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| Source: thrawnsrevenge.com |
While Electronic Arts' Star Wars: Battlefront games tend to draw most of the water when it comes to the recently revitalized franchise's space in the console video game market, a more unassuming title holds the bestseller crown on the PC platform: a real-time strategy game released in 2007 called Star Wars: Empire at War. Set in the period just before and covering the events of Episode IV: A New Hope, Empire at War was a quietly competent strategy experience with an outsized modding community owing to the massive Star Wars Expanded Universe (now known as "Legends"). That community has carried the flame for over ten years while numerous mod projects have come and gone, covering everything from the Clone Wars to the Old Republic, all the way into the Legacy Era (my personal favorite period). Sadly, Empire at War's multiplayer servers were brought offline after the demise of GameSpy in 2014 and official support from developer Petroglyph Studios also came to a halt. With EA shifting focus to its Battlefront series and a larger shift of interest away from traditional RTS games towards MOBAs, it seemed like Empire at War was destined to join the hefty pile of forgotten Star Wars licensed games - until a surprise announcement in the summer of 2017 appearing from Disney and Petroglyph trumpeted the return of multiplayer support for the title as well as numerous bug fixes and modern quality-of-life improvements.
Buttressed by the unlikely revival, the game received a fresh wave of interest thanks to integration with Steam as well as the the current wave of new films, resulting in a wave of updates bringing long-dead mods up to current spec as well as a shot to the arm of several in-progress mods, one of which being Thrawn's Revenge. In some form of development since at least 2014, Thrawn's Revenge is, to me, the most impressive mod available for Empire at War because it is one of the few projects that has emerged out the other end of all these years with a fantastic and impressive breadth of new features and content while holding itself to a sheen of polish and professionalism that is sadly absent in most fan-created work. I'll go over the broad strokes of the mod here but I encourage you to check out their website or Steam page to learn more.
A New Era
The biggest change introduced in Thrawn's Revenge is the "Era System", which replaces the base game's Tech System. In vanilla Empire at War, different factions have different methods available to them of advancing their "tech level", which governs what units and structures they can build, with higher tech levels granting access to more powerful units in a linear progression. Under the Era System in the mod, the death of the current Imperial leader (usually) results in the era shifting into the next one, from 1 to 5, changing the available units and heroes for certain factions depending on the specific era. For example, in later eras the New Republic gains access to more modern battleships that rival the Imperials, whereas the Imperial Remnant only gets weaker as the eras progress. Recently the Remnant faction was given the option to force an era change for a hefty cost, meaning that now there is a great push/pull dynamic between the different factions and their goals.There's a laundry list of countless other changes, tweaks, and additions that can be viewed at the Thrawn's Revenge website, but to wrap this up I'll briefly go over the different factions available to play as in the mod. There are a couple of others besides these that are either in progress or simply emergent AI factions meant to spice up gameplay, and more information on them can also be found on the website.
New Republic
The updated New Republic faction takes the place of the Rebels from the base game, and is the only faction in the mod that only improves as the eras advance. Early days see them with their characteristic roster of X-Wings, Mon Calamari cruisers and Nebulon-Bs, while the later few eras show off more advanced units and heroes only seen in expanded universe material (like much of Thrawn's Revenge). While the Empire of the Hand shares their ability to build starfighters discretely, the New Republic has an interesting playstyle all their own, and I really like the way they are incentivized to go after the Imperial Remnant primarily in order to advance the eras and "unlock" their more powerful units.Empire of the Hand
A secret entity formed by Admiral Thrawn in the early days of the Empire, the Empire of the Hand has some of the most well-realized units in the mod and an well-differentiated playstyle fitting of this hybrid of alien and Imperial interests. An emphasis on hit and run tactics and smaller, more agile units that punch above their weight sets the Hand apart, but they largely pay for that flexibility with lower amounts of health/armor/shields, making straight-up slugfests into a typically poor proposition. Like the New Republic they seem to have a tendency to get beaten up on by the AI in larger galactic conquests, but they are easily the most visually interesting faction as every unit was built from scratch for the mod.Imperial Remnant
The Imperial Remnant replaces the default Empire faction and experiences probably the most dynamic timeline throughout the progression of the different eras. While other factions may find a couple of new units replacing older ones and one or two different heroes coming and going, the Remnant has a continuous succession of new units, heroes, and overall footing on the map, as well as a couple of different superweapons and story events depending on the specific era. Since the jump to subsequent eras still hinges on the death of the current Imperial Remnant leader, the new ability to purposefully force a regime change as the Remnant player eliminates a lot of the strange suicide missions previous versions of the mod forced you into undertaking in order to progress the timeline. The other Imperial Warlord factions have been more interesting to me at the moment, but the Remnant definitely is the best example of the era system of Thrawn's Revenge in action.Imperial Warlord Factions
These are splinter groups of the Empire led by various officers who all vied for control of the remaining Imperial forces in the aftermath of Episode VI:- Warlord Zsinj: One of my favorite factions just because of how ragtag it feels. Zsinj starts off with the largest amount of territory of all the Warlords and a special TIE model for some flair, but other than that his unit selection is a strange mix of low-tech Rebel carrier ships and standard Imperial stuff. While Zsinj himself comes with a Super Star Destroyer right off the rip, the rest of his heroes are intensely forgettable and his starting position on the galactic map means he will be getting hit on all sides by other factions.
- Greater Maldrood: Zsinj's neighbor on the galactic map and chief rival is the Greater Maldrood, led by Admiral Teradoc. Low-key the best Warlord faction thanks to a solid starting position, solid-to-great hero roster, and a range of units that covers all bases between huge capital ships, hard hitting frigates and excellent carriers and fighters.
- Pentastar Alignment: The other Warlord faction led by a hero with a Super Star Destroyer, the Alignment seems set up around a hammer and anvil strategy of drowning the enemy in fighters from various carriers before giving them the Emperor's peace with a selection of capital ships. These guys probably have the best starting location of all as well as some very unique heroes and old school Clone Wars units.
- Eriadu Authority: My personal favorite, these guys are basically "Star Destroyer: The Faction". Great capital ship selection, competent fighters and a fine but vanilla selection of smaller ships, they're let down by some trash heroes and a starting location that makes them the Rebels' and Imperial Remnant's punching bag.
And that is Thrawn's Revenge, a mod that, in my mind, far surpasses the variety and depth provided in the base Empire at War experience to deliver an experience that any Star Wars or RTS fan would enjoy. I also recommend checking out the lead developer's YouTube channel for many videos covering the mod itself as well as modding tutorials, previews of upcoming features, and more.
