The Imperial fleet relies on carriers in various sizes, ranging from the tiny H-Ross Class to the feared Gorbie Class Battlecarrier, which is, together with the Cyborg’s Biocide Class Carrier the strongest ship in the Planets universe in terms of firepower. Imperial ships tend to be equipped with a lot of beams and are rather heavy, which gives them a strong minesweeping and fighting ability. With the Super Star Frigate the Empire only has access to one small torpedo ship or minelayer and chronically suffers from fuel shortage. This makes the imperial fleet vulnerable to Privateer attacks and cloaking intruders, unless thorough planning and preparations are involved. To equip their carriers imperial players have access to 5 free fighters per turn that are constructed at each starbase they own. This usually results in a lot of constructed starbases and increased ammunition-management to use this advantage excessively. In most cases these starbases are heavily armed and hard to destroy. The lack of cloaker-based intel can be compensated by using the Empire’s unique ‘Dark Sense’ mission that allows it to gather information about enemy planets and to strike in the critical spots. A common sight in the early game is the Empire’s famous Pl21 Probe that is hpyerjumping through the galaxy to gather as much information as possible. The Evil Empire usually hides in this game phase as it still is very vulnerable and will grow to its real strength in the mid- and endgame phases. If it can survive long enough the Empire becomes very powerful in the late game, when the dreaded Super Star Destroyer shows his ‘Imperial Assault’ capability.

In Campaign Games the Empire can research two types of elusive gunboats that are identical with the Crystalline’s Topaz Classes that are very hard to hit with Proton Torpedos. The Mig Class receives more cargo for better scouting and early game colonization, while the Moscow Class becomes a useable carrier in the lower middle range. While the Super Star Carrier II is a more economical version if its predecessor, the Super Star Cruiser II becomes much more potent in term of firepower, making it a true heavy carrier. With access to the Aries Class the Empire gains a much more economic fuel generator than the Neutronic Refinery Ship that might help fighting the Empire’s fuel issues.