I usually play as the Rebel Alliance. Lately I have decided to force myself to play as the Empire. What I've noticed is that the Rebels usually have stronger anti-ship squads, but can get tangled up pretty easily when swarmed on.
I usually spend around 130 points on squads in a 400 point game. Howl runner pairs so well with interceptors to make one of the strongest anti-squad mash ups. With Howl runner and swarm they get to roll 5 blues and re-roll one of those if needed.
With the right command dials and upgrades on an ISD, you could activate 5 squads and pretty much clean up groupings of enemy squads in about 2 activations. I try to play the game around squads, and once the enemy is mopped up, I chose other command dials to focus on the Capitol ships. What do you guys think?