Still Twitter only....

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/7/31/the-essential-galactic-empire/

Seems it is not in the running, but Admiral Sloane is my choice.

Yay! Lots more high quality images to replace unboxing screen caps in my card browser!

Sloane seems great. I'm still not sold on Ruthless being Empire. I could see it being First order or maybe even Scum. It seems more scummy than fearless.

The only hope for the Rebellion is to draw out the Emperor from the safety of his throne room.

That’s a tough call between Sloane and Palpatine but I am leaning towards Sloane. Just seems more imperial for revenge vs Palp being a possible defense boost. Like he ever cared about defending anything other than himself.

They're all pretty awesome, but the fifth brother gets my vote. Spend the charge on your gunner and keep your focus for defense.

I guess the only issue with it compared to Palp and Sloane is the frequency of use. There are a lot more crew carriers than gunner carriers, so the others may get you more mileage.

The ESSENCE of the Empire is Vader. But he couldn't be the upgrade card because then no one could fly him.

I was torn between Sloane and Tarkin while reading the article. Then saw Tarkin was removed from contention, so was definitely going to vote Sloane. Then accidentally voted for Palpatine because I have fat fingers. Ugh.

I like the idea of Tarkin picking a target, spreading out locks to everyone, and then all (4 focused and locked TIE Bombers with proton rockets!) bringing hellfire against his mark. Rinse (the blood off your opponent). Repeat.

Vote Bro Force!

1 minute ago, thomedwards said:

Rinse (the blood off your opponent). Repeat.

Why would you clean their corpse?

From the Article: "Easily one of the most pivotal figures in the Galactic Civil War, Grand Moff Wilhelm Tarkin..."

Uh... isn't his name Wilhuff Tarkin?

Maybe part of his doctrine was that, if possible, all troopers must give out an iconic death cry when shot.

Update: looks like they caught their naming mistake. It was fun to read while it lasted.

28 minutes ago, Scum4Life said:

Sloane seems great. I'm still not sold on Ruthless being Empire.

I disagree

I’d prefer ruthless to win just because it would be interesting to see if any imperial player could find a worthwhile use of it.

8 minutes ago, Kdubb said:

I’d prefer ruthless to win just because it would be interesting to see if any imperial player could find a worthwhile use of it.

Deathfire is cheap, has lots of hull, and doesn't mind getting in close and blowing up ?

13 minutes ago, Kdubb said:

I’d prefer ruthless to win just because it would be interesting to see if any imperial player could find a worthwhile use of it.

Where is Fels Wrath when you need him?

Sloane was same level as ruthless of representing the essence of the imperial game. Sloane was more efficient to me, and the essence of the empire is efficiency for me, so she got my vote.

If the question was "what represent the empire in star wars" I would obviously vote for the senate

12 hours ago, Bad Idea Comics said:

The ESSENCE of the Empire is Vader. But he couldn't be the upgrade card because then no one could fly him.

Indeed. He's such an iconic pilot that locking him into your squad as an upgrade would really cripple Imperial Players.

The Emperor is iconic and really powerful but he's massively squad-warping; if he's picked you must field him which means you must field a two-crew ship (Lambda/Reaper/Decimator) which kind of buggers over anyone wanting to field triple aces, or a swarm of TIE bombers, or...well, anything but the 2.0 successor to Palp Aces, really.

Sloane is better - she's 10 points, and unlike Tarkin or Rees doesn't have any action prerequisites - she could also be put on a TIE Phantom if you were so inclined, and rerolls are still nice (if harder to come by) on higher PS, non-lock-capable aces (go, on, pull a talon roll in front of Pure Sabbac. I dare you).

Ruthlessness is a nice upgrade, but I think it pulls you far more towards a swarm or heavy swarm; unwieldy big ships like decimators or punishers can't reliably be at range 1 of an enemy, whilst 66+ point aces don't really want to take damage from their own mates' fire. 30-40 point ships like TIE fighters, TIE Advanced Prototypes and TIE strikers turn up in sufficient numbers to swarm an opponent, and can afford to trade hit points to get kills faster with collateral damage.

Personally, I think Fifth Brother is awesome, but that's from the perspective of strikers aces who've just gained a gunner slot and can apparently now get the force in it.

Some of these options definitely seem a bit constraining if picked. Palp needs a 2-crew ship and Fifth Brother needs a gunner slot. I'd love to see Ruthless chosen as it's a card I think may have potential, I just can't figure out exactly how yet! It's also the card that pushes more of a swarm style of play which would be good to see.

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Ruthlessness is a nice upgrade, but I think it pulls you far more towards a swarm or heavy swarm; unwieldy big ships like decimators or punishers can't reliably be at range 1 of an enemy, whilst 66+ point aces don't really want to take damage from their own mates' fire. 30-40 point ships like TIE fighters, TIE Advanced Prototypes and TIE strikers turn up in sufficient numbers to swarm an opponent, and can afford to trade hit points to get kills faster with collateral damage.

And Sloan doesn't? The two actually kind of synergise quite well with each other.

1 hour ago, Mward1984 said:

And Sloan doesn't? The two actually kind of synergise quite well with each other.

They do. But Sloane works if the enemy is stressed for any reason so if the enemy is having to pull red moves or linked actions to keep its guns pointed the right way (as might be expected when engaging highly squirrely aces or Phantoms), then Sloane triggers then, too.

But yes, Sloane in a Lambda escorted by a shed-tonne of TIE fighters is no bad idea. You can pack a pretty well equipped Sloane Shuttle and Five Ruthless Black Squadron Aces.

9 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

They do. But Sloane works if the enemy is stressed for any reason so if the enemy is having to pull red moves or linked actions to keep its guns pointed the right way (as might be expected when engaging highly squirrely aces or Phantoms), then Sloane triggers then, too.

But yes, Sloane in a Lambda escorted by a shed-tonne of TIE fighters is no bad idea. You can pack a pretty well equipped Sloane Shuttle and Five Ruthless Black Squadron Aces.

Sloane and Ciena on a Lambda with Predator Fel and two Crack-Saber Squadrons might be interesting.

15 hours ago, jwilliamson12 said:

They're all pretty awesome, but the fifth brother gets my vote. Spend the charge on your gunner and keep your focus for defense.

I guess the only issue with it compared to Palp and Sloane is the frequency of use. There are a lot more crew carriers than gunner carriers, so the others may get you more mileage.

That’s actually not true. There are 5 ships with a gunner slot compared to 4 with crew and only 3 with double crew.

So Fifth Bro is a decent option and goes on a bunch of ships you pretty much never see in 1.0 - Aggressor, Bomber, Punisher and Striker with the Decimator being the other but is a pretty common ship in 1.0.

I would probably vote for Sloane because she seems super interesting but both her and Palpatine are really going to limit the types of Imperial lists you are likely to see.

TBH, I surprised FFG are doing this voting thing at all. Yeah it’s funny that all the Rebel lists need to use Leia but it’s also a really terrible and limiting way to showcase 2.0 in the first major event. Sure previous Coruscant events have had the fan involvement, but those were events of 8 people.

Has anyone realised Leia sort of counters Sloane as well. So that might be nice to see. And two female Commander crew.

1 hour ago, DodgingArcs said:

That’s  actually not true. There are 5 ships with a gunner  slot compared to 4 with crew and only 3 with double crew.       

I completely looked over the Bomber and Punisber. Must have got lost in their other 24 slots they have. So yeah, it does have better options than I thought.

Honestly, I’m happy with any/all of those listed.