I play Empire most of the time, and you want to talk about sucky squadrons, just take a look at the basic TiE or the Interceptor. Total junk not worth ever putting on the table.

What? No, they can be good if you use them right. How many are you bringing at a time? Our local meta usually says around 60-64 points of squadrons min. Which means 8 squadrons of TIEs. That can kill a LOT of stuff, but you have to activate them and all, via carrier VSD or flotillas or ISD.

And before anyone throws out the "but what if the other guy has 8 YT2400s?" question, think of it like this. If you can neuter his 8 YT2400s for a turn or two (dont rush your TIEs in, use waves! In the words of the immortal Zapp Brannigan, send wave after wave of your own at them until they reach their predetermined kill limit turn 6), you're doing good. Did you not occupy them 6 turns? That happens. Did you prevent them from attacking your ships for 2-3 more turns than expected? Then you actually won the squadron game, as (i assume) you spent the rest of the time with your ships trying to kill his ships.

TIEs do TIE up the other guy, and even if they die, who cares? You're the Empire, they're infinitely replaceable! Just throw more at the other guy next game!

TIE Fighters die FAST, especially to any anti-squadron ships. Hull 3 squads are designed to alpha strike an enemy. But most enemy squadrons can remove them in one turn and most enemy ships can do it in 2 with smart positioning and commands. A ship with 2 black AS dice can realistically plan to remove as many squadrons as it has friendly squadron hull if it has the Ruthless Strategist upgrade, in particular.

Pre-emptively nerf sensor teams, plz

It sounds like an overkill, the better balance tweak would be to nerf Ginkapo, this should be sufficient

ER MAH GAWD DIS NO FAR!

Anyway how can I be nerf'ed, I am already flying rebels and thus by definition flying solely at long range to plink damage! Burst damage is not allowed!

Imperial squadrons are supposed to rush in on Rebels and attack first to even up the numbers before getting shot down. That's how Imperials are supposed to outnumber them, as a big swarm that takes down enemies while losing units. When you make it impossible to kill enemy units before they shoot back, and they roll enough damage to eliminate you in one go, the numbers advantage is immediately removed. Basically, the trade has not occurred, or in the case of Escorts has occurred drastically in the opponent's favor.

I've noticed this as well, coming from a Rebel perspective where I used to rush the squadrons in, the Imperial Squadrons don't have that luxury. Because they have low hull, they are not meant to be thrown forward, but rather hang back and get thrown once the enemy has made his initial attack. Think A New Hope where the Death Star's Turbo towers "tanked" the Rebel fighters, then they threw the TIEs to slow them down.

It's even more true with Jan Ors handing out her defence tokens. She essentially doubles the number of TIE needed to down an X-Wing to around 4, while previously 2 was doable with extra blue dice and rerolls. Right now, the TIEs are very interesting when held back until the enemy made his first attack run, then thrown in to do disruption, tear a couple fighters apart.

The only time when it's worth trading TIEs is when the enemy really risks blowing your own ship up with his squadrons. Better to lose 8 points than to lose 100

Your opponent was playing while keeping Rieekan's ability in mind. You weren't. You lost. You deserved that loss. If you don't keep the enemy commander's ability in mind at all times while playing, then you're going to have a bad time. It's like playing versus Ackbar and not constantly being mindful of how he works. I've seen it happen numerous times (especially in the early days of MkII with the extremely dull conga line fleets) and it means the guy who is keeping Ackbar in mind (the guy using him) absolutely trashes the guy who isn't (his opponent).

Once you begin to focus on how Rieekan changes activation order and risk-benefit analyses for your opponent compared to more conventional commanders, you'll begin to see how it all fits together and how to pick it apart. Again, there has been a lot of good advice in this thread already that can be used. If you only view Rieekan as a way for less skilled players to push their fleet forward and still win when they shouldn't, you're not taking him seriously enough and you're going to keep getting punished for it.

But I didn't lose, I won.

I don't understand, at no point have I said Rieek is op, ezpz, or said you can't be a good player and use him.

All I've said is that its not fun FOR ME to play against, because I don't like how he lessens the punishment that every other Admiral would take from losing a ship that hasn't activated.

That's it. You might enjoy playing against it. That's all good too.

...I just don't understand why I'm not allowed to not like it.

...I just don't understand why I'm not allowed to not like it.

Because this is a forum on the Internet, therefore your opinions is taken as facts that need to be refuted. Because you are wrong, you are wrong and you are wrong.