I've done very well with my 4 Tie Bomber list:

4 x Scimitars w/ EM, Homing Missiles, and Seismic Charges

You need to practice to get the approach right, but getting the TL's are as huge an issue as people think.

Hmm, for me its always imperial lists that I have to play around. Whether it was whisper, Darth Vader crew or now soontir Fel...

And then they have some really efficient ships in academies, crackblacks, acc corrector advance...

Imperial lists take a really good and calculating pilot and so you see less people initially drawn to them. They still excell at the "see how many shots you can throw at me before you hit" game. With Kallus on the horizon and Wampa waiting in the que, the empire will be coming back with new a terrifying options to destroy it's enemy.

We may not have as many tricks, but we have the best pilots, and we got the cool looking ships! Uniformity FTW!

I seem to be the only one still fighting the good fight on this one. FFG really needs to fix the defender! Otherwise imperial players can only brings Aces, swarms, or decimator/phantoms plus support ships. I would like the fix to make the choice between an Ace in a interceptor or a defender difficult to choose between when list building.

Because the Defender doesn't need fixing. It just takes a lot of practice to learn how to fly it right.

We don't have stress-hogs

You do have Rebel Captive, however, which is nice. And Mara Jade. and Ysanne Isard - while not C3P0 - adds a degree of fatness.

We do have a lot of tricks (Palpmobile, etc), but they are not as consistent as say, Rebel top tier builds, at the moment.

Like Vader, and some of the very best action economy arc dodgers in the game.

Scum is worse off though.

Pffft. If you say so.

Mara Jade is handcuffed though. The fact that her stress doesn't stack is why you don't see her in competitive play. She would be fantastic on an Oicunn decimator, getting into range 1 and stress everybody out if her Stress was able to stack.

My only issue is that the top-tier Rebel lists have a bit of everything with little weaknesses: regen, control, tankiness, multiple attacks, action economy, turrets, high PS, maneuverability...you name it. Its no surprise Poe and friendsx2 made up the finals. Overall I think the game is relatively balanced atm, but I'm hoping Imperials get a bit of a boost in the upcoming expansions.

My only issue is that the top-tier Rebel lists have a bit of everything with little weaknesses: regen, control, tankiness, multiple attacks, action economy, turrets, high PS, maneuverability...you name it. Its no surprise Poe and friendsx2 made up the finals. Overall I think the game is relatively balanced atm, but I'm hoping Imperials get a bit of a boost in the upcoming expansions.

They lack arc dodging and green dice. High PS is questionable too.

I seem to be the only one still fighting the good fight on this one. FFG really needs to fix the defender! Otherwise imperial players can only brings Aces, swarms, or decimator/phantoms plus support ships. I would like the fix to make the choice between an Ace in a interceptor or a defender difficult to choose between when list building.

Because the Defender doesn't need fixing. It just takes a lot of practice to learn how to fly it right.

I have to disagree with you on this one. I really think they are over priced by at least 1-2 points. I think FFG valued the white k-turn too much. If the dial were more forgiving then they would be o.k with it.

I thought the imperials were in a bad spot for a while. I fly imperials about 80% of the time and was really jealous of the crazy ships like regen corran and fat turrets. The Raider changed everything! The tie advanced filled such a big hole for the imperials. Prior to the advanced fix we had only two options for that mid 20-30 point ship range in Fel or a shuttle. Both had uses but didn't always fit the need. Now with several top choices in Advanced pilots we have an amazing ship that feels very powerful. I don't really feel like the imperials have any glaring weaknesses. We have the BEST two aces in Vader and Fel. We have incredible cannon fodder in academy ties. We have very useful mid range ships in AC advanced. We have the best bang for the buck in the shuttles. There's a lot to live for the empire!

Palpatine/Kenkirk and palpatine + 2 aces are both very solid.

My only issue is that the top-tier Rebel lists have a bit of everything with little weaknesses: regen, control, tankiness, multiple attacks, action economy, turrets, high PS, maneuverability...you name it. Its no surprise Poe and friendsx2 made up the finals. Overall I think the game is relatively balanced atm, but I'm hoping Imperials get a bit of a boost in the upcoming expansions.

They lack arc dodging and green dice. High PS is questionable too.

Both Poe and Corran run VI on the reg, bringing them above most Vaders and every Fel. Corran hardly lacks green dice, and Poe's 3Shields+3hull+AT+Regen are still a mile ahead of 1 extra green die that Vader or Fel have. The stress, turrets, and multiple attacks counter the potential arc-dodging and token camping as well. Like I said, there's a reason these lists mop up Palpmobile lists.

Mara Jade is handcuffed though. The fact that her stress doesn't stack is why you don't see her in competitive play. She would be fantastic on an Oicunn decimator, getting into range 1 and stress everybody out if her Stress was able to stack.

Those "handcuffs" are there for a reason. She's great against anything other than turrets - her ability means you can aggressively fly/bump/Oicunn her ship into range one of a formation, and make it extremely difficult for a wide range of ships to ever be able to get you in arc again.

Thos who know how to fly, fly imperial or scum. Those who want easy ships to fly, fly rebels. Turret HLC and shield regeneration is all I have to say.

Mara Jade is handcuffed though. The fact that her stress doesn't stack is why you don't see her in competitive play. She would be fantastic on an Oicunn decimator, getting into range 1 and stress everybody out if her Stress was able to stack.

Those "handcuffs" are there for a reason. She's great against anything other than turrets - her ability means you can aggressively fly/bump/Oicunn her ship into range one of a formation, and make it extremely difficult for a wide range of ships to ever be able to get you in arc again.

I love how they made tactician unique because they did not like imperials double or triple stressing yet rebels can still double stress you usning TLT and mr stress bot.

Mara Jade is handcuffed though. The fact that her stress doesn't stack is why you don't see her in competitive play. She would be fantastic on an Oicunn decimator, getting into range 1 and stress everybody out if her Stress was able to stack.

Those "handcuffs" are there for a reason. She's great against anything other than turrets - her ability means you can aggressively fly/bump/Oicunn her ship into range one of a formation, and make it extremely difficult for a wide range of ships to ever be able to get you in arc again.

I love how they made tactician unique because they did not like imperials double or triple stressing yet rebels can still double stress you usning TLT and mr stress bot.

Limited, not unique. It's a subtle difference, but worth pointing out.

My only issue is that the top-tier Rebel lists have a bit of everything with little weaknesses: regen, control, tankiness, multiple attacks, action economy, turrets, high PS, maneuverability...you name it. Its no surprise Poe and friendsx2 made up the finals. Overall I think the game is relatively balanced atm, but I'm hoping Imperials get a bit of a boost in the upcoming expansions.

They lack arc dodging and green dice. High PS is questionable too.

Both Poe and Corran run VI on the reg, bringing them above most Vaders and every Fel. Corran hardly lacks green dice, and Poe's 3Shields+3hull+AT+Regen are still a mile ahead of 1 extra green die that Vader or Fel have. The stress, turrets, and multiple attacks counter the potential arc-dodging and token camping as well. Like I said, there's a reason these lists mop up Palpmobile lists.

And VI means they lose access to the kind of EPTs Vader and Fel have access to. Turrets don't really make up for a lack of arc dodging; a ship will still get shot at by everything because it can't get out of the way. The reason stressbot type lists beat a Palpmobile list is piling on stress.

It seems to me that the current meta is either Rebel regen lists or Reble/Scum TLT lists. Do the Imperials have a place in this meta? How can they deal with it? It would seem they have to bring a lot of heavy firepower to either take down a Y-wing with a TLT, or enough to 1 round Poe or Corran before they can regen shields.

I think that Imperials probably have more competitive play options/builds than scum, despite their access to TLT and the fact that yesterday I made the case that imperial has fewer unique tools than either of the other factions combined. There are three types of Imperial lists that saw the top level of competition at Worlds: Swarms, Aces, and Turret+Ace. They were essentially just different ways to damage opposing lists rather than control or regen, but that's a bit better than scum which is either TLTs or IGs right now.

I do agree that the Imperials have fewer tools that provide for different play styles they do however have a greater number of tools in total.

Yesterday, using Squadron builder as a resource I counted the number of pilots available to the rebels and the imperials. the total as of yesterday was 68 total pilots for the Empire and Rebels have a total of 55 pilots.

Drilling down into it a bit both appear to have the same percentage of elite pilots (ie PS7+) Imperials have 21 and Rebels have 17 for 30.8 and 30.9 percent of the force respectively. This will likely change up a bit when wave 8 finally hits.

The greater number of pilots able to be used probably is due to the empires favored tactic... swarm

So does that mean you have to play Imperial Swarm to win with them? I don't like to think of factions being tied into a single play style.

nope

Palp + 2 aces and Whisper + Deci both breached top 16 during worlds

nope

Palp + 2 aces and Whisper + Deci both breached top 16 during worlds

So yeah no worries we have two whole play styles

nope

Palp + 2 aces and Whisper + Deci both breached top 16 during worlds

So yeah no worries we have two whole play styles

three, with the crackswarm that also made it there

Crackswarm isn't a swarm? I think there's lots of great imperial ships right now, X1 is a huge buff to the faction. Vader is a big bully, and my favourite ship in the game right now.

Edit: sorry, missed whisper & deci in original post.

the problem with these terms "swarm" or "ace" or "arc-dodger" w.e is that they're so grossly oversimplified that they completely miss the variance available in these archtypes

by similar vein, Rebels also only have 3 archetypes: Shield Regen, TLTs, and Control (and Paul Heaver, which is an unholy amalgamation of them all)

Crackswarm isn't a swarm?

If it's got 6 ships it's still a swarm to me.