Walther911

If you're playing right even on the hardest settings there is NOTHING that can't be stopped by a simple fleet of 2 Mon-Cals with 8 Corellian Gunships and a CC-7700 (or 2 ISDS with 8 Lancers if you're Imperial). I mean, you don't even need fighters - the gunships take out say 20 TIE defenders almost before they've got to you! Alternatively go for size: this makeup holds true for awesome fleets though, just give a bit more emphasis on larger ships eg. 12 Mon-Cals and 20 Gunships can take down everything easily. Oh and if you're having a Death Star DONT include it in any attacking fleet! They are fun but get destroyed by Rebel starfighters too easily. Go in with an advance force first, then move your death star in a few days later if you must!

Ever destroyed every planet in the core with the Death Star? I got close but decided not to destroy ALL my own planets lol. Now thats general bombardment.

Personally, I will defend the humble TIE fighter and to some extent the extended universe (although some bits suck, especially this new rubbish which I haven't read...): 1. The TIE fighter is actually far more efficient and cheap than the Rebel fighters, not to mention more effective with equal standard fighters. Th reason for my claim is that firstly it does not have to use fuel etc due to its solar panels (though I guess it has an alternative power source because there are contradictions in the EU as to what happens in deep space!) which means that it sacrifices shields for speed. So what - if you can out-manuoevre someone it makes no difference how much you can take. This is particurlaly true in the X-WIng games - when flying even the basic TIE you can do better than the X-Wing and in fact they generally match a TIE interceptor to an A-Wing in terms of effectiveness. The TIE's disadvantage comes in attacking capital ships, not superiority. And of course, in terms of strategy, a TIE fighter's lack of hyperdrive is then NOT a weakness - it will always have its carrier (A Star Destroyer has a lot of power) to take on the capital ships. This can be compared to the Rebel strategy of sending in a few starfighters designed to be versatile for hit and run attacks (as in the XW games). Now the Empire is limited as to how many hit-and-run attacks they can make: in the OT they don't know where any Rebels are so their strategy will reflect this ie. fighters in carriers only. Later on, they begin to employ other strategies such as Thrawn's capital ship hit-and-fades, and eventually as mentioned, the Preybirds which are specifically designed for versatility and heavy assault. Note also in the games, Gunboats and Assault transports are regularly used as attack craft without capital ship support. On the other hand, the Rebels barely use capital ships. Look at the size of their fleet: its supposed to be their entire fleet compared to a tiny Imperial fleet. But their fighters were the attacking craft, the capital ships were just support. (Yes, so were the imperials. But what does Palpatine know about fighter strategy?) In conclusion, the fighter is superior for its job (and yes, cheaper). After all, the Rebels took Y-wings to the Death Star and thats just dumb... Even though one survived! At the Death star the ratio would be what, 3:1 imperial kills to rebel kills? TIE fighter superiority. (PS. in the original book there are two more squadrons attacking the Death star elsewhere that take most of the fighters with them. They all die.) 2. The EU. Well frankly, the new trilogy take so much from the EU its a joke - most obviously Coruscant, The Jedi Order, etc. I like some of the EU, most noteably the Thrawn trilogy since it is in the spirit of the originals and damn well written. This also applies to others such as SotE etc. And the games I feel have to be legitimate but taken with a pinch of salt: no way would the Rebels bother to create a Bulwark Cruiser!

I guess this all depends on what size game you're playing.... For example, in a small, easy game it is possible to not build a single ship and win. Even in my very first game (which lasted 4000 days!) the largest fleet i met was an SSD and 2 ISDS, so I've never had trouble against the AI. That said, I did have several huge fleets because after all, what are those shipyards for?