SW:EAW: Forces of Corruption - Yavin 4

Star Wars: Empire at War - Yavin 4
This is a hint / walkthrough for a planet in Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption. The index of all our guides for Empire at War: Forces of Corruption is here.

Bribery

Racketeering (Corruption Income +180)
This requires Intimidation x2 and cannot be done until Mission 8. You had to perform one Intimidation at Honoghr in Mission 2 (Defiler's Mission), and the next Intimidation Mission that you qualify for is in Mission 8 (Corruption of Saleumaci).

Space Battle
You are required to send Tyber Zann to Yavin 4 as part of Mission 5 (Remnants of the Death Star). Even if he is travelling with only Stealth units, the special data pod search "space battle" will automatically trigger.
It is hard to say whether this mission is meant to be done with actual combat vessels as you cannot get to Yavin 4 without controlling the space of the Empire-controlled planets in between (you cannot Bribe past them to get to Yavin 4). It is theoretically doable to conquer the Imperials in between with large flocks of bombers, but we declined to spend the time and cost to do so right now. In any case, the mission to Yavin 4 is doable with just Tyber Zann.

If you arrive at Yavin 4 with just Tyber Zann, Urai Fen (and possibly some Defilers), they all appear in space in individual TZ-15 Shuttles. These shuttles have small defensive lasers, but even a swarm of them will have a hard time taking down a wing of X-Wings. On the other hand, even Corellian Corvettes have a hard time taking them down.

Around the middle of the map, slightly to the east, are four Tartan Patrol Cruisers who will defect. When you get them, keep them with your shuttles and -- this is important -- keep the group moving looking for the data pods. There is one in the northwest corner, one near the north edge, and one last one in the southwest, but only after you have found the other two as this is the special encounter that ends the space battle.

On this map, there are many spots of debris, which more or less count as asteroids against large ships. As stated in the tutorial, pirate vessels are not damaged by being in an asteroid field, so if you brought a Frigate, it should be okay. However, when you control a large number of vessels, they can unpredictably move around them and become separated, rather than go right through, even if they are very small and would be unharmed. To have them clump together and head inside a debris field, give movement commands to each ship one at a time rather than selecting them and giving the group a movement command.

It is probably helpful to first destroy the defensive satellite in the southwest corner, as it is not likely that it will switch to target the pirate vessel that appears. Chase the pirate from southwest to southeast where he will stop. By then your Tartans should have taken it down. Have Tyber Zann pick it up, and shortly after the end cutscene will appear and your force will retreat to the nearest friendly space (possibly all the way back to Nal Hutta).

If you want to use the power of foresight, hide your Tartans in the large debris field just north of the missile platform. Move Tyber Zann's shuttle to the southwest corner, triggering the pirate encounter. He will zoom ahead eastward, thus drawing the attention of the missile platform. Chase him. Shortly after the cutscene, he will be destroyed by the missile platform ahead east. Dash forward with Tyber Zann to pick up the data pod and trigger the victory announcement. At that point, his shuttle becomes invincible and ignores missiles.

Land Battle
To buy you some time to go for the destroy-native-buildings bonus, leave the Bunkers alone for last. Any units in there will still have to be destroyed, but in the meantime tend to simply stay put in the bunker (although there is a chance that if all that are left are bunkers, the Rebels may sound a retreat before you can destroy them). As long as you stay away from them, they can't do any harm. You can therefore destroy the Light Factory and Barracks to lift the fog of war.