Why the Alpha Class Assault Gunboat might come up short... dang it

Yes, I know, its not out yet.  Yes, I know, there isn't really an anti Imperial bias.  Yes, I know, everyone who doesn't try taking Imperials to sanctioned events is convinced we're just not as good as players as they are and therefore we whine.  I am super excited for the Gunboat.  I am.  But as I do in any game, I look at metrics and DPT type stats.  I do have what some of you consider to be a bias: I state that Imperials fly uphill in X-Wing.  Many like to say its because I like the Imperial and therefore emotions cloud my view.  But they fly uphill because the numbers and unit stats says so.  As a 40k player, I'm used to following the hot sauce.  Like most of the competitive players from that game, I've learned to crunch the numbers and see what is strong, what is weak, what is broken, and what is flat out kick you face in OP.

When I finally came all the way over to X-Wing in March 2015, I thought that this game would be different.  I'd take whatever faction my pals weren't playing and I'd stick to it thick or thin.  They were convinced Rebels and the just got here Scum would be the hot sauce... so I got the Imps (with the caveat that when Palp came out I wouldn't use him... whatever).  I have since played many Rebel and Scum lists.  I help others get ready for tournaments.  I cannot fathom how any honest player that has practice in all factions cannot find the Imperial faction a very distant third.  I'm amazed that anyone can even fight the assertion that the current meta largely invalidates all but a couple Imperial ships.  I've become an Imperial player on tournament day.

Oddly the faction that should be a monolithic terror has become the down beaten underdog.  I don't have the time to take my game to the highest levels (and I'm not saying I'd have the skill anyway), but I've been able to edge into single digit tables at every major I've been in and I'm enough of a student of gaming and a numbers guy to constantly be watching the living meta at each event unfold.  I watch other games, and I go on the days I'm not playing to watch.  Imperials start flying on the downhill side of a tilted table as the rest come rushing down.

Its frustrating to see players just discount this status off hand.  Its insulting that they imply that we're somehow blind some reality they perceive.  I'm not using results of the top 64, 8 or whatever... I'll use the ships themselves

Lets look at some generics:
    

Alpha-class Star Wing
PS	2	2	Weapon
Cost	22?	2	Agility
Faction	Empire	4	Hull
		3	Shields

 with a torp and a missile slot...

2 upgrade slots compared to 6 and 7... 7 hit points compared to 9 and 10... no turret, no bomb, no crew, but +1 in the most worthless stat: agility.  K-Wing can fire primaries 360 and Scurrg gets an extra red dice.  Same actions but gains the reload compared to K-Wing (which could be very good, but it might not be enough to run away given bombs and healing that other ships have) and I'm strongly assuming a much weaker dial to the Scurrg... and this is the thing we're hoping to revive a struggling factions.  Then the Jumpmaster... an EPT, 4 more slots including a droid, 2 more hit points, for a couple points... and I would love to have even the poor side of that dial on the Alpha Class.

If the Gunboat does well, it won't be on unit stats or slots... reload is going to have to do some serious  heavy lifting...

It gets even crazier:

Compare Starkiller Base Pilot or even far far worse Patrol Leader to Lothal Rebel (its so much better yet 5 points CHEAPER)

Compare Concord Dawn Ace to Royal Guard Pilot (especially with their titles and built to match)

even what should be a favorable or at least comparison like the oft used Tie/SF, look at Omega Specialist and Red Squadron Veteran... yet almost no rebel player runs T-70s while so many Imperials see the SF as a strong strong ship... wouldn't be in the Rebel hanger.

Triple Tie D were the one  Imperial mole to pop its head up in the post Palpatine nerf and it got whacked a moled down hard (and it should have been... as did the Manaroo nerf), but then the non Imps get the farm... they got Scurrg, Rebel/Scum only boosts, nothing done to Biggs (I don't care on this one, but many do), nothing on TLTs (which things like the above mentioned Ghost, Scurrg, K-Wing, etc get at no opportunity cost).  Looking at the points, Karthakk and Warden and Contracted Scout (its got an EPT) pay nothing for all the additional possibilities, pay nothing for dials and boost, pay nothing for bomb slots... at most, the 4-5 extra slots cost a point.

This is ignoring what happens further up the PS scale, where the gaps mostly get wider.  I hope you can pull it off little Gunboat, I really do.  Release us from the prison of super slow FAQ process and the refusal of FFG to stop recreating the K-Wing/Jumpmaster mistake over and over again.  Why are large sloppy bombers so much better dogfighters than Tie Advanced, X-Wings, Tie Defenders, A-Wings?!  Well hopefully the Imperials at least get a seat at the "no way you should gun down space-superiority fighters, but in this system you do" table.

Two Imperial Player's first round at a Tournament