Empires Of Planets 4

The Rebels

Race Guide by Nathan Bevin

Race Attributes

 

Unique Units

Missing Base Buildings

Special Base Buildings

Ship Attributes

Ship Special Devices

Ship Super Weapons

Rebels have no superweapons (sob!)

Playing As

The Rebels rely on natives for income, and fighters as their main choice of weapon.  Rebel weakness can also be their reliance on natives for income, lack of super weapons, and the cost (both mineral and mc) of their larger ships, and fuel in the early game stage.

At start game, Rebels should immediately seek out natives to dust off and ship back to their HW or outposts.  Use your starting base terraformer to make your HW climate 71 - your farms work fine but your base is now harder to see.  The Falcon is an integral component of early Rebel setup, and players should aim to get to hull tech 2 and hyperdrive tech 7 asap (with low normal space speed, it's not much use getting normal engines past tech level 5 unless you capture an enemy ship or until you need the extra energy output).  Get quite a few Falcon's running to collect natives with first up - Falcon's are relatively weak and easy targets however, so try and stay clear of enemy ships.  Look for planets early on that have contra or Molybdenum.  You can mine the contra at a decent rate use smuggler's cantina's, and you will need plenty of Moly for your carriers later in the game.  You will need fuel for your hyperdrives as well, keep mines & smelters pumping and consider the Defense Platform for laser mining and the refinery and alchemy ships as needed.  Try making small bases at as many planets as you can to take advantage of the Rebel ability to see planets with over 100k natives in a 300ly range, and then pick these up.  Amorphs are the best natives to grab early on, and will provide you with the best revenue ongoing.  Ultra Conservative is the best tax rate to keep your natives ultra-happy and give you VP's from their votes (in non VP games you may want to tax at a higher rate as happiness may take second place to more MC's...).  Falcon's can be used throughout the game to hyp in assault pods on your enemies planets, and run before combat.  Rebel ships have extremely slow engines, so avoid getting caught in grav wells and mines, and beware of damage to your Hyperdrive during combat - carry plenty of repair units.  With the exception of the Falcon, Rebel ships do not begin their hyper jump phase until tick 100 each turn - a double edged sword as you can carry out some actions (move using engines, transfer, pick up pods etc.) BEFORE you hyp, but you cannot move after your jump.   Rebel strengths are in their ability to hyp in carriers filled with fighter wings.  Rush Class carriers aren't bad as a ship themselves, although somewhat costly with the Moly (and more again if weapons with a high Moly content are purchased).  Tranq Cruisers can be nice supporting vessels and possibly ships of the line even though they lack the ability to carry some of the best weapons, being able to carry many pods (great for assault pod storage) and a fighter wing.  Guardians lay laser mines which should be used to surround and protect outposts and homeworlds.  Armored Tranny's are handy for deep space native collections, and later on for ferrying goods, passengers and life/assault pods.  Patriots are of arguable use, they can carry two wings and the Agro Dome is handy if you run out of food, however the Tranq Cruiser may be a better option cost and weapons wise.  Deep Space Scouts have a great scan range, keep a couple active around your HW to detect any incoming enemies early.  Defense Platforms are good for mining a planet quicker and detecting invisible ships, also as a fighter plant when needed and for using the hacker droid to hack captured enemy ship plans, however the Platform can be a sitting duck and is quite expensive.  For home defense, the platform may not be the answer... not much better than a cricket bat under the bed...  Rebels can build base shields which is a must for all important planets.  A Base Shield can hold off an enemy force whilst you hyp in reinforcements, and prevent your base from being annihilated by ordinary weapons fire from space.  Heavy Lasers and fighters have a chance of critically hitting EE ships, a very useful trait when that Gorbi appears on your doorstep.  Getting Planet Tech for Fighter Plants and Air Bases is paramount to Rebels survival as Rebels rely on wings rather than warships.  Sand Shields is a priority as far as Exotic Tech goes, and Stealth Fighters can be also be very useful.  As well as laying laser mine fields, scatter fighter wings around your HW with intercept on to take out or slow down any would be invaders and to try and cut off any attempts at someone using the contra lockdown device on you.  Rebel ground units are not the toughest around, but the Broncho Stomper can soak up a lot of damage whilst other ground units cause critical damage.  Bantams are like shock troops of the sky, nice and cheap, mix them with Thunder Dancers for anti ship attacks/defense, and mix them with Quad wings for ground attack/defense.  Troop strengths are pretty decent, and your highguard Jedi's rock !  Be friends with everyone, while you collect all the natives and build up a fleet of carriers and wings, then strike in numbers - aim to take planets of use such as HW's with stored goods and  high Moly or contra planets.  Use contra planets as outposts and get an airbase going on them asap.  The outposts can supply new wings to replace your casualties as you push out your borders.  Fighters are key for Rebels - no one can steal fighter plans, or board and capture them, unlike your other ships.

Playing Against

Use Grav mines and wells to lock Rebels down and prevent them from reaching you HW's or outposts.  Rebel ships caught in Grav wells/mines are often ripe for boarding and capturing and are unlikely to be able to outrun most ships using normal engines.  Watch out for Rebel fighters as they are effective and cheap - use Sandcaster in early game to devastate Rebel wings.  If you suspect they have sand shields (exotic tech) your best option is to switch to anti-fighter PD weapons (Turbo Lasers are good) and/or Nemesis Torpedoes if you have them, along with a couple of your own wings set to anti-fighter and lay some laser mines.  Stop the Rebels from collecting natives as quickly as possible - their ships are weak in the start game and often far from home.  Alternatively, search out the Rebel HW and let them collect natives for a few turns before assaulting their HW - odds are they are spending money on hyperdrive tech early in the game and not defense, so you can capture their main planet and a handy load of natives for yourself !  Contra lockdown devices can cause havoc to Rebel economies, as they often rely on Lerchin spice output from Amorphs as a main income source.  If you lockdown their contra planets, you take away their main income source and can then begin whittling away at their defenses.  If the Rebels come knocking in a brand spanking new carrier with plenty of fighters, concentrate on knocking out the carrier.  This will leave their wings stranded and cost them a load of money to build a new carrier.  Prevent them from reaching planets with high Moly, which will in turn limit their ability to build carriers.  Try and knock out their scanning ships (Deep Space Scouts) and move in for the kill.  Use Super Weapons if you have them, otherwise prepare for a bloody ground assault...

Natural Enemies

Rebels Race Stats