The BEST way to use SSD's in Empire at War 

I like to build up my economy before going on the attack, and I use star dreadnoughts as the breakthrough ship when on said offensive.

I once had a glitch in the vanilla EaW FoC where I had two Darth Vaders at the same time. Which meant - two SSD's at any space skirmish that absolutely annihilated whatever forces the AI enemies had.

They're ships who have immense power but are easily engaged if you know what you're doing. It needs support of a probe droid, support group, and additional damage ships to assure victory. Usually you need a crap ton of Tartans/Lancers (depending on the mod) or an immense amount of superiority fighters. And for an Imperial touch fill every slot with ISDs and Victorys and Ton-Fulks. Love the videos, sub'd for years, hope for a ton more!

fun fact, the easiest counter to an SSD, as far as I've found, is a fleet of a full 300 pop cap of blockade runners. the SSD can only target so many at once, and by the time they've taken out a few, their shields are already down, and you can split your ships to take out every hardpoint at once. it's awe-inspiring to watch.

That is no joke about the AI sending massive fleets at you once they figured out where your SSD is. In my experience, the best way to use your SSD is not only in defense, but in counter attacking. Put your SSD one jump away from a front line planet. The AI will see your world "lightly defended" and will send in a fleet that is enough to take out your defenses. If they do win the battle, that's when you jump your SSD in. Better yet, if you wait about 3-5 seconds (Depending on the distance between the world they just fought at and the world where they jumped from) after the AI has won the battle, you can possibly catch their invading force they sent in as well. TL;DR: Hide your SSD from the AI and use it to counter attack their small fleets.

I’ve been playing empire at war for over a decade now and have always looked for a way to turn ships, this video has answered a simple but decade old question myself and my cousins have been wondering and were never successful in figuring out

Charlie this is one of your best vids I've seen you do in a long time. Good job bud, you expressed a lot of different good points and strategies while using both scenes from Thrawn's Revenge and AOTR. Good one.

My brother and I were playing galactic conquest. It was pretty even with me on empire and he had rebels. But what he didn't know was I was teching up every chance I had. One space battle the executor showed up and he just quit

i got an additional idea, once youve surrounded the attack fleet, capture the planet ground with stealth heroes and put a hypervelocity cannon if thats avaible

Please make a new vid on Darth Angelus’s heir to the empire animated series, and compare the first version of chapter 1, to the third, newly released version, more people need to see it, as well as the first part of the new, danish star wars fan film “shrouded destiny”, starring Lars Mikkelsen, voice of Thrawn in rebels, it’s one of the best fan films ever made.

I would really love a very beginner friendly explanation of the mod youre using. Because i have watched other videos and I do want to play it but man, it is confusing for someone who has mostly played the base EaW. I try to play it but I cant keep track of what does what, what is needed for more, what to focus on, what to look out for, and how to do fleet combat because I am a dumb ISD spammer and I feel bad.

I only just now learned of the ability to turn a ship without completely repositioning it thanks to this video. One of my biggest issues was how sometimes ships would turn in inconvinient ways when I try to focus down specific enemies. Good for bringing maximum firepower against key targets, bad for battle lines and defensive positions. I would simply leave them where they were, maintaining some semblence of the original line, push forward into the enemy to reconstruct it, at higher risk of losing the ship, or retreat it and circle back around, which took it's firepower out of the fight. By the time I'd have all my guns on target again, half my fleet would be on fire. My defenses would often look like I was gonna bleed out the attacking forces with my initial kills, only for at most 3 more of their low-mid tier ships to be obliterated, by which point my fleet would be extremely disorganised and torn apart. I was wondering if I was doing something wrong because I'd seen alot of people talk about how standing your ground to hurt the enemy was often better than saving 1 or 2 ships, as I was still getting obliterated by the remaining fleets after a defensive loss. Knowing I can turn ships on the spot is going to make securing my Empire so much easier.

i enjoy using SSD's for overwhelming Hit and Run attacks. Send in a SSD fleet with a 1 pop ship as the lead ship, drop the SSD right in the middle of the enemy, let it massacre a few ships. and start a retreat before its shields drop below half (or lower if the enemy lacks ion canons) to ensure they have no chance at all to kill the engines. you basically get to kill enemy ships with impunity because your SSD is too durable for them to get any damage back. Even works with mods that have persistent damage.

would be interested in seeing a video expounding on this with some different examples of fleet builds to accompany SSD's, both for the different SSD options and for if they are meant to pursue an offensive or defensive role

I’m particularly fond of splitting the enemy fleets attention between the SSD and the support fleet. I normally use the SSD as a damage sponge, and while the enemy is occupied getting it’s first few strikes on a ship with 50k-60k shield points, I’d use the support fleet to attack either from the side or behind (enemy fleet formation dependant). With emphasis on targeting enemy ion cannons and hangers first, it’s usually a good strategy to employ.

Yes please, a video for the economy in the campaign. I can't take to see the new republic with 4 times my income even tho they have half of my planets

Which mod includes the SSD build timer? Also, which mod shower Jakku and Jedha on the map?

Big ship is big ship. But you can destroy basically any large capital ship with enough DP20s and corvettes because of how the game codes the accuracy of capital ship sized guns against small corvettes and fighters. The same reason why bombers are better against capital ships. Corvette and missile/torpedo spam is the best strategy in EAW

This is cool and all but my SSD only came with a SATA cable and 1TB of memory. I'm not sure it's rated for space combat.

Honestly I think super capitals just aren't worth it, I'd rather just have a regular fleet for the versatility

Yeah building up a strong economy is the hardest part for me. So a video covering this would be great!

i dont like to lose ships. Nor do i like to spend credits and time re-building fleet and sending ships across galaxy. So my tactic with SSD is hit and run, but with a twist. In Fall of The Republic mod there are repair ships. And they do repair capital ship's hardpoints. And their repair stacks, the more you have them - the more the repair. But since SSD so big - you cant efficently stack them to keep big boi alive. The biggest problem of hit and run tactics - enemy bombers will flank you and attack engines of SSD. Not intentionally, it's just their flight path and the first thing they can attack on the way back. Without enginges - SSD cant retreat and will be destroyed. So i have like 4 repair ships at the back, keeping engines fixed. And if i see my SSD is going down - i just bail out ezpz. And since i'm playing Fall of the Republic against CIS. They have TON of fighters and bombers. Like holy shit half of my screen is covered with fighters icons

PLEASE do an economics video. I always feel broke when playing thrawns revenge

Be warned, this is as much a strategy guide as a comment, which means it's very long and contains a lot of detailed info. Get some popcorn, it's a doozy. SSD's and their brethren are lynchpins to the strongest fleets that you can muster, but they are only a piece. A strong piece, but no single ship does a fleet make. One thing they talked about but I feel glossed over a bit, is fleet composition, which I believe is the most important aspect. Realistically, only a single SSD should be in any one fleet. I know it's tempting to make a 'super-ultra-mega-deadly' fleet full of nothing but SSD's, but that's not only a pipe dream, it's a bad one. As stated above, SSD's are great at killing just about everything, including other SSD's. They, like all other ships, have a weakness, though...and theirs is the same as most other capital ships: fighters/bombers. They have MANY guns, and HEAVY guns to boot, but barring training all of them on a single X-Wing and just firing blindly hoping to hit with sheer number of blasts, they're not going to harm a fighter. Same goes with a bomber, so carrier-heavy fleets are the natural born enemy of any large ship, including SSD's. In turn, your opponent could decide that they're going to go so heavy on capital ships to try and beat your SSD with sheer firepower that they'll commit an ungodly amount of forces to taking out your SSD. It IS possible to overwhelm an SSD with sheer numbers/firepower, though the costs are usually staggering...but as long as your enemy is willing to commit, you still need to know how to deal with it. Here's how: Ideal Fleet Composition. - 1 SSD. Enough said. - At least 5 other capital ships, preferably around 10. I prefer ISD-II's, as they bring their own form of heavy firepower to bear on targets, so your SSD isn't having to duke it out against a whole hoard of high-powered vessels all by its lonesome. Octuple-barbette Turbolaser Batteries hit like a truck, and can quickly bring down shields of even strong Mon-Calamari capitals, to say nothing of ripping apart smaller frigates. They also bring in swarms of TIE's, which helps with anti-fighter/bomber suppression. - At least 10 anti-starfighter/bomber ships. I prefer Victory-I's, those flak cannons and heavy missile launchers are no joke, and can protect a fleet from a swarm of enemy starfighters quite easily. Again, they also bring their own fighters/bombers to help with screening duties. - Specialized, strong starfighters. Unless you can somehow find a carrier that will bring these babies into battle, you'll need to craft them separately, but it's worth it. For the Empire (my main), that would be the TIE Defender. You're going to want at least 10 squadrons, and you can deploy them as-needed while the battle progresses. - At least 2 carriers. The biggest threat to your SSD is going to be fighters/bombers, and that cannot be stressed enough. In turn, you can make your opponent's headache worse by bringing your OWN swarms with you in the form of heavy carriers. The Secutor-class is great for such a role, bringing a TON of fighters/bombers with it, and has some long-ranged heavy guns to allow it to chip in even as it sits behind the lines and just pumps out problems like a bee hive. I say 2 carriers because it's possible that one gets destroyed, so you immediately have another one to jump in and continue spamming swarms like crazy, keeping up the pressure. You CAN get away with one, though. - At least 1 Interdictor. I cannot stress enough how important these ships are. They allow you to CONTROL the battlefield, deciding who gets to retreat, if at all, and when. ESPECIALLY if you're going up against the Rebellion, who LOVE their hit-and-run tactics to death. Let them get in deep, have all their ships in the sector, and then pop this bad boy on and watch them panic when they can't run. Honestly, I would recommend having 2 in your fleet, seeing as the second they realize you have an Interdictor, they are going to do EVERYTHING in their power to kill it, and if they do, you can just jump another one in and re-establish the chokehold. Having the ability to retreat if things are going south is invaluable in battle, and stealing that ability from your enemy is borderline cruel...which is why it's so damn powerful. Last thing I want to mention is cross-fire/overlapping targeting. While it's great and all to have one ship target one ship at a time and have them duke it out like gentlemen, you're in a war, not a boxing tournament. The goal is to kill, efficiently and expeditiously. Making sure that your ships can support one another with overlapping targeting greatly reduces the time needed to kill targets, and allows you to save your ships from damage that they otherwise would have sustained doing it solo. If you can, target the most dangerous ships first, ripping them apart as fast as possible with as much firepower as you can muster. Then work your way down the threat ladder. Occasionally, your opponent may jump a ship in as a reinforcement that changes the situation, and you'll need to quickly assess to see if that new ship is now target priority, or if you keep hammering away at your current target. Oh, and don't force your SSD to target. It has thousands of guns. It will target EVERYTHING. Let it do its job. Your goal is to control the smaller vessels and have them micro-manage the possible threats. Have your fighters/bombers guard the capital ships (SSD included) and have them run screening detail to remove enemy fighters/bombers as a threat while you rain hellfire upon the enemy forces. The battle will be prolonged if they've brought enough forces (I had the AI bring over 800 ships at me once, I still won using this tactic), but you will eventually win. Patience is a virtue, after all.

Obligatory comment to spread the correction to the almost unanimous error across dozens of star wars content creators about the name of Darth Vador's Super Star Destroyer and its pronunciation. From google: How is Executor, the name of Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer, pronounced? A. The word "executor" means "one who carries out or performs something," and is pronounced ig-ZEK-yoo-tur. The confusion over pronunciation often stems from the word "executioner."

how are we going to use Solid State Drives?

I love how we see the one Assertor's fight over Coruscant at intervals throughout the video, and eventually the Mon Cal battlecruiser disappears, and in the last show of it the MC80 has just detonated. Kind of shows you the way to properly use an SSD and then the results of doing so.

I’ve been playing thrawns revenge and have all available ssd for the empire but I use my attack fleet (eclipse and carriers) to do strike attackes while my other ssd defend my front by retreating then jumping back in repeatedly to widdle down their forces as they are expensive to maintain and repair. This is really nice to know so I can change my strategy, thank you

Yes, god, please make a video about economy. I can't figure it the fuck out and it's pissing me off

please a video how make a stronger ecomoy in stear

Basically, don't be like General Grievous who tries to showcase the singular strength of his dreadnought by engaging fleets with it alone. Be like Vader, who surrounds his dreadnought with several other support ships. Malevolence was destroyed because it had no support. The Executor was destroyed because the enemy got lucky despite it's supporting fleet.

Take the big bastard and YEET until either win or shields get low so time to advance in a different direction

A few years ago I spawned entire fleets of TIE Defenders, swarmed an Executor and won.

I use the executor with some intredictors and lancers and just hunt lone capitals or hunt station defended shipyards

Is there are way to move multiple units with the same speed?

I wonder if there should be major shipyards where you can repair damaged SSD twice as fast

Rebelsim campaign when? It’s essentially the most realistic Rebel campaign and one of the hardest mods/submods-I’d love to see one of you guys on this channel play it!

Can you do a video on different tactics of the game? When Phoenix Rising was new way back when. My early games consisted of small carrier groups (yes when carriers could spawn infinite fighters and bombers and torpedoes penetrated sheilds. It was a fun tactic to hold back 2-3 quazars or escort carriers with a small group of escorts and spam the enemy with wave after wave bombers and fighters til the mission was accomplished. Reminiscent of WW2 naval strategy.

Please, please I beg you 🙏🥺🙏 make a video about how to run your economy in Thrawn's revenge. It's my first play through with the new Republic and I have crashed my economy two times now. The only thing keeping my faction going is Akbar and his Home One

Yes please

Thanks loads! Yet another great video :) Quick question, have you ever tried Starsector and its Star Wars mod? Or X4 with Interworlds? Those could be great materials for future content.

This was an amazing video man. Thanks for the breakdown!

#Eckstoo These ships have more weapons than israel after a deal with the us

You should retreat before they destroy ssd's engines

Interesting video. 👍

That just an annoying change.. You would expect after a battle, that soliders and engineers fix up everything, heal themselves, patch themselves up..etc Now you have to manually do this ??? Just annoying in my opinion.

I use them as a juggernaut plus a few support ships.

Please do the economy video

Depends on if where talking modded starwars gaw or vanilla cause in vanilla theres a distinct lack of fucking things to kill them.

Make a vid on campaign pls, really struggling to unlock executor

Fighter screens and point defense, absolute musts, fast vessels for countering Ion cannon laden vessels is also a good idea. Sometimes it's best to not deploy your entire pop immediately in the fight. Nobody asked, I know, just my thoughts, we all have those. Play as you like, learn the way you do. Enjoy Star Wars in all it's quirkiness.

I would love a video about galaxy maintenance. I struggle optimizing income and which planets should build which improements

Best way to take down an enemy ssd? Spam standard dreadnoughts around it 5-8 and let them take the hits as fodder. Spawn bomber carriers behind the lines and use the bombers to take down the shields at the same time. Also small corvettes are great for taking down enemy fighters and they will further draw out ssd fire and may miss them if they are all over the place as well due to how small they are Once the shields are down, jump in your attack ships and micromanage fire to destroy ssd weapons one by one. I destroy executors in thrawns revenge easily using this tactic

Ssd always wins because my game can’t handle it takeing to much damage and it crashes so that’s something

It's pronounced Exec (like Executive)-You-Ter (Like in Terse).

I usually just strap 4 extra ISDs and a shit ton of Tartars and its done. It will steamroll 95% of enemy fleets, the rest. Pray.

their best function is as mobile habitats. convert all the middle decks to hydroponics farms and garden environments.

Dont know if this statet some one already out but puting anything in front of anything brings noting at all in EAW the shots phase simpel through anything that is not the target. You can basicly put the starforge remake size in front of a tiefighter and still the fighter got the hits

Why use anything other than escort carriers? Bomber spam literally kills everything.

Before watching this i used to think i was so smart as a kid. I would have just a tie phantom start the battle a dm stealth up until inwas at the enemy base or main fleet an drop the ssd right on top of them along with the rest of my fleet which was often isd and the missile ships who shoot from way in the back with only a few tartan cruisers

Thanks for making this vidoe

Personally unless i get a hero with a SSD, I never really build those. I go for to heavier destroyers like Praetor 2, Allegiance, and Bellators. I take 3-5 Praetors then one Executor any day.

Beat every Space Battle with The DS 2 to take out their Space Station & Executor to take out everything else

You didn't mention 2 things that are super important when playing an SSD. 1. The sheer firepower of these is amazing when breaking shields of enemy ships, especially the smaller ones. Units that accompany the SSD should be the ones that eat the enemy hull fast- low recharge turbolasers. Like Tectors, strike cruisers. Target a ship with SSD, eat it's shields within seconds, target another ship with SSD and then order other units to finish that ship off. 2. Hit and runs are an amazing tactic with SSD. Mentioned mods that keep the damage on SSDs make it a great tactic to preserve SSD's health. Big fleet stationed but without interdictors? Go, jump your SSD in along with other units, destroy as many ships as you can before your shields drop to 20% or below, then run away. Repeat the tactic. Again, works great with Tectors or ISD-IIs since these are bulky themselves and eat the enemy hull quickly. It's usually very useful against yevetha's main planet in Thrawn's Revenge, since they have a powerful shipyard protected by 2 SSDs and many light frigates. You can damage their SSDs, jump out of the system and jump in, fighting SSDs that already took too much damage to be repaired before your next attack. I know strategy games award fast micromanaging and using smaller units and pausing a lot but you can still wreck a ton of shit with big boy ships in a much more smooth play (less pausing)

are there any good star wars games out there ? .... i used to play Empire at War !!!!!!

Best feeling is when you engage an unescorted ground force Lock em down with an intedoctor Then drop the executor into the feild and watch its batteries just light them up

Depending on the mod SSD level ships are not allowed to retreat so it puts more emphasis on protecting it and choosing your fights well

Are you using mods or something because my game doesn’t look like this. I have the Gold version from steam.

Can any body please tell the mod name at 2:16?? I really want to know.

I love them an use them all the time. Almost like the regular executor the most ..though I love the eclipse alot to..to bad I have game save issues that I can't seem to figure out I only get so far in Thrawn's revenge usually playing Shawdow Hand till around week 29 I make it..but if I try to load saves or auto saves it crashes the game..lol executor sedriss an Luke's special abilities sometimes crash the game to.. Enough of the complaints id love to be able to save but I just leave it paused an come back to it..I love that you guys are keeping this game alive an create so much content for it..one of the best SW games imo

10/10 big boy ship video.

I honestly disagree with a lot of this you have to take some damage or else your full armament won't get used

May I know which mods for Empire at War are installed in this video?

Add The Death Star II in the mix. I have

Blud doesn’t even say what mods are in the vid.

this made my ears bleed some of this advice is terrible 😭

The biggest thing I need to work on *is* building an economy. I'd like to see a video like that.

its still alive? this is a mod or game feature?

now I want this game, how do I install it?

Always. Have. An. Escort. !!!

Yes, I would love to see a video on how to build up a economy for the rebels.

What mod is this? Certainly doesnt look like base game.

They are to be an unbreakable backbone, and an insane ace-in-the-sleeve. At least, for the republic in the sadly abandoned clone wars mod.

Can you tell me the name of this mod?

I'd like to learn more about economics in the game.

What mods are these clips from

What mod is being used here?

Do Praetors and other battlecruisers have persistent damage in EaW expanded or it's just the Dreadnoughts?

Is being able to see when SSDs are built a new feature in the mod?

I really need sleep I don't even play this game 😭😭

Economics would be lovely

you pronounced executor wrong

Next, do counter videos against the very same monster ships.

I tend to use my dreadnoughts to counter enemy dreadnoughts

this isnt vanilla, is it?

Earned a subscriber.

I like Tectors, you see what you get with those.

What mods are these ???

Yes much economy

Which mod is it at 0:56? This looks insane