SW:EAW: Forces of Corruption - Zann Consortium Ground Units

Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption - Zann Consortium Ground Units
This is a hint / walkthrough for units in Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption. The index of all our guides for Empire at War: Forces of Corruption is here.

Although you have enough of a unit mix to field a "regular" army and use typical tactics, the Zann Consortium is actually more effective using commando action. All Consortium heroes and the powerful Defiler minor hero unit are stealth units on the Galactic Map: They ignore enemy fleets. And unlike Rebellion Raid Fleets, you can have more than 3 units sneak by a fleet over a planet and attack the planet directly.
Further, once you have Corrupted a planet, you get to see not only enemy units but building and unit placements. This allows you to quickly locate and destroy enemy buildings that can continue to produce troops (Factories and Barracks). And after all buildings are destroyed, the fog of war lifts and you can see the movements of remaining enemies.
Finally, the Defiler minor hero unit is so powerful with its useful Remote Explosive power that you can just build them to be your entire army, instead of "conventional" units. You will generally want to have Urai Fen take point because he continuously heals and can hide with his Personal Cloaking Field to scout more dangerous areas.
However, until you get a useful artillery/turret shield (like Silri's Rancor), areas that are covered by more than one Turret, or a Turret plus a Bunker, are extremely dangerous because the Defilers need to get in close to throw their thermal detonators; and you don't have any hero strong enough to withstand two Turrets (Urai Fen can usually sneak close to one and take it out, but not two, and sometimes not even one Anti-Infantry Turret, which tends to be able to shoot back no matter how close he is).

Defiler
This special unit is discussed here.

Mercenary Assault Squad
The Stim Pack inflicts ~25% damage to health.
You must buy the Disruptor upgrade for the Mercenary Assault Squad as part of Mission 5 (Black Market Establishment).

Grenadier
The Stim Pack inflicts ~25% damage to health.

The arcing shot of the Grenadier can allow a target that is charging straight at the Grenadier to run underneath and avoid some or most of the fire. It also means it can fire over some obstacles, whereas most weapons are direct fire and sometimes a unit on or below a cliff will fire harmlessly into the ground or wall.

The Proximity Mines upgrade is an interesting one, as it allows idle Grenadiers to eventually carpet wide areas, making them dangerous to traverse. The Landmines are themselves tiny devices rather than absolute coverage over an area. Each device explodes independently, so a small unit entering the area might be extremely lucky and avoid them all, or trigger only one or two and the area will still remain dangerous.
The Proximity Mines can also be disabled by the enemy by shooting at them, as once they are laid, each mine is an individual item. Usually the enemy will step on one and then realize they are in a minefield and start shooting the rest. An automatic fire weapon with a spread to the burst can take out several mines per burst. The blasts do not set off any chain reaction.

Mobile Defense Unit
Good if you have deep pockets to spend on a mission. There are some land missions where Build Pads may be difficult to find, and an MDU can come in handy if you want to hold ground on your own terms.
The Sensor Jammer is particularly useful because your fragile or shielded units are very vulnerable to missile fire of all sorts.

When attacked, whatever is built on an MDU is first damaged, and then the MDU is damaged.

Destroyer Droid Mark II (Droideka Mark II)

These move very, very, quickly, but are remarkably fragile against everything, despite their shields. PLEX Troopers can kill them very quickly, and even one squad (9 individuals) of Stormtroopers can tear down the shields with remarkable speed.

They can move forward a bit without dropping their shields, but for longer move orders, they undeploy and then race forward. Deploying and undeploying takes about a second each, during which time they can be very vulnerable because they have no shields. Theoretically, however, you can race them inside artillery minimum distance before they come under fire.

Nightsister riding Rancor
This very useful unit is your artillery shield / turret shield. Charge them in quickly, especially against AT-ATs as they get inside the AT-AT's minimum range and can attack without retaliation.
Watch for clumsy turns, frequent traffic jams, and getting stuck in walls.

They can secure Build Pads and other structures.

Their Drain Life ability affects infantry and vehicles, but not droids, anything built on a Build Pad, and buildings.

Because they can only be recruited on Dathomir, you may want to focus on securing that planet. However, the hero Silri can summon a slightly smaller Rancor, so you can get similar tanking but with an expendable and renewable "free" unit from a hero who ignores enemy fleets on the Galactic Map.

F9-TZ Transport
At Tech Level 4 (after Mission 15, "Baiting the Hook"), the Cloaking technology becomes cheaper on the Black Market on Imperial worlds, but you are allowed to buy it at any time.

Missile Attack Launcher
The Zann Consortium's artillery piece, the M.A.L. (Missile Attack Launcher) uses a barrage of missiles similar to that of Rebellion PLEX Troopers. They ignore shields travel nap-of-the-earth (so they can slide over low obstacles like hills), go harmlessly through (not over) bunkers that you own, and will follow targets who change course. As they do not arc over anything, they are hard to avoid by ground units and have no minimum range.
The barrage of PLEX missiles can be split to two targets if you right-click on a different target while it is still firing its volley.

The main difference between the M.A.L. and the artillery pieces of the Rebellion and the Empire is that it's attack is quite weak. Whereas Rebellion or Empire artillery can be expected to destroy weak units in a single volley, it will take several volleys from an M.A.L. to destroy even infantry.

The Carbonite missiles (from the Weaponized Carbonite technology upgrade) fire quite quickly, but one missile at a time. These have a low arc instead of multiple PLEX-type missiles. They explode in a wide radius, do less damage against infantry compared to the regular missile barrage, and almost no damage against structures and vehicles but do still slow them down.

The shield and armor on a MAL are weak, so pairing Carbonite Missiles with regular ones can keep enemies away while you continue to bomb them with another MAL, or help allies on the field escape.

MZ-8 Mobile Pulse Cannon
These tanks are actually quite weak, possibly comparable or less so to a 2-M Saber Repulsor Tank. The plasma pulse cannon has a long charge-up time, but once charged it cannot be stopped and will fire even if the tank is destroyed. Despite the spectacular blast, it harms only one target at a time. They move quite responsively despite being tracked vehicles. They cannot move and fire at the same time.

Vornskr
You must control Myrkr (accessible after Mission 15, "Baiting the Hook") in order to recruit Vornskr. They attack quickly and can tear through infantry. Like infantry, they can be run over.

Canderous Assault Tank
You get one unit (three tanks) for free after Mission 15 (Baiting the Hook) and can start building them at that time. Their attack isn't very strong, but their handling is very responsive and smooth like a 2-M Saber Repulsor Tank, and their turret turns quite quickly. They cannot move and fire at the same time.

Ewok Handler
You can recruit these after choosing the Slavery Corruption on Endor (available after Mission 15, "Baiting the Hook").
These costly units have a very long start-up time for their attack: They need to use their Gaffi Sticks to yank out an Ewok from their bag and send it off, all at around infantry blaster range (the Handler will move into that range before pulling out an Ewok).
The Ewok runs faster than infantry, but not by much. If shot down before then, it does not explode. If you want an explosive, go for a Defiler instead.

Ewok Handlers are recruited from a Zann Consortium Palace instead of Barracks.

Pyn'gani Warrior
You can recruit these after choosing the Slavery Corruption on Polus (available after Mission 15, "Baiting the Hook").
They are very weak infantry with no special abilities. Instead of a squad, they are all individuals, and cannot be told to stand still -- After completing a move command, if they are idle, they wander.

Sullustan Civilian
You can recruit these after choosing the Slavery Corruption on Sullust (available after Mission 15, "Baiting the Hook"). They are essentially very weak infantry with no special abilities.