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Let's Play Star Wars: Empire at War

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New Technology and a Battle over Ryloth
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    • We've finally progressed into a new section of the game. Hooray!

    Where we left off, I'd just captured Geonosis so Grand Moff Tarkin could have some slave laborers for the Death Star. Now, Vader wants to keep looking for the Imperial traitor. However, there's a problem. The Rebels could possibly ally themselves with the Mon Calamari, whose fleet is much more powerful than the Rebels' and could actually serve as a threat to the Empire. Naturally, I have to go take control of Mon Calamari.



    Now, while that whole dialogue was happening, more planets were revealing themselves on the galactic map. One of them, Ryloth, is right next to Geonosis. This was worrying because Ryloth is Rebel-controlled and I haven't had much time to build proper defenses for Geonosis. So, as soon as I the game lets me, I moved my fleet to Ryloth and start a space battle.

    I was fairly confident that I could defeat the Rebels in a space battle even though I was still using low tech-level units. Luckily, the Rebels had barely any units in orbit above Ryloth.

    —​

    When the battle begins, I move everything but the fighters and bombers towards the Rebel space station. This turns out to be a good decision, as a Corellian corvette almost immediately attacks. Soon after it is destroyed, two more corvettes and a Corellian gunship also attack. I focus on the gunship with the Acclamators, as it is the most dangerous with its missiles. After a brief engagement, the three Rebel ships retreat away and into an asteroid field. By the way, asteroid fields will do damage to any ships larger than a corvette that enter them.



    There's only a couple of fighter squadrons near the enemy space station, so I deem it safe to move the Tie fighters and bombers into the battle. The Acclamators and bombers all target the space station's shield generator, which is gone very quickly. Meanwhile everything else are on anti-fighter duty.



    While that's happening, the three Rebel corvettes from before take the chance to attack again. With the shield generator down, I have the Acclamators focus on the gunship, while the Tie bombers switch to attacking the hangar. When the gunship is dead, the Acclamators start attacking the space station as well, going first for the proton torpedo launchers.

    The two Corellian corvettes tried to attack my bombers, and managed to do a decent amount of damage. However, I used my Tartan patrol cruisers and a couple of Tie fighter wings to box them into the corner, where they're unable to escape.

    One of my Acclamators starts to take heavy damage from the space station, so I have it retreat. The rest of the Tie fighters and Vader's squadron join in attacking the space station, prioritizing hardpoints that can actually do damage.



    At this point the space station is almost dead, so I speed up the process by boosting the weapons of the Tartan and Acclamator cruisers.




    —​

    Back on the galactic map, I don't invade the ground of Ryloth quite yet. First, I want to build up my forces. I upgrade all of the space stations I can to level three, starting with the planets closest to the Rebel planets. I also start building Victory-class cruisers. About five join my main fleet, while the rest join defensive fleets on the borders.

    On Geonosis, I build four heavy vehicle factories. These allow me to build 2-M Repulsor Tanks, a mostly better version of the AT-ST that floats, has shields, and a big gun that can rotate. Also, I can now build SPMA-Ts, which are the Empire's artillery. The fire some sort of bursts of plasma, maybe. Unfortunately, as with all artillery, the must first deploy in able to fire, and have to undeploy to move. They're also not as good as the Rebels' artillery unit, which fires like 9 missiles at once.

    I also gain access to some pretty cool defensive ground structures: shield generators, turbolaser towers, and an electromagnetic pulse cannon. Shield generators spread forcefields around an area of the map, usually where most of your buildings are. They prevent solid projectiles such as missiles from penetrating them, slow down vehicles that enter them slightly, and can be upgraded to block all projectiles. Turbolaser towers are pretty much huge turrets of death, and you generally only want to get close to one if you've got a force-user to immobilize it. Electromagnetic cannons are unique to the Empire (I think). They fire a pulse at a particular location on the map, similar to the bombing run. It temporarily disables vehicles. All of these are power by a generator, and if it's destroyed they'll all go offline. Sadly, the generators are usually placed outside the force field, because reasons. Has nobody read the Evil Overlord List?

    The Rebels take control of Kuat, which I'm definitely gonna want to take sooner rather than later, as it can construct capital ships and also reduces the cost of Imperial Star Destroyers by 20%. Before capturing Kuat, I'm gonna do the ground battle at Ryloth, though both will probably be in the same update.
     
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    • Taking Ryloth and Kuat
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    • So, I did the land battle on Ryloth. Since I had upgraded my army with some shiny new toys, instead of starting off with the standard AT-STs, now I start off with 2-M repulsor tanks. I bring down some artillery, Vader, and a field commander. The artillery and field commander would protect the reinforcement point, while Vader and the tanks were my main force.

    Right near the entrance to the reinforcement point was a Twi'lek building. Those were scattered around and spawned Twi'leks that aided the Rebels. Fortunately, the building was in range of my artillery, so it was easily taken care of. There was actually another Twi'lek building behind the reinforcement point that I didn't notice until later, but for some reason the Twi'leks it spawned never attacked. Eventually, I realized they were there and had the artillery bombard the area.

    The Rebel base was pretty much directly north of where I started, but it was protected by a shield, so I forgoed attacking it directly and went east. There was a wild rancor running around, which are strong enough to destroy a tank in a single attack. While it was distracted by some Twi'leks, I killed it with a bombing run. Past the rancor was another reinforcement point, so I landed some more artillery and 2-M tanks, along with some AT-STs. I brought down the AT-STs since they're better at anti-infantry duty than the repulsor tanks. The repulsor tanks have a swivel gun on them, so they don't the entire vehicle around when shooting at something that's not in front of them. Unfortunately, their anti-infantry guns can only fire in a narrow arc in front of them, so they're not particularly great at killing infantry.

    To the north of the second reinforcement point were two valleys that led to a large clearing with another reinforcement point. This one was protected by some Rebel units, including their artillery units, the MPTL-2A. Since their artillery couldn't break through the repulsor tanks' shields in a single salvo and the tanks are pretty fast, they went and took out the MPTLs. The artillery I brought destroyed the Rebel shield generator, which was north of this reinforcement point. With the shield down, I landed some more units and attacked.

    The battle at the Rebel base was pretty intense. I had used a bombing run to destroy their barracks, so there weren't any infantry there. However, there were maybe a dozen or so T2-Bs, along with three or four MPTLs. Their artillery was able to bombard me at range while I was engaged with the T2-Bs. My own artillery was attacking the Rebel factories, but they were a bit too close and several were destroyed. As soon as the majority of the Rebel vehicles were gone, it was simple to clear up the rest of the base and whatever units remained around the map.

    —​

    After I took control of Ryloth, I moved the defense fleet from Geonosis to there, since there were no longer any Rebel planets adjacent to Geonosis. Though, at some point (i.e., when only Mon Calamari is left) I'll go around and reorganize all of the planets I have. You know, putting buildings that build stuff on planets with at least four slots so I can get the speed boost, building replacing the buildings on old frontier planets with a mining facilities, putting defense fleets on actually important planets, that kind of stuff.

    Anyways, next I started a space battle over Kuat. Since I'd added some more snazzy ships to the fleet, I'm now starting with a single Vicotory-class Star Destroyer. They have two turbolasers and an ion cannon, which may not seem like much compared to the plethora of weapons Acclamators have, but they they fire more shots per salvo to make up for it. They also spawn two Tie fighter squadrons straight off, and carry at least four. I also have a Broadside cruiser, the Imperial version of the Maurader. Space artillery, pretty much. Though, it seems that their Diamond boron missiles have a habit of veering drastically off-course and doing weird loop-de-loop type maneuvers. Probably for balance, since when the missiles do hit, they pack quite a punch.




    The Rebels didn't seem to have any space units for defense, as the strongest thing in their fleet was some ground soldiers. The troop transports attacked first for some reason, along with a Corellian corvette. They managed to start building some defense platforms, but my frigates destroy them along with the Corvette before they manage constructing. The transports run away and I send the fighters and Tartans to go kill them. After that, I move the bombers and Broadside forward.



    The Rebel space station doesn't have many ships near it. There's some X-wings and Y-wings, which I send the Tartans and Tie fighters after. The Tie bombers and frigates focus on the space station, first attacking the shield generator. The Broadside supports from afar, attacking the fighters while the shield is up and then switching to targeting the space station. The hangar is next.



    Pretty soon, the space station is mostly disabled. In the process though, it manages to do quite a bit of damage to one of my Acclamators and briefly lowers the shields of the Victory-class.



    The battle is over pretty soon. No losses on my part.



    —​

    Next, I invade Kuat with my ground forces. When the battle starts, I have some native humans that are on my side. Unfortunately, they have only one spawn building, and it's right in the middle of enemy territory. While the natives hold off a plethora of Rebel infantry and missile soldiers rather unsuccessfully, I land some Maulers and Vader.

    I immediately send the Maulers off to held the civilians, where they run over all the remaining Rebels. Unfortunately, they arrive rather late as the native spawn building was destroyed and the two units it spawned are pretty damaged. I try to have the civilians capture the build pads so they can build some anti-infantry turrets for protection, but a constant assault from Rebels makes that rather difficult. Even more annoyingly, the Rebel missile soldiers manage to destroy all of my Maulers. On the bright side, the final civilian was able to capture the reinforcement point before dying, so I'm able to land some repulsor tanks and SPMA-Ts to defend the area. I also bring down some stormtroopers at the original landing zone in case there's any more PLEX missile squads.

    At this point, I start moving my 2-M repulsor tanks around the map, looking for the generator that's powering the Rebel shield. Unfortunately, it isn't hidden on the island only accessible with floating units, and I trying to sneak around behind the Rebel base reveals it isn't there, either.

    I give up on trying to find the shield generator and mass my armies at the entrance to the area the Rebels' base is in. As soon as I move forward, what do I find but the power generator, right next to the shield? And it's not even inside! Seriously, that's bad planning.

    There's some turrets inside the shield that attack while I destroy the generator, but I have Darth Vader and some stormtroopers destroy them. Building a sensor node reveals some more turrets in the base proper, so I shell them with artillery. The final push into the Rebel base reveals something shocking; there's only the shield generator and two mining facilities left. Apparently, the Rebels weren't smart enough to place a building that spawns units on Kuat. Still, it makes things easier. The mining facilities are gone, and Kuat is mine.

    —​

    Right before I moved to Kuat, the Rebels captured Corellia, so that's probably going to be one of my next targets.
     
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    • Taking Corellia and a Battle Over Kessel
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    • As I mentioned in the last update, the Rebels had just taken Corellia right before I attacked Kuat. So, after building a couple of more Victory-classes, I attacked. I was pretty surprised to see that they had a significantly large fleet there, though it makes sense, as Corellia was cut off from any other Rebel planets after I took Kuat.



    My fleet exited hyperspace inside of a nebula, which was kind of annoying as it blocked a good chunk of the sight I would've had. The frigates and Tartan patrol cruisers moved outside, while the fighters, bombers, and Broadside cruiser stayed hidden just inside of the nebula. This was because the first wave of Rebel ships that attacked was mostly Corellian corvettes and Nebulon-Bs, which are good and not bad at killing fighters, respectively. A bit after the first wave of Rebel ships came some X and Y-wings, so I moved the Tie fighters to engage those while the Broadside cruiser provide long-range support.



    Over the course of that battle, two of my Acclamators were destroyed by bombers and Nebulon-Bs, so I replaced them with more Victory-classes. It seems that the Victory-classes have more points to their shield bar, and also do a lot more damage, both with their turbolasers and their ion cannons. Even though the original one that I started the battle with was pretty close to the fighting, it took very little damage, compared to the two destroyed Acclamators. Anyways, after a grueling fight in which most of my fighters and quite a few Tartans were killed, there were hardly any Rebel fighters or bombers left.



    The Nebulon-Bs tried to stand up to my frigates, but without the support of the smaller Rebels ships they had to retreat back towards the space station. I gave chase with the frigates, while the Broadside cruiser moved up to very edge of the nebula, where it would be able attack the Nebulon-Bs.



    The Nebulon-Bs that I had been chasing were reinforced by several more, along with some Corellian corvettes. The corvettes made a beeline for the Broadside cruiser, so I had the fighters and two Victory-classes attack them. They managed to do a fair bit of damage, but were destroyed before they could kill the Broadside cruiser. I sent the frigates to go attack the Nebulon-Bs again, focusing on their engines so that they wouldn't be able to get out of range. The bombers and fighters supported the frigates, while the Tartan patrol cruisers waited in the asteroid field. I had the Broadside cruiser start targeting the Rebel space station's shield generator, and it was actually able to take it out quickly and on its own.



    With their engines disabled, the Nebulon-Bs were forced to engage my frigates until they were dead. There were only two left and they were damaged, so I switched my focus to target the space station with all of my ships. It had been dealt a large amount of damage by the Broadside cruiser, so I was able to finish it off very quickly.



    With the space station gone, all that was left was the two Nebulon-B frigates. One of them that was pretty much right in the middle of my fleet made a mad dash for the Broadside cruiser. It managed to break through the Broadside's shields and kill it just before dying itself. The other one had had its engine disabled, and wasn't able to retreat from my ships.



    Overall losses: two Acclamators, five Tartan patrol cruisers, and one Broadside cruiser. Not bad, since the Tartans and Broadside could be replaced quickly and for few credits, while the Acclamators had been made obsolete by the Victory-class.

    —​

    The land battle on Corellia was actually pretty difficult. First off, the Rebels had access to an endless number of militia, which they would pretty much constantly assault me with. Secondly, all of the Rebel base was inside of a shield, and the power generator was also located inside the shield. Good for them for being genre savvy, I guess.

    SPMA-Ts proved invaluable in their ability to wipe out infantry squads in a single shot. They were the units that I used to protect my landing point, and also to take out the civilian spawn buildings from range. Of course, in order to get to the civilian buildings, first I had to slowly grind my way through a long straight piece of land. The Rebels had artillery, missile troopers, normal soldiers, and of course the civilian spam. I lost a group of 2-M repulsors to missiles and a very strategically placed anti-vehicle turret, locating inside the shield.

    Eventually, I managed to break through to the northern section of the map, where I was able to use the SPMA-Ts to destroy the civilian buildings and prevent them from spawning. There was also a reinforcement point there, so I landed some more 2-M repulsors and some AT-STs and stormtroopers. Then, I went east. There was an elevated section of the map that looked like some sort of massive parking lot or something, but the only thing there was a turret and a some T2-B tanks.

    I then proceeded to the south, hoping to find the power generator and also capture the reinforcement point that was down there. I wasn't aware at the time that the power generator was inside the Rebel shield, so I was a little angry to find out that I had only gotten the reinforcement point. Which, to be fair, was very useful, as it allowed me to land some more SPMA-Ts, AT-STs, and stormtroopers. After capturing that, I moved back north and prepared for the final push on the Rebel base.

    I moved the five SPMA-Ts I still had to a ridge that overlooked the northern part of the Rebel base. As soon as the shield was down, they'd have a shot at most of the buildings inside. Then, I massed the rest of my army at the northwestern entrance, before attacking. Vader disables an anti-vehicle turret and some assorted units help him destroy it. Then, I move everything in and go straight for the shield generator. Some T2-Bs try to attack, but my army's so big they don't manage to do much before the shield is down. Then, the artillery starts firing at the buildings closest to them, while the rest of my army goes around and blows up everything that's not in the SPMA-Ts' range. The last thing I get is the power generator, which was hidden in the lower right corner.

    —​

    So, I made use of the probe droids to see if any of the remaining planets that weren't Mon Calamari were Rebel-controlled. Turns out they were all controlled by pirates. Kessel didn't have very many ships defending it, and it produces a lot of credits, so I decided to go for that first.

    I'd built some more Victory-class Star Destroyers and Broadside cruisers and added them to my fleet, hoping that I would start the battle with more of them, but no dice. Anyways, I moved my ships northwest, which is where the pirate asteroid base was. I'd expected the pirates to come and meet me, but for some reason I only saw them when I got pretty close to base.



    I had the Broadside cruiser attack the fighters, while the bombers went for the interceptor to the right and the frigates attacked the interceptors up top. I was a bit surprised when the fog of war cleared and revealed like four more interceptors behind the ones up top. For some reason, they were all positioned as if they hadn't moved since the start of the battle. Maybe some sort of AI glitch? Regardless, I moved in the Tartans and Tie fighters for anti-fighter duty, switched the Broadside cruiser to barraging the area where the majority of the fighters and two of the interceptors were, and kept the frigates destroying the interceptors one by one.



    Pretty soon, most of the fighters and about half of the pirate interceptors were dead. I had the Broadside fire at the asteroid base's hangar, while everything else kept attacking their designated targets.




    When all of the pirate ships are dead, I focused on the asteroid base. It managed to get one of my Tartan cruisers and almost killed another, but I had it pull back so it wouldn't die.




    Honestly, this battle was pretty easy for the number of ships the pirates had. It's kinda weird.


    Also, you might have noticed that I've stopped doing the first person thing. I prefer this AAR-type way, even if it takes longer. Thoughts?
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • It pirate interceptor frigate is really really trash, like worse then an Accumulator trash. The Interceptor IV introduced in Forces of Corruption is vastly
    superior to this one because it gets a better set of laser batteries and a missile launcher rather then the shitty thing the pirate one has on the bow.


    A group of 4 Interceptor IV's in FoC can maul an Imperial Star Destroyer, and the Interceptor is the tier 1 ship.
     
    Fallenblades643 said:
    It pirate interceptor frigate is really really trash, like worse then an Accumulator trash. The Interceptor IV introduced in Forces of Corruption is vastly
    superior to this one because it gets a better set of laser batteries and a missile launcher rather then the shitty thing the pirate one has on the bow.


    A group of 4 Interceptor IV's in FoC can maul an Imperial Star Destroyer, and the Interceptor is the tier 1 ship.
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    Yeah the Consortium had some rather OP units though.
     
    Sinsystems said:
    Yeah the Consortium had some rather OP units though.
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    The Vengeance frigate. Yeah, I get a ship with ridiculous armor, shieldpiercing cannons and a cloaking device. And if you somehow manage to defeat it, I can hit the self destruct to take your fleet with it. And I can churn them out by the dozens from the start of the game because I, unlike you, don't need to rely on tech levels to unlock ships and also I have an absurd economy. GG no re.
     
    Yeah. The Zann Consortium really would have worked better in another genre of game since it's not supposed to be an overt power player, but for gameplay they have to be perfectly able to go toe-to-toe with the Rebels and the Empire, and they do it way too well.

    Mercenary Assault Squads w/Disruptor Rifles is basically all you need for ground troops, maybe augment it with some arty pieces and tanks for better fire support. And IIRC the Merc Assault Squads are cheaper than the other infantry unit, Grenadiers, which aren't nearly as good...

    TBH, the Zann Consortium's extra options are probably what the Rebel Alliance should have had to emphasize the Guerilla Warfare vs Overt Battle. And rather than calling it corruption, make it "Rebellion" or something. *shrugs*
     
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    Fallenblades643 said:
    The Interceptor IV introduced in Forces of Corruption is vastly
    superior to this one because it gets a better set of laser batteries and a missile launcher rather then the shitty thing the pirate one has on the bow. A group of 4 Interceptor IV's in FoC can maul an Imperial Star Destroyer, and the Interceptor is the tier 1 ship.
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    Sinsystems said:
    Yeah the Consortium had some rather OP units though.
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    Grey Rook said:
    The Vengeance frigate. Yeah, I get a ship with ridiculous armor, shieldpiercing cannons and a cloaking device. And if you somehow manage to defeat it, I can hit the self destruct to take your fleet with it. And I can churn them out by the dozens from the start of the game because I, unlike you, don't need to rely on tech levels to unlock ships and also I have an absurd economy. GG no re.
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    Luke Danger said:
    Yeah. The Zann Consortium really would have worked better in another genre of game since it's not supposed to be an overt power player, but for gameplay they have to be perfectly able to go toe-to-toe with the Rebels and the Empire, and they do it way too well.

    Mercenary Assault Squads w/Disruptor Rifles is basically all you need for ground troops, maybe augment it with some arty pieces and tanks for better fire support. And IIRC the Merc Assault Squads are cheaper than the other infantry unit, Grenadiers, which aren't nearly as good...

    TBH, the Zann Consortium's extra options are probably what the Rebel Alliance should have had to emphasize the Guerilla Warfare vs Overt Battle. And rather than calling it corruption, make it "Rebellion" or something. *shrugs*
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    @Luke Danger: Merc Squads were actually $450, while Grenadiers were around $320... but they still had every bang for their buck like you said.

    And yeah, the Zann Consortium, while a very interesting idea, have the problems of poor execution in the setup presented in EAW. Given an insane economy with no counterpart given to the Empire or Rebellion to match, a new gameplay feature that has no counterpart either, and badly-balanced OP ships while the original factions don't receive nearly as significant a boost in terms of firepower and variety.

    Now, what I would've liked to see is some sort of counterpart system to the Consortium's "Corruption": "Liberation" for the Rebellion, and "Domination" for the Empire - the Rebels with Diplomats, the Empire with Inquisitors, with their own special options tailored around their respective faction's motifs. The Consortium deals in crime, of course; while the Rebellion goes for political agitation and surgical strikes on military targets, and the Empire goes for terror campaigns and brutal suppression of dissidents.

    More economy options for the Rebels and Imperials would help balance things out as well, like Imperial Tax Collection Agencies and Imperial Prisons (as seen in the Thrawn's Revenge mod) for the Empire. Not sure what to give the Rebels, but Bothan Listening Posts would be a nice addition on the intelligence support side... perhaps Smuggling Hideouts?

    And of course, rebalancing how the Consortium tech tree works: Aggressor Destroyers and Kedelbe Battleships need to be restricted to Capital Shipyard planets, and the stats on the other Consortium units need to be brought more in line with the other two factions' units as well.

    Actually, speaking of Capital Shipyard planets, I like how Thrawn's Revenge did their space-station mechanic... but how to reconcile it with the original EAW/FOC Tech Level system?
     
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    Taking Kessel and a Battle Over Korriban
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    • After the land battle on Kessel, I'm now convinced that there's some sort of weird glitch going on in the game. Once again, none of the enemy units moved until after I found and engaged them, and even then they stayed in the same place whenever I retreated for a minute.

    I explored the area around the landing sight a bit, found no units, shrugged, and went for the next reinforcement point. There still weren't any units, so I landed and then went to the western entrance to the pirate base. There was a bunch of infantry there, which I killed, but I didn't progress further 'cause I thought there might be some interesting neutral buildings or something in the upper right corner. There was nothing, though I'm pretty sure that there's something there in FoC.

    Anyways, went west through the northern passage. The pirate command structure was barely visible after I built a sensor node, so I bombed it. Next I went in and engaged the pirate units that were there. I got distracted when I was moving some artillery around and a bunch Tie Maulers died, but it's no big deal. Artillery were useful in the second battle, after I had retreated to heal the remaining vehicles. Finally, went to the southwestern corner. Some infantry, artillery took care of it.

    On a side note, I'm really starting to appreciate the sensor nodes. They're very useful when you have artillery, which I like, and I'm pretty sure they get the vision bonus from Field Commanders. With those, they must cover at least a fourth of the map. Seriously, I think I'm in love.

    —​

    Next I attacked Korriban. There's not really very much to say, though, since once again the pirates didn't move at all, even when I attacked them. There were some interceptors, which are weaksauce and died easily, a couple of a fighter squadrons, which are also weaksauce, and finally the pirate asteroid base, which has started to fall behind as I've moved on up the tech tree and am now mostly concerned with large Rebel fleets and level three space stations. The only real thing of note that happened is that my Broadside cruiser advanced along with the rest of my ships into the fray with the interceptors, and was predictably destroyed. Though, it did manage to destroy the asteroid base's hangar before dying. So, good for it. Posthumous medals, grand ceremonies for the deceased, monetary support for the crew's families, the whole shebang.

    I'll just dump all of the pictures without any further in-depth commentary.



    Oh no, whatever will I do against the power of their aesthetically pleasing fleet?

    Blow them all up, that's what.




    I'll try to do everything up to and including Mon Calamari tomorrow, but I'm lazy and I've got stuff to do for school, so it's unlikely.

    Also, does anyone know what's up with the pirates not moving?
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Bad AI coding.

    That it. Just bad coding. The Campaign mode fucks with the AI coding so they play stupidly passive on the defensive, but become hyper aggressive with the attack later on.

    Don't be surprised if the rebels attack you with a pack of like 40 corvettes eventually.
     
    Taking Korriban and Nal Hutta
  • Threadmarks
    • The reason for no update is I've been pretty busy for the last couple days.

    Now, as I've started to expect the AI glitch on pirate planets, for the Korriban land battle what I did was I only landed Vader and a field commander in addition to the forced 2-Ms. There were some civilians on my side, but the little side area they spawned in was blocked by some swamp speeders so they were useless. I just kept suiciding them, hoping to wear the speeders down, but by the time the militia had destroyed the first one my real forces were already there. Anyways, after capturing the reinforcement points I could put my master plan into action, which hinged upon the AI not moving.

    What was that plan, you ask?



    So much artillery.

    —​

    There's not really much to say about the space battle over Nal Hutta. I used the Broadside cruiser for getting the big group of pirate interceptors and taking out key hard points on the asteroid base. One interesting thing about this AI glitch is that it can actually make the space battles in some way, as the fighter squadrons don't move and thus the swarms are bigger.

    Also, an update or two ago I bumped up the graphics quality a notch. The main difference I've noticed is that land vehicles are very shiny, but things look a bit nicer in general. It doesn't really strain my laptop much more, to boot.




    Purdy

    —​

    The land battle one Nal Hutta was not particularly interesting. I mean, there's the indigenous Hutts, but the only unique thing about them is that they're really resistant to blaster fire for an indigenous unit. Seriously, two whole groups of them could barely make a mark on a 2-M repulsor tank's shield, but it took like three shots from the big gun to kill a single Hutt. I guess they have thick, rubbery skin or something.

    Once again, my patented All The Artillery Strategy™ worked wonders. Something I'm looking forward to about the Rebel campaign is the MPTL-2As, which are superior to the SPMA-Ts in the fact that they fire a shit-ton of missiles instead of a green energy blob. Also, they're robots and have tank treads and open up to reveal the missile launchers. Sooooo much better.


    Pictured: Not nearly enuff dakka


    Mon Calamari tomorrow.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Attack on Mon Calamari
  • Threadmarks
    • I've got a pretty bad headache so I probably won't go super in-depth with this. Also, expect some rambling.

    So, Mon Calamari! A place, with big ships that look like fish, that have fish people that have vaguely Middle Eastern names, like Ackbar. (Actually, a Mughal emperor.) I'm going there. There's going to be a space battle, with explosions and stuff.

    Before the aforementioned battle, I built a bunch of Victory-class cruisers, so I would start with two, and also some more Broadside cruisers, of which I also built enough to start with two. Does anyone else try to move the fleets of new spaceships so that they arrive at the target at the same time? I do that sometimes.


    Much starship, very wow.

    So, I started by moving the frigates, Tartans, and fighters forward. There were some Corellian gunships and corvettes, but they mostly did flybys, because everyone knows that Corellians are cowards. Also, there was a Marauder cruiser that almost made my day worse by damaging the fleet commander's ship, but I spotted it and chased it off.



    Another new thing, even though the galactic map said the space station was level three, it's actually level four. Dun dun duuunnnnnn. It's not really a super big deal, to be honest. Only new things besides more health and weapons is that it can spawn Nebulon-Bs, but with the hangar being pretty much the first thing you go for, it doesn't matter too much.



    So, I moved most of my fleet around south to attack the space station, while the fighters and Tartan patrol cruisers went north to chase the Marauder and get the other ships on the edge of the map. The gunships were a bit annoying, mostly 'cause their ability is glitched; they and the corvette can boost their engines at the cost of weapons and stuff, but the corvettes have a time limit while the gunships can turn it on and off. Actually, I'm not entirely sure if that's a glitch or not. But, I think they gave the gunships a timer in FoC, so I guess it's most likely a glitch.



    Also, there were some attack platforms near the space station, which were a nuisance. I had the frigates get those, while the Broadside cruisers attacked the space station, going for the shield generator first and then the hangar. I know earlier I said the hangar was kinda the most important target, but the shield generator is more so in this case because if you're going to break through the shields, you might as well destroy them so as to prevent them from regenerating.



    Things go pretty smoothly. There's some Nebulon-Bs, but they pose little threat and I make sure to take out their engines so they can't hide and inconvenience me later. The Broadsides' barrage ability is very useful for doing massive amounts of damage to lots of hardpoints on the space station, by the way. There's also some smaller Rebel ships buzzing around, but whatever.



    Suddenly, something comes out of hyperspace. It's… two Mon Calamari cruisers!


    It's a trap!


    Before they can really do anything though, I finished off the Rebel space station.


    In case you didn't notice, "The enemy space station has take serious damage."

    Now, these Mon Calamari cruisers are the first capital ships we've seen, and boy do they live up to the name. The have four turbolasers and two ion cannons each, which fire in large bursts that can tear through even a Victory-class cruiser's shields alarmingly fast. In addition, they don't have a shield generator and can also boost their shields, which is one advantage they have over ISDs. Also, if I remember my lore correctly, the Mon Cal cruisers are refurbished luxury cruisers. The Mon Calamari sure know what they're doing. :/



    The two Mon Calamari cruisers were close enough to my two Broadsides to be able to fire on them almost as soon as soon as they entered the battle. I tried to move them out of range and off away from the rest of the units, but at least one of them died. I'm pretty sure it was only one, but the other was damaged quite a bit.

    The first Mon Cal cruiser that reached me started firing on my frigates, doing quite a lot of damage. The one with my fleet commander started to take a lot of damage, so I had to limp it behind some other ships. Even so, it lost its engines and most of its other hard points, except for maybe a turbolaser and an ion cannon.



    It managed to take out the last Acclamator on the field, so I brought in another Broadside cruiser, which started firing on the Mon Cal cruiser along with the surviving one. The battle's even intenser than it was earlier against the space station, as the Mon Cals are simply that powerful. The first one managed to take out another Victory-class, so I brought in another one. The second one started to get near, so I switched the Broadsides to fire on that one's engine, with help from any bombers I could find.



    My strategy was to focus on the turbolasers on the first Mon Cal, as they're the ion cannons can't actually do hull damage. As soon as most of the turbolasers on the first one were destroyed, I switched the frigates to attacking the second one as well. The Tartan patrol cruisers and Tie fighters stayed on the first one. At some point, I think I had to replace another Victory-class.




    Surprisingly, it's the second Mon Calamari cruiser that is destroyed first, probably 'cause I switched all the big guns to attack it instead. After that it was pretty much home free, so I engaged the cinematic camera for some nice pictures.



    This game is horribly not to scale.

    I like how they show the hull damage to big ships.

    A nice view with the wreckage of the other one visible.



    Mission complete!


    You might've noticed that I didn't manage any of the defenses of my planets or the buildings or anything. That's cause for the next mission it's just Kashyyyk, so I'll have plenty of time to do it before that.

    I probably won't update tomorrow since I have a project I need to finish up.
     
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    • Not a bad trade. a pair of victories can actually expect to lose against a Mon Cal if the shield boost is used.

    P.S. Use more ablative armor Acclamators.
     
    Mon Mothma herself outright states in her memoirs that without the Mon Calamari, the Alliance would have been fucked at Endor and other major battles.
     
    Trouble on Kashyyyk
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    • I took the time to rearrange all of my planetary defenses and buildings and such, so that's better now. Unfortunately, I hit the population cap, so it's not completely done, but it should be after Kashyyyk.




    Turns out the problem on Kashyyyk was Han Solo, who had come to free the Wookies. I'm pretty sure he used to be an officer or something in the Empire, though I'm not sure if this is where he first betrayed them or not. Seems like it probably happened before this to me, but I don't feel like reading through any of Wookiepedia's ridiculously long articles in order to find out.




    So the mission was to prevent Solo from blowing up the prisons and freeing the Wookies. Surprisingly, I started out at a reinforcement point that actually let me bring in all 10 at once. Settled for some 2-Ms and Stormtroopers, along with some artillery and the field commander. Surprisingly, I also started out with Vader this time. Not sure why it happened, but I prefer that to the 2-Ms.

    Besides the one I started at, there were also some more reinforcements points to the north. Apparently, the Rebels would bring in more units there, though I never actually saw it happen. Anyways, Vader and some 2-Ms get the first one, with some mild resistance from a single squad of Rebel infantry.

    The second one proved a bit more difficult, first with a whole buncha Wookies that I assume came from the prisons that I didn't stop Han from destroying. The Wookies did a surprising amount of damage to the 2-Ms, though that may have been because there were simply too many. I sent Vader up to deal with it with Force Push, and the artillery a bit more west than that for a safe distance.

    After the Wookies, it was a swarm of T-2Bs along with Han Solo. Solo used his EMP ability to stun most of my 2-Ms, which was a bit annoying, but by that time a bombing run was available and I bombed them into oblivion. It wasn't until after that that the artillery were in place, so the lone T-2B that remained was hit overkilled. :/

    Anyways, I think there was a bit of delay or something, because after Han was killed - excuse me, "injured", there was a some time before the ending cutscene started. I win, yay, blah blah blah.





    Also, I just noticed that the Rebels only "lost" three units. I'm guessing that's because it was supposed to be like the raid thing that you can do as the Rebels, where a small army (max of three units I think) can sneak past a fleet and go into a land battle directly.


    I've been pretty busy over the past few days, which is why there's been a short hiatus type thing. Anyways, school is almost over (only a week and a half left!), so things should be a bit quicker.

    Also, I think this is around the halfway point of the Empire campaign, give or take. So hooray![/spoiler]
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • A New Weapon of War
  • Threadmarks


    • So, the AT-AT mission. The one with Colonel Veers (I think he's the dude from The Empire Strikes Back). The game is nice and actually gave him to me before the mission. Unfortunately, at this point the only new planet is Carida, which is already mine, so what's the fucking point if I can't even blow up Rebel scum before I lose Veers forever!?

    Ahem.

    Since Carida was mine, I got to build stuff on it, so I threw up a space station and one of almost every useful building. I then tried to move some troops there to garrison the land, but Palpy got all up in my grill about how I could only start the mission if Veers was in the fleet moving there. Attempting to move a space fleet there for da bombinks proved futile as well, so I threw my hands up in the air and just build them from Carida.



    For the sake of my sanity, I'll pretend I didn't hear Veers talking about how the legs were good for its mobility.

    The actual mission started off nice and peaceful, just having to move Veers through an obstacle course, crushing and blowing up some stuff along the way.

    Also, there was something about how bombing runs are disabled because the Emperor didn't want collateral damage. Okay, first off that goes against the established gameplay where your units are immune to your own bombing runs, and secondly I don't really think the Emperor is the type to care about collateral damage. Though, he really seemed to like the AT-AT, since he kept telling Tarkin "No dude, really this is gonna be totally sweet you gotta believe me!" Whatever, I'll just chalk it up to Gameplay and Story Segregation once again.



    Purdy

    Eventually, there's some pirates that get brought down for a demonstration of the AT-AT's ability to spawn Stormtroopers, living up to the 'Transport' part of its name. Of course, when I actually had the AT-AT attack the pirates, they were able to survive multiple shots from its giant lasercannons of doom. -.-



    Guess I could've had Veers walk over them…

    Also, at some point I realized that the bajillion field commanders standing around were close enough to the various build pads to let me actually build stuff on them, so I build some anti-infantry turrets and a repair station for Veers.


    Probably the most accurate size comparison in the game :V

    For the final part of the demonstration, they had me walk Veers over to a cage with a rancor in it, where he had to kill it in order to prove the awesomesauceness of the AT-AT. Thing is, the rancor had like no health and was in cage, so it doesn't really seem like that proves much about how awesome it is. I mean, if you gave me a laser rifle and sat me in front of a cage with an almost-dead rancor in it, I could probably kill it too.


    Why don't we just give Veers a medal and we can all go home already? Sheesh.

    Next some actual Rebels started to attack. They're trying to destroy some random bunkers or something, one of which was too far away for me to get to in time, so'd you think this would be a good time to allow me to use a bombing run, but no, the Emperor hates making things easy. :mad:

    ...

    The Rebel dropship that landed nearest to Veers only has T-2Bs in it, which are nigh useless against the AT-AT. Two of the others contained infantry, which proceeded to die to the various field commanders and AI turrets I had set up earlier.



    The final dropship had more T-2Bs in it, but it landed all the way across the map, so they were able to kill the dudes, the turret, and the bunker before I got there. :<

    For some reason, the game didn't care when the bunker was destroyed, even though the mission objective was to protect all four. Maybe if all of 'em had been destroyed I would have lost? I don't even know.

    Anyways, after blowing up the bunker, those T-2Bs rushed to meet me in glorious combat, and were blown up soon after by Veers (just to be clear, I actually really like AT-ATs and don't really care about how impractical or not they are).


    Dat ass

    Mission over, everybody go home.


    Apparently I get much more snarky and irritable when it's late at night. :V

    I think the next mission is the one where I have to trap the traitor with the gravity-well generating ship (Imperator maybe?), which I'm not particularly looking forward too. Though, I think I may or may not be unlocking ISDs, which would make things much better. Probably not though. :(
     
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    • Huh. I thought if you had bombers in orbit you could use them once the rebels attacked. My bad.

    EDIT:
    Now I remember. It's Bothuwai that you can do that, not Cardia.
     
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