This guide is specially made by Mastervodo for the Rim Sector Renegades, and is intended to be the most comprehensive strategy guide to Star Wars Rebellion on the Internet.

These tactics and hints work equally well for both the Imperial and Rebel player.

IN THE BEGINNING

When you first start the game, keep day one on very slow and check out the universe. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent. Look for their production facilities (Shipyards, Construction Yards and Training Facilities) and see which ones you can sabotage early. Scope out sectors that you mostly control that you think you can keep control of and send additional resources there. (Fleets/Troops) Check out your starting characters and where they are at, and notice what would be their best use from where they are. Set all your characters in motion, and set all your production facilities to a task. Especially start building more Construction yards.

Send your Fleets where they are most needed. Do fly-by’s on planets. Fly-by’s do 3 things. #1, They send back any troops and/or fighters that were headed to that planet back to the planet they originated from. #2. They stop production of any facility that was headed to that planet. And #3. It worries the opponent. However, it does reveal your fleet strength, so keep that in mind if you want to keep big fleets a secret.

ESPIONAGE/RECON

Espionage is the key to good planning. Make LOTS of espionage droids right off. Put at least one on each planet you control. Also, remember not to neglect neutral planets and enemy planets for espionage as well. Espionage Neutral planets to discover enemy diplomats and set up abduction/assassination missions. Also to check for incoming fleets to your system, so you can intercept. Espionage enemy planets to see what fighters/troops/characters are on that planet, plus what their facilities are building, what fleets they have in orbit or are on the way, and what missions they have going on the planet. This will set up your sabotage, abduction/assassination, and incite uprising missions. It will also give you an idea where they are fortifying their positions. If you’re lucky, you may even find out information about other enemy planets as well.

Probes are cheap! Use them for both exploring the rim sectors and checking out enemy planets. They are great for setting up your sabotage missions. For example: Your a rebel player and you’re pretty sure your opponent has a Star Destroyer camped out on one of his planets. Send a probe, and even if the mission gets foiled, you will still see their star destroyer over the planet. Set up a sabotage mission, and take it out.

* Vodo’s super strategy. If you send anyone/anything on a mission to a planet, and then immediately abort that mission, you will see any fleets at or coming to that planet if you haven’t already!

MISSIONS THAT WORK

I have no idea what the exact mechanics of the decoy/foiler system in Rebellion, but I have learned a few guidelines:

Diplomacy missions don’t need decoys.

Incite uprising missions should not be sent to planets with high concentrations of characters and troops. You are just asking for them to capture or kill you, and it takes your people out of useful action for a long time.

Sabotage missions are a key point for both sides. Sabotage facilities early. Sabotage fleets that camp over planets, or that blockade your own planets. Sabotage GenCores to prepare for an invasion or bombardment. These are the missions that most use decoys.

Rule #1: Use decoys with a high espionage rating. If you use a decoy with an espionage rating of 40 or less, you’re most likely going to be caught. In sabotage missions, your "key man", the person you’re having do the sabotage itself, you want a high espionage rating as well, or else you run the chance of not sabotaging the target, even though you weren’t caught.

Rule #2: Don’t use too big of a team if there are any foilers on your target objective. 5 Maximum people on your team. I use this system:

2 members - 1 foiler, 1 key man

3 members - 2 foilers, 1 key man

4 members - 3 foilers, 1 key man, or 2 foilers, 2 key men.

5 members - 3 foilers, 2 key men.

If I know that my objective has no troops, sometimes I send a group with no decoys, because I know I won’t be detected anyway, and I can be sure that I will blow up the target.

Rule #3: Try to get short "jumps" in doing sabotage missions. If you can hover over a planet and sabotage everything, great. Next best is to start from a planet next to the one you’re targeting. Next best after that, hover over a planet next to the one you’re targeting. Next best after that, over a planet in the same system. Only as a last resort do I send sabotage missions from sector to sector. It takes way too much time, and your opponent will have ample opportunity to discover your mission, and send fleets/troops/command personnel to that planet to foil you, or just move your target away from there. And, you’ve wasted many turns doing nothing.

Rule #4: I’ve noticed that there are more or less 2 "levels" of foilers for the enemy. This is not really a rule, but an observation. If you are sabotaging a planetary objective, you have to get through their fleet, and then their troops on the planet. If you are sabotaging a ship, you have to get through their ships, fighters and troops that are on the ships. This isn’t really a rule, but just an observation based on my success.

DIPLOMACY

Send diplomats out early to either A) Planets with popular support leaning to your side, or B) Planets with facilities. If you find a planet with 2 or 3 shipyards or construction facilities already in place, do that one first.

In sectors where both players have planets, don’t just convert a planet, and then send your diplomat somewhere else. Keep him on that planet until he’s increased popular support there at least 1 or 2 more times. This prevents you from losing the planet, or having it go neutral, at the slightest provocation. For example, and incite uprising mission will easily succeed against a planet just a hair from neutral. Or, a space battle that didn’t quite go your way may domino a whole system.

INCITE UPRISING

Just a quick note. Don’t bother trying to incite uprising on a planet almost all the way in support of the enemy. It will take waaaaaaaaaaaay too long.

RESEARCH

Each side has 2 personnel that can research either Ship Design, Troop Training, or Facility Design, plus 1 character that can do all three. For the Empire: Thrawn and Klev for Ship Design, Veers and Covell for Troop training, and Villar and Orlock for Facility Design. Bevel Lemelisk can do all 3. For the Rebellion: Ackbar and Wedge for Ship Design, Carlist Reekan and Crix Madine for Troop Training, and Lando Calrissian and Talon Karde for Facility Design. Adar Talon can do all 3.

I think that the more you have of 1 kind of facility on a planet, the better the research goes. I always use the multi-talented character to do Facility Design First, at least until I get Advanced Construction Yards, and then I send him on Ship Design.

PRISONERS

When you capture a prisoner, you can do 2 things to make sure you keep them.

#1. Put them on a planet with a LOT of troops, fighters, fleets, etc.. with command personnel. If they try to escape, there’s a good chance they will be injured, recaptured, or killed. (The last being most preferable)

#2. Have a probe droid or espionage droid "Escort" them to the far reaches of the galaxy and back. They cannot escape if they’re in hyperspace. And make sure to buy them a T-shirt.

DOMINOING

Dominoing is making a system convert to your side all at once. This is done by blowing up troops on a planet that has popular support for your side. When a planet that is in uprising converts to the opposite side, it shifts popular support throughout the whole system a large amount to the side that it converts to. This makes other planets join that side, which in turn moves the popular support again farther to that side, which converts more planets, etc... etc...

If you see a planet in uprising, try to get there quickly and blow the troops off. You’ll be glad you did. And your opponant won’t.

MISCELLANEOUS

Always, Always ALWAYS, if you can, put Admirals, Generals and Commanders on your fleets BEFORE YOU SEND THEM SOMEWHERE! The can and do make a difference in a space battle. Also, if you have fighters in the garrison on the ground of an important planet, it doesn’t hurt to have a Commander on the Planet as well.

Don’t "camp" over a planet for too long. You run the risk of getting your fleets blown out of the galaxy.

Don’t keep your personnel just sitting there. Use them! For anything! Espionage! Diplomacy! Research! Command Personnel!

Colonize the rim.

Espionage your planets 24-7.

Flee when you have to.

The empire’s strengths lie in it Star Destroyers, and the high leadership of it’s characters. Also, you begin with the strongest character in the game, Darth Vader

The Emperor should be left on Coruscant at all times, so that the rest of your characters get their 50% leadership bonus. That means recruiting and espionage missions for him.

Vader can be doing 1 of 3 things. If he starts off at Coruscant, have him start recruiting also. If not, he should start diplomicizing planets, or sabotaging key rebel facilities. He is also an excellent choice for incite uprising missions.

Jerjerrod and Piett should start diplomicizing planets immediately. Ozzel And Needa should hop on a Star Destroyer and head out sabotaging and blockading planets, and Veers should be starting on Troop Training, or being a general on the "Rebel Planet" that the Empire starts with.

REBEL PLANET

One of the biggest disadvantages of being the empire is the "Rebel Planet". You always start out with one. This is a planet that has popular support in favor of the rebels, but you have troops there, so there is no uprising. The rebels (if they’re worth anything) will try to sabotage or bomb these troops off the planet. (See Dominoing) To defend against this, you should have Jerjerrod, Piett, Vader, or all 3 doing diplomacy on this planet right away first thing, until the popular support is such that you need no troops on the planet at all. Do this first before you set them diplomicizing other plants, or you may soon find the entire sector in the hands of the rebellion.

You should also send additional troops and ships there if necessary to defend against rebel fleets, and espionage the planet and surrounding planets to prepare for rebel sabotage missions and fleets.

STAR DESTROYERS

Star Destroyers are key to Empire Fleet superiority. 1 Star Destroyer can take out 2 or 3 corvettes and / or bulk cruisers with ease. Unfortunately, they’re not so good against rebel fighters (See Rebel Fighters) A Star destroyer with a full compliment of tie fighters (6) should retreat from a battle if the rebels have 5 or more fighters. The rebels will blow up your tie fighters, and then slowly, but surely, blow up your star destroyer. Don’t even engage the enemy at all if they have 5 or more fighters. Save your ships and fight another day. A system has been known to domino in favor of the Rebellion by having an arrogant imperial captain think he can cross the screen, take out that escort carrier, and retreat safely. They forget that once your shields are down, fighters start throwing missiles at you! Which will quickly knock out your engines and hyperdrive, and then the fight is over.

A star destroyer can take out 2, possibly 3 fighters, but will undoubtedly take damage doing so.

If you have 2 Star Destroyers, by concentrating their tractor beams and "holding" a fighter in place, you are much more likely to survive.

OTHER SHIPS IN THE EMPIRE

If you have to fight fighters, bring along a Carrack Light Cruiser, or even better yet, Lancer frigates. Their high concentration of laser batteries, instead of turbolasers, will destroy fighters much more effectively.

Corellian Corvettes will eat up tie fighters (about 10 per ship) so keep them away from corvettes. But, without hyperdrives, once you’re in a battle with one, you’re stuck. Make sure you can overwhelm them with numbers.

The Tie Interceptors and Tie Defenders (should you ever research them) are much better at taking out enemy fighters than Tie Bombers and Tie Fighters.

Never EVER build a death star. Waste of time and resources. (See Sun Crusher)

Victory Star Destroyers take a little less time to build, and pack a big punch, but don’t have as much fighter capability as the Imperial Star Destroyers. Bring along an escort carrier full of fighters if you’re going into battle against Rebel X-wings and Y-wings.

Remember, Galleons have no weaponry, and Rebel Transports do, so you’ll have to retreat when you bump heads with one.

ASSAULTING PLANETS

Assaulting planets, if you intend to keep them, is only a good idea in a few instances.

#1. If the popular support on the planet is in your favor.

#2. If you have 8 or more troops in your fleet to land on the planet (after you account for casualties)

#3. If you have a lot of command personnel and diplomats in the fleet to subdue the uprising and diplomicize afterwards. (See Dominoing)

The reason for this is because assaulting a planet without enough troops or popular support will lead to an uprising, and set popular support against you.

EXPLORE THE RIM

If you can, load up about 8 probe droids on a Carrack Light Cruiser and systematically sweep the rim sectors for the rebels. The Carrack Light Cruiser is the fastest ship in the game, so you can quickly explore the rim this way. Drop in system, (1 planet explored), Send out your probe droids (8 planets explored) and move to the next closest planet. (1 planet explored) There you go.. All 10 planets in a system explored, and you just wait for your droids to come back, and you’re off to the next system.

OTHER IMPERIAL NOTES

Stormtroopers are good foilers, but Dark Troopers are the best. War droids suck.

Occasionally try to send people to the same planet with Vader, so he can check and see if they can become a force user. (Dark Jedis rule!)

MOVE AROUND ALOT! Moving fleets cannot be sabotaged.

Beware of the Coruscant Rush! (See Coruscant Rush)

(MASTERVODO’S FAVORITE)

IN THE BEGINNING

First thing, have Mon Mothma start recruiting. Then, check your fleet. Try to get 2 or 3 Corvettes together if possible, for a Coruscant Rush. Load up Everybody on the Millenium Falcon (with Han Solo) from Yavin, and send them in-system. Preferably to a secure planet you control. it takes about 25 days to get to Sluis from Yavin, but beware of empire blockades. If they have a planet in sluis, you may want to take a corvette instead, or else move them to a ship already in sluis, but hovering above a neutral planet. From there, have Luke and/or Leia start recruiting as well. One of the rebels main strengths is they can recruit faster than the Empire. More people = more missions.

REBEL PLANET

The quickest way to victory is to domino the system with the "Rebel Planet" in it. (Preferably Sluis) I send Han, Wedge and Chewy to that system as quickly as possible. Probe or espionage the planet in question, to see if there are any fleets orbiting the planet. If there are any camped there, use the terrible trio to blow it up! Then, maybe do a fly-by with a fleet to identify the ground troops. Then, one by one, blow up the troops. If you are sure there is no chance for saboteurs, you can hover above the planet and send them from the ship to save time. A more risky way to do this, if there are no gencores or LRN’s on the planet, is to do a bombard military facilities mission with the fleet. Do NOT attempt this without an admiral in the fleet (the one with the highest leadership) and even then, if you hit a civilian facility, your chance is shot.

Once you have a system, fortify it by sending any and all fighters you can there for a "pinpoint defense" A pinpoint defense is this: you should be doing espionage missions to all your planets, and if you see any kind of fleet coming, move all your fighters and fleet to that planet, and send them packing back home, or eating space dust. And don’t forget the postcard!

REBEL FLEETS

Fighters are the Rebel’s strong point in the beginning, and their defense against Star Destroyers. Try to keep them in groups of 6 or more.

Use Corvettes to take out Imperial fighters. 1 Corvette can take out 8 to 10 regular tie fighters.

Your enemy is Lancer frigates. Your defense is to run the fighters around a bit, and pound them with Nebulon B frigates. 2 or 3 Nebulon B’s can take a single Star Destroyer as well.

Hopefully you can cripple the empire before it gets Lancer frigates. Blow up shipyards! Capture Thrawn, Klev and Bevel, and you’ve almost got the game locked.

BLOWING UP IMPERIAL PROPERTY FOR FUN

Espionage and Sabotage are another of the Rebellions strengths. Blow up everything you can.

Here’s a hint if you plan on crippling production: Choose either mines OR refineries to blow up. You need 1 of each for 50 maintenance points. So, you can have a hundred mines, but if you have no refineries, you still have no maintenance.

Beware of sending Luke on missions where the Emperor or Vader are. The force is sometimes not a good thing to have.

COLONIZE THE RIM

Use your transports to make FORTS out in the rim. And definitely use MASTERVODO’S HQ COLONIZATION STRATEGY (TM)

(See both in Special Tactics)

GENERAL REBEL TACTICS

Keep moving, and use your diplomats effectively.

Espionage planets alot!

Pinpoint defense.

Sullustan Regiments make great, great foilers! And, they’re cheap!

SUN CRUSHER

There is a way to "Blow up" a planet without using a Death Star, and without losing popular support in the whole universe. Both Rebels and Imperials can use it. First, you must have a fleet with a combined bombardment value of 4 or higher (Preferably higher, and with an Admiral in the fleet) Then, a system you don’t want to keep. Start by sabotaging all Ground Defenses. Then, do a General Bombardment on the planet until there are no more Blue dots underneath. (This will, of course, send popular support in the system all the way to the enemy. Can’t be helped) This will make it so that nobody can ever build anything on that planet EVER again. Credit goes to Luuke0 who first taught me about it, and Hitman, who perfected it.

ASSAULT AND SCRAP

Similar to the Sun Crusher, but less effective. It will still send popular support in the system down the proverbial garbage chute, but you can do it with just 1 transport. (If you’re lucky)

Again, blow up all defenses on the planet. You can leave 1 gencore if there are no actual troops on the planet you’re assaulting. You can assault through 1 gencore. Then, scrap all facilities, (even the gencore), to gain raw materials for your own use. Then, leave a bare husk of a planet for your enemy and repeat through the whole system. Another good part about this strategy is that if there are characters on the planet, you have a good chance of injuring and capturing them as well.

CORUSCANT RUSH (For Rebels)

This should be done in the first 50 - 100 days, or else don’t bother.

Get together 1 or 2 (or 3!) Corvettes and do "Fly-bys" of an imperial planet in Seswenna to lure all the capital ships off of Coruscant. Or, sabotage the capital ships off of Coruscant if you can.

Coruscant starts off with 10 - 11 tie fighters on Coruscant. If you have 2 Corvettes, or 1 Corvette with an Admiral on it, you can then move to Coruscant and blow up all the tie fighters (they can’t retreat). Then, you can bomb the troops off the planet (Again, ONLY with an admiral) if they have no Gencores or LNR’s, or you can start sabotaging them. Don’t hang over the planet for too long, because the imperial fleet will be back soon, or else your ships will be sabotaged. Kill the tie fighters and go, waving your private parts in their general direction.

MASTERVODO’S HQ COLONIZATION STRATEGY (TM)