Multiplayer Guides

[budious]

This post contains the most recognized player guides from the original days of Rebellion. You may or may not have seen these in the past.

 

I will begin with MasterVodo's Rebellion Strategy Guide and quote his own suprise that is was still mirrored on my old website.

 

Vodo's Rebellion Strategy Guide

 

I have no idea why it's still on there. You can't play the game at MSN games anymore. Ah well.. I am a piece of web nostalgia buried under millions of discarded web page trash.

 

As a matter of fact, I was world ranked in the game! When you consider the "world" of Star Wars: Rebellion was only a few hundred people, that's not too impressive actually, but DAMMIT, I was feared at the time! (circa 1998)"

 

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VODO’S REBELLION STRATEGY GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE

 

This guide is specially made by Mastervodo for the Rim Sector Renegades, and is intended to be the most comprehensive strategy guide to Star Wars Rebellion on the Internet.

 

GENERAL STRATEGY

 

These tactics and hints work equally well for both the Imperial and Rebel player.

 

IN THE BEGINNING

 

When you first start the game, keep day one on very slow and check out the universe. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent. Look for their production facilities (Shipyards, Construction Yards and Training Facilities) and see which ones you can sabotage early. Scope out sectors that you mostly control that you think you can keep control of and send additional resources there. (Fleets/Troops) Check out your starting characters and where they are at, and notice what would be their best use from where they are. Set all your characters in motion, and set all your production facilities to a task. Especially start building more Construction yards.

 

Send your Fleets where they are most needed. Do fly-by’s on planets. Fly-by’s do 3 things. #1, They send back any troops and/or fighters that were headed to that planet back to the planet they originated from. #2. They stop production of any facility that was headed to that planet. And #3. It worries the opponent. However, it does reveal your fleet strength, so keep that in mind if you want to keep big fleets a secret.

 

ESPIONAGE/RECON

 

Espionage is the key to good planning. Make LOTS of espionage droids right off. Put at least one on each planet you control. Also, remember not to neglect neutral planets and enemy planets for espionage as well. Espionage Neutral planets to discover enemy diplomats and set up abduction/assassination missions. Also to check for incoming fleets to your system, so you can intercept. Espionage enemy planets to see what fighters/troops/characters are on that planet, plus what their facilities are building, what fleets they have in orbit or are on the way, and what missions they have going on the planet. This will set up your sabotage, abduction/assassination, and incite uprising missions. It will also give you an idea where they are fortifying their positions. If you’re lucky, you may even find out information about other enemy planets as well.

 

Probes are cheap! Use them for both exploring the rim sectors and checking out enemy planets. They are great for setting up your sabotage missions. For example: Your a rebel player and you’re pretty sure your opponent has a Star Destroyer camped out on one of his planets. Send a probe, and even if the mission gets foiled, you will still see their star destroyer over the planet. Set up a sabotage mission, and take it out.

 

* Vodo’s super strategy. If you send anyone/anything on a mission to a planet, and then immediately abort that mission, you will see any fleets at or coming to that planet if you haven’t already!

 

MISSIONS THAT WORK

 

I have no idea what the exact mechanics of the decoy/foiler system in Rebellion, but I have learned a few guidelines:

 

Diplomacy missions don’t need decoys.

 

Incite uprising missions should not be sent to planets with high concentrations of characters and troops. You are just asking for them to capture or kill you, and it takes your people out of useful action for a long time.

 

Sabotage missions are a key point for both sides. Sabotage facilities early. Sabotage fleets that camp over planets, or that blockade your own planets. Sabotage GenCores to prepare for an invasion or bombardment. These are the missions that most use decoys.

 

Rule #1: Use decoys with a high espionage rating. If you use a decoy with an espionage rating of 40 or less, you’re most likely going to be caught. In sabotage missions, your "key man", the person you’re having do the sabotage itself, you want a high espionage rating as well, or else you run the chance of not sabotaging the target, even though you weren’t caught.

 

Rule #2: Don’t use too big of a team if there are any foilers on your target objective. 5 Maximum people on your team. I use this system:

 

2 members - 1 foiler, 1 key man

 

3 members - 2 foilers, 1 key man

 

4 members - 3 foilers, 1 key man, or 2 foilers, 2 key men.

 

5 members - 3 foilers, 2 key men.

 

If I know that my objective has no troops, sometimes I send a group with no decoys, because I know I won’t be detected anyway, and I can be sure that I will blow up the target.

 

Rule #3: Try to get short "jumps" in doing sabotage missions. If you can hover over a planet and sabotage everything, great. Next best is to start from a planet next to the one you’re targeting. Next best after that, hover over a planet next to the one you’re targeting. Next best after that, over a planet in the same system. Only as a last resort do I send sabotage missions from sector to sector. It takes way too much time, and your opponent will have ample opportunity to discover your mission, and send fleets/troops/command personnel to that planet to foil you, or just move your target away from there. And, you’ve wasted many turns doing nothing.

 

Rule #4: I’ve noticed that there are more or less 2 "levels" of foilers for the enemy. This is not really a rule, but an observation. If you are sabotaging a planetary objective, you have to get through their fleet, and then their troops on the planet. If you are sabotaging a ship, you have to get through their ships, fighters and troops that are on the ships. This isn’t really a rule, but just an observation based on my success.

 

DIPLOMACY

 

Send diplomats out early to either A) Planets with popular support leaning to your side, or B) Planets with facilities. If you find a planet with 2 or 3 shipyards or construction facilities already in place, do that one first.

 

In sectors where both players have planets, don’t just convert a planet, and then send your diplomat somewhere else. Keep him on that planet until he’s increased popular support there at least 1 or 2 more times. This prevents you from losing the planet, or having it go neutral, at the slightest provocation. For example, and incite uprising mission will easily succeed against a planet just a hair from neutral. Or, a space battle that didn’t quite go your way may domino a whole system.

 

INCITE UPRISING

 

Just a quick note. Don’t bother trying to incite uprising on a planet almost all the way in support of the enemy. It will take waaaaaaaaaaaay too long.

 

RESEARCH

 

Each side has 2 personnel that can research either Ship Design, Troop Training, or Facility Design, plus 1 character that can do all three. For the Empire: Thrawn and Klev for Ship Design, Veers and Covell for Troop training, and Villar and Orlock for Facility Design. Bevel Lemelisk can do all 3. For the Rebellion: Ackbar and Wedge for Ship Design, Carlist Reekan and Crix Madine for Troop Training, and Lando Calrissian and Talon Karde for Facility Design. Adar Talon can do all 3.

 

I think that the more you have of 1 kind of facility on a planet, the better the research goes. I always use the multi-talented character to do Facility Design First, at least until I get Advanced Construction Yards, and then I send him on Ship Design.

 

PRISONERS

 

When you capture a prisoner, you can do 2 things to make sure you keep them.

 

#1. Put them on a planet with a LOT of troops, fighters, fleets, etc.. with command personnel. If they try to escape, there’s a good chance they will be injured, recaptured, or killed. (The last being most preferable)

 

#2. Have a probe droid or espionage droid "Escort" them to the far reaches of the galaxy and back. They cannot escape if they’re in hyperspace. And make sure to buy them a T-shirt.

 

DOMINOING

 

Dominoing is making a system convert to your side all at once. This is done by blowing up troops on a planet that has popular support for your side. When a planet that is in uprising converts to the opposite side, it shifts popular support throughout the whole system a large amount to the side that it converts to. This makes other planets join that side, which in turn moves the popular support again farther to that side, which converts more planets, etc... etc...

 

If you see a planet in uprising, try to get there quickly and blow the troops off. You’ll be glad you did. And your opponant won’t.

 

MISCELLANEOUS

 

Always, Always ALWAYS, if you can, put Admirals, Generals and Commanders on your fleets BEFORE YOU SEND THEM SOMEWHERE! The can and do make a difference in a space battle. Also, if you have fighters in the garrison on the ground of an important planet, it doesn’t hurt to have a Commander on the Planet as well.

 

Don’t "camp" over a planet for too long. You run the risk of getting your fleets blown out of the galaxy.

 

Don’t keep your personnel just sitting there. Use them! For anything! Espionage! Diplomacy! Research! Command Personnel!

 

Colonize the rim.

 

Espionage your planets 24-7.

 

Flee when you have to.

 

TACTICS

 

EMPIRE

 

The empire’s strengths lie in it Star Destroyers, and the high leadership of it’s characters. Also, you begin with the strongest character in the game, Darth Vader

 

The Emperor should be left on Coruscant at all times, so that the rest of your characters get their 50% leadership bonus. That means recruiting and espionage missions for him.

 

Vader can be doing 1 of 3 things. If he starts off at Coruscant, have him start recruiting also. If not, he should start diplomicizing planets, or sabotaging key rebel facilities. He is also an excellent choice for incite uprising missions.

 

Jerjerrod and Piett should start diplomicizing planets immediately. Ozzel And Needa should hop on a Star Destroyer and head out sabotaging and blockading planets, and Veers should be starting on Troop Training, or being a general on the "Rebel Planet" that the Empire starts with.

 

REBEL PLANET

 

One of the biggest disadvantages of being the empire is the "Rebel Planet". You always start out with one. This is a planet that has popular support in favor of the rebels, but you have troops there, so there is no uprising. The rebels (if they’re worth anything) will try to sabotage or bomb these troops off the planet. (See Dominoing) To defend against this, you should have Jerjerrod, Piett, Vader, or all 3 doing diplomacy on this planet right away first thing, until the popular support is such that you need no troops on the planet at all. Do this first before you set them diplomicizing other plants, or you may soon find the entire sector in the hands of the rebellion.

 

You should also send additional troops and ships there if necessary to defend against rebel fleets, and espionage the planet and surrounding planets to prepare for rebel sabotage missions and fleets.

 

STAR DESTROYERS

 

Star Destroyers are key to Empire Fleet superiority. 1 Star Destroyer can take out 2 or 3 corvettes and / or bulk cruisers with ease. Unfortunately, they’re not so good against rebel fighters (See Rebel Fighters) A Star destroyer with a full compliment of tie fighters (6) should retreat from a battle if the rebels have 5 or more fighters. The rebels will blow up your tie fighters, and then slowly, but surely, blow up your star destroyer. Don’t even engage the enemy at all if they have 5 or more fighters. Save your ships and fight another day. A system has been known to domino in favor of the Rebellion by having an arrogant imperial captain think he can cross the screen, take out that escort carrier, and retreat safely. They forget that once your shields are down, fighters start throwing missiles at you! Which will quickly knock out your engines and hyperdrive, and then the fight is over.

 

A star destroyer can take out 2, possibly 3 fighters, but will undoubtedly take damage doing so.

 

If you have 2 Star Destroyers, by concentrating their tractor beams and "holding" a fighter in place, you are much more likely to survive.

 

OTHER SHIPS IN THE EMPIRE

 

If you have to fight fighters, bring along a Carrack Light Cruiser, or even better yet, Lancer frigates. Their high concentration of laser batteries, instead of turbolasers, will destroy fighters much more effectively.

 

Corellian Corvettes will eat up tie fighters (about 10 per ship) so keep them away from corvettes. But, without hyperdrives, once you’re in a battle with one, you’re stuck. Make sure you can overwhelm them with numbers.

 

The Tie Interceptors and Tie Defenders (should you ever research them) are much better at taking out enemy fighters than Tie Bombers and Tie Fighters.

 

Never EVER build a death star. Waste of time and resources. (See Sun Crusher)

 

Victory Star Destroyers take a little less time to build, and pack a big punch, but don’t have as much fighter capability as the Imperial Star Destroyers. Bring along an escort carrier full of fighters if you’re going into battle against Rebel X-wings and Y-wings.

 

Remember, Galleons have no weaponry, and Rebel Transports do, so you’ll have to retreat when you bump heads with one.

 

ASSAULTING PLANETS

 

Assaulting planets, if you intend to keep them, is only a good idea in a few instances.

 

#1. If the popular support on the planet is in your favor.

 

#2. If you have 8 or more troops in your fleet to land on the planet (after you account for casualties)

 

#3. If you have a lot of command personnel and diplomats in the fleet to subdue the uprising and diplomicize afterwards. (See Dominoing)

 

The reason for this is because assaulting a planet without enough troops or popular support will lead to an uprising, and set popular support against you.

 

EXPLORE THE RIM

 

If you can, load up about 8 probe droids on a Carrack Light Cruiser and systematically sweep the rim sectors for the rebels. The Carrack Light Cruiser is the fastest ship in the game, so you can quickly explore the rim this way. Drop in system, (1 planet explored), Send out your probe droids (8 planets explored) and move to the next closest planet. (1 planet explored) There you go.. All 10 planets in a system explored, and you just wait for your droids to come back, and you’re off to the next system.

 

OTHER IMPERIAL NOTES

 

Stormtroopers are good foilers, but Dark Troopers are the best. War droids suck.

 

Occasionally try to send people to the same planet with Vader, so he can check and see if they can become a force user. (Dark Jedis rule!)

 

MOVE AROUND ALOT! Moving fleets cannot be sabotaged.

 

Beware of the Coruscant Rush! (See Coruscant Rush)

 

TACTICS

 

REBELS

 

(MASTERVODO’S FAVORITE)

 

IN THE BEGINNING

 

First thing, have Mon Mothma start recruiting. Then, check your fleet. Try to get 2 or 3 Corvettes together if possible, for a Coruscant Rush. Load up Everybody on the Millenium Falcon (with Han Solo) from Yavin, and send them in-system. Preferably to a secure planet you control. it takes about 25 days to get to Sluis from Yavin, but beware of empire blockades. If they have a planet in sluis, you may want to take a corvette instead, or else move them to a ship already in sluis, but hovering above a neutral planet. From there, have Luke and/or Leia start recruiting as well. One of the rebels main strengths is they can recruit faster than the Empire. More people = more missions.

 

REBEL PLANET

 

The quickest way to victory is to domino the system with the "Rebel Planet" in it. (Preferably Sluis) I send Han, Wedge and Chewy to that system as quickly as possible. Probe or espionage the planet in question, to see if there are any fleets orbiting the planet. If there are any camped there, use the terrible trio to blow it up! Then, maybe do a fly-by with a fleet to identify the ground troops. Then, one by one, blow up the troops. If you are sure there is no chance for saboteurs, you can hover above the planet and send them from the ship to save time. A more risky way to do this, if there are no gencores or LRN’s on the planet, is to do a bombard military facilities mission with the fleet. Do NOT attempt this without an admiral in the fleet (the one with the highest leadership) and even then, if you hit a civilian facility, your chance is shot.

 

Once you have a system, fortify it by sending any and all fighters you can there for a "pinpoint defense" A pinpoint defense is this: you should be doing espionage missions to all your planets, and if you see any kind of fleet coming, move all your fighters and fleet to that planet, and send them packing back home, or eating space dust. And don’t forget the postcard!

 

REBEL FLEETS

 

Fighters are the Rebel’s strong point in the beginning, and their defense against Star Destroyers. Try to keep them in groups of 6 or more.

 

Use Corvettes to take out Imperial fighters. 1 Corvette can take out 8 to 10 regular tie fighters.

 

Your enemy is Lancer frigates. Your defense is to run the fighters around a bit, and pound them with Nebulon B frigates. 2 or 3 Nebulon B’s can take a single Star Destroyer as well.

 

Hopefully you can cripple the empire before it gets Lancer frigates. Blow up shipyards! Capture Thrawn, Klev and Bevel, and you’ve almost got the game locked.

 

BLOWING UP IMPERIAL PROPERTY FOR FUN

 

Espionage and Sabotage are another of the Rebellions strengths. Blow up everything you can.

 

Here’s a hint if you plan on crippling production: Choose either mines OR refineries to blow up. You need 1 of each for 50 maintenance points. So, you can have a hundred mines, but if you have no refineries, you still have no maintenance.

 

Beware of sending Luke on missions where the Emperor or Vader are. The force is sometimes not a good thing to have.

 

COLONIZE THE RIM

 

Use your transports to make FORTS out in the rim. And definitely use MASTERVODO’S HQ COLONIZATION STRATEGY

 

(See both in Special Tactics)

 

GENERAL REBEL TACTICS

 

Keep moving, and use your diplomats effectively.

 

Espionage planets alot!

 

Pinpoint defense.

 

Sullustan Regiments make great, great foilers! And, they’re cheap!

 

TOP SECRET

 

SPECIAL TACTICS

 

SUN CRUSHER

 

There is a way to "Blow up" a planet without using a Death Star, and without losing popular support in the whole universe. Both Rebels and Imperials can use it. First, you must have a fleet with a combined bombardment value of 4 or higher (Preferably higher, and with an Admiral in the fleet) Then, a system you don’t want to keep. Start by sabotaging all Ground Defenses. Then, do a General Bombardment on the planet until there are no more Blue dots underneath. (This will, of course, send popular support in the system all the way to the enemy. Can’t be helped) This will make it so that nobody can ever build anything on that planet EVER again. Credit goes to Luuke0 who first taught me about it, and Hitman, who perfected it.

 

ASSAULT AND SCRAP

 

Similar to the Sun Crusher, but less effective. It will still send popular support in the system down the proverbial garbage chute, but you can do it with just 1 transport. (If you’re lucky)

 

Again, blow up all defenses on the planet. You can leave 1 gencore if there are no actual troops on the planet you’re assaulting. You can assault through 1 gencore. Then, scrap all facilities, (even the gencore), to gain raw materials for your own use. Then, leave a bare husk of a planet for your enemy and repeat through the whole system. Another good part about this strategy is that if there are characters on the planet, you have a good chance of injuring and capturing them as well.

 

CORUSCANT RUSH (For Rebels)

 

This should be done in the first 50 - 100 days, or else don’t bother.

 

Get together 1 or 2 (or 3!) Corvettes and do "Fly-bys" of an imperial planet in Seswenna to lure all the capital ships off of Coruscant. Or, sabotage the capital ships off of Coruscant if you can.

 

Coruscant starts off with 10 - 11 tie fighters on Coruscant. If you have 2 Corvettes, or 1 Corvette with an Admiral on it, you can then move to Coruscant and blow up all the tie fighters (they can’t retreat). Then, you can bomb the troops off the planet (Again, ONLY with an admiral) if they have no Gencores or LNR’s, or you can start sabotaging them. Don’t hang over the planet for too long, because the imperial fleet will be back soon, or else your ships will be sabotaged. Kill the tie fighters and go, waving your private parts in their general direction.

 

MASTERVODO’S HQ COLONIZATION STRATEGY

 

The means you can not use this against me.

Edited July 31, 2007 by budious

[budious]

The Complete Guide to Rebellion Strategy

 

Strategy by RSR_PULP:

 

Dont make corvettes early in the game, you need fighters early for defense and training facilities should make spies. Use spies to detect dips early and catch them, by taking away their diplomats, they're screwed. I start by making carracks, if I dont rebels will be able to take over system. Once I have bomber technology, I make a hella lot of those and using espionage aborts I use them to protect the system. I also supplement with Tie Interceptors. I always load mon mothma on a corvette and send her into the core to do Diplomacy. I load characters on a ship from Yavin and send them a random neutral core system, one likely your opponent wont check, to do missions or to a planet you want them to go to. Even in the beginning, if the Empire has a ship and vader in the system, he can meet you at the planet and capture luke early in the beginning, depends on the circumstances. Have Imperial ships blockade rebel planets to keep them from getting their troops and fighters in. Always have at least one ship with turbolasers at Coruscant though to protect your fighters and troops if you have no planetary defenses. The main point is to catch the other sides dips, without them they will lose. You can also move your ships to a planet that you expect the enemy to send dips to within the first few days to catch them. I play Empire very aggressively... you need to get the rebels out of the Swessanna and Corellian sectors. In a standard game, if they have two or less planets in a sector and under right conditions, planetary assault it. Sabotage planetary defenses, and assign a General to take the planet which will give you more support for taking out the enemy troop regiments in the assault. Subdue any uprising, I dont generally use diplomats. If its a planet rebels control with only moderate support and now troops, send two incite uprising missions. Don't sabotage facilities off rebel planets in Swessanna unless they are training facilities, you will want them when you convert it. If they make more construction yards, all the better. Also if you remove all but one troop you subdue uprising faster. Moving ships out of orbit also makes it faster. But you have to move ships with discretion. And if you land on an enemy planet try to move a troop who you didn't land with onto planet and move others off, because what they can't see they can't sabotage. A lot of times I don't have dips subdue uprising, depending on situation. I usually have galleons search for the rebels HQ. I sometimes set up a base in Calaron for either a ship or construction yard. In case enemy goes through your system assaulting the hell out of it. The espionage aborts are the key to keeping the enemy out. I don't usually put more than one diplomat on a single planet, I like to spread them out. Also bombarding a troop off increases support, but you have to be careful. If you can catch Imperials with pants down no defenses on coruscant or if you take out their ties...it is always good to bomb the troops...you gain support for taking coruscant's troops out especially. Bomb and move. If you have two corvettes or just one and an admiral in system, you can take out all fighters if they move off their fleet, or hell just send a single corvette, you can take out most fighters with just one, but run before they kill you. Move ships to a planet by coruscant, and generally the enemy will attempt to blocade your planet, then move your corvettes into attack. Move your fighters into core, it is highly unlikely that they will find your base quickly. You need them to protect your core systems.

1

[budious]

General Strats Imperial Tactical Database

 

Avioding Uprising - you will always begin the game with a rebel planet occupied by the Imperials, maybe two if you are playing huge galaxy. First thing is to determine the situation.

 

Defense Available, or no Rebel Threat - if you have ships over the planet or heavy ground forces with good characters at the planet, or their is no nearby Rebel threat, then use this approach:

 

Remove all but 1 troop regiment from the surface of the planet causing an uprising. Put all characters with a high leadership rating together on a subdue uprising mission (a minimum of two, three recommended), it should take about 10 days with good characters to subdue it, when the planet is subdued and only requires one regiment to keep peace, use a strong diplomat like Vader or Piett to finish turning the planet until its at least at 80% before sending them out to start diping neutral planets. While they are doing this, move back all troops a good number and put a strong general in charge to stop any rebel sabotage attempts. When the planet is in your favor, you may remove all troops and your general if you wish (when the planet requires 0 regiments to keep peace).

 

No Defense Available, Rebel Threat Nearby - if you have no nearby ships or planetary defenses capable of withstanding a direct orbital attack, then you may want to try this procedure, or if their is not much risk of a rebel threat, and you have good characters available, you may choose to use the option above:

 

Send all nearby troops to the planet, hopefully you have a gencor1 or a LNR1 gun for planetary defense. Note: Ions are about useless. Assign a good general who is not a good dip. A good general is one with a high combat and espionage rating. Try to get at least six troop regiments on the planet. Use a good dip, or two if you have them, to dip the planet until it is in your favor. If you feel you have enough troops and a good enough general to keep the planet safe, then you may opt to leave it "fortified" for the time being and send your dips out to turn over neutral planets.

 

Key Goals To Winning - Rebels start the game weak, use this to your advantage. Organize your fleets and forces and assign admirals, generals, and commanders if need be. I recommend an admiral for all fleet engagements or for bombardment purposes. As soon as possible start blockading and making random patrols of nearby rebel core systems. The idea is to keep the rebels out of the core and to drive them out.

 

Forcing Rebel Units out of Core - sending out a patrol vessel or small fleet to drive out the weak rebel forces stationed in the core is important. Do Not blockade planets and open yourself up to sabotage, mearly orbit then move to the next planet staying no longer than 1 turn, your forces should be strong enough to defeat any rebel force you encounter before day 20 of the game.

 

Inciting Uprising on Rebel Planets - incite uprising can be an imperial officers best friend. Make sure to sabotage any rebel troops off the planet first, or if you are confident enough, and willing to risk it, bombard the troops. Send at least two high leadership officers working together as agents on a incite uprising mission, with a second officer or pair of commandoes doing a second incite uprising mission on the same planet. Two missions always seem to get better results. Commandos have to great functions, sabbing weakly defended rebel planets and inciting uprising missions. I do not recommend using commandos to sab stuff off rebel planets that you can easily turn neutral or to your side since once you get them you will be able to profit from them. Only use commandos to sab strong rebel sided planets or planets under heavy occupation by rebel forces.

 

Catching Rebel Diplomats and Other Characters - taking your enenmy's diplomats is the best way to hurt them. Without their diplomats they are left virtually no way of getting core planets. First you must find them. this involves producing a large number of Imperial Espionage Driods, using 2 or 3 as agents on a mission together for fast results, send them out to neutral planets which are in the rebels favor or to rebel planets. Keep some on your planets to esp and watch for Rebel missions occuring on your planets, as you can easily capture characters on your planets as well. A general with troops or good bounty hunter or command characters or a handful of Noghri should do the trick of catching them. Once you locate the rebel characters, send some people to get them. Best way to get them is if they are at a neutral planet is to send a ship with several command figures and bounty characters as well as a few noghri if needed. Usually a strong character with a decoy will be good enough against a rebel diplomat. If the character you are attempting to catch is stronger, send two strong agents with two good decoys, or usually about 3 Noghri as agents and 2 as decoys work too. Noghri function much better placed with a strong character as an agent, and another character as a decoy. Noghri w/ Needa as agents and Screed as decoy would be a good combonation to catch a character like Lando Calrissian who is a highly skilled and strong diplomat. Also catching the Rebels ship researchers (Ackbar, Wedge Antilles, and Adar Tallon) can have a game winning effect in simply putting the technological squeeze on the rebels.

 

Scraping a Rebel Sector - If the rebels are concentrated (2 or 3 Rebel planets with no more than 1 Imperial planet) in one sector at the beginning of the game, you may choose to lead a direct assault on it. Use your diplomats in sectors other than the one you plan to assault. Do Not start immediately scraping the sector! First go around and clear off defenses on neutral systems in the sector. Hopefully the Rebels will waste time trying to diplomize a sector you are going to scrap. In the process you may come across Rebel forces at neutral planets who are escorting or bringing diplomats to the planets. If you encounter a ship, do a quick espionage mission and try and capture any Rebel Diplomats you locate. After about 50 days, begin your scraping assault, taking raw materials for your own use and destroying Rebel Maintainence points.

[budious]

Budious's Guide To Rebellion Strategy

 

By FCL_Budious ©1999 FCL Press, Inc.

 

 

 

Introduction:

 

I created this guide as a basic introduction to Rebellion strategy. The following sections are focused on getting you started and the follow up sections go into a little more detail. The following chapters in this guide are all my tactics, but nobody thinks alike. I encourage you not to use these tactics word for word and to create your own tactics, I supply these only as an "eye-opener" to the true potential you can unlock. More strategy sections submitted by other players may be found in the "Complete Guide to Rebellion Strategy."

 

Chapter 1: Getting Started

 

As rebels you start with some good diplomats and some good sabbers. Rebel capital ships are relatively weak, but rebel fighters are the key defense of rebel systems. You should start by producing as many fighters as possible and to getting your rebel fighters you start with into the core sectors to provide defense for your core systems. Putting Mon Mothma on a corvette and sending her into a random neutral system to help is always an incentive. Use solo's "Falcon Effect" to move all your characters at Yavin into the core. If you don't have a nearby rebel system in the core of Farfin or Sluis, or there is an Imperial threat relatively close to it, you may opt to load them onto a ship at Yavin and send them into the neutral core system. Start by spreading out diplomatic missions to the planets in most support of you, you will notice that some neutral planets support bar is more red than green, those are ones to get first, they will turn first, and will increase support on other systems in the sector. Use Luke, Leia, Dodonna, and Mon Mothma to turn as many neutral planets to the rebel side as quickly as possible. Use Solo, Chewy, and Antilles to run sabotage missions on key Imperial facilities, garrison units on "rebel friendly" systems and even unguarded Imperial ships if your opponent is fool enough to leave them sitting idle too long. When sabbing facilities or ships in defended or garrisoned Imperial systems, I suggest assigning Solo as the mission agent, and Chewy and Antilles as his decoys.

 

As Imperials, you will have a few diplomats to start. Leave the Emperor on Coruscant so that you can benifit from his "Throne of Power" effect. Have the Emperor start recruiting, hopefully he will get you some more diplomats. If you have shipyards, start building carracks, you will need them to keep the Rebels out of your core sectors. I suggest trying to force the rebels out of Swessanna and Corellian sectors as soon as possible. Gather up any stray Imperial tie squadrons and put them in route to Coruscant, or the nearest fleet in need of fighter squadrons. I dont usually build fighters until I have bomber technology, and then Interceptors are great as well. Only thing I really use the Defenders for is on fleets where I have limited squadron space, so for general planetary defense, a combo of interceptors and bombers will do nicely. Usually will start with Vader and probably Piett and Jerjerrodd, use these three strong diplomat characters to start swaying over "Imperial friendly" neutral planets, or the ones with more green than red support. Also work on using command characters and commandoes to sab off rebel regiments and/or send two incite uprising missions to rebel planets that are near the point of turning neutral after you have taken out the rebel regiments. Also if there is only one or say maybe two rebel systems in the Swessanna sector to start, you may alternatively choose to assault them, and subdue the uprising. A combonation of these tactics should sway the sector to Imperial control quickly.

 

Chapter 2: Spec Forces and Character Involvement

 

Build lots of Imperial Espionage Droids and Bothan Spies. Keeping Espionage can bring you valueable info. Aborting Espionage missions can show you if there is an enemy fleet en route to the system. Leaving the espionage team in the system for the duration and completion of mission can bring back information about rebel activity such as character and unit locations. Always keep a ship with turbo lasers at Coruscant for defense, the tie fighters will fight off rebel fighters, but corvettes would kill them easily, a dreadnaught or vsd will do nicely. Use carracks and vsds, or your main ISD to blockade nearby rebel planets and then exit orbit quickly, by routinely blockading the nearby planets, the rebels will not be able to get their needed fighters and troops into the core to defend their systems. You can also send a galleon or ship to a neutral planet with a General, usually high in combat and espionage is better to catch people, if you know or suspect that a rebel agent is en route to that planet. With any luck you'll have a prisoner and without their diplomats the rebels will be screwed.

 

Its up to the rebels to manage to sneak in their fighter squadrons and troop regiments into the core and setup some strong hold bases. If you have several small ships near Coruscant, you may want to move them and any characters on them to a nearby neutral planet like Uvena. Wait there or move around to other neutral planets until you see a window of opportunity to strike coruscant if your opponent decides to start blockading your planets and you know his ISD is not there, or you send in a spec force team that manages to detect there are no units in orbit around Coruscant, move in and take out his fighters with your corvettes, if you start taking too much damage, withdrawl. An admiral will be a great help if you have one available. This little mistake will compromise your opponent's fighter defense at Coruscant, and force him to bring back some ships to protect Coruscant. Also using espionage and diplomacy in the Imperial sectors to sway planets and scrap them will slow the empire down, they may regain the planets, but you will have scraped them clean, gotten the resources, and forces the empire to rebuild them.

 

If you are Imperials, there are several things your starting characters may be good for. If there is one nearby rebel base, assign a quick espionage mission to Coruscant and abort to check for incoming rebel ships. If you don't detect any, assign an Admiral first off to your ISD at Coruscant, if the rebel planet is somewhere close within Swessanna sector like the Ghorman system or Corsin, then move your fleet there. If you start with more than one ship at coruscant, its usually a good idea to leave one. A dreadnought will be effective defense at coruscant, and you can send your ISD to check out Ghorman. Or if you have something faster like a carrack or vsd class ship, you may choose to assign your free command figures and bounty hunter characters to these ships and send them, as they will travel quicker and usually a carrack or vsd will be enough to fight off any small rebel fleet that would be started off in the Swessanna sector. Once in orbit of the Rebel planet, say Ghorman, first sab off any troop regiments that may be placed there. If Ghorman is the only rebel planet in Swessanna, just sab the system defenses, assign a General and take the planet by force, using your troops to destroy enemy troop regiments provides a slight bit more support and makes the planet easier to subdue. Or you may secondly choose to sab any training facilities, unless the population of Ghorman is on the verge of changing from Rebel to neutral control. Once again utilize the high leadership rating of imperial officers, and assign all command figures with high leadership together as agents on an incite uprising mission, and additionally you may to choose to put on Imperial Commandos as additional agents and decoys for the mission. Usually two incite uprising missions will have a faster effect, but both most be at least 150 combined leadership to get good results. With your good bounty hunter characters, send sabotage missions, and espionage missions to get info on rebel activity. Imperial Espionage droids are always of use. If you are successful, you will turn the rebel planet within about 15 to 20 days, if you are using 4 or more good command characters as agents on the incite uprising mission, additional Imperial Commandos will speed up the process. Usually I am not too worried about leaving my ship in orbit for too long in the early days of the game, the rebels will most likely not have any good characters on these planets to sab it, but as a rule of thumb, I rarely, if ever leave a ship of my own in orbit of an enemy system for more than two days. So choose your personnel and send out your missions and move your ship out of the way is usually your safest bet.

 

Chapter 3: Furthering Success

 

By this time you should have an idea of what you want to do, and where you want to send your characters. Choose wisely, as for small mistakes can mean winning in losing in this game. If you are rebels, you should start by trying to setup a base of operations, preferably not near an Imperial planet. Start forming up a fighter defense for you core systems and move all available fighters to your base. When choosing your base, try to find one with either construction yards, or shipyards, two shields, or a planetary battery, and some troop regiments. If the base is not too distant, move your troop regiments from Yavin to the base, troops on Yavin are about useless otherwise. The reason I say try not to locate near an Imperial planet is that the Imperial player with have best success in blockading and cutting off your incoming fighter and troop support. Frequent quick visits by Imperial Patrol fleets can detour fighters and troops back to their original location, taking away valuable time which is spent in hyperspace and you do not get the benefit of having this units. It is imperative that you move available characters such as the six you start with at Yavin to this base if its near or in the Sluis or Farfin sector. You can use your new Rebel fortification to send out recon, espionage, and sabotage missions which will have better effect if they are located within a short range from their target. Diplomacy missions can be launched to neutral planets which are close to supporting the rebels. Establishing a base of operations can give Imperials a hassle in that sector, especially if they do not have a base of their own nearby.

 

Imperials will further their success with diplomatic missions and recruitment of new characters to assist. After subduing any unruly Imperial planets you had to start with in the sector, start using your diplomats to immediately sway neutral planets. If you send out diplomacy missions to the neutral planets most in favor of the Empire, you will have far quicker success. Sometimes even swaying over up to five or more planets in the process of one mission. The planets that remain neutral will have a slight increase in support, some will be further in support of the Empire than others, and as before send Diplomacy missions to these first. Hopefully you will turn the system with another 20 days or so, if you don't keep trying. Sometimes Dips have some really bad ratings to start, but they will catch-up. Also it is possible that rebel and imperial dips will be fighting to get support in the same system or sector, so continuous espionage is always an asset. If you find the enemy diplomaticizing nearby, send out a mission or team to catch them. More Prisoners, and if you don't catch them, you still have thwarted their diplomacy mission and have spoiled their chances of success in the sector. Catching the enemy's diplomats will slow him considerably if not ruining him.

 

Furthering success also includes building proper facilities and more military units. Troops are not of importance early in the game, so use your limited number of training facilities to keep pumping out the needed spec forces. Depending on whether you are in the rim or the core sectors, Construction Yards should be built accordingly. Usually in the core I concentrate on having 3-5 yards on a base. If I'm in the core, I usually build about a 3 to a new planet, then using those 3 build more until I have anywhere from 8-12 yards, its usually a good idea to provide some moderate troop and a planetary battery for defense. The character you are using for facility research on this planet can always be aborted to use as a general if the planet is being blockaded by the enemy, or if he's Lando and the fleet isn't to big or troops and characters on enemy fleet or not to big a threat, you can try sabbing a ship or two. I only recommend that if you have a decoy to use though. When It comes to shipyards, I like to have a core system with at least 4-5 shipyards, make sure to have some espionage droids or bothans keeping watch at this facility and have moderate troops and a planetary gun. If you have enough construction yards, I like to have about 15 total within the core and a planet with 8 or more per rim sector, but I adjust and scrap most of these later on, and after the introduction of advanced construction yards and you have less planets and spots to fill. Another important thing is to always keep a balance between mines and refineries. Having one of each equals fifty maintenance points. Having an excess refineries does nothing for you, having an excess of mines will build unrefined material stockpile, but will not provide refined materials or the needed maintenance points. It is important to have as much maintenance and refined materials as possible. When you run out of refined materials, you building rate slows considerably. There is an answer to this dilemma, scrap unneeded facilities, defenses, and mines or refineries. You can always check your balance of mines and refineries by pressing alt + O on the keyboard to get the Galaxy Overview screen. This screen tells you exactly the number of facilities you have in your empire in the game. If you have 13 more refineries than mines, you may want to strip 10 of those to get refined material value, it is a good idea to leave an extra few, this will mean less rebuilding in the future, you can just build three more mines and have an extra 150 maintenance.

 

Chapter 4: In Game Tactics

 

Well by this point, you should have made a clear game plan of what you want to do. If you had an eligible planet nearby, you have established your Rebel base in the core sector. You have turned over several planets to your side, and are still diplomatizing neutral systems. You have established, lets say, Orto for your base of operations. The Empire has turned Sluis Van to there side through diplomacy, and have a small fleet in the system. You may want to send a y-wing recon and/or bothans to check it out. Take info on what you do know is there, and send out missions using solo. Target known facilities first, create a sabotage mission with Solo as the main agent, and chewy and wedge as decoys. Luke, Leia, and Dodonna should be doing diplomacy, and are not well fitted for sabotage missions any how. Early in the game Wedge is most useful as a decoy, or commander, I don't usually send him on a ship research mission until I have a planet with 5 or more shipyards available and can spare his services. If no facilities are available or have already been sabotaged, target any ships which may be in orbit of the planet or start plundering off his mines and refineries. Now a smart thing to do if you are getting struck with unstoppable sabotage attempts, is just to scrap the planet. Its better to get the benefit of the refined materials from scraped facilities then to get them sabotaged out from under you. Defenses on planets that have been stripped serve little or no purpose, so scrap them as well. The refined materials you get from scraping will speed up your current construction projects. Scraping facilities, etc. is also good if you know the enemy is blockading and is planning on assaulting and taking your planet by force, or of sabotaging it clean with missions, if you have reason to believe this will happen, its your best bet just to scrap the planet.

 

Hopefully Solo's missions will put a hurt on the Empire's productivity in that sector. Its also a good idea to keep your fleet on the move, leaving ships idle for too long, even at your own base, can mean a sure chance of sabotage by Rebel or Imperial agents. In a quick and random decision you send a espionage mission to Orto by chance, abort it, and see that the small Imperial fleet will be arriving at your base on Orto in 2 days. While, this does not give you enough time to get more units into place, it does give you time to assign a commander and/ or admiral to your fleet. The Imperial fleet enroute is say a carrack and a vsd. Carracks provide a good amount of anti-starfighter defenses while packing in a strong durability in long battles, the carrack most be your first target. The VSD while posing a threat with heavy weapons fire against capital ships, poses little threat to fighters. Depending on what the Imperial opponent decides to do with the two ties aboard his VSD, act accordingly. Lets say your small fleet consist of 2 corvettes and one bulk cruiser. Move the corvettes into a intercept course targeting the VSD, but reassign them to hit the fighters when they start to go after you fighters you had on ground patrol. Assign the bulk cruiser to target the carrack, and keep the cruiser's fire concentrated on the carrack. Your ground defense fighters consist of say 4 x-wings and 2 y-wings. If the Imperial opponent assigns his ties to go after you fighters then assign the x-wings to attack his fighters first, and follow up about 2 seconds later by assigning the y-wings to attack the fighters, by this time the corvettes should have broken off their VSD run and be attacking from behind. It is important that you keep your fighters back at your start line, and let them huddle until you assigned the attack orders against the fighters, as that when ties are assigned to attack the fighters, they go for y-wings first, same for rebel fighters, they go for bombers first. This way your x-wings will have a good jump on the ties as they fly past going for the incoming y-wings, and you should drop the ties with no problem with a few shots, taking minimum damage. Now turn your corvettes on the closing carrack, your bulk should still be firing at it, and order all your fighters to attack it. With your concentrated firepower of ships and fighters, the carrack should be easy pickings. The VSD should either be blasting away, and depending on the targeted ship, if he has not changed his fire, and has keep firing on one ship from the start, that corvette should have it shields badly damaged or neutralized. Once the carracks weapons are useless, turn all remaining fighters and ships to attack the VSD. The VSD will be helpless against the rebel fighters, and any smart Imperial commander will order retreat if they were not smart enough to do so at the battle start.

 

Rebel fighters are the heart of rebel defense in the beginning of the game. Without fighters, the Rebellion does stand much of a chance against large imperial ships, and while a two corvettes and bulkcruiser may be able to push back a carrack or vsd, they will not stop a mighty ISD. Early rebel fleets should concentrate on defense, this means you should build a hefty amount of x'wings and y'wings for sector defense before concentrating on your ship construction. Rebels will not have battle offensive capital ships until the introduction of the neb-b's or mon cals. Mon cal cruisers are not worth the price, they serve as a good back bone if you want one in a large fleet, but for conventional rebel fleet, you can have 3 neb's for the price of a mon cal. Neb-b's are best ships for the price and durability early in rebel fleets, providing a considerable amount of both laser and turbo laser fire, these small, but deadly ships can pack quite a punch in mass numbers, they are my number one favorite rebel ship. Corvettes and gunships are a necessity to the rebel fleets. They are the offensive against imperial ties, its best to have as many as possible to protect your fighters, these ships can intercept fighters and open fire while you hold you fighters back until it is apparent your opponent has ordered them to attack your fighters, then you attack with yours, with the corvettes and guns coming in to help, imperial ties won't last long and then you use the corvettes and guns to focus fire on appropriate targets. Depending on the manner of the fight, offense or defending your system you will want to act appropriately. If there is the chance you can win, concentrate firepower on anti-fighter imperial escorts one at a time, until there weapon systems have been neutralized, then target the next one. If you are trying to defend your system from Imperial invasion, meaning your are taking a stand against a Imperial fleet that would win and would crush you, and you are willing to risk your fleet to defend the system, you will want to cause as much damage as possible. Neutralize the Tie Fighter threat, and then instead of going for imperial escorts, mount a full offensive on their command ship, usually an ISD, and with all fighters and ships firing at it, you will hopefully take it out and slow down the empire's hopes of overtaking your system or sector by killing or injuring the characters on board and destroying the troops or spec forces you will buy yourself considerable time to rebuild.

 

Chapter 5: Toying with Opponent's Thinking

 

Another tactic that works great preys on the human weakness, while playing a human player is always more difficult and inventive, the human has one flaw over the computer's AI. The human can be confused and mislead to believe what you want him to see. The computer sees ships for what they are and their classification and knows when they were constructed and what number they are, humans can be easily mislead. One way of doing this is hiding your numbers, say you start with two ISD's, name Imperial Star Destroyer 2 to I.S.D 1 and now you have two ships which read Imperial Star Destroyer 1. It will take your human opponent a while, if he does ever notice, to realize what you have done. Another way of exploiting this human flaw is to increase your numbers, say make Corvette 4 to Corvette 7 and change Bulk Cruiser 1 to Bulk Cruiser 3, etc. Or you can play the old imitation "Shadow Fleet", I do not condone the use of Shadow Fleeting, as it is a game flaw and is considered cheating by most. This tactic involves letting the opponent see Corvette 2 going to the neutral planet of Ghorman, the Empire cannot arrive in time to confront you, once at Ghorman change Corvette 2 to Corvette 5 and move to another planet, say Corsin. All the while you have Corvette 5 make a run in with an Imperial Patrol at Bortras, but you destroy their fighters move up to the neutral planet of Uvena and change it Corvette 2. Now your opponent sees Corvette 5 arrive at Corsin which he now controls by means of democracy and does not know the location of Corvette 2, yet. Not that this tactic has many uses, but it is just another clever way of imposing deceit upon your opponent. Another way of using this is to mask say a VSD with say the title of Imperial Star Destroyer 3, some less experienced opponents will mis-recognize this ship as actually being an ISD and run from it. Usually they won't pay much attention to it until they see its actually a VSD in a tactical battle. These few tactics are just the basis of misrepresentation to your opponent, I suggest you coming up with your own ideas.

 

Another such tactic I use is against players who like espionage their planets 24/7 in hopes of detecting my missions. To combat this, I came up with flooding the enemies sector full of one team spec force missions, mostly expecting most of them not to succeed, but occasionally do, but just as a way to cover my real missions. Your opponent will be so busy trying to seek out the real character missions coming in from Solo's team, etc. that he will have to go through dozens of "masking" missions of suicidal spec forces invading his planet. Though managing all these spec forces and reassigning the Training Facilities to build more is a hassle, it pays off with success against such a tightly secured sector or system. Spec Forces are cheap and require little resource to use, though using them in this mass amounts of number can drain them somewhat, but only at the sacrafice of 3 neb-b's at max.

 

Chapter 6: Meeting Your Goals

 

Well you have crushed his planets and destroyed his fleets, your opponent has a few small bases left and you are dominating him, but you need to capture Vader and the Emperor. Make sure you have already scanned the rim to make sure you have obliterated or taken out any rim systems. Build up lots of troops and transports. Load up and take off to his core systems, and just start planetary assaulting, I suggest moving and replacing units that you land on the ground with others you have on fleet, and make sure you use a general on your fleet to assault. If there are say 6 fleet regiments you took the planet with, move down 2 sullustian units, and pick back up the fleet units. Your opponent will not be able to sab those units without getting current espionage, and by the time he gets one, you will have pushed him back and taken most of his planets, so he is basically out of range and options. Save Coruscant for last, assaulting all the surrounding planets of the Swessanna Sector and then assault Coruscant. If you were careful to have taken out all his bases, then Vader and the Emperor will have no where to escape to and Coruscant will be yours, thus you have won by complete domination and no Imperial controlled planet survives.

 

The same can be done for Rebels, but their rim HQ and moveability factor will be harder to track, just follow the above routine, but compromise for Rebel tactics. For one thing, they could send out Mon Mothma to a neutral rim system to diplomatize it, but all you have to do is wait after all the planets have been taken, and or assualt all the rim planets til to catch the old hag, of course the emperor could have easily have done this, but there is little point to playing if you are that beaten, save your opponent the time and surrender. Better luck next time. Originality is always a factor, so think original, use these tactics as a base line, and create your own game plan.

[budious]

Rebellion Strategy Guide

by Pellaeon

Click a subject

 

I) General Overview

 

1) Mines, Refineries and Maintenance Points

2) Energy and Materials

3) Construction Yards

4) Shipyards

5) Training Facilities

 

a) Troops

b) Special Units

 

6) Support

 

a) Diplomacy

b) Uprisings

 

7) Espionage

Sabotage

9) Fleets

 

a) Offense

b) Defense

c) Planetary Bombardment

d) Planetary Assult

 

10) Research & Development

 

II) Rebel Alliance

 

1) Recruitment

2) Diplomacy

3) Rebel Planet(s)

4) Coruscant Rush

5) Head Quarters

6) Rebel Starting Ships

 

III) Galactic Empire

 

1) Recruitment

2) Diplomacy

3) Rebel Planet(s)

4) Coruscant Rush

5) Hunt for the Rebel HQ

6) Imperial Starting Ships

 

IV) Miscellaneous

 

1) Domino Effect

2) Espionage Abort

3) Mission Sizes

4) Millennium Falcon Effect

5) Seat of Power

6) Jedi

7) Shadow Fleeting

Acknowlegments

 

I) General Overview- This section is for strategies necessary to both sides of Rebellion.

 

1) Mines, Refineries and Maintenance Points - The life blood of the game. Mines supply a steady source of raw materials for refineries. Refineries process raw materials into, you guessed it, refined materials. Everything built in the game requires refined materials so keeping a steady supply is a must. If you run out of refined materials and still have build orders, they orders may suffer a delay if the refineries can't produce them at the same rate. **Refineries do not need to be on the same planet as mines to convert raw to refined. There is no delay due to distance between mines and refineries** Maintenance points (MP) are produced for every mine / refinery combination. For every mine / refinery combo, you get 50 maintenance points. So if you have 2 mines / 2 refineries, you have 100 MP. If you have 4 mines / 1 refinery, you have 50 MP. This combination will provide you with a nice surplus of raw materials, but since they can't be used until they are refined, there's really no point to housing a surplus of raw materials.

 

2) Energy and Materials - Under each planet are three monitors: one for energy, one for materials and one for population support (covered later). The top monitor is the energy monitor. Anything that can be built on a planet (plus shipyards) take up a unit of energy. Since each planet holds a different amount of available energy, checking the energy monitor will let you see if any planet can be further built on. For each blue square remaining, you can put 1 structure there. If a planet has no blue squares in it's energy monitor, no more structures can be built there (by scrapping facilities, you get the energy back). The materials monitor shows how many mines can be put on a planet, assuming there is still energy also.

 

3) Construction Yards - Construction yards are the most important facility in the game. Without them, you can not build any of the facilities available. The more construction yards you have on a planet, the faster that planet will produce the desired object (same for shipyards and training facilities). It's generally a good idea to have 2 planets in each system to have construction yards. One planet should have about 3 construction yards and the other planet 6 or more. The reason for having 2 planets per system with con yards is their importance. If you only have 1 planet with con yards and your opponent manages to take that planet, they've basically shut down that system in terms of new facilities. By having 2 planets, your opponent is forced to take both in order to stop your building there. Such a maneuver would either take time or alot of resources devoted to keeping both planets. It's a good idea to keep shields and other planetary defenses here. Reasons for the defenses will be made clear later. When you start a game, look to see how many con yards you have and where they are. First thing you want to do is take any of the planets with 1 yard and have it build another con yard if the planet it's on has available energy. Any of the planets with 2 or more (rare) and have it build a shipyard, preferably to a planet that already has 1 or more. If no planets in the system have shipyards, send them to a planet with the most available energy.

 

4) Shipyards - As I said earlier, the more shipyards you have at one location, the faster it will produce the desired object. As with construction yards, it's a good idea to have planetary defenses on this planet (reasons covered later). Units to construct at the start of the game will be discussed in the specific sides.

 

5) Training Facilities - Training facilities are an absolute must. They provide the support needed for your key characters.

 

 

a) Troops - Each troop unit they produce is best suited for a task. Some units are aimed at defense and foiling enemy missions to planets, others are more specialized to taking control of an enemy system. Without these units, your war effort will be seriously hindered.

 

b) Special Units - These units preform mission like characters. Based on the units created, you can preform espionage, sabotage, subdue uprisings and scout systems.

 

 

6) Support - As I mentioned before, each planet has three monitors. The lowest monitor is for popular support. Red indicated Alliance support and green indicated Imperial.

 

 

a) Diplomacy - Any character with a diplomacy rating can preform a diplomacy mission; however, it takes a character with a decent rating (preferably 70 or higher) to accomplish the mission in a reasonable time period. Try to preform missions to planets that already lean towards your side but haven't joined you yet. Sometimes you can get a few planets (or even a whole system) to join you in a domino effect (see domino effect under Miscellaneous).

 

b) Uprisings - It is possible to hold a planet that supports your opponent through troops; however, if you can't meet the minimum troop requirement, that planet will go into uprising. If it's your planet, you need to get the uprising under control ASAP. Characters with high leadership ratings (I like a rating of 100 or above) are best suited for this. It's a good idea to use diplomacy on the planet as soon as the uprising is subdued. If you see an enemy planet that looks like it could go either way, either try to sabotage any troops off the planet or planetary bombard (see bombardment under General Overview / Fleets) them off, but be careful, if you bomb a facility, the support will move in favor of your opponent. If successfull, it can produce a domino effect (see domino effect under Miscellaneous). Sometimes it's best to intentionally throw one of your own planets into an uprising. If no diplomats are around or if they're busy, send characters with high leadership to a planet that needs 2 or more troops. Remove all but 1 (leave the strongest unit or a unit your opponent hasn't seen yet). Doing this will increase popular support and make it easier for the diplomat to finish off the support. Generally, this method is faster than diplomacy but can only be done while a troop regiment is required. NEVER remove a last troop if there is a requirement. That includes a requirement of 1. Sounds stupid to remind people, but I've heard of people removing that last troop thinking they have a chance at subduing the uprising.

 

 

7) Espionage - Espionage to an enemy system, if successful, will show you exactly what that planet looks like for the day the mission was completed and if it was to a Core planet, it will also show you another enemy planet in the Core for that day. This includes Fleets, in orbit or en route, facilities, what (if anything) is being constructed there, troops at the location and any characters plus special units. Even if the mission fails or is aborted (see espionage abort under Miscellaneous), it will show any incoming / orbiting fleets. Espionage missions to planets on your side, if successful, will show any enemy mission either currently there or en route. As with espionaging an enemy planet, if the mission fails or is aborted, you will see incoming enemy fleets.

 

Sabotage - Cheap and effective, this type of mission can make the difference between winning and losing. Here's the order of targets I like to hit: Ships (these take top priority since they pose an immediate threat. Only go after them if they're close by and you opponent is foolish enough to keep an idle fleet. (See espionage abort under Miscellaneous to set up traps), Training Facilities (take out these so your opponent can't make sabotage units), Shipyards (without shipyards, your opponent will have to depend on his/her starting fleet and missions to planets), Construction Yards (if you can cripple their industry, they might give up from lack of progress), Mines (I guess you could hit refineries first, but by hitting the mines, they don't even get raw materials to stock up on) and finally refineries (nothing left, hehe).

 

9) Fleets - I won't go too much into what you should make here since each side is different. I'll just cover the subdivisions for now. I will say one thing here since I have no where else to put it. Do NOT make Dreadnaught ships no matter what side you play as! They cost too much and move too slow. Keep any you start with because every little bit helps at game start.

 

 

a) Offense - For the first 200-300 days, don't worry about an offense fleet. Worry more about defense. But once the time is up, start drawing ships from existing fleets to make up a offensive. It should be well balanced. Capital ships with turbo lasers to take out other capital ships, capital ships with laser cannons to help support your fighters, fighters to engage enemy fighters and troops in case you feel the urge to assult a planet. The fleet should also carry an Admiral, Commander and General. Admirals help in ship coordination during tactical battle, increase your chances of catching enemy mission either to the fleet or the planet it orbits and they increase a fleet's total bombardment value (see planetary bombardment). Commanders increase the effectiveness of your fighters in tactical combat and Generals increase the effectivness during planetary assults.

 

b) Defense - Any shipyards that are just one yard should make fighters. 2 to 4 should make small capital ships, 5 and up should make large (or mass produce small capitals if time is of the essence)

 

c) Planetary Bombardment - Each ship type has a bombardment rating which can be used to calculate a fleets total bombardment value. That value determines how much damage can be done by a single bombardment. If the planet has shields and the bombardment value isn't higher than the shield strength, the bombardment will have no effect (and if the planet has LNR's, your ships may suffer damage or destruction). All units in the game have a bombardment rating. This determines how much of a beating they can take. **An Admiral increases the bombardment value of a fleet, but their skills are the determining factor of how much of an improvement you will see**

 

d) Planetary Assult - When you must have a planet ASAP, an assult is the way to go. At most, the planet will require 6 troops so it doesn't go into uprising. An assult can only be done if there are 0 or 1 shields protecting the planet. If there are any enemy troops on the planet, your troops will combat your opponents troops and the results will be determined my the computer.

 

 

10) Research & Development - There are three areas of R&D. Facility, Ship and Troop. Each side has 2 characters that specialize in 1 area and 1 person that can do all 3. For the Empire: Thrawn and Klev do ship design, Villar and Orlok do facility, Veers and Covell research troops and Bevel Lemelisk does all 3. For the Rebels: Wedge Antilles and Ackbar do ship design, Lando Calrissian and Talon Karrde do facility, Crix Madine and Carlist Rieekan research troops and Adar Tallon does all 3. Suggestions for both sides: Use only 1 of the troop research people (the ones that specialize in it) for research. These characters make great generals most of the time and can be used to keep watch of key locations. Facility and ship design people should be put into service as soon as they're recruited. The character that can do all 3 should do ship design, unless there are no facility design people yet. In that case, they should research facilities until another facility person is recruited. Any research should be done on a planet heavily defended with troops, a fleet and command staff. If you lose your R&D people, you'll suffer a blow you may never recover from. It also helps if the research is done on a planet with many of the facility they happen to be researching (ex. A ship design person will be more productive on a planet with 12 shipyards vs a planet with 4). If you manage to complete the research for a particular area, use those people for something......anything. Ship design tend to make good Admirals and Commanders. Troop design tend to make good generals. Rebels have a nice advantage here. The facility design people, Lando and Talon, have nice diplomacy ratings. For the Empire, I suggest using them for espionage on planets that are important.

 

 

II) Rebel Alliance - Strategies for the Alliance. At the start of the game, find the closest planets that favor your side and send Luke, Leia, Jan Dodonna (preferably with Han to get the extra speed (see Millennium Falcon effect under Miscellaneous). Send Wedge to do some R&D.

 

1) Recruitment - The Rebels capable of recruiting are Mon Mothma, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. However, using them all for this mission is not recommended. If you need some sabotage missions done, have Mon Mothma recruit and Han Solo do the dirty work. But if all's quiet, have Han recruit and Mothma do diplomacy.

 

2) Diplomacy - Leia, Luke, Jan Dodonna (and possibly Mon Mothma) should immediately start diplomacy, but be careful not to fall into an Imperial trap. If a planet looks too good to be true (will join with little trouble) you can bet your opponent can see that too. Odds are good they will orbit a fleet there with a good admiral and try to catch your people.

 

3) Rebel Planet(s) - Find the Rebel planet and send sabotage people, a good admiral and a fleet to that planet (if it's within a reasonable time period around 10-20 days travel. 20 is a bit long, but you never know.....sometimes the randomness of the computer can be evil and leave your opponent without a way to increase support there). If you can get rid of the troops keeping that planet in your opponents hands, you might get the domino effect (see domino effect under Miscellaneous) and gain a good portion of that system. Then it just takes some mopping up by a diplomat to secure your hold on the system. Sometimes there is more than one Rebel planet on a standard map, and there are sure to be more than one on a large or huge map.

 

4) Coruscant Rush - **This move should be done no latter than day 175** Gather all your fleets at one location near Coruscant or time the fleets arrivals so that they all arrive at the same time (risky, if you're off in your calculations it could cost you everything). The idea is, if you can catch the Empire off guard and win a battle over Coruscant, the planets in the system will lose faith in the empire and support will swing your way. You don't even have to assult Coruscant at this point, if they lose the battle, the support damage alone will throw them off balance and make their chances about 0 of ever recovering.

 

5) Head Quarters - The Rebel HQ has advantages and disadvantages. It's major advantage is the ability to move from one location to the next. It's major disadvantage is it can be destroyed and never rebuilt. Use it's ability to move to keep it hidden. This eliminates the need for the base's fleet, fighters and troops. Send them to the Core to help out there. Don't move the base non stop. A slight disadvantage to moving the base is a small drop in support on the planet the base was located at. Instead, keep constant espionage missions running to see and incoming fleets and enemy sabotage missions (don't forget, the base can be sabotaged).

 

6) Rebel Starting Ships - The Rebels start out with some pretty crappy ships so make x-wings and y-wings and stock them up. If you have a planet with 2 (bare minimum) shipyards make a carrier or two. Once your R&D has developed the Nebulon-B Frigate, this is your best bet. Frankly, this is one of the best capital ships of the entire game. It has Turbolasers to fight capital ships, Ions to disable them and Laser Cannons to take out fighters. Plus is carries 2 squadrons of fighters. Add in their speed and agility and you have one impressive ship. You'll R&D Mon Calamari Cruisers next. Don't make these, they just cost too much. Better to make 3 Neb-B's instead. If you think you're going into a fight that might last a while, add 1 Mon Calamari Cruiser to draw fire from the Neb's. By the time your opponent realises the Cruiser isn't the real threat, the Neb's should either have eliminated most enemy fighters or have started pounding capital ships.

 

 

III) Galactic Empire - Strategies for the Empire. You don't have the luxuary (or is it a gift) of having all your people in one place to start. Anyway, keep the Emperor at Coruscant for the entire game (see Seat of Power under Miscellaneous) running recruitment missions (if for some reason you lose support there, he can also do some diplomacy).

 

1) Recruitment - As I said before, the Emperor should be running non stop recruiting missions. If you've used diplomacy as far as it will go, use Vader to recruit a few while he isn't causing trouble for the Rebellion.

 

2) Diplomacy - Have Vader, Piett and Jerjerrod do their diplomatic thing. Using diplomacy, assults, subdue uprisings and more diplomacy, it is necessary to drive the Rebellion from Seswenna and Corellian sectors. If they are allowed to have planets in either of these 2 systems, they then have a base or platform to launch missions from.

 

3) Rebel Planet(s) - Lucas Designers idea of a joke. These planets support the Rebel Alliance but are under your control thanks to troops. The joke is, if you lose one of these wonderful planets before you can get the troop requirement to 0, more than likely all neutral planets in the system will join your opponent and any other planets you have there will either take a big dip in support, go neutral or worse, go into uprising themselves. You must get support on these planets up ASAP. Keep espionage missions running on these planets and have strong leadership people go there, throw the planet into uprising intentionally and subdue it.

 

4) Coruscant Rush - I can't stress this enough, espionage all the planets in the Seswenna system. Look at ALL planets for an incoming fleet. It's not a bad idea to move fighters from your defense fleet to Coruscant. This does 2 things 1) you don't have to wait for them to leave the ship if a battle does occur and 2) if the Rebels manage to sabotage your ships, you won't lose the fighters as well. Leave the troops, your admiral might need them to foil any missions and besides......stormtroopers are a dime a dozen

 

5) Hunt for the Rebel HQ - You can try to find the base, but the bad part is if you find it with a weak fleet or if you find it with a probe droid, more than likely by the time you show up with some serious firepower, the base is gone. What to do....... espionage Core worlds held by the Alliance. You'll get info on 2 planets. Look at these 2 planets and I mean closely. What are their facilities making, but more important, where are they sending them to. Your opponent might be dumb enough to send fighters directly from the shipyard to his base. It'll be easy to know which location is odd. It'll be a Rim world besides Yavin. If you find a facility sending something to a Rim planet early in the game, send a fleet there, but not directly. Send it to that system and close to the planet you think is the base. Then make a short jump to that planet. This will eliminate the reaction time of your opponent and reduce the chances of them moving out before you get there.

 

6) Imperial Starting Ships - The Imperials have some nice ships to start with, namely the Victory class (VSD) and Imperial class (ISD) Star Destroyers. Problem is they need alot of shipyards to make them in any reasonable time. Your next best option is the Carrack Light Cruiser. It might not have alot of Turbolaser power, but they have some impressive laser power. Since they're relatively easy to make they can be grouped together. In large numbers, they make a very effective fighting force. Make these until you can make VSD's in about 30 days. Even then still concentrate on making Carracks. Once R&D has developed the Lancer class, make that since your fighters suck. They might be cheap and easy to make, but Imperial fighters don't have shields and need to be launched from ship hangers (ones on fleets) when they go to battle (they don't have hyperdrive, unless you make Defenders which will not be in hangers if a fight breaks out)

 

 

IV) Miscellaneous

 

1) Domino Effect - No matter how you get a planet to join you, it has an effect on the nearby planets. If they were close to joining, they might, causing another planet to increase (hence the domino name). Try to get the support high before moving onto the next planet. Another way for getting support to change swiftly is through the Rebel planet if you're the Rebels.

 

2) Espionage Abort - Thanks to a game glitch, if you abort an espionage mission to a planet, the mission won't entirely fail. You get to see if there is a fleet currently there or any en route fleets. Even though this is a game glitch, it is accepted and used everyday.

 

3) Mission Sizes - I try to never make a mission group of 1. This greatly reduces the chances of success. When sabotaging a common unit such as a low guarded planet facility or a weak troop, i use a 1/2 ratio. 1 real unit and 2 decoys. I usually use training facility units for decoy jobs. For the harder to get items, I try combo's of 1/3, 1/4, 2/3, 2/4 but i never go more than that. Thats a personal preference, if the mission is foiled and captured, I'd like to limit the number of people caught.

 

4) Millennium Falcon Effect- Everyone travels at the same speed when not on a ship and they're traveling through hyperspace. That is of course everyone except Han Solo. As long as Han isn't traveling on a fleet of with any special forces, he and anyone traveling with him will travel twice as fast as a normal person not on a ship. Use this to your advantage and make Han the galactic taxi service if he's not busy. But remember, you can have all your characters with Han and get the travel bonus, but if even 1 special force unit is with him, all bets are off and travel time will be normal.

 

5) Seat of Power - There's no place like home, or at least there isn't for the Emperor. As long as Coruscant is under Imperial control and the Emperor is on Coruscant (not an orbiting fleet), all Imperial characters get a leadership bonus.

 

6) Jedi - It's a good idea to keep your characters in touch with Vader or Luke (after his trip to Dagobah). It's always nice to know who's a jedi. They help you find enemy missions, they find who (if any) of your own people are helping the other side and of course the obvious jump their stats get after finding out they are jedi hopefuls.

 

7) Shadow Fleeting - I refuse to tell anyone how to accomplish this maneuver. It's a game glitch that is NOT accepted by the majority of players. I will however tell you it's effects. Basically it allows a user to redirect their fleets in hyperspace, either to avoid a trap or to keep espionage aborts from seeing it. There is no defense against such a cowardice act, but there are signs a person is using it. According to a Zone user named Lons, if a fleet is heading to a planet and suddenly doesn't show, somewhere on the map is a fleet icon that wasn't there before. Thats the fleet that was shadowing. This is proof enough your opponent is cheating and you should leave the game immediately.

 

Acknowlegments - I'd like to thank Lons, KAOS, Gambit, Egor and Brentwack for their advise given to me and for the beatings I have received learning these lessons.

[tacoJoemeru]

You deserve a reward.

 

This might need to be pinned.