Talk:Emperor Palpatine/@comment-26068736-20151124204252/@comment-25999489-20151125143855

The problem with that particular assessment is that you have to run a Lambda for Palpatine. You don't even have the option to take crew that would make the Lambda passable (gunner, Vader, etc.) so with a naked Lambda and the Emperor, you effectively have a 29 point upgrade. It's well worth it, in my opinion, since it can still contribute some firepower, but characterizing Palpatine as 8 points is misrepresenting how he actually comes onto the board. I love this upgrade, and my current competitive list is Fel, Phennir, and (effectively) Palpatine. It's absolutely nails (I love interceptors and I am good at playing them) with 2 PS 9 ships being made into very difficult to hit targets, but the downside is that I take a shuttle instead of a third ship.

As for the Decimator for a Palpatine bus, it's just plain expensive. It's a good ship, but, again, it largely relies on its crew to round out its role in a squadron (usually making it more kill-y). It can be good, but you can usually only pair it with a single ship, so that puts a damper on the whole thing, in my experience.

Palpatine can be a phenominal upgrade, but you need to pair him with ships that will make the difference. Plan your squadron around his ability, and you will see your opponents frustration build as he consistently runs into situations where he cannot hypothetically hurt your ships. Run him with arc dodgers, and you will find that you have turns where there is no ship able to shoot your killers, and you can use Palpatine to consistently get that crit through. On turns where you are in arc, the high number of evade dice, and Palpatine, will ensure that you keep flying and killing for turns to come. Misjudged and ran into an asteroid? Palpatine will make sure that that crit you rolled doesn't actually mean anything. He's great, but very, very pricey.