in Imperial Lists are fundamentally different because the synergy is not in card text (with obvious exceptions like Howlrunnner, Jonus, Vessery and the unique Lambdas) but in how you fly your lists; your special pilots (uniques and BSP, Saber, RGP) take advantage of what other ships provide in terms of positioning, blocking, redundancy and guiding enemy targeting.

Take the TIE Bomber for example:

It's synergy doesn't start and end with Jonus but even the humble Scimitar Sq. Pilot can give your entire list great boost; loaded with say Cluster Missiles they become a credible threat at 20 points (21 with Munitions Failsafe) which your enemy might not be able to ignore, or should not ignore. Keep the Bomber maneuvering slowly for a few turns, so the enemy has to come to you, and get other ships into a position from which they can "pounce" (with a 4/5 straight, 3 turn or 3 bank into the enemy side or rear) the enemy while they go for the Bomber.

... and as mentioned before, arc doging is premium (even for ships like the T/B, T/D or T/Adv who can tank a round of shooting).

This is someone else's list I don't want to steal credit:

Defender onyx

Defender onyx

Firespray mercenary with recon specialist

Ps 3 across the board but tanky with decent fire power and because of the k turn and rear arc of the firespray your opponents going to have a hell of a time staying out of your arcs.

Other wise as said before imperials are less about synergy and more about the flying, you have the agility to get behind rebels and stay there.

You want at least four tie fighters never underestimate the damage a mini swarm can do.

The majority of the smaller Imperial ships are very high risk/high reward. Low hull values but high agility value means that the TIE's rely on dice to be able to take hits, and you will see a single X-wing one-shot one of your fighters at range 3 through an asteroid at times.

The two main defences for most TIE's are either using their cheap cost to field superior numbers to mitigate their coin-toss vulnerability (the Academy TIE swarm with Howlrunner has been so consistently good at this ever since the game's launch it is still one of the top Imperial lists even as we're heading for wave 5) or arc dodging, which is the use of boost and barrel roll to stay out of the arc of the opponent entirely. However, arc-dodging is virtually useless against anything with a turret, making lists containing mostly interceptors risky bets in tournaments.

The shuttle is our swiss army knife. At 21 points with 5 hull and 5 shields, it's a cheap but sturdy ship. And with tons of upgrade slots, it can be equipped for a large variety of tasks. You can refer to this article to get a basic idea of what you can do with a shuttle.

... like win a nationals with a named one.

Pretty synergistic list to boot.