Line #4 YMMV/EmpireAtWar


1	* BaseBreakingCharacter: Tyber Zann is either a cool {{Chessmaster}} or an implausible InvincibleVillain.[[note]]Especially for repeatedly outsmarting Grand Admiral Thrawn, of all people--ex-student or not.[[/note]] The fact that his Consortium is a massive GameBreaker and that Disney inexplicably bothered to Canonize it (as it gets an off hand mention in ''VideoGame/StarWarsUprising'') doesn't help any cause.
2	* CompleteMonster: In the Imperial campaign, [[TheEmperor Emperor Palpatine]] and [[TheDragon Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin]] are as bad as ever. Tarkin is [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introduced]] enslaving the inhabitants of Geonosis in order to build the Death Star, killing several when they ally with the Rebels to [[MakeAnExampleOfThem make examples of the survivors]]. When several of the Wookiee slaves on Kashyyyk start revolting, Tarkin and Palpatine send forces to put the rebellion down so that the slaves can be worked to death. Palpatine goes on to personally torture a traitor to the Empire to death and slaughter or [[MindRape mentally torture]] hundreds of Bothans when he learns they assisted that particular traitor. When Princess Leia is captured, Tarkin destroys her home planet to demonstrate how powerful the Death Star is, proceeding to use the Star on the final Rebel strongholds upon Palpatine’s request, killing the remaining Rebels along with any species living on those planets.
3	* CrossesTheLineTwice: The Zann Consortium's Ewok Handlers. A unit that attacks with [[SuicideAttack suicide bombers]]? Disturbing. A unit that is a [[FanDisservice shirtless]] [[FatBastard fat man]] modeled after [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi Malakili]] carrying a bag of exploding teddy bear aliens when there are more practical artillery options for the Consortium? Incredibly absurd and hilarious.
4	* DemonicSpiders:
5	** Rancors are particularly dangerous in the base game on any difficulty. They are capable of destroying infantry platoons, most vehicles (the [=AT-AT=] is an exception) and even hero units in one swipe, and they have a lot of health. Chances are you'll lose a lot of units before you kill just one. On most Galactic Conquest ground maps that feature them (such as Tatooine, Ryloth and Fresia; sometimes, Imperial prisons may release them upon destruction instead of prisoners that the Rebels can recruit), there's usually just one or two of them to deal with and they'll usually be preoccupied with indigenous forces. However, they are at their most dangerous on Carida, especially for whatever side is invading the planet, as they have a cave that spawns them, and said cave is not too far from the first landing zone. Worse, the AI for unaligned indigenous units was incredibly aggressive in the base game, meaning that the rancors would be attacking you as soon as you've formed your attack force. Fortunately, in ''Forces of Corruption'', the attack power of rancors was sharply nerfed and they were made less aggressive. They still hit hard and take a lot of punishment, but they won't destroy nearly every other unit in one hit.
6	** On Hard Mode in Galactic Conquest (before access to Level 5 tech), Imperials tend to toss vast fleets of Broadside Cruisers, TIE Scouts and Victory-class Star Destroyers at you in the non-storyline battles. The former effectively renders fighter-support useless and are a constant threat to the space station until taken out, the middle ones are tossed at you to give the Broadsides a target, and the latter offers enough firepower to destroy any star-ship ship you can field at that point in the game, along with contingents of free Tie Fighters and Tie Bombers that do not take up any unit space. If you are not prepared, these fleets will rip you in two. Of course, on Easy Mode, this is subverted, and Rebel players will likely be amused to witness a mighty Imperial armada retreat with very few of their ships remaining, especially if the Imperial fleet was defeated using only a few garrisoned X-Wings and Y-Wings.
7	** On Hard Mode, the AI itself is capable of fielding a massive invasion fleet in no time at all, it's also granted free spaceships whenever they lose their primary fleets. Meaning any free space unoccupied by your units over a system they control will generate another fresh batch of space units for the AI in a blink of an eye; the higher the tech level, the better ships they get as replacements, even if they're down to two planets and you blew up their other space ship a minute ago! This also carries over to many mods however, which can quickly spiral out of control if they're granted free Game Breakers or massive dreadnoughts such as Super Star Destroyers.
8	* FridgeBrilliance:
9	** One may find it peculiar how Grand Admiral Thrawn's forces doesn't seem to hesitate on retreating from Zann in ''Forces of Corruption'' after being partially damaged. But as ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' shows, that's ''exactly'' what he would do in such a situation: unlike some other Imperial commanders, [[KnowWhenToFoldEm Thrawn knows the value of minimizing "setbacks"]].
10	** The Zann Consortium's best ships are based on never manufactured Imperial designs recovered from the wreck of the Death Star. Seems strange that the Empire wouldn't have them... Except Tarkin had plans to stage a coup after defeating the Rebels: he had hoarded the blueprints and planned to manufacture them to deal with Palpatine loyalists during and after the coup.
11	* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: A number of the Consortium Units have funny voicelines, with the best being those from Transport Ships (obtainable in Galactic Conquest by having ground units in orbit during a space battle) ordered to attack enemy warships.
12	* GameBreaker:
13	** In the original game the Empire had a moderate advantage over the Rebellion (mainly due to having two Force-users instead of one, not to mention the Death Star) but it wasn't until ''Forces of Corruption'' when things got out of hand, as they have the Death Star II, and just like in the movie, it has the ability to obliterate capital ships in a single shot, and the only way to destroy it was to use Rogue Squadron's special on the overworld map. (The original Death Star in [=EaW=] was pretty close in that it completely removed having to go through a land battle, though also removing that planet's special ability in the process.)
14	** The Zann Consortium in ''Forces of Corruption'' is a game breaking ''faction''. It has superior units across the board (with a simple upgrade, their basic infantry can easily kill the units they are originally weak against) and can even gain access to some of the best units of the other factions. Not to mention that their space units are even worse, thanks to such things as cloaking devices and mass drivers that ignore shields. Things then get even ''more'' broken in Galactic Conquest mode, as they don't play by the same rules as the other factions: they can build all of their units from the start without needing to unlock them (although their special abilities must be bought), the palace is more effective at gathering credits than the mining facilities of other factions, and they start with all hero units available, all of which ''can't be detected by enemies on the overworld''. You can simply gather the hero units and stage ground invasions to conquer world after world effortlessly, as they're likely to only have a few infantry units to start with.
15	** The final mission of [=FoC=]'s campaign [[spoiler: gave the player command of the ''Eclipse'', which was basically a Death Star II shrunk down onto a Super Star Destroyer frame. Complete with a superlaser that, unlike the Death Star II, was capable of targeting and obliterating corvette-sized ships as well as anything bigger and recharges in no time at all. Even though in the campaign the ''Eclipse'' was still under construction and thus the superlaser was the ''only'' weapon available, there are game mods that give the player full access to the ''Eclipse'' in Galactic Conquest mode, complete with full armament]].
16	* GoddamnedBats:
17	** On Polus, the native Pyn'Gani are armed with ion blasters that not only damage, but can immobilize your infantry and vehicles for a few seconds. While not the most dangerous indigenous units in the game, they can take a long time to kill and destroy their dwellings because of their weapon of choice.
18	** Civilians are a pain in the ass if they're opposed to you. They can take reinforcement points, build pads and are an infinite supply of cannon fodder that can bog down your troops and give the enemy a chance to hit you with something harder in the meantime
19	* GoodBadBugs:
20	** In the Imperial campaign, [[spoiler:Moff Kalast's Star Destroyer is programmed to escape Azterri the first time you fight him, and then it will appear over a random world under rebel control. However, if the player conquers every world, including Azterri, Kalast's Star Destroyer will appear over Coruscant. If the player tries to arrest him, any space station the player constructed there changes to rebel control, inadvertently making the mission harder by varying orders of magnitude based on what level the space station was.]]
21	** One particular bug made ''Forces of Corruption'' even ''more'' broken in the Empire's favor: in the retail version of the expansion, hero units were not counted against the unit cap in any given space battle. That led to the infamous Imperial Death Squadron stack, where an Imperial fleet could consist of Grand Admiral Thrawn and Captain Piett (both are Star Destroyers with special abilities), the ''Arc Hammer'' (a factory ship with ''Victory''-Star Destroyer specs), the Super Star Destroyer ''Executor'', and the Death Star II (which itself spawns a "garrison" of an Imperial Star Destroyer, two Victory Star Destroyers, and two Tartan Patrol Cruisers). And since none of these affects the ship-cap, you can send a full-size fleet along with them, and every ship listed above will appear on a battle map at once. The utterly gargantuan firepower advantage such a fleet boasts is boosted still further by the absolute clouds of TIES it spawns and the Death Star II's superlaser. Bonus points if your fleet consists of nothing but Imperial Star Destroyers (with the resulting task force having ''eight'' Imperial Star Destroyers total)
22	* HarsherInHindsight: Go [[HarsherInHindsight/StarWarsLegends here]].
23	* HilariousInHindsight: Go [[HilariousInHindsight/StarWarsLegends here]].
24	* MagnificentBastard: [[DiabolicalMastermind Tyber Zann]], once the most capable student at the Imperial Academy on Carida, before they had him expelled for exploiting his position to run a smuggling trade as a side job. The expansion describes how Zann carves out a criminal empire: [[TheSyndicate the Zann Consortium]], that rivals that of Jabba the Hutt and manipulates Darth Vader himself into executing Xizor, the leader of a rival syndicate, for him. While Grand Admiral Thrawn is able to outwit Zann at least once by bribing a mercenary in Zann's employ, Zann comes out on top in that battle, forcing Thrawn to flee. At the end of the campaign, Zann [[PlayingBothSides plays the Empire and the Rebellion]] against one another while he moves in to capture the most powerful ship in the Empire's arsenal--as far as he knows at the time--turning its powerful weapons against both fleets. For the record, the part where Thrawn is able to outwit Zann by bribing Bossk into giving him Zann's holocron was also planned by Zann. Zann planted a homing beacon on the artifact to lead him to his true goal: the Imperial Archives. Thrawn firmly believed that the fleet he left to defeat Zann would easily win. Zann surprised him by bring out his newest Aggressor-class Star Destroyers and obliterating the force Thrawn left.
25	* NightmareFuel: IG-88's [[TheVirus infection shot]] ability from ''Forces of Corruption''. He infects enemy infantry with a virus that slowly saps their health and can be spread, and it doesn't discriminate between factions. What's worse is that you can hear the infected cough as they take damage and once they run out of health, [[NauseaFuel they'll decompose into a sickly-looking puddle]].
26	* ObviousBeta: ''Forces of Corruption'' was released with a number of bugs, most notably the enemy fleet approaching sound being a voice saying "Ysalamiri Cage Constructing". While a patch was released that fixed the most glaring issues, a number of which were never fixed. The "Barrage" ability from the original game is broken, firing projectiles in a line instead of in an area. Some of the special fighting animations between heroes from the original game no longer play, and a number of other visual and audio bugs linger. Given that it was released a mere 8 months after the original game, one gets the impression that it was rushed out.
27	* ScrappyMechanic:
28	** '''Ground battles.'''The unit cap is small, most of the units are sluggish or incredibly fragile, there's no small amount of ArtificialStupidity among your own units, and they're a lot more tedious and less fun and unique than the space battles. There's a reason why despite the massive amount of mods that have been made of the game, mods that support ground battles are a lot less common (and are primarily the larger, game overhauling mods), and many battles are won in Galactic Conquest (where every planet you might want needs to be invaded on-foot) by abusing the "auto-resolve" feature. Probably the biggest reason the Death Star units are useful is that they can simply skip the task of invading a planet altogether, for [[EarthShatteringKaboom obvious reasons.]]
29	** There's a reason almost every single ''Empire at War'' mod either disables Corruption or nerfs it in some form. It's incredibly broken to the side that manages it - it allows for negative effects to be applied on the opponents or positive effects on the Consortium player with impunity (including giving the ability to destroy the enemy's structures), the AI will constantly spam it, and it can only be removed with select heroes. It is especially brutal as the Empire, as they only have three heroes to remove corruption and two of them (Vader and Thrawn) are late game heroes.

Context YMMV / EmpireAtWar