Star Wars: Empire at War Cheats and Hints

Set in between chapters of the two Star Wars series, this realtime strategy game bridges Episode III and Episode IV as wars rage for control of the galaxy after the devastation of the Clone Wars and in the wake of the Jedi slaughter that has disrupted the balance of the force.


Developer Petroglyph aims to bring a complex balancing system to the genre so that both inexperienced players and hardcore gamers can immerse themselves in the game. All of the gameplay and action within Star Wars: Empire at War is a persistent, meaning that strategic and tactical elements from previous events will have a permanent effect on the galaxy.

We were able to sit down with a skirmish map on the fertile soil of the doomed planet Alderaan, where Rebel forces were forced to defend themselves from an Imperial ground assault, complete with the huge walker armors first featured in The Empire Strikes Back. As it turns out, the general idea behind combat between the game's various units goes a step beyond rock-paper-scissors. Every unit in the game will have a "counterunit" that can defeat it easily (so there won't be any individual "superunits" you can churn out exclusively to win), but every unit in the game will also have a favored enemy unit it will be extremely effective against.

You'll see this represented onscreen; units firing on their favored enemies will kick up noticeably larger explosions--a clear visual cue that you're doing something right (or, if your units are getting hit by their counterunits, a clear cue that you need to change up your strategy quickly). These combinations should be largely intuitive; tanks crush infantry and artillery units decimate tanks, though there will be at least a few unique counterunit setups. For instance, the mighty Imperial walkers can be brought down by tying up their legs with cables from speeder ships, again, just like in The Empire Strikes Back. To give you a better sense of what works and what doesn't in battle, you'll be able to select a camera view that locks onto specific units and intelligently follows them into battle, focusing on both the units and the enemies they fight.

Typically in real-time strategy games, you slowly assemble your armies by gradually building the required structures and by researching the proper upgrades. Then you bring these armies in to battle in the late game, only to lose them in the next mission. Empire at War's units will be completely persistent, so you'll keep whichever units survived your last battle. So, considering how expensive some of the most powerful units will be, you may find yourself actually retreating. In fact, attacking and retreating may be central to your strategy, especially if you're playing as the Rebels, who might not always have the resources to mount a full-scale assault. Sometimes it may be better to use guerilla tactics, like crippling a powerful capital ship and fleeing into hyperspace before an armada can be sent after you.

These tactical situations highlight some of the major differences between the two factions. The Rebels will begin the game, as you might expect, at a material disadvantage, so they'll have limited resources, limited holdings, and even limited technology. In many cases, the Rebels won't be able to amass large armies for fear of being discovered, so they'll often find it wiser to build only scattered holdings across different planets. However, the Rebels will have a strong advantage in terms of intelligence-gathering. Consequently, the Rebels will have spies everywhere. And in the meantime, the massive forces of the Empire will also be...everywhere. In fact, your gathered intelligence may actually be stored and used like a "quest log" in a traditional role-playing game, so once the Rebels receive fresh information on what the Empire is doing and where it's doing it, they can take appropriate action based on each tip received.