Getting off on the right foot

[Shadue]

Ok, so you find yourself at the head of the Empire, in control over a few planets with alot of work todo... where do you start?

 

Is there certain ground buildings that you should consider manditory for all planets? i.e. barracks and light armor...

 

Should all planets have a space station? If so, should all be upgraded or only your core planets?

 

Is how do you determine what fronts are your most vulnerable in order to beef up your space and ground units on given planets... and which you are more safe to leave with a basic garisson?

 

Some help on how to get off on the right foot, and determining a strong stratigic start would be greatly appreciated.

[ImpElite]

well, your frontline planets will usually be purely for defense of the planet, like the highest level station you can get

 

And shield generator, turbolaser towers/barracks and then if you can light factory, and your core planets should be for mines/unit producers, like Byss, Yavin 4 and Geonosis are good planets to have heavy/advanced vehcle factories on, and any planets that aren't good for mines or if you don't need a light, heavy or (Emitre) Advanced factory, you can build like a Barrack only planet for garrisoning infantry or you can have it for Officer or Infiltrator Academys.

 

and for your third question, if you have indigenous forces on your side, they can turna tide in a battle if used right, never leave your faction leader (Emperor or Mon Mothma, but if you have FOC then Tyber too) not without a fleet so if your leader is on the ground stick some good troops with them and if space stick some good ships with him (or she if you're Rebel).

 

Hope that helps

[Rust_Lord]

Which ever faction you use you will get many different views on what is the best plan so be prepared for different advice and alot of it. The only time you will have a front is if you sit still and hold the line. If you continually push forward, even if your counterattacked, the enemy will be running into your advancing fleet(s). However rebels and ZC both have the ability to 'sneak attack' planets which makes them alot more fun and flexible to use AND more challenging to fight.

 

There is another thread going around about how to dominate very quickly and entails massing your forces and going on a spree of space station bashing which effectively cripples other factions. If you really want a challenge dont use this strategy otherwise you can use it to get established and a good grip on the galaxy and then back off to have a little more fun.

 

I prefer not to group all my mines together. These 'cash cows' are highly vulnerable if attacked and if taken out your economy takes too much of a hit. I personally build a mine, barracks and light factory on every planet so you spread your economy wide and always have some defence, even against raid fleets. On major planets only I may put up to three mines. On your most critical planets, Kuat, Mon Calamari etc would I install surface weaponary/shielding and leave a permanent defence fleet.

 

Space stations are equally important. Every planet sould have one and be upgraded as soon as you can afford to. They bigger the station the larger the force it can repel and the more reinforcements you receive to help you. You dont have to be so reliant on your fleets to protect your planets and can use them for other things ie conquest.

 

Use probe droids/defilers/R2 & 3PO to scout the local planets and attack the most lightly defended.

[ImpElite]

And also what he said >_>

[wedge2211]

Good insights there, Rust_Lord, though I tend to play a bit differently. I focus on a more slow, steady expansion--though I do love knocking out Rebel starbases and pulling back, leaving a squad of TIE/Scouts in place, just to whack their production centers. Just goes to show that there's no right way to win! When I play a GC as the Empire, I usually start things off by building a fair number of mines on high-income planets (often I end up with only mines on Coruscant). I also keep the Emperor in a shuttle and move him around to defray my expenses until my income can easily support big expenditures. As your frontier expands, you will only have to worry about Rebel raids on the frontline planets, so worlds well back of the front can have vulnerable buildings and still be safe. Once I have a cash stream set up, I like to focus on space defenses first and then ground defenses.

 

I try to make sure every planet has at least a level 2 station, and every frontier planet has at least a level 3 station. Some planets for natural "crossroads," for instance, Corellia sits on a number of trade routes and has a direct line to Coruscant, and I try to push the station level up higher as quickly as I can at those planets. I also like to get ahold of a number of long-range scanner stations as soon as I can, so I hear of incoming Rebel forces. In terms of space defense fleets, I make sure that at least every pair of planets connected by a trade route has a strong defense fleet. Usually when a long-range scanner picks up incoming Rebel forces, I have enough time to send the fleet along a hyperspace lane to the targeted planet before the Rebels arrive. This allows me to both maintain fewer ships dedicated to defense and to lure Rebel scum into attacking "unprotected" worlds.

 

On land, things are a bit more complicated since the Rebels have raiding abilities. I like to put barracks and light factories on every planet to make sure that there's some sort of garrison, and when SPMA-T's become available I try to keep at least one unit of them on each planet, too. It's also good to have a squad of AT-AA's around in case the Rebels raid with some speeders or some artillery. If a frontline planet has a lot of sensitive infrastructure or is getting raided a lot, I try to make sure it has a shield generator and a heavy factory, too--the garrison of 2M's can be formidable. Here's a trick: if you build a building with prerequisites, it's okay to sell the buildings you don't need any more. For example, you could have a heavy factory or a hypervelocity cannon on a planet without having a light factory--as long as the light factory is there when you start building the heavy factory, and the heavy factory is there when you start building the cannon. So sometimes I garrison worlds with a heavy factory and barracks instead of a light factory and barracks.

[Thor the Bassis]

I usually adopt a policy of "If he can't get through my space defences then he can't take my planet" although it only works playing as the rebels. As the rebels this is an excellent tactic as it not only allows you to spend almost all of your credits on space stations and fleets it also means you attack the empire in space which is your strongest battleground.

 

Another good tactic on planets like geonosis when you have control of all the planets around it is to build mines on every build slot as this gives you a massive credit boost. If any planets are taken back you can always demolish some mines and build a barracks with the extra credit you got.

 

Also a good way to take down an overelaborate empire police force that consists of lots a AT-ATs is use speeder to take them and garrison buildings down.