Space Battle Basics

This page provides a guide for players who are new to Awakening of the Rebellion. By necessity, it makes a series of simplifications, as units and weapons are, of course, much more diverse in actual gameplay. This overview covers the basics of hardpoint types, then discusses the various types of ship, their roles, and abilities. These concepts are then combined into general principles regarding fleet composition and battle tactics.

Initiates to the mod may wish to check out the guide pages Interface & Controls and Mechanics & Game Changes.

## Hardpoint Basics

All space structures and the vast majority of ships larger than corvette size have a series of hardpoints, which become visible when you move your mouse over the unit. Each hardpoint has a role, and typically, the hardpoints house the unit's most powerful weaponry. The health of each hardpoint combined is the total health of the unit. As such it is necessary to destroy all of the hardpoints on an enemy ship to destroy it. This can be done by targeting the *Hull* hardpoint, which will attack all hardpoints evenly. However, it is often advantageous to target them individually in a certain order, depending on battle priorities and how the conflict unfolds. All hardpoints will very slowly regenerate health over time, up to the health level of the *Hull* hardpoint, but once destroyed they cannot be replaced during a battle. If a unit survives a battle, it will automatically be repaired and enter its next engagement with all of its hardpoints fully intact.

Note that some ships have un-targetable hardpoints. These cannot be targeted, but also do not contribute to the health of the unit. For example, it is not possible to destroy the shields of Home One and most other Mon Calamari cruisers. And in addition to the unit's hardpoints, every ship also contains un-targetable weapons. These are typically lighter weaponry. Knowing the enemy's hardpoints and un-targetable weapons is important to deciding whether to destroy a unit completely, thereby freeing up enemy tactical cap space, or to ignore it and focus on more potent aggressors.

The basic hardpoint types are listed below. For more information on space weapons, see Space Weapons Guide:

* **Engines** - These propel the ship. If they are destroyed, it will move only very slowly, will turn very awkwardly, and will be unable to jump to hyperspace.
* **Shield Generators** - The blue bar above a unit shows its current shield strength. A ship will not take damage from Ion, Turbolaser and Laser weaponry until this bar has been depleted. This bar will slowly regenerate, with rates varying by ship and special ability, if applicable, but if the shield generators are destroyed, the ship will lose all shielding permanently. As such, this is frequently a prime target to attack and to defend.
* **Hangars** - Many ships and structures are equipped with hangar bays, which will launch fighters and call in other craft until destroyed or all such craft have been called in. The units to be deployed will be listed in the unit's description. If multiple hanger bays exist, the destruction of some of them will lower the speed at which craft are deployed from them. Note that any craft deployed from a hangar bay will be automatically be replaced after the battle if the ship or station in question survives it.
* **Turbolasers** - These do a great deal of damage to enemy vessels, but are increasingly inaccurate against smaller targets, making them near useless against fighters and bombers. The size of the targets they can hit depend on the Turbolaser size (Light, Medium, Heavy), target speed, and target distance. Fast ships moving (or turning) can often evade Turbolasers when at reasonable distance, even if they are of significant size. Turbolaser sizes correspond to the weight of Armor they're effective against (e.g. Medium Turbolasers are most effective against Light and Medium Armor.
* **Ion Cannons** - These do relatively little damage, but are especially effective against shielding.
* **Torpedo / Missile Launchers** - These weapons are slow firing, but do large amounts of damage and ignore shielding. They are therefore ideal for destroying shield generators so that Turbolasers can get to work on the unprotected enemy hull. Missiles tend to have greater range and firing rate than torpedoes. Missiles also do splash damage, making them able to damage multiple hardpoints at once if they are close enough together.
* **Mass Drivers** - These are very rare weapons which are only used by the Black Sun. They are highly inaccurate but have a long range, do a reasonable amount of damage, and ignore shielding.
* **Tractor Beams** - These are found mostly on Star Destroyers, and have the ability to drastically reduce the movement speed of a smaller vessel for a limited period of time.
* **Astromechs** - Whilst not technically a hardpoint, these are features of some fighters, and gives them the ability to slowly repair themselves over time. Note that corvettes without hardpoints can do this without such a feature. Hardpoint-less ships have the added benefit of being 100% repairable, an important ability to consider for fleet efficiency.

## Space Unit Types

Below is a general discussion of the various types of ships, organizing by size and category of craft. Unit Roles provides a detailed discussion of the general categories of unit function. It is important to note that there are ships of nearly every size for most of the unit roles within a fleet, allowing flexibility to adapt to circumstances while still incorporating all abilities critical to a well functioning fleet.

It is important to note that the quality and quantity of units is a primary factor in combat. Five squadrons will decimate one enemy squadron, while five attacking five could be something of a stalemate with few loses on either side. Likewise, superior fighters like the TIE Defender, normally well equipped to dice larger, slower craft such as X-wings to bits, can be overcome if facing suitable numbers of even the oldest and slowest craft.

* **Fighters** - These are small craft which are designed to destroy opposing fighters and bombers. Examples include the TIE-Fighter, TIE-Avenger or Cloakshape Fighter.
* **Interceptors** - These are small craft which specialize in using their speed to destroy particularly threatening enemy fighters or bombers before they can get too close to their targets. Examples include the TIE-Interceptor, the A-Wing, and the T-Wing.
* **Assault Bombers** - These are small craft which are capable of serving both as fighters or as bombers, though they naturally do not specialize in either. The most famous example is the rebel X-Wing.
* **Bombers** - These are larger craft which carry proton torpedoes in order to seriously damage much larger vessels and space stations. They have heavier armor and shielding than fighters, but move far slower. Examples include the TIE-Bomber, Y-Wing and Skipray Blastboat.
* **Gunships** - These move like starfighters in battle but are larger and so more likely to be destroyed by frigates and capital ships. They specialize in destroying fighters and bombers, and are also ideal for hunting down wayward transport ships. Examples include the IPV or the Braha'tok Gunship.
* **Corvettes** - These relatively small ships serve in a variety of roles, but a reasonably fast speed is something they almost all have in common. They can use this speed to escape larger vessels, and generally tend to be armed with a reasonable array of laser cannons. Examples include the Corellian Corvette, the Carrack-class Light Cruiser, and the Crusader-class Corvette.
* **Frigates** - These medium sized vessels are armed with a range of weaponry, commonly including both Turbolasers and laser cannons. They can support larger vessels or prove highly dangerous in their own right, capable of operating in groups to eliminate capital ships and space stations. Some are also equipped with hangar bays. Examples include the MC-40 and the Munificent-class Star Frigate.
* **Carriers** - This category of ship includes frigates and capital ships which have the primary task of carrying large numbers of starfighters into battle. These ships operate behind the line, providing anti-fighter weaponry and supping fighters and bombers throughout the duration of the battle, or until they run out of reinforcements. Examples include the Quasar Carrier and the Ton-Falk.
* **Crusiers** - These are medium to large sized ships that are typically well shielded and armed. There are various general types, from long range artillery to close range brawlers. Some are equipped with Stun or Ion weaponry to serve a disabling or shield stripping function. They can also function as more mobile Turbolaser sponges if larger ships cannot easily be repositioned. Examples include the Victory I and II-class Star Destroyers and the MC-60.
* **Capital Ships** - These large battleships dominate most battles, armed with enough weaponry to rapidly destroy most frigates, cruisers, and corvettes. Usually sporting Heavy Armor, they are slow and often vulnerable to bombers, lacking many laser cannons and rarely possesing point defense weaponry, though they usually have a hanger bay to provide at least some fighter support. Capital ships come in a range of shapes and sizes, but all must be taken seriously. Examples range from the Imperial I- class Star Destroyer to the Providence-class Carrier/Destroyer.
* **Command Ships** - Flagships designed to impress and fear, often to an almost impractical degree, these vessels are rare and highly dangerous, often capable of threatening entire fleets by themselves. They function as much larger capital ships, and must be engaged with Dak-level enthusiasm. Ships such as these usually posse incredible numbers of both hardpoint weapons and un-targetable weapons, meaning even when "severely" crippled in battle, they will still pose formidable threats to most fleets. These ships must be dealt with quickly and effectively, with the proper weapons. Bombers, Stun Ion Cannons, and Mag-Pulse weapons are a fleet's biggest friend here. But when attacked correctly, most prove to be unwieldy and ill suited to most battles. There are, however, a few command ships that don't boast extravagant arsenals, such as the MC-80 Independence-class, the Lucrehulk, and the Arc Hammer; the first prioritizes shielding, while the other two excel at fighter production. These are better suited to a general purpose fleet, and they each pose their own unique threats and must too be carefully combated. Large frigates and all cruisers are particularly vulnerable to command ships and lack the shielding to cope with the firepower. Command ships have three major downsides: cost, build time, and speed. The Bellator-class Star Dreadnought. for instance, packs a reasonable 250 engine speed. But it is an exception in this group. Other examples include the two flagships in the Battle of Endor, Home One and the Executor.
* **Heroes** - Many heroes command a ship of one of the above types. In addition to the usual capabilities of their vessel, they may also have special abilities or provide an Admiral Bonus, which increases the effectiveness of all ships in the fleet or a ship-class bonus, which only benefits ships of that type. Bonuses of the same type defer to the highest bonus, while an Admiral Bonus stacks onto any specific ship-class bonuses. For example, a 10% and a 15% Admiral Bonus and a 10% Fighter Bonus would result in 15% bonus for all ships and 25% bonus for all fighters. Notable heroes include major heroes such as Darth Vader and minor heroes such as Admiral Ackbar, Andal Sait, and Captain Brandei.
* **Space Stations** - These weapon platforms can be significant obstacles to attacking fleets, always being equipped with considerable shielding, hangar bays, and a range of weaponry, including Long Range Turbolasers. They also provide special abilities. Their most obvious limitation is that they cannot move, allowing any enemy damaged ships to move out of range. Examples include the Golan I Battlestation.
* **Space Defense Structures** - These come in varying shapes and sizes, also including economic structures for the purpose of this section. They are essentially extra space stations, although they are naturally less important.
* **Shipyards** - These are unarmed, high value structures which need to be defended from enemy attacks. They spawn reinforcement fleets depending on the size of the shipyard. Larger shipyards are heavily armored and shielded, but only lightly armed. Use them to shield one's fleet *only when desperate*.
* **Support Ships** - This category includes any vessel which primarily exists to support other ships, and is of little use if deployed by itself. Examples include the GR-75 Repair Ship and the Immobilizer Cruiser.
* **Freighters** - These are non-combat vessels which serve an economic function on the galactic map. They should be kept out of combat if possible, and any enemy freighters should be targeted.
* **Transports** - Transport vessels contain ground units, and are largely defenseless. They should never be caught in space combat, and any enemy transports should be targeted, since it is far easier to destroy a ground unit in space than on a planet's surface. Examples include the Imperial Dropship Transport.

## General Principles of Space Battles

Here the basics discussed above are incorporated into general principles effective for the vast majority of battles.

#### **Pathfinding:**

   Space is space, and larger ships take up more of it. Thus, navigating and positioning ships is more difficult as their size increases. Usually this means the unit plots a more complex trajectory. The more ships moving at once, the fewer the paths available, as the algorithm will chart a path that avoids current and future collisions, as well as any map obstacles (stations, yards, nebula, etc.). However, moving ships sequentially mostly evades the collision detection, and two ships can be be nearly overlapped, far closer than moving both together would allow. Playing around with the target location may also drastically change the trajectory (and occasionally one finds a trajectory that lets one pass through ships!) Furthermore, each ship has a size dependent minimum distance required to execute a move order. Move targets in this area will usually be ignored. This can be circumvented by directing the unit to a position beyond and canceling when it reaches the intended location. Units can be given a *Turn Order* by selecting one or more units, *right clicking*, and directing the *green arrow*. Movements can be canceled by a single *Cancel* button press; if that doesn't work, a second *Cancel* might. Often another ship's trajectory requires the first to continue moving, but this can be overridden. The movement stop failsafe is to give the ship a *Turn Order*.

Through a combination of individual ship movements, turns, and *Cancels*, almost any generally considered "impossible" fleet layout can be achieved. It requires coaxing, but overlapping (or nearly overlapping) units are possible. Positioning capital ships of the same layer side by side is most effectively done by directing the two ships, one at a time, to move to a point beyond their desired position in such a way as will make the ships pass close together at the desired point. Once the ideal position is reached, a *Turn* *Order,* one ship at a time, will stop each ship's movement without triggering a trajectory change for nearby moving ships. But fleet position takes time, and slower units should be prioritized. Correspondingly, a quick attack can make use of the enemy's delay in fleet positioning.

#### **Fleet Composition:**

It is important to understand the abilities and vulnerabilities of every unit in one's faction. To an extent, this is something which one can get a feel for over time, but it is also worth reading unit descriptions and referring to the space units pages on this Wiki. Every unit has a purpose, a way in which it should be used. Fleet composition is a matter of personal taste, and it is recommended to at least try using every unit in the game before settling on a favorite formation. But generally speaking, diverse fleets perform the best, *but only when each unit is used appropriately*. The most effective beginners' fleets consist primarily of familiar units, with the unfamiliar to be gradually incorporated into fleet composition as the game progresses.

Repair ships should never be overlooked. They are cheap and can mean the difference between a successful retreat and a busted engine resulting in a 20,000 credit loss on a capital ship that was left behind. Shield generators, too, require guarding from repair ships. Additionally, the presence of repair ships in a fleet grants all corvettes and small frigates without hardpoints an invulnerability of sorts. They can be repaired a limitless number of times and can therefore be asked to engage in riskier roles.

Typically units are laid out in layers. Command ships occupy the lowest layer, and usually have it to themselves. This allows them relatively free movement and enables relatively easy stacking of a command ship and a capital ship. The next layer above is typically all (or most) of the fleet's capital ships. This is therefore the most heavily congested layer, and positioning of ships in this layer takes careful planning. Cruisers are the layer above, and frigates the next after, and so on. When positioning a fleet, it is ideal to rotate the camera and check all angles. This is done by *Ctrl+[Middle Mouse Button]*. Given that a fleet layout is a three dimensional structure, multiple viewing angles are essential to insuring ships are positioned correctly. Note, too, that it is possible for higher layer ships, while technically positioned behind the capitals, to be the target of enemy fire due to their open position, sometimes quite far above the battle.

*Ctrl+[left mouse]* adds all units of the clicked type to the player's selected units. *Shift+[left mouse]* either adds or subtracts that single unit. Units can be assigned to keys 1 through 9 by selecting the units and pressing *Ctrl+[desired number]*. One good strategy is to group units by ability or armor type. This is particularly important for frigates and corvettes, which are difficult to spot in most battle maps, and can be destroyed easily if misplaced or forgotten. Small units that remain unassigned usually wind up destroyed.

#### **Fleet Shielding:**

Generally, fleets should be layered: weaker, lighter craft in the middle, safe from enemy fire. Heavy Armor should be positioned towards the edges, easily maneuverable, and ideally pointed outward just far enough to still attract enough fire to make use of their shield points and albeit slower shield regeneration. Large cruisers and capital ships with fast charging shields (but typically Medium Armor) should soak up Turbolaser fire on the outside of the fleet. Shields regenerate quickly; practically speaking, armor does not regenerate at all. Ships can also be turned inward and outward throughout the battle to quickly change the volume of incoming fire they recieve. Remember, though, that the layers different ships occupy can make shielding against enemy fire difficult. The AI has a particular preference, too, in which of the ships in range it targets first.

Once the enemy breaks through the shielding of these outer ships (or ideally just before they're depleted), any Heavy Armor capital ships should be repositioned around the outside of the fleet. Unlike with Heavy Armor, enemy Turbolaser fire will shred any ships with Light and Medium Armor. However, Heavy Armored cruisers and capitals are typically very slow and have slow charging shields, making foresight in positioning a necessity. In fleets containing a command ship, cap space usually requires the command ship to fill both these tanking roles, and their relatively free movement and ample shielding and armor hitpoints makes them well suited to the task. The sweetspot is to command one's fleet in such a way that makes the most advantage of these two extremes: fast shielding and Heavy Armor.

Learning how to position ships and and when to change fleet formation is best learned through practice. The primary goal is to disperse incoming Turbolaser and Turbo Ion fire as broadly as possible. Roughly speaking, for two ships with the same shield points, if one ship has *2x* the shield recharge rate as another, that ship should be positioned to attract roughly twice the volume of fire. The sum total of one's fleet's individual shield recharge rates gives a rough estimate as to the total shielding recharge power available to the fleet. Combining this with the total number of shield points gives an idea of a fleet's total shielding reserves. Prolonging an engagement through Stun weaponry or map obstacles will further extend fleet shielding, if it slows the enemy assault. Such a tactic is useful for fleets with many Long Range batteries.

Having three, four, or even *five* cruisers with shield recharges rates at 30 per second all simultaneously recharging provides enormous yields in total shielding reserves compared to just a single 30 per second cruiser taking fire. And while no means an exact science, analyzing one's fleet from this perspective presents a metric to evaluate the efficiency of a particular fleet layout at any point in a battle. A well managed fleet, excluding any reinforcements the player calls in, will attempt to preserve the as many harpoints on as many ships as possible... until the majority of the fleet's shielding is depleted. Then it's up to the heavy armored ships to tank the damage.

#### **Asteroid fields:**

Handled well, a fleet should not take any damage from these. When it is necessary to pass an entire fleet through them (is it ever, though?), it is best to absorb any damage with shields if possible. Note that asteroids will only damage ships whilst they are moving. As such it is possible to stop mid field, wait for shields to recharge, and then continue. Asteroids may also be used as a means of damaging the enemy. Fighters and corvettes are not damaged by moving through an asteroid field. When defending, particular attention should be given to them as a effective defensive barrier. Should the AI attempt a plodding trek through them to get to the player's fleet, just sit back and enjoy the AI fighting itself.

#### **Using Abilities:**

Most ships have one or more special abilities. They are indicated by a small toggle square above above the unit thumbnail when the unit is selected, and can be activated for a range of effects by left clicking on the icon. Right clicking the ability icon toggles the automatic activation for that ability; when on, the ability is outlined in yellow. Within the Game Options menu, there is a setting to enable or disable "*Abilities Default to Autofire."* There are a few general categories of ability length, with those of the same general type typically lasting the same durations for active and cooldown operation. The *Repair* and *Flares* abilities are two of the fastest recharging abilities. *Supply Drop* and *Missile Jammer* are two of the slowest. More information on specific abilities can be found here.

Generally, the type of ability dictates where best that unit should be positioned in a typical fleet. Units with *Power to the Engines* can be well suited to hit and run tactics, or easily repositionable within a fleet. *Missile Jammers* and *Flares* are best served located furthest out to deflect enemy rocket and torpedo fire. It's important to note that *Missile Jammers* like the Nebula B figates are positioned *above* the fleet in the frigate layer. Thus, their effective missile jamming range for protecting lower layer capital ships is significantly reduced, given the further distance away. And when deployed within a command ship's fleet, the real battle may be so far below that their jamming abilities prove little use. Units with the ability *Point Defense* are well suited to target both fighters and projectiles, and are also served by being at the edges of the fleet. *Point Defense,* however, has a recharge time similar to *Repair,* and thus these ships are ideally situated between M*issile Jammer* ships to provide your fleet some protection during the long *Jamming* recharge. Likewise, special shielding units like the MC-80B Remonda with its *Defensive Shield* or the *Power to Shields* of the MC-80 Independence line are best positioned as Turbolaser sponges. The former ability, while active, only allows a quarter of incoming Turbolaser and Ion damage. The latter diverts power from weapons and engines towards the shields.

The final general group of abilities is weaponry: *Power to Main Batteries, Full Salvo, Ion Barrage, and Power to Weapons.* These abilities (all non-autofirable), when active, divert power towards the ship's weaponry in slightly different ways. *Batteries* and *Ion* divert power to main weapons and ion weapons, respectively. *Full Salvo* reduces fire rate of laser weaponry and increases rocket and missile firing rates. And *Power to Weapons* diverts power from shielding and engines towards all weaponry. Importantly, these abilities disable shield recharge rates while active, as well as posing many other side effects that should be noted. Diverting power from shielding for, say, a capital ship that is attempting to tank Turbolaser damage is not the best choice of action unless more firepower is critically required.

Additionally, there are various fighter special abilities that differ based on unit role and quality. X-wings can *Lock Foils,* Y-wings have an *Fire Ion Stunners*, A-wings have *Boost Engine Power,* etc. Only about half of this group of abilities can be autofired. In this category are also the heroes Luke and Rogue Squadron, with *Lucky Shot* and *Strike,* respectively. *Lucky Shot* is particularly important, as with it, Luke can destroy an entire hardpoint in one go. Taken together, these fighter abilities can mean the difference between the survival of the player's squadrons or watching the enemy decimate all wings in a manner that would make Thrawn proud.

#### **Flights, and Squadrons:**

Starfighters come in either flights or squadrons, the difference being that flights are half the size of squadrons. Larger vessels typically deploy several squadrons, while the smallest may only drop one flight. Fighters deployed from ships are not penalized if destroyed, and respawn each fight. Thus they are more "expendable" than costly ships. Each hanger equipped ship will have two numbers for each fighter type in carries, deployed and reserved. The active and total numbers of fighter and bombers from the ships in your fleet should be considered before adding purchased individual fighter units.

#### **Hyperspacing reinforcements close to the enemy:**

This is highly risky, since ships will take significant extra damage when fired on during this process, and they won't be able to fire until the jump is complete. This takes a few seconds, leaving your ships very vulnerable. The only situation in which this is justified is if the enemy force is significantly smaller and you wish to attack quickly before they can retreat. Knowing the max weapons ranges of your enemy's ships and stations is essential to avoiding post-hyperspace Turbolaser shredding. It is possible to distract enemy heavy fire and hyperspace in reinforcements during Turbolaser cooldown times, but this allows little margin for error.

#### **Retreats:**

These are an important tactical option which should not be neglected. The game will record a retreat as a battle lost, but this can be highly misleading. The Rebellion benefits from a shortened retreat timer precisely because they carry out hit and run attacks. There is no shame in arriving in a system, destroying a key target, and then leaving before the main enemy fleet can engage. When retreating, it is often worth pausing and weighing up the value of ordering a retreat at this precise moment. Note that a ship will be unable to retreat if its engines are all destroyed, if it is currently stunned by Stun Ion Cannons, or is still recovering from a Planetary Ion Cannon. And Ion weaponry aside, intact engines are not a guarantee of a successful retreat. Interdiction capable cruisers can prevent an enemy retreat, if deployed. Furthermore, note that retreating fleets jump to the nearest friendly system. This is usually the one from which an attack was made, but not always. It is possible to use this tactically to your advantage. For information on tactically retreating, see here.
Having read through this information you may wish to next consult information on the more advanced aspects of space combat.