Imagine you are an imperial player.

Your star of the show consumes 46 points.

Leaving 54 points to beef the squad out.

Would you rather take:

A) Howlrunner + 3 Academies

B) 3 Alphas

Howlrunner + 3 Academies hands down.

Unless your 54 points is an extreme glass cannon, the Alphas are going to die almost instantly.

Firespray + Recon Spec

Night Beast

& 3 points to play with...

Depends on context, but typically I'd take Howlrunner.

Never ever discount the rage PS1 blockers can cause, heck being PS3 won me my last game thanks to some careful blocking.

... well the star could be like:

Krassis + HLC + Recon

Whisper + ACD + VI + Jammer + Gunner

Rexler + HLC + VI

etc.

Of your two options, definitely Howlrunner. You get two things out of that choice- good concentrated firepower and the possibility that your opponent will focus on the TIEs rather than your star ship.

How about option C:

2 Albino Space Cows and an Academy Pilot!

(yes, that is a serious suggestion)

Those Albino whales.......

You can hear the jaws music in the background as well right *looks for the white fin*

Howlrunner with 3 academies can be powerful however it does make Howlrunner a target if they can't reach the star of the show.

3 alphas although low in pilot skill are very fast. worst comes to worst you can use them as blockers for your star.

Howl+Academies make more sense, but 3 Alphas are much more fun to fly.