Purely based on your preferences and playstyle. Also try to make it a more general list instead of ship specific.
REBELS -
General Rieekan
General Dodonna
Admiral Ackbar
Commander Sato
Mon Mothma
Garm Bel Iblis
General Madine
General Cracken
EMPIRE -
Moff Jerjerrod
Admiral Motti
Admiral Screed
Darth Vader
Admiral Ozzel
Admiral Konstantine
Grand Moff Tarkin
General Tagge
Rebels:
Rieekan (boo)
Any order of the next 6
Sato always last.
Empire
1. Moff J
2. Motti
3. Screed, Vader, Ozzel
6. Tarkin
7. Tagge
Wave 7 Admiral, Wave 8 Admiral, Wave 9 Admiral
...
...
...
Last. Konstantine
REBELS -
With the exception of the crowning defensive champion that is Admiral Rieekan, Rebels feature nearly all of the best offensively-minded commanders in the game on a per-point basis. Madine falls out of the top, in my opinion, due to the fact that very few rebel ships currently need his ability (though the MC80 Liberty is a clear exception). Garm has simply been outclassed by the numerous Rebel token and command generators. Cracken has a very interesting ability, but seems very locked into specific play styles and provides no benefit against squadrons (unlike Rieekan and Mon Mothma).
EMPIRE -
Motti takes the top spot by enabling the widest variety of Imperial list designs and play styles with his additional hull allowing for riskier offensive and defensive strategies. Immediately after him is Admiral Screed, the best offensive commander in the game. After those two, the next are Ozzel and Jerjerrod with their maneuver phase shenanigans, and which is better is entirely a matter of which ships are in your fleet and what your plan is for using them. Sadly, Vader comes in a distant 4th and even then is debatable. After him Imperials have to specifically design entire lists to maximize any use of the remaining commanders to be efficient.
What is interesting to me is that Imperials now have three really powerful and useable admirals in the <25 point range (Sloane, Motti and Jerry). They also have Ozzell, Tagge, Konstantine and Screed in this bracket. Only Vader and Tarkin go above this, and neither is particularly well thought of.
Where as Rebels only really have Dodonna at the "cheap" end, and he isn't transformative. Sure he had some niche applications but mostly you take him because hes cheap. Moving up from there you have Garm and Craken who are pretty specialised and not generally "powerful *", and the main rebel commanders are 30 points plus. Even then you really need to build around your 30+ point rebel to make your list work. EG no MC80s for mothma.
Imps are cheap generalists, Rebels are expensive specialists?
* Yes I know people have won nationals with Garm, I'm talking very generally!
Well, with the possible exception of Rieekan (due to current synergies), I'm hard pressed to justify a 30+ points commander. Usually as easy as that.
So while I love Vader, I think he's too expensive. Same with Tarkin and Ackbar (and Leia).
So rebels have 2 good commanders, Dodonna and Rieekan.
Imps have several strong cheapies, Jerjer, Motti, and Screed all come to mind. Sloane looks promising, but too early to tell for sure.
Ozzel too, but he's kind of 2nd tier comapred to the 3 above.
That's not to say there aren't some cheap duds in there. GARM. Konstnatine. Tagge.
Oh, hey, I got ninja'd and didn't even realize it. Guess I will go seal the breach.
http://xwingtactics.blogspot.com/2017/05/wave-5-ranking-commanders.html
Quote
Ω Tier
1) General Rieekan (+1 Tier) - Guess who earned himself a field promotion at Worlds? Rieekan has gone from being merely the best commander, to absolutely dominating the competition. Not bad for a Zombie. With the new Corellian Conflict squadrons, Yavaris, Relay, and other upgrades, he allows for a different game to be played. All hail Zombie Lord Rieekan!
S Tier
2) Moff Jerjerrod (New Commander) - The hot new kid on the block. His maneuver ability helps just about any ship in the Imperial navy, specifically the bigger, angrier ones.3) Admiral Ackbar (+2 Tiers) - Rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated. Has he gained any new tools? Not really. He just quietly continues to do very well, albeit in the shadow of Rieekan.
A Tier
4) Admiral Motti (-1 Tier) - The Imperial baseline commander. Nothing has really changed for him, just the rest of the field leapfrogging ahead. He continues to be quietly excellent in just about any list.5) General Madine (+1 Tier) - Some consider him necessary to make the Liberty sing, and he helps other fast moving, navigating ships as well.
6) General Dodonna (No change) - Continues to be an excellent Rebel choice for low point costs. Often, his special ability is just gravy compared to getting 10 or more extra points for your list.
7) Admiral Ozzel (No change) - This guy still scares me when he's across the board from me. He's good for the same reason Dodonna is good, but his ability affect navigation, which is an ISD / GSD / Raider / Arquiten staple. Oh, I just named the four best Imperial combat ships.
B Tier8) Darth Vader (+1 Tier) - The Dark Lord of the Sith is looking better and better these days with new Red dice toys for him to reroll. Plus, there are other Escorts for the Empire that don't require him hopping in an over-priced fighter to serve as a meat shield. He is expensive though.
9) Mon Mothma (No Change) - Being the same cost as Rieekan, you almost have to compare the two. She's better at keeping small ships from dying, and he's better at letting them contribute after they inevitably die anyway. She's not bad, but she's not game breaking, and she does nothing for Squadrons and that's kinda what is big these days.
10) Admiral Screed (-2 Tiers) - With so many ways to reroll dice, why do you need to discard one? Still, he sees his uses, and pops up in Imperial lists from time to time.
11) General Cracken (+1 Tier) - Did someone call for a less expensive Mon Mothma? Again, nothing for Large ships or Squadrons, and you have to go speed 3 or he doesn't function. There are lists that prefer him over Mon Mothma, so same tier.
C Tier12) Commander Sato (New Commander) - The other new hotness. Requires squadrons in just the right place to work. At most adds .50 average damage before dice modifications (Red or Blue > Black). Ackbar adds 1.50 damage, for comparison. Not to say he is unusable, but you have to build your list entirely around his gimmick, especially when you consider his cost.
13) Grand Moff Tarkin (+1 Tier) - Suffers from being just too expensive when his ability wants to vomit points on ships. And then on squadrons. Wonderful Corellian Conflict Commander, but at 400 points he is just too high priced to work well.
14) Garm Bel Iblis (No Change) - The "Worst" Rebel commander isn't overcosted, just underappreciated. Like the poor man's Tarkin, but ironically works best on Medium and Large base ships, which don't really get as much love these days for the Rebellion.
D Tier15) Admiral Konstantine (No Change) - Still bad. Still have to build your list around him. At least now with Tua you can pimp out a single VSD or Interdictor to be somewhat survivable.
F Tier
16) General Tagge (-3 Tiers) - Nowhere near as good as previously advertised, and our biggest fall of Wave 5. Did I mention accuracy lists are his arch nemesis? Guess what everyone is bringing to deal with Flotillas? Timing your opponents biggest hits to land on Round 2 and Round 4 is difficult.
Edited by BiggsIRL
REBELS -
General Dodonna - His ability works with every fleet and he is a cheap admiral. This makes him a solid choice in any fleet.
General Rieekan - Although defending champ and powerful, I do feel he plays better to certain list forms. However his ability works on all ships, so he is a great General(ist).
Admiral Ackbar - Another Admiral that can see play in many lists. Only a few ships don't play to his ability so he sees a good level of use.
Leia Organa - Although expensive, its sorta like having Captain Antillies on every ship. What is bad about your chosen command being that much more powerful. Time will tell.
Commander Sato - Generally an Admiral that wants to use fast squadrons (A-wings) to maximise his potential. The ability to swap red dice with harder hitting black at range sees some good use.
Mon Mothma - The queen of the faster ships, she is a great tool for getting the most out of your evades when you intend to get into a fight and then get out.
General Madine - Not a bad choice for having some additional options when trying to navigate. Currently I find this is not really an issue I need correcting with most Rebel ships.
General Cracken - Best used with Assault Frigates and TRC Corvettes, he is of limited use. Other ships like the Nebulon-B can benefit, but they are having to advance very quickly with narrow arcs.
Garm Bel Iblis - Currently he is my least used Admiral. I generally find his first turn ability is fairly wasted. That may just be my early turn banking tokens playstyle though.
EMPIRE -
Moff Jerjerrod - Like many, this Admiral has seen my cheese wedges getting off some insane last minute course corrections to put enemies in a spot they don't want to be.
Admiral Sloane - Based on my own generic squadron heavy playstyle, I will find it very hard not to use this Admiral in many cases.
Admiral Ozzel - My most used Admiral due to cost and the ability to adjust up and down my move scale in a hurry. Jerjerrod has sorta moved him out of this spot now.
Admiral Motti - A hard ability to ignore. Usable in any list.
Darth Vader - Has saved my bacon on several otherwise terrible rolls. A great choice for the commander who is going to be ultra aggressive.
Admiral Screed - the king of the black dice. Great, but I find I am not using too many cards that require a critical roll on my ships these days.
Grand Moff Tarkin - I like him in every way. He is just too **** expensive to justify. I must try to use him more though.
Admiral Konstantine - Whats a medium ship? Seriously though, maybe once the Light Carrier comes out I will try him again.
General Tagge - So far I havn't managed to use his ability once. Boarding parties and the like may see him rise in use however. Keep an eye on him.
What am I missing about Moff Jerjerrod?sure that extra yaw is nice but the damage is brutal, seems to me it just helps you loose faster, so you might only want to use it once or twice a game. Figures to me just having a navigate command when needed or Nav team would be a better idea.
8 minutes ago, Payens said:What am I missing about Moff Jerjerrod?sure that extra yaw is nice but the damage is brutal, seems to me it just helps you loose faster, so you might only want to use it once or twice a game. Figures to me just having a navigate command when needed or Nav team would be a better idea.
No.
The whole point of Jerjerod is that he lets you do OTHER STUFF instead of just Navs. At the very least you can just spam Eng and still come out ahead in terms of maneuverability.
Anyway; try making the Demo ET 180 (almost) or see the ISD do an inside speed 3 turn or just the old speed 3, yaw 2 yaw 1-2 yaw 1-2 thing (with a Nav command). Or the speed 3-4 Raider megaturns. Or the Arquitens dance.
In a game where positioning is so important, Jerjer truly shines.
Edited by Green Knight6 minutes ago, Payens said:What am I missing about Moff Jerjerrod?sure that extra yaw is nice but the damage is brutal, seems to me it just helps you loose faster, so you might only want to use it once or twice a game. Figures to me just having a navigate command when needed or Nav team would be a better idea.
Relatedly: yes, ONE OR TWICE a game, per ship, if that. But that lets you get out of enemy arcs, double-arc anything and/or re-engaged with a ship that would otherwise be out of the fight for the rest of the game.
9 minutes ago, Payens said:What am I missing about Moff Jerjerrod?sure that extra yaw is nice but the damage is brutal, seems to me it just helps you loose faster, so you might only want to use it once or twice a game. Figures to me just having a navigate command when needed or Nav team would be a better idea.
You aren't taking damage directly to the hull are you?
Thank you CaribbeanNinja for some reason I always read that as a damage card which if you had full shields I see that could just be a shield on the shipipelines that changes things. Now makes way more sense.
14 minutes ago, Payens said:What am I missing about Moff Jerjerrod?sure that extra yaw is nice but the damage is brutal, seems to me it just helps you loose faster, so you might only want to use it once or twice a game. Figures to me just having a navigate command when needed or Nav team would be a better idea.
Well considering I can just lose a shield to turn my nose at my target that may otherwise have blown past me for the game, it is quite awesome. He makes my ISDs turn harder then CR90s with a nav command. A few of my recent Corellian Conflict games have seen this unexpected high speed sharp turn change the field at a critical moment.
1 minute ago, Payens said:Thank you CaribbeanNinja for some reason I always read that as a damage card which if you had full shields I see that could just be a shield on the shipipelines that changes things. Now makes way more sense.
I did it too. However I never did it with Boba.
The worst: I resolved Crew Panic wrong since the beginning until... A week ago, maybe? Man, that were years...
1 hour ago, BiggsIRL said:She's not bad, but she's not game breaking, and she does nothing for Squadrons and that's kinda what is big these days.
MM makes those redundant BCC useless. Ever fish for those hit/crits and have them roll to blanks? And she completely shuts down Rhymer. Move those squads in if you want damage.
1 minute ago, Undeadguy said:MM makes those redundant BCC useless. Ever fish for those hit/crits and have them roll to blanks? And she completely shuts down Rhymer. Move those squads in if you want damage.
If she breaks Rhymer and Rhymer "is"a game breaker... what it becomes her?
1 minute ago, ovinomanc3r said:If she breaks Rhymer and Rhymer "is"a game breaker... what it becomes her?
5th place at Worlds. MM is amazing at dealing with squads so you don't need to take any.
Rebels--
Mothma
Rieekan/Dodonna
Madine
Ackbar
Sato
Garm 
Cracken
Leia remains to be seen whether she's worth that staggering price point.
Empire--
Sloane/Jerjerrod
Motti
Screed
Vader
Ozzel
Konstantine
Tarkin
Tagge
35 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:MM makes those redundant BCC useless. Ever fish for those hit/crits and have them roll to blanks? And she completely shuts down Rhymer. Move those squads in if you want damage.
Thank you! Dont worry I yelled at him.
I am surprised to find Madine so far down on many of these lists. He is amazing for a variety of ships to keep their arcs pointed where they need to go, or to drastically change speeds and be somewhere your opponent never expected. I know OP said no ships.. but I run double mc30 that span nav commands and they love him.. but so many other ships can use him too. The one drawback is you need that nav command to trigger him so maybe that moves him down the list as more niche.
Definitely Dodonna for cheapness. I have him in a variety of fleets and almost never remember to even use his ability (why is that so hard to remember for me???) He's just there because he's cheap.
Rieekan (hiss, so boring)
Dodonna
Mothma
Madine
Ackbar
Cracken
Sato
Garm
Jerjerrod
Vader/screed
Ozzel
Motti (the I technically need a commander in my list per the rules choice when nothing else has a spoken benefit as imp commanders are just less good than rebel ones on the whole)
Tarkin
Tagge
Konstantine
(R)General Rieekan
(R)General Dodonna
(R)Mon Mothma
(E)Admiral Motti
(R)Admiral Ackbar
(E)Moff Jerjerrod
(E)Admiral Screed
(R)Commander Sato
(R)General Madine
(E)Admiral Ozzel
(E)Grand Moff Tarkin
(R)General Cracken
(R)Garm Bel Iblis
(E)Darth Vader
(E)Admiral Konstantine
(E)General Tagge
Riekaan - No comment needed.
Dodonna - Cheap. Works in every fleet without extra investment. Nice ability.
Mon Mothma - Medium Price. Only for ships with evade, which a lot of Rebel ships have. Very good ability.
Motti - Cheap. Nice ability. Always works without extra investment. Next to Bel Iblis the only admiral that gives a bigger boost to bigger ships.
Ackbar - Expensive. Ridiculously good ability. Not for Nebulon-B or Liberty.
Jerjerrod - Cheap. Very good ability that needs Engineering commands.
Screed - Cheap. When ships really need that critical.
Sato - Expensive. Need squadrons. Very versatile ability. Leading shots at long range. APT at long range.
Madine - Needs you to spam Nav commands. Often not needed if you spam Nav commands anyway.
Ozzel - Cheap. ...
Takin - Expensive. Ability nice but not nice enough for the price. Gets better with more ships.
Cracken - Only smaller ships. Only speed 3. Useful in a very limited subset of Fleets.
Garm - The opposite of Cracken. Wants larger ships.
Vader - Expensive. Ability has extra cost. Only really works with Arquitens.
Konstantine - *Sigh*. Fun ability that is easily offset.
Tagge - Well ... this one just needs an errata.
On 05/22/2017 at 9:50 AM, Payens said:What am I missing about Moff Jerjerrod?sure that extra yaw is nice but the damage is brutal, seems to me it just helps you loose faster, so you might only want to use it once or twice a game. Figures to me just having a navigate command when needed or Nav team would be a better idea.
You are missing everything. In a carrier Fleet the carriers do not need to use navigation commands to get to wherever they want to go. This game is almost entirely about maneuvering and he enables that like no other.
I suggest trying him and you'll see how powerful he is, and the damage, if you know what you are doing, rarely has an effect on the game.
REBELS -
General Rieekan - he is that annoying to play against.
General Dodonna - Cheap and a very dangerous ability
Admiral Ackbar - Nothing like more dice
Mon Mothma - Solid keeps all your rebel tokens usable.
Garm Bel Iblis - If you like big command ships he's your man
General Madine - Limits your commands a bit to get the most out of him
General Cracken - Niche fleet that can work but not for everyone
Commander Sato - Hard to find the right balance to get the most out of
EMPIRE -
Moff Jerjerrod - Makes stuff dance in space. Does not require commands to do it.
Admiral Motti - Solid but boring
Darth Vader - Red dice rolling fleets love this guy.
Admiral Ozzel - Positioning and timing are key but he gets it done
Admiral Screed - Down from my #1 as less ordinance fleets are now a thing.
Admiral Konstantine - Hoping the Quasar makes him more potent.
Grand Moff Tarkin - I love the guy but he's dang pricey
General Tagge - Haven't found a niche yet for him
1 hour ago, Kushielrdf said:REBELS -
General Rieekan - he is that annoying to play against.
General Dodonna - Cheap and a very dangerous ability
Admiral Ackbar - Nothing like more dice
Mon Mothma - Solid keeps all your rebel tokens usable.
Garm Bel Iblis - If you like big command ships he's your man
General Madine - Limits your commands a bit to get the most out of him
General Cracken - Niche fleet that can work but not for everyone
Commander Sato - Hard to find the right balance to get the most out of
EMPIRE -
Moff Jerjerrod - Makes stuff dance in space. Does not require commands to do it.
Admiral Motti - Solid but boring
Darth Vader - Red dice rolling fleets love this guy.
Admiral Ozzel - Positioning and timing are key but he gets it done
Admiral Screed - Down from my #1 as less ordinance fleets are now a thing.
Admiral Konstantine - Hoping the Quasar makes him more potent.
Grand Moff Tarkin - I love the guy but he's dang pricey
General Tagge - Haven't found a niche yet for him
Excellent list IMO. Cosigned.