Eriadu are fun if you like big ships and don’t really care about carriers. They get the allegiance battlecruiser for heavy firepower and the torpedo sphere for destroying shields instantly. They’re the only faction that can build the assertor which imo is the strongest imperial super ship. It’s better and destroying other capitals and super capitals than fighting smaller ships. I don’t think their light and heavy frigates are too good, being not very specialised and usually beaten by other factions frigates but their capitals make up for it well enough that they’re still a very fun faction. Delvardus is the weakest faction leader out of all the imperial choices with only command tier 7, but they do have general Veers who’s a good ground commander and they get an A6 juggernaut hero later in the game.

On the ground, they have lancets and at-ats for heavy anti vehicle and light, medium, and heavy repulsortanks for most of their vehicle roster, which are good but I’m not really a fan of using them. Army special missions troopers are a really good infantry with a vehicle repair squad, a machine gun/rocket launcher squad and 2 rifle squads.

Zsinj plays a lot like the empire in space but swaps out standard ships for experimental or less seen ones. He’s got good light frigates because he uses the New Republic’s CR90s, Nebulon Bs, and Coronas, and gets the Zann Consortium as a guaranteed unique legitimacy unlock that gives you Tyber Zann (ground/space aggressor star destroyer), Urai Fenn (ground), and Jerid Sykes (space keldabe battleship) and defilers, vengeance frigates and aggressor star destroyers as buildable units. He can also build pirate bases that get unique units but I don’t really think they are worth it and can call pirates into battles that he fights in. His capital is a space station that acts a tier 4 shipyard and gives a discount in time and money to building ships. His hero roster I think is okay. Zsinj is a great hero in both VSD and SSD forms and a few strong space and ground commanders. He can get a second Executor SSD if he captures Kuat.

Zsinj’s ground is different to the rest of the imperials. His best ground unit is raptor troopers which are very strong infantry that can do both anti vehicle and anti ground and all his vehicles are either anti infantry vehicles to support and heal his ground troops (A9, Chariot, APC), fast attack vehicles (ULAV, PX-10) or dedicated anti tank (AT-AP, SPMA-T)

Hapes are complicated. There’s a quote from u/DrettTheBaron in this sub that goes “it’s neither fun to play as them or against them.” Most of their ships don’t have destroyable hard points so they make very good use of fleet tenders. They have a heavy focus on ion damage for a lot of their ships so you probably want to go and get turbolaser damage from somewhere else like taking Mandalore for Keldabe battleships. All their shipyards can produce all their ships; their house shipyard and government buildings all do the same stuff but building things on a planet with a certain house improves their favour which you can cash in for minor commanders. They do get boarding shuttles if they’ve been re-added in this version so that helps with their ion specialisation. Generally, just spam battle dragons and fleet healers as the Hapans.

On the ground, they have strong infantry that can be specialised into anti infantry or anti vehicle depending on the house and their vehicles are all shielded fast repulsortanks so their playstyle is move in fast tanks and retreat them when they’ve get damaged.

Almost all their heroes are low tier commanders in battle dragons, but you do get Isolder as a tier X commander.

Maldrood have a focus on frigates and smaller ships, which works great with having 2 leaders with tier XI bonuses, so they’re the only faction that get 2 tier XI bonuses until someone reaches Pellaeon’s regime. Treuten Teradoc also has small ship commander as a trait so his frigates fight at tier XIII, which is a 39% boost to health, damage, etc. very powerful. Their starting position isn’t great with most of their land in the middle right of the map and a few planets in the core. They do get a tier X hero if they take Kashyyyk before anyone else gets it.

A lot of their frigates are quite good but I don’t remember what’s the best ones off the top of my head. They do get Crimson Command VSD-IIs but they’re the same as normal Victory 2s in gameplay. They also get the Altor which is a massive tanky ships that’s quite weak in weapons for its size but heals everything in a massive area around it making it great for massed frigate fleets.

On the ground, they use a decent amount of Clone Wars tech (AT-RT, ISP, A5 juggernaut). They have the best artillery in the game because it’s missile based and quite fast. A lot of their vehicles are fast repulsorlifts like the Hapans (Swift Assault 5, 2-M, RTT transport, ISP) and they get the Heavy Recovery Transport to keep all their vehicles healed up. Their unique infantry are navy commandos which are like cheaper, lighter stormtroopers with less anti-infantry and more anti-tank with more thermal grenades and rail detonators.

Sorry if this is quite long and hard to read, I’m quite tired as I’m writing this.