After stripping away some levels of choice/variety/density/synergy, Bare Bones tends to determine the tactics for each faction.
First up, the Empire.
The basic squad will usually be a Swarm or Ordnance platform with or without support, or occasionally a Brute with escorts.
Swarms (large and small)
Tie Fighter (8 Max) and Interceptor (5 Max) swarms are usually either Howlrunner, Soontir or Vader led, using massed, flanking or waves attacks with a variety of attack and defensive benefits that can be useful for one, but often better for all. Synergies are important here, so squad building will be variations on similar combinations. Without EPT’s or Mods, these can only offer their straight pilot and ship, simple but effective.
Defender and Advanced squads rely on individual Pilot and Ship abilities over group synergy, but if mixed with others can give a little of both.
The Prototype and Phantom can be used as “wild cards” in the above squads.
Ordnance Platforms
These come in three forms, Punisher (heavy), Bomber (medium) or Aggressor (light) that form the base or entirety of a squad, with either fighters or heavy ships for support. Basically, if you more resilience and fire power, these can some or lots at the expense of manoeuvre, which gives the Empire a “plan B” or alternative style.
Punishers have excellent ace Pilots and Systems and a huge payload (no Mods limits ships to one-off loaded ordnance, no failsafes or extra munitions). Punishers can be a tactical edge or points sink and tend to be best used as finishers or support.
The Bomber looks to be better value on the surface, but lacking Systems, Shields and an Ordnance slot, makes then more fragile than they seem. Bombers work better in teams, backing up fighters.
The Aggressor is unique in BB as the only Imperial ship that can add a Turret (the Decimator has one built in). This gives the Empire a play style that the other two factions use regularly, the Turret-sniper or stand-off arc ignorer.
Support and Brutes
The Lambda Shuttle (usually with Palpatine -not included in BB for a variety of reasons unless the Raider is present), adds a support element to a squad. The Empire has the fewest crew options (but still some good ones), fewer large ships and a fairly two dimensional fleet, so the option of a Crew heavy, Cannon mounted space cow is complicated, but often rewarding.
The Decimator is often thought of as the Imperial Millenium Falcon, but I prefer to think of it as the smallest Huge ship in the game. Able to cripple a C-Roc cruiser, offer three crew and some Ordnance (twice the Falcon’s), but lacking any inherent agility, it even acts more like a huge ship than a large one.
It can be surprising. The Decimator has three weapon and plenty of stress inducing crew options, which gives it a totally different feel to the Falcon, more like a YV-666 “Party Bus” with sharper teeth. The only real issue with it is the cost, at half a squad, but if the Decimator takes the lead, the Empire can do a lot with 50 odd points of support ships (4 academy pilots).
The Raider. Late inclusion for scenario driven or bigger games, the Raider adds a vast amount of variation (more Hard point and Team options than all of the other BB Huge ships combined), deeper mechanical depth (complication*) and an intimidating presence on the table, as befits the Empire.
*
Seemingly the most predictable faction, the Empire has a couple of strong core squad ideas with a few surprises. Blind squad building against them can be difficult. Build for a swarm and run into a couple of Punishers and Interceptors in support or a Decimator patrol, build for variety and get swarmed.
The Empire has lots of arc dodgers (agile ships able to out manoeuvre or react with an action, to an enemy arc). They can also supply these in great numbers, varying power and variety. Their main short coming is in Turreted ships (2), Ordnance platforms (3 with a few Missile sporting fighters) and Crew support options (3). In fully X Wing, Mods equalised the effect of turrets to some extent, so without these BB balances the ledger to some degree with weakened Turret ships. Never the less, the Turret squad is often the undoing of an agile, but fragile Imperial squad.
*The idea of BB is not to over simplify play, but to reduce upgrade drag, improving balance and game speed.
An optional house rule that lets the Imperial player build up to half a squad out of one (only) Mercenary or faction (Scum) element, that can add plenty of variety and plot support also.