Early Game 4.0 Only
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These instructions are for playing on Spice(Normal) and should work on Kolto(Easy)
Focus initially on getting rid of the republic hardliners and imperial defectors in the area core first and then build economy focused buildings and get your economy running. After building the economy buildings you need to build a big fleet for aggression quickly. Lots of fighters, bombers and missile heavy frigates and a couple of Venators, maybe 3. You can start building Venators at Kuat and then you can acquire Cato Neimoidia and get another major shipyard built there if you need it. Then start consolidating the core worlds ASAP after building the fleet and while doing that start building corvette and bomber groups to use for defense of space stations that cannot get a Golan defensive emplacement yet.

DO NOT ADVANCE TECH LEVEL UNTIL YOU ARE SURE YOU ARE READY!!!!!!!!!

Fighting off the AI Early game: use bombers and missile heavy frigates and Venator ships and also protect the essential weapons on a Venator when using them. The Venators have the SPHAT and missile launcher on the front, if you destroy these with bombers or missile heavy frigates to penetrate the shields then you can essentially make then Venators useless in a fight, Immediately stop shooting at them and focus the next priority target. Control the bombers manually and keep them alive, hit shield gens and engines and missile launchers and special weapons. Also use Mara Jade to scout enemy fleets and planets before you engage. Also prioritize hangars as well so that once you kill the first wave of fighters from a ship or starbase then no more spawn, there are usually two waves from each hangar regardless of ship, faction or starbase except for the Starforge early game.

After controlling the Core Worlds
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Continue to build the economy and do not get too greedy. After consolidating the core worlds you need to start making Golan defensive emplacements at every choke point of your border and make a zone you can easily defend and make small rapid response fleets stationed where you keep getting attacked. The AI will keep probing your borders for weaknesses and will attack often. Fight the battles manually and use the above tactics early game and you can defend easily as long as you made Golan emplacements. Keep them upgraded and build the command station or uplik modules at the defensive points to later use orbital cannons in later game.

If you see a minor/major faction getting to big then make them fight you and then pull back to your defensive positions. Do not even keep the planets, make them rebuild and spend credits while you build ships.

Ground Battles and Ground Units
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Essentially it is very simple for ground units, keep a varied army of many different types of units and when fighting ground battles keep them all together supporting each other. You only need and Army of 10 regiments and only 5 different types early game to auto win ground battles with either no or minimal losses. Just replenish the armies as needed and advanced as needed.

Moving forwards into mid and late game
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Always build command centre module for fleet commanders and upgrading heroes at every major shipyard you use. Advance the tech level only when you are ready and have the economy to take advantage right away. Keep upgrading heroes ASAP, Darth Vader upgrades to a star destroyer at Tech lvl 2 at Kuat for 25000 and you do not have to really wait for hero upgrades, they are immediate almost and take all of the funds right then. Essentially maintain control evenly and expand evenly and you will not have problems.

I hope this guide helps everyone struggling early game with the Empire and I hoipe some of these tips help with the other factions as well.

Good luck everyone :)