Some thoughts on some of the lesser used Imperial Only options right now

Admiral Tagge
In a meta where dedicated Flotilla hunters are starting to pop up, over all damage and number of attaks is increasing, I truly wonder if the extra brace or redirects you would get by having Tagge would be more beneficial than Motti. He is 1pt more expensive than Motti and I think that drastically hurts him but I could see him being a champ in a brace heavy jousting type list. Also he works really well with Arq TRCs just burning Evades on turns 2/4.

Admiral Konstantine
Seems good in a 2x ISD bee hive (squadron fleet) or a 3x VSD Bee Hive. With tractor beams you slow the enemy down in the middle of your squadrons and just sting them to death like it was my girl. Not sure how good it is but this is how i would build it. With slicer tools it may be really easy to drop a ship to speed 1 and keep it in arcs and the bee hive to blow it up.

Admiral Ozzel
He seems like a weaker Jerrjerod. His speed increases are interesting on raiders that can go from 4 to 2 (better maneuvering) once they get behind. Possibly best in a fleet with 4-5 raiders and 1-2 arqs. He is a wolfpack, he wants to get in, get out, and cause mayhem I feel. Raiders are just weak and can't take hits so you will spend a lot of time trying to position to get out of danger. He also may be a really good joust admiral. Being able to go from speed 2 to 0 has its merits if you do not want to enter red range on an opponent. Being able to go from 3 to 1 to get them in your front arc longer is also good. I do not think ozzel is bad. He may take the most careful planning (or defense liasons) of all our admirals. Knowing when to drop or increase your speed is required to jockey for position effectively.

I feel these 3 admirals don't see much play as they require ships to be built to fit their command style. Motti, Tarkin, JJ, and Vader just buff your fleet. They don't require any special builds. I feel like Konny, Tagge, and Screed require you to try and play into their bonuses which makes your plays on the table very predictable. Imperial predictability is in a lot of ways true to the source but being predictable is typically a bad thing in table top gaming.

Moving on

Admiral Chiranaue
As @Versch has stated on the IFF podcast lately, old is new. Chiranaue works wonders with Mauler Mithel in a new squadron heavy meta. Go listen to the latest episode for a bit more on this.

Commandant Arseko
Interesting officer. Expensive which is the main issue here. Could be a good way to engineering tokens on an ISD from a gozanti or interdictor but again, super expensive. Maybe in a conga line of arqs or raiders. His price point is just steep for whats in his category.

Director Isard
Knowledge is power. Its only 3pts sure but there are better utility officers as well. This can give you some incite for sure and may pair well with slicer tools but as more and more fleets have 1/2 command value ships her value goes down.

Admiral Titus
Interesting fun little dude that changes speed. Most fleets navigate turn 1 to bank a token so forcing someone to not have one in the coffers may be good. I see more people use him to slow you down where i wonder if speeding the enemy up is a better play. For 2pts he may be worth it for that once in 10 games where he makes a difference. You can certainly play around it with some objectives as well.

On to Titles

Devastator
Expensive but has high pay off later in the game as its drawing fire. With Motti/Blast Doors it may be a solid choice for pure damage output. It is an expensive title on an already expensive ship.

Corrupter
Good if activating Rhymer with Firesprays or just Firesprays as speed is there biggest weakness. Solid with TIE Bombers and Tempest Squadron due to speed 5. A moderately priced upgrade, that can benefit what is shaping up to be a fighter meta.

Warlord
Warlord + H9s = Auto Damage to Squadrons. If squadrons are dominating your meta take Warlord, H9s, and Quad Laser Turrets for Counter 1. Great in the mirror match. Add in Mauler Mithel and Boba Fett and you are talking about a lot of Auto Damage going around.

Dominator
A staple in Core Set and Wave 1 imperial fleets. I feel that while this is our most expensive Title (IIRC) the introduction of Projection experts Interdictor, Spinal Armaments, Tua, and Blast Doors this ship could form a very sharp point to the spearhead. Add SW-7s and you are doing some crazy amounts of damage. Expensive investment? Sure The payoff could be astronomical.

Impetuous
Not really being underutilized too much anymore but Impetuous on a Raider1 with Ordance Experts, Flechettes and Kallus can really harry enemy squadrons. 4 points isn't too expensive for what it does. Worth trying if running single raider and you have some points to spare.

Vector
2 to 4 (expanded hangar bays + token + command) Speed 5 TIE Fighters or TIE Advanced may be good to engage on the sly. Most people expect Interceptors to get there and fast but a few points for a surprise speed increase has its uses.

Insidious
Being dicussed right now in another forum. With Jerrjerod, engine techs, and overall higher number of activation this title could see some play. Yes its expensive. In a meta with MC-30s coming in and trying to get out and flotillas having a ship with a lethal mid range to chase or finish off a ship could be a big benefit. Operative word being could. It needs some more play testing but my gut feeling is that it has a lot of potential with JJ.

Just some thoughts ive been kicking around lately. Feel free to comment and add to anything you'd like. I am interested to hear others thoughts on some of the Empires lesser used upgrades.

I'll advocate for Ozzel. If you are flying Gladiators, Raiders or ISD's in multiples his ability is gold. Engine Tech'd Gladiators are just fantastic with Ozzel and I never fly my 3 Gladiator list without him at the helm.

The other two are just meh, Konstantine around timing issues and sheer restrictions in activating him and Tagge in so much as you are only really going to get to use him in turn 5 in most cases.

Gunna be testing out Insidious/JJ tonight. I agree the cost for using Insidious is high, but only because you need to run 2 Glads to do it. There is no reason why your first one should not be Demo.

4 minutes ago, Englishpete said:

I'll advocate for Ozzel. If you are flying Gladiators, Raiders or ISD's in multiples his ability is gold. Engine Tech'd Gladiators are just fantastic with Ozzel and I never fly my 3 Gladiator list without him at the helm.

The other two are just meh, Konstantine around timing issues and sheer restrictions in activating him and Tagge in so much as you are only really going to get to use him in turn 5 in most cases.

agree. Tagge make be tankier than motti on the sneak. It really depends on a game to game basis.

I debated doing a run down for the aces that dont see a lot of play either. maybe later. I need to do some work.

Getting Tagge to work has been a chore of mine. I really like the concept, and theoretically if played right you can offset way more damage than motti on any ship. In actual practice its extremely difficult. The limiting factor being you have to engage your opponent on turn 2 in order to get a token back at the beginning of turn 3. Unless one of you are flying at speed 3 or faster this just isnt going to happen. Then you have 2 full turns that you have to survive when typically most of the action happens before you can use this ability again.

Maybe for admirals more talented then me but Motti being cheaper and guaranteed to benefit the fleet regardless of either sides strategy trumps the "potential" greater benefit getting that brace token back.

A strategy I have not tried is spamming TRC and using Tagge to get back those tokens discarded because of TRC.

What about the Centicore title?

I'm wondering if the real value of Tagge is more in abusing the heck out of TRCs on Arquitens and the ISD. Both ships can reliably engage at long range on turn 2 with smart deployment and maneuvering.

39 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

What about the Centicore title?

fair.

I think its good if you don't have a relay ship. It takes some playing around sure but its what 3/4pts? well worth it.

I think Konstantine will shine when Imps get another medium base. The Vic isn't the best ship to use because you can't overpower the enemy with speed, and I think an ISD works much better with Motti or JJ. I guess you can use an Interdictor, but you start to pigeon hole yourself with speed/board manipulation.

30 minutes ago, thecactusman17 said:

I'm wondering if the real value of Tagge is more in abusing the heck out of TRCs on Arquitens and the ISD. Both ships can reliably engage at long range on turn 2 with smart deployment and maneuvering.

I think this will work very well. Arqs are already a natural pairing with ISDs IMO, so you can run Devastator with Tagge, Needa and TRC to really deal the pain with 2 TRCArqs with IO. Grab a pair of Comms Net Goz and you've got a formidable little fleet.

There are no super powerful imp only crew for cheap. As opposed to Rebel cheap amazing crew:

Leia - Shuts down slicer tools. Incredibly important, if not often used.

Ahsoka - Basically a gimme if you have 2 points. Incredibly powerful.

Lando - good, at the right cost.

Next release hopefully will amend that.

Needa? I mean super niche sure but has his uses.

1 hour ago, Madaghmire said:

Needa? I mean super niche sure but has his uses.

Yes, he's good, but really not a take all like Ahsoka. Ahsoka is GOOD. And takable on anything.

Needa is only useful to a few ships. And only marginally so.

I found my ISD did survive longer, but not by much.

VSDs also benefit, but also kinda just die. Still good.

Superpowerful? Imp only? Cheap?

Tua.

I will advocate for Motti going to 30 points and only affecting medium to large ships.

I'm an Imperial player, but hes just too good compared to the other admiral options. The others all need some kind of specialisation and a favourable game situation. Motti is just a straight auto bonus.

50 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

Yes, he's good, but really not a take all like Ahsoka. Ahsoka is GOOD. And takable on anything.

Needa is only useful to a few ships. And only marginally so.

I don't take Ahsoka very often. She's good on high command value ships that need the flexibility, or in certain constructed combo scenarios like enabling ET with Raymus on an MC80 carrier, but she's no more a panacea than Needa is. Sure, you CAN take her on anything, but in a lot of builds, she's 2 wasted points.

10 hours ago, PartyPotato said:

Getting Tagge to work has been a chore of mine. I really like the concept, and theoretically if played right you can offset way more damage than motti on any ship. In actual practice its extremely difficult. The limiting factor being you have to engage your opponent on turn 2 in order to get a token back at the beginning of turn 3. Unless one of you are flying at speed 3 or faster this just isnt going to happen. Then you have 2 full turns that you have to survive when typically most of the action happens before you can use this ability again.

Maybe for admirals more talented then me but Motti being cheaper and guaranteed to benefit the fleet regardless of either sides strategy trumps the "potential" greater benefit getting that brace token back.

A strategy I have not tried is spamming TRC and using Tagge to get back those tokens discarded because of TRC.

I think the biggest issue is that to maximise usage you hace to be planning not only to engage but to take heavy fire. If you feed your enemies ships its hard to win.

2 hours ago, Ophion said:

I will advocate for Motti going to 30 points and only affecting medium to large ships.

I'm an Imperial player, but hes just too good compared to the other admiral options. The others all need some kind of specialisation and a favourable game situation. Motti is just a straight auto bonus.

Motti is the only defensive upgrade to most Imperial ships that doesn't require a unique officer. His ability also is only really powerful on medium and large ships, which reduces the total number of ships fielded and allows opposing fleets to focus more fire, thereby negating his ability.

2 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

I don't take Ahsoka very often. She's good on high command value ships that need the flexibility, or in certain constructed combo scenarios like enabling ET with Raymus on an MC80 carrier, but she's no more a panacea than Needa is. Sure, you CAN take her on anything, but in a lot of builds, she's 2 wasted points.

Absolute disagreement. The incredible variation of freedom she gives to your fleet enhances it incredibly.

I still posit her as always take, unless you really can't. Even 1 command ships benefit from her to fix their token management.

3 hours ago, pt106 said:

Superpowerful? Imp only? Cheap?

Tua.

Damnit I had just remembered her and was coming in to point it out. Curse you PT!

23 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

Absolute disagreement. The incredible variation of freedom she gives to your fleet enhances it incredibly.

I still posit her as always take, unless you really can't. Even 1 command ships benefit from her to fix their token management.

Yeah this sort of mirrors my view of her also. I mean, always take is hyperbolic a bit, but she has to be the easiest 2 points to slot in the game. Such flexibility.

1 hour ago, thecactusman17 said:

Motti is the only defensive upgrade to most Imperial ships that doesn't require a unique officer. His ability also is only really powerful on medium and large ships, which reduces the total number of ships fielded and allows opposing fleets to focus more fire, thereby negating his ability.

And that's why he is by far the most popular imperial commander!

1 minute ago, Ophion said:

And that's why he is by far the most popular imperial commander!

Maybe. As more ships and commanders come out, we may see some other beneficial options. One of the big issues is that there are currently few ships on the imperial side that can take the Defensive Retrofits. As we get more ships added with the ability we'll see players looking back towards other options.

Jerjerrod is a commander with a clear offensive and defensive benefit to many ships that can benefit players when there isn't a huge need for additional defensive power. Defensive upgrades have diminishing returns as they pile on more and more.

8 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

There are no super powerful imp only crew for cheap. As opposed to Rebel cheap amazing crew:

Leia - Shuts down slicer tools. Incredibly important, if not often used.

Ahsoka - Basically a gimme if you have 2 points. Incredibly powerful.

Lando - good, at the right cost.

Next release hopefully will amend that.

I disagree with the first part, but not the second. Imperial unique upgrades tend to be really expensive, even when powerful.

9 hours ago, pt106 said:

Superpowerful? Imp only? Cheap?

Tua.

Tua is a 7-10 points officer. Unless you put her on a ship just because she looks politically correct.

EDIT: if you want to put a powerful cheap imperial officer here why not Kallus?

The main problem with him is that his skill utility depends completely on the enemy built but for those 3 points I won't complain.

6 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

Absolute disagreement. The incredible variation of freedom she gives to your fleet enhances it incredibly.

I still posit her as always take, unless you really can't. Even 1 command ships benefit from her to fix their token management.

Very interesting about Ahsoka:

not a single instance in the Vassal World Cup. Not even in the one Garm list on which she would be superb.

I would propose that she is great with Garm and Pelta fleet baloney.