The Saint

A lack of Interceptors, B-wings, and Defenders could just mean we're seeing footage earlier on than when any of that is developed. It could just be they havent showed any footage from the Return of the Jedi porition of the war. The Super Star Destroyers were meant to be sector command ships. They werent meant to be built in mass but they were more or less factored to be the flagship of entire Imperial naval groups, while the Death Stars were designed to command entire portions of the galaxy. I mean, honestly, the Empire by no means was small. It encompased hundreds of worlds, trillions of citizens, resources and building techniques no one has ever explained..technically there are three Death Stars, one prototype, one fully constructed, one partially constructed. Then you have ships like the Eclispse Star Destroyer..which from the source books could single handedly take on an entire Republic fleet by itself. If the SSD is expensive, than so be it. I'm pretty sure the Imperial player will be able to buck the cost, and the upkeep easily.

I cool as a cucumber. I'm just putting out a rational counterpoint thats all Besides when it comes to Star Wars games, we all deserve the right to be slightly more reserved than we should be.

Shame on you for suggesting they even consider implementing three. For an EaW2, for that go pick up SW: Battlegrounds This is meant to be a strategy game, and not even a series of them. Its wishful thinking that there will be more than one but this has to be an epic hit. And that can be bad if its an epic hit. Case in point the Knights of the Old Republic series. Bioware does the original and its done with all the time Bioware needs to polish off the game and make sure its indepth. Its a smashing success on the XBOX and PC, people go out and buy copies of the first game for both console and PC just to compare and show off..what happens? A sequel is put into the works. Of course now LucasArts smells blood in the water(ie money) and they switch companies for whatever reason to Obsidian..KotoR II is rushed because LA wants to hit the holiday season and the game ships with as many bugs as there are cockaroaches on the planet. The game by Obsidians own admission is incomplete, as there is supposed to be a part with an HK factory, and there is a sublevel of the base on Telos which you can never explore...whats my point? Well its simple, the more popular a game, the more well off it sells, the more likely we'll see a sequel, but this doesnt mean it will be up to par with the original. While I want this game to succeed I honestly hope it doesnt rise to the point of KotoR, otherwise I have a feeling history will repeat itself all over again. I had another point...oh yes.. Honestly, number 3? I hope you were smoking the bud when you came up with this one. The point of a game like Empire at War isnt to put you in control of a single unit. Its to give you broad commands over tons of units. To change that in any sequel would remove a large porition of the game and make it something its not supposed to be. You dont play Rome Total War just to be a single legionarre. As for 1, that really wouldnt stop a game company. If anything they would put out new features, be more polished than a mod, have multiplayer and single player support. But doing something Clone Wars related would be rather mundane and expected. They would more than likely go further back as well. The Sith Wars are more than likely better known by the average person than the Vong are. Finally...for the love of god lets get EaW before we start discussion on a sequel. They are only now getting into the polishing phase if I recall correctly.

The CW can be done, it wasnt two empires going at it really. It was a handful of powerful planets cutting away from the Republic. Both sides had considerable armed forces though for their civil war.. Another interesting idea would be if someone went further back and decided to do the Sith Wars from Knights of the Old Republic.

Its doubtful we'll see any driod troops in Empire at War. Neither side uses driods extensively for warfare. They either served in a logistical sense or were medics on starships.

Well this is the Headquarters fleet, of course there is going to bea ton of fighters. Rebel fighters are generally better than Imperial fighters anyway until you get real further down the line to TIE-Advanced and so on. But because of their unshielded nature most TIEs are really just cannon fodder.

Is it just me or is anyone else seeing a face on that space station?

I've got such a wide ranging interest in video games..I mean heck I recently re-installed Independence War and gave her a go(never did beat it). I'm going to go out and look for Rome:Total War again because I miss it. And maybe when I get bored of that I'll install Medal of Honor Allied Assault, and Spearhead if only for the Normandy missions(the former the beach assault, while the latter is the paratrooper drop)..and then when its all done it'll be time to pop in Imperium Galactica II, but my heart rests with the Empire building or war building games..so my heart goes out to games like O.R.B and Hegemonia, Homeworld, IG II, Master of Orion I, II and III(which III isnt so bad after some of the mods)..and who can forget the entire line of C&C games..christ I cant keep up anymore with them.. If Petroglyph can produce games of the type of EaW then you can be damn sure they'll have a faithful customer in me...oh and my all time favorite game is tied...Fallout 1 and Fallout 2..sigh...

At that point you need to be flexible, this strategy is pretty much a guide, its not set in stone and if you cant be flexible about it then any variation in the Imeprial battleplan will throw you off. Okay, so they're bringing the INT up with the fleet and moving slowly? Fine by me. They want to protect the INT so heavily then go after other ships. Divert the attention. Devote a few capital craft to rush the line and focus on the INT.

I dont recongize the TIEs infront of the TIE Bombers, anyone have any idea?

Ints can attack fighters, all they have for weapons are Quad Laser Cannons for defense I believe. But they arent as effective as Lancers and how long do you think an INT will last against a dedicated attack from fighters and Bombers against the gravity well generators?

The bigger ships wont have dedicated weaponry to deal with fighters. Thats why the Empire developed Lancers, because the ISDs had heavy guns incapable of tracking nimble fighters. Again, this is why you send in X-wings as well to protect the Bombers against TIE Attacks. You dont need to destroy the ships just as much as you need to knock out the gravity well generators(which will more than likely be a targetable sub system) Again, having fighter squadrons damaged and destroyed is inevitable. You've been caught in an ambush what are you expecting? To come out of it smelling like roses? Not going to happen. And yet again this is why I said keep A-wings in reserve near the fleet, and be prepared to sacrifice a few smaller vessels. Anymore questions?

Well Gundam wouldnt be easy to do in a mod at all...and not with EaW which has more worlds than Gundam has in locations..and then again it also depends on if you're doing UC, or AC...I think UC is much better..-has a dislike for the five children-..but yea..anyway I'd love to help ya but I'm not a modder myself. I'm more of the kind of guy with ideas for mods that people might want to persue..like Space Above and Beyond, or Wing Commander, or Babylon 5 during the Dilgar or Minbari Wars.

This community seems nice enough that if you ask one of the modders to make a character to set specifications they might just see what they can do about it. Of course the game needs to come out before its seen on whether or not you can mod in new heros to the existing list or have to replace heros with the new ones.

Mod yourself into the game. I doubt you'll be able to actually create your own hero. They're more than likely going with a set amount of heros on both sides. And as they've announced in interviews in the past you'll have to find them on certain planets and so on.

Hello to all you prospective readers, this is the first of a series of posts dealing with different combat stategem. Most of this should be common sense, but a lot of it is just refresher material for those who play space combat sims(some of these tactics were prefected playing Rebellion, other tactics came out of experience with Homeworld 1,2 and Cataclysm etc etc) This is going to the first in a series of 3 space combat strategies, which will be followed by another three on ground combat. All of them will be rebel orriented(sorry Imps). Now onto my little discussion, feel free to add thoughts and suggestions. The prospect of jumping into a system with the Headquarters fleet(which should naturally be the largest, and the forerunner fleet. It'll double as the assault fleet and will be the rally point for the Rebel military forces) and encountering a sizeable Imperial fleet with an INT or 2 keeping you there can be the stuff of nightmares. So how does one get out of this situation intact? Why simple. The fighting retreat. There is nothing wrong with running and gunning across a planetary system. Rebel fighters themselves have hyperdrives which means you can send the fighters forward while the capital ships runs. X-wings and Y-wings(or B-wings if they make the game) should focus their firepower SOLELY on the INTs. Ignore Lancers, ignore escorts, focus on the INTs, knock down the gravity wells. A-wings should be kept close to the fleet as ready interceptors for Imperial fighters and bombers attempting to attack Rebel warships. Every attempt should be made to protect the Headquarters ship. If this means sacrificing a Corvette or Gunship so be it. The HQ is far more important than any lowly warship. Once the INT is taken care of the ships should make a jump to hyperspace as fast as possible either together or in groups, or single ships, as long as the Headquarters ship is the first to go(and if not the HQ ship, then the defacto Flagship of the battlegroup). The A-wings which were guarding the fleet should be next while the X-wings and Y-wings(or B-wings) should be last, with the X-wings covering the retreat of the bombers out of the system. Expect casualties to be taken. Let me stress this. It is an ambush and you will lose ships. You will lose fighter squadrons. But if you pull it off right and do it in a manner in which most of the fleet is saved then it becomes a tactical victory for the Rebellion as one or two INTs have been disabled/crippled/or destroyed outright. Those ships are more than likely going to be expensive in terms of cost and matience and you can be damn sure the Imperials will feel the loss of those warships for sometime. I hope that when the game comes out you'll all keep this in mind when playing against Imperial opponents online, or even against the A.I.

Where are you getting your info from? At the Battle of Endor, most of the Death Squadron was destroyed in combat, those ships that werent made the jump to hyperspace in retreat to Coruscant, and those that stayed were so heavily damaged the Rebellion couldnt use them. Any Star Destroyers that did surrender did so not because they were captured in ship to ship fighting, they were captured because their crews were demoralized by the death of the Emperor, the destruction of the DS II, and the loss of the flagship Executor. That would be enough to have a crew of nearly 40k give up.

The rebellion calls to me. Why? Because they've said the ships cost more, are of higher quality, which means you cant really out produce the Empire and you have to focus on tactics. I view the Empire as being way to heavy handed for much strategy. Fine you steamrole the universe, build an Int, where is the strategy? Where is the life and death struggle? With the rebellion its winner take all or fold and die. With the empire they can afford to lose a planet or two and be in good enough shape to launch a counter attack.

EaW looks as if its a wonderful title. I'll be more than happy to continue supporting them if they put out massive games like this in the future. Is it Februrary 2006 yet?

Capturing ships while a nice idea is wholly unrealistic unless you only implement it for small ships. Because unless an ISD is operating on a skeleton crew there is no way you can capture on. They've got the crew of large towns and what would end up happening is brutal ship to ship fighting that would rival the Okinawa campaign of WWII. And probably end up taking just as long. The Corvette Leia was on had a bare knuckle crew as well, those things can carry up to 100 passengers and it only had crew and a handful of security troops. Even a Dreadnaught would be a pain in the ass to capture and wouldnt really be worth it in the end. What would make sense though is if there was an option of defections..if the war is going badly for one side then there should be defections..or if the Empire blows up a planet, then there should be a risk of some ships commanders and crews defecting out of the sheer evilness of the empire. Again not large ships but smaller warships like Carracks or Lancers or even Strike Cruisers. But you dont really see the capturing of warships unless the ship has a skeleton crew. And the Empire didnt encounter personnel problems until late in the war, and even then it was still nigh impossible to capture a larger warship.