Heroes Listing

Written by Darth Persia on May-28-2006

IMPERIAL HEROES

Boba Fett:

One of the more useful Imperial Heroes, Boba Fett excells both in space and ground combat. On the ground, Boba Fett has two special abilities.

Jetpack: Moderately useful. The jetpack allows for fast movement around map for capturing far-away command posts and retreating from a superior force. Boba Fett can stay in the air indefinitely if you keep moving him around, so use him to root out isolated troops, or get to some vital area quickly, or even escape from a battle turning sour.

Flamethrower: An anti-infantry power, the flamethrower does a swath of damage in a wide arc in front of Boba Fett, killing all infantry in its path. This is useful for destroying those annoying patches of PLEX Troops.

Counter with: Mechanized units. Boba Fett has nothing that makes him any good against tanks or other such vehicles.



In space, Boba Fett is even more devastating against the Rebellion. His ship, the Slave 1, has excellent shielding and hull, making him difficult to kill regardless. His rapid-fire twin lasers allow him to chew apart fighter squadrons quickly. However, his real power is in his special ability.

Seismic Charge: The Seismic Charge is the single most devastating Special ability in space combat. Dropping a small seismic charge, it detonates seconds later, destroying all fighters in its fairly large radius. Able to destroy over a dozen fighter squadrons in a single use, Boba Fett literally is a force to be reckoned with.

Counter With: Corellian Corvettes. Boba Fett, for all his ability, is still a fighter and it is certainly possible to destroy him with anti-fighter ships before he can do any serious damage.

Darth Vader:

A Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader is more useful on the ground than in space, but he is an asset to any battle. Armed with a lightsaber, he has an extremely powerful single slash, capable of killing most infantry in a single hit. His attack against buildings is an earthquake of sorts from range, dealing steady damage and halting the building’s function.

Force Crush: This is essentially a free “kill vehicle” ability. It lifts a tank or other ground vehicle off the ground and quickly damages it, destroying it in a few seconds. Excellent against those pesky T2-B tanks.

Force Push: Another excellent anti-infantry ability, Force Push kills all of the infantry immediately surrounding Vader in a moderately sized shockwave. Excellent for destroying those annoying PLEX troops.

Counter with: Nothing. Darth Vader is an all around great ground character, with no particular weakness and specials that are effective against both infantry and vehicles.



In space, Darth Vader is not quite as impressive. His role in space is essentially a beefed up TIE fighter squadron. Although he doesn’t have the offensive ability that Boba Fett packs, he certainly has one thing going for him: staying power.

Replenish Wingmates: Essentially a “restore health”, this brings your wingmate amount back up. Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced is essentially invincible until all of his wingmates are destroyed – this greatly increases his survival.

Counter with: X-Wings and anti-fighter ships. Like I said before, Darth Vader’s ship functions as a beefed up TIE squadron, and as a result, is weak against the same things.

Colonel Veers:

Colonel Veers in his AT-AT has a truly commanding presence on the battlefield, projecting power and strength against the Rebellion. Essentially, his role is that of an AT-AT, albeit with more power. Early in the game, he is like a juggernaut, especially in Tech Level 1, when AT-ATs and powerful counters to them are not yet available.

Deploy Troops: A marginal ability at best, this causes Veer’s AT-AT to disgorge a single squadron of troops. Too insignificant to turn the tide of a battle in most cases, there certainly is no harm in using it.

Maximum Firepower An extremely powerful charge dup shot, this allows Veers to destroy something quickly, like a hero, turret, or building.

Counter with: PLEX Troopers. Lots of them. Colonel veers is like an AT-AT, just more powerful, so use the same tactics as you would use against any other AT-AT. Being an AT-AT, he is unable to fire at something directly underneath him, making him easy prey for heroes.

Grand Moff Tarkin:

A less useful hero, Tarkin is quite low on the end of the power scale and I haven’t found much use for him. His two abilities are fairly meager compared to the others, but at least they provide for an early game boost.

What is he good for: In the beginning, Tarkin should be on Coruscant with Emperor Palpatine. Order a research facility. Palpatine and Tarkin there together will make the normally-expensive facility very cheap. After that, just keep Tarkin with Captain Piett for a good boost. Other than that, Tarkin doesn’t have much use.

Captain Piett:

An excellent unit in the beginning of the game. For sheer firepower in the early game, Piett cannot be matched. When everyone else is using Acclamators and Corellian Corvettes, Piett truly overpowers anything else on the field. Its only possible match is Admiral Ackbar, which we shall go into detail with later.

Tractor Beam: I’ve only seen this used a few times, but always to excellent effect. The tractor beam immobilizes an enemy ship as long as it is within range. I use this to stop dead in its tracks an annoying smaller ship usually able to avoid fire. The Millennium Falcon and Captain Antilles come to mind.

Proton Beam: An excellent weapon, the Proton Beam will drain shields and destroy any hardpoint targeted. I love using this on another capital ship or on space stations. Like I said before, it also drains all the shields from the enemy, so use it on the toughest enemy ship available!

Emperor Palaptine:

The Dark Lord of the Sith, ruler of the galaxy, and intimidating to boot, Emperor Palpatine is clearly in the running for single strongest ground hero in the game. Not only does he have a powerful melee saber attack, but he has two specials which makes him a powerhouse on the ground.

Force Lightning: Yet another anti-infantry special, lightning has Palpatine fry a large section of troops in front of him. Excellent for destroying a bunch of them at once. What more can be said?

Force Corrupt: Without a doubt the single most powerful special on the ground, Force Corrupt actually takes enemy units in a wide radius around Palpatine and converts them to your side. I cannot stress how powerful this ability is. T2-B and T4-B tanks are suddenly not a problem, because they can now become yours. Use it in the midst of a battle, surrounded by enemy units. It will turn the tide, guaranteed. Imagine the Rebellion’s surprise when a legion of their T4-B tanks turns around and begins firing on their own men!

Discount: All things bought, built, or upgraded in the system where Palpatine resides is 25 percent cheaper. This is an extremely useful ability to say the least and over time the savings add up. Move Palpatine around to different planets whenever you can. The savings add up.

Counter With: Anything. Palpatine has no real weakness and can handle most things that can be thrown at him. Try and minimize his powers by intelligent unit placement. Avoid letting him get near a large clump of powerful units (Such as T4-B’s). Try and surround him instead with cheap infantry or indigenous units to minimize his dangerous abilities.

REBEL HEROES

Red Squadron:

A space-only Rebel hero, Red Squad is a beefed up X-Wing squad with an excellent special ability.

Lucky Shot: One of those “turn the tide” powers, Critical Shot basically destroys any single hard point they target through the shields. By this, I mean that they will just destroy the hardpoint outright, they won’t damage the shields. (Unless you destroy the shield generator obviously)

Lock S-Foils: A quick power to get Red Squad out of those scrapes, it increases speed and lowers firepower. Red Squad is surprisingly fragile, so be prepared when most of the wingmates have died to pull Luke out of there.

Counter with: Tartans. Red Squad is killed fairly easily, so two or three Tartans with maximum firepower should take care of them rather quickly.

Obi-Wan Kenobi:

An old man with some excellent abilities, Obi-Wan is a staple of Rebel land victories. His default attack is a lightsaber attack that is very powerful, useful for destroying mechs quickly.

Heal: Heals himself and all allies in a certain radius. A very useful ability, especially when paired with Han and Chewie. Does not work on mechanized units.

Protection: Makes any target extremely resistant to damage. Too good to just use on a normal unit. Generally, I just use it on Obi-Wan or, if needed, another hero. Nothing else is valuable enough to warrant using Obi-Wan’s power on it.

Counter with: Similar to Palpatine, Obi-Wan has no real weakness, as his abilities are equally suited to facing all different types of enemies. Surround him with cheap infantry and pound him from range with heavier weapons. If Obi-Wan attacks infantry, his damage potential is lowered because he is only destroying small, individual infantry rather than greatly damaging a valuable AT-ST in a single hit. Extremely resilient, expect to see Protection and Heal used liberally.

Captain Antilles:

A modified Corellian Corvette with more health and some special abilities. Space only. Very good against fighters.

Weaken Enemies: Select an area and all the enemies in that area have their attack abilities lowered. A subtle power that can make a large or little difference. Try using around the largest cluster of enemies, especially capital ships, for maximum effect. Less useful against fighters, which are expendable and weak for the Empire as it is.

Boost Engine Power: Speeds up ship speed and lowers attack ability. Useful for quick maneuvering or making a fast escape.

Counter with: Capital ships, especially Captain Piett. Since Antilles is basically a beefed-up Corvette, he can be dispatched by the usual means. A strategy I like to do is use “The Accuser”‘s Tractor Beam on him, and then the Proton Cannon to remove him quickly from the battle.

Commander Ackbar:

It’s a trap! This space-only Rebel hero packs quite a punch, especially early in a campaign game.

Boost shield Power: Sacrifices weapon power for incredibly fast recharging shields. I recommend using this if Ackbar is under serious fire from enemy capital ships.

Concentrate fire: Causes all of your ships to concentrate their fire on a single enemy ship, gaining a nice damage bonus in the process. Be careful how you use this, it can cause your ships to break off and move in range of the target, allowing them to take damage while dealing none of their own. The best targets are Admiral Piett’s ship, any ship with the Emperor on it, Imperial, Victory, and Acclamator Star Destroyers.

Counter with: Bombers. Ackbar has no defense against them and a few squads of bombers can quickly destroy the Shield Generator of Home One, leaving him quite vulnerable.

Han Solo and Chewbacca:

The Dynamic Duo of Star Wars, despite appearing before the right timeline, are here to aid the Rebellion! Acting in both space and land, they are the most versatile and generally the most combat useful heroes on the Rebellion’s side. Both Han and Chewie have a powerful blaster attack as their default.

Invincibility: Working in space only, this power makes the Millennium Falcon temporarily invincible. Use it when you’re being attacked by those painfully strong “maximum firepower”ed Tartans.

EMP Burst: On the ground, from Han, the EMP burst is an excellent ability and can win you the battle quite handily. Get Han inside of a large group of Imperial mechs and activate it, disabling all Imperial mechanized units in range.

Capture Mech: On the ground with Chewie, you are able to take control of a single enemy mech unit. Take it according to your situation. If facing a lot of infantry, a TIE Mauler would be preferable. If facing Mechs, that nice, large AT-AT might do the trick.

Dash: Both Han and Chewie have this power, allowing them to move quickly. This allows Chewie to rush to that mech extra quick, for Han to get in the midst of those mechs for disabling, or for just escaping a desperate situation.

Counter with: Infantry, heroes. Han and Chewie have rather low HP amounts for heroes, so they’ll die rather quickly to hordes of infantry, Palpatine, Vader etc.