I love this game (had it back in the day). But once you get the hang of it and get a few wins under your belt, it is not that much of a challenge, even on hard. Any tips for giving the AI a boost? Are there any mods for the game? The only thing I can think of is maybe not taking any action for the first 50 or even 100 days to give the AI a head start. Any other ideas?

I know exactly what you mean. Unfortunately, I don't think the AI is moddable, but you may want to check swrebellion.com just to be sure. They're a community of modders for Rebellion so something like that might exist.

Otherwise, I would say giving te AI a head start is probably the only other way. Recently I've been contemplating conquering the majority of the core systems, building them up, and then leaving them denfensiveless and letting the AI have them. Not sure if that would work though.

Sadly most of my gaming time comes in small chunks, so not real conducive to multiplayer :(

Save and resume works fine, if you can agree times with the other player(s).

I've had lots of fun trying to make the game more challenging...

One idea: only build craft that are in the movies and/or x-wing/tie-fighter games.

So, Empire can build Super Star Destroyers, Star Destroyers, Victory destroyers, escort carriers, and carrack cruisers. (or if only going just by movies, star destoyers and super star destroyers, plus you cannot build any tie defenders)

While rebels can build Corellian cruisers, medium transports, Nebulon-B's, and Mon Calamari cruisers. (This type of play is much more difficult for the rebellion, obviously, since the computer will still be building all ships)


Another challenge is trying to build something from the EU. For instance, I played a game once and only built Dreadnaughts - trying to get to 200 of them. This would emulate the Katana Fleet from the Thrawn trilogy series. I think I got up to about 150 of them before I ran low on resources. :)