So, like many, you might have either played this game when you were younger, seen the various youtube channels that keep it alive, and/or saw that this game has a workshop and is the only other Star Wars rts that isn't Galactic Battlegrounds. In that, you chose Thrawn's Revenge, seeing that it contains many Danger Doritos and big Spicy Cigars (and not to mention it being very well rated), and in your quest to live out the power fantasy that is being the Empire, you load up an Imperial Remnant campaign and find yourself feeling more, well, like the rebels.

Welcome to the Imperial Remnant.

You are no longer the Empire, you no longer have evil space wizards saving your ass, you already lost the Death Star, twice, and all you have left is just the scraps of various rag tag fleets alongside no access (off the bat) to any SSD's. And within the first 10 minutes you'll be hearing ENEMY FLEET APPROACHING and/or PLANET LOST constantly. That's fine, as the Imperial Remnant, you'll be losing many different planets that are way too far away for you to respond effectively.

Now before we get any further into this guide, I highly recommend that you play as the Pentastar Alignment first as a beginning faction. This is for new players that still want to play mods and access Thrawn's Revenge without feeling as though you're living a rude awakening, or for players like me that have played EaW as a kid and just got back into the game. The Pentastar alignment both fulfills the fantasy of being the Empire, and gives you an SSD hero by week 20 (while also gaining access to a hell of a lot more SSD's after the fact).

It's a great starting faction in learning the basics of the mod while also having the greatest starting position of all, you only have so many lanes into your empire and you can effectively turtle and conquer.

Anyways, for those that want to have fun from the get go and very little early game challenge, the Pentastar Alignment is for you. Another great beginning faction is the Empire of the Hand, same case with Pentastar but this time no SSD's, though, they still have a great starting position and have probably the best balanced fleet in the game.

This guide is also built on just my experiences and what hints and tips I've picked up in my numerous attempts on trying to get the Empire properly into Era 2 and beyond, without feeling as though a handful of defeats will actually mean game over. It's not perfect, it's not super pro, but I think it may be enough for players to at least find that comfy position when looking over your faction (rather than the typical nail-biting one).

Also, this will be based on the 140 planet start (the biggest GC). If you're playing any that include the Empire of the Hand, just adjust in knowing you'll have another front to your left of the core to deal with and you should be fine.

Anyways, now that we got that out of the way, how about we start actually talking about the Imperial Remnant and how to dry your tears for an era gone by?

So, you're sticking with the one true Empire, and you want to see them brought up back to unlimited power. Well, the Era 1 Empire is a Sith forsaken joke. It really is a remnant.

You start off with fleets that consists of Acclimators, carriers, Imp1/2/T Star Detroyers and a further mix of strike cruisers paired with either Vic 1's or 2's. Everyone else for the most part gets some super star destroyer off the bat, and early access to Battle Cruisers. NOW, you do start with a hero that does have an Allegiance Battle Cruiser (which...is ok) though, in my opinion you should not stick around in Era 1 (the starting era essentially) for too long. However, we'll get to those points soon enough.

First things first, recognize early on that you are going to lose a lot of planets. The Imperial Remnant is stretched allover the damn place and the thing I recommend is securing the core as best you can. You really don't want anyone taking Coruscant or Kuat (especially Kuat). Kuat will be your ultimate shipyard, Coruscant your moneymaker. But for early game, you as the empire are broke AF, you are making nil, and are almost in a deficit for the mod resources (industry/agriculture etc). That's also why you should not lose any fleets if you can help it, play those naval battles even if you know you're definitely going to lose so that you can retreat them. Most of the time they'll jet over to the nearest planet but if there is none, then they'll do what we want in hyperspacing all the way back to the core.

With that, know that Kessel and it's nearest planet will be lost, Ciutric and it's accompanying planets will be lost, and Fondor alongside it's planets...will be lost (though you can hold on Fondor for a bit with their fleets). Those planets may be consumed by the AI in due time, but as said, with the clever use of the retreat button, not everything will be eaten.

So other than practicing the art of retreating bravely to the core, in Era 1 you start with Sage on Coruscant, the man with a silly hat. He will be your initial starting move, as he gives price reductions on building stuff, which while small, is very important considering the economic state of the Empire, and trying to afford Isard. With him on Coruscant, build the Arkayd Building, a Tax building alongside a trade port. Once you got that in the build queue, peddle his ass quickly to Kuat.

Once on Kuat, have him build the KDY yards. After you click on the KDY yards and have it set in the build menu, you can either just wait for creds to afford Isard, or...if you really want to (which will delay the credits needed for Isard but not too significantly) you can push him to build the Damorian Manufacturing Yards in Brentaal (top left hyperlane connecting to Kuat). I only say this as if you want, you can still get it later on, but unlike KDY giving you a discount on the core Imperial Navy (ie, the Danger Dorito Force), all that DMY gives are discounts on Carrot Carrack cruisers and the Tartan patrol Cruiser. I don't use those, other than the ones what you start with, I instead supplement those both with either having enough escort carriers to be my AA (or Lancers), and Strike Cruisers being the switch to Carracks. I'll explain this more on Era 2 though, as for now, you're literally scrambling to SURVIVE.

So once that's all good and proper, you can now focus solely on combining fleets together as you wait on creds for Isard. Place fleets on points you deem defensible in your core, and push back whatever monstrosities the AI sends. For this, you don't need to worry about the Independent planet pocket to your immediate left in the core. You can't conquer them, they can't conquer you. They're just there. Byss also is a place you don't need to worry about, AI can't touch it, you can't touch it, most that you can do with Byss is move fleets through it (sometimes~), but not on it. It'll matter somewhat later on. Also, any other independent planet you find that isn't that left pocket is still conquerable, and won't invade. The Hapans (purple/magenta empire to your northeast borders from the core) actually now do function as an empire, however I find them to still be rather passive. What you need to worry about is essentially EVERYBODY ELSE.

The Maldrood (red) in your core, south of Coruscant (they have a Secutor and a handful of ISD's); the Eriadu's (white) which will most likely take your southern regions from the core before the Republic eats them up; Zsinj (brown) is going to crash in from the northeast, and well, SSD everything, and Kaine will do the same in the northwest if you give the Pentastar Alignment (blue) enough time (Week 20). Oh, and the New Republic (orange) of course, they'll throw their Spicy Cigars at you whenever they feel like it. Era 1 isn't about conquering, save for maybe the Maldrood planets near Coruscant and whatever you feel is weak enough, instead, it's holding on, combining, saving, and waiting for Isard.

For now, you can take the above as reference points on where to place your retreated/combined fleets against.

And just to reiterate, there is no real reason to stay in this Era once you have enough creds to afford Isard, as you don't get anything remarkable. You don't have any means of obtaining an SSD without her, and you'll be heavily handicapping yourself for the most part. Hell, your strongest unit, a hero, so once he dead its gone, is an Allegiance Battle Cruiser, the weakest in my opinion of the Dreadnought/Heavy bunch when everyone else can throw ExecSSD's, MC80 Home One's, and Praetors at you from all directions.

But, don't lose hope, the build time for Isard is short and you have one thing the AI lacks. A brain. Take advantage of the AI in every way, you're already playing one of the most handicapped factions in the game with the most handicapped starting position in the game. You'll need to not only cheese the AI, but make use of what you have as the Remnant to the best of your ability, as not only does the AI field heroes that are far superior to your own in this era, they can very much outpace you in terms of battle cruisers and the likes. But they're also occupied in fighting among themselves and only occasionally invading you.

Remember, they're dumb and move their forces far more than you do, just have response fleets, always have a lead ship, and don't feel shy to retreat and maybe even combine fleets with others to face a bigger threat. Take advantage of asteroid fields and nebula's. And know the value of a planet, is it worth taking back immediately with the big AI fleet on it? Even if it's close to the core? Be patient and strike when you feel proper.

Now, you may be seeing me mention Isard a lot. To give some context, if you hate having to micro in killing SSD's or spamming fighters at it while killing the chaff surrounding them, or are tired of actually needing to use your forces correctly within nominal fleet battles, Isard literally saves your empire until Week 60 (where she leaves :I). When you buy Isard as a hero, not only does she switch up the Saturday Morning Cartoon evil villain cast of Imperial characters, she is the cast (though there are a couple others tacked on alongside her). She's an Executor SSD, and is only 10k~ to recruit. Normally to build one (in her era, Era1 that is) it takes 30k credits to do so (with the KDY discount).

Get her as soon as you can afford it, as unfortunately, the Empire, the very thing that created SSD's and their variants, has nada in that department until she comes along (as you can probably garner). And even then, you will pretty much be relying on Dorito spam considering that until you decide to either get Thrawn, or naturally have him arrive (Week 60~) you will have no real access to any Battle Cruiser(s). And also by hiring her, you are now thrown into a much more civilized era, Era 2.

So, with the beginning era being more of a scramble to consolidate some means of force in the core, once you hire Isard, you'll find yourself more on the offensive now that you have a big ol' bargaining chip.

Here is where the economy and fleet make up are more important now, since no longer are you waiting to be defeated to grab up whatever's left in the outer edges of the galaxy, instead, you now have just enough to start fighting back.

In this, I will try my best in explaining an okayish fleet. It's hard, as you'll be facing a myriad of threats that then demand a different response, typically however as the Imperial Remnant, you are strapped for creds, and have no access to good ships (at this time).

What I think is the best early game fleet is as follows:

3-4 Tector-Destroyers, ISD 1's and 2's can also have their place as the third or fourth ship as a capital, but if you want to be economic, stick with Tector's as they've got staying power. Mainly since you'll be facing many big threats with essentially middle line forces, you'll need to be both soaking and dishing back damage as best as you can, hence the need for the heavy Tector bois. Now, they don't really get any fighters (the Tector that is), which is why the Escort Carrier Frigate is going to be your best friend, get about 5-10 of those per fleet, so long as you have five or more, you'll be okay in the department against fighters, and even dominate some fights with them. For any frontline frigates to make up the rest, go for 5-10 Strike Cruisers and maybe a handful of Victory's (2-3 is fine, maybe even 4 if you can afford it). There you'll have your fleet, now, if you really do need better AA defense, consider getting lancers to supplement, about 4 or 5 I find is best as they do real great damage against any fighter fuzzball coming towards you.

I find that this fleet is good in facing New Republic fleets which are going to be constantly pestering you, especially if you have the 4 Tector (or 3 Tector + 1 ISD1/2) stack with 4 Vic's and however many Strikes/ECarriers left over. This fleet can take down those scary MC80 Home One cigars alongside SSD heroes, so long as you deploy right and try to use the map and AI to your advantage (while cheesing by focus firing on hardpoints).

You can of course make adjustments or completely disagree with the above composition considering that there are a lot of other ships that the empire can still field, but I do know one thing. The main issue with the Imperial Remnant is that they don't have a lot of choice in what they get to field economically, mainly due to you already scrambling to piece together rag tag groups, alongside their serious gap of decent high-tier units to invest in. Hence, you'll be needing to spam something okay to stand against the numerous threats you'll be facing when you start losing ships, without also hemorrhaging an already collapsed wallet. Gone are the days of fielding an SSD as the focal point of a fleet, now we instead have God Tector, bless it's soul.

However, we do have one power fantasy we can still cling to, Isard. With her fleet, take 2-3 Tectors (or ISD's in general), 5 Escorts, and well anything else you fancy. Once you field that beast of an SSD, you'll be able to only field so much after the fact, as when she's on the field, you can only get at most 2 Tectors out with maybe 2 carriers which will most likely hit the limit. If you want a little more on the field, instead of deploying Tectors, you can probably throw in a bunch of lancers to keep fighters off of her, and/or Strike Cruisers/Vic's to help kill anything that she's pointing at. But, if you're good at microing the hardpoints of anything, I find that 2 tectors, and 2+ escort carriers with Isard can kill even other SSD battle groups so long as it isn't a God awful 400+ point death ball. Be careful however, with the new update, SSD's aren't invincible. I recommend using Isard as much as you can since she'll leave once her time's up, but also, damage is sustained on an SSD when it goes below 90 hull (it will heal over time with creds being deducted passively).

Also, a ship I really don't recommend building is the Acclimator. If they were the carrier variant I would wholeheartedly recommend them, but instead, we have the assault version.

The assaults are way too much of a glass cannon. They do decent damage, but are probably the first ships in any of your ragtag fleets to die, as they don't have good staying power and are pricey for what they are, I'd rather just get a Victory over them if I need to up a fleet's damage but not outrightly buy a capital of some sort. As even the Victory 1's have more staying power than the Acclimators. But if you really want them, a wolf pack of 5 I find is best (but good luck keeping them alive).

But, the question is how are we going to afford those fleets? Well, once you secure your status quo in the core, you should probably start worrying about what planets to pump up creds with, and what will be the fortress/recruiting worlds. I always go by the old rule, any planet you see that is making 120+ as as base income deserves a tax/mine building + trade port. Anything lower than that can be your worlds that hold unit factories, and your resource buildings (the Agroport/Industry buildings). And remember, when you have a fleet over a world, it tanks their economies so maybe think on moving them around to reveal actual income from planets if they're not immediate defense points.

One recommendation I suggest off the bat is to pump up creds with tax buildings/tradeports in lucrative worlds, then immediately try to get some Industrial/Agriculture buildings up somewhere, as with the Empire, any further building of factories or barracks will literally tank those resources, so best to get those setup soon. After that you can then worry on building a Naval academy elsewhere so that you can start training crews for your future fleets. Also careful on the tax buildings, the more you build the more the planet's influence tanks, leading to rebellion. Just don't build more than 1 tax building unless you know what you're doing, trade ports are fine to build however, as they don't affect influence.

Also, for the more savvy economic players, if you have the pop and the creds, try to get another Exec SSD on Kuat, as once Isard leaves (week 60 or by your choice in hiring Thrawn), her SSD and that build option for them leaves as well. So best to at least have one left over that isn't Isard. It takes 300 crew pop, 33000~ creds and a spoonful of anxiety inducing patience.

Other than that, you can start deciding on whether to use Isard as a SSD defense killer when either Zsinj or Kaine come in out of nowhere, or you can blitz up north and try to conquer the Pentastar alignment before they can even get Kaine (week 20). You can also consider placing her near the core as a defensive guarantee and just securing any other planets around you, such as that Maldrood pocket that's too close to Coruscant, and further securing the southern planets leading to the New Republic. Either way, at this point its the direction you want to chose, rather than the hell that is Era 1.

What I really recommend though is that if you see Kaine and/or Zsinj anywhere, have Isard immediately go and KILL them, you really don't want to be dealing with that noise when she leaves. After they die, you'll pretty much be the only SSD around for awhile.

And, well, I won't blame you one bit if you have to restart this campaign multiple times. Getting to this point takes a lot of effort and attention, and even luck. So take your time to feel it out and get a groove. These 2 Era segments are probably the hardest to get through, but once you get to that point where you're finally here and in control, its a grand ol' feeling.

Too bad it lasts until you have to actually use Tactical Genius. Welcome to the next part of the party, Era 3. Thrawn's Revenge.

Goodbye Isard, goodbye SSD build option, goodbye Tectors, goodbye...everything that was duct tape holding this hell-coaster together. Now, all we have is pure tactical genius.

Siiigghhhh

Eh it ain't all bad. For the most part, you should be used to being severely handicapped by now, even with Isard. With Thrawn, ie the Duke, the OG One Man Blue Man Group, the..well, One True Heir to the Empire, you're basically further extending your practice in masochism tactical genius.

So what changes? Well obviously, Thrawn comes with his heroes, and you lose your previous cast + Isard. Hopefully you invested in keeping an SSD around that wasn't her so that if the occasion ever arises, you can pull it out to help in any (usually defensive) battles. As a sidenote too, Era 3 states it happens in week 60, but I was able to milk it to about 70 when it forcefully changed.

Anyways, with this new hero lineup, not much is different save for having 2 Ace Tie Squadrons, and a capture shuttle hero (and your typical ISD/Victory carrying heroes that aren't Thrawn). The shuttle, with enough cheese, can net you many different ships, now, off the top of my head I can't list every ship you can capture, but so long as it's in the capital category and about the size of a ISD (an on down), it's capturable. Alongside that, on most descriptions for ships, it should say whether it's capturable or not as well, if you feel hesitant in sending him out.

You also get some ground heroes, one being the insane clone master jedi from the book itself whom Thrawn brings along. He's pretty good, especially if you're tired of facing jedi spam from the New Republic.

But, as mentioned, we also lose our God Tector spam, and are now stuck with Interdictors, Allegiances and the usual ISD1/2 lineup for building anything big. Technically you now have the Empire's equivalent to a Battle Cruiser for this era, the Allegiance that is, but I find that they're a step back from having that good cheap spam that the Tector brought. They're 9100 to build with the KDY discount and are okay as a center role for fleets. I hope you didn't lose too many ISD-T ships during Isard's reign since as for now, we can't reliably replace Tector's (unless you really want to throw trash into your fleets with ISD1 spam), ISD2's are also good, don't get me wrong, but they're a bit pricier for the fleets. And even midgame you'll be still having to fight for your right to exist, thus making your economy fluctuate every other week. Another reason for why the Allegiance hurts over the Tector.

Also, welcome to the era of big fleet spam. Most factions now, if they want to knock off your good fleets that are bordering your empire, will send death balls. They may not all have SSD's, but they sure do pack a lot of capitals for the journey. This is why it's best to use Isard to kill off any SSD heroes that crop up, considering that by this point in the game, them paired with the deathball fleets are monstrous to behold.

Luckily if you did do the above, many of the death ball fleets may not be completely killed when first encountered, but the overall game is to chip away at them, or leave them be for a bit (ie retreating) so that they could start shuffling their forces and leaving behind only a remnant. Not always the case, but as mentioned in the previous era, the AI is dumb and doesn't always hold onto their new possessions very well. Again, don't give up when you see these massive threats, as when the AI recognizes a strong navy at one of your edges, they will try to break it, but that doesn't mean they start just pouring in either. Retreat, hold, chip away, and attack with a lead ship, its not all bad when you can throw your forces in a corner or behind a asteroid field and just have a death funnel for the AI, before jetting out and doing it all over again.

What I further recommend for this era is almost a repeat of Era 1, hold onto your fleets, play super tactically and pick your battles, while also building Allegiances to be a focal point in your already established fleets. By now I hope you have over 3 good fleets you can rely on, as things get shifty in this era. Here, even your good fleets will occasionally be tripped up by said death balls, making you reconsider your battles. If you lose any Tectors (I occasionally do) just supplement them in the meantime with ISD2's if you can afford them, ISD1's if you can't. Try not to stay in this era too long, as I feel the only benefit is Thrawn's Massive ability, alongside Allegiances (somewhat).

As for fleet composition, what I find as a good mix for pure KILL fleets is just 1 Allegiance tied to about 4-5 ISD-T's (or whatever ISD's you have in your fleet) alongside 4 Vic's, the rest can be escort carriers with maybe one or two strike cruisers guarding them. Having them in a line with your escort carriers tucked safely behind them is a pretty good barrage of lasers and fighters. Thrawn also grants you a far better bomber than the Ties, the Scimitar, which is basically a Tiefied Skipray. So now your escort carriers can help you do further damage to any incoming fleet. Still not the best fighters, actually the Imperial Remnant arguably has the worst fighters in the game (CSA maybe could compete in that category if you didn't always face 100's of them) but hey, a fighter ball when it's in your favor is a sight to behold.

Also if you're tired of fleets running, you can get an Interdictor. I believe there's also the immobilizer frigate that fulfills the same role and is cheaper, but for both ships they are squishy and used more as a retreat-denier when you really want to utterly annihilate a fleet. I find that the AI doesn't even attempt a retreat when you have either deployed in a fleet, so you don't even need to micro their ability for the most part. I suggest to keep either in reserve and only deploy them when needed, as they are a terrible frontline unit.

Thrawn himself is in the Chimaera, a modified ISD1. Now, ISD1's suck in contrast to what's being fielded during these turbulent times, but Thrawn's ISD1 is from HELL. Though, it's still an ISD1 and can be killed like any other, but, he also gets an ability that reduces cooldown for units and increases firepower, so if you have a good fleet with him in it, the KILL power gets even better. And he also unlocks the quest for the Katana fleet, there's a region in the southwest corner of the galaxy that has a "world" called Deep Space. If you send a fleet there with Thrawn in it, you then activate the quest. There, you spawn in with your entire fleet (even with a lead ship), and you have three troop shuttles that are then used to capture the dreadnoughts you see. You also have to fight a New Republic fleet there and once they're dead, the quest ends and whatever dreadnoughts you captured are yours. To capture them, with your quest shuttles, just order them near a dreadnought and wait for the top left corner to say that you've captured them, and then move onto the next one. Try not to get them mixed up with your normal shuttles.

You can probably cheese the hell out of this quest by tearing the New Republic fleet away from your shuttles and not trying to immediately blow them up, but for the most part just try and get as many as you can without dying. Also, you don't necessarily need to do this quest, as all it is is basically a big old grab bag of 30+ dreadnoughts all floating about, and seeing how many you can pick up. Even if you do this sloppily, you can easily get about 5 or more free dreadnoughts.

Anyways, that's pretty much all that's changed, you can stick around this era for awhile and enjoy the Allegiances, or have it switched naturally if Thrawn's killed (given some time) or by "buying" era 4 like we did with Isard. Era 4...well if you're tired of Thrawnly tactics, get ready for SSD Funtimes 2.

Well, if you've survived up to this point, get ready for the reward of just well, surviving. As we pretty much noticed, everyone had fun in building their fancy schmancy battle cruisers and wrecking havoc with their various SSD heroes, with us only having a brief stint with Isard. Now however, not only has the emperor come back, he's ready to clean house, and re-obtain his One True Empire. And he ain't just using words.

Oh lawd, you haven't lived until you've achieved era 3 Imperial Remnant. This ♥♥♥♥ is probably the funnest part of the mod as you get the ultimate SSD in my opinion. You get Palpatine, you get Byss, you get a cloning facility on Byss, you get a dark Jedi ground unit, you get a black ISD1 that can go invisible (as a hero) and MOST IMPORTANTLY you get the Sovereign Class AND Eclipse Star Dreadnought. Or as I like to call Emperor Palpatine's Big Black ships. Honestly at this point, so long as you tuck them into your best fleets, you've won. You've won as the Imperial Remnant.

If you thought the executors were broken, god, you haven't lived when you deploy a Sovereign and seeing it not only take up a 4th of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ minimap but also fielding an ability of basically one-shotting MC80 home ones, while taking on 2 more just by guns alone. Like, you basically have a death star that was then amalgamated into a corrupted ass Executor. You've won. You've actually won, you can build the Sovereign up to 4 times (if you lose them) and the Eclipse once, while also still retaining the Thrawn-era lineup of ships. And as said, both of these SSD's retain the ability of one-shotting ships, even other big battle cruisers, much like the orbital bombardmant ability on the ground, only this time it's in space and is mounted on already hulked-out beasts.

So for here, I won't say much. Just build a dreadnought facility on Byss, claim your Eclipse for 50k~, and on Kuat, build your Sovereign then go have fun kicking the hell outta of everyone that was doing the same to you. At this point, you pretty much are the only dude with proper SSD's, not battlecruisers, not big capitals, but full on map-dominating SSD's (assuming the other enemy heroes have been killed by now).

And as for fleet makeup, pretty much the same as Isard in what you can field, maybe even less so since these take up a large margin of space, and offer maybe a fleets worth or more for guns (not to even mention their deathstar-like kill ability). And as for fleets lacking the win-button, the same Allegiance build that strived during Thrawn's era will still work, just, more tactic brain involved rather than fantasy-fulfillment.

Other than that, just milk the hell out of this era and keep on chugging. Don't let Palpatine die or else that'll force the next era on and you'll lose your new fancy ships (the build option for them, that is). Have fun!

Welp...here we are. The final eras. You may be reading the beyond part and wondering "Wait? Isn't there era 6? Isn't era 5 also fleshed out and cool? Isn't there so much more?"

Yeah, but, once you hit era 4 and have fortified fleets with your eclipse and sovereign, you have pretty much landed in the endgame of the mod. As from here, it's just a further revolving door of heroes, units, and what to conquer next while occasionally pushing back an AI faction that sent a deathball fleet. And from the previous fleet compositions I described, they will pretty much be blanketed across these eras save for the future introduction of the Praetor (which will not change much really).

Anyways, at the end of era 4, you get the so-called death of Palpatine (and/or have purchased the "upgrade" to do so) hence landing you with one of his royal guards as the grand leader. Welcome to era 5, where the guy you had emptying your trash cans decides he wants to rule the galaxy. Era 5 is much like Era1, it's an era you don't really need to stick around with as it doesn't really give you many benefits unit-wise, and the heroes you do get are...not bad though not amazing either. You get you're usual Victory/ISD capital ship wielding heroes, you get a Sith lord ground unit, you get a spy that can reveal info on adjacent planets, and yet, you are still are stuck in the Allegiance/ISD1/2 lineup, hence making any potential defeats costly for whatever good ships you still have lying about.

Which is why you should go for Era 6 when you feel it necessary (as quickly as possible in my opinion). As by going into Era6 with Daala's option, you gain access to your 4th Super Star Destroyer (an Executor), which is painted black and called the Knight Hammer. And you also get access to Praetor Dreadnoughts alongside Tector's again (with Interdictors & Allegiances being traded out). To those that remember the times when the Empire had access to the Venators, with this section detailing them, as of 3.2 and the updates to the various warlord factions Venators no longer apply to the empire. We don't get a taste of the old times anymore, unfortunately.

Nonetheless, as you can probably garner, your navy will basically be at it's peak in terms of what units you can build (which will further be enhanced by Era7). The Praetor can replace the Allegiances as the focal point of fleet, with the Allegiances instead turning to a support for the Praetors (or the Praetors being a backup bargaining chip, whatever you feel is appropriate to your playstyle), and you can tack on the Knight Hammer to whatever fleet you deem worthy. Either way, even without the SSD, you now, 4 eras in, have access to a Proper Proper Battlecruiser (as Praetors are big and have a lot of Dakka). And you can build them willy nilly (ie--as many as you want) unlike our SSD's. And we have God Tector back to beef up any of our normal ISD frontliners.

Alongside that, I'll assume that your core is pretty much as fortified and as secure as can be, and that you maybe made some inroads into other factions. From here, I suggest you focus on a single front and just keep the others at bay, utilizing your SSD's as true defense points and maybe using one for wherever you go conquering. Before that however, I suggest getting your Knight Hammer SSD built first, then after it's built, going immediately into the endgame era 7 with Pellaeon. As Pellaeon will give you your last SSD through Teran Rogriss (who commands a Bellator), hence giving the count to 5 total, with the normal Executors being able to be revived 3 times (idk about Sovereigns after Era 3 on whether they can be rebuilt or not).

Thus, by Era 7, you should have access to most of the range of Empire ISD's (save for the Allegiance), 5 SSD's, and a heaping bowl of rage against the machine AI. From here, like Era 2, it's wherever you wanna go until your campaign loses steam or you win the game. You're pretty much unstoppable with your SSD's, building capability, and should be able to suffer even disastrous setbacks with said elements (and retaliate!). Which, with the chapter after this, may be said setback! Good luck, as from here it's pretty much painting the galaxy and occasionally killing desperate AI death balls against your SSD fleets (or getting through the endgame crashes and/or lag).

What I don't understand is many saying that the remnant gets more and more "remnant" by the end eras, I instead find the opposite. I will say however, with my recent 3.2 playthrough, there is some truth to that. Just to explain the former, even with Era-3, we were still contending with okay capitals and surviving off of our SSD's (while still facing enemy battlecruiser-focused fleets from every corner), yet by Era 4 and beyond, we now have the proper firepower to match the fleets of warlords and the New Republic, namely with the introduction and reintroduction of both the Praetor and Tector.

However with the latter, I kind of miss the Allegiance in some ways as being a nice in-between Dreadnought, as it serves as a nice centerpiece to a fleet. As Praetor's are great and all, but unfortunately they cost a decent amount of pop, and creds, while the Allegiance helped be just a nice heavy(ier) Star Destroyer, like, a Tector's big brother you call on to even the odds. 1 Allegiance to 4 ISD's felt like the perfect mix for killing anything in your way (of course backed up by the previously mentioned fleet mockup for support).

As by the end of the eras, you're just left with the Praetor being you're highest tier ship to build, while still being stuck with that usual loadout of ISD's (1/2/T's), I feel if the allegiance was kept to the end, fleets you can make would be far more viable in terms of pop you would need to harness towards those latter eras. Either way, the Empire isn't too remnant by the end, but you do feel that lack of a good middle ship that the Allegiance helped foster.

And well, in the end, I won't say that's how you play the Imperial Remnant, but that's how I did and got to a point on basically being unstoppable. I know that this era was a bit late in being on this guide, but I felt it appropriate to at least finish beyond Era 3 and include the remaining ones in just one section, considering that by Era 4 with Palpy, things are stabilized so much so that not much guiding is necessary (unless you just rush the choice-chain). However, I did want to offer some tips, such as at least conquering with a full set of SSD's, alongside highlighting certain Eras that are more just intervals or bridges to the next. I hope this guide helps anyone struggling as the former Big Ball Energy Empire, and that you at least had some fun reading it.

Good luck, and happy conquering.

Well well well, you thought you had it all, right? That era 5 and beyond was the safe part now that we've snowballed right? We have SSD's out the ass, an economy going good, rebels the New Republic rightfully kicked to the curb alongside everyone else daring to challenge your claim to the Empire muzzled. We essentially won the game right? Right?

Well you're in for a nasty surprise, I forgot, and was subsequently surprised to find out an SSD infestation holdout in that little teensie weensie pocket of independent planets near Byss that we kind of forgot about. The Duskhan League apparently functions there, in lore they're a theocracy that broke away when the Empire was down bad after all these subsequent Legends-era defeats it faced, essentially creating the Black Fleet Crisis. A lot more can be said on this, but the stories themselves alongside Wookipedia have a much better depiction of what truly occurs.

Ingame however, you can be riding high, finally able to hit pop caps for building great well balanced, and well spoiled fleets until suddenly, an SSD hero reminding you of the dark times decides to either crash into your planets near Byss or Bilbringi. You think to yourself, wait a minute how did this happen I'm smarter than this?

Unfortunately, with the subsequent updates, I was completely caught in them rising up and invading me with said hellish fleet. This occurs during the last era with Pellaeon with flavor text you can easily miss. Nothing you can't take care of, but do recognize that now, that Independent pocket in the bottom left of the central core (N'Zoth and it's sister planet) unlocks and are now just there waiting to send out ungodly fleets once you hit Era 7.

If you can survive and take out their first wave fleet which includes a healthy amount of Victory's, a classic Executor SSD alongside a ♥♥♥♥ ton of torpedo balls then you should be alright for awhile. I say awhile, as subsequent vengeance fueled counter-invasions on their home turf revealed that they have another 2 SSD's just potentially sitting on N'Zoth. I can't remember the name of the bigger one, but it's essentially a bellator in terms of looks that's the size of an Executor, while the other is the size of a Bellator (a Sorannan class).

So yeah, when you hit Pellaeon's era, do understand that you may want to shift a fleet, a good one, near N'Zoth to defend against your new adversaries. Either parking them (or two of them) on either Borleons or Odik II. Or instead of defending and waiting for destruction on both, once you get to Era 7, or before, have a really really damn good fleet on either one of those planets to immediately strike N'Zoth. You'll be facing 2-3 SSD units potentially alongside a ♥♥♥♥ load of chaff surrounding them so be prepared to face a Valhalla star wars equivalent battle on that planet if you plan to go down that route.

On top of that, by claiming N'Zoth as well, you'll get the smallest ship out of their dreadnoughts. Not the baller Bellator-esque mega SSD, but the little brother of it, the Rakehell (Sorannan class). It's a nice, slightly larger than an Allegiance yet smaller than a Bellator and lacking dakka a Praetor has dreadnought, but it's big and works as a nice new freebie for a fleet.

Good luck and happy conquering! You've been warned!

I decided to have this mainly as a separate section due to Ground Combat being...well less than optimal for not really just the mod, but the game as a whole. Other than Awakening of the Rebellion (which even then I still prefer Naval over Ground despite their achievements), Ground Combat is a big hit or miss for a lot of people considering that at some point you glob together as a death ball of troops and hope that they STAY WHERE THEY ARE, while lawn mowing any poor troopers to get in your way. And it doesn't change much, or at all through the eras (save for ground heroes you get) and is pretty much stagnant in where it is. Era 3 gets some different, stronger ATAT's and a big siege unit, but for the most part the tactics stay the same.

Never has the feature "guard" been so missed and so overtly absent in a game.

So to start, every unit in Thrawn's Revenge has their role, and if they really don't have a role, then they certainly have a gimmick of some sort that gives them some staying power.

Here is what I believe is the essential core army for our burgeoning empire:

2 ATAT's, they help in killing things from far away, maybe not having outright kill power through damage but they got range and health. 1-2 ATAA walkers as they help against anything pestering your army from the skies, 1 Imperial Dropship for bumrushing the 2nd LZ (if the enemy gives you a chance) and 5-7 storm trooper squads. From here you can either field 1-2 artillery units (I say 2 since sometimes 1 can die or get outrightly stolen by commando's or Chewbacca), 2 ATST's for ground support and light anti-tank abilities, and a pair of Century Tanks, they are godlike. Also you can grab a chariot squad for repairs if you don't like waiting for bunkers to spawn medics.

I recommend not building the army troopers (as they're weak in all departments) unless you're really strapped or just want a generic spam garrison on some planet (remember though, ground units also eat up pop points that can go into the navy, the real means of dominating the galaxy). Also, since infantry has a mind of its own a lot of the time, whether they're Stormtroopers or not, they die easy to just about anything because of them either moving to engage without your orders, tank treads eradicating entire companies in this mod, or outright attrition. So be on top of microing your army, as most of the time it's not really engaging the enemy, but trying to corral your own damn units.

As for any the other units the Empire can field, well, I find that they're either too squishy, too gimmicky without providing anything more, and/or just not being as good as the other units you can be investing in. The only one I'm iffy on is the ATPT, as it's not a bad unit if you want bring a couple along. They're really good in supporting infantry against infantry but they're glass cannons in that department and are complete wet noodles against anything armored. So that's up to you. There are also the suicide Tie Maulers that can blow themselves up and take down walkers so long as said walkers have been adequately damaged, but they are too squishy for that ability to be anything of note (and it takes awhile for them to fire up that ability as well).

Anyways, as for tactics, every battle with be the same. The mod recently has tweaked the AI not to immediately bumrush your LZ off the rip, so instead, just try your best on getting to the second LZ to drop your full army. And, take it somewhat slow, you have the advantage as an attacker considering that you have unlimited bombing runs and the Godlike orbital bombardment ability. They just have a garrison and buildings that can be easily mitigated with said abilities (unless they have a planet shield, things then get weird and awful).

You could also drop an Imperial Dropship off the bat so long as you already have an infantry platoon on the ground, with that you can bumrush the 2nd LZ if it isn't too hot, and then just repeat the above. What I recommend as a balanced drop army is 2 Platoons of Infantry, 1 ATAT, 1 Artillery and either ATST's, or Century Tanks. Support bunker first on the LZ (as medics can heal every unit save for aerial) and from there, you can adjust to whatever they start sending your way and/or just spam a death ball with the rest of your army by the time you get the 2nd LZ (and maybe drop a chariot for further battle repairs).

That's pretty much it, Ground Combat is...a chore to put it lightly. Sometimes it's fun but it is lacking when compared to Naval Combat. It's just a big game of attrition and survival.

As for defensive battles, well, can't help you there. It's really a toss up of whether you had any units there to begin with on the planet they're invading, and whether the AI decided not to bring their entire l e g i o n in invading a rock. For the most part, if you do decide to defend a planet ground wise, build bunkers, a mix of both infantry and support, and spam turrets. Then grind out the enemy until they decide to retreat. Again, a toss up as you can have the perfect defense until a successful bombing run crashes in killing your best (even with AA turrets), or find a world ending laser blast kills your structures thus preventing any further spawns. You win some you lose some.

Overall, that's ground combat in a nutshell, and that's pretty much how it's going to be across the various mods. Not bad, but not the greatest. Just take it slow, and chug along. Good luck!

So on top of everything we are managing now that this beautiful mod grants us, whether it be managing new resources, playing with fancy SSD's, and/or crying conquering, they've introduced to us something new. Every Imperial faction as far as I know now utilizes the legitimacy system. Now, what does that essentially mean?

For every planet you conquer as an Imperial faction of some sort, whether it be warlord or the actual Remnant that this guide caters to, you gain a point that will essentially go into a lottery that if it hits, will unlock a recruitment option for a new minor group you can hire (basically a collection of heroes to join your empire as units). That, and when you reduce a rival Imperial power down to three planets, they'll automatically be annexed by the empire that has the largest amount of legitimacy. Which hopefully should be you at this point (in my experience, the warlords become way more remnant with the Republic being the real scary endgame threat, but, ymmv). Certain planets as well hold more legitimacy than others, such as Coruscant holding 5 points. Every point gives a ten percent chance to to net a minor group from the tiers going downward, and when it hits, you be granted a group from the pool on your relevant tier.

What do you gain from these minor groups? Well to explain it better, it goes by tiers, starting from Tier V and progressing downwards to Tier I (V being the lowest, 1 being the juicy stuff). The further down the tier list, the better the heroes get, and you don't lose your odds at going down the tiers if you lose legitimacy, it all just collects passively. Eventually once you hit that last juicy Tier, Tier 1, that in turn will grant you some Dreadnought (Heavy BIG Dreadnought that is, not the medium tier cruiser). Now, I don't have the full list of minor groups you can collect, but as far as I know, once you hit the Tier 1 lottery pool with the legitimacy system pulling from there, you have a guaranteed chance to at least get 1 dreadnought hero once. This can mean that in the endgame with enough planets under your belt, or conquering then reconquering a planet you're battling with against the AI with enough legitimacy, you can, as the Imperial Remnant, have 6 SSD's by the end of the eras.

This is from information that I've garnered from both Corey Loses (the lead creator of the mod) explaining this within his video that demonstrates changes for 3.2, while also scouring for info on reddit (thanks to a user called _Jawwer_ for explaining some of the plumbing to this). If there's anything I've left out or perhaps a user knowing full well the minor groups you can integrate with their specific heroes, I'm willing to amend this section with given info as time goes on.

I also read as well that if you want to cheese through the tiers on the lottery system, just let Coruscant constantly rebel with you losing it (spam tax buildings) with you then reconquering it ad naseum until you got all your neat new peeps.

Happy conquering!

tl;dr -- Tax buildings must be balanced out with influence buildings, I go 1 to 1 on building them for your money maker planets. Just don't tank your influence below 3/4, building an influence building takes away creds, so just build 1 tax building on a planet and build a moff palace to help level that out on every planet you conquer. SSD's no longer as powerful but still great, just baby them more and don't over rely on them to be your big stick, and don't be afraid to take them on with a capital-based fleet. Fighters/bombers more scary, compensate for that (more lancers/e-carriers). AI more cautious and calculating, don't get too comfy on undefended planets, they will start to flood in with smaller fleets when you have a breach.

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So it's been awhile hasn't it?

I apologize for the long wait on updating this. To be quite honest I felt rather burnt out on EaW after doing the guide, especially considering that I never thought it get as popular as it did. Back when I did this guide, I just felt as though there was a lack of serious guides for anyone getting into TR, with it being the biggest mod at the time (and with it still arguably being that). Especially for peeps who have a kink for floating doritos wanting to bring back the spice.

Before & after publishing this guide, I went through a whirlwind of playing every other cool mod and essentially living this game for four months before getting burnt out on it. 3.1 Released with me wanting to touch up on the guide with the very visible and decrepit [3.1 update soon] tag I threw up, but unfortunately, burn out, real life, and other new things to play got in the way. Now though, with 3.2 and a significant amount of time passing, I got the itch again to chew up the galaxy and simp for Space Daddy Palpy.

So, getting back into the new hell that is Thrawn's Revenge 3.2, I set my game's priority to high, allocated my two cores to be absolutely maxed out, then pulled up my guide to see if it can survive the new version. And for the most part, I can say that it can, as in spite of the readjustment to the era system + legitimacy, it's still largely the same progression feel, just smoother.

The only thing that I feel is new for how the campaign stretches is that the midgame is more hellish but in a different way. Rather than fighting against the AI's legion, the death fuzzballs full of everything, it feels as if the AI is more proactive in attacking unguarded planets with strike teams, usually consisting of fleets filled with a handful of frigates with 2 capitals who are maybe surrounding a battle cruiser (sometimes 3 unfortunately), then further striking if you don't stop to defend the planets now open for the taking.

Not to mention that battle cruiser spam start to become the center of many balanced fleets they consistently attack you with, whether they be MC spicy cigars from the republic, or horrificly overgrown danger doritos from your many offspring warlords. Either way, same ol' applies as well where a good fleet on a well guarded planet being attacked usually means the AI w a n t s that planet, sending their good ol' deathballs.

That and the economy system with influence truly makes the Empire at times feel utterly destitute. You can no longer just spam Tax agencies on a planet which previously knocked up creds to be in the thousands on certain ones, now you need to balance them with influence buildings just to have the planet not fall to a rebellion (I usually go 1 to 1 for building them, 1 influence to 1 tax building). Just don't build more than 1 tax building on a planet, and build a moff palace to balance out the penalty, don't go below 3 or 4 influence. Influence buildings imo aren't worth it considering that the best they do is just 0 out your income for a planet, while you still have the option of getting away with semi-low influence without necessitating a rebellion.

So, are things ultimately still the same for big ball energy OG Empy? Sure, for the most part. The Empire's make-up still feels as it did previously, a catch-all faction that needs to ride on utilizing a balanced fleet, heavy on capitals, supported by frigates and e-carriers to get by in the new hell the galaxy's in. No more cheats until Palpatine gets back essentially. I still recommend Tector's as your replacements to ISD's lost, but mix them with ISD2's if you can, mainly to get more shield damage, and still support heavily with E-carriers or even lancers as now fighters and bombers are much more dangerous. Which I enjoy, considering that fighters/bombers back then felt more like visual flare than actual support.

On top of that, I don't know if it's my imagination, but SSD's feel more balanced. Maybe it's due to the new fighter meta, or a reconfiguration of how shield damage is calculated, but SSD's feel much more squishy and viable in tackling when you have a fleet of at least 4-5 capitals with many destroyers and frigates to back them. Previously it felt like a hellish slog, but now if you focus fire, you can easily kill an SSD without needing to rely on another SSD. As the shield it sports gets sprayed down much easier now, versus the old feel on just grinding it down. Not to say that it's easy, more so just easier if you have the odds in your favor.

Same can be said though for the Empire as well however, in which the gimme's usually come as SSD's with you now needing to baby them more, especially with the persistent damage they can receive. If an SSD's hull goes below 90%, you'll be seeing that damage in the next battle unless creds are spent to fix it up throughout the weeks (which happens passively in the background). And with the babying, it seems like steamrolling with SSD's has been nerfed slightly, SSD's are still the big bargaining chips that can be a fleet all on their own, but with the persistent damage on top of them not being as invincible as they once where means that you can't just full send them as consistently as the previous versions. Take care to truly make other more balanced fleets rather than over reliance on the SSD's to carry you as the Empire, especially since everyone else can make dreadnoughts save for you until the final eras.

Anywho, I will be updating this guide gradually and cleaning it up for 3.2. I don't think I need to change much, but there are some additions y'all can see that are different from the initial guide.