May either the Force be with you or Long live the Empire! My name is Axis_WLF and back in the day, Star Wars Rebellion was my passion. My speciality, which I will also begin with, is space combat. The hard copy of the game actually came with a poster, featuring every ship and item at your disposal. This handy piece turned out to be a life saver in sticky situations. I will update this thread as often as I can with tips that should improve your game, make space combat A LOT more intense, and provide a greater appreciation of this oldy but great game.

Special thanks for former opponents from the past!

Lons - clydes_dale - Speidel - kaos - and former members of GL and FST

A few space combat tips:

1: Always select Medium Size way point Galaxy size for your combat box. The larger size is too spread out for your ships to successfully engage the enemy ships or fighters.

2: 5 Tie fighters can easily and efficiently destroy a corvette. Early game loss of a corvette could spell doom for your opponent. How: at the beginning of paused combat select the medium sized grid. Next target the vette. Allow your fighters to actively engage the vette for no more than 3 seconds. Pause combat just before the 3rd second and select a distant way point for your fighters to retreat. Once they reach that way point, select the vette and engage just like before. Rinse and repeat this until the vette retreats or is destroyed. You will lose 3 tie fighters up to 4 if you are doing this correctly.

3: Carracks are the empires best friend. The range of the Carracks attack makes this little guy so dirty. A single carrack can destroy 2 enemy corvettes up to 3 if you are good enough with your waypoint movements. Learn the range of your carrack in little practice skirmishes and hover over that waypoint. Your carrack should snipe the enemy ships. The vettes will no doubt realize that they are unable to attack the carrack and will chase the vette. Good thing for you that the carrack can also out run the vettes with ease. You want to select a waypoint farthest above your carrack. It will turn and still shoot the pursuing vettes. Once you reach the upper corner, while still firing select the bottom corner below you DO NOT CROSS THE FIELD YET. Once you reach the bottom, the enemy vettes should be above you and slowly making their way downward. This is where the vettes firing will be extremely weak. You are now clear to cross the bottom field to the opposite corner. Once you reach that, guess what? Yup, you'll now make your move to the upper corner waypoint far above you. You'll notice your ship is moving in a box pattern and you should continue this until they retreat or are destroyed.

I'll post more tips soon such as diplomacy, shields, construction yards, and ship yards.

I don't mean to bust up your flow but Id be very interested in reading what you have to say regarding Formations, specifically

Surround vs Standoff
Hammer, Left Hook, Right Hook, Anvil

ive played this game for hundreds and hundreds of hours but space combat is the only aspect of the game that im still just kinda wingin' it

Ask anything you wish! No flow messed up at all. Easy answer for ya! Ignore all of those movements and take direct control over your fleet/ships. You will have a far greater impact against your opponent if you use the waypoints on the medium grid. Until you are familiar enough to attack without it, use the pause button and move each individual vessel to the exact waypoint you desire.

ESPIONAGE/RECON

Espionage is the key to good planning. Make LOTS of espionage droids right off. Put at least one on each planet you control. Also, remember not to neglect neutral planets and enemy planets for espionage as well. Espionage Neutral planets to discover enemy diplomats and set up abduction/assassination missions. Also to check for incoming fleets to your system, so you can intercept them or retreat. Espionage enemy planets to see what fighters/troops/characters/gen cores or LNR systems are on that planet, plus what their facilities are building, what fleets they have in orbit or are on the way, and what missions they have going on the planet. This will set up your sabotage, abduction/assassination, and incite uprising missions. It will also give you an idea where they are fortifying their positions. If you’re lucky, you may even find out information about other enemy planets as well.

Abductions and Sabotage: I rarely in my undefeated career attempted anything outside of the system I was currently playing in. If you are playing against someone new then YES you can do this as much as you want. If you are playing someone that knows how to conduct espionage properly and move their fleets, then NO do not waste your time. Often times I caught someone completely off guard in their core systems because they were too invested in sabotage and abduction missions.

I cannot stress this enough! The bulk of your time will be spent doing constant espionage while managing resources and Diplomacy. Probes are cheap! Use them for both exploring the rim sectors and checking out enemy planets. They are great for setting up your sabotage missions. For example: You are a rebel player and you’re quite sure your opponent has a Star Destroyer camped out on one of his planets. Send a probe, and even if the mission gets foiled, you will still see their star destroyer over the planet. DO NOT SABOTAGE!

Axis_WLF's tip: If you send anyone/anything on a mission to a planet, and then immediately abort that mission, you will see any fleets at or coming to that planet if you haven’t already!

Diplomacy missions don’t need decoys.

Incite uprising missions should not be sent to planets with high concentrations of characters and troops. You are just asking for them to capture or kill you, and it takes your people out of useful action for a long time.

DIPLOMACY

Send diplomats out early to either A) Planets with popular support leaning to your side, or B) Planets with facilities. If you find a planet with 2 or 3 shipyards or construction facilities already in place, do that one first.

In sectors where both players have planets, don’t just convert a planet, and then send your diplomat somewhere else. Keep him on that planet until he’s increased popular support there at least 1 or 2 more times THIS IS CRUCIAL! If I spot a planet recently turned and I can sway them just 1 time, then I will most likely gain 2 other planets without sending anyone on a diplomacy mission. This prevents you from losing the planet, or having it go neutral, at the slightest provocation. For example, and incite uprising mission will easily succeed against a planet just a hair from neutral. Or, a space battle that did not quite go your way may domino a whole system.

INCITE UPRISING

Just a quick note. AVOID trying to incite uprising on a planet almost all the way in support of the enemy. It will take more time than you can afford!
Important Information!

Always, Always ALWAYS, if you can, put Admirals, Generals and Commanders on your fleets BEFORE YOU SEND THEM SOMEWHERE! The can and do make a difference in a space battle. Also, if you have fighters in the garrison on the ground of an important planet, it does not hurt to have a Commander on the Planet as well but this isn't as crucial as it is for space combat.

Don’t "camp" over a planet for too long. You run the risk of getting your fleets blown out of the galaxy. If you camp too long then expect to lose a ship, and if it is early game, then you most likely just lost.

Don’t keep your personnel just sitting there. Use them! For anything! Espionage! Diplomacy! Research! Command Personnel! If you have someone doing nothing, then you are wasting precious time.

Colonize the rim!

Espionage your planets 24-7 and this is not a joke. Again you should have a droid on every planet you own and constantly moving to others. Intel, intel, intel = win win win!

Flee when you have to! For the Empire, this means if sluis turns before you can even dent it then the rebellion will most likely domino the system. For the rebellion this means the outer rim!

Anything Pre-200 days/turns = Early Game. You are basically on rebel time even if you are playing as the Empire. I know that if I can beat the rebels to the Sluis system then I can most likely win the game quickly. By beating them, I mean someone failing to use Solo speed and take all personnel to that system and begin diplomacy. It's a risk that each game for the empire depends on whether or not you rolled a dreadnaught or a lovely assortment of Carrack cruiserss. Remember Dreads = keep at home and do not send them outside of the system they originated less you wish to take forever and day and lose. Carracks = speed!

Anyone have any particular questions or requests please do not hesitate to ask. What I posted is enough to get you out of the noob corner and on the fast track towards a seasoned veteran.

Nice tips for the space combat, I'll try them!
I scanned the poster and shared it here: http://www.gog.com/forum/star_wars_rebellion/rebellion_poster

Space combat went from something I either just fast forwarded the results or dreaded. When I started messing with every ship, the movements, and waypoints, it turned in to my favorite aspect of the game. They really did a fantastic job with space combat but a poor job of using that as a selling point for the game.

What to build ship tips:

For the empire you want the following ships as soon as you can get them.

1: Carracks
2: Lancers
3: tie interceptors
4: ISD 2 (helps ward off those pesky nebs and mon cal cruisers)
Bonus ship: interdictor for when you are dominating. Most of the time this is just a show off ship.

For the rebellion:

1: gunships - these suckers pack a huge punch
2: nebulon B frigates (my favorite rebel ship and it'll be yours too)
3: Mon Cal cruisers
4: Corvettes - your early ships and always in groups of 2-3 per fleet.



Remember to hit and run with fighters never linger over a target. Use your fastest ships like the carrack along with its long range to your advantage.

Thanks for posting the poster! I wish I could find mine. Super helpful information in that poster. That was one very much overlooked piece that most players just discarded as one of those lame posters that came with games back then.

I played this game a lot back in the day and have just redownloaded it, but there are some things that I could never figure out.

For example, how does the game handle multiple missions of the same type on a planet?
If I want to use 2 characters to quickly convert a planet via diplomacy, is it faster if I send them together on one mission or should I start two missions at the same time? Or is it the same?
Same with research and recruitment - should I send them alone or in teams?

And since you have talked about ships, what about ground forces? I feel like army and fleet regiments are completely useless for the Empire, because stormtroopers are so much better and even the rebels only use them until they get Mon Cals and Wookies. And the war droids are also pointless, because you get dark troopers right after that and they outclass everything. Or am I missing something?

Wow, these are some great tips, particularly regarding space combat. Thanks!

I just got into this game, and there's something very interesting about the gameplay. Most of your tools are very direct and upfront, and I appreciate the clear simplicity in many of the mechanics. All of these things made it pretty quick to get started, but they allow for a lot of depth. I was unprepared for how big a role covert ops play in this game- easily more than any 4x game I've played.

The one area where this game shows its age is the UI, which is really clicky, and needs some easier keys to speed up/slowdown game speed.

Yes, some great tips in here. I never really messed around with the finer art of space battles, so I'll have to try out some of your suggestions.

A question from me-
What exactly does a KDY-150 battery do? I know the laser batteries destroy/damage ships bombarding or invading, and I think I read that the KDY is "supposed" to fire shots in space combat above the planet, but I've never actually observed this. Can you shed any light on this elusive building? Thanks in advance.


Yes, the UI is one massive drawback to an otherwise awesome game. For controlling speed, you can do Alt + and Alt - to raise and lower the speed, which is pretty nice.

Aye, I read that in the manual, but I'd really prefer having to press a single button, or even better being able to use the mouse wheel. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this is the only game I've played in a long time that made my wrist hurt when I played for too long.

I am back and am currently answering each of your questions. Good feedback and questions. Stand by for your answers!

Don’t use too big of a team especially if there are any foilers on your target objective. You should never use more than 5 people on your team. Follow this little rule of thumb(s)

2 member Team - 1 foiler, 1 key man

3 member Team - 2 foilers, 1 key man

4 member Team - 3 foilers, 1 key man, or 2 foilers, 2 key men.

5 member Team - 3 foilers, 2 key men.

If I know that my objective has no troops, sometimes I send a group with NO decoys. I know I won’t be detected anyway and I can rest assured that I will blow up my intended target.

Try to get short "jumps" in doing sabotage missions. If you can hover over a planet and sabotage everything, great but if you wait too long then YOU COULD be the target. Next best is to start from a planet next to the one you’re targeting. Afterwards, hover over a planet next to the one you’re targeting. You get the cycle? Only as a last resort do I send sabotage missions from sector to sector. It takes way too much time, and your opponent will have ample opportunity to discover your mission, send fleets/troops/command personnel to that planet to foil you, or just move your target away from there. Bottom line is you just wasted all of that time for nothing.

I’ve noticed that there are more or less 2 "levels" of foilers for the enemy. This is more of an observation than rule. If you are sabotaging a planetary objective, you have to get through their fleet, and then their troops on the planet. If you are sabotaging a ship, you have to get through their ships, fighters and troops that are on the ships. Think of these as walls or layers that you have to your missions have to filter before FIRST before reaching their objective.

DIPLOMACY

Send diplomats out early to either A) Planets with popular support leaning to your side, or B) Planets with facilities. If you find a planet with 2 or 3 shipyards or construction facilities already in place, DO THIS FIRST ALWAYS for the absolute best start. Remember you are after the domino! Send as many as you feel necessary to obtain your goal BUT keep in mind that you just need those first 2 planets with border line support to do the hard work for you. Once you hit those first two that were previously neutral, then you can expect to gain support even with a crappy diplomat pretty quickly (pretty big hidden tip here if you can figure it out).

DOMINOING

Dominoing is making a system convert to your side all at once. This is done by blowing up troops on a planet that has popular support for your side. When a planet that is in uprising converts to the opposite side, it shifts popular support throughout the whole system a large amount to the side that it converts to. This makes other planets join that side, which in turn moves the popular support again farther to that side, which converts more planets, etc... etc...

If you see a planet in uprising, try to get there quickly and blow the troops off. You’ll be glad you did. And your opponent won’t.

ASSAULTING PLANETS

Assaulting planets, if you intend to keep them, is only a good idea in a few instances.

#1. If the popular support on the planet is in your favor.

#2. If you have 8 or more troops in your fleet to land on the planet (after you account for casualties)

#3. If you have a lot of command personnel and diplomats in the fleet to subdue the uprising and use your diplomacy skills afterwards. (See Dominoing)

The reason for this is because assaulting a planet without enough troops or popular support will lead to an uprising, and set popular support against you.

Troop wise, you would be correct in that you pretty much just need storm troopers to achieve your goal. You will not need dark troopers until the rebels are defending with higher end troops. Of course this is if you intend on KEEPING the planet you just assaulted.

If you guys want some super BRUTAL tips on crippling your opponent I can provide that as well but keep in mind it is harsh.

I loved having direct control over everything via mouse. If your wrist is hurting then you are playing the game correctly!! Constantly checking espionage missions and moving your fleets constantly from planet to planet as not to get sabotaged will burn your wrist.
KDY = that cute little hoth ion cannon. It has its uses but you might want to just stick with 2 Gen cores and 1 LNR. You will get to a point where 1-2 espionage guys are on your planet, 3 troops (optional), 2 Gen cores and 1 LNR. Your opponent will be forced to sabotage one of your gen cores and the LNR in order to assault or bombard. You would much rather destroy your opponents ship or cripple enough to slow it down. (note a damaged ship becomes slower in hyperspace) this was one of the things that really made me love this game. Damage really takes in to account a lot!

Well, just beat the game on Hard as the Empire.

I'm a little disappointed that the AI seems totally unable to put up a fight. As a player, I know to build hubs for construction and protect those worlds accordingly, but the AI can't manage to, and I don't think I ever saw them even put a Nebulon B frigate out. I made tons of mistakes in the game, too.

Another thing I wish I could change (and probably could) would be to increase the pace of the game.

The last question, and I wish out resident expert could explain, is why force users can't seem to capture one another. I had the same problem trying to capture Palpatine with Luke and his trainees. This time, Vader, or him and any combination of his trainees, couldn't capture a wounded Luke alone on a planet. Gave it many tries. As soon as I sent a non-force user, he was captured right away.

Oh well, I feel like this is a game that opens up better in multiplayer (but I'm not one to play these types of games head to head).