wherryj

Well, I guess THAT is why I don't see the ridiculous ease. I was trying to complete the GC campaign with very minimal losses (meaning I was upgrading defenses as far as possible after taking a planet before moving on). I might try this suggestion and see how fast it goes.

For pirates there seem to be pretty easy counters. Rebels can land speeders that make quick work of the pirates given their lack of AA. Imperials apparently can counter with Vader. Just try to arrange it so that those are the first units to land (having mostly speeders for example?).

On the stations I meant that you can't improve upon a certain level by having more stations. I have noticed that higher stations seem to produce lower end units faster (though only the higher stations can produce higher level ships). As far as the multiple factories and such, I guess that this would matter in PvP, but I've never seen a time when the AI was so aggressive and had to be countered so fast that reduced building time made a difference. I haven't played PvP yet given the complaints about online bugs and my lack of reasonable hours in which to compete.

Yes, multiple Ion cannons DO speed up the recharge (decreasing the recharge time, rather than increasing it-I presume that this was a typo). Try putting 5 of them around a planet that is key to your defense, leaving a fairly small fleet in orbit (to entice the AI to attack) then sitting back to watch the fun. I've seen it written that multiple Ywings in orbit speeds up the cool down before the next run, but I've never seen this make any difference (I have 20 in my attack fleet but it's seemingly as slow as having only one).

I've found that having multiple buildings in the same category is really only useful if you chose to defend planets from the ground. The difference in building time isn't really that important (it would be for units like the larger capital ships that take a long time to build, but that can't be sped up anyway). However, having those multiple garrison units available to help defend the planet CAN be a large advantage. If you use the ground to defend a planet, feel free to build multiples. If you use space to defend (as a rebel for instance), build multiple ion cannons to keep the Imperial fleets from ever getting to ground.

True. Sure, the rebel AI is "cheating" if it gets ahead of the Empire in tech (playing as a rebel, I can ONLY steal tech that the Empire has already developed, and as such there is ABSOLUTELY no way for the Rebels to actually get ahead of the Empire). However, this seems to be the only way that AI can beat a thinking player. I'd say that you just need to "get over it" and wipe them out...all of them. That's the only just reward for cheating AI.

Perhaps those are the fans who also have difficulty adapting to the AI's tactics. I haven't noticed that adjusting the difficulty level makes much difference aside from how fast I start seeing attacks. Does it do more than give credit advantages and such, or is there just not a lot of difference between medium and hard? The only true difference that I've seen on the Rebel GC so far is that the Empire builds up it's ground defenses much more quickly on hard. I took Corruscant by day 300 or so in medium, and I'm currently at approximately day 200 on hard with the Empire controlling only 7 planets (should be about the same day to capture Corruscant I'd say). The difference seems to me that when I was taking planets on medium, I'd face only one building of each type per planet (occasionally with a second random type thrown in), often with only half of the available slots used. On hard, I'm facing planetary defenses of two or more of each type (with the corresponding garrison units) and maxed out building slots. While more difficult to take down, with the AI's predictable responses I have found that it's still just a matter of time before I conquer the planet. It merely means a few more lost units.

I would agree. While Rebellion had a problem with "death by a million clicks" (poorly designed interface) and the inability to speed up space battles that could literally take hours at times, I guess that I'd be one of those "cult" followers. With lessons learned and new hardware available, a sequel to Rebellion might actually have a chance (though probably a small one) of succeeding.

It sounds like there are many ways to go about this. I usually find it easiest for me to try to guard the starting planets from space since I'm much better at turning back forces in space than on land. I typically do something similar to the above on land until I can tech up. At that point, I try to rush up to the tech level that allows ion cannons (or perhaps the hyper gun, but I haven't tried out the Imperial side yet). If I can max these out on planets with few ground spots, and get about 3-4 on others that allows me to turn the rest into mines. If a force attempts to take the planet, they have to go through the augmented space forces first (at least the Imperials do, this would probably backfire if playing as Imperial, however, since Rebels can raid past your space defenses). With proper use of ion cannons, I can hold back far superior Imperial fleets. All one needs to do it work from greatest threat to least, firing a shot at each to disable, then using the additional available ion shots to take down shields on other targets. This acts as a tremendous force multiplier for the defender while giving the attacker fits with reduced firepower (disabled units) and reduced or ever NO shielding.

I've found pirates to be extremely easy, at least from the rebel side, due to the fact that they RARELY ever build ANY air defenses. I just bring in a few speeder squads and take down all of the buildings. Then, it's just a matter of mopping up any remaining units. From the imperial side (I haven't really played them since I've been working on a GC on hard setting and the ground games take up quite a bit of time), I'd assume that using bomber strikes would be a slower but equally effective tactic. As a rebel, I've found that going against Imperials is much more difficult, but the ground games are usually turned by the artillery. Without artillery, the Imperial tactic of massing air defenses (at least that's how it plays against me) means that I can't use bomber strikes and I get ground down by the fact that I'm facing 2 or more of each building garrison. Having a screening force out in front to protect the artillery allows me to get into range and take out the ability to resupply with garrisons, though I invariably lose quite a few units (2 or more ATATs, reams of ATSTs, multiple squads of stormies and the like can amass enough firepower to hurt even while I'm taking down the production facilities). I can't really advise on the Imperial side yet, but it would appear that others have given suggestions.