i still primarily play imps despite how "bad" they are because they have the most mind-screwing shenanigans. Rebels/scum practically have nothing in this category of tactics.

Pinning down a striker/phantom/adv sensors Deathrain is difficult, and can easily bite you in the butt if you guess wrong
Cruise missiles are easily the deadliest on our ships
QD/BD can "disengage" and still attack, throwing people off and getting free shots.
Defenders even post-nerf seem to always surprise people with how long it took to kill it, distracting from the flanker.
We have the most low cost, medium-level PS pilots that are all equally deadly so target priority is difficult.

Their issue is they are so sodding punishing for a misplay its insane. If i lose and it wasnt due to literally 0 evade dice rolls (i actually keep track of that) it was 90% of the time due to i misjudged a maneuver or my opponent actually expected my wonky maneuver this time and caught me. More often than not, a SINGLE maneuver causes this.

On the subject of imp-specific upgrades i dont get why we dont have a "second EPT" type slot to represent the military academy training. Its not an EPT slot as that could be broken, but its functionally the same thing just a different pool of cards unique to us. Grant Wedge this access since he was a defected tie pilot to fill the "somebody in another faction has your faction specific slot" clause the illicit/mech tends to have atm.
Can totally be introduced in the form of a Title (that can equip another title) still. Also enables proper control to keep some ships from having it in case some ideas for it would be way too much on a certain frame.

I play imps because you can do 3 ship builds where not one ship is a complete putz

It's not like Rebels were stuff like Biggs or the stress-whatever is completely worthless on their own, or in scum where you can only fit sunny bounder with nym and asajj

no, everyone in an empire list is a threat.

I've started playing SF more than ARCs because I am sick of Norra being the only competent person in her squad. Meanwhile, Backdraft Quickdraw and even their lowly delta pilot escort can kick *** regardless of whom they face.

I find your lack of faith disturbing

Wow some of these first answers are a figurative slap in the face

That too

Imps technically are the most balanced faction since we have a whopping 3 ships that are flatout terrible, and one of those recently got a facelift and is surprisingly deadly (Deathrain). Other two are the Lambda and Firespray.

Everything else has merit, its just finding the right comp. Internally, anyway. Its when they go against the "Trollolol i autoevade or automod my dice!" crap rebel/scum have become that they feel weak since if they get caught out of position ONCE they are screwed.
Its too difficult to get the same kind of action economy in Imps as it is in Rebel/Scum, or if not directly actions something that mitigates the need for it (innate rerolls for example). Best imps have is FCS access for that one and generally our ships handle stress better, but not multistress so even ptl is a problem.

1 hour ago, RufusDaMan said:

Not for a good game

Because choosing the faction that can bring to the table the biggest and hardest combo right now is not the main reason to choose a faction, for a vast number of xwing players at least.

And outside the ubercompetitive meta, playing with imperials is a perfectly fin, enjoyable and rewarding experience, quite different of the scum variant (both rebel and main scum).

And then... Because they are cool as ****.

1 hour ago, RufusDaMan said:

Doublepost

19 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

I play imps because you can do 3 ship builds where not one ship is a complete putz

I only play Rebels basically because I picked one faction when I started and have committed to that, more from a cost reduction effort than anything else. In hindsight, I'd probably have picked Imperials primarily for the reason above, regardless of the past or current meta states. I can put together a great list with 3 rebel ships, but I'm going to have to keep them close together to work and one or more of them are screwed if I don't.

It's not just about imperials. Faction identity has been watered down over the years. The devs aren't even really to blame here- the community always chants for giving their faction something they don't have. An existing example would be people wanting regen for the empire.

At the moment it basically comes down to theme and ship looks preferences.

Why Empire. This is the most balanced faction in the game, they have a strong and enjoyable visual identity. And of course : no shields, all guts.

11 minutes ago, Elavion said:

It's not just about imperials. Faction identity has been watered down over the years. The devs aren't even really to blame here- the community always chants for giving their faction something they don't have. An existing example would be people wanting regen for the empire.

That is a very slippery slope. If regen becomes availability to imperial aces ... they never fly the same way again.

2 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

Because

I want that on a shirt.

5 minutes ago, SEApocalypse said:

That is a very slippery slope. If regen becomes availability to imperial aces ... they never fly the same way again.

Oh, I'm rather confident it won't. Imperials will probably get a heavily-limited version of regen (restricted to a certain ship, for example).

im actually not convinced giving regen to imp aces would break them. It comes down to what slot does it hog up and imperial ships ALL (except SFs) have severely limited upgrade options.
Lets say its a mod, 2pts for an action to restore 1 shield to our max. Soontir wont care unless he sheds Autos for Shield Upgrade, Vader will lose EU, QD loses LWF, Inquis loses autos, Strikers cant have both this and a shield mod, Defenders would lose mk2 (depending on matchup that could be horrible), while Omega Leader would be laughing his regenning butt off as he WOULD benefit from it.

QD arguably would benefit from it since obviously it feeds into her ability, but w/o LWF she has a tendency to just go poof anyway. Plus, that eats her focus action (or roll) to regen, which makes her again easier to pin down and just 1shot. BD would benefit more than her since he tends to not be getting shot at several turns in a row, plenty of time to safely regen the shields w/o focus woes
Vader w/o EU is horrible. Hes so easy to pick off w/o it.
Inquis w/o Autos would go splat to Rey, RAC, or Dengar in 1-2 attacks even with the regen. Soontir is no different.

2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Some of the best 'budget aces' in the game - You may not be able to justify Soontir Fel in an environment laden with go-go-gadget bombs and autoblasters ignoring your green dice (it's not as bad as that, but I admit he's at a serious disadvantage compared to how he was), but for a comparative pittance of cost, pilots like Omega Leader are really nasty.

The 19-26 point all-up ships available to imperials are really good, to the point that you can easily fit in 4 ships worth the title of 'ace', even if they don't warp the game like Fenn Rau and co - and having four of them is a power all by themselves.

• Veteran Instincts/Ailerons/Frame Duchess
• Intensity/TIE V1 Valen Rudor
• Juke/Comms Relay Omega Leader
• Snap Shot Mauler Mithel
• Wired/Weapons Guidance Zeta Leader
• Trick Shot/Ailerons/Frame Pure Sabbac
• Targeting Synchroniser Epsilon Ace
• Swarm Leader Omega Ace

Are all really nasty when paired up and supported right, either as an 'ace swarm' in their own right, or as a third ship which is much more capable than a generic T-70 X-wing or equivalent.

Having come in 8th place at my first ever store championship, I would add A Ruthlessness/Twin Laser Turret Kestal to this. While clocking in at 31 points, she did the most damage of my list - only hitting myself 4 times, purposefully, to get a shot off with Quickdraw.

Just one reason

2 hours ago, Lightrock said:

You don't "pick Imperial" or "pick Rebel". You pick a jouster list, an ace list, a bomber list etc, depending what fits your playstyle.

Pffft

You obviously have no concept of loyalty.

Why choose, Imperials?

Because...Imperials

54 minutes ago, wurms said:

Pffft

You obviously have no concept of loyalty.

Why choose, Imperials?

Because...Imperials

Says the guy who would betray the Republic for some old man dressed in black robes.

2 hours ago, Elavion said:

It's not just about imperials. Faction identity has been watered down over the years. The devs aren't even really to blame here- the community always chants for giving their faction something they don't have. An existing example would be people wanting regen for the empire.

At the moment it basically comes down to theme and ship looks preferences.

The whole game has been watered down to a collectible card game where incidental pretty looking ships that were never in the films and/or have very little connection to Star Wars zoom about in a game with an FAQ that's almost as long as the rules. My play group disintegrated for those reasons. I haven't been able to get a game in months. Fortunately there's always historical gaming and Armada.

Bah.

53 minutes ago, The Penguin UK said:

Bah.

To become a better player.

The Empire has some very well balanced ships, namely the TIE/SF's and Defenders. They also have strong, affordable aces like The Inquisitor and Omega Leader. But, they have nothing overly powerful or broken (I think Quickdraw is the closest thing we have to broken at the moment. A nice approach with Quickdraw and little dice luck can seal the game in the opening round).

But they are much less forgiving than other factions. Decision making is pivotal, you will lose ships in a single round of bad greens, you can't afford not to take actions, positioning is all important.

I switched to Empire about a year ago. I've had some crushing defeats, some bad luck, but also some great results, and when I win, I know it was due to my flying (and yes, sometimes the green dice do just bail you out ).

And the TIE/SF is simply a beautifully balanced ship that rewards good flying. Can't wait to put a gunboat alongside them, pure Nirvana.

TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!

TBH I think what it comes down too is almost all the factions are losing their "faction identity," and really the game is devolving into

"combo-wing" instead of x-wing.

What made the original starcraft so great? It's that each civ played and felt so different. We had that initially, but wave by wave it's going away.

Turns out imps have the least broken combos, currently, so less people play them, so they don't show up as much in tourney cuts.

Plus, harpoon missiles? wtf? Sure it might put jankyard rebels in their place but it totally puts the nail in the coffin on the unique imperial tie swarm archetype.

2 hours ago, DarthEnderX said:

TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!

That just sounded like a TIE Fighter flying by!