TL;DR: I only play Rebel and find myself always struggling against a well put-together small ship Imperial build even when I consider myself to be flying and maneuvering well. I would like to stop having to rely on the top Millenium Falcon builds that steamroll in the tournaments just to stand a chance against the Imperial. Can anyone suggest some small ship Rebel builds you fly confidently against the Imperial? I am not asking for builds that seem invincible or anything ridiculous, I am just starting to believe I am not good enough at this game to realize a build that works together. What about upgrade card combinations on the same ship or between ships that have helped you hold your own?

Long version:

When I first started playing X Wings, it was at a friend's suggestion. He didn't own the game because he didn't want to spend money on something he had no one to play with, and since we live in a medium-to-small sized city he didn't want to hope he could find players reliably at our local gaming stores. So, I agreed to being his dedicated opponent. Not to say we never branch out and play others, but we will always have another person to play or practice with otherwise. Because I enjoy a game's overall mechanics over the specific mechanics of a class or faction, and usually able to adapt my strategy to what I'm playing, I had no issue when he really wanted to dedicate himself to only playing the Imperial, and I chose Rebel for the appeal of fighting against the Imperial. We made our investments, purchased at least one of every ship made for our factions, and additional ships depending on the builds we saw were meta or that interested us.

For me, I decided early that I was not going to take the builds that consistently won high ranking tournament games or that I saw was the most common to play, and really that seemed to only restrict me from using the Millenium Falcon. I have one, but I don't use it much because I don't just want to take the proven strong Rebel build in all of my games. Of course I want to win, but I want to win because I am a good enough player that any combination of well-considered pilot abilities and upgrades had a similar amount of potential to win. Of course your ships have to somehow synergize or complement each other, that a random build can fail from that lack of synergy alone, but that half of that potential is you strategizing the use of your actions, ship abilities and maneuvering well. I didn't want to just take a ship build that was proven to be stronger against most of its matchups, I wanted a good even fight. I know having those evenly matched fights isn't always going to happen, that your build and general strategy will eventually meet one you weren't prepared for, but taking the commonly used Millenium Falcon builds seemed counterproductive to the goal of being an overall good player who can fly any ship.

After playing for a few weeks, I find myself frustrated at how stronger the Imperial ships seem to be. Usually when that feeling comes up, I just adjust my strategy, but when I started comparing the overall advantages and disadvantages between the ships' abilities of both factions, it feels like the Imperial far outclass the Rebels. I could easily be wrong here. I could just be terrible at the game or my friend could just be naturally amazing. But when I watch competitive tournaments and casual games, when I look at the pilot abilities and the Imperial-only upgrade cards, most (though, not all I will admit) of what I see are these abilities that guarantee damage, consistently give all friendly ships a extra dice roll, or otherwise positively benefit the entire swarm rather than a choice of one friendly ship, and USUALLY without cost or penalty. Rebel ship abilities in comparison mostly (though, again, not all) affect either only the one ship or one friendly ship, and many times with a cost or restriction. This isn't even mentioning how much more maneuverable the Imperial small ships are when compared to Rebel movement dials and available actions in their action bar. The ships he does take that have comparable abilities to my Rebel ships are all much cheaper too, I find.

Now, again, let me say that I am not saying Imperial is factually stronger overall, it just seems that way to me with how much I am struggling against them. Rebel ships have more shields, they can use Astromechs that have nice bonuses, and Rebel-only crew members that give great support. And, realize, I am not just flying straight into a swarm of TIE, I am absolutely doing my best to either disrupt his formation or fly to a position where all of his ships can't fire on one of mine for an easy kill. Even when he doesn't take a swarm and goes with a more expensive 3 ship build, the abilities are either much more aggressive compared to mine, or supportive to all 3 of his friendly ships compared to my choice of one friendy ship IF I'm not stressed or IF I have a focus token, and it's too much for me to do even average against. My shields are stripped quickly because of his 3 attack to my mostly 2 (or 1) agility, while he fairs decently with his evade tokens and 3 agility to my 3 attack. Even when I successfully outmanuever him in a round, he is able to barrel roll out of the way (and with Push The Limit he can further escape my firing arc with a boost, while I only have a boost to escape). I think he starts to realize how much more crippling his small ships are compared to my own when he tries to help me with things like "Why don't take an evade token? Oh, your ship doesn't have one," "Come on your ship can clearly barrel roll out of my firing arc. Oh, you don't have one of those either."

So what am I not seeing? What am I doing wrong other than refusing to roll over him with the Millenium Falcon? I understand the general concepts of movement strategy when it comes to avoiding the front of a swarm and using obstacles for cover, I don't mind losing when it comes down to dice rolls or the circumstance that I flew myself into a bad position (though his barrel rolls and our agility differences allow that to happen more often). What abilities and upgrade cards work well enough together that I stand enough of a chance to at least blow up one of his ships before he takes out two of mine? Are any of my complaints between the Rebel and Imperial small ships valid?