Never one to shy from a challenge I wanted to build a list that involved the 2 ships many people say you shouldn't use, but I happen to think look great and may just work in this set up.

Close support flying will be key here, but I have a good feeling about this list. My only real question is keep the bid or add Xi-7's to the VSD?

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 392/400

Commander: Darth Vader

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory

Victory II-Class Star Destroyer (85 points)

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
- Instigator ( 4 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Darth Vader ( 36 points)
- Relentless ( 3 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- SW 7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)

3 Aggressor Assault Fighters ( 48 points)
1 Bossk ( 23 points)

With Vader you can ditch ordnance experts as the admiral gives rerolls already. Similarly SW7 can just be rerolled so save the points there.

You have 2 good ships that can activate squadrons so don't need to pay the rogue tax on aggressors. 4 interceptors and Howlrunner should do the trick and maybe flight controllers on the VSD.

Vader only works vs ships, the Ordnance Experts are there for the anti-squadron shots.

I am in two minds on the SW-7's but they do guarantee hits and these ships need to make hits stick.

Rogue wasn't my primary reason for them, their ability to survive was.

Good points to think over though.

I disagree on SW-7s. Your re-rolls still have a decent chance of coming back up as Accs. Or if you have a decent Red/Black roll, why spend an defense token on a Vader re-roll when your Blues can just become damage?

Ordnance Experts . Ahh didn't spot that nuance. I still think that maybe flight controllers for 2 more points would get you more. An extra blue dice per turn on 3-4 of your fighters, but then it requires squadron commands to use them but by doing this your fighters can shoot earlier - in the ship phase.

Aggressors : I know what you mean about survivability. I sometimes use 4 Tie Advanced for the same reason just to tie things up for longer. Interceptors, boosted by Howlrunner and flight controllers are deadly and kill things as they activate and then also as they get shot. Hopefully the extra kills make up for the fragile hull but then aggressors are independent with the Rogue rule.

SW7 : To be honest I have never really got these. With a big volley from an ISD you will probably want to always keep one accuracy and a second one is only rarely a waste. Against an assault frigate for example turn off the brace first then either hamper the evade (at long range) or the redirect if in closer. Rerolling an unneeded accuracy gives you a 3 in 4 chance of getting damage so overall with the initial roll and the reroll it is a 15 in 16 chance. It isn't that SW7s are useless but with Vader present they just don't seem worth the 5 points.

Vader actually improves OE quite a bit. With only one or the other, you only reroll blanks. With both, you reroll all blanks AND hits the first time, and then reroll the blanks the second time, for a significant gain in both average damage and crit chance. I'll see of I can dig up the chart I made illustrating why...

Found it: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/194704-is-vader-redundant/?p=1913493

You want to go for long odds on your first reroll, and 50% odds on the second.

Yep,

you can get some crazy damage that way on the little Raider.

I'll keep and try the SW-7's for now, if they prove to be redundant, then I have 5 points to play with....

I like the SW-7's because that means if I get enough accuracies from my reds, I can use the blues for extra damage. It also means there's not a single result on a blue die that isn't damage if I want it to be. I can reroll hits and hope for crits and be ok with an accuracy. If I'm adding a die, I can add a blue and always guarantee a damage. even an evade token spent to force a reroll of a blue die that comes up an accuracy is still a damage.