Star Wars: Empire at War - Ilum

Star Wars: Empire at War - Ilum
This is a hint / walkthrough for a planet in Star Wars: Empire at War. The index of all our guides for Empire at War is here.

Imperial Campaign
You have to conquer Ilum in Mission 4 (The Pirate Menace) / Tech Level 2.

Space Battle
Boba Fett's mission here is straightforward if you take your time and let his shields regenerate first, and draw the Pirate Assault Fighters away (if any are left after his seismic charge) before finishing them off -- you can sometimes be too close to the asteroid space station and after a while sound the general alarm.
Afterward, have Boba Fett take out all missile platforms and patrolling fighters before calling in the Empire.

When you call in reinforcements, you can split them into three or four approaches. Against the fighters that appear later with the Pirate leader's vessel, you can try to engage and clump them, then have Boba Fett run by and drop a siesmic charge.

Note that this mission is practically impossible if you are using a ship rescaling mod that resizes the pirate frigate to Star Wars canon size. The reduced size makes it very, very, hard for some of your larger vessels to hit it.

Land Battle
Assuming you don't immediately know where the (only) building is located, the first thing to do is race for the other reinforcement point to get more units -- especially when playing on Hard and the pirate forces are thick. Build turrets on the Building Pads (probably two Anti-Infantry) to keep the enemy busy while they try to contest that reinforcement point.
Run Vader east and follow up a short distance later with AT-STs. Once you're at the next reinforcement point, you will probably have to fight some pirates first. Try to secure at least one Building Pad and build a Vehicle Repair Station to give your AT-STs longevity. Call in reinforcements, then slowly fight north. There is no need to hold either Reinforcement Point, as by now you would have called in the maximum number of units (10).

Around the middle of the map are two Building Pads close together -- another good place for an overlapping Vehicle Repair Station. As you abandon your old positions, if you are worried about being flanked, you can convert Repair or Bacta Stations into Turrets.

On the way from the southwest Reinforcement Point to southeastern one, you may see a Pirate base on the mountain above (especially if you have a Field Commander, which will extend the radius at which the fog of war is revealed). If you can call down a bombing run early, you will have a much easier time as it pumps out a lot of vehicles. It is also the only structure on the planet, so if you just hold ground and use bombing runs, you can stem the tide of pirate reinforcements. Even if you can't target the building, you can try to target the nearest land you can, and after a few runs the splash damage from the explosions should eventually destroy the building.

You can also do an AT-ST Walker blitzkreig toward the only building. Along the way, one bombing run typically becomes available before you reach the vehicle factory. You can either use that to help you clear a thick clump of pirates, or to clear out the factory.
One of the reasons you can do this with just Darth Vader and three squads of AT-STs from just the initial Reinforcement Point is because AT-STs can walk and shoot at the same time. Darth Vader takes point to soak PLEX missiles. By continually walking forward, you squash almost all the infantry in your way using your AT-STs. The typically lightly-armored pirate vehicles (Bantha II Cargo Skiff, Swamp Speeder/Infantry Support Platform) can be taken down by the continuous AT-ST weapons fire. The occasional heavier Pod Walker/All-Terrain Attack Pod can be very quickly handled by Darth Vader's Force Crush.
One of the main advantages of a blitzkrieg is that you can run past the Building Pads before the pirates can use them to build turrets. Turrets will slow your advance considerably as you will have to wait for Darth Vader or a bombing run to clear them (or take losses doing so yourself).

Rebellion Campaign

Space Battle
Land Battle

PLACEHOLDER
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
CONTENT COMING SOON

Star Wars: Empire at War - Hoth

Star Wars: Empire at War - Hoth
This is a hint / walkthrough for a planet in Star Wars: Empire at War. The index of all our guides for Empire at War is here.

Imperial Campaign

Space Battle

Nothing special.

Land Battle

There are a lot of Building Pads here, so if you do not move reasonably quickly, the Rebellion can really dig in and slow things down with a lot of turrets.

Also, watch out for the two Wampa dens in the southwest. They spawn Wampas, which will attack if you get too close, and which can do a remarkable amount of damage to any vehicle short of an AT-AT.

In our game on Hard Difficulty, there were two Powers Generators but, curiously, no Shield Generator.
Also, after destroying all Rebels and all native creatures and their lairs, the game refused to recognize that the Imperials had won. We had to use the Retreat option. This caused all units except Colonel Veers to be recovered safely back into orbit. Immediately sending down a unit after the retreat allowed us to take the planet without resistance or land battle.

Rebellion Campaign

Space Battle
Land Battle

PLACEHOLDER
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
CONTENT COMING SOON

Star Wars: Empire at War - Geonosis

Star Wars: Empire at War - Geonosis
This is a hint / walkthrough for a planet in Star Wars: Empire at War. The index of all our guides for Empire at War is here.

The Geonosian weapons ignore shields. Although every Geonosian has this weapon (possibly a sonic blaster), according to Star Wars canon, only the cybernetic Geonosian Elite Warriors had shield-ignoring Beam Weapons.

Imperial Campaign
You need to capture Geonosis in Mission 5 (Subjugating Geonosis) / Tech Level 1. Starts under Rebel control. Conquer Geonosis early as part of preventing the Rebels from building raid fleets -- Mission 5 does not end until you finish the Land Battle portion.

Space Battle
You get a free Acclamator during the battle, but it disappears after. Hmm...

Land Battle
The cutscene at the start basically tells you where the Rebel base is located, so you can try some blind bombing runs and hope the splash damage eventually destroys any Barracks and Factories, ending Rebellion reinforcements.
You can use Darth Vader to run past the native Geonosians, although you will want to come back and destroy their dwellings as one of the Mission bonus goals -- just leave a harmless Rebel facility standing (like an Officer Academy) to prevent the mission from ending.
If you ignore the natives, they will likely ignore you if you don't attack them. Instead, leave them alone for the moment and let the Rebels engage them instead (Which doesn't seem to happen on Hard difficulty). Units will automatically attack them, and you can't stop AT-ST Walkers from attacking them because the walkers can walk and shoot simultaneously.

Rebellion Campaign

Space Battle

Geonosis starts with a Hypervelocity Cannon. It ignores shields, and two shots will take out a Nebulon-B. You can, however, use Corvettes and Marauders which are too small for the Hypervelocity Cannon.

Land Battle

Geonosis has an Advanced Factory, which in turn has an AT-AT garrison. The AT-AT cannot be killed by a single Bombing Run, so you will have to be careful if it comes for you. If you can move your units quickly, try to get it to turn by running a unit of T2-B Repulsors behind it. Your T2-Bs should be able to take a few hits before going down. Once you have it distracted, get a swarm of PLEX Troopers to its rear or rear side to bring it down. MPTL-2a barrages are faster, but if the AT-AT turns to attack them, you may not be able to move them fast enough to avoid losing one.

If you don't yet have Mobile Proton Torpedo Launchers, you can use Geonosians to make suicide runs to locate facilities behind the area Shield for Bombing Runs. Keep them moving so they don't all go down when a Scout Trooper drops a thermal grenade. Go for the Advanced Factory first in case the Imperials decide to make another AT-AT.

Star Wars: Empire at War - Fresia

Star Wars: Empire at War - Fresia
This is a hint / walkthrough for a planet in Star Wars: Empire at War. The index of all our guides for Empire at War is here.

Rebellion Campaign
Fresia is the site of Mission 3 (Theft of the X-Wing).

Space Battle
There is no space battle. After Mission 3, you can take the orbital space without resistance.

Land Battle
What makes this Mission hard to pull through with no unit losses is the absence of Build Pads. Even the enemy has no Build Pads except for those reserved for the mission script to build Anti-Aircraft Turrets (when they lose turrets, there is no Build Pad left behind).
There is a lot of water, but also a lot of fords, and your T2-B Repulsor Tanks have no advantage in being able to cross water. Because the paths are quite narrow, having too many T2-Bs is a liability due to traffic jams.
Because of many Turrets, I waited for a Y-Wing Bomber to have Bombing Runs before starting this mission.

For this mission, I left one squad of T2-B Repulsor Tanks near the starting Reinforcement Point to defend the Rebel Pilots. Some infantry came, but they cannot overwhelm the T2-B's shields and in the drawn-out shootout were eventually cleared.

The other squad of T2-B Repulsor Tanks took point. The remaining units were all PLEX Troopers, which I grouped together so that one volley from the group can generally destroy an AT-ST Walker.

On a small island on the west as you head for the Power Generator, there are several AT-ST Walkers. I used a Bombing Run to clear these as the narrow area made it hard to bring up the PLEX Troopers while retreating the T2-Bs. At the entrance to the Imperial Base, I waited for another Bombing Run to clear the turrets at the entrance before moving in. I rushed the T2-Bs to soak fire, and brought up the PLEX Troopers to quickly clear the AT-ST, then retreated them until the T2-Bs had finished off the Imperial infantry.

At the northeast Reinforcement Point, it is probably not worth it to try to secure the Reinforcement Point. Instead, let your PLEX Troopers quickly destroy the TIE Maulers (before they self-destruct), and wait for the Imperials to start landing the AT-STs. If you call a Bombing Run at that point, it should clear the AT-STs all in one go.

After the Power Generator is down, use C-3PO and R2-D2 to take over the harmless TurboLasers. The enemy will still recognize them as Rebel units and attack them, thus buying you time or drawing fire away from you.

Before moving the pilots to the X-Wings (and triggering the building of Anti-Aircraft Turrets), wait for a Bombing Run. You can clear all four Anti-Aircraft Turrets from the middle of the map in a single Bombing Run. If you didn't time it right to also clear the reinforcements landing there, it doesn't matter as you just need to destroy all Anti-Aircraft Turrets to win the mission at that point.

After Mission 3, you can return to Fresia to take the planet without resistance.

Star Wars: Empire at War - Fondor

Star Wars: Empire at War - Fondor
This is a hint / walkthrough for a planet in Star Wars: Empire at War. The index of all our guides for Empire at War is here.

Imperial Campaign
You must capture Fondor in Mission 2 (Crush. Kill. Destroy.) / Tech Level 2.

Space Battle

Nothing special.

Land Battle

Fondor is interesting because there are Turrets at choke points, but you can also often see them without coming under fire by being around a corner or behind a narrow obstacle. The Turret will still fire at you, but instead its shots will hit the barrier. A bombing run that is not directly aimed on a turret can still take it out if it is in the blast radius, so you don't always need Vader to locate them.
If your bombing runs stop working, the rebels may have built an Anti-Air Turret. You are still notified that the bombing run is underway and there is another waiting period for the bombing run to again be available.

There are some tight spots, so two squads (8 AT-STs) are probably all you will want to move around at any one time to avoid traffic jams. Bring them all in if you can, but leave some in reserve -- swap one squad in while the other heads back to Repair Stations.

You can actually solo this map with Vader. And if you can keep his health high, you can actually stand surrounded by light arms fire from vehicles or infantry (or even PLEX Troopers) and practically indefinitely hold them off while deflecting/reflecting laser fire. Turn on time acceleration to see how long he can last!

Fondor is also the first planet on which you can build a Cantina and hire a Smuggler for 500 credits. It is useless to set them to Steal Credits as it will typically take 5-10 days before you break even on the cost. Before then, they will either be somehow removed by the enemy, or you will have taken the planet. Once you take over a planet with your own Smuggler still Stealing Credits, you will see both a + and - on the credits produced -- Basically your Smuggler stealing from you and giving you back the same amount.

Rebellion Campaign

Space Battle
Land Battle

PLACEHOLDER
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
CONTENT COMING SOON

Star Wars: Empire at War - Eriadu

Star Wars: Empire at War - Eriadu
This is a hint / walkthrough for a planet in Star Wars: Empire at War. The index of all our guides for Empire at War is here.

Imperial Campaign
Available in Mission 5 (Subjugating Geonosis) / Tech Level 1. Starts under Rebel control. Conquer Eriadu early as part of preventing the Rebels from building raid fleets.

Space Battle
When your fleet circles the nebula nearby, watch for Y-Wings concentrating their fire on one ship in your divided force. Keep them busy with Darth Vader and your TIE Fighters (from Acclamators). For quick results, group the TIEs together and manually control them.

Land Battle
Once you capture the Communications Array to the south, the entire map will be revealed. You will notice that even though the Rebels also have a Communications Array, they only send out small sorties and keep most of their forces at the base. If you harrass them and then flee, you will see that these units return to their positions -- essentially, they are set to Defend. You can therefore wait for bombing runs and safely bombard them generally without fear of them coming out like angry bees.

Rebellion Campaign

Space Battle
Land Battle

PLACEHOLDER
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
CONTENT COMING SOON

Star Wars: Empire at War - Dantooine

Star Wars: Empire at War - Dantooine
This is a hint / walkthrough for a planet in Star Wars: Empire at War. The index of all our guides for Empire at War is here.

Imperial Campaign

Space Battle

Nothing special.

Land Battle

One of the first shielded-base missions. This is a hard mission even with an AT-AT if you approach it the hard way. The Reinforcement Point you start with is near the northeastern coast, and the immediate road ahead next to the coast is a winding one -- which means a slow advance for walkers, and a lot of traffic jams. And as soon as you land, the Rebellion is going to come at you with a lot of artillery.

Just for fun, try it on Hard difficulty with four AT-ATs. If you just march them into the base, they can probably just take out the Shield Generator before the last of them is destroyed.

When you start, park your AT-AT near the two Building Pads, set to Vehicle Repair Stations. You don't have a lot of units to begin with, so you may want to start with an AT-AT (probably Colonel Veers), SPMA-Ts to support the AT-AT with strong long-range fire, AT-ST Walkers to use against enemies that get too close, and a Field Commander -- yes, no Darth Vader for a change.
Dig in your SPMA-Ts with the Deploy command. They don't need to undeploy and turn to fire, so they can also cover your eastern flank, whereas your AT-AT will try to turn or move.
For our strategy, you will also need at least one unit of 2-M Saber-Class Repulsor Tanks.

After you land, quickly position yourself to survive the initial onslaught. When this is over, sneak your Repulsor Tanks out onto the water off the northwest coast. If you scout along the coast, you'll find the energy generator on the south side. Take it out with your Repulsor Tanks, retreating them out onto the water whenever necessary.
Once the shield is down, you can continue to hold your position and try running a Repulsor Tank into the base to call a bombing run. If you hug the north side, you should be out of range of the coastal turrets. This is, however, a tricky proposition as your Repulsors are in trouble if they run into PLEX Troopers or MPTL-2a Artillery (PLEX ignores shields, MPTL-2a barrages take down the shields too quickly).
Have your Repulsors rejoin your main force if possible.

Next, move your force east to the next pair of side-by-side Building Pads and another Reinforcement Point. Set up Vehicle Repair Stations there to hold ground again. Call more reinforcements (e.g., Darth Vader and AT-STs to use against PLEX Troopers, which take are remarkably long time for an AT-AT to kill) and advance forward.
If you hold ground here and wait for the Rebellion to come to you, you could possibly buy your offshore Repulsor Tanks a few extra seconds to locate structures for bombing runs because they are now moving toward the path further from the coast.

Reinforcements might not be necessary, but we moved to the east because it is a straight, wide path north to the Rebel base -- no turning and traffic jams involving the AT-AT. From here, things are pretty straightforward as long as you keep your AT-AT properly covered with supporting fire. Save one Rebel structure for last (e.g., the Shield Generator or a Mining Facility) while you look for native structures to make sure you get them all for the bonus credits.