How many characters/decoys on a mission?

[Gleem]

How many characters and decoys should you send in MP?

 

In this guide to single-player that I read it says you should have about 3 characters and one decoy for tough missions, but I have seen other guides where people use more then 10 characters/decoys for one mission.

 

I was just playing a MP-game and didn't foil a single enemy mission So, there must be some sort of trick to this.

[wrath0fb0b]

The answer is "depends".

 

Instead of answering, I will try to explain the mission detection rules in the game.

 

Firslty, ONLY military units can detect and foil enemy missions. ONLY!!!.

 

Secondly, the only military units that are any good at it are troops (army is worst, then fleet, then stormtroopers/sullistan reg). Ships can do it, but you need a lot of them around the planet to provide any real defense.

 

Thirdly, officers greatly increase the detection value of their units. Generals enhance troops, admirals enhance ships (commanders enhance fighters, but that's not really pertiinent here).

 

So, how many decoys you needs depends on what is protecting the target. If you are sabotaging a lone army regiment on a planet with no general, you don't need more than 1 decoy (and you have a good chance without one).

 

If the planet has 3 stormtrooper regiments and a general, I'd put at least 2 or 3 decoys*.

 

If Coruscant has 9 dark trooper regiments with General Vader commanding them along with a huge fleet headed by Admiral Thrawn, you probably need a fsck-load of decoys (and even then . . . )

 

A few notes about (since SWR is so goddamned complex . . .)

 

(1) Generals + troops is the best protection against covert missions (leadership is the critical skill)

 

(2) Officers not only increase your chances of foiling a mission, but also increase the chances of capturing/killing a foiled character.

 

(3) Force based characters are ~2x better at evading defense, so if you expect Vader to arrive, be extra careful.

 

(4) Detection values for troops can be found in "Status"

 

(5) Fleets without an admiral are defenseless against sabotage missions - learn this well. It sucks to lose an ISD because admiral grammel was off machine-gunning some goddamned hippies on some planet.

 

(6) Don't try death star sabotage unless you don't value your characters' lives.

 

(7) The empire has a HUGE advantage when it comes to officers so if you play as them, try to target all the rebelion leadership characters.

 

( Decoys will not protect a mission from abduction/assasination attempts aimed at the principal actors if the mission is discovered through espionage. This is a price you pay (and why it's always good to have bothans/droids casing out your important planets for you at all times).

 

Hope this helps

 

Oren

 

 

* Generally speaking (there are exceptions):

 

2x Specforc == 1x Character[/code]

[wrath0fb0b]

The only skill that matters for a decoy is espionage EXCEPT, if the decoys are not successful (ie: the mission is foiled) higher combat rating will help them escape un-captured.[/u]

[Gleem]

Yes, thanks..

 

I always thought for some reason that espionage was the priniciple factor for detecting enemy missions and foiling them and that leadership was just for battles. Not complicated, this is.. but confusing sometimes indeed.

[JasonTL12]

play the game more and more. practice, practice, practice. even with the randomness of the game events, you'll get the hang of what works best for you in certain situations. also, keep tabs on the characters that you're using in the missions. as they're stats go up, your strategy will change. the number of decoys needed and even goal appointed team members may go down as you're character's stats go up.

[Technopeasant]

Talking of characters on missions, I have found that by far the best role for Han Solo is Recruiting. He's brilliant at it, especially on Yavin. But, beware, as the Empire often attack there early on in the game. If so you'd best skedaddle pronto! I've also found that, if the Empire "visit" Yavin early on and find nothing, they NEVER return there in the game. This is useful if Yavin has good resources, and the system can quickly become a powerhouse, relatively safely. Anyone else find this?

[Paul]

I play only as the Empire and tend to leave Yavin until later in mid game. This has its plus and minus sides of course, but I have caught the rebels off guard frequently since they assume I have forgotten about them.-Grand Moff Conway

[Nero]

I disagree that you don't send people on Death Star missions if you value there lives, thats what saving and restarting for(as long as it's single player). I do that all the time for even the simplest things example- Bombarding a planet with a ground based battery.

 

Second about Yavin. I don't worry about Yavin untill everything is settled in the Core Worlds. If the Rebellion has any significant strongholds take them first. When your playing against easy though, Yavin is almost always the Rebel HQ.

[Darth-Griffin]

thats what saving and restarting for

 

Never do it myself as i go more for a 'realistic' feel to the game. In RL you would only get one chance and i like to play that way. Do i send my ISDII up againt that Golan III or not.....???

 

Just my peception though

[Nero]

It might be more fun to do it your way, but I don't like to lose

[rebel_scum]

In regards to missions, I find it is always best to send an odd number of agents when using special forces only (no characters). I find sending a group of 5 is a good rule of thumb (Less is fine for a relatively unguarded planet). I like sending two as the primary and then three decoys. It isn't a 100% success rate but have found it works good.

 

Also I have found that if there is a crucial mission, like a rescue or assasination/abduction, that it is good to send in two seperate teams. Often one team will fail and the other will succeed, almost like one mission is actually the decoy mission and the other slides through and is successfull. So, for example, I needed to assasinate a character trying to subdue an uprising on a planet. I tried a couple of times with a small party with a character and failed. Then I sent in 5 noghri's (2 primary, 3 decoys) and then group of three Nog's and 1 leadership character, Grammel I think (with the nogs as primary, and Grammel as decoy). The first crew failed, and sent back maybe 3 survivors, but the second crew succeed with Grammel as decoy.

 

It seems that over doing it with decoys rarely works, or if it does you loose some of those forces. It seems like a waste. All this being said, having at least two good characters and no more than 3 is the best formula with things weighted toward the decoy side. So if I'm sending in a Niles Ferrier Menndo combo, this works great, but sometimes I'll add a commando/noghri to the decoy side. This works well for me.

 

Just some thoughts.