To begin with, let's do something I've been meaning to do, and should have been doing: a
State of the Galaxy update!
For reference, a labeled Galaxy Map
As of Day 220, the Alliance has unfettered access to eight Core Systems: four in Sluis, the remainder in Farfin Sector. Their systems in Sesswenna and Dolomar Sectors are currently under blockade by me. On the Rim, known Systems are Klatooine in the Dufilvan Sector, and Yavin over in Sumitra. Meanwhile, I have almost complete control in the Sesswenna, Dolomar and Corellian Sectors and have two diplomats - a no name that goes by Bin Esseda, and the Lord Darth Vader himself - assigned to bring me diplomatic control over the Fakir Sector. As you can see, my resource gathering and manufacturing base is considerable strengthened. Unfortunately, the Imperial Fleet is
largely unchanged from what it was in the beginning, with the exception of a couple Carrack Cruisers and a handful of TIE Fighter squadrons. The Imperial Army is exactly as it was.
Time to change that.
You see, in my efforts to show off mechanics, I've really been going hard into the SpecForces side of the game. It's great fun, to be sure, and a welcome relief from the usual 4X "build fleet and army, conquer all before you" but...I'm the
Galactic Empire for Sith's sake! I
should be unleashing my fleets of Star Destroyers and Stormtrooper legions to take control of the Galaxy by force of arms! And so it's going to require a shift in my strategies.
I won't abandon SpecForces, though. For one thing, I need up to date intelligence, which means Espionage and to lesser extent Reconnaissance will be going on fairly regularly. And of course I'll be running Assassination Missions against targets of opportunity, since that is a unique feature of the Imperial side. But sabotage and especially Incite Uprising will be much less common; sabotage I'll do in a few circumstances - taking out LNR batteries prior to a Planetary Bombardment, for instance - but for the most part my disruption to Alliance infrastructure will be coming from Fleet Blockades. Incite Uprising I'll mostly drop, except for what I have currently going (Svivren in Sesswenna, Balfron in Dolomar) and a few limited exceptions I'll get into later.
This also means a slower pace to my game, as I'll need to really focus on getting new Manufacturing Facilities up and running if I'm to produce ships and troops in a reasonable timescale. Luckily, I've already unlocked Advanced Training Facilities and as you can see, I'm steadily replacing my current - and completely obsolete - basic TFs with them. For real, at the same exact cost in Refined Materials and Maintenance Points while producing Troops and SpecForces twice as fast, there's zero reason not to do a 1-for-1 replacement on them.
In the meantime, let's pick up where we left off: over Svivren, I have an injured Han Solo and an Alliance Naval officer by the name of Afyon, who you may remember as a minor character from
Heir to the Empire. Well, I quickly murder off Afyon, and discover Han has recovered from his injuries; which means one of the Alliance's most dangerous operatives is back in play. Well, time to take care of that: I run a couple Assassination Missions to Injure him again, and then partake of an
Abduction Mission so that I can
Capture the notorious smuggler and make him an Imperial
Prisoner. It works:
Fun Fact: when you capture a Major Character (Mothma, Luke, Leia and Han; Emperor and Vader) the droid has special dialogue for the occasion)
But now that I have him, what do I do with him? There are two schools of thought on how to handle Prisoners: the Prison Ship method, and the Prison Planet. I'll briefly outline them below:
- Prison Ship - The idea here is to load them on a Transport with some Troop Regiments, and then keep it in Hyperspace by moving it from one side of the Galaxy to the other; preferably doing so via a pair of secure Outer Rim Systems on opposite corners. The enemy can't launch Rescue Missions when your Prisoners are near constantly enroute in Hyperspace, after all!
- Prison Planet - You're all familiar with Despayre and the Spice Mines of Kessel, right? If not, you're a bad Star Wars fan and should feel bad. In any event, you can set up your very own prison world and fortify it with Troops and a Fleet to ensure any Rescue attempts will be dead on arrival - literally.
Of the two, the Prison Ship will generally be cheaper, as Transports are rather inexpensive. And keeping them mobile is a way to just not have to deal with them for 50-100 Days, depending on where you keep them jumping around. It also has a weakness, though:
Escape Attempts. You see, it's common knowledge that Prisoners can't Escape while in Hyperspace - and this is 100% true! - but the problem comes in when the Prison Ship inevitably arrives. The mechanics of Escape Attempts are that when a Character is Captured, the RNG assigns them a day on which they will attempt to break free. Being in Hyperspace on a Character's Escape Day won't cancel it out, it'll merely postpone the attempt until the exact instant the Ship arrives. Now, if you're doing this on the cheap - a single Transport with a few Troop Regiments, no Officers in command - they're going to have a pretty easy time of it. It won't
always work, of course, but the odds really aren't in your favor.
Unless you're the stupid OP Alliance with their stupid OP Sullustan Regiments and stupid OP Bulk Transports.
An Escape Attempt is basically like a mission: it can be Foiled by Detectors and they have to pass through any Detectors on the way out from wherever their "jail" is. So you can certainly have a strong presence of Detectors and a few Transports in your Prison
Fleet but by the time you're dedicating multiple ships and a sizeable guard force, you've kind of whittled away the cost advantage to the mobile Prison Ship/Fleet decision.
And that's where the Prison Planet comes into play. Because you can have ground-based Troops and Fighters, an assigned General and Commander,
and station a Fleet above with an Admiral, General and Commander; very few individual characters have what it takes to get through both of those layers on their own! The downside: even an unsuccessful Escape Attempt sends a message to the enemy player about where the Attempt took place,
and provides information as to the defenses present. So you can forget about keeping your Prison Planet a secret; sooner or later, an Escape
will happen and the cat's out of the bag. Also, needless to say, all those Ships, Fighters and Troops are damned expensive. And committing a full one-sixth of your Characters to command positions to babysit Prisoners - depending on how secure you want to make it - is a steep price to pay. Of course you don't
need Officers present, it just enhances the security.
Luckily, as the Empire, you already happen to have a System that is a) well defended, and which you have an interest in keeping that way and b) is already known to the Alliance. Yes, that's right: Coruscant. You're already defending it heavily - or you should be! - and while the occasional infodump of your Capital's defenses from Escape Attempts is annoying, it's not like Coruscant doesn't
already have a giant target painted on it, so you need to be ready for anything as it is. It is the perfect place to set up a Prison Planet, and a huge advantage to the Empire. And besides, you're already (probably) killing off the Minor Characters anyway, so it's not like the place is going to be
that crowded.
Which is not to say the Prison Ship idea is not a good one. You certainly can make it work if you want to - and I'd argue that as the Alliance, it is the superior choice. But since the Empire already has a System that meets the requirements for an excellent Prison Planet to begin with, why not use it as such?
Needless to say, I decide to make Han Solo an "honored guest" of the Emperor at the Empire's capital.
Meanwhile, Ship R&D bears fruit:
Ah, the Lancer Frigate. Finally, a good answer to those pesky Alliance fighters. It is absurdly lethal against enemy fighters, quick to build - even quicker than the Carrack thanks to a reduced RM cost - and only slightly more expensive in MPs than the Carrack. Basically, once you have this researched there's no reason to ever build another Carrack. Which is not to say the old ships don't have their uses: with the second fastest Hyperdrive Rating of any ship they're useful as personnel transports for Characters and SpecForces, at least for now. So building Carracks early is not a wasted investment, and they still can play a role as a quick response ship if you team them up with VSDs, that also have a fast Hyperdrive rating.
I also researched the
War Droid Regiment but that is much less exciting because for the most part, they're useless. The thing with War Droids is that they have a strong Attack Rating, but are miserable at Defending Systems and have a crap Detection Value on top of that. Such a narrow focus doesn't really help, but considering how you
should be doing Planetary Assaults, a unit specialized for that and nothing else is pretty useless. With the ability to just conduct Military Bombardments and/or Sabotage Missions until there is no defending garrison, it really doesn't matter what your Attack Rating is, and you might as well just use whatever the cheapest defensive units you have instead. Considering they're also more expensive than your Stormtrooper Regiments, which you start off with, War Droids just feel like a wasted spot on the Tech Tree.
That's not to say they never have their uses. There are some narrow, generally unlikely scenarios where they have a use. Such as an Alliance fortress world, that has a strong garrison, planetary batteries, a General...and for some reason a single or no Planetary Shields. Basically, the General and garrison are too strong for SpecForces - and worse, the General is a Jedi so even Vader can't get through - and the planetary batteries
will blow up precious Starships if you try to Bombard. So if you're not willing to risk a potentially valuable and difficult to replace capital ship, all you can do is load up with your strongest attackers - in this case War Droid Regiments - and a General of your own and try to take the System the old-fashioned way.
But that's pretty unlikely to happen, so for the most part you can safely ignore War Droids unless you want them for flavor, RP or whatever.
In any event, I'm just running steady on Diplomacy, slowly replacing my old Training Facilities with Advanced models, and waiting on the Incite Uprising missions to Svivren and Balfron to bear fruit. Unfortunately, the Alliance is not sitting idly by either: while I bring most of the remaining Corellian Sector under my control thanks to the combined efforts of Piett and Thanas, the Alliance has almost completely dominated Farfin Sector, and they're slowly gobbling up a good chunk of Sluis, as well. While I've (mostly) resigned myself to losing Farfin - I didn't start off with a controlled System there, so no real base to do anything - I do control Bpfaash in the Sluis Sector, and am determined to block their progress there as much as possible. After seeing Denab declare for the enemy, I send an Espionage Mission over there to see who it is. And who do I find but Princess Leia conducting the Diplomacy Mission herself! Well, Princess, I have just the resources at hand for this eventuality:
A Fleet loaded up with Noghri. And luckily, no Daughter of Vader plot contrivance will
save you. Considering her insane
Diplomacy Rating capturing her will strike a critical blow to the Alliance's diplomatic efforts - her 0 Combat Rating is because I also took the time to Injure her first.
One neat feature of the Personnel Finder - that picture of an Imperial Officer below your Galaxy Map, if you'll remember - is that it doesn't just show you your own Character, but also the enemy. Which can make for a nice scoresheet to show off my Imperial hitsquads's successes.
Pictured: Lots of dead Alliance Characters
I expect to add more names to the 'Killed' category before I'm done.
The same Espionage Mission that revealed the Princess to me also indicated that Denab is being used to
produce war material for the enemy's side, so luckily the Sluis Sector Fleet put a stop to that via Blockade. And because it was only recently brought over to the Alliance and thus has quite a bit of Loyalty toward the Empire, I make it an exception to my new strategy and assign Needa to an Incite Uprising Mission. Thanks to the Emperor's Seat of Power bonus, Needa can actually succeed at this by himself, though it will take some time.
A two-for-one special on R&D! I now have TIE Interceptors and can construct Advanced Construction Yards. Needless to say, I
immediately get to work converting my old CYs into Advanced models, because I'll be needing that doubled Production Speed when I begin to build up the Shipyards necessary to expand the Imperial Fleet.
The TIE Interceptor is also a useful addition. With the exact same costs as the TIE Fighter, you'll never build the outdated model again. I ship my current T/Fs off to Coruscant - eventually I'll scrap them to save on MPs - and begin replacing my Fleet's hanger bays with new and improved T/Is. I kind of glossed over it before, but the first step on the Imperial Ship R&D ladder are TIE Bombers. They also cost the exact same as T/Fs and T/Is, but are generally useless for anything except cannon fodder. Their lack of shields and dire speed/maneuverability ratings makes them easy prey for enemy X-wings. And a pitiful laser power makes them almost useless for bombing runs, though the ion cannons do help. Unfortunately, they'll almost certainly die before they have any impact on the enemy fleet. Their only use, as mentioned, are as targets: the way the tactical combat game works, the "Attack Fighters" command will prioritize 'bomber' squadrons over 'fighter' squadrons, which will essentially give your T/Fs and T/Is free shots...of course, since they're targeting shielded Y- and B-wings, while the Rebels are going after
unshielded T/Bs, well, the Alliance will go through them like a hot knife through butter long before
your fighters finish off their bombers, and the unshielded TIEs will die quickly to the superior X- and A-wings will doing nothing to defend themselves.
So yeah, TIE Interceptors aren't
great but they will kill enemy bombers that much faster, which means the only practical use of TIE Bombers - as disposable decoys - will actually be
slightly better than it was with T/Fs. We're really just going to have to wait for TIE Defenders before the Empire gets a fighter worth a damn.
As times goes by, more of the Farfin Sector falls to the Alliance, leaving only the Phraetiss System neutral, and a few more Systems over in Sluis also go their way. Luckily, I finish convincing the entirety of the Corellian Sector over to my side, so Piett and Thanas are packed aboard a VSD and head off to convince the remaining Sluis Systems as to the worthiness of my cause. I also unlock
Star Galleons which are basically a slightly better transport than the Galleon: 3 Troops as opposed to 2, minimal defensive armament compared to none, and slightly better shields. Nothing to write home about, but worth building a few to go out and maybe colonize the Outer Rim with.
I also finish off convincing Svivren to go neutral, so I take all of my mercenary-type Characters and load them aboard a Carrack Cruiser to go start some trouble in the Farfin Sector. The only real place I can base out of is Phraetiss, since it's still neutral. However, shortly after arriving and sending off an Espionage Mission and a couple Sabotage Missions to Bilbringi, I inadvertently Foil an Alliance Reconnaissance Mission. "Well crap, now they know I'm here," I say to myself. Still, I decide to roll the dice and hang out as long as I can: I still have operatives in the field who need a nearby base or it's a long trip for them. Sadly, my Sabotage Missions fail - acting on old intelligence, the units I targeted were no longer present - and then shortly after that, the Alliance Escort Carrier
Eagle shows up. With a full load of Alliance fighters, there's no way my single Carrack survives, so I'm forced to
retreat. While the Carrack is enroute, my Espionage Mission does succeed, and they take the long way back to Caprionril to rejoin their compatriots on the Carrack Cruiser.
In better news, I decided to launch an Espionage Mission to Klatooine. This was a long one, traveling from the Core to the Rim. But it paid off soon after my setback at Phraetiss, and I hit a jackpot in useful information:
Mon Mothma (who isn't an Objective in my HQ game, but still a skilled Diplomat), Dodonna (who can be a Diplomat, but they're using him as a General for now), a couple other Minor Characters...
and two out of three possible Ship Design missions! And their only defenses are six squadrons of fighters? When I have Lancers? I also discover they have researched Mon Calamari Cruisers, which are capable of besting my ISDs, but luckily this is only their first one, and with a single Shipyard doing the work it's going to be awhile before it's done.
Well then, I gather up
a Fleet that is more than a match for them, and load them up with Noghri, Espionage Droids and Imperial Commandoes. Even if all the Alliance Characters are gone, disrupting the production of their first Mon Calamari Cruiser should be worth it. And if I'm lucky, I can take out
five Minor Characters - including 2/3 Ship Researchers! - and capture a key Diplomat in Mon Mothma. Unfortunately, my Fleet is leaving from Sesswenna Sector and going to Dufilvin, which if you'll remember is
practically on the other side of the Galaxy so it's going to require a lot of luck for them to still be there. But there's no reason the AI (should) know they're in danger, so I'm hopeful to at least catch Dodonna, since he's acting as a General, and the Researchers.
Facility R&D gives me the Death Star Shield, which does what it did in Episode VI and renders the Death Star immune from attack. Considering that in this game, the Empire will not be correcting the original Death Star's exhaust port flaw, this is a legitimate concern. But since the odds of me building a Death Star in normal play are low - except maybe at the end when it's all but decided and solely as a vanity project - and the odds of me keeping it in a single spot
even lower (that is not really it's strength in this game) it's kind of pointless. But there if you want to make Coruscant extra-fortified I guess.
In any event, remember that Espionage Mission from before in the Farfin Sector? Well, it was targeted at Byss and it revealed some interesting things:
A decent (for the Alliance) Fleet, Ackbar - the Alliance's third and final Ship Researcher - and Lando Calrissian, doing a Facility Design Mission. Ackbar and Lando are priority targets, for obvious reasons - Ship R&D is crucial to disrupt if I want to maintain Naval supremacy, and slowing down their ability to construct Advanced Manufacturing Facilities is equally important - but unfortunately the stupid Escort Carrier
Eagle chased off my SpecForce platform, so it's going to be very difficult for me to get back there. But Byss is definitely on the target list now, not just for the Characters but as you can see they're working at making it a real manufacturing base for themselves. That Shipyard to Rishi is also worrying because
it has the Energy Points to be a strong Shipbuilding System.
But that's a problem for another day, as I decide to end it here. And show you what the Galaxy looks like, 160 Days after I began this session:
As you can see, my manufacturing is growing quite a lot; virtually all of my basic CYs and TFs are now Advanced, and I've hugely expanded on my SYs. I have 9 SYs up at Wor Tandell in the Dolomar Sector, which are currently producing my second ISD; I have 8 SYs at Ghorman in Sesswenna Sector and 6 more at Corellia (the last is on Bpfaash) that will be tasked with building VSDs and Lancer Frigates to bolster my support ships. Once my ACYs are done building themselves, they'll be setting up more SYs so I can really get started on bolstering the Fleet, which you can see I've so far only taken baby steps toward achieving. However, I'm also going to need to start churning out Mines and Refineries, because if I want a bigger, badder Fleet and Army, those 1,860 MPs will go
fast.
Next Time: Building up the infrastructure so I can build up a bigger military, while also launching my first conventional offensives against Rebel forces.