I only play rebels, but I have beaten the mod several times on expert. I’ve done it on 2.8 and 2.9, and I’m currently playing through on 2.9.1. I know there are many others who have done it as well. I would say that I play at the lowest galactic game speed and use pause a lot both in the galactic map and during tactical battles. The thing to keep in mind playing expert is that time is generally not on your side. The AI will outbuild you if it has as much territory as you do. You need to be aggressive right away and keep it up for the whole game (or at least until you control a lot more territory than the AI). If you find yourself unable to expand, letting time pass will generally not improve the situation. For reference, I usually have 10k income within 8 weeks or so. In my current play through I had Snunb and Ackbar at the beginning of week 6. I reached the victory screen in version 2.8 by week 17.

This is not to say the game has to be played this way. 2.9 has definitely made it harder to play as fast(I consider that a good development). But just keep in mind that as you are playing if time is passing and you aren’t doing much, the game is getting harder. Of course, sometimes you have to wait for a key unit, structure, or upgrade. But it should always be in the mindset of waiting for a trigger that will allow you to act.

Beat AI on expert as Empire on 2.9. recently Was easy for me, although I played the vanilal game before maybe 15 years ago ;)

- Agree with above, also played on low speed and paused when I could. Aggressiveness is key, don't let your fleet sit idle, go killl some space stations (scout first with the female hero you get at start) to force the AI to spend $$ to rebuild)
- Look at some playthroughs on YT or google for threads on e.g. reddit or in this forum on tips&tricks
- Play the campaign Rebs vs Imps without black sun as BS is OP right now
- Don't lose ships early
- Generally easiest as empire is to expand SW to secure the three gas planets (orb ibanna, zhar, bespin) and build tibanna gas refineries on them ASAP
- Also build ground and space mining facilities early, look for the planet descriptions that says "mines"
- Early on bunch the small fleets together into one in the core and secure the core then work your way SW with Vader and Ozzel in the fleet
- Also bunch some of your best starting troops together with Veers for ground assaults. Have Vader in orbit when you assault. Use Vader in ground assaults to kill pesky rebel airpower (use his abilities i.e. select vader then rightclick enemy aircraft)
- Use the "spread" formation for infantry to avoid losses, scout troopers are really good as they have range and firepower.
- From around week 30 Rebel raids willl start, try to have at least outposts level 1 on all important (core) planets by then so you have a chance to withstand
- always have a buffer of 2k or so credits so you can build defensive towers when raided
- Don't advance to the spacestations before all enemy major ships destroyed, lure them to you instead and be ready for them (see YT space battle guides)
- After you have secured the SW you will win although it may take some time :)
- Save often and reload to try out new tactics if new to the game
- Try to get tech levels early and build anti fighter capabilities. E.g. tonfalks, gozanti.. Later also Gladiators, they really murder corvettes.
- Babysit your venators as they have lots of fighters that will help you in space battles against hordes of rebel fighters, try to get more venators from missions when offered. And upgrade them later on when tech level permits at Kuat to get better (tie) fighters.
- target enemy bombers always with your fighters. The other small craft cannot do much damage to your capital ships.
- a Nebulon B2 is good to have in the fleet, position it well and use its jamming missile feature
- Start building trade stations early, I usually build 2,+ 2 freighters per planet (the expensive freighters)
- Build cap ships at kuat, and select a place to build infantry, up left from kuat there is a planet that gives you cheaper barracks i usually have this as my first planet to focus on infantry
- Have bemelisk stay at ground at kuat to help with production
- The occupier tank is great (!!!9 if used right to defend against raids. Position it a way back and deploy its mortar.
- Have your other administrator (bald guy) stay at the center core planet (Aargau?) and build mines there, trade posts etc. That planet only will net you some 2k credits per turn later.
- You have one more character that increases money, I usually put him at Bespin
- Late in game, I usually have Outposts L2 minimum on most worlds and have around 3 infantry producing planets plus Golan stations at my frontier plus hypervel. cannons at key worlds.

Well there is alot - I could go on the rest of the day but I hope this was the most important stuff :)

BS AI did get some nerfs in the 2.9.1 release and even though it has a few new ships they lost some others and now u have about 40-50 weeks to prepare for them before they start attacking u on a new playthrough along with the fact that they will not attack the other factions so they can be taken out early. To add to that u can also start attacking their planets within 40 weeks and they will still not attack you so u can cripple them early if wanted. The minors will only attack the player AI and wont attack the other AI's so they are not as much of a problem to the other AI. So the BS AI should not be as much of a problem as before and most of their ships can be handled with ease once u figure out how to beat them. The imps have far caps frigs and late game fighters to handle anything the BS can throw at them and u have a good economy to build big fleets to crush them. Good luck and wreck the galaxy.

I don't know of any guides, but in XML files with names like "GroundCompaniesEmpire.xml" and "SPACEUNITSFRIGATES.XML" you can adjust unit prices.