Ran this last weekend at my FLGS Escalation tournament. It did well seeing as it combined the 2 best things Imperials can run : Phantom and 7 TIE Swarm. Kept it 2 points under every round for Initiative bid.

Round 1 (58 points)

Whisper

Gunner

Advanced Cloaking Device

Sensor Jammer

Veteran Instinct

1x Academy Pilot

Round 2 (88 points)

Howlrunner

1x Academy

Round 3 (118 points)

Backstabber

1x Academy

Add Swarm Tactics to Howlrunner

Round 4 (148 points)

2x Academy

Add Stealth Device to Howlrunner

Add Stealth Device to Backstabber

How did you fare in your first round? What if you bumped into Fat Han? I attended an escalation tournament recently, and in my preparation I couldn't find anything from the Imperials that beats Fat Han consistently in 60pts.

Fat Han is just chance I have to take. Any match at a tournament turns into rock, paper, scissors. Sometimes its an uphill match, sometimes you can just coast, and sometimes its going to be a pretty even fight. True of any list at any tournament. That being said, At my shop, everyone is abandoning Falcons in place of Outriders(for the time being), so I'm enjoying the falcon free environment. I think this is pretty funny because i still view the Falcon as a better ship to run than the Outrider IMHO

Round 1 I played against 2 shuttles(win).

Round 2 was against Dash & Jan(win).

Round 3 was against Dash, Ewing, Xwing(lost due to poor maneuver choices, did however get a range 1 with with whisper against Dash)

Round 4 was a very odd list. I wish I could remember all the upgrades/pilots, but is was Biggs, Knave with R2-D2, PS3 xwing that TL rerolls your attack dice, PS6 Bwing that get a reroll from stress with Advanced Sensors and Jan Ors, another Xwing that had the stress droid.(Minor Victory, we timed out and i beat him by only 2 points. one more turn i could have taken the last 3 hull off his bwing and had enough points to win the round)