Finished my first Galactic Coqnuest game: Lessons Learned

[Kij0t]

I tried my first GC game today, choosing the 43 planet scenario that starts at tech 3 with the all planets divided between Rebel and Imperial ownership. (As a note, don't play this as your first scenario. It is overwhelming since you start with many planets under your control. If you you want to do a large map nonetheless, I recommend the "Empire at War" scenario".) I set the game to Hard and chose to play as the Empire.

 

At the outset I paused the game so I could inspect the state of the empire - fleet sizes and distributions, garrisons, infrastructure, etc. After redeploying some of my fleets, I began to produce Probe Droids to try to locate sizable Rebel fleets for immediate action. Coruscant began to build a research center to produce Tech Level 4. On my early hit list were the planets Mon Calamari and Sullust. I already had command of Fondor and Kuat, and I wanted to deny the Rebels the ability to produce (eventually) the Mon Cal cruisers.

 

Once my probe droids had performed their missions, I collected most of my ships into 2 fleets; the rest were maintained as defence fleets on border planets. I ordered my 2 battle fleets to secure the space over Sullust and Mon Cal. After two brilliant battles, I had space control over both. Lacking land forces to invade the planet right away, I left behind some ships at each of these planets and redeployed the fleets elsewhere to continue the conquest. This proceeded until the Death Star was finished. By that time I had produced sizeable land forces as well. Any planet with a strong garrison was destroyed, weak ones were conquered.

 

Eventually I had taken control of all Rebel planets except for Yavin IV. I massed my fleet and began a battle against the large Rebel fleet that remained there. Once victorious, I destroyed the planet out of spite. At this point, there were no systems under Rebel control. However, I myself did not control any of the Asteroid fields created by my Death Star. (I didn't think these would have to be controlled.) The game was reduced to me hopping around these asteroid fields chasing a Rebel fleet that, magically, kept getting bigger even though the Rebels had a) no income and b) no time to build ships. I was getting a little peeved at this point so I began to make use of the Auto-Resolve function. The game ended when I sent the Death Star and my fleet into another (what I thought) minor battle with the Rebel fleet. My fleet contained 3 ISD, supporting Tartan Cruisers, and a few Missile Cruisers. The enemy fleet contained two of Assault Frigates, some Neb B Frigates, and fighters and Red Squadron (I did not notice this). I hit auto-resolve, lost the battle, and the Death Star was destroyed, resulting in a loss.

 

Lessons Learned/Observations:

1) Do not, ever, at all, for what ever reason, use auto-resolve. The results are often illogical and fatal. For example, how does an Assault Frigate defeat an ISD? How do Rebel Troopers and Plex Infantry manage to kill 5 AT-ATs before losing the battle?

 

2) Near the end of the game, I had some kind of fleet over most of the Rebellion planets (blockading them I assume, though I don't know if that matters any game-wise). I was attacked once, in the early beginning. I don't know if this was because the Rebel fleet was dispersed and I destroyed it without my knowledge. Overall, the game was very dull and the strategic layer unsatisfying.

 

3) The most enjoyable part of the game were the small scale space battles involving 2-3 Victory Star Destroyers and some cruisers vs 4-5 Neb Bs and X-Wings and Y-Wings. When the battles got huge I tended to auto-resolve.

 

4) I was never affected by any smuggling or bounty hunting. In fact, little was done by the Rebellion to interrupt my plan:  Except for my ship building planets, I put filled most planets with mining centers and even pulled all of my troops and ships from garrisons to be deployed to the front line. Even the battles weren't difficult.

 

5) It is possible that this scenario is very favorable to the Empire, and this would explain many of my points.

 

My main point is to warn people to not Auto-Resolve. Don't do it.

[Darksythe]

You lost because Death Star Was destroyed and because you were foolish enough to auto resolve with DS in your fleet which you should never ever do, if you got DS in your fleet dont do Auto resolve other wise you die if Rogue squadron is part of Rebels fleet in that battle, hehe hope thas a leason for you though.

 

IIRC winning conditions for Rebels for quck win are normaly Defeat of the Death Star or killing the Emperor, i hope you didnt have Emperor on the DS as well but even if he wasnt if Rebs kill the DS i think they win automaticly but im not sure. im CErtian though if they kill Emperor then they do Auto win

[Kij0t]

As I stated, I wasn't aware that Red Squadron was there. Auto-resolving when you are fighting nothing but corvettes and you have a full fleet shouldn't be a problem. Even if I hadn't lost because of the DS, my argument against auto-resolve stem from ridiculous casualties sustained via it, not because I lost the game (I was aware that death of DS  = defeat).

[ShockMeSane]

Yep, auto-resolve is totally ridiculous unless you abuse it. Im fairly certain the AI builds fleets on the basis of auto-resolve calcs, because Corvettes are completely worthless except against fighters, but can somehow wtfpwn Star Destroyers/VSDs in auto-resolve.

[Teradyn_pff]

Auto-resolve should only be used when you are encountering enemy transports.  Even then, it will let some get away when you could have killed them all manually.  I haven't had the AI try to retreat yet, even when faced with a full battlegroup and he only had transports.

[Dorkthehunter]

I used auto-resolve in the Total War games quite often, but that also mostly resulted in losses. But the experience factor also played into that game. Since this game doesn't have that: Don't auto-resolve very often. The battles are fun enough, why resolve them? Also, never resolve a battle when you have a lot to lose, like the DS or a good hero unit, or a big fleet, or a valuable planet.

[Xenomorphine]

Auto-resolve should only be used when you are encountering enemy transports. Even then, it will let some get away when you could have killed them all manually. I haven't had the AI try to retreat yet, even when faced with a full battlegroup and he only had transports.

 

Mine certainly has. Smaller fleets retreating intelligently, if you show up with a superior opposing force. Wonder if it's got something to do with me installing the patch before running it the first time. Most of the reported problems have not shown up for mine yet.