REVENGE, The Empire strikes back after the hand destroyed our fleet.
We turn cruel ai back on and the chaos begins once more…
With The Fall of the old galactic Empire the galaxy was divided… Warlords, Rebels all manner of scum attempted to seize power. We the second galactic Empire are the rightful rulers of the galaxy. Under the command of the reborn EMPEROR the galaxy will pay the price of betrayal!
Mod name is Empire at war Expanded Thrawn’s Revenge v 3.4
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Very nice episode! And that manoeuvre on the empire of the hand was really something else, basically a 700 space stack and a principal army totally outflanked and devastated. Also the hapes and grater Maldrood are constantly keeping busy the pentastar and the new republic, sparing them was totally worth it on the long run
Thus begins the folly of the Empire of the Hand, for they have poorly chosen a new foe to engage with.
Ah, I had forgotten that Ylesia flipped to Minor Warlords (8:34), I assumed it would go to the more common Independent Forces tag instead, but it's nice to see the Minor Warlord 'faction' even if they're likely to be defeated down the line.
Pfft, did they seriously use Isla Nublar for Lwhekk? (14:50) That's absolutely hilarious, considering it's both the capital of the Ssii-Ruuvi Imperium and the homeworld of the factions two major races, who both happen to be dinosaur-esc. Still a good map, but just a smidge too on the nose.
If you do plan to auto-resolve some of the more annoying ground maps (15:28), I'd suggest using Speeder Bikes for it as they're both cheap to build and unusually effective in autoresolve for their cost, although I'm not quite sure as to why.
I've never been in a fight where there was both a Victory point and a planetary shield, so I didn't actually know you could still capture the VP even if there was a shield (18:05), but still good to know the game accounts for it and allow you the win once the shield is down.
Ah, how fitting that it is the Empire that conquers the last independent planet in the galaxy (18:30), although a little funny to see that they got given the Corellian spawn set considering they're deep in the Unknown Regions. Oh well, time to crack an egg or two!
And on the topic of Shree (22:38), I've been meaning to fight on that map for quite some time; the mapper who made it (Keelhaul) showed off some of his maps and I found myself completely intrigued by how Shree was designed, especially with the giant bacta tanks acting as props and the small infantry paths. Thankfully I've been doing a series of Custom GCs on each faction's From the Ground up Maps (albeit recently restarted), purely to explore maps and planets you wouldn't normally see in standard games; Lehon (aka the Star Forge planet from KOTOR) being one great example. Fingers crossed I get more time to play them, it's great not having to worry about the AI most of the time and to test out army comps
And we go from one Keel map to another, with Rhand using "Mirror Lake" (31:21), even if the mini-map isn't as great as it could be it's still a gorgeous looking map, especially seeing the Hypervelocity gun firing off. As for the weird looking stormtroopers (32:59), it's a terrain swap skin for lava or lava equivalent planets, taking heavy inspiration from Radiation Troopers of all things, you can see a similar change for snow maps as Cody's escorts swap to Snowtrooper skins (which should also be applied to non-stormtroopers sometime in the future)
Oh hey, it's the Restuss group (34:07); I do know you examine them later on in the episode so I'm going to take the chance now to say that all three are from Star Wars Galaxies, so the error about Grot being an Admiral in the Imperial Army is Sony's fault rather than the mod's fault. It's also why Grot talks about dying but coming back, as he gets killed in a quest but returns following surgery, also neat an Acclamator Carrier, I don't think those are buildable at all.
Oof, gonna be a busy day for the brave reporters of HeroWatch, not only does Commander Stent (I'm not using his full Chiss name) make an appearance (55:36) and later die (59:27) above Abregado-Rae, but Tasse (1:04:37) does the same thing over Makatak, dying to a stray turbolaser shot from the Sovereign (1:08:35). Speaking of Makatak…
The history books would call it one of the Empire's finest moments, on par with the tactical genius of Grand Admiral Thrawn and, had he not been dead, a battle he surely would approve of, the destruction of the Hand Army forces over Makatak (1:05:34) before they threaten the ground forces of Abregado-Rae would mark the beginning of the end for the wayward Empire of the Hand, the Imperial War machine slowly bearing down upon them. Suffice to say, a very lucky attack that saved you from fighting a very big ground battle.
And with that said, this suspense filled episode comes to an end and I finally bring a stop to my own lengthy ramblings, although I can only hope they come off as enjoyable. I look forward to seeing the next episode and what the great Supreme Commander has in store for the enemies of the Empire.
STUNNING EPISODE as always!!:DD