Star Wars: Empire at War - Alderaan

Star Wars: Empire at War - Alderaan
This is a hint / walkthrough for a planet in Star Wars: Empire at War. The index of all our guides for Empire at War is here.

Imperial Campaign

Prior to sending over the Death Star, it is possible to conquer Alderaan with a Smuggler. Sending the Smuggler into orbit, and then onto the planet allows you to take over Alderaan. You gain income and can build a Space Station and buildings on land. However, if you take over the planet in this way, it will become impossible to finish the Imperial Campaign.
Normally, to destroy a planet that you own, or where you control orbital space, you move the Death Star into orbit, then drag it into a special "Destroy Planet" slot. During the campaign, however, moving the Death Star to Alderaan triggers the special space combat. Even after the countdown expires, you will not be able to fire the Death Star -- presumably because you now own Alderaan.

Space Battle

A remarkably simple mission even on Hard Difficulty. You start with the Death Star in the background. It cannot be interacted with or destroyed; and a tiny fleet of 4 Tartans and 4 Victory Star Destroyers. Whatever fleet you brought with the Death Star is relegated to your reinforcement pool.

Rebels start with a few Mon Calamari capital ships (that you can initially see), and several others in the fog of war, including the Admiral Akbar's supposedly gigantic Home One (in Empire at War, it is not in canon proportionate scale with regular Mon Calamari capital ships). The Rebels also start in the middle of the battle map, so it's not like you can engage them cautiously the way you can with space station sieges with the space station generally placed a bit further into one corner.

If you read the Mission Objective very carefully, you will realize that you don't need to win anything or destroy anything. You just have to have at least one ship limping at the end of the countdown, at which time if you have no ship selected, your console will show a pull-down lever to fire the Death Star.

At Hard Difficulty, you need 75 seconds. Just select all the free ships and set them to stop moving, then wait for the countdown. None of the surviving ships will be added to your fleet afterwards.

After Alderaan, your Death Star and fleet automatically retreat. Bring any ship back to Alderaan to secure orbital space. There is no planet left, but you can still get 1 Credit/day of income and you can build a level 5 Space Station there.



Land Battle

Alderaan is reduced to rubble in space, later known as The Graveyard.