Controls closely follow that of your traditional RTS, utilizing a left select right action scheme. By this, I mean that you will typically use your left mouse button to select a unit while right clicking will activate an action (right click a location and the unit will move there, right click an enemy and it will attack, etc). Some keyboard shortcuts I found handy, especially one in particular. Typically you will want to group the same type of units together (at least I do) for teams. Selecting units and pressing CTRL and a number will assign them all that number. Pressing that number selects all the units, making the control of waves in the battle pretty easy. Holding CTRL and selecting a unit will also highlight all other units of that type. This will prove itself to be very useful as you clamor to build your teams at the start of the battle and start kicking some Corellian butt.

Playing Empire at War , you will realize that there are two layers to the battles. One layer consists of your space battles, while one consists of your ground battles. First, let's look at your general mission map. You're given an overhead view of the galaxy with all the inhabitable planets highlighted and enlarged. Each planet is either controlled by you; you're enemy, or free to be taken over. Keeping track of planets which can easily be overtaken is very important as this is how your income is derived. No collecting raw materials for currency are used in this RTS. Each planet you overtake will add to your "daily" income (days are tracked by a progress bar on the HUD while in galaxy view). As a day passes, your bank will be increased by your total daily galactic worth. So, in this respect, planets with industrial resources will yield a larger amount of credits per day, while sparsely populated farming planets will mostly only serve as a stop off base or as a planet to hold up your spare ships.

Once you capture a planet, you should zoom in on it to see the details of what units are currently occupying it as well as what fleets are in orbit. From here you will be able to construct either space facilities or ships or by selecting another menu you can construct ground facilities and in turn ground units. Once your ground units are trained and built, it's easy to move them up into the fleet - just click and drag. Your troops are then loaded to that one fleet for you to cart about and spread your military might. Be careful as you transport your fleets, however. Space battles (covered shortly) and the damage you experience will also affect your cargo. The end of each battle will provide a summary for your review that will cover your losses, and this will include ground units that were in ships that were destroyed or in damaged cargo holds.

Space battles could conceivably be the best part of the game. If you drag and drop your fleet into a planet's orbit that is already occupied by an opposing force, the game will alert you to an imminent space battle. Your fleet will appear on the battlefield, up to the total amount of officers you currently can use. Yes, you have personnel limits. Don't fret, as you have the option to bring in reinforcements as you lose your fleet to the enemy. All you have to do is click the reinforcement's window and drag and drop your choice of ships from the rest of your fleet into the battlefield. They will hyperspace jump in and instantly become under your command. The larger ships come with squadrons of fighters that you can also individually command. Certain types of fighters have certain duties, but the default action of all squadrons seems to be protecting their Mothership.

Ground battles are a little less flavorful. You still have a large variety of units to choose from. The same officer limit applies which in turn keeps the reinforcements aspect. However, the reinforcements are more limited. Strategically placed throughout the map will be reinforcement points. You must capture these by having foot troops stand near it for a certain amount of time. Once it is under your flag, you can bring in a set number of unit's thought that particular point. Once this limit (usually five) is reached, it can no longer be used. This adds quite the motivation for keeping a strong presence around the map so you maintain control of these strategically critical locations. Also in the ground battles, some of the maps just feel the same. Still must say the crème de la crème of this game lies in the stars and their subsequent battles.

Trying to keep the business of war from becoming boring, Petroglyph gives you more than the campaign modes. Skirmish mode is available to tear up your favorite friend (or victim) in classic Star Wars style. A plethora of options are given to add flavor to the destruction, ranging from the tech available to your units to your starting credits to the maps used. The game even makes provisions for importing unofficial maps, which is a definite plus to anyone wanting to lengthen the playable lifespan of a game. Gameplay in the Skirmish modes is a bit different from the campaigns. No more does it matter getting to the planet after your space battle. No more does it matter what is going on with Endor while your forces attack Coruscant.

All that really matters, is managing your relatively limited income (increased by capturing mining stations strategically placed across the map) and pouring it into tech and units. The game can be set to allow victory for either the complete destruction of one player or the destruction of one player's starbase/landbase, so the length of the games will be your preference. Online support is there through xFire and LAN support is sufficient to make for an easy time getting your buddies together for a game or two. Besides the Skirmish there is also the Galactic Conquest mode. This features a variety of scenarios that are a form of mini-campaign. Seated halfway between the skirmishes and campaigns, Galactic Conquest simplifies a bit of the overwhelming size of the story by narrowing down the number of available planets. Rather than having to manage an entire galaxy, you're given one objective and a user-adjustable number of planets to accomplish that goal. This makes the overall experience more straightforward combat as opposed to large scale strategic maneuvering of forces. This will most likely be more appealing to those fans who love Command & Conquer style games where all that matters is the battle, not necessarily the whole war.