If you decide to play the game as the Alliance, you have a few key advantages right off the bat. For starters, your home base is located at a random Rim system, far from prying Imperial eyes. Second, you have several gifted recruiters and diplomats at the start of the game. By taking advantage of these two simple advantages, you can quickly get a jump on the Empire and begin to gather momentum that will carry you right through to Coruscant and victory.

Of course, you have to take advantage of these two strengths, because you have a few key weaknesses as well. Your primary liabilities are your pathetically weak military, your less-than-capable military leaders, and your limited ship design capabilities. To counter these flaws, you must use your personnel and Special Forces to level the playing field against the Empire.

Take out a few Imperial Star Destroyers with sabotage missions, and you're on your way to a victory.

Locate the Empire's nearest and most powerful fleet immediately and send a sabotage mission to take out the largest capital ship he possesses. If you're successful, this will cause him to divert replacement ships from other sectors to cover the loss. If you run enough of these missions, you will force him to seriously deplete his home fleet and devote all of his resources to constructing new ISDs. This tactic alone can turn the tables against the Empire and pave the way for your eventual triumph.

Because of your military weakness (at least, in the beginning), you should try to use diplomacy as much as possible. You have more diplomats than the Empire, so use them to win over key neutral systems and strengthen anti-Empire sentiment.

Devote Wedge Antilles to ship design immediately. You cannot win if you can't build ships capable of fighting and defeating an ISD (sabotage or no sabotage). The key vessels you want to develop are as follows:

• Mon Calamari Cruiser - Big capital ship that can go toe-to-toe with an ISD.
• Nebulon-B Frigate - Excellent escort vessel that can do damage to capital ships and provide an anti-fighter defense.
• CC-7700 Frigate - The Alliance's gravity well ship. Key to eliminating Imperial fleets, as it will prevent their escape into hyperspace.
• Alliance Escort Carrier - Carries six fighter squadrons. Your fighters are vastly superior to the Empire's fighters (your sole military advantage). Use these ships to augment each fleet's fighter capacity and offensive punch.
• X-Wings - You can never have too many. Even after you discover A-Wings and B-Wings, this should be your primary fighter unit.

Playing as the Rebels (continued)