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Ragnar

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  1. Ok... this got me to dust off my CD and I can safely say it's doable. Took me the better part of a day, though, so it's only "doable" in a "I have the week off starting tomorrow anyway" kind of way. The trick is to get your foot in... somehow, somewhere. In my case I started out with Phraetiss in the Farfin sector, because it was close, had defenses and a training facility. With luck (I reloaded the save-game quite a bit), it was mine around turn 1560. The timing was important because next to it is Byss, which has about 7 troops that (again with luck) can all be sabotaged before reinforcements arrive. After much attempts to build on this, I gave up on the Farfin sector, leaving 4-5 planets under my control behind for the Empire to take. I'm uncertain if this helped or hurt me. Maybe it kept them busy and this bought me the time to succeed elsewhere, maybe I just wasted my time. The problem was that i just couldn't defend it. Without a construction yard, without enough troops to prevent saboteurs, it's a game of sabotage-the-garrison-before-the-fleet-comes-to-get-you (a complicated version of whack-the-mole, where you are the mole) and without a ship, you're just not fast enough to win that game. So, I sent of Drayson to Kamparas in the Dolomar sector earlier, to persuade them to join the Rebellion. This went much better. Phorliss in that same sector had a construction yard and somehow I managed to get 2 Gencores, enough troops and a general there to prevent it from being assaulted or sabotaged. It starts off with 1 Gencore, an Ion cannon and an LNR and I took along three regiments that I built in the Farfin sector, so it was a little easier than it sounds. Once you have that lock: troops, general, shields, the AI is pretty much helpless and doesn't know how to handle it. Not that it was easy from there on. The Empire keeps taking planets and I keep sabbing them. This is hard, because often they change the troops on it and spying takes more time than I have. Eventually though, I manage to build a medium transport with the single shipyard I built with the construction yard (after building a training facility first) at Phorliss and from there on it gets much easier. No more hoping the target garrisons are still on the planet. By flying around (very carefully) an sabotaging garrisons, I eventually take all of the Dolomar sector save for Tangrene and Wor Tandell. For some reason those have 9-18 garrisons and that's just not odds i like to expose my scarce personnel to. So it's time to switch tactics. I build another transport and start the exploration and diplomacy of Outer Rim, setting up shop where I can. Dolomar is mostly mine, but the Empire keeps sneaking in invasions, to it's not like it's a quiet run. Because of this I'm around or below 0 maintenance for a while, so it's impossible to expand quickly. When the maintenance cap loosens up, I start expanding. The imperial fleet is massive so it's no use thinking small. Eventually I set up a 9 shipyards on Kashyyyk and place an order for 10 escort carriers and 60 Y-wings. During all this, I start recruiting with Luke and Han and i manage to get some research done. The Sullustan regiments are a godsend. Cheap on maintenance (only 1) and good at what I need them to do: keeping the Empire's saboteurs out. All the while I'm just building more mines and refineries on outer rim planets, knowing that I'll need them. I set up a second planet with 9 shipyards (Valrar) and place another big order: 10 escort carriers and 60 A-wings. It takes a few hundred turns for this fleet to get built, assembled and in position. By then recruitment is done and all non-research personnel are on this fleet. Luke is commander, Han admiral. First I take on the remainder of the Dolomar sector. As the Imperial fleet htere is smaller than mine, they run and I quickly take the two remaining planets. Time to revisit the Farfin sector which I abandoned earlier. Most planets have gone over to the Green Side, only Firro still has strong Rebel sentiments. My fleet quickly dispatches the fighters there. It has no LNRs and a precise bombardment takes care of its garrison. The destruction of the Imperial troopers and the liberation of the planet sends streaks of Red jubilation through the sector. Not enough though. I continue, but accidentally encounter a huge Imperial fleet (20+ capital ships). From past games I know this should not be a problem, but not having played a game in years I screw up, sending my A-wings back into the carriers instead of making them hunt Ties and then pressing the auto-resolve button instead of the retreat button , and end up losing all my fighters and 2 carriers. Support in the sector is on the rise though, because I took out quite a few destroyers before I my final screw-up. I retreat to Taanab, which I had taken earlier. The Empire has built shipyards there, so it's a good place to rebuild. I now have 3 planets with 7-9 shipyards and they're all building fighters. The Empire tries to attack Tanaab, but by the time they arrive, I have enough fighters again to send them off with a good thrashing. I also throw in a few Mon Calamari Cruisers, but mostly for kicks. In huge battles, there's almost no tactical reason to have anything other than Y-wings, and carriers to move those around with. The attack on Farfin is continued, this time without mistakes. Planets with orbital guns get those sabotaged first. There's almost nothing a team of 5 (1 sab, 4 decoy) 100+ in espionage/combat cannot take out. My Jedi Wooki has 200+ on those scores, eclipsing everyone else, even Han (still good for 150+) and Luke (more combat, but less espionage). During this, I find Vader busy with a diplomatic mission. He is no match for Luke, who has been strengthened by many, many failures and gets injured. After this he is easy prey for an non-Jedi abduction team led by Han. Believing I have seen the best the Empire can throw at me, I head for Sesswena. After a few rounds of taking out garrisons from orbit, I head to Coruscant. Foolishly, the Empire tries to make a stand and their fleet gets pulverized (meaning they lose multiple times more capital ships than I lose Y-wings). After Luke meets the Emperor (and injures him), Han invites Palpy up for tea, I sab the 3 LNR II's on the planet and blast away its garrison. Coruscant goes neutral. A stop and a bit of tactical carpet bombing on Uvena pushes the planet over the edge to the Red Side. Coruscant taken with Vader and Palpatine in custody: day 3121. I'm sure it can be done faster.
  2. Ah yes, I eventually found colonisers in all the fleets. It might not be entirely balanced that they're all different shiptypes. The crew extractor thing remains. It can be quite important on some maps.
  3. Not exactly a bug, but all factions should have at least one frigate with the "colonize" and and one with the "crew extractor" abilities or they won't be able to expand as effeciently or at all...
  4. Haven't really read the motion, but I'm interested. Does it say how many deaths (absolute or %-wise) constitute a genocide? Does a death count when it's from illness or malnutrition instead of "plain" murder? Does the motion contain anything remotely objectively measurable at all, or was that found to be too risky? Every nation has a bloody past, probaly because the ones that don't, don't tend to be around any more.
  5. Ragnar

    Demo Out!

    Start download... Watch a movie Install... Play! Wow. This game is a lot more like Rebellion than I imagined. You build things in galactic mode and fight seperate ground and space battles when moving into orbit of or assaulting a planet. There's even hero's that you can send on "missions". Sofar, so good. The graphics are, unsurprisingly, better than any other RST to date. And Lucasarts wants to show them off too, creating a cinematic viewmode that shows off the intricate details of the models. The spacebattles look best by far. I have a little trouble ordering my units around effectively, but I'm sure with time that can be mastered. The maps look a little small to me as well and everything does go a little fast for my taste. Oviously all these things are related. I'm sure I'll find the "slow down" button soon, making my life a little easier.
  6. I saw the movie this afternoon... Let me first praise a few things: -The Jedi getting "offed" en masse. -The final battle between Anakin and OB1, especially the end. -The special effects (duh). Now, to keep this short I will limit my grievances to one item: Anakin skywalker/Darth Vader In my opinion, GL made a huge mistake by portrayng the Jedi as a force of pure good. First off all because they aren't, they follow the force, which is closely allied to nature, which is neutral. Secondly, because it makes the whole "conversion" of Anakin so completely unbelievable. Granted, the emperor dangles some pretty large juicy fruits in front of him, but I cannot imagine someone being trained as a jedi being so easily bribed, seduced and lied to. It just doesn't fly. The phrase that "not everything is black and white" is thrown around a few times, but at no time is the viewer even the slightest bit confused about who the bad guys are in all of this (in addition to the choice of wardrobe). It would have been much better if the Jedi Order had been a less of a gathering of boyscouts. If -for instance- Yoda and OB1 had been voices of reason and the rest mostly conservative bureaucrats, rusted down in tradition and pride and somewhat more deserving of the whacking that they get. I guess that, at some point during the inital stages of the production, the choice was made to not make a movie that would be morally confusing. This is a shame because now, Darth Vader, bad guy extrordinaire, has been reduced to a traumatised youngling, easily dominated into doing the Emperor's bidding. What was supposed to be the beginning of a dark legend, has -in my mind- forever damaged it.
  7. Indee, do not bother, for allthough I cannot prove it conclusively, Ã
  8. One may consider the EU something of a problem, yet a world without one has already become unthinkable. Yet the EU has to reform within the next 10-25 years. both drastcally and desperately, or it will bury itself in its own paperwork. The only thing we can pin on the French is that thet try to advance their own national interests and those of their citizens over those of others. This is not a crime, this is what governments are supposed to do. And as long as there is no other institution that can or will do this (EU foreign policy is non-existent), they have no choice but to continue with this policy. Off course they are arrogant and snobby and whatnot, but I suppose everyone is entitled to a little style when conducting his affairs.
  9. Yawn. There's many types of intelligence, and George at least posesses the one that gets people to like you. And as it turns out, that's the only quality that matters come election time. I've always felt that it's a rather stupid system, but I'm also quite sure I wouldn't like any of the allternatives. As for the USA doing nothing or very little during 1978-2001... ...really?
  10. Hm.. I actually _had_ some icecream while I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 last week. I think I can be fairly objective on this, mostly because I never really gave a damn about the whole mess either way... In my opinion, it is no more a documentary than "Bowling for Columbine" was. It is however, less entertaining, pherhaps because Moore's point of view on the matter is more personal. The movie is indeed a summation of statistical and other facts, which -given that it lasts for almost 2 hours- makes it a little dry. To the director's credit, you never really get bored watching. Now, personally, I found some of the commentary a bit presumptuous. The "fact A and fact B means ..." voice-overs get a bit far-fetched in some places. I'd concede they're interesting to consider and need looking into, but it all sounded a little conspiracy-theorisch at times. So what remains is do you need to go see it or not? Well, if it's entertainment you seek, stay at home. While "Bowling" was just hilarious enough to keep you wanting for more, "Fahrenheit" is pherhaps just a little too serious. So if propaganda was the objective, this is where Moore failed to connect to a wider audience. But I guess the movie is -first and foremost- a collection of facts. I'm sure no time would have been wasted on filing lawsuits if there'd been any gross inaccuracies, so it is still, if nothing else, informative. And as I have been led to understand, it in part represents a point of view that has not gotten any media attention by any of the major networks, if at all. If that is true, it certainly has a broader claim to existence than it would have merely from a "free speech" viewpoint. IMO to discuss the whole movie is pointless. The movie asks a lot of questions but it doesn't really awnser any of them convincingly. So what really should happen is to take each question out of its context and discuss it seperately. Fat chance of that ever happening now that the ElectionCircus2004 is on the road. Personally, I left the theater a little disturbed. I had not exactly been overwhelmed with new information, but some of the things I didn't know before where at the very least mildly concerning. Had I been born and living in the US, I would -without doubt- have grown up to be a Republican and would have voted for W. It is impossible to determine what that would have done to my point of view, but one thing that immediately struck me is that George W. Bush is doing neither his country nor his party a favor by running for re-election. Oh well, I guess it's a little late for that
  11. It's a bit boring, but... if you want to win playing the rebels just build : Y-wings, Escort Carriers, Nebulon-B frigates. The Y-wings are for blowing up imperial capital ships, which they will do better than anything else in the game, the Escort Carriers and Nebs are for carrying the Y-wings and killing off any imp leftovers, be they fighters or capships. It is very important to have a good commander (e.g Luke) and to blow up the ship with the enemy commander on it asap. If you do that, your Y-wings will be able tou outrun enemy Tie interceptors. There's no need to build any other shiptypes, since all the others get you less bang for the same buck or have other disadvantages, like not being able to target both fighters and capships. You might take along a few A-wings if you expect a lot of enemy fighters, and some B-wings to distract enemy ant-fighter operations, but this will probably not be needed. Just take out his capitals with the Y-wings, then let the Nebs kill off what's left. As for big battles... I did a MP "big battle" game last week, I remember seeing 5 SSD's and at least 20 ISD2's. I had mostly Carriers and Nebs, and some other suff mixed in for fun. I took out all his SSDs and ISD2's before they even got off a shot at my capitals. I had about 280 Y-wings and his 300 interceptors where simply not up to the task of catching them in time. I don't advise battles this big over the internet... they seem to take forever
  12. Multiplayer Strategies: The Early Empire The thing you need to realise is that the Rebels will have better fighters and capital ships than you do. Don't kid yourself about Lancer Frigates, Tie Interceptors and ISD II's. Those are no good unless you have a lot more than he has. Your only sure shot at winning is to shut the Rebel economy down fast. If you fail you'll have to outproduce him and shutting him down will help doing that as well. You shut down your opponent by taking out his planets with: -training facilities -shipyards -mines and refineries -construction yards ...in *that* order. You may think the Con Yrds are more important but they're not, since they don't produce stuff that can actually _hurt_ you. The only time you take out a Con Yrd before going after the rest is when you can't prevent him from taking the sector and/or kicking you out permanantly. The methods of taking out these high value targets vary greatly. Fortnately, this is where the Empire has the advantage over the Rebels. Your ships are generally faster and more versatile than those that the revels have availible to them at the start. As a bonus, all your troops, ships and personell have been scattered across the core, right into striking range of potential targets from the start. There are several basic methods to take out the Rebel planets: 1. Sabotage This is by far the most preferable since it has no downsides and is cheap, but it can be too slow. It is herefore sometimes best used to target strategic targets (prodution facilities) or to prepare the way for a bombardment or ground assault. Neutral planets are by far the easiest and safest targets. Just pick planets that you think will go to the Rebels in the future anyway. 2. Ground Assault This would be even better than sabotage were it not for a few drawbacks. Firstly, assaulted planets can be hard to keep under control and secondly, troopers are expensive. Still, this is soften the most effective way to delay Rebel activity in the sector by 10's of days. 3. Bombardment. This is the easiest and cheapest and yet most effective thing there is. The drawback? You need to do the entire sector or you're just helping your opponent getting started. 4. Blockade. This is the most dangerous thing to do, so don't do it lightly. If the enemy has personell on the planet they might try to sab the ship and they're not unlikely to keep failing at it. With enough luck on your starting fleet, the game can be over in 50 days. Huge galaxies usually take a more time. Feel free to practice on the AI. Set the game at easy to get the starting layout of a MP game.
  13. Ah... the Jedi-"force juggling with high explosives"-trick. How could I forget. But I don't buy it. I know Jedi can levitate stuff a bit, but they can't actually fly so they do have some limitations to that skill. Consequently, they can't stop all the shells, all the time. (Not to mention that the damn things would probably be rigged to explode when they leave free-fall anyway.) Ahem.. if the armor of the days renders projectile weapons ineffective, then where's the armor? Also, projectiles _are_ enery, they are just very very very high energy, that's why it's so difficult to stop them. Which is why God invented the Assault Riffle. No need to worry about where the enemy is, just (s)pray, preferably with friends. Anyway, you've convinced me that a flamethrower or similar weapon would be more effective. After all, you don't neen *much* range, just more than a Jedi Knight. And off course, there's lots of weapons we never see in SF, but are very possible. Take any radiation with a wavelenght too large to be stopped by a lightsaber, but still short enough to carry a lot of energy and yoúr average Jedi is toast, quite literally.
  14. You know, I've always wondered why they thought the Borg were so strong... given that the solution to fight an infantry rush was invented several times over the course of human history. You've got yur pikes, ditches, landmines, machineguns, flamethrowers, barbed wire.... It's amazing how incredibly unimaginative the people in the ST universe can be. Although they did take out a few Borg with a holodeck tommygun in the movie "first contact", iirc. (But WTF?!? if it's *that* easy......) Then again, Jedi Knights a pretty flawed as a concept as well. Fightting with Swords!?! It doesn't matter how fast you are, you can't be in two places at once. You will also look pretty silly trying to deflect the shells of an incomming high artillery barrage... Off course, this is where both universes fail miserably. They don't explain why the weapons we use today are so useless in the future that they've ceased to exist. But enough of this ST vs SW bs.. How about Star Wars vs Battlestar Galactica? (episodes 4-6 vs the 1978 series)
  15. Oh please.. It's pretty much standard human behaviour, really. Read some recent historical studies on the reasons the US congress had for using the A-bomb on Japan, for instance. Think about it, they didn't *have* to target a cities, now did they? But the blowing up of Alderaan is more analogous with the chemical attack on that Kurdic village. I'm pretty sure what Ali's defense on that action is going to be. It was war, they where helping the enemy, the punishment for treason is death. As for there not being too many aliens on board Star Destroyers... There *are* advantages to using an anatomically homogenous crew. Also, the rebels seem to have only _humanoid_ species among them, so they're probably racists as well. (No Hutts that I know of anyway...) Ok, I'm rambling on a bit here... sorry 'bout that. I just don't have a very high opinion of human nature. The key thing I wanted to say is that Nazis weren't all "bad guys" in reality. Many were convinced they were serving a good cause right up to the end. No doubt the Imperial Navy is no different.

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