You move your forces from planet to planet by grouping them into fleets. If
you encounter an enemy fleet when you move a fleet into orbit around a planet,
then a space battle will ensue. You’ll be shown the relative strength of the two
fleets and given the option to auto-resolve the battle. I’m not sure why you’d
want to auto-resolve the space battles, though. It seems that you can generally
get better results by leading your fleet yourself, but just as importantly the
space battles are the most enjoyable aspect of the game.
 |
| Yes, you can build a Death Star and destroy worlds. |
The space battles take place on what are essential 2D planes, but the ships
themselves move about each other above and below the plane to give the illusion
of a 3D battle. Each ship has a set of ships that it has an advantage against
and another set that put it at a disadvantage. For example, Y-Wings do well
against Star Destroyers, but have troubles against TIE Fighters. There’s no need
to memorize the counter tables, though, as the game will display each ship’s
unit counters when you hover the mouse over it. Control in the battles follows
the RTS standards, but fighters are group into squadrons so that you don’t have
to hunt for individual X-Wings weaving their way through large capital ships.
There are some pretty cool additional features to the space combat. First of
all, any space stations or starbases constructed around a planet will take part
in the planet’s defense, launching fighters to harass the attacker. Secondly,
you can pause the action at any time to give orders to your ships. Next, any
troops hitching a ride with the fleet will appear in the battle in transport
ships, giving the defender the chance to wipe out the invasion force before it
even touches the ground. Lastly, every battle opens with a short cinematic of
your fleet arriving for battle by dropping out of hyperspace. It’s a very cool
effect made even cooler by the fact that the ships that you see in the cinematic
are actually the ships that you’re bringing into battle.
Once the attacker destroys the defending fleet – or causes it to retreat in
an effort to cut its losses – any ground troops in orbit can be moved down to
the planetary surface in an attempt to capture the world. Ground battles involve
the capture of reinforcement points, each of which is rated by the number of
troops that it can support. You can have a veritable horde sitting in orbit, but
unless you capture additional resource points they’re just going to sit cooling
their heels in space. As with space battles, any structures built on the planet
will appear on the map and be an active part in the battle. In the case of
barracks, this allows the defender to build additional troops as the battle
progresses – although the number of troops is still subject to the resource
point limits and the new troops can only be deployed at controlled points.
Another cool feature is that a planet’s indigenous population may provide troops
to support your effort. If you’re trying to take Endor, you’ll have hordes of
Ewoks at your disposal to use as fodder for the Imperials’ AT-STs. Overall, the
ground battles are pretty straight-forward affairs. There are not a lot of
different troop types and base building is not a part of the battles at all. You
can choose to auto-resolve ground battles as well, so if you find them a bit
tedious you can always leave the dirty work to the AI.
« Page 1 of 3 · Page 2 of 3 »
