I keep getting creamed. I also can't figure out how to increase my maint capacity. I build mines and refineries, but they don't seem to add much. Any mods to "tone down" the massive imbalance the empire has in ships and men, at the beginning?

in the early game don't even bother building mines and refineries. Youll gain them as you swing new systems to your damn, dirty rebellion. It may seem counter intuitive but the early game Rebel must be aggressive

Heres a tip that works for both sides, but favors the Rebels especially in the beginning and I call it the "Liberation Bonus"

What it looks like: a sector with mostly neutrals or enemy systems with atleast one enemy system that has a lot of your side's favor and very little of the enemy (think 20/80 or better in your favor).

If you see this, get your people there ASAP. Protip: Han Solo moves extra fast as well as anyone moving with him (select multiple characters for the same move or mission using CTRL or SHIFT). Be careful on higher difficulties or after a few dozen game days have passed which would allow the enemy to garrison the planet further. Run a quick espionage mission to double check for inbound ships or troops to give yourself an idea of a timeframe for the operation

What you need to do: The enemy is holding on to that planet with its fingernails. What this means in game terms is that you must Sabotage the enemy's troops garrisoning the planet. Once theyre gone you'll get the "Liberation Bonus" which will result in a *massive* support gain not only on that planet but across the sector which will almost always cause many of the neutrals to join your side instantly. Furthermore any of enemy systems in the sector will lose favor, becoming just like the planet you initially "liberated" creating a cascade effect. Do it over and over til the sector is yours (barring any holdouts that will require a firmer hand)

Good luck, and I think this will allow you much more freedom in the beginning

play as the empire.

jk - sorry. i can't offer much advice. even though this is one of my favorite games, i've never won.

Whichever side you choose the game favors the enemy. On higher difficulties as Empire its quite strange seeing the galaxy full of Rebel planets with fleets of ships but ehh, they'll all be Green in the end

You get Maintenance Points by having *combinations* of mines and refineries. They don't have to be on the same planet, either. Maintenance Points are a one-time deal; you get (I think) 50 per combination. They aren't "used up" per say; if you scrap units or have them destroyed, that'll free them back up. There's a command for telling you how many of all of your things you have. I think it's CTRL+O or something. Look at mines, then refineries, and build whatever you have fewer of. Or ask C-3PO to do it.

Pro Tip: Set the destination of the facilities you are building from a construction yard before you decide what to build, and you can start that construction on a planet that has no more energy.

But big fleet battles don't usually happen early on.

To add to everything else said, you should usually try to avoid direct space combat confrontations with the Empire early on. Your capital ships simply aren't very good against other capital ships so the only way to deal with Victory or Imperial Star Destroyers are with your fighters since they're far superior to tie fighters which are the only fighter the Empire starts out with. The only thing you should be building with your shipyards in the early stages of the game are X-Wings. That's it, nothing else, just crank out X-Wings like crazy and use your fighter compliments to defend only your really important systems (any planet you have with a construction yard is generally most important, followed closely by planets with shipyards). Also protecting shipyards is important in the early game since you need those X-Wings for additional protection and a place for Wedge to start ship design research right away. Also remember to win as the Rebels you likely aren't going to win the game anytime soon, it's a war of attrition and the longer the game goes along the more likely things are going to be in your favor as the Rebels. Building up your infrastructure with a bunch of construction yards where you start with them and using diplomacy on planets which have production facilities will benefit you a lot so by day 100 you'll be likely to have yourself a bit of production going and some defenses established.

For playing against the AI you'll generally utilize different strategies or tactics to deal with their tendencies and how generally dumb it can be with their resources and ships, multiplayer is a much different ballgame and requires much more use of espionage to keep an eye on an opponent which is far more unpredictable than a crummy AI in single player. As the Rebels, you'll have to take calculated risks and roll with whatever results from that. Like sending characters on missions even if there's a bit of a garrison there cus you have to cause damage to the Empire in whatever way you can to set them back, or trying to sabotage a capital ship that has an admiral on board making it more likely they'll foil the mission or capture someone trying to sabotage. As the Rebels that's just how life goes.

In the beginning, it's possible you'll lose a planet to the Empire, possibly more especially if you have any planets that start out in the same system as Coruscant (usually you'll end up losing those planets fairly fast which is a stinker if they have production facilities, but that's how the game goes with random spawns). Note that only things that aren't randomized are Coruscant and Yavin and how those planets start out, outside of starting resources and facilities on those planets which are randomized for every planet in the game.

For your characters on Yavin, have Han use his Millenium Falcon mode of travel (travel time is cut in half essentially) to get him and all the other characters into the core systems as soon as possible, for things like diplomacy, recruiting, sabotage/espionage if there are Imperial planets nearby, and ship design research for Wedge. Note that special forces such as bothan spies or infiltrators can't come along for you to still receive the Millenium Falcon bonus, only characters. This ability Han has with the Millenium Falcon also applies to things like missions as well, travelling time to a planet or location you're doing a mission at is halved providing you're not using special forces like spies or infiltrators. This ability of Han is really useful for carting around important characters as well or traveling distances with him and other characters where they may be more useful and doing so in less time than traveling on a fleet.

One thing to note about Luke, whenever a mission of his gets foiled, he'll become stronger in the force and his force rating (in the hidden arbitrary number coding wise) will become marginally better. So sometimes sending him on a mission he's likely to fail but not very likely to get capture can be good for him to raise his force rating and improve his skills at a somewhat better rate than if he had succeeded. As the Alliance though you'll have to choose between recruiting and other missions for Han, Leia, and Luke at the beginning as they have multiple uses.

Generally at the start, your headquarters will be plenty safe unless it's reasonably close to Coruscant somehow. If it's on the right and/or bottom portions of the map, then you probably don't have to keep a heavy garrison there since the Empire (at least AI, for human opponents it may vary) will probably not find your hidden base for a very long time, so keeping a heavy garrison there is a moot point if the Empire doesn't even know where it is and likely won't know for a 100 days or longer. It's better to send your fighters somewhere more important in the core systems to protect an important planet, since your fighters are the best early game defense you have. Your troops unlike the imperials will be best used as garrisons to prevent sabotage/espionage missions from succeeding, and to use them in settling out rim planets. There's a trick you can use with your Headquarters to settle outer rim planets quickly and isn't too risky if there isn't much of an Imperial presence in the nearby systems. If you have a medium transport at your headquarters to start, you can plop down a troop regiment on an unsettled planet, then move your headquarters there which will give it a full support bar. This eliminates the need to have to build a facility on the planet to gain a support bar (allowing you to move the troop garrison elsewhere to settle another planet or do something else), which takes a long time to get to since you need plenty of construction yards to do that. When your headquarters leaves a planet which has a full support bar, it'll only go down a tiny bit meaning you don't have to worry about losing any planets using this trick. It's kind of cheesy and can be a bit risky against human opponents who tend to scout the out rim a bit more aggressively, but it's generally well worth it to at least do it in the same system your headquarters is in since it's the only planet the Rebels start with which is guaranteed to have a construction yard.

Using sabotage missions on things like production facilities or capital ships generally causes your opponent to be set back much more in the early game than in the mid or late game, so doing those early and often if possible is one thing you should focus and keep an eye on. It's harder to replenish or replace losses like those in the early game than it is later, like if planet were to have only 2 construction yards and you sabotage one it'll take much longer to replace that one than if a planet had say, 7 or 8 construction yards already established. Losing capital ships early in the game means that they won't be able to be replaced for at least several hundred says, since a player would have to build up an infrastructure of construction yards, then use those to build up a compliment of shipyards at a planet (or two), then patiently wait as those shipyards are shipped to whatever planet you're using as a shipyard center, then when you have enough shipyards there take the time to build a capital ship or two (and victory/imperial star destroyers are very expensive to build and take a long time, those are irreplacable ships in the early game). So while sabotaging things like mines and refineries in the early game is still a decent option, generally in muliplayer games each player doesn't start with enough manpower to have any problems with maintenance points so it would take awhile for the sabotage to add up to the point it effects your opponents plans. Speaking of missions, using capital ships as a hub for characters to perform missions (especially in systems where you don't control a planet) is essential. Just remember it's possible for your opponent to run missions on you as well, and if they run successful espionage missions they can know what you're up to. A smart player will also figure out if you are using a ship as a hub for your characters to perform missions (especially if you succeed in a mission or two your cover will be blown, so pick the more important targets first) and will possibly send in a ship to neutral planets drive it out of the system, so be wary of that possibility and stay mobile with your capital ship if you can once your character(s) return from doing a mission. Even if a ship like a Bulk Cruiser has little use in combat as they can only really take on Carrack Cruisers head to head (in terms of combat ships), they can still be useful as ships to provide a hub for characters to go on missions or move into a different system (Han is the only character who can travel faster than capital ships between planets/systems, so using extra capital ships for characters to travel around saves time). You have to get any use you can of the resources provided so you just have to improvise and realize even your capital ships will usually be used on the defensive or as a way to cart characters around. As the alliance having one or two ships (usually transports) exploring the outer rim isn't a bad idea, though it generally only pays off to settle a good deal of outer rim planets for longer games in bigger galaxy sizes.

As a mention about galaxy sizes, small galaxy sizes aren't very good or balanced for this game, as the available systems and their locations heavily benefit the Empire. There are around 5-6 on the left portion of the map and around 3 on the right side of the map. Coruscant is stationed on the left side and Yavin is stationed on the right side, so the Rebels essentially have less leeway in a smaller galaxy size both for settling planets and for having safe spots for their headquarters. For a more balanced multiplayer game, always go with medium or large sized galaxies as the number of systems is more equally split between the left and the right sides of the map. Against the AI it probably won't matter much once you learn how to exploit their tendencies and flaws, but against a human player it's best to play a balanced game.

The biggest thing to remember as the Alliance is that you'll be majorly on the defensive for a while until you research Nebulon B Frigates and Mon Calamari Cruisers along with getting the infrastructure to eventually build a few (to build capital ships in a reasonable amount of time, you'll need at least 4-5 on a planet preferably as many as you can muster). Fighters are the most important thing to build early as far as ships go and X-Wings are the only thing you should build of those (Y-Wings die too easily and aren't worth building any for that reason, X-Wings have much better survivability/maneuverability). When fighters target opposing fighters, they go after the bombers first by default for one reason or another, so Y-Wings get targeted first and tend to go down too fast for my tastes. Not that they're useless, just don't build any extra (stick to building X-Wings) and try and keep them protected in combat before sending them to work on capital ships. To take on a Victory Destroyer early you'll need around 5 X-Wings to safely repel a Victory Destroyer full of 2 tie fighters. You'll need at minimum 7-8 X-Wings to repel a fully tie loaded Imperial Star Destroyer. The only ship you have in the early game with much offensive capability are Escort Carriers, but the chances you'll start out with even one in a game are very slim and you likely won't build any since by the time you'll likely be able to you'll be building Nebulon B Frigates instead. If you do start out with an Escort Carrier though, you could try using them in conjunction with whatever Corvettes or Bulk Cruisers you have as an offensive fleet, since fighters are your greatest strength and the one way you can defeat Victory/Imperial Star Destroyers early. This means you sacrifice fighter protection somewhere else early, but as mentioned earlier as the Rebels you just have to get a feel for the calculated risks you want to take.

As for your mines and refineries issue, diplomacy is the best option as the Rebels to gain additional maintenance points with mines and refineries. They take so long to build and ship to other planets that you have to be patient and get your infrastructure of construction yards going first before ever considering building mines and refineries. Plus you shouldn't be building any capital ships for a while as the Alliance which tend to take up the most maintenance points of anything. Also remember if you try building mines and refineries early, you slow down the building of your infrastructure for other things which are more important to get going early in the game so things can snowball more later. Unless the Empire manages to take a few of your planets and you're desperate to keep your maintenance level at a reasonable number, wait a while to build any maintenance facilities. The outer rim isn't a bad place to have a few built on planets without very many production slots. The ones with more production slots are the ones where you build your production facilities in bulk and use the lesser ones to provide maintenance points.

I haven't played in years, but here's what I remember for playing Rebels.

1) You'll almost always want to clear out Yavin as fast as possible. Personally, I liked to wait until turn 2, then have my best Espionage person there do an espionage mission to Yavin itself. If they succeed, you'll be able to see how big the attack force headed for Yavin is. Unless it's puny enough for your existing defenses to beat, get everything you can out, and sacrifice the system.

2) ID the planets that are being held by the Imps under garrison. Get your best espionage people out to your nearest planets, and start sending them on espionage (and then sabotage) missions. If you can sabotage enough enemy troops, the planet will go into revolt. Keep it up until you've gotten them all, and the planet will automatically come over to your side.

3) Get Mon Mothma recruiting. Keep her with HQ, since it's a secret location for now. The faster you can get more heroes on your side, the better.

4) Research with whoever has that capability. You start with Wedge, who has the shipbuilding research capacity. Get him to your best shipyard planet, and have him researching full-time. If you were lucky enough to start with any other researchers (or Mon Mothma recruits some), use them the same. They other attributes aren't nearly as important.

5) Explore the Outer Rim sectors as much as possible. Find the places with lots of mining and lots of construction capabilities, and get set up there. I like to have one planet that has max possible construction be my primary shipyard, one be my primary troop-maker, and one be my primary construction. Anywhere that has max mine slots, build nothing but mines there. Eventually, I like to have one planet in each sector specializing in troops, one in ships, and one in construction. Everything else is mines and refineries to support.

6) Use Luke early and often. The faster he gets up to Jedi status, the better. Try to send him on missions where he's very unlikely to be captured (no sneaking into Coruscant), but avoid Vader until after he's been to Dagobah.

The alliance has a huge advantage at the start in that the Empire has a number of planets that they're holding on to only via garrisons. If you can start uprisings on these planets you'll be able to swing entire sectors to your side, within a hundred days. Run a diplomacy mission in that sector for political support, and have Han run sabotage missions with some spec ops or whatever.

so far as mantinence points goes, i put the droids on upkeep for that and i've never had a problem with it. same with planetary garrisons, it's something i don't need to think about during the war.

The rebels are much better at diplomacy then the Empire. Bring a few neutral worlds to your side with lots of resources and give them shields and guns ASAP to keep them safe if they are out of reach or your fleets. A planet with 2 shields and 1 gun battery with a few troops is a tough nut to crack.

This is one of the few SW games I could never beat back in the day, on any difficulty. Probably in part to my total nubishness in strategy games. In fact I lost numerous times playing as both Imperials and Rebels, but I kept playing over and OVER.

It was kind of funny, because I started out playing the game constantly as the Rebels with loss after loss, but played it for HOURS on end. Then I thought, "What the heck am I doing, being an Imperial must be a cake walk, right!?" Nah, got my ass handed to me and Coruscant eventually was invaded to my astonishment.

What I remember about playing as the alliance is evacuate Yavin immediately. Have Mon Mothma start recruiting outer rim planets asap. Once you have an outer rim sector pick one of the planets to make a strong hold base out of. This is a term I use meaning it's a place where I try to build up a ton of defenses and have a massive troop presence. Preferably a planet that can support a shipyard because your going to need space defenses as well. Build shields, ion cannons, and turbo lasers on the planet that is home to your official base. Also stack up your defenses here. Once you have two major planets established enjoy yourself for a bit and recruit, harass the imps, and incite uprisings on the planets the imps have garrisoned. Try to keep at least two large fleets as the imps will leave you alone after you initially punch them in the mouth, for lack of a better term, but then out of nowhere they will counter punch with a huge force lol.

The bonus can also be had in other ways. If you have a fleet over a planet, bombard it so that ONLY enemy troops are removed, and then LEAVE before the gametime advances another day, the whole sector usually gets a bonus in your favour, even if the place you just bombarded is completely supporting the enemy.

Beware though that if any non-military facilities die in the bombardment, you instantly get the opposite effect, or worse. The randomizer for this resets every day however so "save/load/wait for next day to try again without a PR disaster" can be done if you really need to improve your situation.
I sometimes use it to quickly take over 2-3 sectors, after which point i don´t use it again, and when i do that, i usually also do what is needed to switch a few sectors to the enemy player(like invading and leaving an already hostile planet, or bombarding civillian targets).

To add to the above, I'd also say it's worthwhile building one or two production hubs on the outer rim - start with a construction world, then build a ship-building planet and (maybe) a few troop production facilities (generally, as Rebels I don't really need much in the way of conventional troop units until the mid to late game). The Empire, as computer, doesn't really know what to do with these worlds when they find them, so you should be fairly safe.

I'd also send Leia and Han to the Coruscant system straight away on a diplomacy mission to any un-aligned planets. It's useful maintaining at least one world in each system as a staging ground for missions. The emperor is also the empire's main recruiter, so any research will generally be taking place in this system, but not necessarily on Coruscant. A few choice abductions can slow that down a lot.

Corellian Corvettes can't deal with capital ships, but they mop the floor with early imperial fighters (and have basic bombarding capabilities). Send them on hit and run missions to bleed the empire of resources, but don't do general bombardment if you've got planets in the system (You can however run sabotage missions out of them, and when you're above an enemy planet those run really quickly)

Don't try and abduct Vader unless you've got overwhelming odds.

Use decoys heavily on missions, especially to protected systems. For late-game Coruscant missions you'll need at least 20 decoys to breach their defences.

Don't bombard planets with more than two gencore shields and any guns, at least until you get the Bulwark cruiser late game. With that said, if you have to, B-Wings and Y-wings add to your bombardbment capabilities. My impression is that a carrier with y-wings will give you better bombardment than anything else in the early game, but I could be wrong.

If you have to mix it up with star destroyers in the early game, Y-wing fighters are your only hope. Although sabotaging them can also work, and feels incredibly bad-ass.

Send Luke on missions that he may fail, but is unlikely to be captured on - he gets a force bonus whenever he evades capture.

As Rebellion, it's maybe not worth bothering with Jedi Training missions. They take a long time, and you only get the capability fairly late in the game.

Run espionage missions on your best planets, including your headquarters and any worlds close to uprising. It's annoying to have to keep initiating them, but it's useful.

Garrison with Sullustan troops - they're cheap, and they're the best detectors in the game.

Good tips from Mr. bat there! He's definitely on the right trail with a lot of those tips. Follow those and you'll be in good shape.