Empire at War is a Real Time Strategy game on a galactic scale.

How you can play:
🔸 1 x Empire Campaign
🔹 1 x Rebel Campaign
🔸 1 x Zann Consortium Campaign [Forces of Corruption]
🔹 Galactic Conquest (sandbox on some or all of the ~70 systems)
🔸 Skirmish missions set on unique Ground or Space maps (many options)


What kind of RTS ?:
As there are many variants of RTS games, this is a brief overview:
🔸 Space looks 3D, (some units can pass over others) but expect 2D,
🔹 The only resource you have to worry about is Credits,
🔸 A Tech level defines what units/buildings can be build and heroes available,
🔹 A set number of Building slots per planet,
🔸 Location of these buildings are between 1 of several fixed positions on the map,
🔹 Turrets, Healing & Sensors can be built only at specific locations (pads) on the map,
🔸 Each planet comes with a bonus (eg: A-Wing cost 20% less)
🔹 Space Station level defines what can be built, (max level is per system & tech level)
🔸 Travel between systems works mostly like a chain, (a-b-c-d)
🔹 All units have some ability, (take cover, focus weapons, seismic charge! ...)
🔸 Lasers have to take out shield before they can do hull damage (Ion lasers very effective at this)
🔹 Torpedoes bypass shields to target the Hull, however these can be defended against,
🔸 Larger ships have targetable hard-points (Engines, Turrets, Missile Launchers, Shields)
This alone offers some great tactical options;
☐ Taking out Shields early means easier prey,
☐ Killing the Engines stops retreat and reduces speed and laser output,
☐ Destroying the Hanger stops additional Garrisoned units being spawned,
☐ Taking out Turbo Lasers and/or Proton Torpedo Launchers reduces its effectiveness against other larger ships,
☐ Wiping out Lasers and/or Concussion Missile Launchers reduces its anti Fighter/Bomber abilities.
These and other variations come in extremely useful when you're underpowered vs your enemy, removing its strongest abilities against what you're using to counter it.


It's not as in-depth with regards to economy as other RTS’ (AoE for example) but this allows for more focus on the combat, and this does not disappoint.
(This is the reason I have so many hours + however many 000’s hours I had before Steam)


How a Battle for a system may go (Galactic Conquest):
🔸 You have amassed fleets in orbit above a system you own,
🔹 You move your space attacking fleet to the system you want,
🔸 You are now up against whatever fleet was in orbit and the space station,
🔹 Your ships will jump in to fill the unit cap, (other options here)
🔸 Larger ships (Star Destroyers etc) start to deploy garrisoned ships (Fighters & Bombers),
🔹 Use these units to remove all opposing forces or force a retreat,
🔸 Success, remaining units now orbit & guard the system.
To own the system you need control of the Planet,
🔹 Bring in your 2nd fleet (kept back as not to risk transports in open space battles)
🔸 Your units land at a specific location, and limited by a pop cap (more landing zones = more pop cap)
🔹 Take out all enemy (including building) or force a retreat,
🔸 Using troops you can capture building pads, (faction turrets, bacta, repair & sensor nodes)
🔹 Some areas offer cover for troops,
🔸 Weather can limit vision, reduce laser or missile accuracy etc,
🔹 Locals may be allied to you ~(controllable, but weak) or your enemy, or just hate you all,
🔸 Having Bombers in orbit allows for bombing runs, (with cooldown)
🔹 Having larger ships allows for faction specific orbital strikes, (with cooldown)

Note: Garrisoned units are free, don’t take up pop count, work exactly the same as bought units and are identified by a little flag marker. Following a space battle these units auto replenished, assuming the ship that spawns them has not been destroyed.

Stealth Fleets/Units;
🔸 As an alternative to using a massive fleet you could send a 'Stealth Fleet'
🔹 Some Fleets/Units (majority Rebel) have the ability to move (on galactic map) undetected and are able to initiate a ground invasion whilst bypassing space combat.
This allows for small incursions to take unprotected planets or take out land base space weapons prior to a fleet invasion for example. It can be extremely hard/impossible to take well defended planets with such a small force but offers some great ways to chaise problems for your enemy
🔸 Defiler (Zann Consortium only) take this down a different route and can sabotage (destroy) an enemy building (at an increasing cost if used in quick succession) on corrupted planets.

Defending from these attacks is similar, however;
🔸 Your space station & ground buildings can research tech, giving small bonuses to units like better shields, lasers, immunity to weather conditions & others,
These remain for future battles in the specific system, or until the building that researched it is destroyed or the system is lost. Do not underestimate these small bonuses when odds look overwhelming.
🔹 The Space Station have garrisoned forces (unit amount/type dependent on level & are limited) that will assist orbiting units,
Factions may also have built planet based weapons capable of hitting spaceships!
🔸 Buildings on the planet also have garrisoned forces (slow to spawn, but are unlimited)
This is to balance the huge amount of troops that could be in orbit, it sounds a little odd but it works and means the attackers have to push or have their paid for units destroyed by the defenders free garrisoned units.


If the plan goes well, these battle should be short —Tyber Zann


On top of this you have Heroes (Minor & Major).
🔸 These can be limited to Space/Ground battles or usable in both environments.
🔹 Minor heroes offer fleet/ground bonuses to units when they are in play
🔸 Whilst Major Heroes (Boba Fett, Yoda, IG-88, Han Solo, Thrawn...) can offer the same bonus whilst some come with unique ships/ground vehicle.
All come with abilities, a lot are very powerful, useful & allow Heroes to sway the battle if utilized to their best.
They also respawn after a cooldown (not within the same battle, but after talking days on the galactic map) so don't be afraid to get them involved.


The base game is great and the Forces of Corruption expansion (sold together as the Gold Edition) is on a whole other level , (I bought em way back, separately, on CD)
But what keeps this game alive for most of us is the Mods.
Not because the game is lacking, far from it, but mostly due to its age.
We have played it all and the limits of older PC’s meant smaller battles, that can now be surpassed 100’s times,
Also the fanbase has brought other eras into the game not seen in the original. Something we all hoped would become reality should a 2nd game come out.


I may be biased as I am a big (original) Star Wars fan and I started with RTS games, but Empire of War is a masterpiece that too often gets overlooked. Here is hoping for a 2nd.

"I am in complete control, and that is how I like it." —Tyber Zann

[h1] [b] Empire at War [/b] [/h1] [h1] Forces of Corruption [/h1] Empire at War is a Real Time Strategy game on a galactic scale. [b]How you can play:[/b] 🔸 1 x Empire Campaign 🔹 1 x Rebel Campaign 🔸 1 x Zann Consortium Campaign [Forces of Corruption] 🔹 Galactic Conquest (sandbox on some or all of the ~70 systems) 🔸 Skirmish missions set on unique Ground or Space maps (many options) [b] What kind of RTS ?: [/b] [i]As there are many variants of RTS games, this is a brief overview:[/i] 🔸 Space looks 3D, (some units can pass over others) but expect 2D, 🔹 The only resource you have to worry about is Credits, 🔸 A Tech level defines what units/buildings can be build and heroes available, 🔹 A set number of Building slots per planet, 🔸 Location of these buildings are between 1 of several fixed positions on the map, 🔹 Turrets, Healing & Sensors can be built only at specific locations (pads) on the map, 🔸 Each planet comes with a bonus (eg: A-Wing cost 20% less) 🔹 Space Station level defines what can be built, (max level is per system & tech level) 🔸 Travel between systems works mostly like a chain, (a-b-c-d) 🔹 All units have some ability, (take cover, focus weapons, seismic charge! ...) 🔸 Lasers have to take out shield before they can do hull damage (Ion lasers very effective at this) 🔹 Torpedoes bypass shields to target the Hull, however these can be defended against, 🔸 Larger ships have targetable hard-points (Engines, Turrets, Missile Launchers, Shields) This alone offers some great tactical options; ☐ Taking out Shields early means easier prey, ☐ Killing the Engines stops retreat and reduces speed and laser output, ☐ Destroying the Hanger stops additional Garrisoned units being spawned, ☐ Taking out Turbo Lasers and/or Proton Torpedo Launchers reduces its effectiveness against other larger ships, ☐ Wiping out Lasers and/or Concussion Missile Launchers reduces its anti Fighter/Bomber abilities. These and other variations come in extremely useful when you're underpowered vs your enemy, removing its strongest abilities against what you're using to counter it. It's not as in-depth with regards to economy as other RTS’ (AoE for example) but this allows for more focus on the combat, and this does not disappoint. (This is the reason I have so many hours + however many 000’s hours I had before Steam) [b] How a Battle for a system may go (Galactic Conquest): [/b] 🔸 You have amassed fleets in orbit above a system you own, 🔹 You move your space attacking fleet to the system you want, 🔸 You are now up against whatever fleet was in orbit and the space station, 🔹 Your ships will jump in to fill the unit cap, (other options here) 🔸 Larger ships (Star Destroyers etc) start to deploy garrisoned ships (Fighters & Bombers), 🔹 Use these units to remove all opposing forces or force a retreat, 🔸 Success, remaining units now orbit & guard the system. [b] To own the system you need control of the Planet, [/b] 🔹 Bring in your 2nd fleet (kept back as not to risk transports in open space battles) 🔸 Your units land at a specific location, and limited by a pop cap (more landing zones = more pop cap) 🔹 Take out all enemy (including building) or force a retreat, 🔸 Using troops you can capture building pads, (faction turrets, bacta, repair & sensor nodes) 🔹 Some areas offer cover for troops, 🔸 Weather can limit vision, reduce laser or missile accuracy etc, 🔹 Locals may be allied to you ~(controllable, but weak) or your enemy, or just hate you all, 🔸 Having Bombers in orbit allows for bombing runs, (with cooldown) 🔹 Having larger ships allows for faction specific orbital strikes, (with cooldown) [i] Note: Garrisoned units are free, don’t take up pop count, work exactly the same as bought units and are identified by a little flag marker. Following a space battle these units auto replenished, assuming the ship that spawns them has not been destroyed.[/i] [b] Stealth Fleets/Units; [/b] 🔸 As an alternative to using a massive fleet you could send a 'Stealth Fleet' 🔹 Some Fleets/Units (majority Rebel) have the ability to move (on galactic map) undetected and are able to initiate a ground invasion whilst bypassing space combat. [i] This allows for small incursions to take unprotected planets or take out land base space weapons prior to a fleet invasion for example. It can be extremely hard/impossible to take well defended planets with such a small force but offers some great ways to chaise problems for your enemy [/i] 🔸 Defiler (Zann Consortium only) take this down a different route and can sabotage (destroy) an enemy building (at an increasing cost if used in quick succession) on corrupted planets. [b] Defending from these attacks is similar, however; [/b] 🔸 Your space station & ground buildings can research tech, giving small bonuses to units like better shields, lasers, immunity to weather conditions & others, [i] These remain for future battles in the specific system, or until the building that researched it is destroyed or the system is lost. Do not underestimate these small bonuses when odds look overwhelming.[/i] 🔹 The Space Station have garrisoned forces (unit amount/type dependent on level & are limited) that will assist orbiting units, Factions may also have built planet based weapons capable of hitting spaceships! 🔸 Buildings on the planet also have garrisoned forces (slow to spawn, but are unlimited) [i]This is to balance the huge amount of troops that could be in orbit, it sounds a little odd but it works and means the attackers have to push or have their paid for units destroyed by the defenders free garrisoned units.[/i] [b] If the plan goes well, these battle should be short [/b] —Tyber Zann [b]On top of this you have Heroes (Minor & Major).[/b] 🔸 These can be limited to Space/Ground battles or usable in both environments. 🔹 Minor heroes offer fleet/ground bonuses to units when they are in play 🔸 Whilst Major Heroes (Boba Fett, Yoda, IG-88, Han Solo, Thrawn...) can offer the same bonus whilst some come with unique ships/ground vehicle. All come with abilities, a lot are very powerful, useful & allow Heroes to sway the battle if utilized to their best. They also respawn after a cooldown (not within the same battle, but after talking days on the galactic map) so don't be afraid to get them involved. [b]The base game is great and the Forces of Corruption expansion (sold together as the Gold Edition) is on a whole other level ,[/b] [i] (I bought em way back, separately, on CD) [/i] [i] But what keeps this game alive for most of us is the Mods. [/i] Not because the game is lacking, far from it, but mostly due to its age. We have played it all and the limits of older PC’s meant smaller battles, that can now be surpassed 100’s times, Also the fanbase has brought other eras into the game not seen in the original. Something we all hoped would become reality should a 2nd game come out. I may be biased as I am a big (original) Star Wars fan and I started with RTS games, but Empire of War is a masterpiece that too often gets overlooked. Here is hoping for a 2nd. [b] "I am in complete control, and that is how I like it." [/b] —Tyber Zann