X-Wing/Tactics/Empire

"Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral. I want that ship, not excuses"

– Darth Vader

This is your galaxy!

Empire ships are dominated by the general mentality of "numbers over quality, and HUGE FUCKING CAPITAL SHIPS". Most non-LN non-SA non-IN TIE Fighters are prototypes or limited runs created in response to the general fighter superiority and hit/run tactics of the Rebel Alliance, with each being rejected by Moffs in favor of just building a bigger capital ship or superweapon or were shut down and destroyed/captured by Rebels with only a small number surviving. The combination of cheap low rank soldiers and fighters with powerful heavy weapons and vehicles allowed the Empire to control the bulk of the galaxy with a tighter grip than any government had previously had and expand extremely quickly whenever possible. On the downside, it leaves them vulnerable to "stateless" actors who could jump in, destroy less potent opposition, and leave without any territory to go after in a counter attack.

According to the Empire's military philosophy, ships are cheap, and life is cheaper. TIE Fighters have solar panels for wings which reduce the energy requirements to maintain the already cheap Twin Ion Engine that gives the ship its name. Generally armed only with semi-powerful laser cannons, decent sensors, absolutely no life-support systems, no combat shields, and no hyperdrive capacity as well as a minimum number of any moving parts in the ship, the TIE Fighter is reliable but an absolute death trap in combat with extreme maneuverability as its only real defense. Each pilot's suit is entirely self-contained and is their only protection from the vacuum of space, and pilots can't go anywhere or function for long before dying of suffocation or dehydration without a ship such as a Star Destroyer or Gozanti Cruiser to pick them up and ferry them. This was intended to prevent pilots from going rogue, since if some hotshot decided to go off the reservation it was only a matter of time before he had to dock with an Imperial ship and face justice for his actions.

In general, customization of craft in the Empire is very rare as ships are constantly replaced and military discipline prevents ideas of individuality. The exception is any Imperial who gets 10-20 confirmed kills (different requirement by squadron) earns the right to have red stripes (called "blood stripes") put on their assigned ships before launch, and members of elite groups (such as the Imperial Guard) have special markings as well. As a result of this for the longest time Imperial ships in-game had little in the way of upgrade slots compared to the Rebels, though later expansions have closed the gap somewhat. After the death of Emperor "Can't Peeve The Sheev" Palpatine, the Empire split into multiple "Imperial Remnant" factions which initially fought the New Republic, then each other for dominance. Innovation ceased and few new designs were seen (though many late designs, like the Scimitar bomber, would fully replace their predecessor in the better off factions), and factions began customizing their armor and vehicles as replacements became rare or nonexistent.

In 1970's-1990's canon, only late Imperial Remnants had non-humans due to desperation and shifting policies as they became less evil and more Lawful Neutral. George Lucas's official notes for EU writers established there were female Stormtroopers away from the Death Star, but writers took the stance they're rare and/or the armor makes everyone look the same so nobody can really tell unless they speak. Vader's own 501st remained purely Jango Fett clones while the rest of the Empire was recruits, conscripts and clones based on inferior fathers. Admiral Daala and Admiral Thrawn were notable for being exceptions as a woman and alien respectively. This Empire became the Empire of the Hand after the Remnant wars.

In newer canon, the Empire mostly recruit humans with some aliens mixed in, no clones at all after a certain point, and women are seen among the men in all ranks and corps. This Empire becomes the First Order after the Remnant wars.

• Mechanically, the Empire puts emphasis on one big ship telling a bunch of small ships what to do, which is reflected in most of its faction-exclusive upgrades.

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  Emperor Sheev.

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  Darth Vader.

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  Grand Moff Tarkin with an Imperial General.

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  Imperial Admirals and the changing of the guard.

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  An Emperor's Hand agent.

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  An Inquisitor.

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  The Empire-exclusive Talent Ruthless sums up the faction and /swg/'s masturbation fantasies.

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  There are exceptions. Some Imperial officers are actually decent people. Stick her on a shuttle with some TIE Interceptors to keep your opponent guessing.

Why play the Galactic Empire

The Empire are best known for their capital ships which were, pound for pound, the most powerful in the galaxy... not a help on this scale though, so be prepared to rely on numbers and a few expensive ships. Pros

• Cheap ships are great for swarms
• Have a decent selection of force using crew upgrade cards
• What expensive ships they have tend to be good
• Again, really good selection of ships with lot of options
• Only generic force users this side of Order 66.
• You really, really love Ion Engines

Cons

• Target locks not standard, along with torpedoes and missiles on some fighters.
• Imperial ships tend to disfavor shields

Ships

TIE/LN Fighter

The Empire's main ship, literally designated the "TIE Line Fighter". Extraordinarily cheap in-universe, with the few pilots lucky enough to survive a fight being given entirely new fighters rather than repaired ones.

Its defense and turning are on par with the A-Wings though it isn't as fast, falling short on speed in a straight line. Firepower is average. As this ship is cannon fodder, it can't equip any ship upgrades beside modifications.

• As the least expensive ship in the game and with a lot of pilots that emphasize sticking together, it is no wonder the TIE swarm was once the most infuriating thing you can unleash on someone. Since then a lot of anti-swarm options have made their way into the game, but the TIE swarm is still the stock Empire build.
• The Battle of Yavin Scenario Pack reintroduces 1.0 pilots and remixes current ones as new tarot card sized standard loadouts. Although they cannot be customized, the new pilots are both cheap and loaded to the teeth with upgrades.

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  Howlrunner.

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  Not exactly very promising on the whole "keeps you alive in space" thing.

Pilots

• Academy Pilot: Cheapest pilot in the game. Initiative 1. This is most of what you are taking if you run a maximum numbers TIE swarm.
• "Wampa": Bottom initiative pilot with the ability to roll an extra attack die if he hasn't defended in the same round. Makes for a nice decoy.
• "Wampa": (BoY) Same effect as his vanilla loadout, but comes packed with Elusive and the exclusive talent Vengeful. If a friendly limited ship at Range 0-3 dies, Wampa can either ditch a red token or refresh a charge. This makes his decoy potential jump dramatically since your opponent is forced to chose between shooting him or letting his extra damage shot refresh by killing his wingmate.
• Obsidian Squadron Pilot: An elite group of TIE Fighters which chased the Millennium Falcon through the asteroid field, then out of Cloud City, and survived the Battle of Endor. Academy Pilot but with a bump in Initiative and cost.
• Night Beast: Actual name Dodson Makraven, second in command of Obsidian Squadron and known for epic hangovers on leave. After executing a blue maneuver, you may perform a free Focus action.
• Black Squadron Ace: Vader's own TIE Squadron, were looking pretty good until they all died horribly when the Death Star blew up. Middle Initiative, can take a Talent.
• Valen Rudor: The Imperial test pilot/ace who keeps getting his ship stolen or shot down by the crew of the Ghost on the Rebels TV show. After you or a nearby friendly defend, you may perform a free action.
• Magna Tolvan: (H&A2) Imperial commander turned defector and Doctor Aphra's sort of girlfriend both of which are treasonous offenses. She operates like Tycho with actions while stressed, but at Int 3 and limited to white actions only.
• Yrica Quell: (H&A2) Another traitor Imperial pilot turned Rebel defector, this time from the Alphabet Squadron books. Her effect is simple. After fully executing a maneuver, you can get a lock on any enemy within your bullseye.
• Seyn Marana: An Inferno Squadron pilot who mercifully died before she would have had to appear in EAfront II. Can cancel all her Attack Dice results when attacking, and if there's a Critical in the results, she inflicts an automatic facedown card to whoever he's shooting at. Good for opening up units so that Gideon Hask gets his bonus die or Del Meeko to use his ability.
• Del Meeko: Inferno Three. Actually had a somewhat believable character arc in EAfront II. He allows friendly ships to reroll a defense die if the attacker is damaged.
• Gideon Hask: Inferno Two, who is weirdly open about his desire to see his CO die so he can take her place. He gets an extra attack die against damaged ships.
• Iden Versio: Inferno One, and protagonist of EAfront II. Established early on as a die-hard supporter of the Empire with a pronounced hatred of the whiny and entitled Rebels. She even supported Operation: Cinder in principle until she learned her homeworld was was on the chopping block. Her choice to defect at that point paints her as a very unsympathetic person whose apparent change of heart is motivated entirely by self-interest. She then becomes a cheerleader to the very same Rebel Alliance she had regarded as vermin. Her single-use ability is actually pretty decent for running TIE/ln squads, where she can actually prevent one from receiving all damage from one source. Superb for preventing somebody from getting mulched by Wedge Antilles in the first combat round.
• Backstabber: (BoY) Vader's trench run wingman that gets atomized by Han Solo, returning from 1.0 after a long absence. His standardized loadout includes a hull upgrade (Han did score a direct hit after all), Disciplined, Crack Shot, and Afterburners. The real standout is his ability, which he shares with the Battle of Yavin version of Mauler Mithel. If Mauler or Darth Vader is in Backstabber's side arc at Range 0-1, Backstabber gets to roll an additional attack die. This isn't limited to the scenario pack versions of Mauler or Vader, either.
• Mauler Mithel: Vader's other wingman. Utters the phrase "Look out" before he is shot by the Millennium Falcon and runs into Vader. Rolls an additional Attack Die at Range 1, so at that distance he has the same attack power as an X-Wing.
• Mauler Mithel (BoY) Mauler's standardized loadout makes him almost identical to Backstabber with some minor talent differences. Obviously, his pilot ability now refers to being in proximity to Backstabber and/or Vader. Plus, the Disciplined and Crack Shot combo is instead replaced with Predator, alluding to Mauler's panic after seeing his wingman get ganked by what amounts to a space trucker. He still gets the aforementioned Hull Upgrade and Afterburners, which makes him an attractive choice even without his typical squadron to round out any list.
• "Scourge" Skutu: An NPC in the West End Star Wars RPG. He gets an extra attack die against ships in his bullseye arc.
• Howlrunner: A woman named Civé Rashon, and leader of Obsidian Squadron. Pilot leading the group that chases the Millennium Falcon out Cloud City at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Allows all ships within range 1 or her to re-roll one Attack Die. If you play a swarm TAKE HER. She makes the standard TIE a lot more potent. A Stealth Device or a Shield upgrade isn't a bad idea for her if you have extra points to spend as it will allow her to live longer and keep buffing the rest of your fleet.
• Dark Curse: (BoY) The only initiative 6 TIE/ln pilot available now (possibly an accident since his 1.0 initiative was also 6). His effect is the same as before. When attacking, the defender cannot modify their dice by any means. Comes equipped with Hull Upgrade, Ruthless, and Precision Ion Engines. For a low cost, he's not a bad choice to round out an ace list.

TIE Advanced 1x/2x

"I have you now..."

The Empire was constantly attempting to replace the TIE/ln fighter, mostly through the TIE Advanced project which pioneered tech used to create almost every TIE variant although no Advanced ever made it out of the prototype phase. The 1x is actually the second model of the fighter, with the very first incarnation simply called the v1. The 1x is Darth Vader's personal fighter, which he basically refused to give up after the Battle of Yavin. Juno Eclipse also piloted one before him despite the fact it was first created as a project to replace his old Jedi fighter. Despite its success the Imperial Navy refused to make more than a small number of elite Squadrons worth so they could make more Star Destroyers for the Rebels to blow up. The 2x was visually similar, better than the TIE/ln but cheaper than the 1x and is most likely the model that any Advanced model you put on the tabletop that doesn't have the 1x title is (since the other models are significantly different-looking and would require a totally different mini).

• Advanced Targeting Computer is built-in. When shooting an enemy you've locked, you get an extra attack die and turn a hit into a crit. The sensor slot is clearly meant to have Fire Control Systems.
• The Advanced has shields, missile capabilities, and swaps the evade action for target lock, although it's a big step in cost above the standard TIE.

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  It's not clear if the Advanced cockpit is as unsafe without a suit as the other TIE models, although Vader managed to survive for quite awhile when stranded after the destruction of the Death Star.

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  Juno Eclipse.

Pilots

• Tempest Squadron Pilot: Simple generic.
• Storm Squadron Ace: A super-elite group of pilots, not only given the Advanced but also upgraded versions. A notch above Tempest in Initiative and cost, but also has a Talent slot.
• Zertik Strom: A pitiless administrator. Commanded a Star Destroyer, plotted to bring a very popular casino space station under Imperial control. Killed by the station's owner after his plot was made public and he failed to capture the main cast of the Star Wars movies. Can spend a Target Lock he has on a ship to flip one of its damage cards face up and resolve the Crit. Combine with Seyn Marana for some hilarious results.
• Ved Foslo: An arrogant bag of douche and total Chad. He was roommates with Thane Kyrell and made improvements to TIE laser cannons. He has cannibalized Juno Eclipse's ability from 1E, allowing him to increase or decrease the speed of his revealed maneuver by one point. This gives a pretty insane level of flexibility which he can exploit to steal yo girl.
• Maarek Stele: Protagonist of the old TIE Fighter video games. Notable because in all of his EU stories, he never "converted" to the Rebel cause, instead working with Imperial Remnants well into the New Republic era. Rough punk who got sucked into the Imperial Navy by Palpatine's charisma and turned out to be the best damned TIE pilot the Empire ever had. Also Force-sensitive, for some reason. When he deals a Crit, you can draw three and pick which one you give. Once considered the most worthless pilot in the game, which is no longer true thanks to later expansions. (fans of TIE Fighter rejoice!) Give him Fire Control System and Predator to pile on the guaranteed crits so you can drink those delicious tears. In Epic, he is the man to designate Dreadnought Hunter.
• Darth Vader: A man who fell in love with an angel and really doesn't like sand. He has max Initiative and a whopping 3 Force points, which he can spend to perform additional actions. Sadly, he can no longer take Squad Leader to pass those actions around, but Brilliant Evasion is a pretty lulzy upgrade for him to take, since he will basically never be in anybody's bullseye arc.
  • Darth Vader is also a Crew upgrade that can spend his Force point before the shooting starts to pick an enemy ship in his firing arc closer than range 3 and damage them unless they remove a green token. This was so widely used and abused on the TIE Phantom that FFG replaced its crew slot with a basically worthless gunner slot. The only real options left are Lambda, TIE Reaper, and Decimator.
  • Fielding Darth Vader in either capacity allows you to use 0-0-0 and BT-1, who are normally Scum only. Just stick all three on a Decimator.
• Darth Vader (BoY): The standout star of the Battle of Yavin Scenario Pack for the Empire. This cheaper, standardized version of Vader combines a more flexible version of his TIE Defender ability with a host of upgrades that (at the time of this writing) wouldn't fit on his vanilla variant. Afterburners and Shield Upgrade are fantastic, while Hate and Marksmanship are nice to have but not necessarily game breaking.

TIE/in Interceptor

An adaptation of a few pieces of tech created for the TIE Advanced 1x to the basic TIE/ln; Rebels called them "squints" because of their curved wings. Features include a second pair of more advanced cannons were installed on the wings themselves, a stronger engine, and better sensor/targeting systems. Although the usual variant is just as much of a death trap as a Fighter due to sharing an identical cockpit, some rare ones were given life-support, shields, missiles, sensor jamming tech, hyperspace engines, and whatever else was called for. Intended to fully replace the Fighter, but didn't until the age of the Imperial Remnant because the Empire likes their TIE swarms just as much as you do. A completely red variant with small pairs of wings on the sides of the larger wings (which aren't on the miniature, sadly) were also built, mostly assigned to Palpatine's Imperial Guard although some extra elite pilots were also assigned them. These red Interceptors were upgraded in almost every way at any expense. TIE Interceptor pilots were notably much more skilled as they were initially a promotion from Fighters, with many already having blood stripes when they first flew it.

The Empire's counterpart to the A-Wing. It has the same dial minus the green five forward, with 3's across the board giving it more firepower and Hull, but has no Shields so it's still less durable. Can Focus, Barrel Roll, Boost, and Evade. Use the Boost action to get through to get the critical slip you need if you sense danger or opportunity knocking.

• 1E's Title upgrade is now built into all fighters, giving them two upgrade slots, in case you wanted a really expensive Stealth Device or Shield Upgrade
• Autothrusters lets you perform a red boost or barrel roll after any action, giving it unparalleled maneuverability.
• Skystrike Academy Squadron Pack introduces the Sensitive Controls configuration. This replaces Autothrusters with the ability to perform a red boost or red barrel roll during Systems Phase. Whether or not this is truly an upgrade to Autothrusters varies by playstyle.
• The Battle of Yavin Scenario Pack brings a handful of new pilots to the TIE Interceptor despite the fighter's operational status and presence on the Death Star being canonically... iffy, to say the least. By Atomic Mass Games's own admission they wanted to give the Rebels and Empire equal representation in the box and asked Lucasfilm if it was fine, to which the response was likely a confused shrug. Regardless of the circumstances, the standardized pilots of Sigma Squadron (and Iden Versio, because she's 'special' like that) all come with Standardized Controls, initiative 4, and various upgrades baked in, as well as a pair of charges that fuel their individual abilities.

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Pilots

• Alpha Squadron Pilot: A group initially stationed on the first Death Star, then later put under the leadership of the Imperial agent turned Sith assassin Lumiya. Low initiative makes for a good blocker.
• Nash Windrider: (SSA) Nash is one of several Imperials hailing from Alderaan. Uniquely, he doubled down on his loyalty to the Empire after his planet was destroyed, convincing himself it was necessary. In-game, he makes the most out of losing allies. Once per round, when a friendly small ship is being destroyed, he can make them engage immediately. You'll get much more mileage from this ability in Epic Play.
• Saber Squadron Pilot: Part of the elite 181st. Participated in, and survived, the Battle of Endor, virtually all had the blood stripes and were known for it. Can take an Elite upgrade.
• Lieutenant Lorrir: (SSA) A long-awaited return from 1E, Lorrir must use the bank 1 template when barrel rolling, making him a very unpredictable arc-dodger.
• Turr Phennir: A 181st pilot who REALLY hated the Alliance, but kept getting his ass kicked until he took the hint and retired to leadership of a small planet in a confederation that later tried to secede from the Alliance leadership, at which point he got is ass kicked again and finally gave up. After attacking, you can do a free Boost or Barrel Roll, even when stressed. He can pull some crazy and unexpected moves with Snap Shot.
• Gideon Hask: (SSA) That dick from Inferno Squad got an upgrade. His ability is much more potent here if you can swing the points.
• Commandant Goran: (SSA) The head instructor of Skystrike Academy. When a Range 0-3 friendly with lower initiative executes a partial maneuver, they can do a red focus. Nice to have in Epic when your ships are more likely to bump into a wing of enemies.
• Iden Versio: (BoY) Because Iden had to be EA's special "Donut Steel" OC, she canonically survived the explosion of the Death Star in a TIE Fighter. But because of game balance and the need to give the Battle of Yavin TIE Interceptors a named pilot, she's here again. Her standardized loadout comes with the handy Shield Upgrade and Predator, as well as the previously First Order exclusive Fanatic. Her pilot ability has also been reworked to mesh with the Yavin Interceptors dual charge mechanic. Instead of canceling all damage for a friendly TIE/ln once per game, Iden can prevent ANY type of TIE from taking a hit or crit once every two turns.
• Sigma 4: (BoY) The first of the nameless new TIE Interceptor pilots, with 4 Hull, Disciplined, and Primed Thrusters. Sigma 4 can spend one of his two charges after Barrel Rolling to perform a free Boost action.
• Sigma 5: (BoY) Arguably the least useful of the standardized Sigma flight pilots. Sigma 5 gets Sensor Jammer and Elusive alongside the squadron's prerequisite 4 hull. His charge effect is lackluster, however, as the corresponding Evade token only comes after performing an attack that hits. This would be situational on an int 5 or 6 ace, but the Sigma grindset remains locked at int 4.
• Sigma 6: (BoY) Built for speed above all else. Sigma 6 gets to spend a charge after a speed 3-5 maneuver to perform a SLAM action. Use that along with Daredevil, Afterburners, and 4 Hull to get right into any enemy's face ASAP
• Sigma 7: (BoY) The last of the standardized Interceptor pilots. Sigma 7 gets to mix an improved hull, Marksmanship, and Fire Control System with the ability to spend a charge and gain a lock with any Range 0-1 enemy during the system phase.
• Vult Skerris: (SSA) A flight instructor at Skystrike. His card reads a bit strangely, but what he can essentially do is gain a strain token to hold an action in reserve for his engagement. If you have Initiative over your opponent, he can reposition after enemy I5s.
• Cienna Ree: (SSA) Deuteragonist of the novel Lost Stars. Stayed with the Empire while her boyfriend Thane Kyrell joined the Rebels. Her ability is a double-edged sword that's meant to give some narrative flavor to matches. She gets stressed when she destroys an enemy ship, but removes stress when a range 0-3 friendly is destroyed. Basically, she has anxiety attacks when she guns down an enemy because of the possibility that it was Thane she just killed, but she's committed to the safety of her wingmates, so seeing one of them die snaps her back into reality.
• Baron Soontir Fel: The top Imperial Ace, basically the Manfred von Richthofen of Star Wars. Son of a Corellian farmer, given a recommendation to the Imperial Academy so he couldn't testify in the attempted rape case against a wealthy businessman's son. His high skill and dedication to the Empire made him one of Grand Moff Tarkin's favorites. You can look up the rest on his Wookieepedia article, the long and short of it is that he got himself into a ton of bullshit, singlehandedly turned the 181st into the most elite squad in the Empire, double-crossed the New Republic to join up with Admiral Thrawn and become a Chiss-weeaboo before finally having his son become the head of a reborn, less evil Empire. Wedge is his brother-in-law because why the fuck not. Max Initiative. Gets a focus token if there's an enemy ship in his bullseye arc at the start of the Engagement Phase. Between activating last and having Autothrusters, this should pretty much always trigger.

Lambda-class Shuttle

An overall improved version of the Republic's Nu class assault shuttle of the Clone Wars, the Lambda is C-47 of the Empire. A ubiquitous workhorse, it can serve as a troop transport for up to twenty, a light freighter, a heavy gunship, or even a VIP transport with simple modification. The design stuck around long after the Empire fell. The only downside is AWFUL maneuverability and being somewhat slow. It has a number of sister models for different roles, and can be modified as the need demands.

This is another one of those ships with below average defense rolls at only one Defense Die and an extra strong Hull and Shields at 5 each, plus it packs above average firepower with three Attack Dice. 2E gave it a slightly weaker tailgun to replace Anti-Pursuit Lasers and better compensate for the pissawful maneuverability. It also finally has coordinate, making it a true command vessel, reinforce to improve its already impressive tankiness, and red jam because why the hell not?

• The ST-321 title allows you to lock onto a ship range 0-3 of an ally you just coordinated, turning the support craft into a nice fire-support craft. Or you could make Director Krennic and his Optimized Prototype very happy.
• Two crew slots means it's one of the few ships that can bring along Emperor Palpatine himself.
• None of the pilots have a talent slot.

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  A Lambda Shuttle cockpit.

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  Colonel Jendon on the left, Captain Yorr on the right.

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  Despite being identified as a clone, this is the actor of Captain Kagi who appeared instead on the bridge of a Star Destroyer as they never shot his scene. If he is a clone, he's simply not one of Jango Fett. If this is displeasing to you, feel free to picture Jango Fett dressed as Howard Hughes.

Pilots

• Omnicron Group Pilot: The group of Lambda pilots from the old TIE Fighter vidya. Basic unnamed pilot.
• Lieutenant Sai: First name, Berisse. She's a friend of Ciena Ree, but their abilities do not synchronize with each other at all. Went down with the Executor at Endor. When she coordinates a ship, she may immediately perform the same action if it's on her bar. This would only see real use if you planned to stock up on focus or buddied up with a Decimator.
• Colonel Jendon: One of Darth Vader's personal pilots. Also Onyx veteran, also a test pilot, although he has claim as the first to fly the TIE Defender. Twice per game, he can flip the target lock range requirement so allies have to lock beyond range 3. Definitely intended to setup an alpha strike.
• Captain Kagi: A clone from the Clone Wars, Palpatine's personal pilot. Ferried the deep fried wingless legless Annie from Mustafar. You can absorb target locks from range 0-3 friendlies at the start of engagement. Nice way to disrupt enemy plans or just troll anyone who brought homing missiles.

TIE/sa Bomber

The TIE Bomber, also known as TIE Surface Assault, is the primary bomber of the Empire. TIE Bombers have a second pod which contains all of their cargo with the back of the cockpit pod containing a miniaturized version of the same type of reactor that powers a Star Destroyer. They are (slightly) more heavily armored than TIE/ln although they still lack shields and hyperdrive. It did however have life support systems and even an ejection system to protect pilots, although standard pilot gear was used regardless. It was still considered an easy kill by Rebel fighters despite this as the maneuverability of ordinary variants was abysmal despite more upgraded versions existing for elite squadrons. The TIE Bomber was never replaced in the Empire fleets, although heavier versions like the TIE Punisher were produced. Modified versions included the bomb pod being converted into a small shuttle (the original role of the Bomber model in the Star Wars movies was actually to be a troop transport for the Empire in A New Hope, although the scenes were never filmed and the props were used to bomb asteroids in Empire Strikes Back instead), and the bomb pod can carry damn near any kind of armament including propaganda pamphlets. Multiple ammunition types were switched internally via robotic arms. The TIE Bomber marks the beginning of the Imperial trend of just adding more pods to make a TIE stronger.

The TIE Bomber has a Hull as strong as the Firespray, but it still no Shields so it'll die only somewhat more slowly than the standard TIEs. It can obviously use Bombs, but this game made it into a counterpart to the B-Wing so it can also be loaded with a Torpedo, two Missiles, and two Bombs! Wonderful Bombs! Bombers are much cheaper than their Rebel counterparts, and have a better movement dial than the Y-Wing with more of the Y's white maneuvers being green maneuvers. If you take them, you probably want to take multiples and try to plan combos as a single Bomber is too much of an easy target.

• The Nimble Bomber trait allows you to drop bombs with the bank template. Skilled bombardier makes the TIE/sa a very flexible bomber.
• Red Reload action.
• Fly several in formation and drop their bombs all at once for a devastating do-or-die tactic when you can get those rebel scum to bunch up properly. You either laugh all the way back home or miss entirely and drop like flies.
• Strangely, the Bomber becomes a better choice as the game gets larger. With more and more threats to distract your opponent from your bombers, he'll be focusing on the stuff that makes harder kills, while you'll be able to field multiple redundant bombers.

Pilots

• Scimitar Squadron Pilot The Bombers that accompanied Obsidian Squadron, chasing the Millennium Falcon as well as participating in Endor where at the end of the battle they helped evacuate the second Death Star. Bog standard no frills Init 2 guy to take when you want to litter the field with 'splosions.
• Deathfire: Real name "McDibs", this was an LT and Bomber pilot from the SWG MMO. He started a trend of low PS uniques who lack EPTs. But, his ability allows him to fire, drop/launch a bomb, and one last "fuck you" upon his death.
• Gamma Squadron Ace An elite group with upgraded maneuverability and horizontal white stripes on their wings. Fought under Maarek Stele and Admiral Zaarin. Generic with increased Initiative, cost, and a Talent slot.
• Captain Jonus Scimitar 2, who was both almost eaten by the space slug prior to the Falcon landing in it and managed to hit an asteroid. He survived, and was given a new ship for Endor. If you want to run a Bomber squadron, he is the go-to guy. Gives two Attack Die rerolls on missiles and torps to ships within range 1 of him, which is a pretty sweet deal. If somebody is using Cluster Missiles, his ability can activate on both attacks.
• Major Rhymer The leader of Scimitar Squadron, who was promoted to Major prior to the Battle of Endor and lead his squadron in rescuing the stranded personnel of the second Death Star before it blew up. Drops fat rhymes like he drops rebel scum (citation not required, fact-checkers get expired). When attacking with a Secondary Weapon you can increase or decrease the range by 1, but it can't go lower than 1 or higher than 3. If you have some plan that is dependent on pulling off a killing shot with Advanced Proton Torpedoes or keeping out of a range that activates an opponent special ability, he's okay.
• Tomax Bren Fought alongside Admiral Thrawn and went into hiding when things went to shit. Tomax Bren was the leader of Scimitar Squadron, and managed not to do much notable with it. He makes much more of a splash in X-Wing, with the ability to use Reload on Talent cards. So far, the only thing worth getting for him is Crack Shot.

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  Gamma Squadron

TIE/D Defender

Also called "Trips" by both Imperial and Rebel alike. Introduced in the TIE Fighter vidya, where it was infamous for being one of the absolute fuckingest ships in the game, second only to the Missile Boat. The pinnacle in TIE design, the result of the TIE/Ad x7 and TIE Avenger research. More maneuverable than an A-Wing and faster than any other ship. More powerful cannons than anything in the Rebel or Imperial fleets that isn't attached to a capital ship. The problem? Super fucking expensive and EVERYBODY wanted one. In Legends Continuity, the Rebels kept stealing them and blowing up factories so the Empire was only able to produce a small number and very late in their history. The Defender went into active Imperial service not long before Endor, and the Imperial Remnant slowly lost the ability to produce them. This baby came stock with pretty much anything the Empire could stick on it including four powerful laser cannons and two ion cannons, torpedoes, missiles, complex targeting computers, bombs, and quite possibly a kitchen sink launcher. It even had optional tractor beams for harassment and towing. Regardless of what role was needed, the Defender could cover it allowing it to replace anything from Bombers to Gunboats in any given force.

It eventually got re-introduced as being developed before Yavin in Rebels, ironically its development being headed by Grand Admiral Thrawn, the guy who in the old universe designed the Missile Boat to counter it. Unlike the typically easy to deal fighters in the show, just one TIE Defender almost wrecked an entire rebel squadron which included the Ghost. Its shields were too strong for the laser cannons on rebel ships and even luring it close to a star that destroyed Interceptors didn't stop it. It was only defeated by hits from ion cannons. This depiction however lacked the ion cannons it had in the old continuity and had more laser cannons its place (maybe a loadout choice; it wrecked shit up nice either way).

Now forget all of that shit, because unlike the developers of TIE Fighter, FFG realized that a ship capable of doing everything every other ship can better isn't the most balanced thing in the world. It's still got impressive stats, with 3s in attack, defense, Hull, and 4 Shields because fuck you. In terms of straight line movements, it's as fast the A-Wing, and it has better selection of short turns than either it or the Interceptor, but it's not as good at sharp turns. One of its most impressive and unique feats however is that the TIE Defender is the only ship in the game that can preform a U-turn which isn't red. It can't equip Torpedoes like in the video game, but it can use Missiles and Cannons.

• Full Throttle gives you a free evade for fully executing a maneuver faster than 2. Juke is useful on everybody, especially Rexler Brath.
• Skystrike Academy Squadron Pack introduces the TIE Defender Elite Standardized Configuration. Equipping this hard turns easier and K-turns harder. It also trades Full Throttle for the ability to one-two with a secondary and then primary if you're locking the defending ship. Goes well with Fire-Control System or Passive Sensors, depending on your initiative.

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  The TIE Defender cockpit.

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Pilots

• Delta Squad Pilot: A squadron of loyal TIE Defender pilots who fought against turncoat TIE Defenders when the man responsible for the creation of the Defender betrayed and attacked the Empire. Initiative 1 generic.
• Onyx Squadron Pilot: The first official TIE Defender squadron, deployed at Endor. Initiative 4 with Talent slot.
• Captain Dobbs: (SSA) Thrawn's replacement commander after Vult Skerris's death. When another range 0-1 friendly is being shot at, if Dobbs is in the firing arc, he can ionize himself to cancel 1 hit result.
• Countess Ryad: Imperial politician who took up piloting as a hobby, went full-time after Endor. When you reveal a Straight maneuver, you can treat it as a white K-Turn. Ryad with the config upgrade should basically never get stressed.
• Colonel Vessery: A member of the Imperial Remnants who had command of the Stranger and Interloper squadrons. Fought alongside the New Republic Rogue Squadron, and trained them in Imperial tactics. After he rolls attack dice on an enemy, if they are being Target Locked by someone else he also obtains one and can immediately use it if he wants.
• Vult Skerris: (SSA) Skerris again. He helped test the TIE Defender, and later used it in battle. He was doing well in the battle, but ignored a direct order from Thrawn, who correctly deduced that Skerris was falling into a trap. This allowed Hera Syndulla to shoot him down, causing his crashing ship to domino-effect a command cruiser and a Star Destroyer, losing his life, and nearly the battle had his commander not been, y'know, Thrawn. Has the same ability as he does in an Interceptor, where he can strain himself to delay his action until just before he engages.
• Rexlar Brath: Leader of Onyx Squadron. Reworked and hugely improved from 1E. If he lands a shot while evading, he exposes a random damage card. Juke makes him nasty to deal with.
  • It's worth mentioning that his ability does not specify primary attack, so it can be used on both Cluster Missile attacks or with a Tractor Beam. He also makes Homing Missiles much scarier.
  • Seyn Marana can help Brath get to work on those crits while a target's shields are still up.
• Darth Vader: (SSA) The fans demanded and the devs delivered: Vader in a Defender. Vader is a monster here, bringing the principles of Juyo to the table and costing more than half of your points in standard play. He has 3 Force points which can only be spent while attacking, but can turn blanks into hits.

TIE/ph Phantom

Introduced in the old old Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire video game and based on concept art for the Lambda Shuttle. Having origins in the V38 Assault Fighter, an early Imperial vehicle, it was the product of Palpatine's favored Moff who was tasked with creating a superior stealth fighter in response to the destruction of the first Death Star. Possessing shields, hyperdrive, and a resurrection of cloaking technology using the rare Stygium crystals. Unlike basically every other Imperial ship, the cockpit has life support systems allowing pilots to use a headset rather than the complete suit. It had one of the most advanced cloaking devices ever created although it required many of the systems onboard the ship to be shut down to function. It was extremely expensive, even more so than a Defender although the higher survivability and smaller numbers required to be an effective force made it a more attractive investment. Its production lines were short-lived however, as a single fighter stolen by a pair of Rebel lovers managed to destroy an ENTIRE FUCKING SUPER STAR DESTROYER and the only production facility, and as a result succeeding production lines were kept top secret and in limited numbers to prevent similar fuckups and to prevent the technology from falling into Rebel hands.

The TIE phantom takes slippery bastardy to a whole new level. With 3 Attack Dice and stats that otherwise seem lackluster at 2 in defense, 3 Hull, and 2 Shields, the real power of the Phantom is in its Cloaking Device. For quite awhile they had almost destroyed the Rebel meta, making X-wings and B-wings rather dated in the fact that those ships just have an incredibly hard time getting the Phantom into arc while the Phantom can dance around and shred them like no other. Although its unprecedented firepower (In 1E, it was 4) and maneuverability have some players crying power creep, it has a tendency to fold under focus fire (even 4 defense dice will come up blank more often than not) and is temporarily crippled by the effects of Stress and Ion Tokens. It can take Crew Gunner and System upgrades. While it's cheaper than the Defender, the Phantom is still an investment since you now have to factor in how you're going to protect it. Target mitigation is very important here. Collision Detector is a great choice for the Sensor slot. You can decloak through obstacles and ignore their effects entirely twice per game.

Stealth in space

• When Cloaked, the Phantom becomes a bitch to hit with a +2 boost to agility.
• Upon Decloaking (which happens before anyone reveals their move) you boost straight forward at speed two or Barrel Roll with the speed 2 template. Since this happens before anyone reveals their movement, and does not count as an action, you can slip out of danger or into a prime firing position to let forth with 3 attack.
• Stygium Array (now built-in!) lets you get an Evade Token upon Decloaking. If you still have that token at the end of the round, you can spend it to recloak.
• Juke and Outmaneuver are both effective choices for the Talent slot.
• The Phantom's base Agility of 2 makes Stealth Device not super-expensive, but lets you roll 5 defense dice when cloaked.

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  A TIE Phantom mini, and custom paintjobs depicting cloaking.

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  It's a 106 parsecs to Tatooine. We've got full tank of gas, half a pack of deathsticks, it's dark out, and we're wearing stormtrooper armor. Hit it.

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Pilots

• Imdaar Test Pilot: Middling Initiative of 3. You can fit 4 of these guys in a list if you feel like it.
• Sigma Squadron Ace: A small squadron that was deployed against Rebel patrols as a test to Darth Vader of the effectiveness of the Phantom, which while successful, lead directly to the loss of the facility that produced them. Higher cost, Initiative, and a Talent slot.
• Echo: A character with no backstory, confirmed in an FAQ to be female. Same stats as Sigma Squadron Ace, but she makes the Phantom. When doing the fancy Decloaking maneuver, Echo uses the 2 banking template instead of the straight one giving her a much better choice of movement options. Holds the title for slipperiest ship in the game.
• Whisper: Initiative 5, after performing an attack that hits, get assigned an Evade Token. Can decloak, get an evade, focus, shoot, get a second evade, and maybe recloak.

VT-49 Decimator

Created as a mid-sized Imperial ship for the Star Wars Galaxies (the first Star Wars MMO) expansion that added ships to the game. It was designed as an "evil Millennium Falcon" and borrowed aesthetics from TIE Fighters and a Star Destroyer (many have noted it closely resembles a TX-130T Hovertank, the primary Republic and Empire ground vehicle from Star Wars Battlefront 2). Essentially a heavy recon vessel, a picket ship (a ship that sits at the edges of large fleets to detect traps and inbound hostiles before they reach more expensive craft), and if needed a heavily armored troop transport functioning like a space AT-AT. To be assigned to one is a good sign since its a step below capital ships, and who doesn't dream if being captain of a Star Destroyer? Besides those who are prone to mistakes anyway.

The Decimator is a very popular ship in Imperial meta for a number of reasons. While the Shuttle is like a TIE Fighter in that it gets the job done cheap with its ample upgrade slots for combo synergy, the Decimator does it while packing a punch at almost double the price. Despite being a lot smaller than the CR90 it has a much stronger Hull of 12 (strongest in the game at the moment), but one less Shield. That lack of Shields (because those eat Crits) along with not having ass-saving choices like Chewbacca as a pilot or C-3PO as Crew make it much squishier than the YT-1300, but still more durable than anything else. While it has a defense of 0, it thankfully has a lot more turning moves than the Rebel Large ships in keeping with the Imperial theme. But while it's strong, it's still not armed well enough to enough to get into any head to head gun fights with other Large ships at only 3 Attack Dice on a bow-tie turret (the first the Empire got) and being limited to a single Bomb and/or Torpedo for secondary weapons.

• Two Crew and a Gunner, just like the YT-1300.
  • Ysanne Isard Minister Tua is a good pick for any VT-49 pilot, as she can help compensate for the utter lack of evasion.
• Dauntless title lets you perform a white action as red after bumping another ship.

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  A fan mock-up of what the Decimator interior might look like.

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  Note that the actor originally to play Captain Kagi instead played Oicunn, meaning Kagi may have been a secret clone of Oicunn. Or fans have taken behind the scenes trivia for canon. Either way, this is Captain Oicunn.

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  Kenkirk.

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  Chiraneau.

Pilots

• Patrol Leader: Run of the mill pilot.
• Captain Oicunn: Named Barrow Oicunn, he was in the army on his home planet of Humbarine during the Clone Wars when Grievous devastated the undefended planet, saw the Empire as being able to prevent the same thing from happening to somebody else. Like Batman. At some point he had an interesting adventure relating to the Kessel Run which has never been elaborated on, but is what gives him his unique ability in the game (so it's not hard to figure out what happened). He was promoted to Admiral eventually, and a small group of elite clone Stormtroopers use his DNA as a template. He can attack at Range 0.
  • Combine with the Intimidation talent to drop their defense.
  • Dauntless title is a must to compensate for all the ramming you're doing.
  • 0-0-0 and BT-1 have a nice chain synergy with Oicunn's ability as long as Vader is in your squad. If you don't have Vader, bring Death Troopers instead.
• Morna Kee: An imperial officer who attended a Mofference in the shitty Aftermath novel. Init 4 with 3 non-recurring charges. If she has a Reinforce token, she can spend a charge during End Phase to flip its direction instead of removing it. If you really wanted to, you could have the fore and aft simultaneously reinforced.
• Rear Admiral Chiraneau: A TIE ace who had specialized in deep space comm. Promoted by the newly "promoted" Admiral Piett to Rear Admiral and was his adviser on the Super Star Destroyer "Executor". At some point after that he commanded a Decimator. When Palpatine arrived at the second Death Star he was among the Stormtroopers and officers standing at attention, then for the battle was on the bridge of the Executor. Killed when A-Wing pilot Arvel Crynyd suicide-bombed the bridge of the ship, resulting in the destruction of the Executor when it... crashed straight into the Death Star. Maybe putting the only controls of the ship in the exposed bridge was a bad idea. When shooting at somebody that your reinforce token is facing, you can change an eye to a crit. Anything that grants rerolls is your friend here.
  • Minister Tua ensures a constant supply of Reinforce tokens to keep his ability going. Hope you like the blue maneuvers.

TIE/IT Interdictor/Punisher

The appearance of this ship is something of a Skub topic. Some say it looks like a TIE Bomber got cancer and exaggerates the lazy stupidity of many TIE designs. Some say it looks fucking amazing, and more/larger bomb bays only makes sense for a fighter that can deploy firepower on par with a fucking Star Destroyer. Either way, it was originally designed for the RTS Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds as a fully upgraded TIE Bomber so you can't blame FFG for this one. It has the same basic design and cockpit as a Bomber, plus shields and a stronger hull with the ability to take almost any kind of weapon the Empire had in the extra munition pods. They were put into service after the destruction of the first Death Star, and bombed Yavin IV during the Rebel evacuation. After the fall of the Galactic Empire, the Interdictors still in service to the Remnant were further upgraded and renamed Punishers.

It's a worthy counterpart to the K-wing, with a whopping three Shields and six Hull on top of its slots for 2 Missiles, 2 Bombs, and a Torpedoes, a gunner, and a Systems upgrade slot on top of that. Has two Attack Dice and one Defense Die, which isn't terrible. Its maneuver dial leaves a lot to be desired, but it compensates with an inherent Boost action and white reload. With Munitions Failsafe on top of that you could keep a kitted-out Punisher unleashing hell for most of the combat turns in a game. You take a Punisher, you're looking to put major hurt into the field.

It's easy to overestimate how much use you'll get out of the TIE Punisher. It's often a priority target; it has only one Evasion, making it fairly easy to hit compared to your dodgy fighters, and its maneuver dial is nothing spectacular, so its three shields and six hull are nowhere near as tough as you might expect them to be. The important thing to worry about is not loading up on too much points worth of ordinance. A single bomb, torpedo, or missile is probably your best bet.

• Trajectory Simulator + Ablative Plating = Witnessed

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  Because your "Exterminatus" is just so...impersonal.

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  *Heavy breathing*

Pilots

• Cutlass Squadron Pilot: A squadron that has no lore, other than it is Imperial and contains plural TIE Punishers. The obligatory Initiative 2 generic choice.
• Deathrain: Like Howlrunner he was created as a pilot name for Star Wars Galaxies. Unlike Howlrunner, he has absolutely no other lore. This guy can perform an action immediately after dropping/launching a device. Very handy for avoiding the bombs launched with Trajectory Simulator.
• Redline: An absolute psychopath who complained when they had to stop bombing civilian targets on a rebelling planet even after it became a lifeless wasteland, succeeded Juno Eclipse as head of Black Eight Squadron. Overlooked in 1E, but rewrote the meta in 2E until the first points revision recosted him. Still pretty popular. Can have two Target Locks at the same time and can lock after any action.
  • Can double-lock with Cluster Missiles to give two rebs a bad time.
  • Can focus lock with Barrage Rockets to give one reb a bad time.

TIE Advanced v1/Inquisitor's TIE

Designed for the unnamed Pau'an Inquisitor (called "Inky" by many fans) villain from the first season of Rebels. An offshoot of the TIE Advanced 1x, combined with Darth Maul's ship "Scimitar". Very few were made as the first produced was blown up by Rebels during the unveiling on Empire Day. With hyperdrive, life support, and folding S-coils it was a very powerful craft although it traded half of its solar panels for extremely thick armor (Despite having a lower hull rating than even a TIE/ln.) which forced it to rely on burning fuel. It was equipped with technology suited for the mission of the operative, including advanced tracking missiles. With 2 attack, 3 agility and 2 each of shields and hull the TIE Advanced Prototype has fairly average stats at a reasonable price. Also has a missile slot and sensor upgrade.

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  The Inquisitor.

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Pilots

• Baron of the Empire: Baron being a title given to ace starfighter pilots in the Empire, this guy has Initiative 3 and a Talent slot.
• Inquisitor: The one and only generic Force User outside of the Clone Wars era with Initiative 3.
  • If you have any bombers with Init 3 or higher, Sense can be used to check an enemy's movement right before deciding whether or not to drop that bomb.
  • Giving Predictive Shot to a pilot with only two attack dice is a great way to annoy high-agility ships.
  • Currently the cheapest way to use Supernatural Reflexes.
• Seventh Sister: Crazy Mirialin bitch that replaced Inky after his death, later killed by Maul. She has 2 Force points, and her ability lets her cancel an enemy's evade result if she spends both of them. The Hate Force Upgrade is a great way to recover Force more quickly, even if her survivability isn't that great.
• Fifth Brother: (H&A) The big grey inquisitor that got rekt by Maul on Malachor. Has 2 Force points. When he attacks and hits, he can spend both Force points to add a crit. Awesome against beef, and is downright mean with Homing Missiles.
• Grand Inquisitor: The nemesis of the Ghost crew throughout season 1 of Rebels, the Inquisitor is a beast in starship combat. His ability says that when attacking with your primary weapon at range 2-3, you may spend 1 Force to treat the range of the attack as 1. When defending at range 1, you can spend 1 Force to prevent the range 1 bonus. This does NOT work when being attacked by Arvel Crynyd or Crew Zeb at Range 0. Give yourself the bonus attack dice for range, deny your opponent the evade dice for range, and generally make people have a bad day. Has a Force upgrade slot, obviously.

TIE Striker

Officially the TIE/sk x1 Experimental Air Superiority Fighter, the TIE Striker lives up to its name with large wings designed for use in atmosphere(which are actually articulated on the model). Introduced in Rogue One and apparently not particularly good, because it was never seen throughout the rest of the series. According to supplementary materials, it's got a bomb dropping system, but apparently no one told FFG, because they took "Air Superiority" and ran with it. It has bombs as of 2nd Edition. The TIE Striker is slow as far as Imperial ships go, but is freakishly maneuverable, with 2 speed S-loops and a 2 speed K turn. It's extra maneuverable thanks to its ship ability, Adaptive Ailerons, which essentially grants you a forced Boost action right before performing your maneuver. Comes with Focus, Barrel Roll, and Evade actions. 3 attack, 2 agility, 4 hull, no shields. They're probably one of the squirrelist fighters the Empire can field with their pre-maneuver boost and flexible dial, making them ideal flankers, but its low speed, lack of upgrades and actions (being stressed denies you your free boost) and general low dodging/hitting power means that it can flank, but can't do much when it gets there.

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  Apparently somebody showed this picture to FFG, between first and second edition.

Pilots

• Planetary Sentinel: Initiative 1, your generic option. Is making a surprising splash as a viable swarm unit.
• "Vagabond": (H&A) The one that's actually built around the sk's bombing capabilities. Vagabond can drop a device after fully executing an Adaptive Ailerons maneuver. Mines and Skilled Bombardier are made to fly with Vagabond.
• Black Squadron Scout: Initiative 3 generic with Talent slot.
• Countdown: When you're defending, you can take a stress token and a damage to cancel all your opponent's dice results. Lets you avoid that nasty 4 hit roll. Massively annoying to fight against.
• Pure Sabacc: When you have 0 or 1 damage cards, you roll an extra attack die. Good for early game punch. Stealth device can help keep his ability going.
• Duchess: She's beauty, she's grace, she's miss step on my face. You can ignore your ailerons' ability if it's convenient, like to keep her out of a bomb's blast radius.

Alpha-class Star Wing

Designed by the same team that made the Lambda shuttle. Its existence is a tacit admission by the empire that throwing hordes of flimsy, unshielded TIEs at the rebels was just creating a lot of rebel aces. Instead of trying to design the next big thing like all the wonderwaffen Super-TIE projects the rebels kept sabotaging, Cygnus aimed to just make something that resembled a rebel style fighter and get it into production. The Alpha is a heavy multirole fighter with the durability to go mano-a-mano with most rebel fighters, and the firepower to maul the sort of light ships the rebels tended to use.

The Alpha-class Star Wing aka Assault Gunboat comes installed with a nifty SLAM device to improve maneuverability and can be upgraded to be a flying gun platform (XG1 configuration) or upgraded to carry even more missiles and torpedoes (OS-1 Arsenal) like having both of them and a reload action for infinite ammo still is not enough. The SLAM can be upgraded as well which makes it feel like the Missile Boat from the glorious TIE-Fighter game from before the internet times: use the energy of your puny main cannon to fly closer to the enemy and greet them with your rockets (high skilled pilots ensure that the ship can still fire while having a weapons disabled token) or fly away and reload.

• Advanced SLAM is basically mandatory for this ship regardless of configuration.
• If you're using XG-1 (Cannon), it's still a good idea to bring a torp or missile along. Fire off the ordnance, then use the cannon while reloading.
• XG-1 is currently the only way to SLAM and Jam.
• Advanced Proton Torpedo is good with OS-1 since it isn't terribly difficult to SLAM into Range 1 of some poor chump. And if that doesn't work, you surely brought something longer range for this very situation.

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  Cockpit view. A gross misrepresentation as less than half of the view is explosions.

Pilots

• Nu Squadron Pilot: Being cheap is his best and most popular feature.
• Rho Squadron Veteran: Init/Cost bump and Talent slot.
• Lieutenant Karsabi: Has the ability to replace a disarm token with a stress token which allows him to fire a weapon not covered by his configuration.
  • With OS-1 Loadout, it's possible to SLAM, Reload, and fire in one round if you can get him the lock/focus required for the attack.
• Major Vynder: Can roll an additional defense die while disarmed, which is all the time.

TIE/ag Aggressor

Now the Empire has turrets, too! In a large departure from the (mostly) high agility/un-shielded TIE series, the Aggressor comes at you with the agility of an X-wing and 1 shield - making the play style of each faction less pronounced. It looks like a poor-man's TIE Advanced with slightly cut-out solar panels and a gun on its tail for good measure. The double Missile slots are obviously intended for Barrage Rockets.

• Veteran Turret Gunner is great for any pilot except for Double Edge, due to the hard cap of one bonus attack per round.

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  The Aggressor made its debut in the dead MMO, Star Wars Galaxies.

Pilots

• Sienar Specialist: Barest bones pilot to fill a seat.
• Onyx Squadron Scout: Elite generic.
• Double Edge: If he misses a turret or missile he attack, he can perform a bonus attack with a different weapon. Hotshot Gunner is a decent choice, since forcing the defender to use a focus/calculate means your first shot will probably miss anyway.
• Lieutenant Kestal: When attacking, he can spend a focus to discard all of the defender's non-evade results, preventing them from modifying results. Since he usually won't use a Focus to modify his attack, he definitely benefits from having a squaddie that can pass a target lock his way.
  • Works well with Barrage Rockets since that requires focus anyway.

TIE Reaper

File:TIEReaper.jpg

The TIE Reaper debuted in Rogue One as a troop transport, for Death Troopers in particular. It has the Adaptive Ailerons like the TIE Striker where it has to boost 1 before revealing its dial. The specs are all over the place. Its base stats are comparable to the Lambda, just lacking the tail gun and 2 shields, and Reinforce is traded out for Evade. All turns are red, it can speed 1 sloop, and it has the full-stop maneuver. Finally, in contrast with the Lambda, Coordinate is red and Jam is white.

• Death Troopers naturally fit right in. If you bring them along, enemy ships range 0-1 cannot remove stress tokens. The TIE Reaper has the maneuverability needed to make this work.
• Director Krennic is included with TIE Reaper, but works just as well anywhere else. He grants his ship the Target Lock action and designate another friendly ship as Optimized Prototype.
• ISB Slicer prevents enemy ships range 1-2 from removing jam tokens. Works delightfully with Feroph or Vermeil.

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  A TIE Reaper doing what it does best.

Pilots

• Scarif Base Pilot: Initiative 1 generic. This is the best guy to stick with Death Troopers, since his low Initiative lets him move into place before anybody else.
• Vizier: Can perform a white Coordinate after fully executing an Adaptive Ailerons maneuver. He then skips his normal action. Nice to have if he needs to do a red maneuver or one that would put him out of coordinating range.
• Captain Feroph: When defending, if the attacker doesn't have any green tokens, you can change a result to an evade. Meant to be used with Jam action.
• Major Vermeil: Like Feroph, but with attacking instead.

TIE/rb Heavy

First showing up in Solo, the TIE/rb (or TIE Really Big) is exactly what it sounds like: a bigger TIE Fighter. 8 hull and the Reinforce action allows for slightly more durability then your standard TIE Bomber. What really makes this ship is the Rotating Cannons, which allows both of your equipped cannons to rotate with the primary arc to either the front or back. Similar to the First Order's TIE/sf, the rb can pull some real shenanigans with hard turns and talon rolls, and shake off pursuers by firing backwards.

• The MKG-300 computer can be configured for either manueverability or blasting those damm Rebels out of the sky. Both add the Calculate action as well as a pretty useful new linked action (Barrel roll to red calculate on MA, rotate to calculate on TA). Either one is solid, and since they're both cheap, it really depends on what kind of cannon you strap on to this ship.
• Synced Laser Cannons is a natural upgrade, taking both cannon slots for a solid 3-dice attack. Can deny the defender a Range 3 bonus if you're calculating. Fits well with either of the configurations.
• Double modification slots isn't that useful, but you can stack your TIE with a Hull Upgrade and a Shield Upgrade to basically turn it into a mini-Decimator.

Pilots

• Carida Academy Pilot: Init 1 generic, fairly afforable. Add this to a TIE/ln squad for some extra firepower.
• Onyx Squadron Sentry: The mandatory elite generic that nobody uses.
• Lytann Dree: Initiative 3 pilot, can allow a friendly ship at range 0-2 to reroll if you're to the side of the defender. Very situational and kinda useless for the price.
• Rampage: The only pilot outside of the barebones generic that's worth using. After executing a speed 3-4 maneuver, he can assign a strain token to an enemy in his rotated arc at range 0-1, or two strain tokens if he's damaged. Also very situational, he'll probably only use this ability once or twice, but if you're stacking your TIE with cannons and modifications, you may as well use Rampage.

Epic

Wing Leaders

Agent of the Empire designates a TIE Advanced x1 or v1 as wing leader to a group of TIE/lns. This adds a nice, cheap layer of protection over one of your more valuable pilots, especially the frail v1s. The Empire offers several fun and unique possibilities with wings.

• Most of Inferno Squad make for good wingmates, especially Iden Versio and/or Del Meeko.
• Howlrunner, while predictable, is an ideal candidate for Veteran Wing Leader.
• Wing Leader Duchess applies her ability to all of her wingmates.
• There are several Crew cards whose value can be enhanced by working with wings: Admiral Sloane, Captain Needa, Cienna Ree, Director Krennic, Grand Moff Tarkin, and Moff Jerjerrod.
• Captain Jonus. Nuff said.

Raider-Class Corvette

An entirely new creation for X-Wing by Fantasy Flight Games, and since it was created in cooperation with Lucasfilm after the Disney wiped the EU it's completely canon! The Raider class corvette was designed by Lira Wessex, the same woman who created the Star Destroyers among other Imperial wonders you love (which makes her canon again too) 6 years before the Battle of Yavin with the destruction of the first Death Star seeing it put straight into production. Created as the mid point between a Star Destroyer and Decimator and as an Imperial ship equal in size to the CR90 (which didn't exist in the canon prior), the Raider has the speed for Rebel-like hit and run attacks or patrols and is designed primarily as a heavy anti-fighter ship. Its powerful lasers are more accurate than those found on a Star Destroyer and comes with plenty of anti-fighter tricks like small Ion cannons, along with great durability and a centralized command bridge. When a Star Destroyer deploys a squadron of TIEs the Raider is what is deployed to accompany and support them. Because it was hyperdrive-capable, the Raider was usually deployed along other hyperdrive Imperial ships including the TIE Advanced 1x prototypes that didn't wind up in Vader's garage.

The Empire's first Huge ship. It's costed similarly to the CR-90 with pretty minor statistical differences. The primary arc is full frontal and the upgrade bar has missile and torp slots. The ship ability makes your primary and ordnance attacks stronger against targets in your bullseye arc, which is effective against wings and larger ships.

The Raider has a choice of three Titles:

• Assailer: Trades 2 Shield for 2 Hull, adds gunner slot. Gives a green die when defending at Range 1. Arvel Crynyd likes this.
• Corvus: Allows you to dock 2 small ships and grants Calculate action. Corvus also lets you get a second Calculate token from performing the action, including linked Calculates like with Damage Control Team.
• Impetuous: Trades 2 Shield for 2 Energy, adds Crew slot. When you destroy an enemy with an attack, you can Focus or Target Lock.
• Instigator: Adds Team slot. Lets you reroll 2 dice when attacking a ship with an orange or red token.

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Gozanti Cruiser/Imperial Assault Carrier/Imperial Freighter

The Gozanti was not exclusively used by the Empire (and in fact, one showed up briefly in The Phantom Menace in the Mos Espa spaceport). It was designed as an anti-pirate heavy freighter and escort ship with advanced sensors, powerful engines, an armored hull, with multiple kinds of powerful armaments. In order to make it unattractive for pirates to use it was given built-in limits on its speed so it could not be a hit and run vessel. It's an older ship design, popular in the trade conflicts that led to the Trade Federation's blockade shenanigans. Although the Rebel Alliance used them, the Empire claimed the bulk of the Gozantis in the galaxy when they were brought into service as rapid-deployment transport ships for AT walkers or as small patrol ships which could use their hyperdrive to reach a location and deploy four carried TIE Fighters, though in-game, it can dock any small ships. The Imperial Freighters were also used as transport for everything from VIP personnel to troops to cargo, including slaves.

The Gozanti has the following Titles:

• Blood Crow: Trades 1 Shield for 2 Energy, adds Gunner slot. When attacking Range 1-2, add an eyeball result. Fifth Brother can get comfy here.
• Requiem: When you undock a ship, it can target lock a ship you have locked. Requiem likes TIE Bombers, Os-1 Alpha-class Star Wings. Targeting Battery is a must.
• Suppressor: Trades 2 Hull for 2 Shield, adds Sensor slot. When you coordinate a friendly ship, you may spend an energy to jam an enemy Range 0-2 from the friendly. Very fun, and Boosted Scanners gives you more range, but it practically demands you take an Optimized Power Core or Tibanna Reserves.
• Vector: Adds Crew and Cargo slots. When you undock a ship, they can evade or boost. Nice for dumping them directly into a fight.

Star Wars Miniature Games Tactical Guides
X-Wing:	Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, The Resistance, The First Order, Scum & Villainy, The Galactic Republic, Confederacy of Independent Systems
Armada:	Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, The Galactic Republic, Confederacy of Independent Systems
Legion:	Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, Grand Army of the Republic, Confederacy of Independent Systems,