So, I recently acquired SW: Empire at War, it's a nice RTS with a lot of micromanagement and a fairly interesting use of abilities and unit attributes; now, here is my question: does any one know how to win a space battle with the Rebels?

I can't seem to have any success at all while playing the Rebel Alliance, I grew accustomed to the cheer power of numbers, cheap units and heavy armor of the Empire. From what I gather from the game's tips, I am supposed to use strategy and cunning to defeat the opposition, however, it is nearly impossible for me to accomplish anything with those puny little frigates and corvettes, the Y-wings surely do a lot of damage but they are easily destroyed by Imperial Tartan Cruisers and I don't have any obvious way to counter them, if I approach the Tartans with my Nebulon-B frigates or whatever ship I have available at the time, the Star Destroyers/Acclamators/Whatever-Really! pwn my pathetic fleet... I always end up with a couple X-wing squadrons or a Corvette and that is just perfect.

What am I doing wrong? Can you help this confused rookie?

What you need to do is send specific units towards a certain target (e.g y-wings to acclamator) If you're trying to take out an acclamator or anything else like it the best thing to do is destroy their shield so that your entire fleet is able to attack them without having to take out the shield. And if you're on the attacking end, the best thing to do is take out any tie bombers so that they can't take out your frigates' shields. These are just some basic tips. Special abilities also play a large role in the game. Using them correctly can turn the tide of a battle in your favor.

I just upgrade everything as fast as I can with a skeleton fleet, build up a large capital ship fleet with corvettes, hold my base until I get bored, then overkill my enemy xD

A good newbie strategy is spam corvettes and nebs.

The problem with the rebels is that their capital ships dont have fighter/bomber squadrons.
So just make enough fighters and corvettes to hold off enemy bombers and make enough bombers to take out enemy star destroyers and interdictors.

Later a couple of mon calamari cruisers should be able to deal with acclamators and interdictors but they still need bomber support in fight with the star destroyers.

So as said in X-Wing game, fighters are the ultimate weapon of the rebellion. Build some capital ships and MANY fighters and bombers. But that my strategy, some say that you can easily win by massing mon calamari cruisers, although they are very vulnerable to bomber attacks.

vegati wrote:If you're trying to take out an acclamator or anything else like it the best thing to do is destroy their shield so that your entire fleet is able to attack them without having to take out the shield.

Really? I never attack the shields, I figure it's better to neutralize their weapons and hangar bay first and then worry about armor; but now that you mentioned it, yes, it makes a lot of sense.

Valthero wrote:A good newbie strategy is spam corvettes and nebs.

Hmmm, alright, I will try that too.

negah wrote:The problem with the rebels is that their capital ships dont have fighter/bomber squadrons.
So just make enough fighters and corvettes to hold off enemy bombers and make enough bombers to take out enemy star destroyers and interdictors.

Later a couple of mon calamari cruisers should be able to deal with acclamators and interdictors but they still need bomber support in fight with the star destroyers.

So as said in X-Wing game, fighters are the ultimate weapon of the rebellion. Build some capital ships and MANY fighters and bombers. But that my strategy, some say that you can easily win by massing mon calamari cruisers, although they are very vulnerable to bomber attacks.

I see, I need more fighters.

Is there any relatively easy method to destroy those pesky Tartan Cruisers? They are always in my way, I can't move my Y-wings while the Tartan Cruisers are holding the perimeter. I guess I will have to lure them away with fast units first and then attack the capital ships with the bombers. Oh, should I phase out the Corellian Corvettes by Corellian Gunships?

Thanks a lot guys!

Use Nebulons to destroy Tartans. Often, I'll just send my fleet in en masse against the enemy, and it works out sometimes.

Gunships are great in the hands of the AI, but I never got a handle around those things. They are good long range weapons, but you have to have a ship to clear the FOW so they can fire. A good strategy to get rid of fighters is sending the corvettes in alone, shooting down a couple fighters, then pulling back with their special ability. Rebels tend to draw things out, so be patient.

Me and my brother use what we call a swarm/lazer cone tactic. Select as many units as you can, and tell them to attack one target, usually the strongest. Always attack the shield generators, and engines first. Once you do you should see a "Cone" of lazer fire from all directions converging on your target. I have countless battles on both sides with this n00bish tactic, but it gets the job done against AI.

You mean attacking one single target with everything I've got at my disposal? Yeah, I did that once. Quite fun.

By the way, thanks for the help, everyone! I've got the hang of things.

I may now proceed to betray my dear Emperor and crush the Empire with an iron fist! Conquer the galaxy and- uhh, I mean, freedom and equal rights rule! Let's... get green!