Faction Uniqueness

[Blackout]

I just wanted to know what all of you guys in the forum community think about TR's faction uniqueness and what makes them unique. I really looking for strategy and game play wise, because most factions have their own unique units, aside from the PA, but I'm sure they differentiate strategy in a different way.

Which way do you guys play each faction differently?

[tlmiller]

IR is all about the big guns.  In space and land.  SSD's, superlasers, AT-AT's.

NR is all about the fighters in space, and hit and run tactics on the ground.  Late game also have ships that can go toe to toe with the best that the IR has, but they continue to simply extend their advantage in terms of fighters.

EoTH is kinda a mix.  While their fighters aren't nearly as fast as the NR, they're FAR more useful than the IR and their bombers can actually take more than 1 hit before being destroyed.  Their capital ships aren't as overblown as the IR, but they're (early on), far stronger than the NR.  And the Phalanx is one of the most grossly overpowered ships in the game.  Indestructible engines so like an SSD, you can wait until the last moment to retreat if you 're losing.  If you compose your fleets of mostly this type of ship (EoTH has several), you can do fantastic hit and fade battles, jumping in, doing damage, and then retreating once you start to take damage.

PA is very much mostly a clone of the IR in space, but on the ground they're actually my favorite.  While they use several IR units, their unique units manage to COMPLETELY change the feel of them.  The Hailfire droids are the weakest of all the artillery, BUT they also have no need to deploy, so they're significantly more capable of surviving when they meet resistance.  The Century tank is one of the best overall values.  While the light turbolaser is very slow firing, 2 groups of Centuries can take a building out in a single shot if their turbolasers are ready to fire.

[Revanchist]

IR: The IR faction identity is to beat anything in its way down to pulp. In space this usually entails SSDs as a centerpiece for a mostly capital/heavy frigate fleet. They have terrible fighters and bombers that are usually deployed en masse to overwhelm the enemy. On ground the Empire is very much the "slow and steady" faction. A favorite tactic is to bring in two AT-ATs, a SPMA-T, two units of AT-STs, and the rest NovaTroopers. Slowly advancing towards the enemy base, relying on an impenitrable wall of forward facing firepower, that is Imperial ground for you.

PA: Really the only other faction I've done extensive play with, the PA faction identity seems to be that of adapting to whatever forces you face. Early PA space will be practically solo combat with your SSD and very little support. Later PA space will be a mix of classic IR strategies, or more NR based fighter strategies. Either way you go, though, most likely your offensive fleets will contain 1 Praetor as a damage soak/flagship. A typical base fleet for my PA space would be: 1 Praetor, 2 ISDs, 2 VSDs, 2 Venators. From there I will add or replace ships depending on what I am fighting. If its the IR more damage dealers, the NR more corvettes/carriers, the EotH a little of each. For PA ground, they are much faster than the IR; though with the capability of similar strategies, I use them much more as a fast attack fleet than a wall of death. The units I use the most are: Floating Fortresses, TIE Crawlers, LAAT/i's, Hailfire Droids, Pentastar Enforcers, and Storm Commandos (for quick RP capture). They are faster and more flexible than the IR ground, as each PA unit can function in multiple roles.

[Thuellai]

IR:  I tend towards a somewhat unusual strategy with the IR, relying on the Victory-II as my primary fleet composition.  Fast, punchy frigates with a ton of firepower and speed and one of the few units that doesn't do the spinny dance of death.  You don't need to beat NR fighters, just keep them tied up in dogfights long enough for the VSDs to find and punch anything into the ground - it's not hard for them to blow through engines and then drive-by the enemy with their pointed cross-section while they come around to the back to finish them off.  Being able to double-build the Hyper Velocity Gun also means they excel at luring capital ships to their death - find a nice planet that can only support a low-level starport, build a couple HVGs on there, and give anything too big for your VSDs to handle a one-two punch from the big guns.

On the ground it's all about the AT-AT.  Infantry's only purpose is to scout out turbolasers.  I've also had a lot of success with the AT-PT, which is a surprisingly effective anti-infantry vehicle.

EotH:  One of the most effective fighter fleets out there and a great selection of heroes means you can run any fleet you want.  Chafs and Phalanxes make up the most of your big guns, powerful ships that can hit-and-fade without repercussions led by the Battlehammer or Thrawn/Thrawn Clone.  Meanwhile they have a great selection of fighters that can be led by Baron Fel to devastating effect, going toe-to-toe with any other fighter swarm with the right selection of units thanks to his fantastic bonuses, and the Syca feels like one of the strongest bombers outside the late NR.  In the end, the fleet you run comes down to which heroes you want on the front lines.

Pentastar Alignment:  I have two Executors, why do I need other strategies?  Even more than the IR, the PA loves big guns, and supports them with fighter screens too thick for even the NR to penetrate.  Get yourself a big gun and cover it in Venators and the enemy will just scream in frustration trying to get anything heavy enough to matter near your Executor.  Just don't autoresolve while Jerec is in orbit...  he's not very smart.

New Republic:  Fighters and stealth heroes means you have freedom to engage however you want.

[Lord Xizer]

IR-slow and heavy and decent expense
NR-Fast and light and relatively cheap
EotH Heavy and fast but VERY expensive
PA-balance between IR and NR, kind of a combo

[Mat8876]

IR Super ships and masses of fighters, but rubbish fighters and slow ground assaults.

NR Decent fighters and quite cheap, Worst capital ships and a lot less fighters than IR of fighters (In era 1-3).

EOTH Phalanx, Syndic and Chaf don't have destructible engines and have masses of fighters in space defence, Most expensive faction and only able to build two space defence buildings (this to change in 2.1).

PA Two super star destroyers at start and (in my opinion) the best in ground assault due to them having LAAT/I, IFT-X's and Hailfires avalable along with other Imperial equipment, Rubbish fighters and most of there equipment is lightly armoured so they can be quite quick to destroy (if using the right equipment against them).

[Lord Xizer]

Each bring their own seasoning to the soup pot