Opening Moves

[deltalead]

What are some good opening moves for each side? I know the start is random each time, but, given that, what is a good thing to do to kick off the game?

[budious]

Here's my unabridged, original and untouched strategy guide, circa 1999.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

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[RogueIce]

Diplomacy, and lots of it.

 

I like to go after systems with a construction yard in each sector first, so I can start building infrastructure quicker. If I get lucky and already have a CY in that sector I'll probably go after the systems with most total energy, looking ahead to the long game.

 

As Rebels of course you can muster up your SF personnel (really just getting Han, Luke and Chewie off Yavin) and hit those Under Military Control Imperial systems, sabotaging the troops so you can take the planet and get a huge popular support boost in the Sector. Imps sadly don't have that, so I'll probably just detail one diplomat to the most "important" (manufacturing facilities present, high energy total, whatever) UMC system to secure it. Pretty much for my Empire game I just concentrated on bringing in new systems, building CYs and mine/refinery combos and then slowly building my fleet as shipyards came online. Essentially consolidating and expanding my holdings, rather than going after the Rebels directly.

 

Always run espionage missions to enemy Core systems, though. Always. If it works you get details on that system and another random Core system, which is pretty awesome. Always helpful to keep tabs on what the enemy is doing. As the Empire I didn't use SF much (outside espionage/recon) in the early game, unless I managed to locate a Rebel character; at that point I'd send my merc characters and some Noghri out to assassinate. Never bothered with abduction (unless you get lucky and find Mon Mothma, Luke, Han or Leia who can't be killed anyway, but never hurts to try and injure them first) because screw prisoners.

[Master_Xan]

Diplomacy, and lots of it.

Never bothered with abduction (unless you get lucky and find Mon Mothma, Luke, Han or Leia who can't be killed anyway, but never hurts to try and injure them first) because screw prisoners.

I feel the same way about prisoners. I also agree about diplomacy; getting just one extra system with a few factories can make a huge difference in the long haul.

 

The very first thing I do, every game, is set every facility I own to start producing something. I go in this order: first, get construction yards to produce more construction yards. Then shipyards need to produce fighters (TIEs for Empire, or X-Wings for Alliance). Lastly, I get the training facilities going. Usually cheap troops if I'm the Empire, but a mix of Bothans and Long-probe Y-Wings if I'm Alliance. Imperial troops to help fortify systems that like the Alliance and help protect against sabotage, and the Alliance personnel to find where Imperial fleets are.

 

I primarily use Bothans on my own systems at first. Aggressive Imperial players (or the AI) will send fleets out early on, counting on much heavier Imperial capital ships to bully through and bombard. Bothans help you find them before they hit you. Priority should be worlds without shield gens or lasers, as these are more tempting for a quick raid, and any planet with construction yards or shipyards (to catch enemy personnel conducting sabotage missions). If you do find a fleet inbound, you have the chance to move extra ships or fighters in, or pull units out.

 

The long range Y-Wings I send to systems in the Rim and to Imperial planets. If the Y-Wings fail at Imperial worlds, they usually will give you details about enemy fleets in orbit. Figuring out where the enemy is can help you decide which sectors to pull out of, or which Imperial worlds are ripe for early sabotage missions. Nothing hurts the Imps more than losing a lone ISD to sabotage, but you have to locate it before you can hit it. Imperial worlds lacking fleet support are much easier to get access to for hitting ground targets like construction yards, helping to make your sabotage personnel much more effective.

 

After I have the facilities building, I always get major characters recruiting. As the Empire I always want to recruit more diplomats as quickly as possible (and research personnel: TIE interceptors are very important), and as the Alliance, I need more espionage-type characters. Other folks use their major characters for diplomacy, but I usually prefer having the extra characters. If you are the Alliance, it is best to move Han, Luke, and Leia off of Yavin and into the Core; that way the characters they recruit don't have to make the journey one at a time, and you can take advantage of Han's movement boost. Whether you bring Mothma into the Core or not is a toss up; sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Personally, I always abandon Yavin entirely.

 

Once I have the major players active, I get the minor guys moving, then I group my fleets. Usually, I prioritize what sectors I care about most, then move ships to the most important systems in those sectors. Usually systems with construction yards or shipyards, or Corescant if you are Imperial.

 

With all that done, I reorganize my ground forces. Troops move to important worlds, fighters that didn't move out with orbiting carriers get moved to key planets, and static defenses (like shield generators) are scrapped if they aren't on important planets.

 

That typically finishes my "pre-game" preparations. At that point, I start looking at strategic goals. The Alliance needs another system in the Rim to evacuate their HQ to if necessary. The Empire needs shipyards for building fighters and escort carriers. Both sides need construction yards. And the list goes on.

 

BTW, if you find my thoughts useful, I wrote a strategy guide. Happy to send it your way.

[RogueIce]

I'd say it's an exploit because it means the Rebel Alliance can go around colonizing OR planets much faster than they "should" be able to. The nominal way of doing so is to have troops there, and if you want to move the troops on, you build a facility and wait for it to deploy, all of which can take some considerable time (especially if the CY is in another sector). In the early game it's a fairly slow process because you only have so many troops and transports, building more takes time (and you may not even have a TY in that sector), as does building a facility to make your occupation permanent because you only have 1 or 2 CYs on a planet, and so on.

 

For example you could not claim an entire sector using only a couple trooper regiments and a single transport in a matter of, let's say, 30 game days. It would take quite a bit longer to either A) train more regiments or B) build facilities to hold the systems you colonize. But with HQ Colonization you could because the Rebellion gets a mobile facility. The Empire does not. And because when you do this the system automatically gives you full popular support, to take it the Empire now has to dedicate at least 6 regiments to an invasion, rather than just bombarding off the Rebel troops and plopping a single regiment down on the newly uninhabited system.

 

The way the game says to colonize is to station troops and then build facilities to introduce a population. It never said anything about "or just move Rebel HQ there" and it really only exists as a limitation of the game engine, because Rebel HQ takes up an energy slot. So IMO it's an exploit.

 

Of course like anything in the single-player game, what you do is entirely between you and the computer, and the computer won't care either way. In MP I would personally default towards refraining from it unless both players agreed it was allowed. Just like using the cancelled espionage missions to look out for incoming fleets or anything of that nature.

[Mitth_raw_nuruodo]

Everything said here so far is very good, and there's really not much more I have to add.

 

The Alliance needs another system in the Rim to evacuate their HQ to if necessary.

I like to set this one up on the far side of the galaxy. I find that if the AI does stumble onto my HQ they either have already or will soon visit the other systems in that sector. By leaving the sector you don't have to move again as soon. Additionally, by sending the HQ all the way across the galaxy you protect it for 100+ days. The last game I played as the Rebels my HQ spent 157 days in hyperspace. The system it was moving to had 3 new Gencore 2s and 2 new LNR 2s built and delivered in the time it took the HQ to arrive.

[Master_Xan]

I've always wondered. What happens if the Empire blockades/takes control of a system the HQ was en-route to?

[Mitth_raw_nuruodo]

To my recollection it hasn't happened during one of my games. I would guess the same as what happens with fighter squadrons: they turn around.

 

Thought: constantly move HQ from one Outer Rim previously un-colonized system to the next. You constantly have your HQ in transit making it safe, and you colonize system after system. All you have to do is send a few diplomats with a ~60+ diplomacy rating in the HQ's wake, and you have the full support of the Rim without having to wait for your CYs to get things built.

[Master_Xan]

Wait, does sending the HQ to a system cause it to be inhabited, as if you had landed troops on the planet?

[RogueIce]

Thought: constantly move HQ from one Outer Rim previously un-colonized system to the next. You constantly have your HQ in transit making it safe, and you colonize system after system. All you have to do is send a few diplomats with a ~60+ diplomacy rating in the HQ's wake, and you have the full support of the Rim without having to wait for your CYs to get things built.

Wait, does sending the HQ to a system cause it to be inhabited, as if you had landed troops on the planet?

Yes, and there's a name for it: HQ Colonization. It's generally considered an exploit and frowned upon in MP.

[Master_Xan]

Huh. Never knew. Guess I never tried to move my HQ to an uncolonized system.

[Mitth_raw_nuruodo]

I hadn't ever considered it until the other day. My only thought was HQ costs 1 energy point, so it should work.

[MrPhildevil]

Frowned upon? I wouldn't call-it an exploit, rather a feature. Besides, it's not like it's helping that much. An empty planet is useless no matter what. If the empire gets pissed at this, it can bombard the planet till there's no energy slot available anymore, so it's not like it is problematic much

[Mitth_raw_nuruodo]

I would say it denies the system to the Empire unless they want to expend additional effort.

[Master_Xan]

Cancelled espionage missions? What's that?

[MrPhildevil]

Cancelled espionage missions? What's that?

I second that question

[DarthTex]

Cancelled espionage missions? What's that?

I second that question

It's been awhile, but I believe the "espionage cheat" is when you send "spies" (Bothans/Droids, NO characters) to an enemy system, and when they arrive you "abort the mission". Then go back to the 'target system" and all info on that system should be updated like the espionage mission was a success. So basically you get a 100% chance of a successful mission and there is no waiting for information, other than the travel time to get there.

 

I did a quick Google search, but the majority of all the old cheat websites are long gone for this old game. It's just my ol' memory now

[Master_Xan]

It's been awhile, but I believe the "espionage cheat" is when you send "spies" (Bothans/Droids, NO characters) to an enemy system, and when they arrive you "abort the mission". Then go back to the 'target system" and all info on that system should be updated like the espionage mission was a success. So basically you get a 100% chance of a successful mission and there is no waiting for information, other than the travel time to get there.

 

I did a quick Google search, but the majority of all the old cheat websites are long gone for this old game. It's just my ol' memory now

I dug through some old stuff and found references to it. I think you are mostly right. What I saw said you only get info on ships in the system, rather than the whole caboodle, but that's still pretty useful.

 

This could be tested pretty easily, but I haven't had time recently.

[Master_Xan]

Budious, that is actually the "old stuff" I was referencing. Great to see those old sites still up, by the way.

 

For others, I have included my rebuild guide in my signature. It still has three incomplete sections; these will be updated in the next few days. I mention all this here simply because I mentioned it already in the thread; comments should be posted here.