So I played my first real couple of matches tonight and didn't like my squad so the gears started turning and i came up with the following

Darth Vader - 29

Outmaneuver - 3

Engine Upgrade - 4

Colonel Vessery - 35

Veteran Instincts - 1

Cluster Missles - 4

Academy Pilot - 12

Academy Pilot - 12

I'm thinking of switching out engine upgrade and outmaneuver for predator and shield upgrade for the target locks and resiliency, please give me some opinions on what I should use and why...thanks in advance!

keep them. this is the best build i can imagine with these ships.

but you can try engine on vessery too.

I think the squad is quite weak, to be honest. 3/4 ships have only 2 attack die, and while Vessery is a beast, I dont like what you've got supporting him in this squad: He needs target locks from other players to use his ability and You've only got one other dude on the board - Vader, who can acquire target locks. I just realized how potent his ability is with cluster missiles, though as you get to re-roll both attacks after spending your target lock to fire the missiles, so long as the target has been TL'd by someone else. That's really interesting...

Vader, even with outmaneuver just doesn't hit nearly hard enough to justify your 36 points. I personally like Vader, and take it as a point of pride to try and include him in my imperial lists. What I've learned is that Vader is best used as a two-stage rocket. In the early game, he won't be targeted because he puts out such low damage, and can double stack his defensive maneuvers; the worst target to pick in a game is the guy who both doesnt offer a major threat, and is very hard to kill.

Then, in the late game, when Vader is the last ship on the board and the opponent must target him, he is extremely resilient, and since the opponent will likely have one or two ships left anyway, his offensive lackings start to decrease a little bit.

So, this means you want to keep Vader cheap and give him Squad Leader. Early game, Vader's main goal is to flank-harass and to hand out his second action to a harder-hitting ally. As the game transitions and his allies are dropped, you can stop giving away the actions to your allies and instead use them to turtle up as needed, or buff your relatively weak attack when you think you'll have a killing shot, or have dodged arcs.

So, try this:

Vader 29

Squad Leader 2

31

Colonel Vessery 35

35

Bounty hunter 33

33

99 points. Good synergy, both of your heavy hitters can get focus+target lock many rounds - Vader moves last, hands off an action to Bounty Hunter who target locks an opponent after focusing for his own action. Vessery focuses for his action, as long as he shoots at the ship BH target locked, he gets a defacto free target lock for that shot. It's almost like Vader gets to hand out TWO offensive actions to his buddies.

Though it only comprises itself of three ships - one of which has 2 attack dice, this list can do some very serious damage, especially to single targets. If Vessery and BH are both shooting the same guy, they both get TL+Focus shots with at least three dice. That can really hurt.

Also, all three ships are tough as nails - you've got three of the very toughest ships in the game. BH and Vessery will be targeted first, meaning Vader is nearly guaranteed to be your last ship on the board if it goes that far, and Vader is, in my opinion, one of the best ships for late game 1-on-1 dogfighting.

The squad certainly suffers against swarms, and doesn't do great against super-maneuverability lists, but it eats up a lot of the bread and butter lists most people play in non-competitive matches, and it's really fun to get some imperial action-stacking.

Here's a similar list, closer to what you originally posted, which retains Vessery's sweet trick with concussion missiles:

Vader

Squad Leader

Delta Squad

Vessery

Cluster missiles

100 points. I'm definitely going to give this one a try

If you have an interceptor, I'd play that over Vader. I just thought.. hey a list with vader is pretty cool, and perhaps you don't have an interceptor.

Cluster missles isn't worth the upgrade you can get for those 4 points. Backstabber is going to be much better if you are going for a flaking squad. Overall this list is going to only put out 7-8 attack dice per round and you are likely to face falcons and phantoms that can put a hurt on. It would take this list several turns to take down a fat falcon and they would have to be getting all 3 ships on a 360 firing ship every turn to be effective. That still leaves the 2-3 support ships out there too. I wouldn't put my money on this list vs a HSF list.

Thanks for all the help! You guys have thinking to just drop Vader(as much as it hurts lol)and run this list

Echo - 30

VI - 1

ACD - 4

FCS - 2

Colonel Vessery - 35

Cluster Missles - 4

Academy Pilot - 12

Academy Pilot - 12

100pts

Echo will do the same thing I wanted Vader to do with 2 additional attack dice, tell me what you guys think of this one