This is the tenth in a series of anonymous reports that mysteriously appeared on the Editor’s desk. These redacted versions were approved by the Senate for immediate publication, to be read by commanders of each respective race so they can review their own vulnerabilities in the face of the unknown external threat that commissioned the studies. In this dispatch we focus on that faction known as the Evil Empire: its strengths, its weaknesses, and how best to defeat it in battle.

Overview

Ease Of Command: Veteran
Difficulty To Defeat: Moderate
Playstyle: Slow

General: The Evil Empire is the name given to an autocratic society ruled by a master class known as The Core, a society of mystic adepts who have cultivated the ability to manipulate Dark Matter and Dark Energy. (What they call themselves is anyone’s guess.)  These they employ ruthlessly in pursuit of conquest, the only acceptable end to any war.  Core Adepts can use their abilities in many ways, not least of which being to annihilate the populations of entire planets using the specialized apparatus contained within the Super Star Destroyer.

Identification: You will see them coming. The Empire has no need to hide from you, and you cannot hide from them. First will come their probes, which scan for starbases and detect the best targets. Then, the Gorbies will arrive — the most massive heavy carriers in existence. If you are not prepared for them, you will die. Once your fleets are scattered and in disarray, the Super Star Destroyers will show up to capture your few remaining bases intact.

Fleet Composition: The Gorbie Class Battlecarrier is the heaviest armed and armored warship in the Echo Cluster. Each can annihilate whole enemy fleets, pause briefly to repair, then advance again, reloading fighters while moving. The Super Star Frigate is a competent minelayer, the PL21 a hyperspace probe, and the Super Star Cruiser and Carrier make for decent medium warships. Their secret weapon is the Super Star Destroyer, a light carrier that can instantly bypass any planet’s defenses and conquer it without even a battle.

Strengths And Weaknesses:

Economic: The Evil Empire fields a ship that is at once the most effective and the most expensive heavy carrier in the Echo Cluster. The cost of decent engines and weapons is prohibitive, enough so that the number of these that can be constructed before the Ship Limit is usually quite small. After the Limit, the Free Fighters advantage is extremely powerful, but beforehand it can easily interfere with ship construction. Finally, the heavy hulls common to this race demand high-end engines or a massive fuel expense.

Military: The Gorbie Class Battlecarrier is the deadliest single ship in the Echo Cluster. Much of the rest of the Imperial fleet is strictly sub-par, too heavy for its firepower or too weak to stand in line of battle. However, the Super Star Destroyer is an impossible-to-ignore threat, a ship that will force enemy fleets to engage in order to destroy it.

NOTE: All but the most primitive factions within the Evil Empire have access to automatic fighter transfer technology, useful for drawing resources from the border to the front and resupplying the forward fleet. The Galactic Power advantage further empowers Gorbies in combat (though it can weaken them against light ships). Some of the most advanced Empire commanders have even gained the ability to destroy entire worlds.

Key Vulnerabilities:

• The Empire has few effective medium warships, and their Gorbie is far too expensive to produce in sufficient numbers. Queue control methods can thus stifle Imperial expansion.
• The Empire lacks any method of increasing tax revenue.
• Imperial ships require vast fuel expenditures, which limits diversion from pre-planned objectives and mobility in scorched-earth areas.
• The Empire lacks cloaker defense, and due to its logistical shortcomings is frequently vulnerable behind the main line of advance. This is exacerbated by the small cargohold of the Super Star Frigate, its only minelayer.

Trade and Alliances:

• The Super Star Destroyer is invaluable to those other races which lack the ability to reduce enemy strongholds.
• Fighter production is an underutilized trade tool.
• Empire commanders willing to exchange Gorbies can often name their own price.

The Empire desperately needs cloaking vessels to use as scouts and hidden fuel caches in order to protect its Super Star Destroyers. It is also weak on fuel and can use fleet minelayers and logistics ships.

Summary:

The Evil Empire has access to two of the most deadly ships in the Echo Cluster. However, their lack of variety in mid-sized ships is crippling, and their logistical shortcomings require a great deal of effort to overcome. When well-commanded and with access to solid alliances, the Empire can be deadly; when opposed by subtlety, however, it is often overwhelmed.

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