The Crazy Psychopath

http://arena.gamespy.com/ladder/news/40054/3803 http://guardians.planets.gamespy.com/tools/showevent/154 Hope to see you all there!

Recruitment is dependent on 2 things: 1) Planet Loyalty 2) Leadership ability I typically make it a rule of thumb to recruit from planets with 100% loyalty. Otherwise the failure rate is too high.

1st Place is $60 Direct2Drive.com Gift Certificate + GameSpy Arcade Subscription

Its the origional Empire at War Space Skirmish

Go to http://guardians.planets.gamespy.com/tools/showevent/120 for more information

Go to http://guardians.planets.gamespy.com/tools/showevent/120 for more information.

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

We should just meet up in the GameSpy Lobby.

I just found this forum by accident. I assume this is the official Petroglyph forum? I can tell it was done by former Westwood folks. Well done! The game plays extremely well online, and is well designed. I'm a fan of strategy games, and have been playing them competitively online for quite some time. The game plays in such a way as if being three games in one right now. My favorite is of course Campaign, because its more in-depth. Are there any plans to follow up with an expansion pack to Empire at War?

Very nice! Now I can browse the web in between days if my opponent is micro managing.

Count me in! baron2100@msn.com

Yes, it had its good parts. But when Jedi were introduced it definetly messed up PvP for a lot of people.

Good stuff.

A UI issue? This coming from a Rebellion player? Heh, you'd get used to it, the UI was pretty customizable. What galaxy were you on?

I was Strel Samodelkin on the Sunrunner Galaxy. Anyone else?

With so many probe droids we send out its a surprise we haven't yet located the elusive rebel headquarters.

Here's another tip not too many are aware of. If you leave a ship in orbit of a neutral planet that already supports you, the popular support will gradually yet slowly move in your favor. This takes much longer than regular diplomacy, but its a good way to get planets in your favor in a sector where you do not have any diplomats available. To determine which neutral planets support you more than your opponent hit ALT-1 to go into the default popular display view. Some will show up as a small dot (.), do not put a ship in orbit of planets that are disloyal to you. You keep them in orbit long enough and they will join your opponent. On the other hand, planets that are more than half supporting you, shown as a slightly bigger dot (*) on the display, those ones are perfect for ship diplomacy. Next, pick the planet that has the highest support for you, but is neutral. Leave the ship in orbit for a while, and the support will eventually move in your favor enough to where the planet will join your cause. So if you have majority support and leave a ship in orbit of that planet, the planet will join you. The more the planet already supports you, the quicker it is. The best planets to choose for ship diplomacy are the ones that are just one diplomatic mission short of joining you. They support you, but just barely not enough to actually be on your side. Essentially they're neutral, and on the fringe of joining your cause. One of my favorite ways of using this strategy is as the rebels in the Sesswanna sector. I scrap my Sessewanna planet, knowing too well it will be assaulted early by a capable Imperial player. If I have a ship in orbit I immediately move it to the most rebel supported neutral planet in Sesswanna. Eventually the planet will join me, I then scrap all the facilities on that planet and reposition the fleet elsewhere. Holding on to the planet would not be feasible, as support will be so ever so slightly in your favor that the Imperial player can do a successful incitement of an uprising with just one capable leadership character. Meaning you will lose the planet anyway, but the fact that you scrapped the facilities will ensure you receive critical refined minerals as well as deny those same facilities to the Imperial player. I've used this strategy successfully as the Imperial as well, orbiting Imperial supported planets in the Sluis and Farfin sectors. This strategy is also very useful when you have ships orbiting a sector where you do not have any diplomatic personnel nearby. The ships are sitting there being idle, so you might as well use them to turn planets into your favor. Be very careful when using this strategy. A capable player will regularly send espionage missions to every single neutral planet in the sector. If you see a "enemy espionage mission foiled" message at the planet you're orbiting. Immediately reposition the vessel! Otherwise it will make an easy target for sabotage. Simply move the vessel to another supported neutral planet. Give this a try in single player sometime. Orbit a supported neutral planet and set the game to very fast and see how long it takes the planet to join your cause. This is a good way to experiment to roughly determine the effectiveness and time it takes for ship diplomacy.

You mean there's an AI? Try multiplayer its the best way to go. Although I rarely build one myself, they're too high maintenance and your production is better spent on your fleet.

Here is a complete list of all the keyboard shortcuts used by Rebellion. You don't have to learn all of them, but they make it much much easier. The most common ones I tend to use are ALT M to assign personnel on missions, and ALT-5 to display idle personnel accross the galaxy. And of course ALT 7 - ALT 9 occasionally to display idle construction facilities. Shortcuts for the bridge F1 Options F2 Search for a system F3 Search for a fleet/ship F4 Search for a troop F5 Search for a character F6 Message index F7 Encyclopedia Page Up or Page Down Makes the liste go up or down Ctrl + Tab changes window arrow keys browse (Messages, Encyclopedia, ...) Enter Accept, validate (like clicking on OK) Esc Cancel, close (lets you also skip videos and the agents entery speech) Alt + W closes all open windows Alt + + accelerates time Alt + - slows time Alt + P Pause Alt + Y Send message to the opponent Alt + I check index Alt + M Opens the Mission window for the selected character Alt + S Opens the Status window for the selected object Alt + F4 Quit game Shortcuts for the Advisor Alt + B Build Ships Alt + T Build troops Alt + F Build Installations Alt + 0 Synoptic chart Alt + G Manage the garrisons Alt + U Manage Production Alt + V Translate (R2 D2's bips) Alt + A Give Tips Alt + H show objectives of the game Shortcuts for the Galaxy display Alt + 1 Highlight systems according to their loyalty Alt + 2 Highlight insurrections Alt + 3 highlight idle fleets Alt + 4 highlight moving fleets Alt + 5 highlight idle characters Alt + 6 highlight active characters Alt + 7 Highlight idle shipyards Alt + 8 Highlight idle training camps Alt + 9 Highlight idle construction facilities Shortcuts for the Tactical screen 1 to 8 select taskforce Spacebar attack closest target Shift + Tab AND Tab Toggle through the different units within the Taskforce F1 to F8 select chase camera for Taskforce 1 to 8 F9 Chase camera for Red group F10 Chase camera for Blue group F11 Chase camera for Green group F12 Chase camera for Gold group Camera Controls in Tactical Screen Arrow keys rotate the camera + Zoom in - Zoom out Enter center camera on selected object ? Memorise camera position End returns to memorized camera position

The Emperor is best kept on Coruscant at all times as to allow the Imperial characters to receive a significant Leadership bonus from the "Seat of Power" effect. Early on Vader's skills are best applied in other ways. Recruitment, Diplomacy, or as an Admiral/Commander of a mobile fleet. He is very effective in both role, and will foil any incoming sabotage missions as an admiral with two ships or more. This is because of his high espionage rating, allowing him to foil, and his high combat rating, allowing him to capture key enemy personnel with ease. I've even managed to capture the likes of Solo and other key personnel early on, even egging my opponent on by blockading a key planet in the Sluis sector.

Today's strategy focuses on your production. The best way to build up quickly is to have several key planets that specialize in a specific field. Construction planets, training planets, and shipyard planets. Note, the estimated time to completion is only valid if you have the refined materials to build it. If you are consuming more refined materials than producing, each production center will fight over the refined minerals, and you'll get nowhere fast. If you have many items building, and are constantly at 0 refined minerals, you got yourself a problem. Prioritize, cancel production of several facilities until you begin to receive a consistent stream of refined minerals. This will ensure your construction efforts are completed on time, and that you are not spending twice as much as the estimated time on items. The only exception to this rule is at the very beginning of the game. As you expand and diplomatize/capture planets you will catch up quickly, and will start receiving a surpluss of refined minerals. At the beginning you should focus on getting your key production planets to their full capacity. On a positive note, scrapping mines and refineries on your starting production centers will give you a few key starting refined materials early on. This will allow you to remain on schedule during the key moments when you need to build up early on. But be careful, don't scrap all at once. Hit ALT-O to view the overview, and chooise either the mines or/and the refineries based on surpluss. For example, overall you have 10 more mines than refineries. You can scrap the mines without hurting your maintenance cushion early on. If you have a particularly important production planet, a general with a shield generator, ion cannon, and some troops will benefit you. It is a little known fact that planetary ion cannons in fact assist in foiling enemy missions. They're cheap and quick to build, and easy to maintain. I learned this the hard way when I sent several high leadership characters on incite uprising missions, alone and without a decoy. They were captured. The planet did not have a general, nor any troops, but had an ion cannon. I later found out that they in fact assist in the foiling of missions, despite the lack of a visible "detection rating." Ensuring your primary sector production planet has sufficient troops, a shield generator and an ion cannon will ensure you will survive, even if your opponent chooses to scrap your whole sector (scrap facilities if you suspect an assault to prevent your opponent from receiving your refined minerals). You can rebuild in no time. Summary -If you're consistently at 0 refined minerals, your production will stuble. Idle some construction/training/shipyard sites. This is not StarCraft, just because a facility is sitting idle does not make it a waste. You must prioritize. -At the beginning scrap the surpluss of one type, either mines or refineries on your starting production planet. This will give you a few key refined resources early on and allow you to create your first specialized construction center. -Specialize: Put as many construction yards on one planet per sector as you can. This planet will ensure the sector will receive buildings on command. You can do this with shipyards and training centers as well. Although you don't need anymore than 4-5 adv training centers on one planet (per sector). Don't build standard training centers unless you must. You get advanced ones very early on as it is. -Defend the specialized planets. A shield generator with an ion cannon along with a general if possible is sufficient. The general will help foil missions, defend from invasion, and significantly boost the planet's defenses when it is bombarded. Put fighters on the planet if possible.

Oh yeah, been there. Then you have to send one or two buddies with Luke to capture Vader. Otherwise Luke tends to just break his leg a bit and let him be.

Oh yes, repeat him being foiled while he's in orbit. He'll get good really fast. Mentioned that.

Today's strategy tip is for the rebel side. It focuses on Skywalker and the best way to put him to good use. Skywalker starts off as a weakling little farm boy, but you can turn this farm boy into a badass jedi farm man in a few days. Instead of wasting his potential combat skills on diplomacy and recruitment missions, instead have Skywalker build up his combat abilities through missions. Simply put skywalker on a decent ship with capable speed, a correlian corvette or one of the starting bulk cruisers. At the beginning have him orbit neutral planets and send him down on sabotage missions onto the planet. Have him sabotage anything he can get his hands on. Production facilities, mines, refineries, defensive structures. If you do not want to sacrifice facilities in the inner rim, he can always sabotage outer rim neutrals, although this is typically slightly slower. Each successful mission he gains 1-5 combat points. Within days you can have Skywalker exceed Vader's 220 combat score. When he returns from his training with Yoda he will be in the high 200's (or even in the 300s if you train him enough). He can then easily take on Vader without any problems. Imperial controlled planets: You can have skywalker sabotage Imperial controlled planets at roughly 130 combat and above. Send him down to take out each facility one by one. If there are a couple troops on the planet and/or ion cannons (they foil missions) it gets even better! If you send him alone his mission will be foiled, but because of the fact that he had a close encounter his force rating will climb significantly! If needed you can repeat this as many times as necessary, ensuring Skywalker becomes a jedi knight just as he leaves his training with Yoda. Once Skywalker has sufficient combat rating, have him face Vader. He will get away. Facing Vader increases his force and combat rating SIGNIFICANTLY. If in the unlikely event that he is captured, it might be even better for you! Vader will take him to the Emperor, in which the "Final Battle Event" will unfold. If Skywalker has sufficient combat ability he will easily deal with both the Emperor and Lord Vader, capturing both personnel in one big blow. The only thing you would have to do from that point is capture Coruscant. The Imperial player will be at a significant disadvantage since this will force the player into a defensive posture. Not to mention the fact that the Imperial lost two of his major characters, and a lost significant leadership bonus to his personnel from the Emperor's "Seat of Power" effect.

There sure is. Check the multiplayer forum for instructions on opening up ports. You can always use the Zone or Kali as well. I use just ZoneAlarm and I rarely have problems with the firewall.