Star Wars:Empire at War Beginner Guide (Space)

A starters guide to Empire At War.

Introduction

This is a guide to help you in Empire At War, A RTS game with a learning curve, This guide will hopefully dull that learning curve and make the game easier to play the first few times.

Factions: Galactic Empire

The Galactic Empire is the first faction in Empire At War, It is easier to play on for the first few sections of the Imperial Campaign or Galactic Conquest matches than the Rebel Alliance because its factions focus on damage, Every Imperial unit is stronger than every Rebel unit of the same class above the Easy difficulty, This isnt the case on Easy though. The main feature of the Empire is, In space battles, Thier fighters an bombers come free with 3 ships, The Acclamator, Victory cruisers and Imperial Star Destroyers. They do, however, lack an anti-vehicle infantry unit as the Rebels have.

Imperial theme, Because why not?

Factions: Rebel Alliance

The Rebel Alliance is the second major faction in Empire At War, And in my opinion, Stronger than the Empire. The Rebels' major faction bonus is, Most indigenous species on planets support you over the Empire, They can be used as fodder or to sneakily capture Reinforcement points, The Rebels have to construct each Fighter squadron on controlled worlds, The Rebels focus on speed and defense to escape or to last longer in battles of attrition, These powers cost weapon damage though.

Rebellion theme, For Immersion purposes.

Fighters/Bombers

Your fighters are one of the most useful units in the game, They should be most numerous in your fleets, As they have two jobs, Destroy Enemy fighters and destroy enemy bombers, Ineffective against anything larger, Especially Corvettes.

Bombers are your best freinds, They are capable of destroying Hard Points on enemy Frigates and Capitial Ships, Even when thier shields are still active, But are extremely vulnerable against fighters and Corvettes

Rebel Fighter: Z95-Headhunter (Later you recieve X wings)
Rebel Bomber: Y-Wing

Imperial Fighter: TIE Fighter
Imperial Bomber: TIE Bomber

Corvettes

Corvettes are your anti-fighter and bomber units in space, They are small and fast, But also weak, They can dispatch enemy fighters easily and bombers to a lesser extent, But arent effective against anything larger.

There are space artillery units that also come under the Corvette class, These are effective against heavier craft such as Frigates, Capital ships and Space stations if you place them at a distance, However, If smaller enemy craft come too close, Its better to just abandon them to die rather than save them.

Rebel Corvettes: Corellian Corvette, Corellian Gunship
Rebel Space Artillery: Marauder Cruiser

Imperial Corvette: Tartan Patrol Cruiser
Imperial Space Artillery: Broadside Cruiser

Frigates

Frigates are your medium sized craft that substitute for Capital Ships until later in the game,They are costly, But effective, Rebel Frigates are typically sturdier and stronger than thier Imperial counterparts, but cannot spawn fighters like Imperial Frigates can, However, Imperial Frigates have a "Hangar" Hard point, Disable it to prevent more fighters and bombers spawning.

The Imperials also have Interdictor cruisers, which prevent enemy lightspeed retreats until the cruiser is destroyed or the Gravity Well Generator is disabled, Note that these cruisers cannot defend themselves well.

Rebel Frigates: Nebulon-B, Assualt Frigate

Imperial Frigate: Interdictor, Acclamator, Victory cruiser

Capital Ships

These ships are your big guns late-game, One or two of these with fighter support can destroy enemy fleets of smaller craft with ease, They are very slow, But thier firepower more than makes up for it, However, Bombers are thier Achilles Heel, They are small and fast enough to evade the ships weapons and destroy thier weapons for Frigates to finish the job, The Rebel Capital ship lacks a Sheild Generator on the exterior, Forcing Imperial units to take the shields down to attack the ship, The Imperial Capital Ship spawns around 10 fighter and bomber squadrons and replenishes them regularly.

Rebel Capital Ship: Mon Calamari Cruiser (Viscount Class)

Imperial Capital Ship: Imperial Star Destroyer

Defensive Tactics

Some tactics to name a few are:

"Wither on the vine": Split your forces up, Leave some to defend your space station (If you have one) or have them search the map, When they find the enemy, Move your other force behind the enemy to destroy artillery, support ships and to surprise bigger craft by destroying thier engines.

"He who defends everything, Defends nothing": Leave a small garrison of land and space units at controlled planets, If the enemy attacks them, Chances are, Your units will die, But the enemy will be weakened, After the battle, Send more units to replace lost ones, Or have your bigger fleets retake the planet.

"Borderline Defense" (Skirmish Battles): Upgrade your space station to level 5 ASAP, Build your fleet, Take Asteroid Mining facilites on your half of the map and wait for the enemy to attack you, Once thier fleet is decimated, Move on thier space station and destroy it.

Offensive Tactics

Rush Strategy: Build your fleet with as much Frigates and Capital ships as you can, And move on enemy planets, After you take one, Replenish them and move on to the next one. (This is a risky tactic, but pays off if it works)

Raiding: Send small space forces to whittle an enemy down enough that your bigger fleets can mop up without horrific casualties, This works well on AI, But not against Human players.

Suicide Fleets: Build a fleet of one unit, Usually frigates and send them against a heavily defended world, You generally wont succeed, But they will be weak enough for your diverse fleets to capture thier planet.

Thats all

This guide is a work in progress for now, I will update it with picture and such as soon as I have more time to do so.

[ShadowBladeSaber]

First message of 2024

[HissingCylinder]

first message of 2023 whats up gang

[Matt King]

Third message of 2021

[seanpatrick26]

Second message of 2021

[Calamitasium]

the amazingm77 you'd either double click or control + click a fighter to select every of that specific fighter type on your screen.

[theamazingm77]

How to select just fighters/bombers in a space battle?

[Lany]

"Every Imperial unit is stronger than every Rebel unit of the same class above the Easy difficulty"

This is just plain wrong. The single one unit that this applies to is the comparison of Tie-Bomber to Y-Wing. Nebulons shred Acclamators, Assault Frigates shred Vics, ISDs don't eben get to damage the health of a Mon Cal. What imperial units have is hangars that make bringing fighters easier. But "because its factions focus on damage" is just wrong, sorry to be so plain here.

[foulfowl129]

Third Message of 2020.
I just bought this game again after playing it for hours and hours as a wee lad when it came out. I love the store and game dev choices that seem forgotten now. good VA choices. scripting. a couple really unique and risky decisions in balancing/campaign and the influences to beaccurate and fun, not "balanced" to the point of being boring. Hope you guys can point me to cool workshop mods? maybe a third faction. unofficial patch for all the campaign glitches.

[Weebazor]

second message of 2020

[Sops]

First message of 2020