Star Wars: Empire at War is a very unappreciated game for reason which I can't fathom, because it's one of the few Star Wars games that I really liked. There was the Jedi Knight games, Battlefront and KOTOR, and then SW:EaW comes out and bombs anything that Galactic Battlegrounds had out of the water with its mixed space/land battles. If you never saw Galactic Battlegrounds, you're lucky and you aren't missing out much. It's Age of Empires II set in Star Wars down to the last detail.
This is pretty much from the Galactic Conquest view, but there is a Skirmish mode available that changes a few things such as Level prices.
The Galactic Conquest is basically a campaign where you fight for control of around 46 of Star Wars canon planets and when you win, either by an objective or wiping the other side out, you're shown a cool little cutscene. Alternatively, you lose and see a cool little cutscene. Either way, it's cool. Each planet has 1-5 Space Station building slots to build a Level 1-5 Space Station, and a number of Land slots to build so many buildings, around 3-8 I believe. All planets can hold an infinite amount of Space units, as far as I know, and ten ground units. A planetary assault maximum is 10 units at a time, but depends on drop points on the planet, while a defender will always have 10, plus garrison units which means that a defender with a lot of garrison troop-making units is very hard to take control of without a lot of intelligence (luckily the Empire gets Probe Droids. The Rebels can rely on Threepio and Artoo I suppose, but they aren't as good as a Probe Droid) for a good balance of the right units. On most planets expect a 1-1 loss minimum, and a 5-1 loss maximum. The defender will get free units for that battle only if there's a Barracks, Light Factory, Heavy Factory or Advanced Factory on the planet. The attacker will also have to land all but their starting unit individually. This is only a problem on one planet where the enemy is upon you almost instantly, and just a little niggle, but it cost me over 20,000 credits to take that planet from Rebellion control...
SW:EaW has two factions, the Empire and the Rebellion, and it's two campaigns focus on the preludes to A New Hope, showing the Empire's movements, how the Rebels get their X-Wings, all that kind of stuff. It's good and in no way does it tie us to the failure of the prequal trilogy.
The difference of these factions is simple; The Empire focuses on military might, whereas the Rebellion focuses slightly more on the sneaky side of things. Death Star, Star Destroyers, Victory class Star Destroyers, Broadside Cruisers, Interdictors, Acclamators, Tartans, TIE Fighters/Bombers and TIE Scouts make up their space units, although by the time you're taking over the galaxy in a galactic conquest, all you'll really have are Star Destroyers. And the Death Star. Their land forces have more units, such as hover tanks, anti-air tanks, walking artillery and TIE Maulers (TIE Fighters with tracks) in addition to their AT-STs, AT-ATs, scout bikers and Storm Troopers, and in Land Battles all of these units have their own uses and are more useful. TIE Maulers are brilliant at taking out the Rebellion's artillery and infantry because they move so fast, but they have a severe weakness against anything armoured. Hover tanks are pretty good against armour, but suffer against troops because like most real time strategy games, a missile launcher or an AT-AT blast does bugger all against a basic infantry man.
The Rebellion, however, has a larger array of ships; the Mon Calamari Cruiser, the Nebulon-B Frigate, Corellian Corvettes, X-Wings, Y-Wings, A-Wings, Z95s, as well as Corellian Gunships, Marauder Cruisers and Assault Frigate Mk IIs. The Rebels get a larger fleet size as opposed to the Empire, however the Empire gets free TIE Fighters/Bombers from Acclamators, Victory Classes and Star Destroyers, whereas the Rebellion doesn't, all Rebel Fighters having hyperspace abilities. Rebel land troops consist of Rebel soldiers, Rebel missile soldiers, T2-B light tanks which have shields and specialise in taking out AT-STs, T4-B tanks which are bigger and specialise at blowing up any Empire tank, artillery, infiltrators, Landspeeders (or Snowspeeders...), and again each of these units has its own uses. Infiltrators are snipers, whereas Landspeeders can really only be targetted by AT-ATs, Anti-air tanks and anti-air platforms, but in turn are really only effective against light vehicles).
There's also a various amount of build points scattered around each land battle which you can build an anti-tank, anti-infantry or anti-air (I believe the Rebels get something else), or a Bacta Tank, Repair Yard or a Sensor node to remove fog of war. Bombing runs can be called in if sides have a squadron of Y-Wings or a TIE-holding cruiser for Rebels and Empire respectively.
Finally, there's Turbo Laser turrets, Smugglers and Bounty Hunters that both sides have access to on certain planets, and both Field and Space Commanders that give additional Bonuses to your troops, such as more hit points while they're still alive, and the Magnapulse Cannon for the Empire that disables vehicles.
Both sides have five tech levels, and the Empire advances through these by paying 2000/4000/6000/8000 Credits for each Level in a Galactic Conquest, and each level unlocks a new technology. Level 5 really only unlocks the Death Star on a Galactic Conquest, but in Skirmish it unlocks all the most powerful units. The Rebels, however, gain new tech slowly, one at a time by using the hacking skills of Threepio and Artoo on Empire planets to gain new technologies. I can't really place what they get at Tech Level 5 other than Heroes to use in battle, but you gain access to it after pilfering all the Level 4 Technologies anyway. These Technologies cost certain amounts on different planets, so don't just go to one Empire Planet nicking all the stuff there, because you may find it cheaper else where.
That brings us to Heroes. Each Hero has abilities that they can use in a Land or Space Battle, and each Hero, like any unit, has their own weaknesses. For example, any Jedi has a severe weakness against any groups of Turrets or artillery weapon, are brilliant against troops and okay against vehicles. There's also Heroes that lower the cost of buildings and units on planets, or Heroes that add to battles in one way or another. Grand Moff Tarkin, for example, will lower a planets Research Centre cost, and can add 25% HP to ships in space battles. Some Heroes also have ground and space combat capabilities such as Han and Chewie, Darth Vader and Boba Fett. Also, there's Red Squadron which is the only squad capable of destroying the Death Star, in which case they do so after you've WON a battle that they survived in.
Don't worry. Heroes come back to life after a certain amount of time if they're killed.
In space battles space stations and a ship that's large enough have target points which you can destroy one by one to destroy the ship itself. Weapons, engines, shield generators, hangers and so on are all valid targets for bombers, whose torpedos will pass through shields, or you can bombard the shields to dust. Again, space battles have a finite balance. Star Destroyers are next to useless against Fighters, so use Tartan Cruisers or your own Fighters to kill them instead, and have your Star Destroyers target their bigger ships. Because of the limit of ships available to a space battle, you'll be able to bring other ships in once there's space for them in the battle, and they'll jump out of hyperspace, blast whatever's in range and then give you control of the ship to turn the enemy into dust.
Ultimately, Star Wars: Empire at War is in my opinion one of the best real time strategies I've ever played. Space battles I've found are definitely a lot more fun to play than land battles, but aren't as tactically flexible. The game does have its problems, such as a number of Assault Frigates being able to take on a Star Destroyer, or three Tartans taking on a Nebulon-B Frigate, but things like that don't crop up often enough to take away from the beauty that is SW:EaW, mostly because it is all about big battles, not small battles. Send in 10 Storm Trooper Squads, 4 AT-ST divisions, an AT-AT, 2 hover tank groups and an artillery division to take over a planet the enemy barely took from you, because there's nothing like marching through the planet with numerous forces ready to wipe the enemy out. I really like SW:EaW and perhaps you will as well. Or you're just too disenchanted with anything George Lucas to care about Star Wars anymore.
Darmort
This is pretty much from the Galactic Conquest view, but there is a Skirmish mode available that changes a few things such as Level prices.
The Galactic Conquest is basically a campaign where you fight for control of around 46 of Star Wars canon planets and when you win, either by an objective or wiping the other side out, you're shown a cool little cutscene. Alternatively, you lose and see a cool little cutscene. Either way, it's cool. Each planet has 1-5 Space Station building slots to build a Level 1-5 Space Station, and a number of Land slots to build so many buildings, around 3-8 I believe. All planets can hold an infinite amount of Space units, as far as I know, and ten ground units. A planetary assault maximum is 10 units at a time, but depends on drop points on the planet, while a defender will always have 10, plus garrison units which means that a defender with a lot of garrison troop-making units is very hard to take control of without a lot of intelligence (luckily the Empire gets Probe Droids. The Rebels can rely on Threepio and Artoo I suppose, but they aren't as good as a Probe Droid) for a good balance of the right units. On most planets expect a 1-1 loss minimum, and a 5-1 loss maximum. The defender will get free units for that battle only if there's a Barracks, Light Factory, Heavy Factory or Advanced Factory on the planet. The attacker will also have to land all but their starting unit individually. This is only a problem on one planet where the enemy is upon you almost instantly, and just a little niggle, but it cost me over 20,000 credits to take that planet from Rebellion control...
SW:EaW has two factions, the Empire and the Rebellion, and it's two campaigns focus on the preludes to A New Hope, showing the Empire's movements, how the Rebels get their X-Wings, all that kind of stuff. It's good and in no way does it tie us to the failure of the prequal trilogy.
The difference of these factions is simple; The Empire focuses on military might, whereas the Rebellion focuses slightly more on the sneaky side of things. Death Star, Star Destroyers, Victory class Star Destroyers, Broadside Cruisers, Interdictors, Acclamators, Tartans, TIE Fighters/Bombers and TIE Scouts make up their space units, although by the time you're taking over the galaxy in a galactic conquest, all you'll really have are Star Destroyers. And the Death Star. Their land forces have more units, such as hover tanks, anti-air tanks, walking artillery and TIE Maulers (TIE Fighters with tracks) in addition to their AT-STs, AT-ATs, scout bikers and Storm Troopers, and in Land Battles all of these units have their own uses and are more useful. TIE Maulers are brilliant at taking out the Rebellion's artillery and infantry because they move so fast, but they have a severe weakness against anything armoured. Hover tanks are pretty good against armour, but suffer against troops because like most real time strategy games, a missile launcher or an AT-AT blast does bugger all against a basic infantry man.
The Rebellion, however, has a larger array of ships; the Mon Calamari Cruiser, the Nebulon-B Frigate, Corellian Corvettes, X-Wings, Y-Wings, A-Wings, Z95s, as well as Corellian Gunships, Marauder Cruisers and Assault Frigate Mk IIs. The Rebels get a larger fleet size as opposed to the Empire, however the Empire gets free TIE Fighters/Bombers from Acclamators, Victory Classes and Star Destroyers, whereas the Rebellion doesn't, all Rebel Fighters having hyperspace abilities. Rebel land troops consist of Rebel soldiers, Rebel missile soldiers, T2-B light tanks which have shields and specialise in taking out AT-STs, T4-B tanks which are bigger and specialise at blowing up any Empire tank, artillery, infiltrators, Landspeeders (or Snowspeeders...), and again each of these units has its own uses. Infiltrators are snipers, whereas Landspeeders can really only be targetted by AT-ATs, Anti-air tanks and anti-air platforms, but in turn are really only effective against light vehicles).
There's also a various amount of build points scattered around each land battle which you can build an anti-tank, anti-infantry or anti-air (I believe the Rebels get something else), or a Bacta Tank, Repair Yard or a Sensor node to remove fog of war. Bombing runs can be called in if sides have a squadron of Y-Wings or a TIE-holding cruiser for Rebels and Empire respectively.
Finally, there's Turbo Laser turrets, Smugglers and Bounty Hunters that both sides have access to on certain planets, and both Field and Space Commanders that give additional Bonuses to your troops, such as more hit points while they're still alive, and the Magnapulse Cannon for the Empire that disables vehicles.
Both sides have five tech levels, and the Empire advances through these by paying 2000/4000/6000/8000 Credits for each Level in a Galactic Conquest, and each level unlocks a new technology. Level 5 really only unlocks the Death Star on a Galactic Conquest, but in Skirmish it unlocks all the most powerful units. The Rebels, however, gain new tech slowly, one at a time by using the hacking skills of Threepio and Artoo on Empire planets to gain new technologies. I can't really place what they get at Tech Level 5 other than Heroes to use in battle, but you gain access to it after pilfering all the Level 4 Technologies anyway. These Technologies cost certain amounts on different planets, so don't just go to one Empire Planet nicking all the stuff there, because you may find it cheaper else where.
That brings us to Heroes. Each Hero has abilities that they can use in a Land or Space Battle, and each Hero, like any unit, has their own weaknesses. For example, any Jedi has a severe weakness against any groups of Turrets or artillery weapon, are brilliant against troops and okay against vehicles. There's also Heroes that lower the cost of buildings and units on planets, or Heroes that add to battles in one way or another. Grand Moff Tarkin, for example, will lower a planets Research Centre cost, and can add 25% HP to ships in space battles. Some Heroes also have ground and space combat capabilities such as Han and Chewie, Darth Vader and Boba Fett. Also, there's Red Squadron which is the only squad capable of destroying the Death Star, in which case they do so after you've WON a battle that they survived in.
Don't worry. Heroes come back to life after a certain amount of time if they're killed.
In space battles space stations and a ship that's large enough have target points which you can destroy one by one to destroy the ship itself. Weapons, engines, shield generators, hangers and so on are all valid targets for bombers, whose torpedos will pass through shields, or you can bombard the shields to dust. Again, space battles have a finite balance. Star Destroyers are next to useless against Fighters, so use Tartan Cruisers or your own Fighters to kill them instead, and have your Star Destroyers target their bigger ships. Because of the limit of ships available to a space battle, you'll be able to bring other ships in once there's space for them in the battle, and they'll jump out of hyperspace, blast whatever's in range and then give you control of the ship to turn the enemy into dust.
Ultimately, Star Wars: Empire at War is in my opinion one of the best real time strategies I've ever played. Space battles I've found are definitely a lot more fun to play than land battles, but aren't as tactically flexible. The game does have its problems, such as a number of Assault Frigates being able to take on a Star Destroyer, or three Tartans taking on a Nebulon-B Frigate, but things like that don't crop up often enough to take away from the beauty that is SW:EaW, mostly because it is all about big battles, not small battles. Send in 10 Storm Trooper Squads, 4 AT-ST divisions, an AT-AT, 2 hover tank groups and an artillery division to take over a planet the enemy barely took from you, because there's nothing like marching through the planet with numerous forces ready to wipe the enemy out. I really like SW:EaW and perhaps you will as well. Or you're just too disenchanted with anything George Lucas to care about Star Wars anymore.
Darmort
