http://users.bart.nl/~jamin Star Wars Playing Guide What follows is a beginner's guide to Star Wars: Supremacy, designed to help you get started and explain some of the more confusing and difficult areas of the game system. This isn't a step-by-step guide to winning - one of Supremacy's greatest strengths is the flexibility it offers in how you go about completing your goals, and you could fill an entire book with possible strategies - but it will help you avoid many common mistakes and get you off to a strong start. THE BASICS To win a game of Star Wars: Supremacy, you must master a complex combination of strategy, tactics, and management skills. Simply put, the various different aspects of the game can be broken down into three main areas - systems and industry, characters and special units, and military forces and combat. Each of these is dealt with in its own section below, but before looking at the details, here are some basic hints and tips that you should bear in mind: Watch the introductory briefing. The briefing given by your Agent Droid at the start of each new game is the best way to get a general overview of the current situation in the galaxy. As this changes every time you play, you should always take the time to watch, as it'll save a lot of time later. Pay particular attention to any Systems being controlled by your opponent through military force - these make good targets for early takeover attempts. Read the advice. Likewise, when playing your first game you should read all the advice messages from your Agent Droid. Many of these simply restate parts of the manual, but some contain useful hints and tips about the game. Only once you're confident that you know how to play should you switch his advice off. One thing at a time. At least until you've mastered the basics of the game, you should try to do one thing at a time. It's all too easy to lose track of what's going on in Supremacy, so until you get to grips with the game you should concentrate on performing actions in a logical order. Concentrate your efforts on one or two Sectors, and get everything running smoothly before moving on. Likewise, concentrate your efforts on one Enemy System, and don't attack another until you've brought it under your control. Only once you've mastered the basics of the game should you attempt more complex strategies, such as simultaneous attacks on several key Systems. Use the message screen. The message screen is the heart of the Supremacy interface. Once you've set things in motion, you should bring up the message screen and use it to deal with new events as they occur. Get the hang of using the buttons on each message to jump to its source and give new orders, and keeping track of what's going on becomes much easier. Use the time controls effectively. The time controls work hand in hand with the message screen in Supremacy. If nothing's happening, speed things up until a message appears, then slow it down, deal with the message and any new orders it requires, and speed things back up. This allows you to play the game efficiently and simply. SYSTEMS AND INDUSTRY The building blocks of your chosen side in Supremacy are the individual Star Systems you control. These provide locations for your industry, which in turn provides you with the resources to support your military, in the form of maintenance, and the manufacturing power to produce new units. Effective management of the Systems you control and the industrial capacity they provide is a critical aspect of the game. To help keep track of what's going on, it's a good idea to specialise the role of each individual System in a Sector. Simply put, each System should be developed as either a resource centre, or a manufacturing centre. Manufacturing centres are Systems dedicated to building new units and facilities. In each Sector, you should aim to have at least two Shipyard Systems, one Construction Yard System, and one Training Centre System. Eventually these should be completely filled with facilities of the appropriate type, plus a minimum of one defensive shield and one battery. These Systems will be the backbone of your industry, so they should also be well garrisoned with both troops and fighters, and even a defensive fleet. It's also a good idea to have a couple of special units there, to help detect enemy missions. Resource centres are Systems dedicated to providing the refined materials and maintenance points you require to build an effective military. They should be fully developed with mines and refineries, preferably in equal numbers so that the loss of a single one to the enemy won't unbalance your mix of refineries and mines. As these Systems are less critical than manufacturing centres, they can do without the defensive facilities, but they should still be protected by garrisons of troops and fighters. CHARACTERS AND SPECIAL UNITS The effective use of your characters is just as important to your success in Supremacy as controlling Star Systems, developing a strong industrial base, and building a powerful military. Characters are the most flexible units you control, and the various missions you can send them on all have important uses. Special units are, in effect, limited characters. The disadvantage of special units is that they're limited in which missions they can perform, and don't learn by experience. On the plus side, though, they're cheap and expendable, and you can always build more. Decoys As well as performing the actual mission, characters and special units can act as decoys, reducing the chance that a covert mission will be foiled by enemy units and characters at the same location. To assign decoys, select the characters and units as a group, then click on the target as usual. Then click on the second tab of the mission box, and move any characters or units you want to act as decoys to the right hand column. Decoys are critical to the success of missions on heavily defended worlds, and special units are particularly well- suited to this role. Command As well as specific missions, many characters can be assigned military command positions. In this case, the character uses his or her Leadership (not Combat) rating to increase the effectiveness of the units under their command. This is particularly important in fleet battles, and increases the reaction speed of the entire fleet to new orders. The Force Some characters in the game are capable of using the Force. Force capable characters heal quicker than others, and their skills increase at a greater rate. If their skills are powerful enough, they can also detect other Force capable characters at the same location and traitors amongst their own side. Force capable characters have a Force rank and a Force rating. The rating is never shown in the game, but translates into the rank as follows Rating Rank 10+ Novice 20+ Trainee 80+ Jedi Student 100+ Jedi Knight 120+ Jedi Master Increases in Force rating are announced to you as the game progresses, but as you can see from the above, it takes a lot of increases to move up a rank. MILITARY UNITS AND COMBAT The third key area of Supremacy is the effective use of the military units under your control. Military units in the game are broadly split into three main groups - ground forces, fighters, and capital ships. Ground forces These military units have two main uses. They defend controlled Systems from a ground assault by the enemy, and perform ground assaults on enemy Systems. Ground forces are also required to prevent uprisings on worlds that have been taken over by force, and can settle uninhabited worlds. Each side has a variety of different types of ground unit, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Simply put, you should use units with a high defensive strength as garrisons, defending the System they inhabit, and those with high attack ratings to assault worlds from transport ships. You have no control over ground combat in the game, and so must trust to weight of numbers and the skills of any character set as a General. Fighters Fighters are small starships, often without hyperdrive capability. They can be used to garrison planets, automatically engaging any enemy fleet that moves into orbit, or assigned to fleets with capital ships capable of carrying fighter squadrons. Fighters come in two main classes - interceptors and bombers. Fighters armed only with laser cannons, such as the TIE Fighter and X-Wing, are interceptors, and are of limited use against capital ships. Fighters armed with ion cannons, on the other hand, can be effective against capital ships in large numbers. Until the Empire develops the TIE Defender, the Rebel Alliance has a distinct advantage over the Empire when it comes to fighters. Rebel fighters all have shields, hyperdrives, and strong weapons, while the Empire's TIEs are far less effective. As such, the Rebels should concentrate on building large numbers of fighters and overwhelming Imperial capital ships by weight of numbers. The Empire, on the other hand, should use Lancer Frigates - its best anti-fighter ship - to mop up the Rebel fighters as quickly as possible. Capital ships These are the large starships which make up the backbone of both Imperial and Rebel fleets. At the start of the game, the Empire has the advantage here, with several large, powerful capital ship classes which the Rebels can't match in a stand-up fight. The key to effective use of capital ships is to look at their statistics and use them for the task they were designed for. Small, fast ships with laser cannons should be used to protect against fighters, ships with ion cannons to knock down the shields of enemy capital ships, and those with turbo lasers to deal serious damage to opposing capital ships. Those classes capable of carrying troops should be kept out of direct fighting - their job is to land troops in ground assaults - and, similarly, those capable of carrying large numbers of fighters should launch them, then hang back. Fleet Battles The Fleet Battle mode in Supremacy is virtually a separate game in itself, and can take a long time to master. The keys to success are to know the capabilities of both your own and the enemy ships, to assign high leadership characters as Admirals and Commanders, and to always, always, pause the battle regularly and check on what's happening before giving new orders. If in doubt, or things start to go wrong, always run away - it's better to save some ships and fight again another day than to waste them in hopeless fights. IN THE BEGINNING Getting off to a good start is one of the most critical aspects of Supremacy. The computer opponent is very quick to begin building up its forces, and unless you do the same, you're in for an almost impossible fight. Unfortunately, this is one area where the manual leaves you with little or no advice. The first thing you should do, after watching you Agent Droid's briefing, is close the message screen and slow time down to the lowest setting. Then take a few minutes to examine all the systems under your control, and locate all your characters, military forces, and special units. Once you know where everything is, consider your early goals and objectives before giving any orders. The Rebel Alliance As the Rebels, you should concentrate your initial efforts on bringing one Core Sector and one Rim Sector under your control. Choose the Core Sector where you control the most Systems, but steer clear of the Empire's home Sector, Sesswenna, for now. The best Rim Sector to develop is the one where your Headquarters is currently located. Look at the other Systems you control, and if they have any manufacturing plants - Construction Yards, Shipyards, or Training Centres - consider building up their defences to make them thorns in the Empire's side. Otherwise, you're best off abandoning them and moving any ships and ground units to your Systems in your chosen Sectors. Abandon Yavin. The Empire begins the game knowing your base is on Yavin, and at this stage it's best to abandon it rather than to try and fight off a determined attack by an Imperial Fleet. Move Jan Dodonna and Wedge to your Headquarters. Once they arrive, send Jan on diplomatic missions to any inhabited Systems in the Sector, and set Wedge to work on Starship Research. Send Luke, Han, Chewie, and Leia to the Core Sector you've decided to take over. Once there, send Leia on diplomatic missions to each neutral system in turn until they all support the Alliance. Then send her or another diplomatic character to each System in turn and raise their loyalty to maximum. Use Luke, Han, and Chewie as a team to perform espionage, sabotage, incite uprising, and capture missions on any Empire-controlled Systems in the Sector, preparing for your eventual take-over attempts. Move any ships and military units to either your Headquarters or the Systems you control in your target Core Sector. Start recruiting. Send Mon Mothma on recruiting missions to bring new characters under your control. She can do this from the safety of the Headquarters System. As new characters arrive there, send them off on missions suitable for their skills. Any characters with research abilities should use these. Spy characters should be used on covert missions to Empire-controlled Systems. Use diplomatic characters to bring neutral Systems under your control. Others should be put in command positions, beginning with your Headquarters System and then defending other key manufacturing centres. In your target Core Sector, start developing the Systems you control, and decide which Systems will become Shipyards, Construction Yards, and Training Centres. Start developing these worlds, and building up their defences with fighter squadrons as soon as possible. Explore the Sector containing your HQ. Load up as many Medium Transports as you have with troops, then send them out to the unexplored Systems. If they encounter an inhabited System, send Jan on a diplomatic mission to it. Settle all the uninhabited Systems by dropping off a single troop unit. Start to develop the Headquarters Sector. Pick Systems to become manufacturing centres, and build a construction yard there, then use this to fill the System with facilities of the chosen type. Other Systems should be developed into resource centres by building mines and refineries there. The Empire The Empire's goals at the beginning of the game should be very similar to the Rebels. Instead of targeting a Core Sector and a Rim Sector, though, the Empire should concentrate its initial efforts on bringing Sesswenna Sector and another Core Sector under its control. Pick a core Sector with few or no Rebel- controlled planets. Send a fleet to Yavin. If you have enough ships, it's worth sending a fleet to Yavin immediately - you might get lucky and capture some important Rebel characters right at the start. Send the Emperor on recruit missions on Corruscant. Put the new characters to work on missions that suit their skills, as with the Rebel Alliance, above. Send Darth on diplomatic missions to the neutral Systems in the Sesswenna Sector and bring them all under your control. Once he's finished, send him or another diplomatic character back to bring the Systems up to complete loyalty. Send the other beginning characters on missions suited to their skills, as with the Rebel Alliance, above. Start developing the Systems you control in Sesswenna Sector and your other target Core Sector. Decide which Systems will become Shipyards, Construction Yards, and Training Centres. Start developing these worlds, and building up their defences with troops as soon as possible. Build up your resource base by developing resource centres with mines and refineries. Use the extra maintenance to being constructing fleets and ground units. Consider an early offensive against key Rebel systems. The Empire has the military edge at the beginning of the game, and you should take advantage of it if you can. Beware large groups of Rebel fighters, though.