Guide to the Galactic Empire Thread - Star Wars: Interregnum mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

The Galactic Empire is the first new faction available in Interregnum, and this thread will quickly get you caught up on the basics of playing as them.

Also make sure to check out the Beginners Guide to the Enhanced 4X Mod, since new things like heroes and embassies are covered there.

The Morale System
The most important mechanic you must be aware of when playing as the Empire is the Morale System. Factions in Interregnum have exaggerated strengths and weaknesses compared to Vanilla Rebellion factions, and while the Empire has no direct penalties, they are extremely vulnerable if they start losing planets. This is because after losing their Emperor, many of their ships and numerous sectors of space to enemies on all sides, the Empire is barely holding together. Further bad news such as the loss of a planet will cause immediately penalties to all of your ships and planets, reducing your military, economic and cultural power. Thus despite their powerful forces an Empire player cannot be reckless, failing to secure a planet may allow enemies to sneak by, take the planet and cost you dearly.

In addition to ensuring your planets are properly protected, the negative morale effects can be countered by a tier 8 civic research called Symbolic Victory. When you bomb out an enemies planet after researching this tech, all morale penalties will be removed, returning your forces to standard efficiency.

The Rank System

The Rank System is a replacement for the standard fleet supply research of other races. Rather then research separate techs for fleet and capitalships, the amount of ships you may command is determined by your rank. Increasing your rank is more expensive but grants both additional fleet supply and command slots. It is also necessary for unlocking more advanced capitalship and starfighter designs, and the highest ranks such as Grand Admiral may come with some other nice bonuses.

Interdictor Units

Among the most feared units in the Imperial Navy are Interdictor units; cruisers and Star Destroyers equipped with Gravity Well generators that can prevent ships from jumping to hyperspace. These powerful ships have some downsides however. While using their interdictor abilities, the ships will be drained of antimatter and will be forced to stop of they run out. They will also have some sort of reduced shield regeneration, weapons, and/or maneuverability depending on the unit type. Interdictors will also be forced to stop if they take too much damage, as their captains are taught to let the enemy escape rather than risk their very expensive ships be destroyed. Finally there is a slight delay between when the Interdictors activate their gravity generators and when enemy ships are prevented from jumping to hyperspace, so make sure you're a couple seconds early when using these abilities.

Edited by: GoaFan77

Any recommended fleet compositions? Build orders for planets?

I've played a game against TEC, Vasari and Empire players. It is pretty difficult to win even with overwhelming numbers.

=СРБ=Ori`verda wrote: Any recommended fleet compositions? Build orders for planets?

I've played a game against TEC, Vasari and Empire players. It is pretty difficult to win even with overwhelming numbers.

The main Empire combat units are the Skipray Blastboat (good against LRF and Titans, chasing injured capitalships), Carrack Cruisers (Flak, Support, decent damage against most other ships), Gladiator Star Destroyer (Light Frigates, capitalships) and Vindicator Heavy Cruisers (LRF, Flak and LF). Lancers are also good if your opponent has a lot of corvettes. If the enemy fleets are feeling stronger than yours you are likely too capitalship heavy or are building too many support frigates.

The distinctive thing about the Empire's frigates and cruisers is that while they have good stats, the Empire doesn't give them much support since they focus on their large capitalships and titans. As such they have no repair frigate so they can take heavy losses in drawn out battles with an equal opponent. The Empire does best when it uses its units high stats boosted by capitalship/titan abilities to steamroll the enemy force. If the enemy is strong enough to resist this kind of brute force it can indeed be tough to win as the Empire.

Your capitalships are also a strong point for the Empire but Sins still discourages having too much of your fleet made up with them, since frigates/cruisers tend to have superior fire power per fleet supply (though you can somewhat get around this with the Imperial Academy research, allowing you to train your capitalships up to level 5). However, they are vital for either crippling opponents or boosting your fleet strength. The ISD-I's ultimate ability is particularly good for passively raising the defense of your entire fleet for example, while a few ISD-IIs with the Induce Terror ability can totally shut down enemy ships using their abilities by preventing antimatter regeneration. The 'Interdictor Star Destroyer is also very good against TEC fleets (and phase missiles) since it can reduce the damage physical weapons deal to your units, making their autocannons and missiles much less effective.

The best way to keep your capitalships alive is with the Strike Cruiser's unlockable covering fire ability. I always have 1 for every capitalship and titan I have since this ability greatly reduces the damage they take. And of course once you win a battle nothing feels better than using an Interdictor unit to ensure no enemy ships can retreat to safety.

=СРБ=Ori`verda wrote: Any recommended fleet compositions? Build orders for planets?

I've played a game against TEC, Vasari and Empire players. It is pretty difficult to win even with overwhelming numbers.

From the number of hours I've spent and the different maps I've played, it's fair to say the Empire is a pretty weak faction all in all. Matter of fact, it's probably the weakest imo. The mod is wonderful, full of flavor, and well thought out. However, it can be frustruating to play at the same time.

The empire has a number of disadvantages that really hurt the faction in the long run. The first being that the power of the ships do not justify the insane fleet supply of most of the units. A good example is the siege frigate which costs 20 supply. This for a frigate that does nothing but bomb planets. With the empire, especially in late games, it is almost impossible to field a fleet capable of taking on the AI one on one. It also forces you to use one main fleet. The empire cannot multi-task at all. In the games I have won, I have done it by using hit and run tactics and exploiting weaknesses in the AI. Hit and Run is more of a rebel thing than the empire. And while, yes, their capital ships are excellent, Sins as a whole punishes you for over emphasiing capital ships.

In addition to fleet supply issues, the empire does have a fairly strong economy. Unfortunately, this is negated by the incredible prices for all of their ships. Not only that, but you have to nerf your economy just to produce the Executor. In most games I don't even make it anymore. The empire capitals can usually deal with an AI titan anyway. But again, if they bring a large fleet along, there's not much you can do. The empire cannot afford to lose a fleet. If you make a mistake and lose a fleet, it's game over.

Also as you have stated, the empire does not have a repair ship. In the games where I have done really wel, I was fortunate enough to capture some TEC robot cruisers. They make an amazing difference when you have a couple. Without one, as you stated, the empire cannot win battles outnumbered, which is 90% of the time.

The only advantage the empire has is in the early game. Because of their amazing capitals, I have often rushed and killed an AI neighbor with a fairly small fleet of Flagship, Victory I, and Victory II, and a couple carrack cruisers. If you are fast and can get an early advantage, then the empire is enjoyable. But if you like to take your time and turtle, you will be in a very uphill battle. Speaking of the empire Flagship, it is an excellent unit compared to the other factions. Early game, it's a great weapon to use if you use that option.

Finally, as far as fleet composition, I usually rely on a combination of Gladiator, Strike, and Vindicator Cruisers. Escort cruisers are useless because their supply and the fact that almost every empire unit has squadrons anyway. As stated, lancers are useful for fighters and are actually cheap. For capitals, I usually build one of every capital as they all have useful abilities. The ISD-I tractor is awesome for taking out capitals. Victory I is wonderful for stations and structures. Victory II and ISD II have great ion weapons. The Interdictor ISD is also awesome for trapping the AI from retreating which it likes to do often.

Edited by: centurin

centurin wrote:
The empire has a number of disadvantages that really hurt the faction in the long run. The first being that the power of the ships do not justify the insane fleet supply of most of the units. A good example is the siege frigate which costs 20 supply. This for a frigate that does nothing but bomb planets. With the empire, especially in late games, it is almost impossible to field a fleet capable of taking on the AI one on one. It also forces you to use one main fleet. The empire cannot multi-task at all. In the games I have one, I have done it by using hit and run tactics and exploiting weaknesses in the AI. Hit and Run is more of a rebel thing than the empire. And while, yes, their capital ships are excellent, Sins as a whole punishes you for over emphasiing capital ships.

I'll look into the numbers again but for the combat units but I'm pretty sure that while they are more expensive, per fleet supply they do just as much damage as their vanilla counter parts (perhaps slightly less for those that have fighter squadrons, but with the fighters they should do more). The Acclamator is a bit less effective as a planet bomber per fleet supply but has 3 or 4 times the combat stats of other siege frigates, so if they need to fight they technically can. And the escort carrier is actually about the same fleet supply use as the vanilla factions, I increased the fleet supply usage of all carrier cruisers by about 50% in an attempt to reduce fighter lag.

I will probably reduce the Executor's research requirement in the next beta.