Races:Trade Federation

The Trade Federation is a brutish and money-hungry civilisation who fields an impressive army of troopers, including mounted troopers, grenade troopers, anti-air troopers, mechs, heavy weapons and ships, capable of steamrolling through enemy lines. While their units are not sophisticated, they are undeniably effective. Mech units, including strike mechs, which are good anti-infantry units but poor against other mechs, are battle droids mounted on STAP hover bikes. Assault mechs, which are excellent against most other units, are large hover tanks. The Trade Federation receives all non-unique mech technology as well, boosting the effectiveness of their mechanised units. Heavy weapons, such as pummels, anti-air mobiles, and artillery, are powerful siege engines for destroying enemy camps from afar. The Trade Federation receives all such units and all upgrades. Anti-aircraft mobiles are especially useful for the Trade Federation, as they do not have a strong airforce to counter the starfighters of other civilisations. Combined together, these three unit types allow the Trade Federation to pack a potent punch on the ground.

The Trade Federation unique unit is the Destroyer Droid, a rolling ball of destruction with shields who unleashes dual laser fire produced at the fortress. Taking out infantry, mechs and heavy weapons, an army of Destroyer Droids could almost be considered overkill. A much more powerful version of the strike mech, it is ideal for dispatching infantry, heavy weapons and other mechs. It has hit-points, armour and range equivalent to a strike mech's. However, its attack is much stronger, especially when upgraded in the fourth tech level. Moreover, it has shields, which effectively doubles its hit-points, making it both more resilient and more deadly than any trooper or mech that the Trade Federation has. However, despite its ferocious power, it is nowhere near as hardy or strong as an assault mech and is also vulnerable to air units.

Surprisingly, the Trade Federation has a strong armada of ships. However, the Trade Federation is decidedly weak in the air and with the Sith. While they do receive all air units, they get hardly any of the upgrades, especially shields, leaving their air units at the mercy of Naboo and Rebel aircraft. They also get only Sit Apprentices and Sith Knights. They cannot recruit Masters or use any of the high-end Sith abilities, such as stealth, turning other Jedi and turning buildings and heavy weapons. Nor do they get faith in the Force, which gives your non-Jedi units a 50 percent resistance to turning. In essence, the Trade Federation is weak-minded and not only unschooled in the Force, but also vulnerable to its awesome power.
The Trade Federation relies heavily on their army of battle droids. This translates into a significant benefit - The Trade Federation does not need to build Prefab Shelters. While they still have limitations to its armies as other civilisations, they start off with the ability to build the maximum number of forces, without the need for Prefab Shelters. This is a huge advantage, as it saves the Trade Federation a huge amount of time and carbon, allowing a general to build up his forces quickly. However, the trade-off comes in the form of carbon collection. The Trade Federation has a heavy penalty in carbon mining, which is required for many, if not all, units, including troopers, mechs, heavy weapons, as well as just about all upgrades. The Trade Federation will thus gathers carbon 20 percent slower than any other civilisation and also begins with 25 less carbon. This is a major disadvantage that more than makes up for the benefit of not needing to construct Prefab Shelters, resulting in the Trade Federation being slow in building up its infrastructure.

As befits its name, the Trade Federation has a great deal of economic benefits. Their unique technologies help improve their resource gathering and building abilities. They have Fusion Extractor, which boosts their ore mining by 50 percent. This helps in the construction of a base's defences, as walls and turrets all require vast amounts of ore. However, it isn't crucial for the construction of battle droids. This advantage is clearly meant to give the Trade Federation good base defences. They also have the Neimoidian Endorsement, which reduces all building costs by 5 percent. Insider Trading reduces all research costs by 10 percent. Market Control eliminates all resource trading fees.

While the Federation definitely has its strengths in terms of reduced costs, defensive structures, naval forces, as well as in traditional ground units, it is, however, very weak in the air and the Sit. A general of the Trade Federation who neglects his anti-air defences and bounty hunters to counter the Jedi courts defeat.
For newly recruited generals, the Trade Federation is a very balanced civilisation. This civilisation doesn't make much use of the more sophisticated aspects of the game and relies instead on the traditional tactics of defence and superior ground forces. The complete divorce from Prefab Shelters will also be a welcome bonus to players who like to churn out an army of deadly droids without being stopped by the incessant urging to build more shelters. This makes the Trade Federation the perfect civilisation for a new general.