Thrawn's Revenge

Imperial Civil War [Empire at War] => Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback => Topic started by: kucsidave on January 26, 2014, 09:22:31 PM

Title: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: kucsidave on January 26, 2014, 09:22:31 PM
If u have any ideas for GC's to make things easier for others here you can write em

my one for IR:
at the very beginning of the game you have a very small credit pool most of the time, so my 1st task is always is to create a stabile economy. First of all, pause the game, and find all the planet of yours what have 100 or more standard income, and start to build up as many tax collect agency as possible. Do not spare your credits, it will worth it. The second step is to unpause the game, and if u have any planets what do not have a border with enemy planets, then send your fleet to the borders, and make an unbreakabble defence in those worlds.If it is done you just have to wait. It is important to DO NOT LOSE ANY PLANETS!
After that is done under 3-4 weeks you will experiance that you will have a lot of credits to spend.
Create a suitabble attack fleet and a land attack force with at least 3-4 AT-AT. if all of theese are done, start conquering the galaxy the following way:
Wach out that if you gain a new planet make sure it will remove at least one of your planets from the border, so you shall not have to split up your defences.   :P
HAVE FUN!  ;D


I didn't checked this thread I started for quite some time, and now that I rereaded the whole stuff something got my attention:
There were absolutely no mention of strategies about ERA change tactics!
This gave me the inspiration to do one for every single side.
As a PA fav. player I start it with PA
Sign explanation:
RED GLOW: Hard Era, you have to be careful.
GREEN GLOW: Easy Era, you should use your time to strengthen your forces as much as you can before changing Era.
ORANGE GLOW: Medium to Hard Era, but should not have too much difficulty if you can use good tactics.
YELLOW GLOW: Something really important in the current Era. Pay attention to these informations, and always keep them in mind.
Pally is Palpatine, and not Palleon. just wanted to make sure there will be no misunderstanding...




Pentastar Alignment

Era 1
-First thing to do is to use the Kaine-Jerec duo to go from IR planet to IR planet to find and kill Issard ASAP(means:as soon as possible). Warning: DO NOT AUTORESOLVE! Jerec's autoresolve stats sucks. I don't take over those planets, just kill of everything in space, and then go to the next one until I find my target.
-In the meantime build up a massive economy and a solid border with the neighbors. I mean if there is an enemy planet what can attack 3 of mines, then I take it and build up the normal defensive structures I use. I don't tell specifically because I don't want to affect your own gameplay style and form it to mine, however I think it is not a surprise to anyone that all border planets must have at least one HV.gun(Hypervelocity Gun) on it.

Era 2
-This is your time to retreat with Kaine and Jerec to your own territory. Primary task: do NOT kill Thrawn, and hope the AI will not be an idiot, and get him killed.
-Now you have a good economic, and a solid frontier, and as an addon you don't have to fear from an Executor popping up out of nowhere, so it is time to strike. You really should start it with Zsinj. His empire can be reached from Anx Minor, and can easily be defended after taking it out(I mean both all of his starting planets, and even every single one after conquering it in case you have to redirect your forces suddenly. You will get a border planet with the NR, and 1-2 with the IR, but you will have some very important planets including the Corporate Sector, so you will be able to build those Lucrehulks if you can finish conquering it.
-After you have the Zsinj planets, it's time to regroup your offensive fleet to Borosk, and start to do exactly the same thing with the EotH... the other reason to finish off Zsinj first is because the EotH will be much harder to be destroyed, and Zsinj's planets can be much easier defended than the Eoth's.
-IMPORTANT: If there is an Era change to Era 3 stop whatever you did in your conquering, and focus on the defenses again.

Era 3:
Almost the exact copy of Era 1, with the exception of you have to be more careful this time, as Pally's and the Sovereign's Superlasers are quite deadly to Jerec and Kaine, so add a small amount of expendable ships to their fleet. I use Lancers for example. It is important to make those ships are the first ones to enter the battle instead of your heroes(the first small box of the fleet if you didn't knew). This is important because those will be the ones which gets those damn superlaser shots from Pally. Make sure tough to call in the reinforcements about 2 seconds after the start of the battle(or you lose), and try to finish off Pally or the Sovereigns BEFORE they could reload their superlasers.
Also be careful with the NR because of Wedge, and his Executor...

Era 4:
Pally is finally gone, and with him the IR's capability to build Sovereigns too, but the existing ones will still remain, so you will have to stay on your guard from now on. As an additional problem, you will have to face Daala's Knight Hammer, and the IR's renewed ability to build Executors again... aaaagh... *sight*
No matter. When you reach this point you will have a huge amount of credits to spend, and proper defenses what you can still bolster, so it will not be a problem anymore. It is highly recommended though that if you have only 1 HV. gun on a planet, build a second one in your frontier planets. It will provide you with a faster recharge rate, and it really matters when you can send only 2(with one you can shot it twice as I experienced it) or 4 rounds(this is just a guess to be honest) to an Executor before it even reaches your defensive line. Also you can shot it even after that bastard reached it, so you will weaken it. You can say that one round only takes down about 9.66-11,04% of it's hull, but it means you destroyed 7-8 of it's hardpoints, so it will have less firepower when it reaches you. If we count with 4 rounds until it reaches you, then you killed 28-32 from it's 138 weapon systems. that means a 38,64-44.16% weaker Executor, what can decide the fate of the whole battle. Good luck with it.
-If you couldn't conquer completely the starting planets of Zsinj and the EotH, you should start to finish what you started in Era 2. It will be much harder now, but that's why you have to hurry up with it in Era 2
-If you have done with your conquers in Era 2, or just catch up to this point your new priority is to take out all of the IR's Capital Shipyards, so they will be unable to build new Executors, and you will have some extra source of Preator IIs
-With all of these done you only have to hunt down Daala with Jerec and Kaine.

Era 5:
-If you could do everything from Era 4 before killing Daala this era should not have any difficulty at all. The only reason I highlighted it Orange is the possibility of what if you could not, and the IR is still able to build those damn Executors. If this is the chase, you should continue what you started, but from now on even the NR will mean some trouble with those Viscount-class Star Defenders... Do the same with them what you already did with the IR(alias take control of all capital shipyard planets), and you already won the game.




Imperial Remnants

Era 1
What should I say? Easy. The IR is still in it's power. Your only problem is the lack of income. Build up your income as fast as possible. Very important that the NR have lots of planets "within your borders". You should take those planets ASAP to make a solid frontier with your enemy. You will still have planets deep within enemy territory like Thyferra in ICW or AoW(Imperial Civil War and Art of War), but those are not your first priority. If you feel you can defend that planet you can try to build up defences there too. For example I was just ably to finish the ICW in admiral difficulty with only 1 lost battle, and even that was a retreat from Qat Chrystac(the planet where you only control the space, and the planet itself is the NR's. It was too far from reinforcements, so i decided to hand it over to them).
This is your Era where you can bolster your forces. You can easily win, even without Era change.
If you want to change Era by all means make sure to have those 3 Executors first. It really means a lot

Era 2
No more new Executors... Do I have to tell anything else? Personally I make sure to kill Thrawn ASAP.(I know you hate me now...)
Send him in as the first ship of the fleet, and when his hull reached the red level send in those Executors remained from Era 1

Era 3
With the proper economy behind you, and if you are clever you made sure to all of your Executors survive Era 2, so the only thing you have to do is to build those Sovereigns next to them, and steamroll everything...

Era 4
I never made it to Era 4, so i don't really know what to do...

Era 5
If you changed to this Era, there is only three options:
1) You are not good with tactics, and accidentally lost both Palpatine and/or Daala, or
2) You are the most idiot ever born.
3) You only want the challenge what the NR's Viscount-class Star Defenders bring in.

The IR is the easiest side to play because of the Executors and the Sovereigns. This is why it's summary is so short. The only real difficulty in it is that your borders are quite large, and you can be attacked by every single fraction from the very beginning.




New Republic
OK, I have to admit that I barely play the NR, as I don't like it's play-style. I will try to do my best to give a proper help though.

Era 1
The Hardest part of the game. The NR's character is that it will be stronger and stronger with every single Era. It starts pretty weak, but will be able to make a punch though.
First, just like always the Economy. You will need every single credit if you even want to dream about victory. Your first priority in the first part of the Era is to survive, and make ONE huge fleet, far larger than that 40 pop cap limit. I always make one somewhere about 160 when I start my second phase.This doesn't mean you don't need defense fleets over your border planets. You also have to know which planets even worth to consider as: able to be defended, or worth to be defended at all cost, and which are expendable. It is only dependent on you, and your playstyle. Playing this Fraction forget even the idea of defending every single planet. It will not come true, and you will only throw your credits and ships/troops to the trash can if you try to defend those not worthy planets.
As soon as you have your gigantic fleet it is time to start the hunt for Issard. Find her, and kill her. If she comes for you in a well defended planet, where you can kill her then you just hit the Jackpot.
IMPORTANT!!!!!!! : Make sure Uwlla Iillor survives! I know you lose her in the end of the Era, but she returns in the 3rd one, and she will have a MAYOR part

Era 2
Maybe the IR don't have the ability to build new Executors, but they still have the ones they built in Era 1. Just like in PA prey for the god, that Thrawn will stay alive for a long time. This is your time to replenish your much weakened strength, and build up your much needed reinforcements for Era 3. This is the calm before the storm. This is also your time to expand your fraction with a few planets. I recommend to retake some lost planets from the IR, and go into Zsinj's starting locations, because of it's defendabbility. If the PA taken them already you will have a hard time, but it worth both the time, and the credits to do so. You may come across with Kaine and Jerec, so be careful though.(for jerec there is only a very small chance, 'cuz of his poor space Autoresolve stat.)
IMPORTANT: If you meet Jerec in space make it an AUTORESOLVE by any means necessary. Even if it means to lose lots of ships, or even some heroes(will be from the task force, not from Jerec).
As soon as Thrawn dies, you have to go to the defensive again, so expand as much as you can during this Era.

Era 3
Here comes the hard part. Pally, and the Sovereigns. You have an advantage over Era 1 though. Wedge and the captured and repaired Lusankya. Combine him with your rebuilt gigantic fleet, and go hunt down Pally ASAP You can not let the IR the luxury of building up those Sovereigns. If you act swiftly, and have some luck too, you will be able to kill Palpatine.
As I said before in PA, make sure that an expendable ship is the first one to enter the battle. I know i said it, but I repeat it just to make sure. It is important to make those ships the first ones to enter the battle instead of your capitals and especally Wedge(the first small box of the fleet if you didn't knew) This is important because those will be the ones which gets those damn superlaser shots from Pally. Make sure tough to call in the reinforcements about 2 seconds after the start of the battle(or you lose), and try to finish off Pally or the Sovereigns BEFORE they could reload their superlasers.
Make sure that Wedge and Uwlla Iillor stays alive until you have to fight Pally or you are a dead man(not really, but you will have a hard time with him).
If you killed him, you will be finally able to breath up... Of course it means that you lose the Lusankya one way or the another, so you don't have to make sure Wedge survives the battle against Pally, but also make sure that even if he dies he makes some serious punches for the IR fleet. Do not get him killed without him at least weakening Pally to the limit of almost death. Also make sure that Pally shall not able to flee, or your sacrifices will be worthless. Here comes the role of Uwlla Iillor. Her immobilizer 418 will be the key to stop Pally if he tries to run away. This is the reason why you have to make sure she survives by all means.

Era 4
If you were fast enough the IR shall not have any Sovereigns, but you have to stay on your guard if one pops up. Also they will be able to build those annoying Executors again. Try to build up a large fleet again, and hunt down Daala ASAP. Otherwise it is just like Era 1

Era 5
Your redemption came! Viscount-class Star Defenders.
You have to be careful not to lose them, as you can have only 1 currently, and a lifetime of 3...
This is your time to kill Ardus Kaine, Warlord Zsinj, and Jerec(If they survived this long, however i doubt it. Especially Jerec.) Have a good hunting. Also the IR is slowly, but steadily losing that lifetime of 10 Executors, and if you are good you can still have those 2 Viscount-class Star Defender as replacements while your first one can kill whole fleets. Endgame is here... Kill em all.




Empire of the Hand
Ok, I know the whole Thrawn's Revenge team will hate me now, but I played EotH just as much as NR... almost not at all. only a few hundred hours...  ;D

Era 1
This fraction is just like NR with the exception of the fact it have ABSOLUTELY NO SUPERCAPITALS at all!(sorry for my messy english, but it is 3:17 am, and i am working in this since 10 pm yesterday. I wanted to make everything accurate, so i often started a game with my other PC so that I could check out what I was writing down is accurate.)
In Era 1 you have to focus on the defenses, and the Economy. If the Era runs long, and if the IR leaves you alone then you can try to kill the PA. It is important to conquer at least a few of their planets.

Era 2
Your job here is to overrun the PA by all means, and conquer Zsinj's starting planets. If you can, try to conquer as much NR planets as possible before the AI loses Thrawn, and Pally comes for you.
It is very important to weaken the NR as much as possible.

Era 3
Here comes the hard part. Pally and the Sovereigns. DEFENSE! NR have Wedge and his Lusankya too so you can forget the expansion for quite some time... Try to kill Pally ASAP as always. This Era is the hardest for everyone, except for the IR.

Era 4
If the NR still exist, kill them all! you can not let them reach Era 5, because if they do so, they will have those Viscount-class Star Defenders, and the IR will have their Executor-class Star Dreadnoughts, and you can start digging your own rip.

Era 5
Just kill everything what remains... I think you already know what should you do from all what I written down already.




Final words for you, plese read.
Thank you if you were that kind to read everything I written.
I worked really hard to make this as accurate as possible, and i played multiplayer with myself to see if that's really that way. Of course there were thing i couldn't check out for 100%, cuz i didn't had time. I only started the game for 5-10 minutes, and I think about 4-5 times totally, and it still took me more than 5 hours to write down all of these. I hope I could help everyone with this "small" information.
I wish you all good game,  and have fun. :D
I certainly had fun to write all of this down...
Local time:3:39 AM...

Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: kucsidave on January 27, 2014, 05:18:29 PM
22 view and no additional comments???
nobody want to share his tips or tricks?
i am very disappointed :(
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: turtle225 on January 29, 2014, 12:37:02 AM
Blitzing planets in the very beginning can make some conquests a cakewalk. For example, the Thrawn Campaign and Operation: Shadow Hand as the New Republic. You start with so many safe planets that you can just stack a massive fleet and immediately start stomping apart stranded Imperial Remnant planets before they even get a chance to build anything.

Afterward, you can combine everything you own into just 2 or 3 fleets because the IR will be stuck in the upper left of the map.


Also, just as a general tip, hypervelocity guns or ion cannons are a must just about everywhere that is vulnerable to attack. They are just too good.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Lord Xizer on January 29, 2014, 01:51:42 AM
22 view and no additional comments???
nobody want to share his tips or tricks?
i am very disappointed :(

I prefer a tactic I call "Forging the Sword" with the PA and Remnant

Jump either Jerec or an interdictor ISD into the map and clear fog of war. As the enemy ships turn to defend the Space station jump a praetor to their right rear flank)This is the Hammer), you get a few free salvos at little risk. They will then turn to this new threat. When they do Jump in a second Praetor to the left flank(The Anvil) when the defending fleet splits jump Kaine or an SSD into the middle(Thus forging the "Sword") You will have enough pop cap left to jump in another ISD and two Venators point blank behind the golans to destroy the station, the your fighters mop up the Golans.

Horn's of the Krayt is another good one. Jump in a few heavy sips(ISDs, Praetor or SSD) to get an enemy fleet to focus on that orce, jump in two forces of Crimson command VSDIIs on the flanks and envelope the enemy force then blast through with speed fro the crimsons to the enemy flanks to destroy the station.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Thuellai on January 29, 2014, 02:52:18 AM
Blitzing planets in the very beginning can make some conquests a cakewalk. For example, the Thrawn Campaign and Operation: Shadow Hand as the New Republic. You start with so many safe planets that you can just stack a massive fleet and immediately start stomping apart stranded Imperial Remnant planets before they even get a chance to build anything.

Afterward, you can combine everything you own into just 2 or 3 fleets because the IR will be stuck in the upper left of the map.


Also, just as a general tip, hypervelocity guns or ion cannons are a must just about everywhere that is vulnerable to attack. They are just too good.

One of my favorite things is to build a couple hypervelocity guns on a frontline planet, while constructing my main fleet behind it.  Use a few mobile freighters like a VSD-II as a defensive line, and you can generally kite anything big enough to threaten them long enough for the HVGs to do their work, while the VSD-II is strong enough to punch up with most medium ships.  It's a good way to deplete enemy doomstacks.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: kucsidave on January 29, 2014, 09:14:33 AM
i also like the "twin sword" tactic with PA or IR!

bring in an interdictor alone, wait for the fog to lift, than 2 SSD on the base :)
if they want to retreat, than there is the interdictor  ;D
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: tlmiller on January 29, 2014, 03:26:53 PM
I prefer to do it with an Acclamator, that way if you have a raid fleet come in, you lose an Acclamator, not an insanely expensive Immobilizer-418.  Then you drop your interdictor in a corner somewhere so that it gets ignored except a few fighters that it's Interceptors and laser cannons can take care of.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: jordanthejq12 on January 29, 2014, 04:41:15 PM
Speaking of that, I remember my first raid. I was playing 2.0 unpatched, having just gotten the mod. I was NR facing the Remnant. I had Uwila Illor in my fleet. I kept her in the corner and sent everybody else off on their merry way. Of course, back in the 2.0 pre-hotfix days you only got about five seconds after the notification, as opposed to a minute now. So...yeah, not my fondest memory of raids. To this day I avoid Interdictors unless there's an SSD involved.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: kucsidave on March 13, 2014, 05:44:18 PM
Maybe u guys are right...
I'll think about it.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Lord Xizer on March 13, 2014, 08:15:02 PM
I always place my Interdictors between two ISD IIs for safe keeping.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: jthompson333 on March 19, 2014, 10:04:52 AM
Cool tips, but, I have one question...

How can you control how many ships go into battle at the very start?
For example, if I have an Interdictor and 3 ISD's in a fleet, aren't they all going to warp in at once, thus filling up the 40 pop cap?
(I realize that math doesn't add up, but you get the idea).
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Slornie on March 19, 2014, 02:26:37 PM
@Jthompson333: You can do it manually using the pathfinder slot:

2) The players talking about hyperspacing individual units into battle instead of relying on the auto-fleet are using the pathfinder slot in their space fleets (top left with a gold border).  If there is a unit in that slot then only that unit will hyperspace in at the start of the battle; allowing the player more control over what other ships they bring in, when they bring them in, and where the put them.  This was a feature introduced in Forces of Corruption (see page 9 of the FoC manual).
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Ye on March 19, 2014, 02:35:27 PM
I don't know if I'm the only one who's noticed, but enemy AI seem to get 20k free credits per week but never build any mining facilities. Why is this so?
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: jthompson333 on March 19, 2014, 03:27:17 PM
@Slornie  Thanks.  All this time and I don't think I've ever known that feature was there... Either that or its been so long since I played, I forgot.  ::FacePalm::  Its like a whole new game now.   :)
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Slornie on March 19, 2014, 03:52:52 PM
I don't know if I'm the only one who's noticed, but enemy AI seem to get 20k free credits per week but never build any mining facilities. Why is this so?
This is a deliberate design decision on our part to try and encourage the AI to play nicely (i.e. not just sit there and do nothing).  Essentially, they get free money so don't need to build mining facilities.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: jordanthejq12 on March 19, 2014, 05:03:15 PM
The problem with this is that it's possible to just outlast the AI until you have enough cash to steamroll it. For example, play BFC as NR. If you can survive the waves of Yvethan ships (and this is a pretty big if, granted), you can essentially rampage across the map with relatively little trouble (especially with the NR being in TL 5).
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Ye on March 19, 2014, 10:41:23 PM
I imagine the cash supplement the AI gets is just to make sure it's not super duper easy. Knowing this, it rules out 'attrition strategies' like, "blow up all their space stations so they'll have to rebuild them and run out of money," or "let the New Republic attack them for me so that they'll be weakened" or "replace all my factories with mining facilities so I can build ships quicker." In multiplayer, I imagine these are valid, and especially effective against EotH.

Keep in mind that even on Admiral, the AI is stupid enough that you can beat BFC in 6 weeks. Just put all your forces in one fleet carve a path around N'Zoth. When they send the Intimidator to Coruscant, send your fleet to N'Zoth and take it. Then, they have no planets, you win and you never face off with the Intimidator - or Nil Spaar. If necessary, you can just blockade N'Zoth and then send a fleet of Corvettes to Coruscant in order to destroy any ground forces the Intimidator brought with it.

You can do the whole thing without building a single ship, and perhaps without losing one either (I think this nets you a perfect score).
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Cdodders on April 06, 2014, 05:06:07 AM
I prefer to build up border defences while increasing income and working out what planets are most likely to be attacked. Then when my border planets are secure, I start building strike groups. Typical strike groups consist of 1 Preator, Executor, Sovereign or Eclipse class SSD, 2-3 ISD, 2-4 Lancer class corvettes, a Interdictor class (not with sovereign or eclipse), a couple of Victory-II class and sometimes some Carrack cruisers.

Light planetary defence fleets consist of 1 or 2 heavy cruisers, some Carracks and Lancers. Sometimes an escort carrier
Medium adds some Victory class ISD (not II class, they are defensive so I don't need the speed boost)
Heavy adds ISD-I or -II

Vindictive strike group is a Sovereign class, Preator class, 2x ISD-II and 2x Lancer class. For the lolz.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Carnivore Jacques on April 06, 2014, 03:33:18 PM
I prefer to build up border defences while increasing income and working out what planets are most likely to be attacked. Then when my border planets are secure, I start building strike groups. Typical strike groups consist of 1 Preator, Executor, Sovereign or Eclipse class SSD, 2-3 ISD, 2-4 Lancer class corvettes, a Interdictor class (not with sovereign or eclipse), a couple of Victory-II class and sometimes some Carrack cruisers.

Light planetary defence fleets consist of 1 or 2 heavy cruisers, some Carracks and Lancers. Sometimes an escort carrier
Medium adds some Victory class ISD (not II class, they are defensive so I don't need the speed boost)
Heavy adds ISD-I or -II

Vindictive strike group is a Sovereign class, Preator class, 2x ISD-II and 2x Lancer class. For the lolz.

But what are your border planets? In almost any scenario as the IR, you end up with all these holes in your territory. In Imperial Civil War, all but seven of your planets border enemies! Planets like Garos IV and Ord Mantell are all cut off from the Empire. You need something more efficient, or everybody will have larger fleets ready to grab your insufficiently defended systems.
The first thing to do is conquer lightly defended planets until your border worlds are few. The Pentastar Alignment and Empire of the Hand are in very good positions to do this, since the PA can have as few as three or four planets to defend by the third week.
What use are those 'light planetary defences' anyway? Say the PA sends both its star destroyers and an Immobilizer your way, which it can do fairly early on. For every single world it attacks, you lose the fleet and the thousands of credits you sunk into frigates and escort carriers. I never do any such thing as a 'light planetary defence.' It's wasteful. If any of my worlds can't defend itself from whatever the enemy can send, I don't defend it.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: jordanthejq12 on April 08, 2014, 04:18:26 PM
Sometimes a small defense is better than no defense at all. For my defensive fleets I tend to load up on carriers. This is still me not having fully adjusted from 2.0, where you could pretty much fighter-spam your heart out, but anything with a solid carrying capacity that will hold up under direct fire for longer than five seconds is good for me.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Cdodders on April 08, 2014, 05:01:45 PM
But what are your border planets? In almost any scenario as the IR, you end up with all these holes in your territory. In Imperial Civil War, all but seven of your planets border enemies! Planets like Garos IV and Ord Mantell are all cut off from the Empire. You need something more efficient, or everybody will have larger fleets ready to grab your insufficiently defended systems.
The first thing to do is conquer lightly defended planets until your border worlds are few. The Pentastar Alignment and Empire of the Hand are in very good positions to do this, since the PA can have as few as three or four planets to defend by the third week.
What use are those 'light planetary defences' anyway? Say the PA sends both its star destroyers and an Immobilizer your way, which it can do fairly early on. For every single world it attacks, you lose the fleet and the thousands of credits you sunk into frigates and escort carriers. I never do any such thing as a 'light planetary defence.' It's wasteful. If any of my worlds can't defend itself from whatever the enemy can send, I don't defend it.

Light defence is useful for planets that are unlikely, rarely or lightly attacked, so I can focus my defensive builds/budget on planets that are frequently attacked and attacked by large fleets. Planets that are in a type of salient or have multiple hostile planets around it get priority for defence budgets, as are planets that get attacked frequently

I once defeated an EoTH fleet consisting of Thrawn, 2 or 3x ISD -II, and a myriad of smaller EoTH cruises with 2x Victory class, about 4x Strike cruisers, 8x Carrick cruisers and 6x Lancers. I was heavily outnumbered and outgunned but managed to kill Thrawn, the ISDs, some of the cruisers and forced the others to retreat. I considered that planet to be light to moderately defended with the Victory classes there
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: tlmiller on April 08, 2014, 05:19:55 PM
For defensive fleets, I like to have high utility ships.  An ISD-II with VSD-I's and several IPV's are a great defense fleet.  The VSD's deliver great damage for their price, while the ISD-II has a fantastic balance of firepower and shield strength, so that augmented with twin Hypervelocity cannons on the surface, a fleet like that can easily survive an attack by the IR (tons of ISD's) or the NR (tons of fighters) with the IPV's protecting your caps from bombers and the interceptors actively eliminating them.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Darman on April 08, 2014, 09:41:04 PM
In my personal experience, golon I's and small defenses are essentially worthless in actual real time play, they serve as more of a deterance than anything. The only time a defense is worth playing is if it is a heavy or capital shipyard. Otherwise. Just auto resolve or retreat and then use one of the attack fleets and destroy the whole invading fleet in half the time and if you time it right. You may catch their land invasion force as well
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Cdodders on April 17, 2014, 09:41:47 AM
I find it a good challenge
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Revanchist on April 26, 2014, 01:25:02 AM
When I play as the PA in FTGU I like to use a build I call the Executor Hunting Party. First, I like to fight them on my terms, over my own planets with HVGs. This generally means letting the SSD take the space over said planet. Then I move my fleet in for the kill. Drop in an Imperial Escort Carrier first (to make sure there are no untimely raid fleets). Next, bring in a Praetor, and an ISD. Behind them place your carrier line (usually 2x Acclamator and 2x Venator) followed by 2 IPVs. Set them to guard the Praetor, then energize PtW on them. This leaves you with 12 points, enough for3 VSD-2s and an Immobilizer.

Let the enemy come. Their initial fighter wave gets massacred by the IPVs. Any support craft are quickly neutralized by the Sniper (Praetor). Meanwhile, you send your TIE Hunter squad full-throttle toward the SSD, and when you spot it you fire the HVG. Once the support craft are neutralized, the SSD should just be in firing range of the Praetor. While it begins its long-range assault, send the 20 TIE Bomber squadrons you have at the SSD, backed by the 19 squadrons of A-9s to keep any fighters off them. Meanwhile your Vic-Deuces should be moving to a flanking position where they can divert all power to weapons. When the SSD closes to range, send in your ISD-2 as well. I have not lost a battle yet with this fleet.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Cdodders on May 14, 2014, 06:24:14 AM
An Executor with the rest of the cap filled with crimson command Victory-II star destroyers work well
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Shiakou on May 21, 2014, 11:37:58 PM
How effective is a fighter/bomber swarm against SSDs? Say I get attacked with two SSDs with gunship support, can I win if I defend with fifty squadrons of X-wings covering fifty Y-wings? Or B-wings, since fighter swarms were what they were originally designed for IIRC.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Mat8876 on May 22, 2014, 08:04:42 AM
Fighter swarms are a good idea but it's a better idea to send in ships with equal or more fighters than pop cost.
E.g. Equal being Assault frigate being 2 pop has 2 fighters
      More Quasar fire 3 pop 4 fighters.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Carnivore Jacques on May 23, 2014, 02:21:24 PM
A question occurred to me the other day: when should you not build an SSD? Say you're able to do so. What sort of circumstances would have you decide not to build one?
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Mat8876 on May 23, 2014, 02:29:02 PM
Only build a SSD when either your Capitals can't do the job or if you have the enough credit income (not to get mixed up with how much you have).
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: kucsidave on May 24, 2014, 09:32:29 AM
Only build a SSD when either your Capitals can't do the job or if you have the enough credit income (not to get mixed up with how much you have).
even i couldn't told it better.
i mean, i playing now as IR in AoW, and i have a few tips how to max out both your income, and production rates.
#1: If you have a planet with 100 or more base income make sure it have 5 Tax collection agency so you will have a planet with 1100 credit/week for one 100 base income planet. for a 130 base income, you will have a 1430 credit from 1 single planet every week. If you have to destroy a few baracks or so in that planet, then do so.This will give you the economy to support a large production rate
#2 most people makes the mistakes, of that if they built out a planet as a frontline one, they shall not change it a bit after they gained the next planet. Do not be so naive!!!! Why would you need a hipervolicity gun(hvgun from now on) in a planet what is far behind your lines??? It gives you back a decent amount of credits if you sell it, + you will have a slot to build into, so you can have an extra production structure or credit income in place of that useless hvgun.
#3 do not build everithing everywhere! what i mean with this, do not have 1 barracks, 1 light vehicle factory and so on in every planet. You will do it much better to have theese concentrated. i mean have a barracks planet, where you only build barracks, a light vehicle factory planet, and so on. Just make sure that you know wich planet is wich, so it is recommended that you write it down to a paper first, and you use the same planets always, so after some time, it will be a routine for you to where to click if you need something.
#4 if a planet is able to build up to capital shipyard it doesn't mean that you have to build it up! Sometimes you do it much better to build it up only to heavy frigate yards. Why would you spend all your much needed credit to build up a capital yard, when you can not use it if it's done, cuz you have no credit left...+ if you don't havew credits, you can not build capitals even in your existing ones.
#5 ALWAYS keep an eye out for the discounts! ONLY BUILD SSDs in KDY!!!! it really is matter if you have to spend 40k credit or just 28k credit!
this is the most important thing of the 5.

If you keep theese small pointers in mind, at late games you will be unabble to spend your credits. My income is much greater than how i can spend it(or need to spend it.) For example i got back the money i spent for an ssd before half of it were built, and i even built some ISDs in the meantime somewhere else...
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Prince Xizor on May 24, 2014, 05:32:16 PM
One of my tactics would be for example:


Say Coruscant, Kuat and Byss where in a triangle formation.

Byss was the one facing out to the rest of the galaxy while Coruscant and Kuat where out of harms way.

I would amass a large fleet at Byss and just defend that in the safe knowledge that as long as Byss was held, Coruscant and Kuat would remain untouched.

Hope you found this helpful!
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Carnivore Jacques on May 24, 2014, 06:46:31 PM
Indeed, Xizor. Planets such as Byss in your scenario I often call 'fronts' or 'front lines' - the analogy is clear, I hope.

Now, what are some good ways to counter phalanx commandos? Would any of you sacrifice some mining facilities for the sake of defending backworlds that may or may not be attacked by the EotH player? Do you place garrisons there? If so, what units are in such garrisons and how much money do you spend on them usually? Would you move troops from the front lines to retake a world taken by said commandos?
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: tlmiller on May 24, 2014, 07:23:26 PM
I actually keep "garrison fleets" that I keep on all my front line planets once I can afford it.

As the PA, I keep 1 Hailfire, 1 AT-AT, 2 Century Tanks, 1 IFT-X, 1 AT-AA, 1 A9 Floating Fortress, 1 AT-PT, a Pentastar Enforcers and a Storm Commando, moving them as needed to make sure that even if someone gets past my defensive fleet, they're not going to take the planet without MASSIVE losses.

I also keep the same fleet on some of my most important worlds once I have tons of income.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Thrawnizator on June 17, 2014, 04:12:49 PM
Well still didn't played all possible sides of all scenarios, but pretty much every scenario I've played so far can be win in the same way.

First thing of all I decide how large perimeter I want to defend. Of course preferably the bigger the better (more income), but that is not always possible depending on a side... Sacrificing some isolated planets is required price of such approach. At key locations I always keep very large fleet, fleets which pretty much cannot be defeated by AI. My offensive arm are fighter squadrons. IMHO best fighter in the galaxy bar none is Furion. It can chew through everything. For Empire of course Tie-Defender. With Republic/Rebels it gets a bit dicey because to efficiently deal with capitals 2 fighters types are required.X-wing can do a lot of damage in a swarm, but swarm of B-Wings will obliterate everything... except enemy fighters. Now on routes where I want to expand just spaming fighters. There is nothing AI can throw against 100 Furions/Tie-D and survive (offense&defense alike). Defeats are rare. Got stuffed couple times but not because of superior AI but because for example pack of Lancer frigates parked under Golan platform and it is not possible to target that scum before obliterating Golan platform. And when dealing with defense platforms fighters are ripped to shreds.

If anyone want to have fun with 'fighters first' policy word of advice - target all anti-fighter units ASAP or die. Corona frigates are truly nasty opponents!  ;D


When defending a planet with enough fighters I always keep same routine when dealing with big guns: 1. Destroy Engines. 2. Destroy Hangar. 3. Obliterate target 4. Find next victim and repeat 1-3. Works every time... except some ships without Engine(s) HP he, he.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: tlmiller on June 17, 2014, 04:25:51 PM

When defending a planet with enough fighters I always keep same routine when dealing with big guns: 1. Destroy Engines. 2. Destroy Hangar. 3. Obliterate target 4. Find next victim and repeat 1-3. Works every time... except some ships without Engine(s) HP he, he.

The reason the Chaf cruiser is my absolute least favorite thing to see attacking me when I'm the PA...
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Lord Xizer on June 17, 2014, 06:36:42 PM
Indeed, Xizor. Planets such as Byss in your scenario I often call 'fronts' or 'front lines' - the analogy is clear, I hope.

Now, what are some good ways to counter phalanx commandos? Would any of you sacrifice some mining facilities for the sake of defending backworlds that may or may not be attacked by the EotH player? Do you place garrisons there? If so, what units are in such garrisons and how much money do you spend on them usually? Would you move troops from the front lines to retake a world taken by said commandos?

IDTs work well against commandos...and nearly everything else
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Carnivore Jacques on June 17, 2014, 07:11:57 PM
AT-AAs are quite effective against IDTs. I had once believed otherwise because they are terrible against V-Wings. It's practically their only job, but they still can't nail the NR aircraft.

Another scenario I'm not sure how I would resolve:

You're playing Shadow Hand as NR. You lose the Corusa Rainbow, and most of the core. You still have Ord Mantell, i.e. the Empire is still split in two and the New Republic is still entirely contiguous. Can you win at this point?
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: tlmiller on June 17, 2014, 09:36:31 PM
Yes...but it ain't easy.  And it's going to be expensive if you catch Pally in Space instead of on the ground.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Lord Xizer on June 18, 2014, 09:39:56 AM
AT-AAs are quite effective against IDTs. I had once believed otherwise because they are terrible against V-Wings. It's practically their only job, but they still can't nail the NR aircraft.

Another scenario I'm not sure how I would resolve:

You're playing Shadow Hand as NR. You lose the Corusa Rainbow, and most of the core. You still have Ord Mantell, i.e. the Empire is still split in two and the New Republic is still entirely contiguous. Can you win at this point?

What are you worried about? You're armored in plot! Wait for a plot bunny to appear and the IR is guaranteed to lose.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: jordanthejq12 on June 19, 2014, 12:16:13 PM
Well, you may or may not have Wedge, in which case you're probably in reasonably good shape, provided you keep him away from Pally (or a Sovereign). As the IR, one of my favorite tricks is a little lightning raid: jump Pally by himself in to where Wedge is. Superlaser Wedge. Jump out. You can do this with a Sovereign, too, any time there's a hero you want zapped quickly. (Of course, the SSD can sometimes stay there and dish out a hefty beating too.)
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Lord Xizer on June 19, 2014, 02:39:08 PM
This strategy is better known as the zip zap trap
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: jordanthejq12 on June 21, 2014, 10:21:56 AM
It even has a name? That's pretty sweet.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Lord Xizer on June 23, 2014, 02:43:38 AM
It even has a name? That's pretty sweet.

All great strategies do.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: RogueSignaler on June 23, 2014, 01:47:13 PM
My general strategy is to start the game off with a pause. I take a moment to figure out which of my planets are hopelessly positioned, and sell everything on them. I then locate what I refer to as feed worlds, anything that I wont use to build actual troops, which is most. Sell their barracks and start building resource collectors on them. Once I am nearly out of resources, I un-pause and separate my capital ships from my frigates. Frigates are positioned along the edge of my area, and then I use my Capital ship fleet to begin a blitzkrieg on the enemy systems, clearing out the center of my space and then pushing the edges to form easy choke points. The space over planets is held by a few frigates while the capital ships push on until the main frigate fleets can take over holding the choke points.

Once I get my own SSD, battles turn to little more then them warping in with a mass of capital ships to guard the read/deploy fighters.

I hate ground battles, so my invasion fleet is just a mass of T4Bs (or similar) and auto-resolve until win. Not cost effective, but meh.

If an enemy Super ship shows up, I add any available frigates to my capital fleet, and using a recon ship, I drop a fleet into the blind spot. Sofar, the computer hasn't proven smart enough to ignore the mass of fighters that get dropped at the same time.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: kucsidave on October 09, 2014, 09:39:48 PM
I didn't checked this thread I started for quite some time, and now that I rereaded the whole stuff something got my attention:
There were absolutely no mention of strategies about ERA change tactics!
This gave me the inspiration to do one for every single side.
As a PA fav. player I start it with PA
Sign explanation:
RED GLOW: Hard Era, you have to be careful.
GREEN GLOW: Easy Era, you should use your time to strengthen your forces as much as you can before changing Era.
ORANGE GLOW: Medium to Hard Era, but should not have too much difficulty if you can use good tactics.
YELLOW GLOW: Something really important in the current Era. Pay attention to these informations, and always keep them in mind.
Pally is Palpatine, and not Palleon. just wanted to make sure there will be no misunderstanding...




Pentastar Alignment

Era 1
-First thing to do is to use the Kaine-Jerec duo to go from IR planet to IR planet to find and kill Issard ASAP(means:as soon as possible). Warning: DO NOT AUTORESOLVE! Jerec's autoresolve stats sucks. I don't take over those planets, just kill of everything in space, and then go to the next one until I find my target.
-In the meantime build up a massive economy and a solid border with the neighbors. I mean if there is an enemy planet what can attack 3 of mines, then I take it and build up the normal defensive structures I use. I don't tell specifically because I don't want to affect your own gameplay style and form it to mine, however I think it is not a surprise to anyone that all border planets must have at least one HV.gun(Hypervelocity Gun) on it.

Era 2
-This is your time to retreat with Kaine and Jerec to your own territory. Primary task: do NOT kill Thrawn, and hope the AI will not be an idiot, and get him killed.
-Now you have a good economic, and a solid frontier, and as an addon you don't have to fear from an Executor popping up out of nowhere, so it is time to strike. You really should start it with Zsinj. His empire can be reached from Anx Minor, and can easily be defended after taking it out(I mean both all of his starting planets, and even every single one after conquering it in case you have to redirect your forces suddenly. You will get a border planet with the NR, and 1-2 with the IR, but you will have some very important planets including the Corporate Sector, so you will be able to build those Lucrehulks if you can finish conquering it.
-After you have the Zsinj planets, it's time to regroup your offensive fleet to Borosk, and start to do exactly the same thing with the EotH... the other reason to finish off Zsinj first is because the EotH will be much harder to be destroyed, and Zsinj's planets can be much easier defended than the Eoth's.
-IMPORTANT: If there is an Era change to Era 3 stop whatever you did in your conquering, and focus on the defenses again.

Era 3:
Almost the exact copy of Era 1, with the exception of you have to be more careful this time, as Pally's and the Sovereign's Superlasers are quite deadly to Jerec and Kaine, so add a small amount of expendable ships to their fleet. I use Lancers for example. It is important to make those ships are the first ones to enter the battle instead of your heroes(the first small box of the fleet if you didn't knew). This is important because those will be the ones which gets those damn superlaser shots from Pally. Make sure tough to call in the reinforcements about 2 seconds after the start of the battle(or you lose), and try to finish off Pally or the Sovereigns BEFORE they could reload their superlasers.
Also be careful with the NR because of Wedge, and his Executor...

Era 4:
Pally is finally gone, and with him the IR's capability to build Sovereigns too, but the existing ones will still remain, so you will have to stay on your guard from now on. As an additional problem, you will have to face Daala's Knight Hammer, and the IR's renewed ability to build Executors again... aaaagh... *sight*
No matter. When you reach this point you will have a huge amount of credits to spend, and proper defenses what you can still bolster, so it will not be a problem anymore. It is highly recommended though that if you have only 1 HV. gun on a planet, build a second one in your frontier planets. It will provide you with a faster recharge rate, and it really matters when you can send only 2(with one you can shot it twice as I experienced it) or 4 rounds(this is just a guess to be honest) to an Executor before it even reaches your defensive line. Also you can shot it even after that bastard reached it, so you will weaken it. You can say that one round only takes down about 9.66-11,04% of it's hull, but it means you destroyed 7-8 of it's hardpoints, so it will have less firepower when it reaches you. If we count with 4 rounds until it reaches you, then you killed 28-32 from it's 138 weapon systems. that means a 38,64-44.16% weaker Executor, what can decide the fate of the whole battle. Good luck with it.
-If you couldn't conquer completely the starting planets of Zsinj and the EotH, you should start to finish what you started in Era 2. It will be much harder now, but that's why you have to hurry up with it in Era 2
-If you have done with your conquers in Era 2, or just catch up to this point your new priority is to take out all of the IR's Capital Shipyards, so they will be unable to build new Executors, and you will have some extra source of Preator IIs
-With all of these done you only have to hunt down Daala with Jerec and Kaine.

Era 5:
-If you could do everything from Era 4 before killing Daala this era should not have any difficulty at all. The only reason I highlighted it Orange is the possibility of what if you could not, and the IR is still able to build those damn Executors. If this is the chase, you should continue what you started, but from now on even the NR will mean some trouble with those Viscount-class Star Defenders... Do the same with them what you already did with the IR(alias take control of all capital shipyard planets), and you already won the game.




Imperial Remnants

Era 1
What should I say? Easy. The IR is still in it's power. Your only problem is the lack of income. Build up your income as fast as possible. Very important that the NR have lots of planets "within your borders". You should take those planets ASAP to make a solid frontier with your enemy. You will still have planets deep within enemy territory like Thyferra in ICW or AoW(Imperial Civil War and Art of War), but those are not your first priority. If you feel you can defend that planet you can try to build up defences there too. For example I was just ably to finish the ICW in admiral difficulty with only 1 lost battle, and even that was a retreat from Qat Chrystac(the planet where you only control the space, and the planet itself is the NR's. It was too far from reinforcements, so i decided to hand it over to them).
This is your Era where you can bolster your forces. You can easily win, even without Era change.
If you want to change Era by all means make sure to have those 3 Executors first. It really means a lot

Era 2
No more new Executors... Do I have to tell anything else? Personally I make sure to kill Thrawn ASAP.(I know you hate me now...)
Send him in as the first ship of the fleet, and when his hull reached the red level send in those Executors remained from Era 1

Era 3
With the proper economy behind you, and if you are clever you made sure to all of your Executors survive Era 2, so the only thing you have to do is to build those Sovereigns next to them, and steamroll everything...

Era 4
I never made it to Era 4, so i don't really know what to do...

Era 5
If you changed to this Era, there is only three options:
1) You are not good with tactics, and accidentally lost both Palpatine and/or Daala, or
2) You are the most idiot ever born.
3) You only want the challenge what the NR's Viscount-class Star Defenders bring in.

The IR is the easiest side to play because of the Executors and the Sovereigns. This is why it's summary is so short. The only real difficulty in it is that your borders are quite large, and you can be attacked by every single fraction from the very beginning.




New Republic
OK, I have to admit that I barely play the NR, as I don't like it's play-style. I will try to do my best to give a proper help though.

Era 1
The Hardest part of the game. The NR's character is that it will be stronger and stronger with every single Era. It starts pretty weak, but will be able to make a punch though.
First, just like always the Economy. You will need every single credit if you even want to dream about victory. Your first priority in the first part of the Era is to survive, and make ONE huge fleet, far larger than that 40 pop cap limit. I always make one somewhere about 160 when I start my second phase.This doesn't mean you don't need defense fleets over your border planets. You also have to know which planets even worth to consider as: able to be defended, or worth to be defended at all cost, and which are expendable. It is only dependent on you, and your playstyle. Playing this Fraction forget even the idea of defending every single planet. It will not come true, and you will only throw your credits and ships/troops to the trash can if you try to defend those not worthy planets.
As soon as you have your gigantic fleet it is time to start the hunt for Issard. Find her, and kill her. If she comes for you in a well defended planet, where you can kill her then you just hit the Jackpot.
IMPORTANT!!!!!!! : Make sure Uwlla Iillor survives! I know you lose her in the end of the Era, but she returns in the 3rd one, and she will have a MAYOR part

Era 2
Maybe the IR don't have the ability to build new Executors, but they still have the ones they built in Era 1. Just like in PA prey for the god, that Thrawn will stay alive for a long time. This is your time to replenish your much weakened strength, and build up your much needed reinforcements for Era 3. This is the calm before the storm. This is also your time to expand your fraction with a few planets. I recommend to retake some lost planets from the IR, and go into Zsinj's starting locations, because of it's defendabbility. If the PA taken them already you will have a hard time, but it worth both the time, and the credits to do so. You may come across with Kaine and Jerec, so be careful though.(for jerec there is only a very small chance, 'cuz of his poor space Autoresolve stat.)
IMPORTANT: If you meet Jerec in space make it an AUTORESOLVE by any means necessary. Even if it means to lose lots of ships, or even some heroes(will be from the task force, not from Jerec).
As soon as Thrawn dies, you have to go to the defensive again, so expand as much as you can during this Era.

Era 3
Here comes the hard part. Pally, and the Sovereigns. You have an advantage over Era 1 though. Wedge and the captured and repaired Lusankya. Combine him with your rebuilt gigantic fleet, and go hunt down Pally ASAP You can not let the IR the luxury of building up those Sovereigns. If you act swiftly, and have some luck too, you will be able to kill Palpatine.
As I said before in PA, make sure that an expendable ship is the first one to enter the battle. I know i said it, but I repeat it just to make sure. It is important to make those ships the first ones to enter the battle instead of your capitals and especally Wedge(the first small box of the fleet if you didn't knew) This is important because those will be the ones which gets those damn superlaser shots from Pally. Make sure tough to call in the reinforcements about 2 seconds after the start of the battle(or you lose), and try to finish off Pally or the Sovereigns BEFORE they could reload their superlasers.
Make sure that Wedge and Uwlla Iillor stays alive until you have to fight Pally or you are a dead man(not really, but you will have a hard time with him).
If you killed him, you will be finally able to breath up... Of course it means that you lose the Lusankya one way or the another, so you don't have to make sure Wedge survives the battle against Pally, but also make sure that even if he dies he makes some serious punches for the IR fleet. Do not get him killed without him at least weakening Pally to the limit of almost death. Also make sure that Pally shall not able to flee, or your sacrifices will be worthless. Here comes the role of Uwlla Iillor. Her immobilizer 418 will be the key to stop Pally if he tries to run away. This is the reason why you have to make sure she survives by all means.

Era 4
If you were fast enough the IR shall not have any Sovereigns, but you have to stay on your guard if one pops up. Also they will be able to build those annoying Executors again. Try to build up a large fleet again, and hunt down Daala ASAP. Otherwise it is just like Era 1

Era 5
Your redemption came! Viscount-class Star Defenders.
You have to be careful not to lose them, as you can have only 1 currently, and a lifetime of 3...
This is your time to kill Ardus Kaine, Warlord Zsinj, and Jerec(If they survived this long, however i doubt it. Especially Jerec.) Have a good hunting. Also the IR is slowly, but steadily losing that lifetime of 10 Executors, and if you are good you can still have those 2 Viscount-class Star Defender as replacements while your first one can kill whole fleets. Endgame is here... Kill em all.




Empire of the Hand
Ok, I know the whole Thrawn's Revenge team will hate me now, but I played EotH just as much as NR... almost not at all. only a few hundred hours...  ;D

Era 1
This fraction is just like NR with the exception of the fact it have ABSOLUTELY NO SUPERCAPITALS at all!(sorry for my messy english, but it is 3:17 am, and i am working in this since 10 pm yesterday. I wanted to make everything accurate, so i often started a game with my other PC so that I could check out what I was writing down is accurate.)
In Era 1 you have to focus on the defenses, and the Economy. If the Era runs long, and if the IR leaves you alone then you can try to kill the PA. It is important to conquer at least a few of their planets.

Era 2
Your job here is to overrun the PA by all means, and conquer Zsinj's starting planets. If you can, try to conquer as much NR planets as possible before the AI loses Thrawn, and Pally comes for you.
It is very important to weaken the NR as much as possible.

Era 3
Here comes the hard part. Pally and the Sovereigns. DEFENSE! NR have Wedge and his Lusankya too so you can forget the expansion for quite some time... Try to kill Pally ASAP as always. This Era is the hardest for everyone, except for the IR.

Era 4
If the NR still exist, kill them all! you can not let them reach Era 5, because if they do so, they will have those Viscount-class Star Defenders, and the IR will have their Executor-class Star Dreadnoughts, and you can start digging your own rip.

Era 5
Just kill everything what remains... I think you already know what should you do from all what I written down already.




Final words for you, plese read.
Thank you if you were that kind to read everything I written.
I worked really hard to make this as accurate as possible, and i played multiplayer with myself to see if that's really that way. Of course there were thing i couldn't check out for 100%, cuz i didn't had time. I only started the game for 5-10 minutes, and I think about 4-5 times totally, and it still took me more than 5 hours to write down all of these. I hope I could help everyone with this "small" information.
I wish you all good game,  and have fun. :D
I certainly had fun to write all of this down...
Local time:3:39 AM...
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Pali on October 09, 2014, 11:12:15 PM
I have to disagree with your NR era 1 advice - do not give up those planets.  Instead, drop a couple light factories on each, crank out a few freerunners and air speeders, and rush the enemy landing zone before it can get many troops down.  Defending them in space is a bust until you can consolidate fleets, but the light factory alone gives you access to all you need to hold the ground.  I've played many an NR campaign on Admiral without ever giving up a world, and the AI will often focus its attacks on them, giving you breathing room elsewhere for a fairly small credit investment - 2000 creds per planet should give you a garrison that can handle most attacks.

Also, I should mention that I've never encountered Palpatine in space - he's always on the ground somewhere.  This is often the case for Jerec as well, but I do recall seeing him in space occasionally.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Onikenshin on October 10, 2014, 02:06:33 AM
This is for admiral difficulty. So pretty much two planets are my ground spam one unit (Heaviest unit you can build). My ship building planets have planetary guns on it with turbos on land, I keep a respectable force on each.The rest of my planets have money making buildings on them. The rest of my ships flood to the choke points and after I start getting tons of capital ships I rapidly expand to other check points, after destroying each fleet I will leave a frigate so they can no longer build ships in space.

 Is there really any other way to do it more efficiently?
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: kucsidave on October 10, 2014, 02:25:26 AM
neither is bad, but for Pali, my fun with the speeders ended for 75% of the times when the IR brought his AT-AAs
I can't count the number of times I lost because of them.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Pali on October 10, 2014, 02:39:08 AM
No, that's about the right way to do it - assuming you can, at least.  In the big multi-era GCs, for instance, the NR starts pretty much in two pieces: one big one in the south with a lot of planet connections creating a wide front, and a small one in the north-east between Mon Cal and Yavin 4.  Since you've got a lot of heroes up at Mon Cal, you want to expand along that front and bring them into play, so you need infrastructure up there (plus, since the NR's not limited on how many tax centers per planet, the CSA gives them a good deal more income than it does the other factions)... but if all you focus on is that one area, you're vulnerable in the bigger southern front, or at least making minimal progress there during the crucial early-game period where the AI hasn't already filled every planet with golans and turbo towers.

The PA and EotH are the exact opposite in those GCs, however - they absolutely should be done, at least in the early game, as you describe, by having a couple low-income planets specialize in production types and then everything else going to income.  The IR's something of an inbetween... you've got a lot bigger of a front, but you're still quite concentrated, so specialization still pays off fairly well.

Re: Kucsidave
That's why I said speeders plus freerunners.  Speeders alone can be countered - the two together, combined with garrison T2Bs from the factories, all cover each other's weaknesses, giving you air power in the speeders, shields + anti-inf in the T2Bs, and heavy firepower + armor in the freerunners.  Tanks and infantry take too long to get there, but freerunners are fast and buff - they're one of my favorite units in the game, honestly, and a great addition by the team here.  Given how cheap the speeders are, it's not really a problem to send a group ahead of the freerunners to start drawing blood, lose a couple to a quick AA drop, pull them back and let the freerunners get there - which they should have by the time anything else disembarks.
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: kucsidave on October 10, 2014, 05:41:27 AM
No, that's about the right way to do it - assuming you can, at least.  In the big multi-era GCs, for instance, the NR starts pretty much in two pieces: one big one in the south with a lot of planet connections creating a wide front, and a small one in the north-east between Mon Cal and Yavin 4.  Since you've got a lot of heroes up at Mon Cal, you want to expand along that front and bring them into play, so you need infrastructure up there (plus, since the NR's not limited on how many tax centers per planet, the CSA gives them a good deal more income than it does the other factions)... but if all you focus on is that one area, you're vulnerable in the bigger southern front, or at least making minimal progress there during the crucial early-game period where the AI hasn't already filled every planet with golans and turbo towers.

The PA and EotH are the exact opposite in those GCs, however - they absolutely should be done, at least in the early game, as you describe, by having a couple low-income planets specialize in production types and then everything else going to income.  The IR's something of an inbetween... you've got a lot bigger of a front, but you're still quite concentrated, so specialization still pays off fairly well.

Re: Kucsidave
That's why I said speeders plus freerunners.  Speeders alone can be countered - the two together, combined with garrison T2Bs from the factories, all cover each other's weaknesses, giving you air power in the speeders, shields + anti-inf in the T2Bs, and heavy firepower + armor in the freerunners.  Tanks and infantry take too long to get there, but freerunners are fast and buff - they're one of my favorite units in the game, honestly, and a great addition by the team here.  Given how cheap the speeders are, it's not really a problem to send a group ahead of the freerunners to start drawing blood, lose a couple to a quick AA drop, pull them back and let the freerunners get there - which they should have by the time anything else disembarks.
As I said before i didn't played that much with the NR, so i don't know how to properly use it's units, which means what I gave as advice is an unperfect tactic, but works out fine, and even a beginner can use it. Maybe you who can pull of a trick like this with NR even when he sleeps it sounds easy, but someone like me can't. Please forgive me for not liking the NR more, but I am still not planning to play more with it.
I really understand, and respect you for they are your favorite, because they really start in a hard position in the multiera GCs from my PoV.
You know, it is my personal crazy stuff that I hate to lose ships in a space combat, and NR have paper ships at the beginning, and they are hopeless against a Preator II of the PA, that's why I love that fraction the most. they have relatively cheap SSDs. Yeah, they are much weaker than an Executor, but even if i have to face the IR I can finish off fleets of ISD IIs without the lost of any ships. Who else can say that he took Byss in From the Ground Up with only losing one single IPV-1? Don't forget that it have a Sovereign in orbit! Good luck in repeating it. I had 3 Preator with 1-2 hardpoint left, and eve the fourth was in a very bad shape at the end. If you can count that means i had 4 pop cap left, what I filled with Escort carriers, so i had the fighter screen to do the rest of the job, and protect the damaged Preators from enemy fighters...
Title: Re: GC strategy tips for share
Post by: Pali on October 10, 2014, 07:01:31 AM
A lot of people don't seem to really feel the NR, so don't be too concerned they weren't your thing.  I've spent probably more time with them than I should... I think I've done about a dozen multi-era GCs as them, always to what I view as my win point - era 5, all or nearly all enemy heroes dead, me controlling at least half the galaxy... A handful of single era ones... So yeah, that's a LOT of time with them. ;)

If you like the PA, try giving Vulcanus's submod a shot - it makes them feel a lot more distinct from the IR, and adds another layer of strategizing since you need certain planets for certain ships.