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Date |
: Dec 6th, 2001 |
| Genre |
: Strategy |
| Developer |
: LucasArts |
| Author |
: Jin-Ning Tioh |
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The Rebel Alliance have proven to be worthy opponents to the imperial forces. They field the most powerful aircrafts, with a wide range of starships which includes air transports, fighters, and bombers. While there is only one transport type, fighters and bombers can be upgraded to greatly boost their speed, hit-points and damage potential. Fighters are swift and the most mobile of units, soaring through the skies at incredibly high speeds. While they are able to attack both ground and air units, fighters are really designed to attack other air units quickly and precisely. Aerial combat units include the Z-95 Headhunters, X-Wings and Advanced X-Wings. Bombers on the other hand, are more geared towards the mass destruction of ground troops. They are also perfect for taking out buildings and walls quickly and precisely. While they cannot attack air units, they can lay down area effect bombs which damages all units within a certain radius. They can be further upgraded to triple the area of their bomb blasts. Air-to-ground combat units include the light Y-Wings, Enhanced Y-Wings and Advanced Y-Wings. While a strong aerial presence is critical in turning the tide of war, fighters, bombers and even air transports have to contend with potent anti-air turrets and units.
While air units can prove to be a powerful addition to your army, they still must be managed properly. They are a component of a well-rounded army, not the sole ingredient. Without upgrades, air units have low hit-points, so they aren't invincible. But against an unprepared foe, they can end the game. To make up for the low hit-points of their starships, the Rebel Alliance's fighters can be outfitted with shields, which can be researched at tech level four. Shields effectively double a starship's hit-points, making them more durable under battle conditions. Reinforcing their air superiority further, the Rebels have all speed, armor and accuracy upgrades and are thus able to improve the accuracy of their starships' attacks by over 40 percent. The Rebel's unique unit, the Airspeeder, further reinforces the Rebel's proficiency in aerial assaults. It has higher hit-points and a much further range than those of the Z-95 Headhunters and X-Wings, but it unfortunately also has a weaker attack. It's thus better suited to scouting rather than engaging in air-to-air combat. However, it is very effective against enemy mechs, receiving an enormous boon against such units. Thus, the Rebels with their Airspeeders are the natural opponents of the Empire and their strong AT-ATs.
The Rebel's troopers are also formidable foes. Troopers are cheap and basic ground troops. They cost only food and carbon, and even then, only in modest amounts compared with mechs, starfighters and the Jedi. With all trooper types including regular troopers, mounted troopers, grenade troopers, and anti-air troopers, it also has the advantage of all trooper tech upgrades, such as increased speed, hit-points, attack, armor and armored missile trooper upgrades. Its unique technology, known as "Tougher Armor", gives all troopers +20 hit-points, making the Rebels' troopers some of the hardiest troopers available. Regular and mounted troopers are available right from tech level one. While regular troopers including trooper recruits, blaster troopers, heavy blaster troopers and repeater blaster troopers provide ranged support, mounted troopers such as the heavy mounted trooper and advanced mounted trooper have flamethrowers and so attack at a close range. They also have massive hit-points to enable them to take shots while closing in on the enemy. Grenade troopers hurl area effect thermal detonators that damage all units in a given area. They are good for taking down organic units but are ineffectual against buildings and mechs. Anti-air troopers are highly effective at taking down air targets but are practically useless against ground troops, except to serve as blaster fodder.
The Rebel Alliance's civilization bonus is rather modest at first glance. Instead of improving its military capabilities, it improves food production. Rebel farm droids have an increased carrying capacity of 5 percent when farming. It doesn't seem like much compared with the other civilizations, but in the long run, it lets Rebels gather food faster. These workers get full access to farming, animal husbandry, and resource-harvesting technologies and are thus strong in resources. Interestingly, they also have a strong contingent of mechs, possessing all mech destroyers, both regular and heavy assault mechs, and all strike mechs save the final upgrade. However, they lack the full upgrade capabilities for mechs that civilizations such as the Galactic Empire and Gungans have. As you'd expect, the Rebels also have a strong Jedi presence, missing only two Jedi upgrades - The ability to convert enemy Jedi and the ability to kill on conversion, as the Empire's Sith can do. However, aside from those deficiencies, their Jedi are strong.
The Rebels' main weakness are their heavy weapons, such as pummels and artillery. Lacking nearly all siege weapons and also most of their upgrades, they must make up for this with a strong force of troopers and starships.
| Battle Report |
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| Pros |
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Strong aircraft, powerful
Jedi, good troopers and reasonably good mechs |
| Cons |
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Few heavy weapons |
| Civilization Bonus |
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Carry capacity of farm droids is 5 percent greater |
| Unique Technologies |
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Tougher Armor |
| Unique Unit |
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Airspeeder |
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