Star Wars: Empire at War - Mon Calamari

Star Wars: Empire at War - Mon Calamari
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 6 (Attack on Mon Calamari) / Tech Level 3. Starts under Rebel control. Conquer Mon Calamari (the system name; the homeworld/planet name is actually "Dac") early as part of preventing the Rebels from building raid fleets if you can. The mission does not end until you capture the planet.

Space Battle
This will probably be your most difficult space battle in the Imperial campaign to this point, because of the scripted arrival of two Mon Calamari Star Cruisers -- capital ships whose shields, staying power, and fire power all outclass anything you can build at this point.
As soon as you destroy a Nebulon-B Escort Frigate or a Marauder Corvette, they come in like reinforcements. (Anything smaller won't count. Curiously, you can destroy the Class 3 space station and they still won't come).
The distance will be just inside the fog of war, in the direction of your fleet's entry point. During the brief cutscene, they open fire and you do not have the chance to abort the cutscene to issue new orders. Especially if your fleet is very close and already damaged by other fighting, you could very well lose a Victory Star Destroyer during their entrance cutscene.

I actually lucked out a couple of times and successfully completed this mission with six Acclamators, one Broadside Cruiser, and NO losses (on Medium difficulty, where the AI doesn't always use special unit abilities) coming out of the battle, even with the Mon Calamari appearing right in their midst. A second try with four Victory Star Destroyers and three Broadside Cruisers (on Hard difficulty) yielded better and less scary results. The main factors are staying power, drawing fire, and Broadside Cruisers.

The Mon Calamari will tear down shields very quickly -- in a matter of seconds, in fact. The first ship being targeted will probably have to be moved back immediately. For every other cruiser, if their shields are gone, you might as well use their Boost Weapon Power ability.
Your Acclamators or Victory Star Destroyers need to have a lot of staying power because they still need to be in front of your Broadside Cruisers so they can maintain fire and bombard as soon as possible.

Depending on the distance at which the Mon Calamari appear, you may want to make a decision to immediately turn your fleet around, and instead engage the Mon Calamari with Darth Vader and a cloud of fighters. (You can also take down one capital ship and do this distraction later on the one further away). This combination should turn the Mon Calamari's attention on them, and you will know this if they start to turn around. Head for the space station while pulling your fleet out of their visual range. Once they are at the station, the two huge masses make easy targets for the Broadside Cruisers to barrage or even just fire normally.

Having Broadside Cruisers give you even more firepower than a Mon Calamari capital ship -- if you can deploy them safely. And with the Mon Calamari and the space station being all so large, they make the perfect targets. Use the area barrages whenever possible. Anything in the way of the missile's flight path can be hit, so you don't have to target the nearest one first. Even with just three Broadsides, once those slow missiles connect, you'll see how quickly the shields come down and the hull falls apart. Don't bother targeting anything in particular (not even the space station shield generator, which is actually a narrow target that's hard to hit even in by a barrage).

When your fleet first arrives, move them to the left edge and inch them up to be closer to level with the space station: still out of sight but the shortest distance between them and your Broadside Cruisers. This is important because if you need to cover your Broadside Cruisers, you don't want them to be too far from your cruisers.
If you can somehow destroy the space station without triggering the Mon Calamari, you won't have to worry about being in the crossfire. Otherwise, if you have to retreat, go further up and try not to stray to the right and into range of the space station's guns.

Once the Mon Calamari are destroyed, the Rebels will jump to hyperspace if the space station is also destroyed. It doesn't make any difference, but if you want the little cutscene to accompany the Imperial gloating after the mission, you need to leave the space station alone for the moment and clear out all units (use Darth Vader and fighters for this, and search the corners/edges where heavily damaged ships might be hiding). Once the space station is the only thing left, destroy it. You can safely do a Broadside Cruiser barrage from outside the space station's range.

Rebellion Campaign
Mon Calamari is available after successfully completing Mission 4 (Kessel Rescue). It is automatically reverted to your control after Mission 10 (Handle With Care!). If it is already in your control, you do not lose anything there.

Space Battle
On Hard Difficulty, the Imperials start with a strong space fleet of 31 points, including a lot of Tartan Cruisers. Two Acclamators from this fleet start slightly southwest of center, and almost immediately see the Rebellion fleet entering from the southwest. There are also TIE Scouts to (presumably) help them locate you with their Sensor Pings.

There are nebulae near the entry point which frequently causes ships to go around instead of through, so be careful of this.

Despite the rough start, this battle is doable early in the game with Nebulon-B Frigates. My early fleet was Sundered Heart, six Nebulon-B Frigates, and two Marauder Corvettes (which have to be protected against Tartan suicide runs). Once the first Acclamators are out of the way, you have time to reposition your Marauders to a safer position. Watch for Tartans suddenly coming out of the nebulae where you can't detect them.

Land Battle

By the time I had control of orbital space, the land map had the entire Imperial base under a shield, including the Power Generator.
Just inside the shield on the causeway are two Build Pads. If the Imperials put an Anti-Infantry Turret on one of them, you are unlikely to win this land battle without any losses. The main problem is that these Build Pads are just inside the shield, and only your PLEX Troopers can shoot through the shield, but they would be in range of Turrets.
(That said, if you can send a horde of natives to a turret, getting one or two inside the Turret's minimum range means you can have those units eventually take down the turret since the Turret can't fire on you, and if the other Build Pad has a turret, you would be out of range. However, the Imperials tend to send sorties out to defend those turrets.)

There are two ways to do this land battle. The hectic blitzkreig way without MPTL-2a artillery, and the patient way with MPTL-2a support. Either way, you can do so without unit losses (lots of Mon Calamari dead, however).

The basic tactic is to swarm the Imperial base with Mon Calamari. This will be hard because the Imperials start with a horde of infantry. Herd the Mon Calamari toward one Build Pad just inside the shield, and when the Imperials are busy there, sneak a small unit of them to the other pad and build an Anti-Infantry Turret. You may need to target the turret yourself so that it attacks the units you need to take down quickly, instead of leaving it to do its own thing.

Once you have an Anti-Infantry Turret, move some T2-B Repulsor Tanks and PLEX Troopers in to help the turret and secure the other Build Pad. Once the Imperials' ground troops have been exhausted, they will only have garrison troops, and these will stay inside their base unless you get too close.

Once you secure the other Build Pad, you will probably want to quickly put an Anti-Vehicle Turret there. When ready, advance to the end of the bridge. Watch out for the Imperials having built Turrets at the Build Pads there as well. They are less of an issue because you are now under the area Shield, but can still be challenging to do.

With Turret support, you should be able to push the Imperials back, take out the Shield Generator quickly with your PLEX Troopers, and do a Bombing Run for the rest.

If you can bring an MPTL, this mission can proceed at a more relaxed pace because you just need to survive the initial wave of infantry. The Imperials will probably build Turrets at the bridge, but the two turrets just inside the area Shield are still vulnerable to the MPTL. Although the torpedoes from an MPTL volley cannot penetrate the shield, they explode when they hit and the turrets will be in the blast radius (although you cannot see the blast). They will therefore go down in short order and you can try to advance under the shield.

Once your MPTLs are under the shield, they do not have to move far to be in range of the Power Generator to the south. Once that is destroyed, Bombing Runs can do the rest while you hold ground (easily done with your MPTLs).

On the north side of the Imperial base is a ramp leading into the water -- You can access this with your T2-B Repulsor Tanks and draw some fire away, but without support, they will get scrapped by AT-STs and 2-M Saber Repulsor Tanks. In general, the Imperials will not follow you out onto the water although they can with the 2-M Sabers and Scout Troopers.

Star Wars: Empire at War - Manaan

Star Wars: Empire at War - Manaan
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

The special ability of the planet for infantry to continuously heal extends only to the defenders. It also means that your infantry can't take down their infantry as they typically heal fast enough to outlast a gunfight.

There is a Rebel Training Facility to the south east. It is not essential to destroy this facility and it is represented with a star on the map instead of the usual square. The tooltip help indicates that it would set the Rebellion back if you did, but the actual effect of this is not clear.

Rebellion Campaign

Space Battle
Land Battle

PLACEHOLDER
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
CONTENT COMING SOON

Star Wars: Empire at War - Kuat

Star Wars: Empire at War - Kuat
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 6 (Attack on Mon Calamari) / Tech Level 3.

Space Battle
If you rush for the planet at the start of Mission 6, you can get there just before the Rebellion. The Rebellion will send a raid fleet, however, so you can either wait and dig them out, or defend on the planet.

Land Battle
I grabbed Kuat right away at the start of this mission, and right away had to defend it against a raid fleet. The Rebels had PLEX Troopers and MPTL-2a Mobile Proton Torpedo Launchers, which are preceded by spotter droids.
Although the MPTLs are slow to move, slow to deploy, and tend to undeploy and flee when charged, their barrages are devastating to anything the Imperials have on the ground -- even Darth Vader.
For the defense of Kuat, I had landed with only a Field Commander and two squads of AT-STs. The natives comprised two free units and started with the Field Commander far to the northwest.

The layout of the Kuat land battle involves a narrow river crossing between the Imperials and the Rebellion reinforcement point / landing zone. Once I spotted the spotter droid, I charged forward immediately with the AT-STs. They survived one barrage and some fire from PLEX Troopers, and quickly cleared the MPTLs with their own barrage. Then they stepped on the Rebel infantry and the defense of Kuat was fortunately won.

What I could have instead done is just secure Kuat space but let the Rebels take the land, then conquer it later at leisure. Since I would not have had significant time on the planet, there would be no fortifications to lose.

Rebellion Campaign
The Rebellion Campaign starts in Kuat space in Mission 1, but on a special map.
Kuat is available in Mission 2 (Interpreting the Network) / Tech Level 1.

Space Battle

The Rebellion Campaign begins here, with Raymus Antilles in the Sundered Heart. To quickly blow up each component of the shipyard, target the containers, which will trigger a chain reaction.
When you return to Kuat afterwards, the orbital space has no Imperial forces.

Land Battle

The land battle can be done at the start of Mission 2, and is quite easy if you are patient at the start and ignore the tips about scouting.
First, secure the Reinforcement Point with two squads of T2-Bs and one squad of PLEX Troopers. You cannot be flanked from your starting position except by Scout Troopers if they go over water and the long way, which is very unlikely as the enemy starts from the northeast and has no reason to circle around.
There are two Build Pads and one infantry dugout. Choose only 1 to use. I recommend choosing the western Build Pad to put an Anti-Infantry Turret (which, at this early stage, is useful against the lightly armored vehicles that the Imperials have). The Build Pads are far enough away that unless you draw the enemy to one of them, they might not get a chance to fire.
The other Build Pad can be set to a Vehicle Repair Station, although if you build it too early you will probably lose it. Instead, put one squad of T2-Bs nearer the river ford, your PLEX Troopers not far behind to cover them against vehicles, and the other squad of T2-Bs in reserve behind to swap with the forward group if that group's shields get too low. Keep C3PO and R2-D2 behind to repair the Turret and your T2-Bs.

Once the lengthy initial wave (mostly infantry) is over, continue to hold the Reinforcement Point area and send one group of T2-Bs out. If you scout to the west, you can find the single native building near the coast, approximately south of the second Reinforcement Point. Take it out and relocate your force to that Reinforcement Point. Remember to sell the turrets you've built.
At the mouth of that Reinforcement Point are two Build Pads, which you can use if you are worried about holding the location. Call all the PLEX Troopers you've got. Even if you've built more T2-Bs than the initial two squads provided to you, they'll just create a traffic jam in this tight map.
Now start moving on the enemy. Lead the way with either C3PO and R2-D2 (pulling them back to a Vehicle Repair Station when necessary), or a squad of T2-Bs. Follow quite closely with the PLEX Troopers to quickly take down vehicles. If you haven't taken too much time, the enemy may not have built any Turrets on their Build Pads but will probably still have a sizable force of light vehicles that will charge you. If you have a lot of PLEX Troopers, you'll clear them much more quickly than clearing their Infantry.

When I did this land battle right away at the start of Mission 2, there was just one Mining Facility and one Light Factory.

Star Wars: Empire at War - Korriban

Star Wars: Empire at War - Korriban
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 6 (Attack on Mon Calamari) / Tech Level 3.

Space Battle

Nothing special.

Land Battle

The natives in the northwest start out allied to you. They cannot initially see any enemies, but there are enemy infantry and vehicles just outside their vision. If you bring in a Field Commander, they will be able to see those enemies and attack. If you move them back first, you can save them for use as cannon fodder if necessary, and also save their dwellings so they can respawn.

Rebellion Campaign
Available in Mission 2 (Interpreting the Network) / Tech Level 1.

Space Battle

At this early stage of the game, there was just a single Pirate Cruiser and its garrison of two wings of Pirate Fighters. No Asteriod Space Station.

Land Battle

PLACEHOLDER
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
CONTENT COMING SOON

Star Wars: Empire at War - Kessel

Star Wars: Empire at War - Kessel
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
Kessel orbital space is the site of Mission 4 (Kessel Space Rescue).

Space Battle
For the Rebellion, they can have 25 points of units during space combat (versus 20 points for the Imperials). I went with Sundered Heart (mandatory), 9 Corellian Corvettes for firepower, and five squadrons of Y-Wing Bombers (a few squadrons are mandatory).

The Imperials begin with a few wings of TIE Fighters and TIE Bombers from the two Acclamators which you can take out -- go in with the Corellian Corvettes to clear the TIEs and draw fire. If you do not draw fire from the Acclamators, they can take out your Y-Wings.
Follow up the Corellian Corvettes with the Y-Wings and their special Ion Cannon Shots, then concentrate fire on the one Acclamator until it is destroyed. Rescue the prisoners from the shuttles then head over to do the same to the other Acclamator escort.

In case it is not clear, all you have to do is fire your Y-Wing Ion Cannon Shot once at each shuttle. A mission objective arrow will appear over it. Move the Sundered Heart very close to the shuttle and it will disappear. When all six shuttles are rescued, the ending cutscene automatically takes over and you hyperspace away.

You will probably not have time to try to destroy the newly incoming Victory Star Destroyers, and you don't have to since the orbital space will be clear after you complete this mission. Just return to Kessel and take the orbital space without resistance.

Land Battle

After completing Mission 4, you can land a unit on Kessel and take it without resistance.

Star Wars: Empire at War - Kashyyyk

Star Wars: Empire at War - Kashyyyk
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 7 (Trouble on Kashyyyk) / Tech Level 2.

Space Battle
You can move into Kashyyyk immediately with no resistance, but but you cannot land anything other than a stealth unit (Smuggler or Bounty Hunter) on the planet without triggering the special land combat against Han Solo. Curiously, you can start build queues once you put a Smuggler or Bounty Hunter on the planet. However, even if everything has completed building, ground buildings vanish after the land mission.

Land Battle
You can prevent Han Solo from planting any charges and destroying a prison by attacking him. He will stop to fight back, and only head back to a prison when enemies have retreated. You can therefore use the Scout Trooper/Speeder Bike's incredible speed to save ALL the prisons if you are fast enough:
Before you start your ground invasion, put various land units in orbit, and make sure you have several units of Speeder Bikes. To initiate the land invasion, use only one Speeder Bike. This will force your first unit on the ground to be a Speeder Bike.
Immediately start bringing in more Speeder Bikes -- about 4-6. As they come in, run them to find Han Solo and start shooting at him. (Even if you don't immediately know where he is, the Speeder Bikes are so fast that you can split them up to go solo and zip by the prisons quickly until you find him.
Once you find Han Solo, be careful: You only have two bikes per squad and they go down very quickly when under fire.
As you call down more Speeder Bikes, group your bikes into two or three groups as they come available. Each time Han Solo turns to attack one group, move that group out. When he chooses another group, move it back in to attack him. Once Han Solo is practically dead, he with retreat and the cutscene will play.

Using Speeder Bikes to harrass Han Solo requires a lot of by-the-second micromanagement as you flip back and forth between Han Solo in the northeast and watching for your reinforcements to land in the southwest. So you may want to play this mission in a less frantic way:

When the mission starts, you already know where the prisons are, and so when another falls, you have an idea of where Han Solo is located. Notice the east side has two exits. Cover both to make sure you catch Han Solo coming out (usually the north side). Once he is hurt enough (but you do not have to "kill" him by reducing his health to zero), he withdraws from the battle.

At the river crossings, if you wait on one side, you can sometimes quickly march a unit of AT-ST Walkers or TIE Maulers across to squish Wookies that advance onto the ford as it is quite narrow. You can take down a lot of wookies this way and it is much faster than shooting them, but those at the edge of the path will typically evade certain death this way.

Rebellion Campaign

Land Battle

Your units do not automatically attack the prisons, but you can do so if you wish. However, a destroyed prison does not release any Wookie prisoners. Only Han Solo can do this.

When Han Solo is brought near a prison, he needs some time to release the Wookies. During this time, you cannot select and control him or manually abort the sequence.
You can clear out all the Imperials before sending Han Solo in to do anything.

Star Wars: Empire at War - Jabiim

Star Wars: Empire at War - Jabiim
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 9 (The Rebel Fortress) / Tech Level 4. Starts under Rebel control. Conquer Jabiim early as part of preventing the Rebels from building raid fleets. The Mission does not end until the Land Battle is over.

Space Battle
If you take Jabiim early, it may only have a level 3 Space Station (unlike Fresia, which starts at Level 5). However, it has asteroid fields on the perimeter, which can cause your larger ships like Victory Star Destroyers to circle round if you're not watching.
Jabiim also has an Ion Cannon on the planet, which can disable any ship for a long time. This means it can't fire, it can't move, and shields drop to zero.

I captured Jabiim space early in Mission 9 with five Victory Star Destroyers, two Broadside Cruisers, Darth Vader, and a Fleet Commander. No losses sustained, no reinforcements called.
On entry, I moved the Broadsides away to a corner to maximize their chances of staying out of sight. I stopped the Star Destroyers from moving so they wouldn't accidentally drift into space station range. (Even so, the Ion Cannon could still hit them.)
As usual with Broadside Cruiser station sieges, I have Darth Vader (or TIE squadrons) tie up the larger Rebellion ships near the space station if possible--Enemy ships often drift closer and if your Broadside Cruisers come under fire, they could be crippled or destroyed before the enemy is shot down. Darth Vader can take on the missile-firing Marauders and keep them too busy to fire on you.
Once the initial wave of corvettes is done, use Broadside Cruisers to take on the space station while keeping the Star Destroyers holding still, defending each other and out of range of the station. Anytime a Broadside Cruiser draws attention from another vessel, pull them back.
Eventually you will destroy the station with missiles. Retreat your Broadsides behind your Star Destroyers and advance your fleet cautiously together so they can concentrate fire and cover each other. Any that are heavily damaged can be retreated to a far corner away from enemy activity.

Land Battle

The energy generator is outside of the shielded area, to the northeast. It's possible to solo this mission with Darth Vader, and in some ways it's easier because you start in a cramped area, and if you land units other than Darth Vader, the Rebels immediately try to swarm you.

If you want to take this the non-cheesy regular way (i.e., not solo with Darth Vader), you have to immediately move your units when you land. Start with an AT-AT (maybe Colonel Veers) as it is the least fragile. Set up one or maybe two groups units of SPMA-Ts to back it up. Against anything that gets past the AT-AT, you can use AT-ST Walkers (Repulsor lift vehicles cannot be deployed on Jabiim).

There are two side-by-side Building Pads near the western exit from the Reinforcement Point, and is the best place to park your AT-AT as you can have two Vehicle Repair Stations constantly healing it against an onslaught of heavy armor and artillery.

Once the initial wave is over, move your SPMA-Ts to the building pads and move your AT-AT a bit forward so they are targeted by enemy artillery first. Keep your AT-AT there to draw fire from artillery units -- After the initial wave, the Rebels will have to wait for new vehicles to be produced from their factories. Send maybe Darth Vader and supporting AT-ST Walkers to find the shield generator and take it out with a bombing run. Or, send the AT-AT, and then return it to the Vehicle Repair Station before the final advance on the base.
After that, you can advance on the base. Take out the heavy factory first (northeastern corner of the base, usually).

The mission does not end until you take out the Ion Cannon deep in the forest to the east.

Rebellion Campaign

Space Battle
Land Battle

PLACEHOLDER
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
CONTENT COMING SOON