Quick questions.

[Stewart45]

Just a few questions for clarity. Are B-Wings just bombers or are they fighter-bombers where they can fight other fighters but obviously wont be as good as A-Wings and whatnot.

At Era 1/2 what are good ways for the New Republic to fight off the horde of SSDs the Empire has?

and lastly is it normal for there to be a Thrawn in the Empire of the Hand and then also in the Remants as well?

[tlmiller]

1.  Yes, the b-wing is a fighter-bomber.  There are no absolutely dedicated bomber only designs that can't target other fighters.  Although yes, they're far inferior to the A-Wing, E-Wing, or even the X-Wing.

2.  I won't cover it, do some quick searching and there's been quite a few posts with strategies for taking down SSD's.

3.  Yes.  There's Thrawn in Era1 in the EoTH, Thrawn in Era2 in IR, and then a Thrawn Clone later on.

[Stewart45]

Okay, thanks for the info,

[Pali]

A quick answer to your #2: there are four main tactics.  1) fighter/bomber spam, 2) lure them over your ion cannons, 3) turn around the SSD by making it chase something small and drop your fleet in its rear arc, or 4) focus on ground defense and avoid the SSDs with your ships until you catch them in a vulnerable position.  1 and 3 don't work as well if they've got a fleet with them, while 2 and 4 are more passive strategies and a bit harder to make happen when you want to.

Understand that these things aren't meant to go down easy.  I've taken out SSDs in era 1 without losing a ship more than once, usually by combining 1, 2 and 3 above, but most of the time you are going to take losses killing them.  Plan for that.

[Stewart45]

Yeah I appreciate the challenge but I was a bit.. lost on how to destroy them without losing an entire fleet. Thanks for the advice I am beginning to think its mandatory for Ion cannons to be on every system now lol

[Pali]

Two last bits of advice - hero units like Ackbar can make killing an SSD much easier, but if they get in range of its guns, expect the SSD to focus fire on them and, even if already damaged, be capable of killing them quickly.  Drop your heroes in last, preferably somewhere hard for the SSD to maneuver towards.  Lastly, if you can't separate them from their fleets, try hit and run tactics to whittle down those fleets.  SSDs take up a huge space on the battlefield, and many support ships will be placed largely on their own.  Drop in a few Mon Cals on that ISD all by its lonesome, kill it, then retreat before the SSD can turn to engage you.  Keep doing this and it won't have a fleet for long.

[Stewart45]

Yeah... I learned just how Vulnerable Ackbar can be to a SSD, RIP buddy. But that is what I will be trying to do. I do have one more question though, in some of my attacks I will have organzed my fleet into control groups and just I am setting out SURPRISE Fleet of Red Star Destroyers behind me! They rarely do any damage but, Who are they? What do they want? How are they appearing out of now where?

[kucsidave]

they are a raid fleet which does not belong to anyone and attack everyone in sight. It always contains ships from one of the factions not participating in the battle.
Their destruction does not bring harm to anyone, but if you can catch the warning message in the beginning of a battle you can get out of their way and they can weaken the enemy's defenses or attack forces. I can not count how much they saved my skin, but if you defend be careful. They are going for the shipyard. They just attack everything in their way there.

[Pali]

I love the raid fleets.  Only downside is that they are a bit too easy to use against the AI in most situations, but they give a nice degree of extra randomness to battles and can be an unpleasant (in a good way) kick in the ass if you get sloppy or lazy on fleet deployment.

[Stewart45]

Ahhhh, raiders eh? That is actually pretty interesting. So I just just get out of their way and let them fight their way through the enenmy's defenses you say? I think its about time I see some ISD Vs ISD for once.

Thanks for all the answers guys its really helping me understand how to play this and therefore helping me get into it.