Multiplayer Strategies: The Early Empire

[Ragnar]

Multiplayer Strategies: The Early Empire

 

The thing you need to realise is that the Rebels will have better fighters and capital ships than you do. Don't kid yourself about Lancer Frigates, Tie Interceptors and ISD II's. Those are no good unless you have a lot more than he has. Your only sure shot at winning is to shut the Rebel economy down fast. If you fail you'll have to outproduce him and shutting him down will help doing that as well.

 

You shut down your opponent by taking out his planets with:

-training facilities

-shipyards

-mines and refineries

-construction yards

...in *that* order. You may think the Con Yrds are more important but they're not, since they don't produce stuff that can actually _hurt_ you. The only time you take out a Con Yrd before going after the rest is when you can't prevent him from taking the sector and/or kicking you out permanantly.

 

The methods of taking out these high value targets vary greatly. Fortnately, this is where the Empire has the advantage over the Rebels. Your ships are generally faster and more versatile than those that the revels have availible to them at the start. As a bonus, all your troops, ships and personell have been scattered across the core, right into striking range of potential targets from the start. There are several basic methods to take out the Rebel planets:

 

1. Sabotage

This is by far the most preferable since it has no downsides and is cheap, but it can be too slow. It is herefore sometimes best used to target strategic targets (prodution facilities) or to prepare the way for a bombardment or ground assault. Neutral planets are by far the easiest and safest targets. Just pick planets that you think will go to the Rebels in the future anyway.

 

2. Ground Assault

This would be even better than sabotage were it not for a few drawbacks. Firstly, assaulted planets can be hard to keep under control and secondly, troopers are expensive. Still, this is soften the most effective way to delay Rebel activity in the sector by 10's of days.

 

3. Bombardment.

This is the easiest and cheapest and yet most effective thing there is. The drawback? You need to do the entire sector or you're just helping your opponent getting started.

 

4. Blockade.

This is the most dangerous thing to do, so don't do it lightly. If the enemy has personell on the planet they might try to sab the ship and they're not unlikely to keep failing at it.

 

With enough luck on your starting fleet, the game can be over in 50 days. Huge galaxies usually take a more time. Feel free to practice on the AI. Set the game at easy to get the starting layout of a MP game.

[CDL_Vader]

Ragnar is right.

 

The Empire is the strongest in the beginning. 9 games out of ten, your fleet can beat the rebels hands down (and the only other time is when he has a escort carrier, and you have no other ship than an ISD).

 

So, as an Imperial player, offense is essentially the best strategy in the beginning, keeping in mind that the longer it goes, the better it tends to get for the rebels (generally speaking).

 

This would mean trying to diplomacize Farfin, and Sluis Van Sectors, because that's what usually considered Rebel territory. If you get those planets, you deny them to your opponent, which is always good in wars of attrition. Chances are that you'll be able to get Corellia and Sesswanna, since most of the time the rebels are occupied winning Farfin and Sluis Van in the first 50~100 days.

 

Like Ragnar said, if you can't diplomacize, sab. Sab the hell out of them. Sab the neutrals. Sab the trainig facilities first, if you plan to stay in the sector, because the worst thing that can happen to you is if your opponent gets enough bothan spies to

(1) Know what you're doing, and therefore stop you

(2) Know what planets your fleet is coming to (assuming it is coming)

Remember, information is vital. Don't let him get any. That puts him at a significant disadvantage that only really good players can recover from.

 

If you KNOW you can't stay in the sector, plan ahead. Get the con yards, if possible...it'll stop him from building facilites quickly, meaning you get fleet superiority, which means that you can assualt and scrap his sectors.

 

A lot of these things work well in tandem

 

Last thing I advise the Imp player to do, is to make sure that if he assualts a planet in sesswanna, to not leave his star destroyer there ! Any good rebel player, if he has a ship there and good sabbing personnel, will go to the next planet, WAIT to be assualted, and then attempt to sab the Star Destroyer, which will presumably be Admiral-less, because your leadership characters are subduing the uprising....Always toggle fleets back and forth, if you're not sure that someone is there. (of course if you know there's no one, then never mind this)

[DarkScipio]

I have some questions:

 

Why is the empire weaker than the rebels on the long hand?

 

What should you build with constr. yars(a), shipyards(b) and barracks©?

 

a:

More constr. Yards for faster building

shipyards

barracks

Planetary Defense

 

b:

Carracks

TIE-Fighters

capitol ships

 

c:

Troops

Commandos

Spies

or

Noghri?

[Pierre]

The MAIN advantage of Rebels in the long hand is that their worlds usually don't loose popular support with time. Empire planets have to constantly be under growing strong garrison guard.

[DarkScipio]

The MAIN advantage of Rebels in the long hand is that their worlds usually don't loose popular support with time. Empire planets have to constantly be under growing strong garrison guard.

 

Really? I never noticed that.

[budious]

I was always for grabbing the planets with construction yards first. Why? Because I can then use them to build shipyards for myself.

 

As for defense, I exclusively stock as many fighters as possible, bombers and interceptor mixes... if you fall in the negative you don't have to worry about losing units quickly and you can keep your capitals on the move so they won't be lost.

 

Lancers are the most powerful tool to empire fleet since rebel strengths are with their fighters.

 

"Speed fleet" of VSDs and Carracks should be assembled as a fast response tool.

 

Force the rebels out of sesswenna ASAP at beginning of game, assault and subdue any planets in the sector.

 

When subduing uprisings... remove as many troops as possible while leaving 1 or 2 garrisons. Assign subdue missions in groups of 2-3 strong leadership characters per team with at least 2 teams. You can easily sway a strong rebel planet to neutral or empire favor within 10 days of play.

 

Also use incite uprise missions on local rebel planets without garrisons while your diplomats are on the nearby neutrals. This will create a push/pull effect on sector diplomacy.

[BrianLara]

construction yards are my first priority when playing both teams.

 

You find construction yards, build 4 or 5 more construction yards then you are able to build your ship yards and training facitlities faster which means you can get your fleets happening faster aswell.

 

but it doesnt always work that way

[budious]

Of course I was playing S734L7H online tonight and I was empire so I just ran around, kicked him out of Sesswenna, and scorched the other 3 sectors (medium galaxy) by assaulting planet and scraping all the facilities.

 

He used solo, chewie, and antillies to sab two of my vsds and some troops of uprising planets and turned sectors to his favor, I let him keep them and raped them.

 

It's day 330 now and he has a rag tag fleet of 3 carriers and fighters and I have an ISD, 9 Carracks, and 80 tie fighters spread around sesswenna... so it's anyone game. He has more planets, but I raid pretty regularly so they are not of much value. (are you reading, is it a bluff? you'll have to find out...)

 

Don't go into a game with too many strategies, you're just going to lose. Play nasty and cheap... it's the only way to win.

[Master_Xan]

I'm curious, do laser batteries/shield generators/ion cannons ever have a useful function in multiplayer? I would assume the shields do, but what of the rest?

[budious]

I'm curious, do laser batteries/shield generators/ion cannons ever have a useful function in multiplayer? I would assume the shields do, but what of the rest?

 

Laser batteries can two things, a) they can damage ships of fleets that attempt to bombard the surface b) lvl1 takes one troop unit of a ground assault, lvl2 takes out two units.

 

Ion Cannons can help characters escape when a fleet ground assaults a planet. They can also eliminate one troop unit of a ground assault.

 

Shield Generators repel surface bombardment to a certain extent. Having one shield generator allows for ground assaults, having more than one prevents a ground assault. Enough bombardment power will destroy the shield generators (lots of tie bombers or y-wings, etc.; or victory destroyers).

 

Of course most good players will have sabotagers aboard their fleet to take those defenses out before bombarding or assaulting.

[Master_Xan]

Of course most good players will have sabotagers aboard their fleet to take those defenses out before bombarding or assaulting.

 

That's actually more what I was asking... is it even worth building them in multiplayer, or is it better to put the RM towards fighters to repel the enemy in the first place?

[budious]

Depends on a lot of factors, how many characters have been recruited or captured. Are your defenses enough to keep him occupied for a few days to send an intercept fleet from a nearby system. I wouldn't worry about lasers/ions personally, but stronghold planets with lots of production I would keep at least 2 shields, troops, a general... or stock with lots of fighters. Have lots of espionage intel going to know where the incoming forces are.

[CDL_Undertaker]

The MAIN advantage of Rebels in the long hand is that their worlds usually don't loose popular support with time. Empire planets have to constantly be under growing strong garrison guard.

 

Here's the key to fixing that...Diplomacy. If you're playing as the Empire and your fleet isn't that strong, be sure to be ready with your Diplomats, as you will need to fix the Uprising Liable systems before too long. I don't remember who it was (My last Multiplayer Rebellion game had to be close to 5 years ago), but after about 750 days, a system he had started with had only a minimal change in Popular Support. I was able to spare a few ships, attacked through an adjoining sector, and I was able to domino the sector, since he had gotten all the systems by conquest. As a result, my Alliance military was able to recover and win. He had the game won and snatched Defeat from the jaws of Victory.

[CDL_Vader]

Undertaker !!

[The Crazy Psychopath]

What about assault and scrap? Its a good way to get refined minerals.