Wow another great Star Wars title that I thought was lost in time! Thanks GOG

Word of advice: when you get to build a Death Star, be sure to stack it with anti X-wing repellent if you don't want to see your bazillion credit investment blown up into tiny metal pieces

I played this game once. It was awful.

Completely wrong. Rebellion is not really a 4x, though it may look like one : limited research (mostly new ships) and limited development (mostly factories or defenses), not really about "map painting" but more raiding to break the opponent's capabilities (trapping the enemy fleet, bombing their main facilities...), special operations and spying are very important (especially if you are the rebel). The goal is to take out the enemy HQ and to capture the 2 "main characters" of the enemy (Vador/Palpatine or Luke/Mon Mothma)

The game is strongly asymetric :
- The Empire has big, powerful ships (the imperial player starts with several "Imperial" and "Victory" destroyers, which can steamroll any early game rebel cruiser) but very poor "disposable" fighters, very good troops, a strong presence in the core sectors at the start of the game with several manufactureing centers, most of its characters are very good military leaders with a sprinkling of bounty hunters/assassins, and Vader is Death incarnate. They're good at controlling territories and trampling opposition in direct battle.
- The Alliance has very dangerous fighters, inexpensive but weak troops with poor leaders, a hidden and mobile HQ, they can very easily expand in the outer rim, their heroes are mostly spies and commando types that allow them to harass the Empire and strike its leaders, and Luke starts slow, but becomes a powerhouse in the later game if he survives one encounter with Vader.

Though it can vary, of course. At higher difficulty levels, the AI controlled early Alliance Fleet is not an easy target practice for your destroyers anymore, especially with 12 squadrons of X and Y wings to support them ^^

Thank for the explanation. I only saw this game in pcgamer very long time ago and never had a chance to play it so completely forgot about the gameplay mechanics description.

Thanks for the explanation! Sounds interesting. I'll wishlist it for later. :D

I have to agree with nobodyiknow, it mostly boils down to how you won't understand how the missions you send your agents on and the stuff you are building affect your future progress the first couple of times you play that make it difficult (also it is an old game so expect a not particular intuitive interface), although both sides have companion droids that help new players decide what to do next.
It plays a lot like a 4X like others have said but with some differences: You have an overview of the Star Wars galaxy that you can choose the size (from small with just the core worlds like Coruscant and Aldeeran to a gigantic with the different systems and the outer rim that you will probably be familiar from the movies and books), you get to decide what to build on the planets you control, recruit new agents and build armies and fleets. You can either take control of planets by brute force or send agents to take on either acts of Diplomacy or create unrest... or just build a Death Star and blow it to smithereens (that would either make people in the same system grow afraid of you and join the Empire or cause unrest in more distant planets and shift them to the Rebellion). There's a lot of details that I can't remember but that influence the game like technology research, Jedi/Sith discovery and training, major character events (like Luke Skywalker going off to train with Yoda).
Also you get a lot of Expanded Universe planets, characters and ships from Timothy Zahn's works and the like so that's an added bonus if you are a fan.
On the bad side, it is an old game so the space battles haven't aged that well when compared to, for example, Empire at War and the controls were clunky as hell. Also, the land battles/invasions are auto-resolved (no RTS battles or anything like that) and it can be a pain having to constantly change speed since the game is real time and you start to have a large Empire/Rebellion to manage.

Ah yes I had completely forgotten about how much I liked the inherent asymmetry that most of the star wars game fail to translate well into their gameplay. SW Rebellion did it very well.

Is there a tutorial?

Not iin the game itself, but there are some online strategy guides:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/198776-star-wars-rebellion/faqs/19754

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyREZPzA8s8

also

http://www.cheatcc.com/pc/sg/star_wars_rebellion.html

a better Let's Play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqQOORCO-sU&list=PL9BAFE9269D9A4A10

I'm tempted on this one too... :P

It seems that we will have help from droids to guide us
for general purpose development.

Argh, why can't I skip the briefing from the droids...... you could on the old version. This is unbelievable annoying if I want to restart for a different config of ships, planets etc.

A droid explains the controls to you at the start of each game (with an option to shut its mouth, praise the Force! You'll learn to hate C3PO's voice), though it's a little fuzzy about some aspects, like what is the difference between mission personnel et support personnel when you launch a mission (You have to assign heroes and special forces to both roles, but the way support personnel affects the survival chances of the rest is rather nebulous)

That's great but does he do it in Bocce? And I hope it's not a protocol droid, I have no need for a protocol droid!

It IS a protocol droid. Slimy C3PO or arrogant Imperial toady, pick your poison. Both are annoying.
Although during the game itself after the briefing, you can tell C3PO to shut up, and try to understand R2D2's messages on your own.

Oh oh. Gee, I'm confused. Did the game company Rebellion make Star Wars Rebellion? Because, you know, it says Rebellion and we wouldn't want to get confused. I guess Rebellion will have to take Lucasfim/Disney to court and get this all straightened out like they did with Stardock and Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.

The fuck is this thing ?