What is this faction?

[KommissarReb]

A few hours ago when I was playing ICW for Empire at War: Forces of Corruption, I launched an attack on an Imperial Remnant controlled planet, Tangreene. I was playing as the Pentastar Alignment, and my fleet consisted of Grand Moff Ardus Kaine's Super Star Destroyer, Reaper 2 Acclamator class frigates, and 1 Venator Cruiser (and one other ship I forgot the name of).

I was in the middle of wiping out the measly defenses of a few of IR Star Destroyers, fighters, bombers, and their shipyard when suddenly a fleet of Star Destoyers, Nebulon B frigates and fighters appeared from behind where my fleet warped in from.  They caught me off guard, as they appeared behind my fleet, but not unprepared (thanks to the SSD I had). The battle ended long before it occurred to me that I should have took a screenshot of what happened.

Besides what I just explained, the color of the faction belonging to the ships ambushing me from behind was red. I mean this exact type of RED. Can anyone tell me what happened and how? It was like day 58 or something, and I'm pretty sure the Warlords faction was wiped out by this point (along with the Hapes Consortium and the Duskhan League).

[tlmiller]

New Republic raid fleet.  Randomly generated, will happen once in a while, will be a major factionn that isn't involved in the battle.

[KommissarReb]

New Republic raid fleet.  Randomly generated, will happen once in a while, will be a major faction that isn't involved in the battle.

But isn't the New Republic colored orange in this mod? These guys were red. Do these raid fleets attack when I attack a NR controlled world? Also since when does the NR use Imperial vessels? (I'm aware that technically X-Wings were originally Imperial models, but that's besides the point)

TBH the New Republic raid fleet reminds me of the Barbarian raids from Civilization II. Too bad it had to try to nip my fleet in the rear instead of appearing new my enemy so I'd take less casualties.

[tlmiller]

Raid fleets will always be red regardless of who they are, NR, IR, EoTH, "pirate".  These fleets are randomly generated at the time of the beginning of the battle, do not come from anywhere on the galactic map.  If you happen to catch the notification that another fleet is incoming (I almost never do), you can skip bringing in reinforcements and just move to the side as all raid fleets will make a beeline for the shipyard and destroy anything and everything that is in their way.  They will never have ships heavier than the ISD's, so no battlecruisers or dreadnoughts.  Overall, they're a bit annoying, but can sometimes be helpful if you're on the line of not having sufficient power to win a battle, then you can set to the side, let the raid fleet slim down your opponent, THEN jump in reinforcements.

[KommissarReb]

Raid fleets will always be red regardless of who they are, NR, IR, EoTH, "pirate".  These fleets are randomly generated at the time of the beginning of the battle, do not come from anywhere on the galactic map.  If you happen to catch the notification that another fleet is incoming (I almost never do), you can skip bringing in reinforcements and just move to the side as all raid fleets will make a beeline for the shipyard and destroy anything and everything that is in their way.  They will never have ships heavier than the ISD's, so no battlecruisers or dreadnoughts.  Overall, they're a bit annoying, but can sometimes be helpful if you're on the line of not having sufficient power to win a battle, then you can set to the side, let the raid fleet slim down your opponent, THEN jump in reinforcements.

Good point there! Even though in the situation I was in, all of my ships showed up automatically without me needing to bring in more, and the SSD probably wouldn't have gotten out of the raid's fleet way in time. But thanks for the info anyway! I'll use it well in the future.

[Revan0123]

Raid fleets will always be red regardless of who they are, NR, IR, EoTH, "pirate".  These fleets are randomly generated at the time of the beginning of the battle, do not come from anywhere on the galactic map.  If you happen to catch the notification that another fleet is incoming (I almost never do), you can skip bringing in reinforcements and just move to the side as all raid fleets will make a beeline for the shipyard and destroy anything and everything that is in their way.  They will never have ships heavier than the ISD's, so no battlecruisers or dreadnoughts.  Overall, they're a bit annoying, but can sometimes be helpful if you're on the line of not having sufficient power to win a battle, then you can set to the side, let the raid fleet slim down your opponent, THEN jump in reinforcements.

That's what I do when facing some planet's defences. I usually send a fighter squadron in as a pathfinder so, when I get the message that a raid fleet is approaching, I just move to one side of the map and let the AI kill each other with these fleets. Once the chaos is over, I drop my fleets on top of them, ending it quickly

[KommissarReb]

New Republic raid fleet.  Randomly generated, will happen once in a while, will be a major faction that isn't involved in the battle.

Oh by the way, it wasn't a New Republic raid fleet. It was actually a Warlord raid fleet according to http://thrawnsrevenge.com/forums/index.php?topic=2770.msg36870#msg36870 It says that NR raid fleets don't have ISD's. I definitely remember a Nebulon B frigate or two mixed in with the Star Destroyers, as well as X-Wings and Y-Wings.

[tlmiller]

Eh, whatever, to me a raid fleet is a raid fleet.  They're all NR since I want them all to die, even when it has Ascendency and Chaf's.

[KommissarReb]

Eh, whatever, to me a raid fleet is a raid fleet.  They're all NR since I want them all to die, even when it has Ascendency and Chaf's.

I take it that you're not exactly much of a NR player? I mean, granted playing this mod I have only ever played as the Pentastar Alignment and the Empire of the Hand (to a lesser extent) because they're some of the featured factions in this mod.

Personally I think the PA suits me the most. In RTS games I often tend to turtle a lot (almost to extremes where I only attack to see what's going on), and I like to use air strikes whenever possible. I don't know a whole lot else about the PA other than that they are an Imperial splinter faction that wants to preserve the New Order ideals, assist and protect business interests, opposes the NR, and doesn't go on conquests as much as defending their own territories. Maybe the Hapes Consortium would also have been an ideal empire for me to play as since they also are isolationist.

[tlmiller]

Actually, I've played as the NR more than anything else.  But that's because when 2.0 was beta-ing, my job was beta testing the NR, so I played quite literally hundreds of times as them, finding various issues and balancing issues.  I basically haven't touched them since 2.0 was released, because of it.  However, I dislike them as a concept.  They're a bunch of chaos loving terrorists that look to destroy the rightful government and will stop at nothing to push their agenda of Empire-hatred and intolerance.


Now in ascendency, I'd say NR is probably the best overall faction at this point and definitely the most fun to play due to their varied and interesting capital abilities.

[Revan0123]

However, I dislike them as a concept.  They're a bunch of chaos loving terrorists that look to destroy the rightful government and will stop at nothing to push their agenda of Empire-hatred and intolerance.

Are you sure that's not just imperial propaganda clouding your mi-*notices that there's a Pentastar logo next to my name*...uh, I mean, yeah! Screw those New Republic scum!