Dev Diary #40: Legacy of the Dark Troopers

What can you build with the new Imperial Droid Factory in the post-Endor era?

Welcome back to Age of Legends: The Essential Guide, the must-have players’ resource for mod’s 35,000+ players. This publication relies on paid subscriptions and reader donations. Thank you for making my content creation possible.

Greetings. This time we’re looking at a brand new ground structure available for the Galactic Empire: the Imperial Droid Factory.

In v1.34 every Imperial ground structure should provide a sufficiently varied range of build options as to furnish you with an entirely competent, independent army. You can follow an infantry, vehicle, aerial, droid, artillery or combined arms doctrine.

Today I want to focus on the droid doctrine. In the Expanded Universe the Empire dabbled in battle droid construction, firstly seizing ex-CIS assets in the aftermath of the Clone War, and then developing their own assets. The most famous of which were Rom Mohc’s Dark Troopers.

In lore the Empire never relied heavily on droid soldiers, but space units like the TIE Droid and the hybrid Shadow Droid fighter did play a part. As the Remnant lost access to thousands of worlds providing Stormtrooper and Army recruits, it faced a serious manpower shortage.

In the mod, you will now have the option to respond to that shortage by relying on droids for land combat. There are some very exciting options for players who want to crush the Rebels, or fend off the Yuuzhan Vong, with legions of automated Imperial droid units…

Imperial Droid Types

XR-37 Droid Tank

A multi-role tank droid first deployed before the Clone Wars. It is well equipped with a range of weapon-types, and able to engage vehicles and infantry. But it is relatively poorly armoured and vulnerable from the air.

XR-37s were frequently engaged by Rogue Squadron during the Galactic Civil War, and were commonly seen in the celebrated Rogue Squadron game for N64 and PC.