Rogue Squadron – Subjective Ship Rankings- Imperial

Toward the end of last year, I set upon a project to try and rank all of the X-wing ships using an objective set of criteria (Imperial, Rebel, Scum).  The goal was a pure look at stats. The results were…mixed. While I stand by that methodology and still consider it a worthwhile exercise, it really did only look at a part of what makes a ship good. The biggest flaw was it lacked any way to objectively look at pilot abilities.

I wanted to give it another go, this time in the opposite direction. So, I’m going entirely by gut feeling. This feeling is influenced by tournament performance, my experience with the ships/pilots, ship base stats and inevitable personal preference. I’m going to judge them on three categories (Stats, Builds, Pilots).

Categories

• Stats
  • How is the Dial?
  • Does it have good attack/defense?
• Pilots
  • Are there generic pilots with EPT’s?
  • Is there more than one good named pilot?
• Builds
  • What upgrades does it have access too?
  • Can you make an affordable and effective build?

Rankings- Worst to Best

18th Place – Firespray

• Stats- 17th
• Pilots- 18th
• Builds- 18th
• Overall Comments
  • I just don’t like that this is an Imperial ship and feel the Scum version is far superior. So this is heavily weighted by personal preference. No one flies it anymore but it would probably do better than we all think it would.

17th Place – TIE Punisher

• Stats- 16th
• Pilots- 14th
  • Redline and Deathrain are pretty fun to fly.
• Builds- 17th
  • If any ship in the game needs a reload action, it’s these things. They are just too expensive to fully load out.
• Overall Comments
  • They have lots of build potential that is hampered by overall cost. It’s really hard to build one of these that is worth the points you have to pay for it.

16th Place – Upsilon Shuttle

• Stats- 15th
  • Four attack dice is hampered by a bad dial.
• Pilots- 16th
• Builds- 14th
  • There are a lot of options available for this ship. System + 2x crew + 2x tech + Coordinate.
• Overall Comments
  • You pay a lot for the four dice attack on this ship but can’t really make good use of it. It would be a great support ship otherwise.

15th Place – Lambda Shuttle

• Stats- 18th
• Pilots- 17th
• Builds- 13th
• Overall Comments
  • Price is what saves this ship from worthlessness. You can build it for some good support at under 30pts.

14th Place – TIE Bomber

• Stats- 13th
• Pilots- 7th
  • Tomax Bren is very cool. Captain Jonus is still great support. And the generics are nice and cheap
• Builds- 11th
  • TIE Shuttle really keeps this ship in consideration. Two crew on a cheap support ship gives some options.
• Overall Comments
  • The Bomber is a lot cooler than it used to be thanks to recent upgrades.

13th Place – TIE Fighter

• Stats- 14th
• Pilots- 10th
  • A lot of the pilots are still kind of fun.
• Builds- 9th
  • There are almost no upgrades you can put on this but that does ensure you don’t overload it with upgrades so all builds are economical.
• Overall Comments
  • Cheap filler ship is all this ship really has going for it.

12th Place – TIE Interceptor

• Stats- 10th
• Pilots- 9th
  • Soontir Fel! Carnor Jax! And then the rest are almost good.
• Builds- 16th
  • It’s just too expensive for only three hull.
• Overall Comments
  • This is still a fun ship to fly which is why I ranked it higher that it otherwise might.

11th Place- VT-49 Decimator

• Stats- 7th
• Pilots- 11th
  • All three of the named pilots have a role to play.
• Builds- 12th
  • These are pricey but you get your points worth even if it’s half+ of your list.
• Overall Comments
  • Big and expensive, the Decimator nevertheless can be fun to build.

10th Place – TIE Aggressor

• Stats- 12th
• Pilots- 13th
  • Lt. Kestal is kind of evil.
• Builds- 3rd
  • TLT + LWF, cheap and efficient.
• Overall Comments
  • This is a pretty blah but efficient ship. So it feels perfect right here near the middle.
  • I hated to fight these those MOFO’s in SWG.

9th Place – TIE Phantom

• Stats- 8th
• Pilots- 5th
  • Whisper is great and Echo is really fun to fly. If only it had a generic with an EPT.
• Builds- 15th
  • You can’t build a Phantom cheaply.
• Overall Comments
  • Once a dominate ship, they have fallen out of favor due to the fragile hull, high cost and no autothrusters.

8th Place – TIE Advanced

• Stats- 11th
  • It’s dial is pretty meh.
• Pilots- 8th
  • Darth Vader rocks and Juno Eclipse is very fun to fly.
• Builds- 8th
  • There is a lot of potential with that free system slot. Accuracy Corrector on a two dice ship is very appealing for consistent damage.
• Overall Comments
  • I know what you’re thinking, how is this ranked so highly? I just like it and the title and special system upgrade are quite cool.

7th Place- Alpha Class Starwing “Gunboat”

• Stats- 4th
• Pilots- 15th
  • The named pilots aren’t bad but you really want the generics for the efficiency.
• Builds- 1st
  • Your points on munitions are never wasted because you can always reload. Plus you can add cannons and SLAM.
• Overall Comments
  • Overpowered? Nah. These are pretty well balanced. You can arc dodge them but they can also run away or chew you up.

6th Place – TIE Striker

• Stats- 9th
• Pilots- 2nd
  • All three named pilots are cool and the generics each have value.
• Builds- 10th
  • Much like the TIE Fighter, there aren’t a lot of different builds but it is well priced.
• Overall Comments
  • At one point I listed this as my favorite ship. It is up there but when looking at everything I couldn’t justify it to myself. As cool as I think the Adaptive Ailerons and the pilots are, I rarely fly it because it has only one configuration.

5th Place – TIE Advanced Prototype

• Stats- 6th
• Pilots- 6th
  • Inquisitor is amazing.  Valen Rudor is underrated. And it has a cheap pilot with an EPT.
• Builds- 7th
  • Not a lot of options but it can have super action economy with PTL and the title.
• Overall Comments
  • A well balanced ship.

4th Place – TIE Silencer

• Stats- 1st
  • One of the best dials in the game. Good health, good attack, good defense.
• Pilots- 12th
  • I’m just not a fan of Kylo’s ability. And Blackout sounds cool but rarely comes up.
• Builds- 5th
  • System and Tech slots together gives you lots of options. Expensive though.
• Overall Comments
  • It’s a real shame these come in such an expensive package. I would love to fly 2-3 of them.

3rd Place – TIE F/O

• Stats- 5th
  • I have a bias for S-loops.
• Pilots- 4th
  • Omega Leader gets all the love but the other named pilots are lots of fun too.
• Builds- 4th
  • One of the few (only?) ships that has a great build with just the cards in the package.
• Overall Comments
  • A good, well costed ship with some fun options.

2nd Place – TIE Defender

• Stats- 3rd
  • The original white turn around maneuver.
• Pilots- 3rd
  • Originally, the pilots were pretty blah. But Countess and everyone getting cheaper with /x7 or meaner with /D they are cool now.
• Builds- 6th
  • Do you want double attack or free evades?
• Overall Comments
  • Hard to kill and hard to avoid. And very cool looking.

1st Place – TIE s/f

• Stats- 2nd
• Pilots- 1st
  • Quickdraw and Backdraft are both amazing. There are also reasonably priced generics with an EPT.
• Builds- 2nd
  • Lots of potential with the system and tech slots. And LWF shores up their greatest weakness.
• Overall Comments
  • I just really like these ships. Lots of build choices, tough, hard-hitting. The rear arc is fun.

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Wayne Basta

Editor-in-Chief at d20 Radio

Wayne is the managing editor of d20 Radio's Gaming Blog. He also writes Sci-fi, . If you enjoy his work, you can support him on Patreon.

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