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Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds is a 2001 real time strategy game, developed by Ensemble Studios and LucasArts, who also published the game in North America. The Japanese version published by Electronic Arts and Squaresoft Joint Venture Electronic Arts Square. It was released in November 11, 2001.

The game was built on the Genie Engine technology that was used to build the Age of Empires II game. An expansion pack was released in 2002, featuring elements from Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. Later that year, both Galactic Battlegrounds and Clone Campaigns were released in a box set, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds Saga.

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Plot

Early missions

The original game has six campaigns. Some of the missions represent actual battles from the movies, like the Battle of Hoth.

Later Missions

The Royal Naboo also appear in the Gungan and the Trade Federation campaigns but have no campaign on their own. However, they are playable in standard gameplay, multiplayer, and the scenario editor.

Gameplay

At commencement of the game, each player can choose one of the available factions and will begin a typical game with a command center and a handful of workers. The idea of the game is to gather resources, build units and research technologies to ultimately conquer ones opponents. When a certain amount of resources have been stockpiled, they can be used to advance to the next technology level which opens up new construction and research options, as well as unlocking newer and upgraded units.

If the game begins with the First Tech Level, each player is limited in what can be built. Aside from a few basic troopers who are fairly useless except as scouts, most construction options revolve around the player's economy and getting that off the ground. Once 500 food has been stockpiled, the player will have the option to advance to the Second Tech Level. This will open up more buildings and units forming basic armies. 800 food and 200 nova will allow advancement to the Third Tech Level where combat can become truly three dimensional with the ability to construct air units. 1000 food and 800 nova will let the player then advance to the Fourth and final Tech level where expensive upgrades are available but the benefits they bring to one's faction are often worth the excessive cost.

Each worker unit which often takes the form of labor droids, Wookiees, or whatever suits the player's faction, can be individually controlled by the player and they can be ordered to gather resources, construct buildings and even attack enemy units and buildings.

There are four types of resources, all of which need to be gathered at a steady rate in order to supply a constant flow of resources: Carbon is used primarily to construct buildings and is often used in technology research and can be found in trees or in "carbon deposits". Food is used to help train units and can also be used to a lesser extent in technology research. Food can be gathered from muja fruits, fish, hunting or farms, and from nerfs or banthas housed in an animal nursery. Nova crystals are used primarily in technology research and to train some units. They are also used as currency at the marketplace where buy and sell prices are listed in nova crystal value. The crystals are primarily mined but can also be traded for other resource at the marketplace, trade caravans can deposit a fixed amount of crystal between two marketplaces and Holocrons can provide a steady stream if housed at a Jedi Temple or Sith Temple. Finally, there is ore which is mostly used to construct fixed defensive structures like turrets, fortresses and anti-air defenses as well as in some technology research. Ore is often the scarcest resource on the map and the player will have to buy extra at the marketplace once exhausted.

Cheats

While playing, press 'Enter' to open up the chat screen. Type one of the following codes and press 'Enter' again (Note: Some codes require you to highlight a unit for the code to work)

forceexplore – Entire map is explored.

– Entire map is explored. forcesight – Remove fog of war.

– Remove fog of war. forcebuild – Building, harvest, and research time becomes instant. (This happens to all teams, including the enemy)

– Building, harvest, and research time becomes instant. (This happens to all teams, including the enemy) forcecarbon – Get 1,000 carbon.

– Get 1,000 carbon. forcenova, forcenovacrystals – Get 1,000 nova.

– Get 1,000 nova. forceore – Get 1,000 ore.

– Get 1,000 ore. forcefood – Get 1,000 food.

– Get 1,000 food. tarkin – Destroy everything belonging to all other players

– Destroy everything belonging to all other players darkside(1-8) – Destroy a specific civilization according to their # (1-8).

– Destroy a specific civilization according to their # (1-8). skywalker – Win the battle.

– Win the battle. simonsays – Get Simon the Killer Ewok.

– Get Simon the Killer Ewok. scaryneighbor – Get a Bongo Marauder.

– Get a Bongo Marauder. tantive iv - Get a Rebel Blockade Runner.

- Get a Rebel Blockade Runner. that's no moon - Get a Death Star.

- Get a Death Star. imperial entanglements - Get a Star Destroyer.

Easter eggs

Some levels also featured some 'easter eggs': In some marginal and hard to reach places (like mountain peaks, or areas behind trees that have to be harvested in order to reveal), some well known characters can be found if the player decides to explore the corners of the map with air units:

Aurebesh texts

Galactic Battlegrounds also contains many text easter eggs, found in the game's briefing/debriefing screens. While many of the screens contain gibberish phrases, some seem to be inside jokes between LucasArts employees. Notable excerpts are presented here by civilization:

Gungan: boss gallo/he has a big robe/one four/mesa sicka gungan guys; jerb wi 2 wjbe eks oh and by the way this is boss rogoe/a slave gungan why did george have to bring jar jar back in ep2?; so sad its my last day/i am going to miss this/its a game i hope like it; the two jedi in the gungan city hey did anyone see any gungan women?; orb of peace/naboo is victorious/long live naboo/PCP

Wookiees (Colonization of Alaris Prime): chewie/jp i love you/two one/harvesting food/status: not done yet/tomorrow for sure; image one/one two/wookiees approach/status; guarded heavy/will move forward cautiously/end transimission; obi-wan's lightsaber is long and dngerous/two hands are better than one/the ring; one two four/final town buildings/qui-gon/status: obi-wan is lost/check out the trees/hes in there

Trade Federation: teh tf tanks dstryd the the buildings/-dstry-capture-pillage; the search for the gungans has ended/c-whats d-up; -warning-droids no longer functioning

Galactic Empire: ooold/vader speaks/the lord of the sith/dodonna learns his lesson; Salvage the rebel base--take all survivors to command/processing for detention block b; mara jade occupation: bad ass/location death star code red surveylance; stormtroopers bad guys/s--jim tudner f--bob billy newman b--jack burton k--mike terpsta j--chris williams l--paul c pierce f--haden blackman

Note: the names of Paul Pierce and John Paul Soto appear at the bottom of all screens in the Imperial campaign.

Rebel Alliance: random troopers/joey russo/this is echu shen can yog guess it really is; <Screen displays two X-wings flying over a forest> bob see any deer/yeah this is more fun than those banthas/not yet remember year when got that buck with my proton torpedo; all your base are belong to us; -you are here (pl)ease keep all (han)ds inside the boat at all times; yes its an eye ball uh 282n good old rotj; leia and luke looking on at rebels/what will they do who knows: ben kenobi does; boom yey the empire bast is one fire too bad its not jar jar/and this is fire shooting out of the doorw ohh ahh; the rebel transport ship otherwise known as a tunaboat/kiptan the boat smells like fish again/this will be earth in a few million years who would have ever thought future site of dr. evil's new asteroid base...ohh haha

Wookiees (Liberation of Kashyyyk): han chewie buddies/solo action status: huge/gone today; bowcaster safety lock/chewie will kick your ass; run chewie/one two three/wookiee transports sail across the water sttus: safe and secure/next mission comb matted fur; many parties among the trees/hiding ewok babies/wookiee party house; run run/free at last today/wookiee freedom at last/lando and han looking on

Game types

The original game comes with six solo-player campaigns with the expansion pack adding two more, all of which reflect events in galactic history. There is also a Standard Game feature, which pits human player(s) against a set number of AI opponents for control of a map. The standard goal is to defeat one's enemies by either forcing surrender or annihilation. Other variations include race to construct a Monument first, "King-Of-The-Hill" and regicide.

Technology & Research

To acquire technology, the player must first construct buildings. Buildings are either economic, military or research orientated. Economic buildings will be drop-off points for resources as well as upgrades to worker gather speed. Military buildings can create new units, offers upgrades for those units or are defensive structures which help protect a base. Research buildings provide upgrades to units, buildings and defensive structures. The cost of the research will depend generally on the technology level and advantage that the research provides.

Technology plays a central role. Early in the game, players must balance economic and military priorities, allocating scarce resources. Too much emphasis on researching technology and moving through the Levels without creating manpower, can leave an army vulnerable to attack. On the other hand, putting resources into a large population at the expense of progress, can lead to defeat if the enemy has progressed and is able to field a small but more powerful attack force.

Monuments and holocrons

Holocrons are special unique items that are scattered around the map, and can only be picked up by Jedi or Sith. Once placed within a Jedi Temple or a Sith Temple, a holocron steadily generates free nova crystals for the civilization that holds it (this reflects the historical realities of the power and influence that possessing knowledge has). Certain factions will gain extra crystals from holocrons, others will gain fewer. To capture a holocron from an enemy temple, the temple must suffer heavy damage to the holocron is ejected before its annihilation and then a Jedi/Sith unit can collect it. The standard skirmish victory condition allows for a "Holocron victory" - if one player gathers all holocrons, a countdown begins and if it expires, victory is awarded. It should be noted that, the Holocrons are very similar in function, to the Relics from Age of Empires II, for they are both stored in Temples, and generating resources: Nova crystals and gold, respectively.

Monuments are massive structures that require large amounts of resources and time to build. If a player completes a Monument, and it stands intact for an uninterrupted period of time (400 game days), they win. Each civilization has their own Monument (typically a famous work of historical architecture).

Scenario editor

The game also gives players the option of creating their own levels in the Scenario Editor. This can allow players to create their own levels and even combining multiple levels into a campaign. The levels can be made using all terrain types featured in the game and can place every type of unit and building available in the game, including units listed as heroes which are characters that specifically appear in the campaigns, such as Chewbacca. Some other characters from the Star Wars universe can also be used in Scenarios that aren't anywhere else the game, such as Dash Rendar and the Outrider, as well as characters invented solely for the game, such as Excellency Lathe Parthenian and Tallamitta.

Units & Factions

Each faction typically has a set number of advantages and disadvantages which ensures that the differences between each faction is not just cosmetic. Certain factions will be able to access various parts of the technology tree while others are denied certain upgrades. There are also a number of unique technologies and one faction specific unit trainable at the Fortress. These differences can be turned off at the beginning of a skirmish game so that everyone has access to the same technologies and units. In team games, there is a further bonus to that team.

Note: units separated with commas means different versions of the same unit.

Galactic Empire

Faction Bonuses: Aircraft 5% cheaper, Upgrades to Heavy Mech units 10% cheaper Fortress builds 10% faster

Team Bonus: Mech units +10% speed

Gungans

Faction Bonus: Can construct underwater prefab shelters, buildings are organic and can self regenerate, Workers have 10% ore mining bonus in Technology Level 3 & 4.

Team Bonus: Ships -15% cost, Shield generators -15% cost

Rebel Alliance

Faction Bonus: Farmers +5 carry capacity, Fortress +1 range, Line of sight and search radius, the Rebels have two unique units

Team Bonus:Farm food maximum raised by +35

Royal Naboo

Note that the Royal Naboo are not playable in the campaign mode, only in skirmish mode. Faction Bonus: Nova collection +10%, Holocrons produce more nova, Fortress has increased attack versus mechs and heavy weapons

Trade Federation

Faction Bonus: No prefab shelters needed, Fortress +3 Anti-Air range Team Bonus: Heavy weapons +15% speed

Wookiees

Faction Bonus: Carbon collection is 5% faster in Tech Level 3 & 4, Fortress +5 line of sight and +10% strength

Team Bonus:Troopers +2 line of sight and +2 search radius

Species

Buildings and fabrications

Planets

Battles take place in the following background settings, also available for custom missions.

Reception

Critics believed that the game showed the limitations of the engine, which was probably not fit for sci-fi games: Laser shots often hit their target even when the craft wasn't pointing at them, and the proportions (like in the cases of AT-ATs or Rancors) were unrealistic.

The game also shows some historical and factual inconsistencies, such as telling players that the AT-AT was developed during the Galactic Civil War when in fact it was developed during the Clone Wars. Among the assault units in the game, the basic Trade Federation trooper is a B1-series battle droid, and the basic Confederacy trooper is a B2-series super battle droid. While the B2 is manifestly an upgraded version of the B1, the game makes them equal. Also, the NR-N99 Persuader-class droid enforcer, identified vaguely in the game as the "Corporate Alliance Tank Mech", is portrayed as much larger and more powerful than it actually was according to canon.

It should be noted that in some cases, levels are very different from the missions on the movie. For example, if the player is playing as the Empire on the Endor Mission, the Rebels have four bases, this disagrees with the movie and most canon sources, which state that the Rebel force deployed on Endor was very reduced. Also, in the middle of the mission, the Millennium Falcon and R2-D2, C-3PO, Luke and Leia escape. This is inconsistent, too, as Luke was at the Death Star II at the time of the battle and the Millennium Falcon and the multiple X-Wings and Y-Wings seen on the mission were fighting against the Imperial Fleet.

Credits

Appearances





Bibliography

Notes and references

↑ An alternate, "what-if" scenario that shows what could have happened if Gungans had won the Battle of the Great Grass Plains

Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Heaven - A site were you can download and upload maps, mods, and utilities for free.

