I've been toying around some variations of a 4 ship imperial list that I want to take to a local tournament (and maybe even a fun list for my first local regional). It's actually been surprisingly successful but I'm looking for some feedback.

Rexler w/X7, juke

Sigma w/FCS, Stygium, Captive

Bomber w/LRS, Ion Pulse

Academy Pilot

Bomber as a one-off control ship is the biggest hit/miss. For 19 points it strikes with full mods so as long as you strip tokens you're almost guaranteed to land the missile. You have to capitalize and bum rush that disabled ship next turn though or it's just wasted. The TL also works as a standoff threat, which sometimes keeps that threat out of the fight. As soon as the missile is off it becomes a great little blocker to work with the fighter. Priority targets - PTL aces (for stress + ion), large ships, X7 defenders.

I'm debating replacing the bomber with a tie shuttle vader. I'm skeptical though... this seems like a ship that realistically would get to vader once and may only take a shield off before exploding. Anyone had any luck running the doomshuttle lite?

For the same points Rexler can also be replaced with a Maarek w/predator, X7, Tie Mk II. More stress shedding, similar ability, and high PS. It just doesn't seem like it's as effective at stripping tokens as a juking rexler and it relies on pushing a crit to hull. Is there any consensus on Rex vs Maarek in the meta now?

Thanks!

If I was going to take Maarek Stele, I'd probably take Calculation rather than Predator. Yes, it won't do too much a lot of the time - because of shields and evade rolls - but Maarek's ability to land the worst critical possible is very nice.

More importantly, that saves you a couple of points - that's a second shot for the ion missiles, or turning the PS1 academy pilot into "Wampa" or "Chaser". The advantage of the Twin Ion Engines MkII shouldn't be ignored either - they give a defender some nice options to shed stress they wouldn't otherwise have.

Thanks for the feedback! I've tried a few variations of a Calculating Maarek (five games or so), but I always feel let down on the table. In all of those games I never landed a critical on an ace... but it does murder large ships quite well. I think without a fleet officer in the list though it leaves you a lot more vulnerable to return fire.