Essence of War Strategies

[Grimnakmage]

Hello guys!

I'd like to start a strategies thread for my favorite GC, Essence of War.  Now, if the PA A.I. worked in Art of War things would be different, but alas.

I play NR on Admiral, and here's what I have discovered that works.

-At the very beginning, the Corporate Sector is neutral.  However, the PA immediately beelines Tangrene for access to the Corporate Sector, so the first order of business is to send Han Solo and Chewbacca to each of those plants and capture them before the PA.  Meanwhile, Admiral Ackbar and the rest of his fleet should join at Tangrene to create a bottleneck (capture the planet).  By spamming mining facilities in the CS, you'll have almost all the money you'll ever need.

-In addition, try building Light Factories and spamming Air Speeders on all of your miscellaneous planets, such as Commenor, Kashyyyk, Ithor, and Duro.  This will help you maintain control of those planets for a much longer period of time.  By instantly spamming the landing zone at the beginning of a battle, the enemy will be easily defeated.

-A nice trick I found to eliminate four of the Imperial Remnant's Heroes is by building an Ion Cannon on Fondor and moving your fleet to Duro.  This will cause all four of their heros on Thyferra to attack Fondor.  Afterwords, send your main fleet back and use the Ion Cannon in the battle to eliminate four of the Imperial Heroes right off the bat.

-Lastly, I recommend that you do NOT kill Isard under any circumstances.  The reasoning behind this is that once they acquire Thrawn's, the enemy will suicide him right off the bat, and your Golans are enough to kill him.  Then, Era 3 starts, where the Sovereigns and Phalanx Destroyers begin (like the EotH needs anymore help in this GC, anyways).

I strongly encourage you guys to post your Essence of War strategies for other factions as well.  Thanks for reading!

[Lord Xizer]

Kill the EotH first, then take out the PA or at least their heavy shipyards. With IR strike the heavy shipyards only. This removes the main threats to you as NR.
If PA or IR kill EotH first. Their late game is death to you.
If EotH, kill PA first, build economy then cut the heart out of the IR. NR will be easy once you have territory and credits.

[Grimnakmage]

Question:  Aside from the addition of Phalanx Destroyers, what makes late-game EotH so deadly?

[Mat8876]

1 Visvia, 1 Brask combined with a small defence force makes a very good defence and the more useful the planet the stronger it gets.

[Lord Xizer]

Question:  Aside from the addition of Phalanx Destroyers, what makes late-game EotH so deadly?

Their economy can support their units spam. Waves of Airstraekers, Their tanks and commandos. Their fighters will shred the IR and PA one on one. The Phalanxs and their hero cluster bonuses.

[Grimnak]

One additional NR tip:  send Han Solo and Chewbacca to initiate a land battle at Dathomir.  Believe it or not, by moving them to capture the neutral Turbolaser Tower, that and the native population is more than enough to take the planet.

You'll have an extra planet to work with, and Zsinj and Razor's Kiss protecting it

[jordanthejq12]

Well, you do lose out on the population bonus from having a space station and you can't move any units produced on the planet. Then again, you might not care about that.

[Grimnak]

Yes, but there is a lot of money to be had with the build able mining facilities.

[tlmiller]

Yes, but there is a lot of money to be had with the build able mining facilities.

This is the reason to do it.  You don't really need the population right away, but the income helps with 5 mining facilities.

[Grimnak]

Post your strategies and tips guys

I can't be the only one that's found some nice little tricks and such.

[Pali]

With the 2.15 beta patch at http://thrawnsrevenge.com/forums/index.php?topic=4976.0, the PA AI does work in Art of War, as does the AI for the warlords.  Because of that, I haven't played an EoW in a long time, but your strategies overall work for Art as well.  Light factories with airspeeder spam has long been a tactic I've recommended, as well as rushing the CSA - though I don't use the Han/Chewie tactic, since that leaves the Warlord fleets present (and in 2.15 they will do stuff); I just destroy them and conquer the old fashioned way, since none of them are all that powerful individually.  Also, given how many more ships you have available in the south in Art, taking out the guys at Thyferra doesn't really require special tactics beyond getting the ships together (and you may not want Fondor's shipyards out of the game that long either).  I like the idea of using that early on for Dathomir, but if you're going to leave the ships in orbit as an anti-PA buffer, leaving Zsinj the shipyard will let him build up more forces and fight off Kaine better, so I'm not fully sold on it - the CSA planets, combined with high-credit ones in the south, will provide you more cash than you know what to do with after you max them out in mines.  I also like to try to push the PA back to Anx Minor if I think I can - with the larger number of building slots, it provides a better fortress than Tangrene does.

[Grimnak]

Nice to know!  I always wanted the AI for minor factions to be active.  Otherwise, they are worthless and just take up space.

I agree:  Once 2.2 is released in full and all of the Art of War AI works properly again, I will probably revert back to that GC as well.

The Fondor tactic only really applies to EoW, as in AoW you have a large enough fleet to deal with Thyferra.

With the activation of minor faction AI, by taking Dathomir with Han and Chewie, it would seem that Zsinj would simply hurt your PA advances.

[Pali]

I've never seen Zsinj actually leave Dathomir, so leaving him alone as a buffer works nicely.  I've had Star Destroyer groups from the CSA attack me, but never Zsinj.  Instead, he'll just sit at Dathomir and build up a massive force.

[Grimnak]

I wonder why even with enabled UI he won't leave.  I hope that is setting they address before full release, as minor factions add a variety of complications to the table if they attack.

[Lord Xizer]

I wonder why even with enabled UI he won't leave.  I hope that is setting they address before full release, as minor factions add a variety of complications to the table if they attack.

Maybe he's still recovering from the beatings he took at Vahaba and Selagis.

[jordanthejq12]

I wonder why even with enabled UI he won't leave.  I hope that is setting they address before full release, as minor factions add a variety of complications to the table if they attack.

"Complications" is an understatement. Ever play Hunt for Zinsj (or was it the other one?) and have the Hapans smack you at exactly the wrong time? Now imagine that plus two minor factions (Zinsj, the Yvetha) with Super Star Destroyers on top of the PA's two and the IR's potential, what, four? As the NR or EoTH, that has to be early game hell. Thank God for awesome fighters.

[Pali]

I wonder why even with enabled UI he won't leave.  I hope that is setting they address before full release, as minor factions add a variety of complications to the table if they attack.

I don't mind it too much, as Zsinj really didn't do all that much in the way of all-out military conquest - sure, he'd hit some high profile targets with the Iron Fist here and there, but for expanding his influence he focused on economics and technology over brute strength (sensible, since he never had that much of the latter, really - it's a testament to his skill that he was the trouble he was).

[Lord Xizer]

I don't mind it too much, as Zsinj really didn't do all that much in the way of all-out military conquest - sure, he'd hit some high profile targets with the Iron Fist here and there, but for expanding his influence he focused on economics and technology over brute strength (sensible, since he never had that much of the latter, really - it's a testament to his skill that he was the trouble he was).

Yes he managed to annex or convince 1/3 of the galaxy to join his Empire through manipulation, intimidation, his reputation and protection against the NR. That's quite impressive

[Grimnak]

Hey Pali:  How do the Hapans hold up in Essence of War now that they're enabled?

Do they still get crushed by the Ir or do they expand?  Do the Warlords now expand?

[tlmiller]

I've been attacked by the Hapans a couple times.  Was surprised the first time it happened, because I was so used to them being inactive.  I was the IR, and it didn't end well for them, even with it not being my main fleet they attacked.