I would probably say speed and maneuverability. The vast majority of Imperial ships are fast, with either Barrel Roll for lateral repositioning or boost (or both), they could be flanking and getting behind their opponent most of the time.

Also, insert "No Shields; All Guts" recruitment poster here.

Is this an Imperial thang?:

Stern women in positions of power. So the Empire is the home of gender equality versus those sexist Rebel scum.

Also, what you are saying is that if I like the Empire, I should vote Hillary. She definitely fits the Imperial bill...

They need to make that pic an alt art card

Imperials have the ability to deny things to the enemy. Omega Leader says you can't modify your dice, Carnor says you can't spend or gain your focus/evades at range 1 of him. Zertic says you can't get your range 1 attack bonus. Dark Curse says you can't spend stuff against him.

In standard play, the Imperials have two effects that are not restricted by range - the Lambda title and the Emperor. I think this fits the faction thematically. As the biggest auhority in the Galaxy, they should be able to have general control over space. I can't think of many Rebel or Scum equivalents. Leia comes to mind, but for standard play, that's about it, right?

In any case, maybe such effects should become more common. I can even see Imperials receiving some kind of general area cards that remain in play through the game, regardless of what ships are on the table. They could represent informants, oppressive regimes, etc.

This could be cool.

My feeling for the Imperials is that, as well as high-skill-requirement aces like Vader, Whisper, and Soontir, their thing is inter-ship synergy. They have more ships which rely on other ships in the same list to function at peak effectiveness, and more things that improve the effectiveness of allies, than other factions, particularly Rebels. Rebels tend to be independently strong ships, whereas Imperials rely more on each other, be it with swarms, fleet officer, Palpatine, all the named Lambda pilots, etc etc etc.

This is being diluted a bit by Scum at the moment what with Mindlinks and Manaroo, but I'm hoping the Systems Officer will bring it back in full force. Whatever it does, I'm assuming it's going to be good in a TIE Bomber Shuttle with a Fleet Officer.

And all the named HWK pilots, not to mention crew like Jan Ors...

Stern women in positions of power. So the Empire is the home of gender equality versus those sexist Rebel scum.

Also, what you are saying is that if I like the Empire, I should vote Hillary. She definitely fits the Imperial bill...

The Rebellion are led by Leia Organa and Mon Mothma. They know all about the stern women.

micro-aces. really powerful unique pilots in the 14-20 point range. rebs get a prototype pilot, imps have wampa stomp ya. the only thing that fits that niche in other factions that i can think of is fireface z95 guy in scum

Wampa and Palpatine, who needs more?

Wampa and Palpatine, who needs more?

Throw in Lt. Colzet with FCS to sweeten the deal plz.

Stern women in positions of power. So the Empire is the home of gender equality versus those sexist Rebel scum.

Also, what you are saying is that if I like the Empire, I should vote Hillary. She definitely fits the Imperial bill...

The Rebellion are led by Leia Organa and Mon Mothma. They know all about the stern women.

Leia is a princess whose title is inherited and Mon Mothma has about zero screen time.

They have the best (and relatively cheapest) pilots in the game. E.g. Darth Vader, Soontier, Whisper, etc.

Honour?.. nah... Legitimacy?...ish. Nice uniforms! Thats it!

our chief weapon is surprise surprise and fear

Amoungst our weaponry are such diverse elements as AG3, Advanced Cloaking Device, fanatical devotion to Emperor Palpatine, speed, Ruthlessness, post-manoeuvre agility, action-efficient ace pilots, a unified aesthetic... and nice black flight-suits.

Look, we'll just come in again.

The Empire has the moral high ground, since we're not terrorists or criminals.

But seriously, I agree with all the posts that point out that Empire's main schtick is super aces and pocket aces that are hard to hit and very maneuverable. Wave 8 will add the TAP as another super ace/pocket ace option and Imperial Vets will allow the Defender to be another viable super ace option. The closest thing Scum has is either the starviper (and it cant compete in pilot skill) or brobots (which are pretty unique in their flavor and playstyle, and also don't compete well in pilot skill). The closest thing rebels have is the A-wing (and really only psycho tycho or Jake Farrell can really be called super aces). Corran doesn't count because he is only terrifying with R2-D2 and then he's not very maneuverable.

The Empire used to have all of the 'mean' abilities but with the advent of Scum that has been a little diluted. Scum now tends to have more 'tricky' abilties like stealing tokens or counterattacking while imperials have more action/bonus denial and 'brutal' abilities that deal damage (Oicunn, Ruthlessness, Vader crew etc.)

The TLT meta has thrown a bit of a wet blanket on the super aces so I think right now we are seeing people complaining because they feel like the two Imperial 'things' are not being rewarded in the meta. Always in motion the meta is.

Spam, no plot armor, and twirly mustaches.

Spam, no plot armor, and twirly mustaches.

Wait, twirly mustaches and armor? That's me!

Euphemisms for poor plot centralization and binary antagonist characters. Star Wars is very one sided, and with the exception of characters like Thrawn or Nom Anor, are repetitive and boring with each passing decade.

Leia is a princess whose title is inherited and Mon Mothma has about zero screen time.

And still she has more script lines than Boba Fett.

Don't forget Daala and Isaane being completely incompetent. Well, that would actually qualify for most of Inperial senior leadership.

Don't forget Daala and Isaane being completely incompetent. Well, that would actually qualify for most of Inperial senior leadership.

It's rather sad how the two most powerful Imperial women in the old EU were both written to be incompetents who got to their positions through sleeping with their superior officers.

It's telling the most popular female character (Mara Jade) and the most popular Imperial officers (Thrawn and Pallaeon) born from the old EU were all created by Timothy Zahn: He actually knew how to write interesting characters and not tired caricatures.

I like Rae Sloanne from the new canon, she is pretty cool and loyal to the empire!

Don't forget Daala and Isaane being completely incompetent. Well, that would actually qualify for most of Inperial senior leadership.

It's rather sad how the two most powerful Imperial women in the old EU were both written to be incompetents who got to their positions through sleeping with their superior officers.

It's telling the most popular female character (Mara Jade) and the most popular Imperial officers (Thrawn and Pallaeon) born from the old EU were all created by Timothy Zahn: He actually knew how to write interesting characters and not tired caricatures.

No arguments about Daala, but at least Isard sort of earned it by framing her father, the previous Director of Intelligence. And also, in the old EU, discrimination against women was part and parcel of the Emperor's New Order, so there weren't many options if they wanted to rise in the ranks.

I don't know about Daala, bit Isard was a brilliant planner with incompetent field assets, and I think her underlings inability to end one threat is what drove her mad.

Most of the Scum and Rebel "things" have started to overlap and neither side can claim them anymore.

Rebels have, what, four regen cards? Scum have two.

All turrets are shared.

The two types of astromechs balance each other out.

Illicit stands alone! However, I can envision a future where Scum never get a Tech slot on anything, making that an exclusively Rebel/Imp thing

I've actually gone through the game sorting pilot abilities into various groups.

While rebels have the most numerous turreted ships and the most supportive abilities and scum are backstabby or evil twin-ish, Imperials excel in what I call "tricks"

Tricks are pilot skills that involve movement mosly. Lots of arc dodging and damage boosts in the imperial ships.

Ladies favour?