ShockMeSane

Just thought I'd report back on my progress as the Rebels, in case anyone is curious. This time I played on one of the smaller maps, starting tech 1, only 20ish systems, again on medium difficulty because I hadn't played the rebels and thought I should at least try to get comfortable with their units before I went to hard. Some thoughts, once again in no particular order of importance: 1) The Rebel tech-progression is more entertaining than the Empire. Heh. Something more fun about stealing tech with R2D2, even though it all evens out to about the same amount of time and money invested. 2) Playing as the Rebels further reinforced my thoughts on the Empires free-fighter advantage. Yes, the Rebels get a 5 higher population cap, but if the Imperial is only running 3 Tartans at once, he can pump out an absolutely ridiculous (especially when you are attacking a high level Star Base) amount of (practically) never ending Fighter waves at you. I really felt like for their cost, only Y-Wings were worth it, and even then, only to knock out the shield generators on Star Destroyers. Its a suicide run, as the AI, and I presume any human player will always have at least 3 tartans in any fleet sitting right behind their Star Destroyers. Honestly, towards the end I used only 5 Y-Wing squads, and filled the rest of my slots with Missle Corvettes (which are hawt, 5 of those can knock out critical, shielded hardpoints with extreme speed) and Calamaris. The TIE Bombers did not seem to target my Calamari's shield generators nearly as much as the Y-Wings do when you play against the AI, which is a bit strange. 3) The Rebels have a really nice luxury, which is, you don't need to build nearly as many ground troops as the Empire. Since you are not in danger of being raided, you can focus about 75% of your income towards your fleets, while the Empire has to take a more balanced approach in spending because EVERY planet must be at least reasonably garrisoned with something that has a prayer against 2 heroes and 4-5 other squads. 4) Something rather strange happened, I'm not sure if its a bug or a "feature". On this map, there were only 2 planets capable of producing the "Battleships", Fondor and Mon Calamari. Sullust and Kuat were not on the map, as it was only 20 or so systems. However, I took Fondor from the Empire relatively early, and even then, I believe it had a level 2, MAYBE 3 Starbase. Mon Calamari remained neutral for quite some time because my fleet in that part of the galaxy was busy blockading the chokepoint from a ridiculous Imperial Fleet that scared the $&%^ out of me and would periodically maraud into the eastern outern rim. Well, as the game went on, the Empire kept building Star Destroyers. I could only build them at Fondor, and it required I believe a level 4 or 5 Starbase. So anyways, I'm not sure what was up with that. Honestly I didn't mind, because the AI didn't seem at all intent on capturing Fondor back or making a run at Mon Calamari as a human would have done. If your opponent has access to Star Destroyers or Mon Cals in any number and you don't, its game over really quickly. Well, that and the fact that you almost cant assault a level 5-6 Starbase without them. 5) This is more of a tip than anything. When fighting level 2+ Starbases, the smartest thing you can do is arrange some sort of blitzkrieg on the Hanger. When the Hanger is destroyed, it not only stops the infinite fighter reinforcement, but more importantly, the constant Tartan/Acclamator reinforcements which will wear you down with a quickness if not dealt with. Higher level Starbases take a while for even 2 Cals/SDs + posse to kill, so the Hanger and the Shields definitely need to be your priority. I'd recommend the Proton Torpedo launchers follow, as they pass through shields and can actually cause significant damage/destruction to your fleet if left intact too long. I only mention this because if I had known blowing up the Hanger stops the hyperspacing in reinforcements, I would have done it my first game and saved myself a whole lot of grief. 6) I didn't get to blow up the Death Star, because they just never got the chance to build it. In fact, they only probably fielded 5-6 Star Destroyers outside the Accuser throughout the course of the comparitively short game. Not really complaining though, I probably only built about 12 Mon-Cals, and I could see I had the game won relatively early. Maybe next time! 7) Nebulan Bs suffer from the same problem that Acclamators do, namely, they become fairly obsolete once you research Assault Frigates, which are noticeably more powerful for a fairly negligible price increase. If you manage to take Fondor, the Assault Frigate actually costs LESS than a Nebulan-B, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, because if you use them side by side in battle, there is no comparison, the Assault Frigate is practically worth 2 Nebulons. Of course, I feel the same way about Acclamators vs VSDs, but at least the VSDs cost considerably more, making Acclamators an essential early game and occassionally tempting mid-game investment. Land Battles: Auto-calc'd them all. I knew I'd find a way to break the auto-calc, and that way is (drumroll), Snow Speeders. Yes, you can combine them and the two basic infantry units in massive numbers to auto-calc your way out of anything, and they cost next to nothing and take no time to produce. A cheap way to handle it I realize, but the Rebellion is even less appealing to me in land combat than the Empire, seeing as they lack any unit with a cool factor (or effectiveness) anywhere near the AT-AT. You can win with AT-ATs just by dropping 5 at your base, dropping your free 10 squads of Stormtroopers, and zerging with the AT-ATs coming in behind the Stormtroopers. The Stormtroopers are infinitely-replenishable, so you can basically just jihad them into whatever you want. Although this does "feel" like playing the Empire, it really is a little cheesy and the AI has no counter for it that I've seen. My first game as the Empire I pretty much conquered the entire galaxy with Veers and 7 AT-ATs (With the 1-man army that is the Emperor as my main source of amusement). A substantial investment to be sure, but I only ever lost one or two them, and it was due to laziness, not any great manuevering by the enemy. 9) Another bug/feature. The Emperor and Mon Mothma both reduce production costs by 25%, which is a very noticeable amount (Every 4th Star Destroyer is free for example, saves you what, 4500?). Smart players will queue up a build list at the leaders planet, and then move them to another planet. Once something is in your production queue, it has been paid for, whether or not the leader remains, you get the price reduction. This seemed a little cheesy to me, so I didn't do it against the AI. However, people will surely abuse this in multiplayer. Anyways, I had alot of fun, to be sure. I could just totally be missing something, but Corvettes seem to do everything A-Wings and X-Wings do, but better and with less casualties. THe same goes for the TIE Fighters to be sure, but they at least are free. In a war of attrition against an equally skilled player, I fear the cost of your Y-Wing kamikazie might be the final undoing of the rebellion player. Anyways, between that and the Nebulon B vs Assault Frigate cost issues, the game seems fairly well balanced. Calamari vs Star Destroyer really is a good fight, though I am 100% certain the Star Destroyer would win 100% of the time in a 4 unit capacity vs 4 unit cap fight because of the TIEs. Of course, the Calamari also costs noticeably less, so thats probably fine. Still want to hear other peoples impressions

Well, I played a little bit of the Rebel campaign, and then said "To hell with this, I want WAR", and switched to Galactic Conquest mode. I played as the Empire, on the largest size map, and here are my thoughts in the aftermath, in no particular order: 1) Although it says the population cap is 20, in my final battles I was running Accuser, 1 Star Destroyer, 3 Victory Destroyers, 5 Tartan Cruisers, an Interdicter, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, with Tarkin on the Death Star. This said Pop: 21/20 on all of my battles. I also had 10 more Star Destroyers in reserve... just erm... in case . Anyways, that is over 20 even if the Accuser and the Heroes are free. Im not sure if this was a bug or what, but it made me invincible. It was way too many TIEs for the Rebels to deal with, and the 5 Tartans melted their waves of fighters like they werent even there. 2) The Empire has a massive advantage with its free, replenishing fighters. With the Emperor and the planet that cost reduces your Tartans, they cost next to nothing, and 4 of them instantly negate any amount of "whatever-wings" the Rebels might throw at you. The AI does not seem to focus fire them appropriately. It loves to build Fighters and it hates to target your Tartans. Honestly, I felt that the Tartans were a little overpowered. I would have tried playing without them entirely if there were any other way to deal with 20 squadrons of fighters that come wave after wave in the giant battles. 3) Perhaps I wasn't doing something right, but the Acclamators seemed "nearly" worthless to me. They are cheap, of course, but considering both an Acclamator and a VSD cost 3 towards your population limit, and VSDs are about 3x as good, it seemed like a no-brainer to never build an Acclamator again past a certain (and fairly early) point in the game. This is probably an intentional design decision, of course. 4) The Galactic-level AI seemed pretty decent. They attacked me where I was weak. They raided strong planets with weak garrisons. In space, the only thing lacking seemed their inability to target my Tartans, and the horrible decisions they would make to retreat their fleet only once 90% of it had been destroyed. An Interdictor actually turned out to be fairly unneccesary, because the AI would not retreat until they had lost most of their force in the first place. This was probably my biggest dissapoint with the game. There were so many battles that the AI should have retreated from when it saw my force. I know I retreated numerous times from the AI, but at the start of a hopeless battle, not at the end of one. Perhaps on Hard difficulty the AI will make better decisions in this regard, I can only hope. 5) Land battles. Wow, these got tedious unfortunately quickly. The alliance CONSTANTLY harrassed me with those worthless Sniper guys, and only once or twice mounted a coherent counter-attack when I invaded their planets. Also, the fog of war is just too much. They should have to have communication jammers of some sort for you to not know where, at the very least, their buildings are. On some planets, its obvious, on others... not so much so. But let me tell you, I got so sick of running around looking for that last remaining sniper that I REJOICED when the Death Star reached completion. 6) Turbolaser Turrets on ground maps. Um..... does anyone else think these things are laughably overpriced? 4000? I mean, they arent bad, but they certainly are in no way the equivalent of a Star Destroyer. and last 7) The Death Star. This thing is awesome. I realize the smart way to play it is to not even enter a system with it until the System is in your orbital control. I also got a definite smile when I saw the AI had automatically placed Tarkin on the Death Star. Move your mouse when the firing cinematic starts, its way cooler to actually see the planet explode in context of the ongoing battle than to watch the cinematic. I couldnt figure out how the Rebels could actually destroy it. I know it involves Luke and Red Squadron, but there was a battle in which Red Squad was engaged (the final battle... well, not the final final, but the battle after which the Rebels lost, they could never recover), and I sent Vader, Boba, all my TIEs, and my 5 Tartans (with MAXIMUM FIREPOWER!) against him, and he gibbed like he just took a Rocket Launcher point blank in Doom. I suppose when I play as the Alliance I'll have to figure out how to actually destroy the thing! Overall, I'd say its a pretty darn good game. I look forward to playing on the hardest setting. I think with a few minor AI-tweaks, the game would be great. For one, the Rebel AI needs to not think that building 7 of those one-man sniper units is not an army, its an annoying mess that takes 15 minutes to track down and kill. I refused to auto-resolve after I lost 3 AT-ATs in my one auto-resolve attempt... when I would generally lose perhaps 1 if the AI was feeling really feisty if I did it manually. I'd love to hear any comments, or other people's post game impressions! Back I go... as a Rebel.