Back in Action

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

It's been almost four years since I las played a game of Rebellion, but I've since dusted off that lovely jew-case, inserted the disk, and enjoyed hte brief Imperial March before clicking play... and listening to it again.

I started off eas, so I'm playing a standard game on a small galaxy, on easy. The first thousand or so days were frought with small fights with the rebels. They liked to immediately assault planets I'd taken, so I had to start building picket fleets. Perhaps I've gotten a bit ahead of myself here, though.

First, I have made some changes using RebEd. I've replaced two characters, one for each side, with cards created by a fantastic artist from the old days. Can't recall his name, but when you see the pic of one of them, you may recognise his work.

So, Boba Fett is now a character for the Empire, with excellent espionage and combat skills, though he lacks in the diplomacy and leadership (which doesn't matter, since he can't command). The rebels have been given Ben Kenobi. Sure, he's suppose to be dead, but two Jedi for the Rebels, one of whome can train Jedi before Luke goes to Degobah and later faces Vader, well, that makes it more challenging.

Also, all ships have been halved in cost (except for the SSD and the Death Star, both of which have been tripled in cost), hyperspace travel time has been halved, and some of the rebel ships have been doubled in the firepower department (Mon Cals, Corellian Corvettes, Neb-B's, just to make it interesting).

Back to the story. After about 1500 days the core worlds are pretty much stable, though the rebels still contol most of the Corellian secotor, and I haven't taken the time to assault Yavin. So I think I'm in the clear when... BAM the rebels attack three of my planets in quick succesion, with the same fleet (who's idea was it to lower hyperspace time?), and control three planets in the Seswenna sector. If not for the fleet above Imperial Centre, I would have lost the capitol.

Taking back these three planet is not as easy as it was to gain them in the first place. They are now defended by substantial rebel fleets (they have a lot of planets I don't know about, so lots of resources), and I fighting off rebel sabotaging. So I do what any Imperial would do: I build a fleet specially for the elimination of massive rebel fleets. 2000 days later I have a fleet of 72 ships, mostly ISD IIs with a smattering of Lancer Frigates, VSD IIs, and two Interdictors. In short order I control the whole of the core worlds.

I know I'm rushing through this, but a lot of it is pretty boring. So, I find out where Luke et al are hiding. Han goes first, the bounty hunters finding him on Ithor. After a few assassination attemps Han is unable to fight, and we take him in. Leia is stupid enough to try and free Han, but is captrued in the process. I'm not one to keep prisoners who I think are an escape risk, so I load her on a galleon, let the rebels destroy it and rescue the princess, then blockade hte planet and hit her until she can't fight back. Two down, two to go.

Luke, as always, proves more of a problem. Thrawn, who is pretty much the only character I use actively, is a Jedi (and that's without editing! His chances according to RebEd ar e0, so this was reason enough to celebrate). While this is a good thing, any attempt to attack Luke and the mission is foiled. Enter the Death Commandos. After around 20 missions with 15 of the little guys, Luke is also dissabled and brought aboard.

Through all of This the Alliance has been growing stronger, large fleets attacking everwhyere but being repelled by my planetary fleets (I have at least a small fleet on every planet, though most have no fighters). the biggest problem is their commanders. With the tactical power behind the Alliance, I'm in some big trouble with the size of their fleets.

Again, I do what any wise Imperial would do: I wipe them out, all of them. Well, not all of them yet, but all of the big players, from Antilles to Lando, Dreyson to Talon, all dead.

We're up to speed now, and the game is far from over. There are some massive fleets waiting to attack me at any time, and I still don't know where the hell Mon Mothma and here porta-command centre are. Updates forthcomming, as well as more interesting coverage of the continuing war. For now, screenshots!

 

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TAD1AuUX*7EoJhbGfEDK9XTTfZv!vtV7TNSfmPLH3m0XC69l!Mfuv89oONmQoW4X7c3c1HRXzf!h1q82MFs8XutRQRYOGdMLc!6vEyqWNy*aJHkAhV4FZQ/rebellion2.jpg

As you can see, even if they get to a planet, they're in for a fight. Most of those fleets only have one or two ISD II's. They're mostly Carraks and Dreadnaughts.

 

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TAAAAOQXvrEoJhbGfEDK9SQ4a9TVKsdsn1bufVmsZm!0jVEdKGMFnk1KmY3CXNi8obEjs3cKvvtduI9wciytjRGNRTzlVILE9N5xL!1zm!ff0gxmpntYwg/rebellion1.jpg

I've decided to hold all of my important people on Kessel. Veers has only failed once, when Solo escaped, though he was quickly captured again by Fett. That also gave me the chance to kill Antilles. Thrawn and his crew are on the right.

 

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TAD*AuYXQLIoJhbGfEDK9dAbnt8SqpAy1t8frMjoaAynCH8989id*fcRTLaINGe6mHA1kpEY3fsERwJsKCqkD1iS*6V7fOgYrz6igNdZQBp!Nd*yiRkdyA/rebellion3.jpg

This is a shot of the status of the Rebel command list. Other than Garm, the trend contunues down pretty much the entire list.

[Barkoa]

its good to hear you're back in action. it looks like things are going well! good screenshots!

[BadSamaritan]

Did you replace Admiral with Grand Admiral? Or did you rig it so Thrawn could have that position?

[Krytos]

Nice story GAT - I'm now in the mood for a nice long Rebellion game

Though I have one question: How did you get screenshots? Everytime I've tried to take images, they come out black with a few colours floating in it - really annoying!

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

BadSamaritan:I customized a lot of the ranks for characters. Note that Veers is a General, but Covell is a Major. The same with Pallaeon being a captain. Thrawn is the only Grand Admiral, but there are some others who have customized admiral ranks, such as Jerjerrod, who is now a Moff. I'll refine it later, I'm just testing it out (for 8000 days ). I want to be sure that all of the characters have authentic ranks. Only a few of my rebel characters are customized. I'm not sure if I'll replace the Admiral rank with General for them. I've never really understood why they have both.

Krytos:There are two possibilities for this. First, I press Alt+Print Screen. There is some obscure difference between pressing it with/without Alt, but it seems to work for me. If that's not what it is, I've been running a third-party program in the background that is suppose to take screen shots. Try the first tactic, and if that doesn't work I can get you the program.

 

EDIT:I've just done a test, and the Alt+Print Screen only works with the third-party program. Fortunately it's very small. Here is the link. Just ren the program in the background, pres Alt+Print Scree, minimize the game and open an imaging program and paste from the clipboard. Hope it works for you!.

 

http://www.msnusers.com/EmpireoftheHand/Documents/uosu140.zip

 

UPDATE:Just a small update. I've played the next 1000 days, but only two major events have occurred. First, Thrawn's fleet was attacked while blockading a rebel planet. Both fleets were heavily armed, but in the the Imperials won out, though the loss of almost 100 fighter squadrons and two ISD IIs will be felt.

The second major event was the natural disaster that took place on Coruscant. Normally this would be no big deal, however, all of my major production was being done at Coruscant with 7 of each production facility type on the planet. I've been forced to spred my production out, which makes more sense tactically, though it hurts my production schedules.

[Paul]

You are doing a grand job Grand Admiral Thrawn! I'm glad that you are once again playing rebellion. I'm constantly playing as I have been for years. -Grand Moff Conway

[Jahled]

Just to clarify a little point Grand Admiral made:

 

Print Screen copies entire screen

Alt+Print copies only what's highlighted

 

One of the most refreshing and rewarding gamming stories i've read for a while btw...

[Paul]

We're awaiting another update dude!!-Grand Moff Conway

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

As yet there is very little to report, but I'll do my best to keep this interesting.

 

Despite my best efforts, that being four GenCore II's, two ILM IIs, a KDY, 30 Dark Trooper Regements, General Veers and Boba Fett, Han Solo made good his escape around Day 9430. He and the rest of the rebel's woul-be leaders were being held on Kessel benieth the ever watchfull eye of a substantial fleet in orbit. A group of rebel agents slipped past the planetary defence flet, and the troops guarding the planet, and freed solo, though the agents responsible were killed (good-bye Page!). Unfortuately for me I controlled the etire sector, so Solo escaped into uncharted space.

 

I had little time to dwell on this, however, as there were other problems. My systems in the core are all experiencing seismic trouble, that is, I'm loosing most of my resources to earth-quakes. To date the Empire has lost over 1500 MPs to these "natural" disasters. It is still my belief that the AI has access to some form of earth-quake machine, though I have no evidence to support my theory.

 

The majority of my time is divided between subjuga... erm, negotiating the joining of neutral and rebel-held dydtems to the Empire, and assassinating rebel leaders. With agents scouring the galaxy for admiral, generals, and captains, there now remains only a handful of rebel agents left, most of whom are small players in the grand game.

 

The whole of the core, as well as two rim sectors, are now loyal to the empire, each impregnable to all but the largest of Rebel fleets. The rebels are on the retreat, no longer attacking the core, and affecting only occasional raids on Imperial-held rim systems. Their primary ship production site have been crushed in a daring raid by a greatly outnumbered Imperial taskforce (8 ISD IIs agains a Bulwark, two Daunless Cruisers, four Mon Cals, and an assortment of smaller craft). Losses were heavy, but in the end, victory was mine.

 

That's it for now. I'll update a little sooner next time.

[Paul]

Great going!! I am doing well in my current game, but nothing like you yet. Although I do own most of the core planets at the current time. I am playing on the biggest galaxy size. The rebel scum only own a couple of lonely outposts. I am currently expanding into the outer rim territories. I also have frequent problems with so called 'NATURAL DISASTERS" so you are not alone in your frustration on that issue. -Grand Moff Conway

[dmfitz29]

It is still my belief that the AI has access to some form of earth-quake machine, though I have no evidence to support my theory.

Thats one of the funniest and most true statements Ive ever heard, nice work!

[CP]

An awesome game, I don't remember ever having a Rebellion game last that long, or a fraction of that and I ussually play large galaxy...

[Paul]

Thrawn is your game finished or do you have more updates to come? Just wondering old boy.-Grand Moff Conway

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

Actually, I had to reformat my HD, and I'm still searching for the saved game. I'm hoping that I remembered to transferr it to my other HD before the format. If not, I'll have to start all over again !

[Paul]

Good luck, I hope you find it.-Grand Moff Conway