Generic Conquest Tactics

This page provides generic advice on how to fight a galactic conquest campaign, without focusing on any particular faction or campaign map. It covers the basics of how to start a fighting a campaign, followed by sections on strategy, attack and defence, and infrastructure. Agents are not included as a specific section, but are mentioned within each section as appropriate.

## Campaign Start

The other sections on this page provide useful information which is certainly relevant at the start of a campaign, but this section provides a simpler guide / summary of how to apply it for those less familiar with the game.

1. **Pausing and speed**. The first thing to be aware of is the ability to pause and to change the galactic game speed through the options menu. It is hugely beneficial to be quick off the mark at the start of the game. Upon starting any campaign, pause immediately once it has loaded in.
2. **Reviewing the situation.** Take your time at this point to have a good look around, without immediately touching anything. Check income, starting forces, and defences. Have a think about which areas are especially vulnerable to enemy attack, and which enemy worlds to target first. If need be check out the unit pages on this wiki to understand what your troops can do.
3. **Economic investments.** Whilst still paused, invest starting credits and potentially sell unwanted structures. In most cases, credits are best spent on getting more credits, although it may also be wise to shore up a particularly important but vulnerable world, get production up and running, or even purchase more units. For many campaigns, some players advocate selling some defences in order to have more credits to invest. There are obvious pros and cons to doing so. You may wish to review the economy page at this point. The means by which more credits are best gained will depend on the faction played and the situation at hand.
4. **Neutral systems.** Move units to claim any neutral, empty worlds, starting with those which are more important or close to the enemy. Set up basic structures here. (you may wish to consider this cost in your calculations for step three, since the one time capture bonus is rather small). For this step and the following ones in this section, pause frequently to maximise the time available.
5. **Concentrate forces.** This is a key military principle far beyond AotR. Leaving a few small ships scattered over different worlds allows them to be defeated gradually without having a big impact. It is better to combine all of the ships in an area into one large fleet able to attack or counterattack with significant force. Starting territories will almost always be split up, leading to the creation of a number of such concentrated fleets, usually one in each area of linked territory. These fleets will naturally vary in size depending on the starting conditions of each region. Having concentrated space forces, ground invasion forces and stealth raid teams need to also be concentrated ready for use. Unlike in space, ground armies do not need to include every unit available and will not be needed in every area. One or two ground forces will suffice at this point. For an idea of what kind of ground force needs to be assembled, review the land battle page.
6. **Attack!** Having invested and organised, it is now time to attack the enemy, hopefully making some quick gains before they attack you. This isn't always possible in every region, but is often advisable. Targets should be systems which are poorly defended (this is initially most of them, remember that any defences are only going to get bigger) and which consolidate your own territory, reducing the number of borders to defend. See the 'adopting a strategy' section below for more detail on this.
7. **Defend and counterattack**. Your opponent will most likely throw most of their starting forces at you, often resulting in a series of attacks on your positions. Stay calm and weather the storm. You may lose some worlds, but that is normal in war. Even in battles which seem hopeless, it is advisable to fight manually instead of using auto resolve. Every unit destroyed is one unit less to deal with in the next fight. Once an enemy fleet has taken space over a planet, review its composition and then counterattack with your own fleet if there is a good chance of winning without excessive losses. If the force is too big for this, either gather more forces from elsewhere, or wait for it to move / split up. As much as leaving an enemy fleet intact might hurt, it is not worth gutting your own fleet in the process of destroying it. See the space battle page for advice on how to fight all of the space battles involved.

## Adopting a Strategy

A long term strategy is needed in order to efficiently defeat the enemy. The best route will vary greatly depending on the faction in question, but will likely be informed by the following principles:

* **Objectives.** In some situations, the aim is simply to wipe out the enemy. However, missions may guide strategy in a given direction, usually in the short term but sometimes across much of a campaign. It is important to weigh up the merits of completing these with the alternative options available.
* **Key worlds.** The capture of certain systems is often of great value. In particular, there are a relatively small number of places with the capacity to build capital ships, and it is often worth denying these to the enemy. Certain factions might also benefit greatly from owning certain locations, and there are also planetary bonuses to consider. These might provide benefits for construction times or prices, damage outputs or speed increases for specific units, etc.
* **Chokepoints.** Some systems are important because they form a natural chokepoint. Many sectors have a central system which fits this description, without which certain other systems in the sector cannot be reached. For example:

These central systems are usually high value planets, able to construct a high level space station and thus easier to defend. They also frequently possess a large number of ground slots and the ability to construct more advanced buildings. Destruction of space defences will give the enemy access to the rest of the sector, but continued control of the planet's surface can make it harder for them to exploit this and make it easier to recapture space in future. If a chokepoint is lost, it can be very difficult to hold on to the planets it was protecting.

It is valuable to conquer systems in such a way that the number of enemy systems with links to your territory is as low as possible. This allows you to concentrate your resources in as few places as possible.

* **Isolated systems/sectors.** Particularly at the beginning of a campaign, certain worlds may be isolated from larger areas of your territory. In these cases a choice must be made, to defend them or to evacuate. It is usually worth attempting to defend them, since this destroys or distracts enemy forces which would otherwise attack elsewhere, and allows the world to continue generating income until it falls. If a world is particularly valuable and defensible it may even be worth investing in defences, especially if you intend to link this world with the rest of your territory at some point. If evacuation is chosen at any point, land buildings and units will probably end up being sold. Note: If a land battle is about to begin, leave at least one unit or structure on the planet surface before pressing auto resolve, or you will encounter a bug.
* **Opposing forces.** These will obviously have an enormous impact on the best way to advance. Most forces are small and will move around, so aren't too important on the large strategic scale. However, if the enemy insists on leaving an extremely large fleet over a given world for a long length of time, or builds up a truly impenetrable fortress, then you may have to alter your strategy accordingly.
* **Wider conflicts.** The AI factions do fight each other, and minor factions will eventually start launching attacks. This is worth thinking about. If you take territory such that you are the only possible faction that a given enemy can attack, they will of course attack you. Sometimes it is better to let your opponents fight each other for a given world than to take it for yourself.
* **Eliminating factions.** Killing off a faction is of great value. Its major heroes will no longer keep respawning to fight you, and it will no longer launch attacks or use agents against you.

A final point with regards to strategy. Decisions are often made after weighing up the risks involved and deciding that on balance, it is worth taking those risks. There is therefore a clear need to consider how to respond if things don't work out as expected. In particularly risky cases this should be thought about in advance and contingency plans made, but it will almost always be worth pausing the game in such circumstances and contemplating the best next move. However, just as it is important to plan for failure, it is also vital to plan for success. There are few things worse than winning a great victory in battle but then being unable to exploit it on the strategic level.

## Advice on Attacking

Successful attacks and counter attacks are essential if victory is to be achieved. The use of counter attacking sector defence fleets is covered in the space defence section below, so this section will focus on attacking forces. On the strategic level, this comes down to a few fairly simple steps in most cases:

1. **Wider strategy**. Having considered the principles outlined earlier, where do you want to attack?
2. **Prepare your forces**. In order to carry out a successful attack, you will need a strong fleet, rounded ground force, and enough credits to both spend in battle and to fortify the system after taking it.
3. **Reconnaissance**. This can be conducted simply by placing stealth units in orbit, but can be carried out in more depth using different means for different factions, ranging from corruption to probe droids to Bothan spies. Having done this, assess whether an attack can be carried out without the casualties being too high. Remember that the AI can usually replace losses much more easily than you can, so if you will lose most of your force in the process of defeating the enemy then it probably isn't worthwhile. Assess the alternative options, and whether or not it would be worth building up your forces and attacking later instead.
4. **Deploy Agents**. In some cases you may deem it worthwhile to sabotage the planet (if playing as the Black Sun) or to assassinate any heroes which might be present.
5. **Win in space**. Having decided to attack, advance with your fleet. You should be confident of victory, since you assessed the situation before launching the mission. If things have rapidly changed, don't be afraid to retreat, perhaps even before a shot has been fired. See the space battle page for how to fight.
6. **Win on the surface** (if it exists). Immediately move a previously prepared ground force over the planet and begin the ground attack. Make sure to do this rapidly after the space victory so that the enemy has no time to counterattack. See the land battle page on how to fight this battle.
7. **Fortify**. Having won, start building defences, in accordance with the defence section further down this page. If unforeseen developments arise elsewhere or the enemy counterattacks in force, move your fleet away accordingly. Your land forces may be left on the surface, but they will be capable of resisting enemy attacks and can still build up ground defences.
8. **Repeat or rebuild**. It may be that your initial strategy called for a rapid conquest of multiple systems. If so and if your forces are ready for further action, repeat the steps above. If not, having fortified you can move your ground force back into your territory and use your attack fleet as a sector defence force. Replace losses, strengthen forces, acquire credits, and repeat the process when you are ready.

### Stealth Raids

Stealth raids are launched by moving a group of stealth units into the orbit of an enemy planet and then dragging one down to the surface as you would for a normal land battle. They provide a unique ability to reach the planet surface without having to fight any space forces that might be present. If a planet is taken by a stealth force any space structures in its orbit will be automatically destroyed, making this a potent weapon against worlds with heavy space defences but minimal ground forces. When preparing a stealth raid, consider the following:

* Having considered the ground defence section further down and carried out reconnaissance, is this a viable target? Stealth units will struggle to defeat heavy vehicles or large numbers of troops.
* What will I gain by doing so? Is this a hit and run attack to destroy a key target or is the aim to take the planet surface entirely? Will the casualties be worth the cost?
* Do I have another force standing by to exploit a successful outcome? If the aim is to hold the surface, a fleet may be needed to clear out any remaining enemy ships in orbit or an army may be required to reinforce the ground whilst defences are built. If the attack was made to destroy a key ground to space weapon, have plans been made to exploit this before it can be rebuilt?

### Hit and Run Attacks

As mentioned above, stealth raids can be used as hit and run attacks, striking quickly without attempting to take and hold territory. It is worth noting that any type of attack can be carried out with this aim, not just stealth raids. The space battle page has a section on how and why fleets might do this.

### Fleet Movements

On some occasions, the objective is to move a fleet through enemy territory from one system to another, without particularly aiming to fight along the way. This might be carried out in order to fulfil a mission objective or to combine weaker fleets into a single stronger force. The Black Sun faction can make use of corruption, but other factions must rely on blasting their way through poorly defended areas of space. Good reconnaissance is advised here and intersections are often a good choice, but be wary of gravity well generators when travelling in these locations.

Also note that when a fleet retreats, it jumps to the nearest friendly system. This is usually the one it came from, but not always. It is possible to tactically use this to your advantage.

## The Art of Defence

It will frequently be necessary to defend territory against enemy attacks. Advice on how to fight the tactical battles involved is present elsewhere, but it is equally if not more important to set up good defences on the galactic map. It is useful to view defences in terms of two layers - ground and space. Each of these may contain defences, and each may contain the things you are attempting to defend. With the exception of stealth raids, an enemy must fight in space and then on the ground. With this in mind, the first step when building defences is to decide which of these layers to build them in. In an ideal world the answer would be both, but in practice this simply isn't possible in most cases. As such it is often logical for a shipyard world to have heavy space defences, but only a nominal ground force to prevent stealth raids. Equally, an isolated world with defensible terrain might only be held on the ground rather than engaging in costly space battles. Details about different systems can be found in game and in the planets/systems pages.

### Space Defence

A good network of space defences (like any good defence network in history) will consist of well placed fortresses, smaller stations over frontier worlds, and a powerful concentrated force in each sector with which to carry out counter attacks. This section will discuss each of these in turn, but will first cover what makes an area a defensible one in space.

**Defensible Space Locations**. Most space battles take place in near identical patches of space, so the determinates of what makes a location defensible in space are limited. These are:

* **Asteroid fields**. Are these significant enough to alter the balance in your favour? In many cases the answer is no, but this can be relevant. The current Geonosis space map is somewhat notorious for its asteroids.
* **Space structure slots**. Obviously, a planet capable of building more defences is more defensible.
* **Space construction options**. A planet capable of building shipyards or planetary defences is more defensible as a result. These structures should never form the frontline of a defence but their ability to call in reinforcements can sometimes turn the tide of a given battle.
* **Maximum space station level**. This is of vital importance. A planet which is only capable of building low level space stations is almost never going to have as strong defences as one which can build high level ones.
* **Planetary fire support availability**. Is there a planet surface below with the capacity to build a hypervelocity or ion cannon, and does it have space to do so alongside your other plans for the planet surface? This is an example of when the land and space layers of defence intersect.
* **Opportunity costs**. When considering which worlds to build sizable defences on, it is important to look at the alternative options for space construction in that location. For example, very few places can build Tibanna Gas Refineries, and due to the high value of these structures it will almost certainly be desirable to do so. As a result, even if the planet is defensible by the standards outlined above it may be worth building your fortress elsewhere so that the Tibanna resource can be exploited. However, by the same token, this is clearly a valuable resource which needs defending. If it is not possible to defend the planet by defending neighbouring locations, then a dilemma is to be faced as to the balance between generating credits and building defences.

**Fortresses:** With this in mind, certain worlds can be chosen for the construction of sizable space defences. With limited funding and powerful enemy fleets, it is unwise to attempt to defend everywhere. A series of low level stations will be engaged and destroyed one at a time with minimal losses for the enemy. The same number of credits could be spent far more efficiently on building up an orbital fortress at a defensible chokepoint, which may be able to withstand even the largest enemy fleets and deter smaller ones from attacking in that direction at all.

When choosing construction sites for such fortresses, consider also your wider strategy as covered earlier. There is no point in building up huge defences at a chokepoint when you plan to expand in that direction very soon anyway.

**Frontier Defences:** On many occasions there will still be worlds which aren't protected by orbital fortresses but are still on the front line. In these cases, look to ground defences. If these are strong, then leave the space layer empty. If these are weak, consider building a small station or leaving a picket ship, such as a corvette, over the planet to at least delay the enemy. Such small forces will not survive most attacks, but they provide the crucial role of forcing the enemy to send in a fleet, rather than just being able to send in ground troops. A small station offers greater combat power, but cannot be retreated and will be lost; a picket fighter or corvette is less powerful but can be retreated and brought back with your counterattack. When an enemy force is sitting in orbit of one of your systems, you have the ability to review its composition. At this point it will often be possible to counterattack and eliminate it, hopefully before ground forces have been able to land.

**'Sector Defence Fleets' and Counterattacks:** This refers to fleets fulfilling a defensive role, but note that fleets can be flexible and could be put to use as an attack force if the situation demands it. These fleets are powerful concentrated forces in each region or sector which defend space by carrying out counter attacks whenever it is favourable to do so. The number of these fleets in existence is highly dependent on the resources available, but remember that their strength lies in their substantial size. On most occasions, counter attacks should only be made **i**f there is a good chance of winning without taking excessive losses.If the enemy force is too big for this, either gather more forces from elsewhere or wait for it to move / split up.As much as leaving an enemy fleet intact might hurt, the AI can replace losses more easily than you can and it is not worth gutting your own fleet in the process of destroying it.

Also, consider basing such 'sector defence fleets' at a fortress world. This allows them to bolster these defences even further when present, and also means that they can counter attack the enemy. It might be tempting to just leave them on the front line, but this provides two disadvantages; you cannot fully review the enemy fleet before battle and you cannot begin with only a pathfinder unit, meaning that your formation starts the battle in disarray and potentially with the wrong fleet composition. The exception to this rule is when initially building up space defences, as a an enemy unit entering orbit unopposed when construction is in progress will result in the loss of that construction and the credits put into it.

**Garrisons.** You may notice that this section has made no reference to space units being left over worlds as a garrison. This is because these units should not exist. Any extra space units acquired or built should be used to reinforce or form fleets, and any fleets which cease to be big enough to be effective should be reinforced or merged into other fleets. The size needed to be effective will vary depending on the campaign situation, but as a bare minimum any fleet should be capable of eliminating a lone first level space station without incurring any losses.

### Ground Defence

On the galactic scale ground defences are somewhat simpler than those in space. The main difficulty is instead balancing the right combinations of production, income and defensive structures.

**Defensible Ground Locations**. Ground maps vary greatly in defensibility. Not all of the information outlined below is easily available in game, and as much as we endeavour to include it all in this wiki, some things are a matter of experience. The determinates of what makes a location defensible on the ground are as follows:

* **Terrain**. Generally speaking, open maps are a bad thing and chokepoints are good for the defender.
* **Civilians**. Local populations may take an active role in a battle. A planet is more defensible if the locals are friendly towards you.
* **Land structure slots**. Obviously, a planet capable of building more defences is more defensible.
* **Opportunity costs**. As in space, it is important to look at the alternative construction options available in that location. If the entire value of a planet is in its ability to recruit top quality infantry, it might be a bit of a waste to not build the appropriate structure there. Likewise, if a planet is home to many mining facilities it might be worth trying to defend it in space instead.
* **Locations of defences**. Build pads, bunkers, turbolaser towers, shields and power generators will appear on the map in certain locations, and in the case of turbolaser towers, different numbers of towers will appear on different planets. As a result, you will gradually learn that some worlds have great potential to be turned into fortresses and others are terrible choices because the enemy can easily destroy power generators or advance without encountering many turrets or bunkers.
* **Capturable special structures**. Maps with capturable sensor arrays, abandoned turbolaser towers, rebel training camps etc. are often more defensible, assuming that the defender can reach these before the attacker. The exception are imperial prisons, which will almost always make it harder for the Empire to retain control of a location.

**Distribution of Defences**. With this in mind, certain worlds can be chosen for conversion into fortresses, capable of eliminating whatever the enemy might throw at them. These worlds are defensible as per the above criteria, and either lack defensibility in space or are too isolated for strong space defences to be a viable long term solution. Because unit production buildings provide a garrison, non fortress worlds may still be able to put up a good fight in ground combat. Also remember to ensure that all worlds have at least one garrison providing building on them, with which to defeat stealth raids.

Remember to make use of the map preview option before starting a battle. In most cases this allows you to place units and buildings in favourable locations on the battle map.

**Leaving units as garrisons**. It is usually far more efficient to defend using garrisons provided by structures than it is to defend using extra units which have been produced and placed on the planet. Providing the structure survives a battle, any destroyed units it spawned will be automatically replaced, and these units also do not take up any population cap. Extra units placed on a planet do however have some advantages. They exist in addition to those spawned by structures, can be placed in favourable positions before a battle starts using the map preview option, and can be moved between worlds as required. They also do not have a maintenance cost, unlike most structures.

As such, it makes sense to deploy extra units on planets in one of the following situations:

a) You have some spare units lying about which aren't required by an attack force, possibly gained through a mission reward or present at the start of the game. Although these could be sold, they might be needed one day and could provide extra defences in the meantime.

b) The planet is very weakly defended in terms of garrisons, mainly serving to generate credits. In this case a couple of infantry squads placed on the surface could be the difference between repelling a stealth raid and losing the planet.

Also remember that shield generators and turbolaser towers serve to reinforce ground troops, not replace them. Whether through garrisons or extra units, every world should have at least one infantry squad with which to build turrets and man bunkers, and preferably much more than this.

c) The planet is on the front line and constantly exposed to attacks which the building garrisons are unable to cope with. In this situation, unless the extra units are few and providing a unique tactical option which would otherwise not be present (e.g. artillery or air support), it is advisable to make this a temporary situation. Losing extra ground troops whilst defending is expensive and probably points to the planet not being particularly defensible - see the bottom of this section.

### Conclusion

In space, defences should consist of well placed fortresses, small frontier stations and powerful sector defence fleets. On the ground, a fine balance is needed between production, income and defensive structures. For more details on how to fight these battles when the enemy comes into contact with your beautiful defence networks, see our pages on tactical battles.

As a final note, you may discover that some worlds aren't particularly defensible on the ground or in space. It is your choice how to deal with this, but it is usually best to try and ensure that if you do control such a location, you capture further systems such that this location isn't on the front line for long. If this is not possible, think carefully about taking the system in the first place. It might be an easy place to capture, but is it worth the cost of doing so if you will be unable to keep it?

## Setting Up Infrastructure

Although this includes economic structures, the economy page has a great deal of information on this and so this section will mainly cover military production. It is hard to give a guide as to what to build where, since the situation can vary greatly, but the following principles may be useful:

* **Upgrading structures**. The first thing to be aware of is that upgrading structures will result in a different set of production options, rather than just more or 'better' options. As such, for the Empire to have access to every possible factory unit, it needs to build no less than five different factories. Other factions are less reliant on having such a wide range of infrastructure, but the principle still applies. Combined with a relatively low number of ground structure slots on most worlds, difficult decisions need to be made as to what should be built where. For more info about the upgrading system, see this section on the Mechanics & Game Changes page.

* Obviously, vulnerable worlds need more defences and credit producing structures should be placed out of harm's way. Production facilities sit somewhere between these points, as they are valuable and in need of protection but can also provide useful garrison forces.
* Production facilities need to provide affordable troops which will form part of balanced armies. There is no point in saving up every credit to build a capital shipyard with an extension capable of producing Super Star Destroyers, if you won't actually be able to afford these warships afterwards or if you lack the capacity to build accompanying anti-fighter support ships.

* Finally, if you remember only one thing after reading this page, remember that in AotR, every credit counts. Build what you need rather than what you want, considering upkeep costs.