Thrawn's Revenge - A mod for Star Wars, Empire at War

Other Changes

Tutorial

Thrawn’s Revenge includes a brief tutorial to explain several of the key new features introduced by the mod (all of which are also outlined in this manual).  You can access and play through the tutorial from the Galactic Conquest menu.

Additional Missions

At several points during Galactic Conquest scenarios you, the player, may be informed of specific missions by one of your heroes.  These missions can be completed or ignored as you desire, however you will normally receive a bonus for successfully completing them.  The available missions are as follows:

• In the Thrawn Campaign, Talon Karrde (for the New Republic), or Grand Admiral Thrawn (for the Imperial Remnant) may appear and direct you to take them, along with a suitably sized fleet, to a specific planetary location where you will encounter an opposing force attempting to salvage the Katana Fleet.

Note:  This mission will only be triggered after you capture Pantolomin (Imperial Remnant) or Myrkr (New Republic).

• In Reunification as the Imperial Remnant, you will be tasked with capturing specific enemy planets in order to gain more heroes and hero upgrades.  These include:  Colonel Cronus (Capture Odik II), Gilad Pellaeon (Capture Hakassi), and Knight Hammer (Capture Odik II to replace Admiral Daala’s flagship).
• In Final Imperial Push, The Art of War, and Essence of War, as the New Republic, Talon Karrde will invite you to upgrade the Errant Venture for Booster Terrick at the start of Era 5.  This will result in a fully-functional and upgraded Errant Venture, complete with custom red hull plating.

Planet Capture Bonuses

When you capture certain key planets, such as major shipyards or population centres, as the Imperial Remnant, New Republic or Empire of the Hand, you will be rewarded with some form of prize.  This will vary depending on the planet and the faction but may include captured units or structures that are added to your forces at that location.  You will always be informed of any additional bonus received and this is in addition to the standard credit bonus for capturing the planet.

Raid Fleets

Sometimes during space battles taking place within a Galactic Conquest scenario you may receive a warning message informing you of additional unidentified forces entering from hyperspace.  The third force will be unaffiliated with either faction already on the map and will target both fleets indiscriminately; it is up to you how you choose to deal with them.  Note:  The raid fleet is not brought from any force on the galactic map and will not be carried back across in the event of it winning the battle.

GC Introductions

When you begin a Galactic Conquest scenario you will now see your chosen faction’s logo (such as the Pentastar logo shown to the right) followed by a Star Wars text crawl with a brief outline of the current state of the galaxy.  This can be skipped by clicking or pressing any key.  After the text crawl has finished (or been skipped) your faction leader will introduce you to the scenario and outline your principal enemies, targets and objectives.

New GUI

Thrawn’s Revenge has replaced the vanilla interface with a custom-designed version created by Dr. Nick.  While the layout is substantially the same as vanilla, there are several minor differences, including the absence of a visible advisor, a modified Galactic Conquest selection screen and updated tech-trees for the playable factions.

Hero Deaths

Unlike in vanilla Empire at War heroes In Thrawn’s Revenge do not automatically respawn when they are killed.  This is to minimise the imbalance created by a large number of heroes, often accompanied by powerful ships or vehicles, regenerating at no cost to the player.  The exceptions to this rule are Skirmish mode, where the player buys, and can re-buy, heroes individually, and a few select cases in Galactic mode where a hero returns after a change in era (namely Admiral Ackbar, Admiral Daala and Grand Admiral Pellaeon).

Orbital Support for Ground Battles

In Thrawn’s Revenge the Bombing Run provides a faction with the ability to order precise attacks to devastate individual targets, such as a specific structure in the enemy base or a turbolaser installation, without the danger of causing too much collateral damage in the immediate surroundings.  To complement this surgical strike ability is the Planetary Bombardment which provides a larger and more indiscriminate attack option by launching a torrent of turbolaser fire over a large area, although individual targets are less likely to be hit.