So I have had limited experience with Palp Aces, and the other night against a friend, he ran a Palp/Whisper/Vessery build. I went after Whisper first, thinking to crack the hardest nut first, but was without success.

I'm thinking if you tear the heart out of such lists, namely Palp, that might be the best way to go. Hopefully demoralize them a bit and take out their list's main shenanigans.

Thoughts?

As a general rule,

if you can down the shuttle in 1-2 turns -> Shuttle.

If you can't -> target the easiest ace to kill -> Shuttle -> hardest ace to kill.

Kill Palp if you can, but take targets of opportunity whilst you do, unless you have a list specced to kill aces (something like RAC/VI/Vader/Gunner/HotCoP/Engine, say) in which case, murder yourself some aces then chase down the shuttle at your leisure.

Rule of thumb is always going to be to get Palp off the board.

Now, every game doesn't play out in such a way that this is viable, and you should be prepared for that.

Also, Ace players know this is the rule of thumb as well, so will try to bait & punish you for going for the shuttle.

Even knowing target priority, it still requires effort to execute.

Unless you can force damage through guaranteed evades, shuttle first

Kill the ******' Lambda. Don't pass up on really, really good shots elsewhere, but kill the ******' Lambda.

It was this way from when Palpatine first appeared, and it will be this way until he fades into warty obscurity.