Developer: Ronin Entertainment

Publisher: Lucastars

2000

Dear Readers! The voice, what you heard when selecting Force Commander article is the voice of Mr. Julian Glover, the actor of General Maximillian Veers from the Empire Strikes Back movie. He was saying his very typical sentence, namely "targeting with maximum firepower" at the shield generator, but in our case, it is "targeting with maximum firepower at CustomStarWars". I was lucky to meet him, and shake his hands, so I decided to refresh this article, and add some extra information on the role of Gen. Veers in the PC game, Force Commander for the honor of the actor. Also, you can watch some new, for me very personal, and very honorable pictures, and a very valuable relic. If you don't want to read through the whole article, you can find easily the new sections because I colored it with this greenish color.  

This game is often undeservedly belittled for some reason. It is terrible that some spheres of interest tell a very negative critics about this item on many forums. But I do tell you, these critics are unfounded, and this I say not because I am a Star Wars fan. Writing this article is a good chance to tell those people who dislike this game for a reason to give it a chance. However its graphics is behind the recent times but in my opinion this game is one of the greatest!

It is a bold statement, isn't it? How can be this "out-dated" graphics and this "crap" game one of the greatest? This two attributes were not mine, I hope everybody will understand why I put them in inverted comas, besides that I cited them from some opinions. You gotta know that I was born in the early '70s. Our generation enjoyed playing Amiga, C64, and Spectrum PCs. Those games were really primitive, but we spent hours in front of the monitor, it was incredible, we got a game feeling that was inimitable. Many weeps for those times, we live a retro fever nowadays. There are C64 emulators, which convert older games for new PCs, these made those ancient, but very cute and enjoyable games available for younger generations. What can you do with a sparkle and glitter graphics if the feeling is bad, and boring? Isn't it better if the graphics is not so nice, but the story carries you away, and the game is full of excitement, varied and enjoyable? I think that is more important that you'll won't notice time pass by while playing, then searching graphical mistakes on a zoomed screen. And by the way, who is that person who plays a strategy game zoomed in? If you zoom in, and take a closer look on a selected unit how will you detect an enemy approaching? Playing a strategy game the higher the camera, the bigger the visible territory, we'll notice enemy squadrons from a bigger distance, and we can oversee our formation, and we can take advantage on the configurations of the terrain. So I think THAT PERSON is mistaken who use a closer zoom, smiling on the graphical mistakes of his units, then sulking, and quits when a real strategy gamer (or even the AI) crush his forces apart in two short minutes. So I suggested a real important thing, when previously mentioned to use a higher camera!

 

Moving your camera

Can you remember that many of these criticizing from the same people hurt other games because you cannot move your camera in them? Well, one of Force Commander's biggest advantage comes from the variety of camera movements. Everybody can set the best view for him/her, that is good for his/her tactics. If you wanna see a smaller detail , you can zoom on it. If you wanna see a large battlefield to notice enemy movements from all directions, you can raise your camera almost into the sky! This comes very handy on a basic terrain, and during battle events. But you'll find it more convenient to lower your camera down almost on the ground at the Moon of Endor, because Endor forest is full of trees that are trapped by the Ewoks! You must avoid those, so put your camera behind one of your AT-STs, and a little bit above it. With that view you can spot the well hidden traps, that the programmers wanted to hide to trick us with "ewok strategy". You'll need to rotate you camera around your AT-ST often. You can move it all around, like a dog can run around its stick that was pricked into the ground. And you move it sideways, too, quickly, and effectively, you can react for every situations! Many strategy game player hate the slow camera scroll, now they can move it in an instant even with the mouse, or with a hotkey! And additionally you can "put" your camera on a main unit, on a protagonist, or on your favorite vehicle, so that is enough to push a button, and your camera finds your lost, or attacked unit! If you have to turn around quickly, because you were attacked from the back, you won't need to turn your camera 180 degrees, press "turn back" key, and there it is, the camera turned back, watching the enemy. You can change to a narrow ranged focus, you'll see a sharp, narrow screen ahead you, that is very good on the narrow streets of Coruscant, but if you select a wider focus, you camera will show you a wide ranged picture, which is very good in open space against an enemy who attacks in line formation. You gotta learn how to move your camera, don't skip the tutorial, you will study it in an hour, this is an essential part of the game, you'll take advantage that during the combats!

 

Tutorial

A well trained pilot who practiced his skills on simulations can even encounter new situations up in the sky. I can clearly remember for the voice of a great pilot, who once told that a good pilot does not watch his instrument panel, he won't think on which panel is to press, where is a proper unit, or where to find a button, NO! He watches the horizon! He knows his fighter, he feels his fighter, he is one with his fighter, so he need not concentrate on the operation of the airplane, he had learned everything, and that is a routine for him. Instead, he can concentrate on the fight, and focus on the tactical and technical elements. The good strategy gamer acts the same. Learn the tutorial well, practice your skills! That is not a waste of time. That is a part of the game! It can be difficult to control the game occasionally without the tutorial, if you wanna be an expert in this game you gotta prepare. It will prepare you from the basics to the delicate things. You won't need everything that the tutorial teaches, but  some tricks may be useful. One can use this, an other can use that from the tutorial, so make your own style. All good gamers have their own tricks and tactics and strategies. That is especially true for strategy gamers. They play with their brain, it is not enough to push "fire button" like a crazy. I sometimes think that it is enough to place a heavy book on your left click of the mouse in some First Person Shooter games, then you can go in to the toilet, and when you arrive back you would won the game. :-) Well, playing a strategy game you gotta use your brain, sometimes you need to change your strategy, even several times during a campaign, you'll encounter some unexpected situations, so you gotta change your mind, and change your formations. So learn the tutorial well, so that you can only watch your horizon, so that you can concentrate on your tactics without searching an important button. In additionally developers made a great work on the tutorial, so that connect to the film and to be a vital part of the story of the game.

 

Story

Brenn Tantor is a young imperial trooper. Their squad was sent to Kalaan, because of a local violence. Their squad is just arrives in the opening intro of the game above Kalaan, and attacks the planet with a gorgeous, great looking film-like cutscene what was made with the game's engine. This intro is so awesome, that some may think that is from the film. Even the critics say the intro is superb. You may have seen some part of that in the EP3 trailer called Rise of the Empire. Many don't ever thought that those tie bomber attacks, the march of the armored vehicles, and the attack of the stormtroopers are from Force Commander intro! Oh yes! That is the way the Empire gets air superiority, then crush the enemy with walkers, then invades the capitol with groundtroops. There walks carefully Brenn Tantor amongst the smoking ruins, his squad leader is his own brother, Dellis Tantor. A kalaanite acts like dead, but when Dellis gets close he shots the squad leader. Dellis collapses, his squad kills the kalaanite, but they cannot do anything against the fact, Dellis was hit. Brenn rushes to his brother frightened, and takes off his helmet. Dellis is alive, but injured severely. In the meantime there comes a captain to investigate the events, and ask who is with charge in this squadron. Well, he is lying on the ground, at this moment... But the squad have to advance further, so he promote Brenn to take the lead. Dellis will be healed later on, but his arrival cannot be expected in the near future, so while he is recovering Brenn remains the squad leader. Soon, he gets his first mission from his captain, who orders him to find an escape pod that was ejected from Tantive IV, with important data on its board... Sounds familiar? So Brenn, and his team travels to Tatooine to find that escape pod. Soon, they discover it is empty, but there were 2 droids in it. These droids were captured by jawas, so lets go, find those jawas! Can you remember the sentence of the elder Kenobi about those precise hits on the side of the jawa sand crawler? These are not from tuskens... no, those were WE! We found those crawler with Brenn, we blasted those jawas, but the droids were sold to local farmers, and here we go again! We gotta find those locals, so we follow the film storyline from INSIDE, with the view of the Empire, who rush for those stolen data, their run were documented in this cool tutorial! Here is an other reason to play thru the tutorial, don't just learn your keyboard configurations and movement, but also learn the film events with the eye of an imperial!

The Empire discovers the strategic and leader potential of Brenn Tantor. So they give more important missions for the talented man, and a bigger army to command. His commander, Beri Tulon, is not only his officer, but his mentor, too. He can learn much from Tulon. Tulon is a good man, so he always tell Breen they are soldiers, but not murderers. Taking a life cannot be an end in itself. Although the soldier must kill for defending himself, you kill, or you'll be killed on the battlefield. But without a reason, or without an unarmed or just a barbarian way a real soldier cannot act. Brenn will not forget these instructions, you'll see, just read further.

Brenn advances with his troops to Ruul, and conquer the territory. He builds a communication network there, to download, and transmit data from a terminal, however the stolen data are still missing. During his mission, the Rebel, with the help of that data, and a man called Luke Skywalker, manage to destroy the Death Star. The Empire lost there the finest officers, they are having miserable times, as the generals and moffs had died in the space station. So they promote Brenn, as he became now one of the most experienced officers. He was ordered to land at Yavin IV, and however the main Rebel Forces had already evacuated their base, there are still stationing some remnants of them, those shall be crushed, because they had attacked the First Death Star from there. Soon after landing Brenn started to deploy mobile buildings, and troops from the Star Destroyers above, and started the attack against the rebel forces, and to capture their base. But he received a very important message from General Maximillian Veers, who was also there at Yavin in an important mission, but his shuttle was spotted and forced a crash landing on the jungle moon. However he managed to find a convenient valley, and survived the crash. The radio was still operational, so Veers used it to reach and contact Brenn, and required an immediate assistance. This happens in a difficult moment in the game, because when we cross an invisible line, that activates this event. As it happens near the enemy base, we gotta split our army into two, we gotta hold the enemy main forces with the biggest half, while the other half should be sent to save General veers. It is important, because the rebels have also heard his (uncoded) radio message, and they are also sending troops to his location, however they don't want to rescue him, but to capture, or to kill the talented imperial General. This can not be happened, we don't let it happened as this is a primary objective of this mission, so there starts a race towards Veers crash-landed shuttle. If Brenn already has airforce, that is simple for him, he just sends out a squadron of Tie fighters, ordering them to protect General Veers from the air, above his valley. Soon the first squads of rebel infantry will cross the hills, shoot them down with your Tie fighters, and hold your position! In the meanwhile you should send a ground force to the location, to protect the enemy vehicles, and ground units to reach Veers, so stop them in the narrows, that leads into his valley. After saving him from the rebels, we'll receive the secondary objective, we must escort him to the evacuation zone. This can be easily achieved with a circle protection around him, slowly marching toward the evac. zone, protected fighters from the air. After General Maximillian Veers reached the evacuation zone, he says thank you for his friend, Brenn Tantor, and gratefully, and relieved left the area. (However he still had some time, to empower his actor, Mr. Julian Glover, to stand up for a photo together with the representative of Brenn Tantor, who was me. Also, he quickly dedicated a "General Veers" action figure. :-) Thank you Mr. Glover!) The Empire sends remote probes all over the galaxy, to find the hidden rebel base. They find it on the remote Hoth system, so they send Brenn and Veers immediately to attack the Echo base with ground forces. Vader personally supervise this mission, and strictly command those two not to fail him. Brenn Tantor and General Veers quickly deployed their armored regiment, designated "Blizzard Force", into the Echo Base mountain valley to eliminate rebel resistance, and to destroy the shield generator protecting the Rebel base. We could hear General Veers' famous sentence as aiming with Blizzard 1 walker's chin guns at the shield generator, saying "targeting with maximum firepower" at the shield generator. (Well, from now if you visit CustomStarWars' site Force Commander article, you'll notice that general Veers is targeting with maximum firepower at CustomStarWars, too, greeting its readers with this sentence!) Brenn and Veers makes a successful offence on the Echo base, also the Dark Lord appears, and personally assist the siege. Brenn gains the trust of Vader during this mission. New promotions, new campaigns. Brenn gets under the command of a new general, called Brashin. He is a typical mad man, a depraved imperial officer. Tulon and Brashin have very different views, so Brenn finds him between two totally different wills. He manage to capture a traitor governor, who helped the rebellion, and imprison him. He also captures several rebel objects, and makes a great service for the Empire. But Tulon gets sick and tired of the dirty imperial ways, and tries to desert. He wanna join the rebels with his walker. Brashin gives a very hard command for Brenn, capture, or kill his mentor. It is a hard situation for a friend, but reasonable for a soldier, he needs to stop a deserter. So he catches, and holds up Tulon, but he is not able to kill him. He destroys his walker, and arrests Tulon. But Brashin sentences him to death. Brenn is suffering. But he gets his next, very important quest, he have to capture Luke Skywalker! The Empire finds out where are the Rebel generals planning to have their secret meeting. The game gets a fictive point, Brenn manages to capture five of them, including Skywalker! Of course Brashin sentences the young Jedi to death. On that very day the Empire defeat the main ground forces of the rebels after a gigantic battle. Brashin orders Brenn to kill all those civilians with martial law, who helped the rebels. Brenn resists. He doesn't want to kill innocent civilians. They are arguing, then he refuses to obey. Therefore Brashin has his TRMB's communications blocked, and arrests him. He orders Brenn's squad on his radio to continue the slaughter. The Empire kills those citizens. Brashin sentences Brenn to death. (This gets his habit now...) But a few of Brenn's  loyal men don't forget their commander, and under the cover of the nite rescue Brenn from his prison cell. Brenn gets a message from a rebel leader, General Taskeen. He offers help for Brenn and his men, they are willing to send a ship for the deserters, if Brenn will side with the Rebellion, and helps their freedom fight in the future. Also, they want him to free the death sentenced Luke Skywalker, who is also in one of those cells where Brenn was. Brenn decides to do that. So they together reach the evacuation zone with his loyal men, and Luke. And now the game turns 180 degrees! From now, you are a rebel with Brenn, and you have to destroy imperial targets that YOU planned and built when you were an imperial officer with Brenn! The rebels not really trust you in the beginning, because they think you are just an usual cruel imperial. But you'll have an opportunity to gain their trust, and you'll be able to put your crimes right. Pretty soon you can start to put it right, as an imperial convoy transports our former mentor, Beri Tulon, to that base where they want to execute him. You'll have to hurry, he got to be saved before the transport gets inside the walls of that base. Of course, Brenn manages to rescue him in time, and escorts him back to the rebels. Taskeen's reaction is pretty funny: great, now I have two ex-imperial officers to baby-sit... :-)

Later Brenn frees that governor, who was arrested by him earlier. It is an important act! No just because he can remedy his fault, but also because the abridonians invented the A-wing class fighters, which are one of the faster airplanes in the galaxy! Well, this plane and its tested pilots were offered for the Rebel Alliance from the abridonian government as a gratitude. This fighters will make a good use in the space at the siege of the second Death Star!  Also, he steals an AT-AT walker for the rebels, to study it. Finally companied with Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Luke they land on Endor, to help Han  to blow up the shield generator of the 2nd Death Star. Interesting, and great campaign! Chewie can help to steal an AT-ST, R2-D2 jams the imperial communications, C-3PO and Leia go to recruit ewoks. However Vader feels the presence of Luke, he does not want to endanger his friends, so he leave the squad, and surrenders. Han and Brenns squad manage to blow the bunker, and the Death Star will be destroyed. Vader and the Emperors die, the Rebellion wants to win the war for good. so they send Brenn to siege Coruscant, the capital of the Empire. So they attack Coruscant, defeat Brashin's forces, they demolish the sculpture of the Emperor, they capture the palace, and  in its basement they find the lost, and thought to be killed brother of Brenn, Dellis. Who were, of course, death sentenced because of traitor, and helping the rebels by General Brashin. Well, you know Brashin by now...

After watching the demo of fireworks and celebrations from all over the different plots of the Galaxy you can sit back with a pleasant feeling!

 

Realistic point system, and transport system

Strategic games usually not only focus on fight, they have a source management too. The gamer has to create the conditions of those incomes, that he can spend on expanding his army, and to develop the existing forces (shielding, speed, and fire). Well, Force Commander has a more real system! You don't have to mine, or to do agriculture, you'll get Command points for the battles, and for the covered objectives. When playing Multi, you'll get CPs after the possessed bunkers, too. Imagine this situation. Above the planet there are waiting our star destroyers. Inside of those, there are standing many walkers, there are waiting many troops to deploy, and they are waiting hundreds of fighter squadrons the order to fly into battle. Also, there are mobile bases, and buildings that the Empire transports down on the ground to help the troops down there. You can understand, the empty space of each transport vehicle is limited, so that determines how many walkers, or troopers can be transported for a round. Also, besides the amount of the transported units there is a time-factor. The transports gotta reach the surface, unload the troops and vehicles, and then fly back to the hangar of the star destroyer to load the next turn. It takes time! This realist thing is modelled in the game perfectly, when they limit the number of troops that can be loaded into a light transport (6 men), but you'll have less space for dewback troopers! Also, in heavy lifters, and barges can transport several AT-ST, but only 2 AT-ATs for a turn. After ordering, you'll have to wait for the delivery, while your walkers arrive, just like in the reality. You can watch its arrival in a screen, which shows a bar that indicates the distance of the transport. If it arrives, you can send your vehicles into battle instantly, but before the next turn your transport gotta reach back to the star destroyer!

You must concentrate on your objectives with your units, you gotta fulfill them as quickly, and precisely as possible. The faster you work, the more CPs will remain! CPs are always running out! This depleting source of CPs does not prove the corruption of your imperial officers, or that Brenn Tantor embezzles the imperial taxes, oh no! :-) Unfortunately this money was paid to maintaining your amortizing weaponry and vehicles, also was paid for your growing number of crew, soldiers, pilots, medics, mechanics, etc. First that is pretty easy to collect big money, as you'll have only a few vehicles, and troops to pay. Soon you'll have even a walker, just occupy some bunkers, detonate some light machines, or vehicles, or shoot down some infantry, and there you go, here comes your AT-AT. But the more vehicle you'll have, the less time your money will be enough. In that case spend your CPs IMMEDIATELY on some needed unit, or a good improvement! After your army gets large, your soldier's pay will fast deplete every earned money, so that will be tough to buy a bigger thing later on. But after the last command you must not buy anything, just quickly kill the remnants of the opponent, and finish your quests, because the remaining money can be saved for the next mission!

Saving your money for the next mission

When you play the game for 2nd or the 3rd time, you'll know well what objectives you would have to fulfill on a very mission. So if you play tactically, you can spare your total premium to the next mission. Just keep this in front of your eyes. The CP meter counts up to 5000, if your incomes go over that, the money above 5000 will be lost. So if you are about to fulfill an objective which pays you 1000 CP, and you have 5000 points right now, quickly order something in the price of 1000, so to make "room" for your income. And the most important, don't fulfill your quests separately! I usually like to weaken my foe, and I let them live. I advance further, and I defeat others, too, but not finish them! But before the end of the mission, when the last command arrives I execute the "well-pre-weakened" enemies, and finish them off together with the final order in a very short time. If you are able to to kill them together with the last objective, you will receive the money for the not finished objectives that worth 1000, and an other let's say which is 2000 CP, and the final objective's money, which is 1500 CP. Plus, you'll get an extra little money for finishing off the last few remnants of your enemies, let's say you'll get 500 CP for the last battle, the mission is over, there won't be time to pay your troops, and maintain your vehicles so quickly, so there you go to the next level with almost 5000 CP! :-) The illustration is an example for you. Well before the end of this campaign send some troopers up to the upper left corner, where are 2 bunkers to capture. But don't capture it yet, just gather some troops there. Capture Luke Skywalker, and his rebel friends, and transport them under the prison platform with an AT-ST or an other vehicle. But don't imprison them yet, neither! Then march into the upper-right corner with your army, and blast those rebel forces that tries to protect their base there. Annihilate everybody there, and NOW quickly occupy those two bunkers, and NOW push Luke into his prison cell. There comes a lander for him, and transports him and his friends to Brashin, so the quest is over now, and you'll still have some 4900 CPs in your pocket to take to the next level!

During your battles your units will develop! Their experiences are indicated with red stripes besides the picture of the unit. These advanced units are more valuable, as they are stronger, and experienced. You can transport them to your next mission, too! After each mission your survivors will be transported back to your star destroyers. These veterans are stored in a huge hangar. You can select a limited number from them before some missions, in addition of those, that the AI would have given to you! Simply just click on them, and put them into an empty, and available transport ship! You need to know that these "extra" orders are cost more. I mean if a stormie is 50 CP when ordered from the surface IN a mission, then he will cost 75 BEFORE mission! But it worth double! First, the ordered rookies are novices, and without experiences. But your veterans are experienced, tested, and highly ranked men and vehicles. Second, and that is very important, they can be sent to battle immediately, you don't have to order them, and wait for their slow arrival, they will arrive WITH YOU to the battleground, and instantly available! They can be the prerequisite for a rush. A quick attack can be very handy sometimes, the gamers who like to "rush" the enemy like this method very much, because they can outnumber their enemy.  Also, every strategy gamer can make a use of that, I arrived in Hoth with 4 anti-air unit called AT-AA. These vehicles are very strong, they represent the ultimate air defence and a nightmare for all aircrafts! Just imagine those rebel snowspeeder pilots who flew out from Echo base to tie up my walkers' leg...! :-)

But to buy these extra units you gotta save your money for the next level! Also, you can make your game more personal, as you can give NAME to your units. Force Commander wanna make your connection with your favorite units more personal, you can be call them on your name. It is better to command your elite veterans then a simple noname rookie, play through the whole game with your named units, you can develop them, and you must care for them! Click on their icon, on the right upper side, and give a name for your favorites. You can be creative giving some unique name, or you can just call them AT-PT 1, AT-PT 2 if you want. Fanatics reload the game if a named veteran is lost, so they play more with the game to make it perfectly. This kinda play is a motivating, and a personal experience!

Units

Force Commander is one of the most creative game conceptions when planning and creating units for us! Many of you never knew that this game has some inventions, that were well overtook any other games, and many just wants to use what Force Commander had developed up to this day. Don't forget the megastrategy Empire at War also applies many units from Force Commander, however we gotta admit in a nicer outfit. But the mentioned AT-AA anti air unit was make its debut in Force Commander, then you could see it in Galactic Battlegrounds, so EaW only wrapped the old idea in a modern texture. But this only one invention is just the beginning, there are plenty of other great conceptions in Force Commander, let's see them!

New human units

Infiltrator: Specially trained and equipped rebel infantry. His task is to shot a harpoon into the walker's bottom as Luke did on Hoth. But this unit does not put a detonator in the walker, but infiltrate into its interior, takes out the crew, and gets, or maybe we can say steals the walker.

2-1B medical droid: "Too-one-bee" had its role in the film, too, so it is not a new invention, but it is in charge to heal wounded rebels in the game. This robot heals effective, the soldier's life goes up to the maximum in a second, but it often idles at work. It is standing near a wounded rebel, and does not even take a look at him. But if you send it to work, it starts it immediately. It is very cute, because always talks funny things. It often complains to its patients that "your body is so fragile". Then it says "it may hurt a bit", and starts gesticulating IN FRONT OF the patient, it is like a shaman, doesn't even make contact with the patient, doesn't touch him, but the ill becomes healthy in an instant... :-)

Repair droid technician: He is 300 CP to buy, but you'll get a very valuable engineer for your money! He is morose, always muttering, says "OK, I am going", and complains that the distance is too long for his servos, but if he reaches your target, he will make a brand new vehicle or a defensive turret from your smoking ones! His extremely slow machine looks like a loading machine with its claws, but that is a very useful machine, and I have only seen that in this game!

Heavy trooper: Rebel trooper with heavy weapons, thicker armor, bigger rifle, and blue grenades, which are very similar to gungan "boomas". Maybe it is a heritage of the gungan civilization? Anyway, with those, a heavy trooper can be very successful against armored imperial vehicles.

 

Unique, and new machines

TRMB: Tracked mobile base. A moving command base. A kinda HQ for Brenn, from where he can direct his units, and can order some more. Pretty fast, but it can make a turn slowly. If you are under attack, you can move it away, while a basic command center cannot change position. Brenn Tantor's personal TRMB is a caterpillar one, works in a desert, too. It is low, therefore not easy to detect on the battleground. But it is a quite well-designed vehicle.

Shield disruptor: A splendid invention! It is a vehicle, that is able to neutralize the shield of a rebel building, or the effect of their shield generator. Quite the same as the EMP shockwave weapon in the game Starcraft, which can remove the shield from Protoss buildings. It is great because you don't need to shoot the shield down  from them, just their "life".

AT-AA: anti air walker, I mentioned it earlier, and there is a separate article on it and its pilot here at Customstarwars. Please read that article, too, it is already published.

AT-PT: All Terrain Personal Transport. There is a separate article on this and its pilot here at Customstarwars. Please read that article, too, it is already published.

Hover attack tank: A rebel engineer, Hover developed this series of Hover vehicles, which was named by him later. The attack tank a well shielded, medium speed attack vehicle. Its double cannon has a weak firepower, but still good for self defence in close range. Its strength is the proton missiles. This tells everything about the rebel's coward or let's say "careful" style. As the tank was developed to fire its proton rockets towards the enemy from miles. It took a long time for the Empire to get used to this partisan warfare instead of the huge armored vehicle battles on the battlefields, what they preferred better.

Hover transport: There is a separate article on this and its pilot here at Customstarwars. Please read that article, too, it is already published.

Hover anti air tank: There is a separate article on this and its pilot later on, here at Customstarwars. Please read that article, too, if it will be published.

Torpedo launcher: There will be a separate article on this and its pilot later on, here at Customstarwars. Please read that article, too, if it will be published.

Scanner jammer: There is a separate article on this and its pilot later on, here at Customstarwars. Please read that article, too, it is already published.

Troop carrier tank: Do you remember that tank in Alien 2, what Ripley used to save the remnants of the commando what was attacked by the aliens? Well, this tank reminds me on that tank. Has many wheels, designed, and very fast vehicle. There is a gunturret on its top, it can fire with it if needed, but that is a very small rate of fire. This vehicle has to transport stormtroopers to their destination quickly, that is its primary function, not fighting. It has no shielding!

Mobile artillery: Imperial plasma thrower. There will be a separate article on this and its pilot later on, here at Customstarwars. Please read that article, too, if it will be published.

Click system, secondary abilities, reporting in

You can have plenty of other units in this game, not these mentioned ones above. Many units have some special weapon, or a secondary ability. Click your unit, so to command them. There appears a dragbox around them, which is often criticized by many. This is a colored square basically, which color identifies your units. This click made your unit ready to fight. He/she/it reports in, usually with some cool, or funny sentence. Very cool, when a stolen AT-ST's rebel driver reports in, saying "online", and when he looks at the navigations panel of the vehicle, he gets uncertain, and adds "I think" to his sentence. :-)

Imperial stormtroopers shout "long live for the Emperor" before they rush the enemy.

The technician with the repair droid warns the others around him, when he is making a turn with his machine, saying "watch out for the claws".

The imperials usually say some disciplined, and soldier-like sentences, while the rebels (as they are rather a militia) are pretty a riff-raff company. But that is a source of humor in this game. Just take a look at the rebel vehicles control panel, or even the HQ's! The cover of the panel hangs down, as a bolt is missing from it, the wires can be seen behind it... :-)

Ok, if you smiled enough on the funny, and perfect system of the reporting in, just take a look at the upper-left icon beside the small pic of the vehicle! You can find there the activating button of the secondary ability of the vehicle. Using these are essential part of the game. If you press this button while using your AT-AT, you'll activate its chingun. This brutal cannon bursts a large concentration of laserbolt from under the chin of your walker, which destroys ALL enemy vehicles with a single shot! But also a defensive tower will be almost blow up with this. You could watch the power of this cannon in ESB when Gen. Veers used it against the rebel's shield generator. But if you think you will be invincible with your AT-AT, just watch the secondary ability of a snowspeeder! Tow cable! If you activate that, your snowspeeder automatically fires a harpoon into the leg of the walker, makes some rounds around it, and the tied-legged walker collapses! Or take a look at the Y-wing's ability! Its ion cannon makes the walker freezed, it will stand paralyzed, it won't be able to move, or shoot! The stormtrooper's stun ability is very similar. If you use that, your victim can't move, and he will be taken out from the fight, just like Leia Organa was on the board of Tantive IV. But there are MANY sec. abilities, a part of those was mentioned before, like proton rockets, mines, or grenades. A perfect conception! The game is well balanced with them, it is almost perfect. All unit is a dangerous opponent, each can greatly damage a sort of enemy unit, while the same unit is very vulnerable from an other one!

Buildings

You can build many! They are all have a kinda important function, while they also improve your "townscape". J

Just in brief:

Turrets: Anti-air, anti-infantry, anti-vehicle.

Hospital: It is an imperial heath center. They don't have 2-1B medical droids, so they send the injured veterans into this sanatorium to be healed in this game. The medical treatment and the sanitary services are not free, the imperial insured person must pay the fee in the hospital. :-) This "sanitary contribution" will be deducted from your command points, of course.

Engineering bay: You need not send your smoking vehicles to the junkyard of Ord Mantell, neither!  Your ASP-7 droid can fix all imperial vehicles in this bay, of course this will take a certain money, too.

Shield generator: A rebel equipment, under its radius ALL vehicles and men will be shielded. It is a big investment, as this costs 1000 CP, but it may worth that, but you should protect it well, because as all vehicles, this is also van be occupied.

Airbase: No need to explain that, a Tie fighter platform, or a rebel airbase.

Research center: Both sides have this building. Here your scientists work, to develop things. For a certain money they can upgrade your vehicles, so they will be faster, stronger, or better shielded. (either AT-STs, or Hover tanks can benefit from that)

Command center: Your HQ, or main base. This is your most vital building! You can build in its radius, and you can order reinforcements from that! (The Empire can order with a TRMB too) If this HQ will be occupied by an enemy force, you must take it back in a short time, otherwise its self-destructing system blow up the whole complex, no to leave it for the enemy. So you'll have to buy an other one for 1000 CP! In addition, you'll loose your reinforcements, which are on their way to land near your HQ, if your base is captured or detonated! So keep your eyes on this building, always! The best thing is to put 6 men in it, and deploy some defensive turrets around it. Also, a good choice to put a 2-1B in the building, who can heal your troops during the fight, too.

The spirit and atmosphere of the game

It would say that is superb! The music plays usual SW themes, but there are some new remixes, a march in rock style with Vader's heeling, that is pretty cool! All sounds are authentic, the engines of the Tie fighter are tremendous, and clicking of a huge number of walkers, (as we say a herd of ATATs) it will be like an earthquake under their steps! You'll be shivering! I am invincible -thinks the self-confident gamer who directs a big herd of walkers. But he is mistaken. Anybody can be beaten, or tricked. In a perfect game like this, there is no unbeatable force, that is not enough to produce 10 walkers, and attack the enemy with them. They can be tow-cabled by airspeeders, or can be stolen by infiltrators. The key is to build a complex, and varied army. All units have to protect some other in your army, there must be anti-air units, infantry, armored vehicles, and airplanes. You must put into action that squadron, which is effective against the enemy. Its atmosphere is similar than the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon was away from the battle, usually watched it from a neighboring hillock. He ordered his cannons to open fire, and when the enemy attacked his artillerymen he waved his infantry to rush the enemy, and stop them before the cannons. And when the enemy ran back, he just pointed to the fleeing enemy, and the cavalry pursued home the running foe, or killed them all on the battlefield. You can be a Galactic Napoleon, test your strategic knowledge in this great game! May your air force be an ewok glider (crying haiiia, throwing stones on the head of the enemy) or even a Tie bomber (bombing heavy plasma bombs on the target) you must reach your aims with that, and achieve the victory! But to tell the truth, playing the ewoks were very cute, their movements and voices were very authentically! But this is true for all other units, may it be a speeder bike, or a probe droid, you will hear the voice of the film!

The briefing makes the game feeling even better! The program is better than just writing on your monitor "objectives", it would be too simple. There is a strategic table that you are standing at. You can watch the configurations of the terrain, you can see the roads, the landing zone, and everything! Our spies have explored the location of the enemy base(s) too. You can move your camera around the table, just like around a billiard-table. With the perfect view you can plan your strategies, you can decide where to go first, where to deploy your mobile artilleries, where to advance with your main forces, and where to place your decoy units, or baits.

Well? This is not so bad game that some would have thought, ain't it?  Its game system is perfect for battle events, your units are continuously developing, they get experiences during the fights, and you can take them with you to the next levels. You can give name for them, you can upgrade them. Your orders need time before the arrival, just like in the reality. You'll get playable heroes (Leia, Luke, Vader, C-3PO,  R2-D2, Chewbacca). You'll have tactical meetings with your officers in a briefing room. The story, the atmosphere, the voices, and the music are splendid, awesome. The graphics is the weakest point, but playing it over is high, I also made played it through several times. The game's intro is famous, and fascinating. Click system is humorous, and precise. What else would we need? Multiplayer. There is a multi in the game, but to tell the truth, single is much better. The multiplayer uses the game's maps. There are 4 player allowed to play against each other individually, or in teams. You can play in daytime, or in twilight, on flat ground, or in winding mountain roads, in snow or in the desert, on dried mainland, or fertile grassland. You can set your initial money, and the number of the bunkers (that you have to occupy) you can meet the local lifeforms (banthas, jawas, tuskens, creatures). Also you can set the alliances, and teams. There can play four great warlords superb battles with this game! You can be one of them!

 

written and translated by: Norbert Rostas 2008.03.20.