STAR WARS Empire at War - Gold Pack: Complete Guide

A guide to both games in the Gold Pack, Empire at War and its expansion Forces of Corruption. It covers the galactic map, space and ground battles, each faction's strengths, heroes, the Zann Consortium's corruption mechanics, and how to mod and fix the game on a modern PC.

Researched September 2026, current as of the October 2024 maintenance patch (64-bit builds since November 2023). The game is no longer being developed; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

1. Start with Forces of Corruption (FoC) if you want the full game. It adds the Zann Consortium, new units for both original factions, 13 new planets, three-way battles and most of the modding scene. Play the base Empire at War (EaW) campaign first if you want the story in order.
2. Credits are your only resource. Income comes from the planets you own and the mining facilities you build on them. There's no gathering in battle.
3. Space stations defend orbit and unlock ships. Upgrade the station on your production worlds. It sets which capital ships you can build there.
4. Always win orbit before invading. You can't land troops while the enemy controls space over a planet.
5. Heroes are force multipliers. Keep them alive. Many heroes respawn after a delay when killed, but losing them mid-battle often loses the battle.
6. Ground battles use reinforcement points. Capture landing zones to bring down more of your fleet's troops.
7. The 64-bit patch (November 2023) fixed most memory crashes. Keep the game updated through Steam.
8. Use Galactic Conquest for replayability after the story campaigns.

The Galactic Map

• Planets give income, unique bonuses (some unlock special units or cheaper building) and production.
• Build slots on the ground hold barracks, factories, mining facilities, shields and turbolaser defenses. Orbit holds a space station.
• Fleets move between connected planets along hyperspace lanes. Move a fleet into an enemy system to start a space battle.
• Tech levels: the Empire researches new tech at research facilities. The Rebellion steals it, sending heroes like R2-D2 and C-3PO on theft missions against Imperial worlds.
• Population cap grows with planets owned. Don't park giant idle fleets.

Economy rules of thumb:

• Build mining facilities on your safe core worlds early.
• Protect your chokepoints with upgraded space stations and ground defenses.
• Take planets with useful bonuses, like shipyards, special units and high income, before ones that just add territory.

Space Battles

• Target hardpoints. Capital ships have separately destructible hardpoints: shield generators, engines, weapon batteries and hangars. Kill the shield generator first to speed up the fight, and kill hangars to stop fighters from respawning.
• Fighters and bombers: bombers wreck capital ships, and fighters escort or intercept. Corvettes counter fighters.
• Space station defense: a high-level station with turbolasers is hard to crack. Bring capital ships and bombers, and kill its hangars early.
• Retreat when losing. Retreating saves your surviving units and heroes for the next fight.

Key ships (examples)

Ground Battles

• Reinforcement points let you call down more units from the orbiting fleet. Capture them fast.
• Build pads can hold turrets, healing stations or sensor towers. Grab them to control the map.
• Defending? Planet structures like shield generators, turbolaser towers and base-level defenses are powerful. Clear them with artillery or bombing runs.
• Bombing runs: if you control orbit with bombers, you can call in bombing runs on ground targets.

Ground roster highlights

• Empire: Stormtroopers, AT-ST, AT-AT, 2-M Repulsor Tank, SPMA-T artillery. Slow and heavy, but hard to break.
• Rebellion: Rebel troopers, Plex rocket troopers, T2-B and T4-B tanks, speeders. Fast, great at hit-and-run.
• Zann Consortium: Defilers (stealth sabotage units), Destroyer Droids, Nightsisters, and exotic units like Rancors. Tricky and high-risk.

Heroes

Hero tips:

• Use space heroes (Home One, the Falcon, Vader's TIE) to kill enemy fighters and hardpoints.
• Force users are strong on the ground against infantry but vulnerable to vehicles.
• Boba Fett and Bossk are great bounty hunters. Some heroes can eliminate enemy heroes on the galactic map.
• The Death Star (Empire, late game) can destroy entire planets. It's the most dramatic "I win" button, but you still need to escort it.

Forces of Corruption: The Zann Consortium

You play Tyber Zann, a crime lord who breaks out of the prison on Kessel and builds an underworld empire. His campaign has him hunting a Sith artifact, recruiting the Nightsister Silri on Dathomir, feuding with Jabba the Hutt, and ends with his bid to corrupt Coruscant itself.

Corruption

The Consortium doesn't just conquer planets, it corrupts them. You send Tyber Zann or another corruption-capable unit to a planet and pick a corruption type. The store page and manual name piracy, kidnapping, racketeering and bribery among them; there are several more. Each type gives a different benefit, and the planet's corruption menu lists which types are available there and what they do.

Some corruption missions start a small tactical battle. Corrupted planets keep working for you in the background, so it's a sneaky second empire running alongside your territory.

Black Market corruption opens a shop of unique Consortium upgrades bought with credits. Once you have one, check it every few turns.

Consortium tips

• Corrupt high-income enemy planets early. It's cheaper than invading them.
• Consortium ships rely on special abilities and upgrades more than raw armor. Micro them.
• Use stealthy units such as Defilers to get behind defenses and hit turrets and shield generators before the main assault.

Campaign Walkthrough Outline

Empire at War (Rebel campaign): you grow the Rebellion from scattered cells. Missions involve Mon Mothma, Han and Chewie, and Captain Antilles, with a lot of stealing Imperial tech along the way. It is set in the run-up to A New Hope.

Empire at War (Imperial campaign): you crush the uprising with Vader, Tarkin and the Emperor, building toward the Death Star.

Forces of Corruption (Zann campaign): a longer, harder campaign that goes from prison break to taking on both the Empire and the Rebellion.

Across all three: save before every tactical battle, don't take on the AI on multiple fronts, and keep heroes out of fights they can't win.

Modding and Modern PCs

• 64-bit: the November 2023 patch converted both games to 64-bit, fixing lots of out-of-memory crashes and multiplayer desync. The October 2024 patch improved frame rate on large galactic maps by up to 50%.
• Steam Workshop makes installing mods easy. Big total conversions include Thrawn's Revenge, Republic at War, Fall of the Republic and Awakening of the Rebellion. Most FoC mods need Forces of Corruption, not base EaW.
• Multiplayer runs through Steam, including mirror matches and passworded lobbies (fixed in 2017 and 2024 patches).
• Save file size: a 2018 patch fixed large saves being deleted. Still, keep backups of long campaign saves.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Invading without space control. You can't land.
• Ignoring station upgrades. They set which ships you can build.
• Losing heroes carelessly. Some take a long time to come back, and some story heroes are required.
• Spreading fleets thin. Concentrate fleets and kill enemy stacks one at a time.
• Shooting a capital ship's hull instead of its hardpoints.
• Leaving planets undefended after you take them. The AI counterattacks weak worlds.

Advanced Tips

• Kill shield generators, then engines. A ship without engines can't retreat or dodge.
• Use the pause. Plan your moves with the game paused in tough battles.
• Galactic Conquest: grab income planets early and put your production on one or two well-defended shipyards.
• In multiplayer skirmish, don't sit on credits waiting for capital ships. Early light units that win map control and let you grab income usually beat slow, greedy builds.
• Consortium players: corrupt planets before invading. The bonuses spread your influence across the map without needing garrisons.

FAQ

What's in the Gold Pack? Star Wars: Empire at War and its expansion, Forces of Corruption. It's one purchase with both games.

Which game should I launch? Forces of Corruption for most mods and the three-faction game. Empire at War for the original campaigns.

Does multiplayer still work? Yes, through Steam. Petroglyph's patches from 2017 onward fixed lobbies, passwords and desync.

Why does the game crash on long campaigns? Older builds ran out of memory. The November 2023 64-bit update fixed most of this, so make sure you're up to date.

How do I install mods? Subscribe on the Steam Workshop and launch through the mod's instructions (most use Forces of Corruption).

Can the Death Star destroy any planet? The Empire can use it to destroy planets in the campaign and Galactic Conquest, but it needs orbital control and escorts.

Sources

• STAR WARS Empire at War - Gold Pack on Steam
• Steam news (maintenance patches 2017–2024)
• Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption on Wikipedia
• Star Wars: Empire at War on Wikipedia