Strategy ?

[funspy66]

Has someone won the war in a single player game against the Empire or against the Alliance in the hardest mode?
Which Strategy was successful?
Thanks in advance for tips.

[Aranador]

Sure. Biggest strategy of all, learn how to loyalty cascade flip a whole sector through use of missions. The AI simply can not handle it. Also get used to having a 'prison' barge that you keep in hyperspace 95 pct of the time, and stuff every enemy hero you capture in there, never to be seen again. This game is all about the heroes, so deny them to your opponent.
Winning with Rebels is generally easier, thanks to Luke rapidly becoming an OP monster - as Empire, you need to be very careful not to accidentally power up Luke - keep Vader away from him, and stack a ton of stuff with the Emperor so you can overpower the farm boi.

[Thorbalt]

Granted iv never tried this on hard mode, because i saw that middle just gave you more to start with (which is easier...) and nothing else changed. pick half the galaxy to take, and take EVERY PLANET on that half. ESPECIALLY the rims. make sure each sector has a few con yards on one planet for production later on (day 400+) and make sure you have at least 3 planets somewhere for nothing but shipyards, and at least 2 for troops

once you finally have all the groundwork down (yes its a pain taking troops down to every rim planet but its so worth it), hand production over to the droid and watch the resources pile up. Do it in stages though, because if you run out of your refined materials things stall and take far longer than they should

then just build up one super fleet and a few sector fleets for fights. imperals should usually use vics for sector fleets with a spare fighter bay (escort) and a lancer or two, rebs gotta wait for the mon. if you do HQ only, just start glassing every red planet you see to the point that it cant hold a building at all and start your sweep and eventually get the win

and personally i never shield planets that dont have production because its easier to let them take them and just blow them up from the sky...and if you dont have the sector already when you do that you get a nice people like you boost

[Tymgosi]

Are we talking AI or multiplayer? Because if you're playing AI, then it's easy to win on Hard from the get-go, as long as you've got a decent fleet.

So here comes the wordiness (this should probably be a guide, but oh well). Let's assume you're playing the Rebellion.

Game start!

Listen to your 3PO for a minute, he's actually telling you some stuff you need to know. The biggest one is to know which systems are under military control. This is especially important if you're doing it in the Core systems (the 10 sectors that have all their planets displayed from the start).

So if you have a world that is at least 50% yours, but under military control, you want to liberate the world. You've got 2 options: by sabotage, and by force. Sabotage means you deploy your infiltrators, including your commanders, to destroy any ground forces. You can do this from your fleet in orbit around the planet (which saves transit time) or from an adjacent planet. The advantage to this is that you're only blowing up the stuff you WANT gone, while the disadvantage is it's slower, and allows for the enemy to reinforce the situation. Sabotage is also nice if you're trying to level up Luke's Jedi talents prior to Dagobah (he needs 20-25 "Luke Skywalker Force Growth messages to be considered a Jedi Knight when he comes back from Dagobah. Destroying by force is a simpler option: You bring in the fleet and tell it to "Target Military Targets". Now, it should be pointed out that A) in the event of shields, or worse yet, guns, your bombardment might fail (or have your ships destroyed) and B) even if you target only military, you might get collateral damage that hurts your reputation among the other planets. So if you're going to use your fleet this way, you may choose to destroy the guns and shields with Sabotage, which means you don't get to use them if you win the planet. The good news is that brute forcing a planet like this is FAST and lets you move on to liberate other worlds. Done right, you can flip an entire sector with 1 planet. Sometimes it takes several planets, but pretty quick the sector is yours.

Now note that in the case of a sector being completely under your control, the AI is likely to do a couple of things. First, it will find a defenseless planet and bombardment spam the living ♥♥♥♥ out of it. If your fleet is halfway across the galaxy, then that planet is screwed hard. After my initial buildup of ships, I tend to deploy 12 X-wing squadrons at any given planet as a deterrent. I have found that 12 X-wings will force the computer to flee rather than fight against ANY solo capital ship except for a Super Star Destroyer (and they'll win against the SSD if it doesn't have any fighters), and that dozen can handle small fleets as well (2 Victory Star Destroyers and a Carrack for example will leave roughly about the time the TIEs die, you can even opt to have half your fighters go straight for the Carrack and damage or cripple it). But if it's a massive or well-prepared fleet, don't hesitate to bug out.

Now that we've gone over some basics of the hearts of the people, let's go over some finer details about working with them. The first step you need to do is get Mon Mothma working. Wherever she is, mission her for Recruitment and keep her going at it until she complains about no one else being available. Check out the planet your HQ is at. IF there is blue squares free, let's use them. The HQ almost ALWAYS has a construction yard on it. I find it's very, very useful to max out that planet with additional yards. IF the planet has a shipyard or training facility, I will focus on shipyards over construction (due to needing a lot for my X-wing defenders). On Yavin, move Solo, Luke, Leia and whomever else is a named hero (no special forces) to the planet that is closest to the circuit you want to flip. They'll get there fast, and upon arrival, you can have Han, Luke and Leia engage in recruitment too. Now, I usually keep them there only as long as it takes me to pull my fleet together, but never longer than day 100. The good news is that after I deploy the fleet afterwards, I keep Leia recruiting and have likely completed recruitment by day 200. Make sure to assign an Admiral, and a Commander (if you have any Alliance carriers).

My initial shipyard queue is simple: Bulk Transports. I typically pick my HQ world as my target, and after loading them with troops, solo deploy them to various Rim worlds. An unoccupied world can be "colonized" with a single troop division, and then can be "populated" with Mines, Refineries or construction buildings. But I only do 1 building of the Bulk Transports at first: when it hits day 98, all my initial transports are made (this means that if I have a 2x or 3x shipyard at the start, I have it produce 2 or 3 Transports). I also use my Training facilities to create enough troops to stockpile the fleet at the same time. After that initial build, I use my Shipyards for X-wings to defend.

As your Transports explore the Rim, you're looking in particular for worlds that are unpopulated and have a lot of energy (blue squares) to them. Ideally speaking, you want a world with 8 or more energy for Construction or Training, 10+ for Shipyards. When you find one, put down 2 Shields and a Gun, then max it out with your construction facility of choice. Yes, you lose some time due to the distance of the planet from the fighting, but the AI doesn't tend to do recon TOO much early-mid, and by the time you reach mid-game, you've probably got the AI so hampered it can't spend time on recon. If you have construction yards idle (hit Ctrl-9), have them send out Mines and Refineries to the smaller worlds, with a slight edge towards refineries (I think the mines produce 8 at a time, but the refineries can only process 6).

When it comes to Adar Tallon, I tend to favor him doing Construction research. I find the Advanced facilities are more important than the ship designs, most of which I don't use after get the Mon Cal Cruiser and the CC-7700. I would note that the Bulk Cruiser is largely useless after it starts to get damaged: the repair times on it are insane, and once it's damaged you'll probably end up losing it in due time if you don't take enough time to get it moderately restored. My fleet tends to run some Mon Cals, Corellian Corvettes (but not the Gunships, the weapon advantage is better on the Corvettes to warrant the longer build time) and a CC-7700.

I would point out that the computer does NOT tend to develop unpopulated worlds like this, but it will court "splinter worlds" that already have a population (IE, they have the Diplomacy option).

The Empire route is similar, but has somewhat different focus here and there. Vader I keep out as a Diplomat as much as anything.

And I will mention that this is not going to be that useful against a human. I'm sure there are better folks who can help you with that, if you're looking to PVP.

[BLAM!]

Heyho!
I prefer the Empire and played alot of Hours!
I played with all Difficults and had no problems to Rule the Galaxy!

I build always:
3 Factory Planets (10 Factories+3 Shields+3 Legions)
1 Training Facility for my Legions (10 TF+3 Shields+3 Legions)
4 Shipyards ( 14 Shipyards+3 Legions+18 Tie Fighters on the Ground+1 Super Stardestroyer +9 Stardestroyers!

Every Shipyard builds immedatly Tie-Fighters...and i try to build 3 Carrier Ships for my Fleet!

Coruscant: 10 Factories+3 Shields+1 Deathstar Deflector Shield
3 Legions of all Troop and Fighter Types (30 Tie-Fighter)
3 Troops of all Special Units
A good General and Commander
1 Deathstar + 1 Super Stardestroyer + 9 Stardestroyer + 3 Intercept Cruisers

I send alot of Diplomatics to 1 Planet to rise the Loyality fast!
I attack Planets owned by the Rebells with a High Loyality to Empire first(save+load / before Sabotage/Bombing)

I send alot of Probes+ and fast Corvettes to the Outer Rim...and claim/colonize every Planet there!

Space Combat: Easy Tactic...if the Enemy Fleet is strong i play manually first...i dont move my Big Ships and all of my TieFighters a guarding them first...until the fast enemy Fighters arrives my Fleet i let attack all of my Big Ships and Fighters the Enemy Fighter Groups One by One!
The Rebells always retreats after all of their Fighter are destroyed!

For the Empire!

Ps:The Higher Diffcult dosnt make the AI better...ok they build faster Ships and so on...but most Important Thing is...the Events are only negative for you...means...you will loose Mines and Raffineries by Accidents and the Planet-Slots too!
After Hours of playing on High Difficult...i had alot of Dead Planets...means less Ressources for your Empire!
Not Funny!
Harharhar!