I know this topic has been beaten to death online and honestly discussion is pointless, but I’m convinced the Federation could beat the Empire solely based on these two things:
Warp drive travels FTL through what Star Wars would call “realspace”; not only does this provide Federation starships extreme tactical maneuverability (Picard maneuver and the like), but if a starship warped away far enough, the Empire might struggle to pursue with hyperdrive.
The Federation has transporters - I’m not sure imperial shield would be design to protect against e.g someone beaming a bomb (or in dire cases, the warp core) onto a Star Destroyer or whatever.
I’d say the major difficulties are 1) Starfleet has nothing like a tie fighter except runabouts, which aren’t (yet) designed for combat. 2) The Federation might try to negotiate while the Empire does some sort of secret operation.
I know this topic has been beaten to death online and honestly discussion is pointless, but I’m convinced the Federation could beat the Empire solely based on these two things:
I’d say the major difficulties are 1) Starfleet has nothing like a tie fighter except runabouts, which aren’t (yet) designed for combat. 2) The Federation might try to negotiate while the Empire does some sort of secret operation.