The ULTIMATE Star Wars Rebellion guide

Version 2
10/12/99
By Jayson Farrell

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CONTENTS

1.  Introduction
2.  General Strategy
3.  Playing As Alliance
4.  Playing As Empire
5.  Battles
6.  Hints And Tips
7.  Parting Gifts

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1.  INTRODUCTION

Star Wars Rebellion is an awesome strategy game.  I have read complaints
regarding the interface, the graphics, the gameplay...but knowing this game
as well as I do I can say the only real drawback is a horrible computer AI.
I would only recommend buying this game if you have a worthy human opponent
lined up.  You should still play the computer at first to adapt to the
environment.  Once you understand the game, there are few things as fun as a
one-on-one match in Rebellion.

If you own Rebellion, and you think it sucks, give it more time.  This game
is insanely engrossing and rich.  Almost every play session will yield some
new strategy or insight.  Also, try to get a person to play against.  This is
a difficult task, but very worthwhile.  If you want to play me, I'm sure to
be game.  E-mail me at [email protected].  Try to make the subject header
meaningful or I may delete it as junk mail.  :)

I'm not going to recreate any of the manual in this FAQ.  That would be a big
waste of time.  I assume you have read it and loosely understood it.  I will
clarify the confusing aspects and point out things they just don't tell you.

In other words, I'm skipping all the "in a galaxy far, far away" stuff.

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2.  GENERAL STRATEGY

This game is daunting in its depth, but there are only a few general
principles that you need be aware of to do well.

First of all, the most obvious, is keep all your resources active.  Your
characters should never be idle.  Your construction yards should never be
idle (unless you've got a serious maintenance shortfall).  Your shipyards
should not be idle unless you're headed towards a maintenance shortfall.
Your training facilites may be idle, but be sure to keep abreast of your
garrison situations.

Constantly send your characters on missions to keep them busy.  Missions, as
the manual states, succeed depending on the skills of the character.  There
are roughly four kinds of characters:  espionage types, diplomacy types,
leadership types, and research types.  The most important at the beginning of
the game is the diplomatic type.  Ratings of about 70 or higher in diplomacy
make adequate diplomats.  At the beginning of the game, diplomacy characters
should do diplomacy missions (even if they have other skills).  In an
espionage character, you probably want espionage and combat skills at around
80.  Have them sabotage and spy whenever possible.  I find that R + D missions
do not greatly speed up how fast you get new stuff, but they are still
important.  I often put espionage missions at higher priority than R+ D early
in the game.  Leadership types are most important during the middle and late
game, when your opponent will invade your space.  Keep a General on important
planets, and always have an Admiral and Commander on a fleet.  Often the
leadership role will be secondary to other skills, and you'll promote
characters when the need arises.

A second principle guiding your grand strategy should be to produce at the
lowest level first.  The net time to build 10 construction yards and 10
shipyards is smaller when you build all the construction yards first (instead
of, say, alternating between shipyard and construction yard).  Incidentally,
the manual is not very clear on this.  The more construction yards on a
planet, the faster the production is from that planet.

The same principle applies to characters.  You should have all guys that can
recruit do so as fast as possible, until you've earned all the characters for
your side. This just makes sense...the more characters you have, the more
ways you can cripple your opponent.  Nothing feels better than finishing your
recruiting as the Alliance and freeing up the grim power of Han, Luke, and
Leia simultaneously!  But be sure to recruit on planets that completely
support you, as your odds of success are much greater.  Do diplomacy to
achieve this if necessary.

Finally, in determining your grand strategy, keep in mind the big picture.
The real goal of Rebellion (and your top priority) is to get planets from
your opponent.  The best way is through diplomacy missions.  Only rarely
should you have your diplomats focusing on a planet that is already yours!
(Exceptions are when you are establishing a recruitment planet or when you
are eliminating garrison requirements.  These objectives are higher in
priority.)  Planets won by diplomatic conquest are very difficult to convert
back to neutrality.  Secondary to your goal of winning planets is to build up
your characters' skills, establish a powerful fleet, and ruin your opponent's
production capacity.  By a system of priorities, it is easy to see that you
should only bombard planets when you know you won't hit production facilities
or when all the planets in that system are loyal to your opponent.

There are times when you'll want to deviate from these principles, but only
rarely.

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3.  PLAYING AS ALLIANCE

As the Rebel Alliance, your top priority is to locate any planets that are
garrisoned by the Empire.  Move quickly to take out these garrisons, but be
aware that your opponent will be defending these quickly as well.  If luck is
with you Han, Luke, Wedge and Chewie will arrive before the Imps can resist.
Get them on the nearest Corvette, bring them to the non-Empire planet closest
to the garrisoned one, and have them sabotage away from the fleet.

If you take out a garrisoned planet, a significant amount of the planets in
that sector will join you (as it proves to them that the Empire cannot hold
planets by force).  After this fervor has died down (hopefully you'll have
some more production), you need to think about recruitment.  Have Luke, Leia
and Dodonna do Diplomacy missions on a planet highly loyal to you until it
completely supports you.  Then get Han, Leia and Luke to recruit until you
finish.  You could leave them on Yavin, but that would mean every successful
recruit would have to make a long trip from the outer rim.  Mon Mothma, in
the meantime, should leave the Rebel base and either recruit or do Diplomacy
missions.

The Alliance should quickly consolidate its fleet.  A large fleet stands a
much better chance against the fearsome Imperial armada, and makes it less
susceptible to sabotage missions.  Send any and all surplus espionage types
to this fleet.  They will be able to strike from this mobile base.  Locate
your opponent's most vulnerable positions.  Try to knock out construction
and ship yards if possible.  Even better, if your adversary has left ships
alone or in small groups, you can sabotage them.  To avoid your opponent
from determining the location of your ships, don't blockade your opponent's
systems early on.  Instead, strike from a nearby neutral or loyal planet.

Keep those espionage boys going.  Sabotage anything and everything, and be
sure to spy frequently.  Keeping abreast of your opponent's status is key.

The two biggest advantages of the Alliance, you will find, is their generally
superior diplomacy skills and the knowledge of the opponent's base location.
They are pretty powerful advantages in a multi-player match, and gives them
a slight strategic edge.  After you've built up your forces long enough, move
in for the kill.

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4.  PLAYING AS EMPIRE

The same basic tactics apply to the Empire.  Your top priorities are to
recruit on loyal planets and diplomatically secure your garrisoned planets.
The Emperor, happily, is in an ideal position for recruitment and that should
be all he does early on.  He also gives a big bonus to your leadership skills
across the galaxy while on Coruscant, which prevents sabotage missions with
great effectiveness.

Vader should do recruiting at the nearest loyal planet.  Get diplomats
immediately to a sector with garrisons--even more important, get Generals and
fleets.  Once you've adequately protected a garrisoned planet, have diplomats
"train" by converting neutral planets near the trouble spot.  This will build
up their numbers a bit and allow them to un-garrison the planet more
effectively.  Don't waste too much time building them up or you might lose
the sector entirely.

The Imperial fleet is a refreshing change from the Alliance one.  It is much
stronger except in the way of fighters; hopefully your opponent will not have
fighter-carrying capitals until later.  Still, like the Alliance, you should
consolidate your fleet to protect it from sabotage.  Also like the Alliance,
the main purpose of your fleet in the start is as a platform for sabotage
missions.  Be sure Coruscant has some defenses before taking off with that
Imperial Star Destroyer--a Gen-Core and lots of troops are essential.

Coruscant's defenses should be built up whenever you have resources to spare.
Add shielding and all the troops you can muster.  Your opponent will be
looking for an opening here; don't let him get it!  A good idea is to have
someone that can become a General doing R + D at planets like Coruscant that
you can't afford to lose.  When danger looms, you can pull them out of their
mission (it should be automatic) and have them General to protect the planet.
This also insures you aren't wasting a character just for the off-chance that
your opponent drops by.

Playing as the Empire is tougher than the Alliance.  You have two less guys
to recruit with, the headache of garrisoned planets, and the annoyance of
trying to find your opponent's base.  The first two you'll pretty much just
have to deal with.  Finding your opponent's base can be done through probe
droids and, later, Assault Transports (going from planet to planet in the
Outer Rim).  Unfortunately, often when you find it, the Alliance moves it
anyway.  It's a pain and a half.  No wonder they lost in the movies.

Best things about the Empire are the Death Star and Assassination missions.
The Death Star is best for cutting through very strong defenses, like 7
Gen-Core Level II's.  Be wary of those damn Alliance fighters, though.
Protect Death Stars to the maximum, and destroy fighters first!  Assassination
missions are even better, because you can eliminate a valuable character
of your opponent's immediately.  Tough to pull off, but worth it.  If you
are going after an injured opponent, often abduction missions will kill the
character anyway.

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5.  BATTLES

Okay, here are a few brief notes on battling.  Strategy here is pretty sparse,
which is why I've treated this aspect of the game lightly.  To win a battle,
here's what you do:  have your entire fleet attack one ship until its
batteries are gone, then go for the next ship.  (Note that your fleet will
have a response time to new orders.  After practice you will be able to "lead"
ships and reassign your fleet at just the right time, taking out the enemy's
batteries without wasting shots on the hull.)

You'll probably want to deviate from the rule of pasting one ship with your
fleet when you have significant quality and your opponent has significant
quantity.  That is, if you have 8 IMPs and your opponent 30 Corvettes, have a
just a few IMPs take one Corvette.  This ensures you don't overkill the
Corvette and waste shots needlessly.

Another fairly important aspect to battles is learning to gauge forces.
After a while you will get a feel for which side will win, and can retreat if
necessary.  A good strategist also knows when to pull out mid-way through a
battle to avoid further loss.  This just takes practice.

Two final tips on battles.  First, try to distribute your characters evenly
amongst your ships.  Whenever your opponent destroys your ship with a
character, that character could be captured or even killed.  I like putting my
Admiral and Commander on wimpy ships to entice enemy forces away from the big
guns (this is especially good when you're facing down a Death Star).  Finally,
try to assign fighters only after the battle has developed a bit.  If you are
overzealous and assign them to targets early on, they will charge into enemy
fire and take losses while doing little damage.  They are more effective with
capital ship protection.

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6.  HINTS AND TIPS

-To select multiple characters for a mission, use Shift and Control (for PC,
at least).  I find groups of three are ideal for the tougher missions, with
one guy running decoy and the other two doing the work.  For unguarded
planets, of course, one guy by his lonesome works fine.

-Espionage missions are your friends.  When you've got nothing for a character
to do, have him do an espionage mission.  They tell you a lot about your
enemy's movement; if you espionage one of your own planets you can tell if
an enemy fleet is coming or an enemy character is doing a mission there.

-The Incite Uprising mission is very tough to pull off, but can have many
rewards.  Try this mission on an opponent's garrisoned planet, or a planet
that is close to neutral but still supports your opponent.  In the latter
case, success will cause the planet to turn back to neutral.  I'd recommend
doing this only if you have a diplomat waiting to take the neutral planet.

-Speaking of uprisings, you really want to avoid these puppies.  An uprising
will decrease your support in the sector and halt production on the uprising
planet.  Subduing uprisings--another difficult mission--will swing support
back to you and allow you to use production facilities again.  Always meet
the garrison requirements on a planet to protect against uprisings.  When you
assault planets, a good rule of thumb is to have 6 regiments in the assault
(guaranteeing an uprising-free conquest).

-To Jedi Train, highlight both the Force-user and either Vader (for the Imps)
or Luke (for the Alliance).  Then target a loyal planet.  Jedi Training is
the longest of all missions but is almost always successful.  It will nicely
enhance the skills of the trainee.  You can only do this mission once per
Force-user.

-So far as I can see, Commanders, Generals and Admirals don't tremendously
increase the effectiveness of your fighters, troops and capitals.  Their main
purpose (which is a huge one) is to foil missions.  Not only will they often
stop missions from succeeding against your forces, they'll greatly increase
the chance of the opponent's characters getting captured.

-The fastest things in the game are the Assault Transport for the Imperials
and the Millennium Falcon (Han) for the Rebels.  Check a ship's status to get
the hyperdrive rating...the lower the better.

-Park ships over shipyards to have them heal MUCH faster.  They also don't
heal over an enemy system.

-Bombarding planets, and hitting production facilities or resources, makes
that sector hate you.  Save this for sectors that are entirely in your
opponent's control or when you know you'll only hit non-production facilities
(or, I suppose, desperate tactics).

-Hovering over neutral planets often makes you invisible to your opponent,
and over your planets you will be invisible unless your opponent has
espionage information there.  Consequently, if you're going to attack an
opponent's planet, jump to a nearby loyal/neutral planet first.  If you don't,
he may get information about your arrival in time to pull out.  Also, because
of this, it often pays to get a foothold (at least one planet) in a sector.
This means you will later be able to assault the sector, if necessary,
undetected.

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7.  PARTING GIFTS

Uh, yep.  That's about it.  Let me know what you think.  Also, be sure to
check out my Mario Kart 64 battle guide on GameFAQs.

[email protected]
[email protected]

This document Copyright 1999 by Jayson Farrell.