Star Wars: Rebellion (released as Star Wars: Supremacy in Europe) is a strategy/management hybrid game set in the Star Wars universe. Taking place immediately after the film Star Wars: A New Hope, Rebellion places the player in control of either the Rebellion or Empire, with the objective of overthrowing the opposing side and taking control of the galaxy.
In the management portion of the game, the player controls many aspects of his or her side, from resources and manufacturing facilities to space fleets and ground troops. Management takes place on a system-wide level, meaning that all elements of the game are isolated to specific planetary systems or planets. Conquest can be accomplished through both diplomacy and military force, and the player must always keep in mind the popular support levels of the various systems and how the player's actions may affect these. Management takes place in continuous turns; events occur in "days" which can last less than a second up to half a minute depending on the speed setting, but individual days cannot be paused and managed as turns (the player can pause but cannot do anything while paused). The player is not restricted in the number of actions that can be performed in a single day.
Whenever one of the player's fleets encounters an enemy fleet, a space battle begins. The player can automate the battle or choose to take control, which activates the Fleet Simulator. This combat takes place in a three-dimensional environment, and the player can assign orders to the ships under his or her control. Combat takes place in real time, but the battle can be paused at any time to issue orders or survey the battle.
As the player is given complete control of the forces of one side of the galactic conflict, the player is obviously not isolated to the events of continuity, and so the events in Rebellion are not canon. Additionally, in order to encourage replayability, many elements of the galaxy (planet allegiances, unit locations, etc.) are randomized and not reflective of canon storyline.
Gameplay
Overview
Although an RTS in the wider sense of the term, it belongs more to the genre of 4X games resembling Master of Orion. There are elements of turn-based games as well, as the events of each 'day' of game time are processed at the end of that day. The player commands the manufacturing of facilities, troops and starships, resources, fleet deployment, and mission assignments of units and characters (60 in all: 6 major, 54 minor, 30 per side) around the (up to) 200 available systems.
The player assumes the role of a military administrator and takes control over either the Galactic Empire or Rebel Alliance. The game interface consists of a map of the Star Wars galaxy and an advisor droid (this position is taken by C3PO for the Rebellion and IMP-22 for the Imperials). The map consists of sectors of 10 systems each (the number of sectors is customisable to be either 10, 15 or 20), all known from the Star Wars universe. Some of them belong to 'unknown' regions and need to be explored while known systems can be either under control of one of the two main factions or neutral at the start of the game.
The player has to take care of his or her faction, which involves colonisation, diplomacy, creation of buildings and units, supervising of mines, refineries, and stockpiled resources, building and commanding fleets in a tactical mode, conversion of systems to one's own side through various means, recruitment of characters, and dispatching characters or units to systems or fleets, and finally the assigning of missions to characters and special forces.
Characters
There are two kinds of characters in the game: Major and minor ones. Major characters will always be available at the beginning of the game, while most minor ones must be recruited. Only major characters can embark on recruitment missions.
Minor characters will sometimes randomly be generated Force sensitive and can be trained by certain Jedi characters (Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader) to augment their abilities. Characters can also enhance their abilities by conducting missions. Characters with higher Force ratings are better at diplomacy, espionage and combat, and can therefore conduct missions with a higher chance of success.
Some characters can be given military ranks by the player to put them in specific roles.
- An Admiral increases a fleet's performance in both tactical battles and orbital bombardments.
- A General increases the performance of troops and reduce the likelihood of successful enemy missions on a friendly planet.
- A Commander increases the combat efficiency of starfighter squadrons.
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