What are everyone's thoughts on the best Imperial Stress/Control squad? Does it center around Kath in a Firespray? Also how do Imperial Stress/Contol build match up against Rebel?

Best imperial stress is non-existent. Rebels have you beat by a long-shot.

Empire uses stress not as a control, but as a dissuasion.

Rebel Captive punishes an opponent for attacking you by hurting the action economy of their highest PS ship.

Mara Jade punishes an opponent for putting a numbers advantage at Range 1.

Kath's ability is a non-entity. Use her as a Bounty Hunter with an ET slot.

So there's no real equivalent squad to the Ywing and Bwing builds for dishing out stress and such

You can kit out a Lambda shuttle in various stress and ion related ways:

• Gunner + Tactician lets you potentially double-stress someone at range 2
• Ion Cannon + Rebel Captive can net either an ion + stress combo on someone or stress one target while ioning another
• Mara Jade was already mentioned

Also, the TIE Defender can be a good platform for an Ion Cannon, allowing you to ion a target, do a white K-turn and either keep up the ion and potentially walk them off the board or switch to primary and take them out.

You can kit out a Lambda shuttle in various stress and ion related ways:

• Gunner + Tactician lets you potentially double-stress someone at range 2
• Ion Cannon + Rebel Captive can net either an ion + stress combo on someone or stress one target while ioning another
• Mara Jade was already mentioned

Also, the TIE Defender can be a good platform for an Ion Cannon, allowing you to ion a target, do a white K-turn and either keep up the ion and potentially walk them off the board or switch to primary and take them out.

any pilots better than others for the shuttle or defender with those types of set ups on them? Col. Vessery on the defender seems to be a good choice with the TL feature, and Col Jendon with the shuttle for TL as well???

as said, rebs got the market cornered on control (Ys and Bs)

Shuttles are horrendously difficult to maneuver; Defenders are spiffy but expensive (they're not really "control" so much as "hold down the enemy and them beat them into submission")

wait till conner nets, where bombers and Deathrain will have a ball

Well I've never tested it but it's about as much stress you can dish out without taking Flachette Torps:

Captain Oicunn + Predator + Mara Jade + Rebel Captive + Anti-Pursuit Lasers 53

Kath Scarlett + Mangler Canon + Tactician + Predator 47

Could be fun

My Imperial Stress List:

Kath: Mangler, Tactician, Engine, Predator, Slave 1, Flechette Torps

Whisper: Rebel Captive, Sensor Jammer, ACD, VI

Kath can throw 2 stress a turn, and no one likes shooting a RC Phantom, I've considered swapping RC to Kath and Tactician to Whisper, since Kath gets shot more, but I'm not sure yet.

Ive had a lot of fun running triple phantoms, whisper with rebel captive plus the ususal and two sigmas with particle accelerator and tactician. If you dig wayy back I have a thread called "stress Kath" where a bunch of different builds were brought up. Kath with calculation and rebel captive is a great way to go though. I think bombers with prox mine, flechette torp and extra munitions are deserving of play too.

Ive had a lot of fun running triple phantoms, whisper with rebel captive plus the ususal and two sigmas with particle accelerator and tactician. If you dig wayy back I have a thread called "stress Kath" where a bunch of different builds were brought up. Kath with calculation and rebel captive is a great way to go though. I think bombers with prox mine, flechette torp and extra munitions are deserving of play too.

Thank, I'll look for that post

welp, conner nets are out for early release if you were lucky enough to have a friend get them at gencon

they'll probably be the premier form of control you (or any faction) can get. Warm up your bombers and Deathrain, it's Soontir season!

I use Kath with Marksmanship + Gunner a lot. You can stress 2 ships at long range quite easily. And you can fully use the build with your auxiliary arc. You can also equip Ion torpedoes/Missiles/Bombs...

The bad thing is that you need to spend the action in Marksmanship, and Firespray is not the best ship out there in the Imperial Army. The ship need a buff IMO.

Also, Carnor Jax + Kagi (Rebel Captive and Ion Cannon) + Jonus (Wingman, Flechette, Conners...) is worth mentioning.

Imperial control is totally viable, just not necessarily as competitive as Rebels ATM.

Kath [VI, Mangler, RebCap, EU] - I'm currently 9-1 with her.

Assuming you have a PS bid, she shuts down Soontir, Whisper, Superdash, and PS8 Corran hard.

In an attrition battle where she makes it to a late-game, 1v1 situation - anything without a 360 or auxillary arc is pretty much an automatic win for you.

The trick is keeping her alive. At 50 points (overpriced, admittedly), you need to keep at a distance and wait for enemy ships to commit before you join the fray; otherwise RebCap's 1v1 potency is wasted.

I've been running her with:

Vessery [Outmaneuver, HLC, Hull Upgrade] - 48 pts

Durable and hard to ignore with Outmaneuver/HLC combo. RebCap Kath is practically the best TL partner for Vessery. I like this list because it forces the opponent to choose between two tough targets.

6 TIEs, Sigma Phantom with Mara Jade. Keep it cloaked and evaded and fly it close to your opponent's ships.

Dropping a blob of 8 TIEs in front of an opponent's fat turret is control also IMO.

This is my attempt at an Imperial Control list:

A copy-paste from the Testing Defenders thread, but this fits the bill pretty well:

2x Delta Squadron (Defender)

w/ Ion Cannon

2x 33pts = 66pts

Sigma Squadron (Phantom)

w/ FCS, Advanced Cloak, Mara Jade

34pts

Mara just flies in close being evil and stressing people out, while your Ds ionize everything. When you can manage to take the shots you want, you should have a decent set of TLs and dice to roll with them.... Hopefully. Who needs an arc dodger when the enemy's arcs and movement are so ion/stress limited in the first place? It's a gimmicky build, but Phantoms are evil anyway, so make them even eviller

Mara just flies in close being evil and stressing people out...

Just like my girlfriend, who thankfully will never, ever see this.

Your girlfriend flies a TIE Phantom? Nice......

My response, a quip referencing 'the Emperor's hand,' is not appropriate for this forum.

So use your imagination...