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Introduction:

Imperium Galactica was a game I grew up with as a child. After discovering it 
at age 8 in 1998 it quickly became my favorite game. In part due to my parent's 
superstition that games corrupted computer files, the very occasional periods 
where I could borrow it from my friend, and due to it's very dodgy programming 
the game often didn't want to cooperate between 1999 and 2009. I eventually 
forgot about it until I fashioned a real life DOS box and bought the game off 
Ebay. I managed to rig it where it would run on my Windows 7 
computer with Dosbox 0.74. This is the version/format I found to work the best, 
better even than the 0.6x version of Dosbox that they recommend due to the 
built in CPU throttling. This is the version the walkthrough was written and 
variations from playing in the actual DOS operating system are minimal. For 
those who are wondering I did patch the game.

I'm writing this FAQ because the only complete one I can find on GameFAQs or 
other sites is horrendously out of date with lots of bloating information. The 
stats of a Laser vs. a Pulse Laser and what the research requirements of the 
Fusion Projector are are currently beyond the scope of this FAQ and frankly 
irrelevant as all that information is easily obtainable in the game for anyone 
at the point where it would actually be relevant. What I discuss are tactics, a 
basic walkthrough of the earlier ranks, and more advanced techniques. This FAQ 
is aimed at people both new to and veterans of Imperium Galactica. I wrote the 
guide while playing the game through three times; once on Hard and twice on 
Normal, so they read like a collection of notes and thoughts on the various 
issues that come into play with each rank.

If you're wondering why I'm doing this now when the game has been forgotten for 
so long it's due partly to childhood nostalgia for a game that even modern RTS 
gamers must admit is strikingly good for a DOS game, and partly because the 
game is not forgotten. Open IG, an open source version of Imperium Galactica, 
is in development currently and over the past year has surprisingly not 
descended into development hell. With this in the works I hope to get a 
polished walkthrough out that might be added on to once Open IG gets released.

Contents:

Walkthrough:

LI1: Lieutenant
CA1: Captain
CO1: Commander 
AD1: Admiral
GR1: Grand Admiral

Random Tips:

LI2: Lieutenant
CA2: Captain
CO2: Commander
AD2: Admiral
GR2: Grand Admiral

Contact/Legal

Walkthrough:

LI1: Lieutenant:

You start off the game as the lowest rank, Lieutenant. Your goals are humble; 
listen to goofy messages and keep your colonies happy. The first pressing 
matter is Achilles, a planet on which every building is severely damaged. In 
addition it is missing a Colony Hub. You may notice it is impossible to build 
any additional buildings until the hub is rebuilt so go ahead and demolish 
everything except the Nuclear Plant and the Military Spaceport. You may also 
wish to keep the Radar Telescope. Build the Colony Hub and repair the remaining
buildings. The Military Spaceport takes a very long time to repair and is quite 
expensive but it's much cheaper and much faster than building one from scratch 
(buildings only need to be at 49% to still be functional so feel free to stop 
repairing at that point). While things are building take your extra cash and 
look around the other two colonies, San Sterling and Naxos.

San Sterling is a pain in the ass of a planet. It's far too small and too 
cluttered to be of much use as far as production buildings go (we'll get to 
that later), so for the time being build a Hydroponic Food Farm. Naxos is a 
very different story, it's wide open and an Earth-type planet with plenty of 
production and tax potential. This colony needs a Hydroponic Food Farm as well.

If you've been playing for any length of time you've likely seen a little 
message telling you to help a ship under attack by pirates. Attack the pirate 
ships and engage the enemies as they come. The pirate battles are relatively 
easy, at most a few fighters or a destroyer. To make these battles even more 
one-sided you have a Light Shield in your inventory that the game doesn't tell 
you about. Equip it to your fleet by moving them near Achilles as soon as the 
Military Spaceport is functioning. Traders' Spaceports are fantastic long term 
investments for your colonies, each increases your daily income by 600. Adding 
a bank to a colony with a Traders' Spaceport will double the spaceports' income
so it's a good idea as well. Do this if you find yourself with any extra cash.

About half way through the rank your Colonel will call telling you to escort a
ship. Follow the ship with the move command and eventually some pirates will 
attack. This is nothing to worry about and is exactly like every other pirate 
attack. It is however a good point to start getting your ducks in a row for the
next rank. Make sure all your buildings are repaired, get your spaceports and 
banks built if you can, and try to keep the colonists happy. After this the 
Governor of Naxos will call explaining that three pirates are fighting near the
planet. The governor will refer to it as a "major battle", thus setting a new 
galactic record for exaggeration. Go there and save the rebel pirate's life. A
few minor hassles later and you'll receive a message saying that Admiral Mark 
Tullen wants to speak with you on the Thorin. This is the final mission of the 
rank.

Basically all you have to do is fight a fleet of aliens, they're very similar 
to the pirates but attack in force. On the message screen click Send and ask 
the Colonel for reinforcements. The stingy tight ass usually doesn't give in 
but in this case he is persuaded to part with 3 fighters and hey, free stuff is
free stuff. Get all your planets ready and engage the aliens. You may notice 
some pirate ships on your side. If you helped the pirate rebel they were his 
doing. Make sure to use them to protect your own fleet as after this engagement
they will be gone.

CA1: Captain:

Captain grants you the power of two more planets, the Production menu, and a 
cruiser as well as a few more fighters. This rank lasts longer and is a bit 
tougher as, like anything else in Imperium Galactica, you get broadsided with 
every event. Some would call this "realistic" but I just call it "ridiculous". 
Either way it's trial and error unless you have a guide, which now you do. 
Basically, as soon as the man with the hilarious voice tells you to "recapture"
Achilles, PAUSE THE GAME. The Garthogs have not attacked the planet yet and you
can give yourself a bit of a boost before the ground battle. Just use the 
Equipment screen to remove two Light Tanks from any other planet and place them
on Achilles, they are well worth it. When the ground battle begins place them 
near the Nuclear Plant as all aliens love to take out the power plants. There 
is a reason for this: if you have any ground defense buildings or Fire Brigades
they will power down if the plants are destroyed. Ground battles are pretty 
straight forward, just destroy the enemy vehicles, indicated as red on the 
radar. With any luck you should be able to defeat them without losing a tank.

Once the Garthogs lose take a moment to evaluate your colonies. New Caroline 
has an A.I. Dev. Centre which is unnecessary at this point in the game and 
brings in a good chunk of cash so go ahead and delete it. If you feel confident
in your defensive abilities the Barracks can go as well. Repair the rest. 
Centronom has a Computer Dev. Centre which is equally useless. The Military 
Spaceport however is not, keep it. You may want to use the free cash to build 
additional Traders' Spaceports, Banks, and to consolidate building space by 
turning Prefab Housing into Arcologies.

After all this is dealt with it's time to take stock on the mission objective. 
Basically it's the same as Lieutenant; keep things in shape. This is however 
much tougher if you don't know what's coming and don't know exactly what to do.
Things to keep in mind are:

- Production requires massive resources to perform, both in actually making the
items and in building the Equipment, Weapon, and Spaceship Factories necessary
to build them/build them quickly. Don't invest in your fleet until your
colonies are in ship shape (lol puns).

- Happy colonists = more money. The higher your tax morale the higher your 
income regardless of settings (don't use Demanding or Oppressive unless you're
bumping into the 80-90% region or the morale will drop like a rock). This means
stuff like Churches and Bars pay for themselves over time.

- Keep the lights on, make sure you build additional power plants on any colony
that has it's Power in the yellow. Yellow power means the buildings aren't 
operating at 100% efficiency.

You will still get the occasional pirate attack but they are less frequent now. 
They are much more powerful though so be sure to keep your fleet safe. This can
be hard since the game starts to use cheap tactics like Destroyer 1s with 
missiles. Most of your problems at this stage will be larger and scripted. 
Shortly after making Captain, Dr. Kathrine will have a test for you on the 
bridge. Answer the questions as such:

Q1: I am always confident in relationships.
Q2: Based upon logical deductions.
Q3: Yes.
Q4: Never.
Q5: Nothing compares to a well authored poem.
Q6: Always.
Q7: Responsible.
Q8: Only in extenuating circumstances.

Basically if you fill it out like you would one of those damnable online 
application questionnaires then you'll be fine. Answer like a twit though and
you'll lose the game. By now you should have a Traders' Spaceport on every 
colony, if you don't make that a priority as well as building banks. It's time
to worry about making your colonists happy. Ideally you should have at least 
one of every morale-boosting building on a planet but in some cases this simply
isn't possible. Also, since income is still limited and you only have access to
Nuclear Plants it may be a good idea to only do the basics. Police Stations and
Churches get big bonuses so be sure to use them first. Also, if you have some 
extra scratch look into building an Equipment, Weapon, and Spaceship Factory. 
You need at least one of each to produce everything on the Production menu.

Eventually San Sterling will call complaining about a smugger. This basically
means attack all the red blinking ships, forcing them to turn around at the 
point of a bayonet. After some time an Unknown ship will appear. Either get 
this one to turn tail and run or wax it, it doesn't matter. Contrary to what 
the governor says it does not arrive within 24 hours so get back to colony 
building in the meantime. Before the smuggler arrives Dante will have a dream,
this is a little side story and is pretty interesting if you follow up on it. 
You can do so by visiting the Local after each dream and following the 
suggestions of the crew members.

A few days later the Governor of Centronom will arrive, heading to Naxos. While
you have to escort him nothing actually happens which makes me wonder why it's 
an event in the first place. Once again this could be "realistic" in that not 
every ship that sets off actually gets attacked but who knows. Anyway, try to 
get a Weapon Factory built to fully equip your fleet. Adding as many lasers as 
your ships can hold increases their damage. You can also use it to build more 
Light Tanks if you want. Within no time a planet will be attacked by the 
Garthogs again. This planet is chosen at random and while New Caroline is the 
easiest to defend (unless you destroyed the Barracks) it's doable with only 8 
tanks. In this fight you'll be against Medium Tanks which are significantly 
stronger, just make sure you attack them first as they aren't hard to kill. 
Chances are they'll take out a nuke plant but just replace it. If it was on New
Caroline or Naxos, consider a Fusion plant as an alternative.

New Caroline will then call with a virus infection. This always struck me as 
the most annoying mission. It plays out the same way as the San Sterling 
smuggler but with a twist. As soon as you get the message click on Send and 
tell the Colonel. If you don't know to do this the infection will last a very 
long time and will become recurring. Attack the trade ships and don't take any
of their back talk, just get them turned around. Eventually the virus carriers
will be identified and you can pick them off. This also gets you a nice set of
Hubble 2s on San Sterling and Naxos. It's interesting to note that even if you
don't report the infection and it goes away, you can still report it later on
before the next infection wave.

By now you probably want to build things for your fleet. A Radar Array is a 
good idea for your Cruiser 1, as is about 5 laser cannons for your cruiser and
old destroyer. A Radar Car is also a good choice to prepare for Commander rank,
just don't deploy it on any planets. Mostly you should worry about two very 
important things: colony protection and income. By now you should have all your
colonies with Traders' Spaceports and Banks as well as at least one of each 
production building between them. The time has come to build Ion Projectors. 
These are pricy at 10,000 credits a pop but try to get all five built on 
Achilles. Doing so will make the final mission much easier. Once Achilles is 
covered scatter these projectors around on all the planets.

Admiral Benson will soon be on his way to New Caroline. Escort him and wait for 
the attack. You will be assaulted by a fleet of Garthogs containing a flagship 
so be sure to ask for reinforcements. The flagship you have contains missiles 
so use them to dismantle a destroyer or some fighters. Let the flagship tank as
many ships as possible as it won't join your fleet afterwards. After the battle
(or before if you're fast enough) build enough equipment to supply your new 
destroyer and get back to building Ion Projectors.

If you didn't tell the Colonel about the virus on New Caroline this is when the
new strain will strike. It's the same song and dance as before so quarantine 
the planet and build Hospitals as necessary. This time though be sure to report
it. Attack the virus transport when it appears. Around this time you should 
also begin to suspect a spy is on the ship, so you should check back at the bar
for new information and another laughable stereotype. When you destroy the 
transports tell the colonel.

The rank is in the home stretch now and you're going to want to make some final
preparations. After all the planets are armed with five Ion Projectors each 
start thinking about your space battle strategy. You'll be fighting a large 
fleet with missile launching destroyers and flagships. If you build lots of 
fighters you'll have plenty of lasers flying but if you have lots of destroyers
you'll be able to endure a few of those missiles. Either way works and neither 
is entirely necessary so skip ship production if you think your current fleet 
can handle it.

An armed transport (it's not actually armed) will come through and it's your 
job to make sure it doesn't get bumped off. I haven't the foggiest why paper 
money exists in the year 3427 but it does. Anyway this is standard fare, expect
an engagement in space near San Sterling. If you have Ion Projectors built they
will come in handy.

Finally you will be prompted to recover a stolen prototype. This is the final 
mission of the rank so pull your fleet in to Achilles. The Garthog fleet moves 
slowly so take this time to prepare whatever you need for a major battle. 
Engage the enemy when they are very close to the planet. When the battle starts
pull all your ships back towards the cannons and let them do the brunt of the 
work. The Garthogs will attack one by one so you shouldn't have any trouble 
except for the missiles. Win this battle and you get promoted to Commander.

CO1: Commander:

You now have control over the colony on Zeuson as well as access to the 
Research menu. Your objective here is to take over all Garthog planets. 
Assuming you built your cannons up on the planets you already had the Garthogs
shouldn't stand a chance of taking your planets. Build up Zeuson and begin 
constructing the necessary development centers needed to research the various 
things on the menu. Only a few will be doable right now by mix and matching the
development centers on the colonies but it should be enough to get you caught 
up with the Garthogs, at least for the most part. When researching be sure to 
add as much money as possible to the development project, that way it finishes 
quickly.

You should have plenty of time to research things, get your new colony 
organized, and get your Orbital Factory made (for flagship production) before 
the first mission starts. Eventually you will be asked to blockade Zeuson. This
is sort of a phantom request as none of the trader ships actually flash red, 
indicating they are not targets. Just sit and wait for the Alliance of Free 
Traders' ship to appear and take out the destroyer in it's midst. Once this is
done a cut scene will play and you're off the hook for a while. Hooray!

Try to research and produce as much as you can before starting your invasions. 
This includes necessities like the Solar Plant and Medium Tank. If you built a
Radar Car put it in your fleet. After a while a scripted message will come 
about an attack on a colony. Do a sit rep request to figure out which one it 
actually is (the message header is lying usually) and defend that planet if 
it's defenses aren't up to snuff. After this event a prototype of a Destroyer 2
will need to be escorted. I guess they didn't give up development after the 
Garthogs stole the first one. Escort it and you will gain a Destroyer 2.

This is a good time to pay attention to factories. Build as many as your 
colonies allow except on San Sterling which won't have the extra space. These 
suckers are expensive, take a lot of manpower, and suck up a lot of  juice. You
need full power to maximize operating capacity so make sure those Solar and 
Fusion Plants are in place. When dealing with your fleet make sure all your 
flagships are running Pulse Lasers and have Cargo Pods attached. Throw some 
Destroyer 2s and Cruiser 1s in there for good measure. Once all 3 flagships are
produced and equipped, regardless of the rest of your fleet, throw all your 
ground forces on them and attack Garthog 1.

Garthog 1 is the second strongest military planet the Garthogs have and you 
need to take it out early. With any luck you should have no trouble penetrating
their defenses with careful use of your bombs. Place your units and let the 
enemy come to you. If you mostly used Light and Medium Tanks then you won't 
stand much of a chance of taking the planet the first run. You will however put
a serious hole in their defenses. If you fail just retreat to Achilles, restock
with whatever is left, and attack again before they can rebuild their cannons. 
As soon as the colony is taken set it's tax settings to Very Low and build Ion
Projectors. If it doesn't have one, build a Police Station or two.

Thus begins your rampage of the Garthog worlds. Give them no quarter and attack
Garthog 2 and 3 as quickly as you can reequip your fleet. Don't worry about 
research for now but make sure you're constantly building Medium Tanks and 
bombs. Add a Spy Satellite on Garthog 5 to be able to attack it. Once the four
planets are taken you'll have more than enough colonies to finish your research.
In your time on the alien colonies you may have noticed they're very limited in
what can be built. Police Stations are your only morale-boosting building and 
Nuclear Plants the only source of power. Fortunately these have smaller 
footprints so have at least two Police Stations on the alien worlds for income
support.

Main technologies to look at here are the Rocket Sled, the Plasma Projector, 
and the Inversion Shield. The former makes colony attacks ridiculously one 
sided, the latter two make your colonies stand a better chance against the 
aliens in Admiral. As soon as you get them be sure to fit every colony with 
them. When your research is completed and you've run out of funds/fitted every
colony, attack Garthog 4. It's going to be a harder battle in space and on the
ground than the other planets. If you run out of light tanks attack as soon as
you've stocked up on reserves. This planet may present you with a choice 
depending on how the Garthog fleet is positioned:

- If you attacked Garthog 5 while the main Garthog fleet was in transit you can
take Garthog 4 without having to fight the main fleet. This will save you 
considerable time and fleet preparation.

- On the other hand, waiting while you build your fleet gives you a chance to 
amass some credits for the next rank, finish filling out your colonial defenses,
and refit your fleet with full Rocket Sleds.

Both options have their ups and downs and both will prove highly effective ways
of getting to the Admiral rank. For the sake of the FAQ I'm going to assume you
took the longer route and built every conceivable factory and projector and 
shield on your colonies and built your fleet up before attacking the main 
Garthog fleet. When you engage it it should be a one sided battle but expect 
casualties, especially fighters. The Garthogs will be near their planet so 
they'll have the advantage of Ion Projectors and possibly Plasma Projectors so 
stay away from those. If you attack the planet with Rocket Sleds what will 
become immediately apparent is their splash damage. This is the reason they're
superior to pretty much every other form of ground force. The bad news is when
it comes to attacking buildings and those damn Radar Cars they hit everything 
BUT their target since their rockets are blocked by other buildings and terrain
features. For this reason I like to bring along a few strong tanks. Regardless,
once you capture the planet you will attain the rank of Admiral.

AD1: Admiral:

In Admiral rank you learn that basically all that research you did in Commander
was moot. The alien races have much more powerful weapons at their disposal. 
The good news is you can now competently play catch up. What you get is the 
remainder of the old empire, that is four extra planets all of which are either
ridiculously or under developed. Spend some time patching them up and don't 
forget about Garthog 4. You should have all the dev. centers needed to start 
researching the Colonization Ship. Do so A.S.A.P. When it finishes researching
bang out about 5.

Begin colonizing planets. Colonization and rapid research are sure to drain 
your money pool very quickly so after about 5 colonies have been grabbed take a
breather to recover your lost funds and make use of those new planets with dev.
centers. What you should do now is invest in research. Upgrading your colony 
guns and shields to Fusion Projectors and Hyper Shields gives you a huge edge 
against the aliens that are (or will be soon) attacking you almost constantly.
Fortunately those Plasma Projectors you added should keep your plants yours 
until you can upgrade them but even Fusion Projectors aren't a 100% guarantee.

With about 20 planets or so under your belt you shouldn't have any trouble 
researching just about everything the Admiral rank has to offer. Once you get
the weapons researched though you have a few choices:

- Reequip your existing fleet with all new weaponry. Commander rank ships can 
still be lethal if given the proper firepower (especially Destroyer 2s). You 
will want to switch your flagships out for Flagship 2s as they carry more 
ground forces but other than that the original ships can stay. Put Neutron Guns
on all your Cruiser 1s and U.V. Pulse Lasers on your Destroyer 2s.

- Get entirely new ships. The Destroyer 3 an the Cruiser 2 are powerful weapons,
the latter of which mainly due to it's tougher shields. Destroyer 3s are quick
to make and can tear enemies to pieces.

- Sit on your ass. This is a valid strategy as the other aliens are still alive
and kicking, attacking your planets. Eventually the Dargslan will beat them 
into submission which means when you get to Grand Admiral you will only have to
worry about one enemy instead of four or five. The bad news is this means you 
likely have to conquer every single planet to win, which if you blaze through 
the ranks can be avoidable.

If you decide to sit and bolster your forces then do so until you stop getting 
attacked. If you decide to start sacking alien colonies then start with the 
weakest ones first, namely the Morgath and Ychoms. When you get 25 planets the 
Dargslan will see you as a threat and attack with no warning. It's been 
speculated that a certain amount of time will pass before the Dargslan attack 
you but I was attacked just after colonizing my 25th planet and it seems too 
much of a coincidence for it to be timing. At any rate the Dargslan will kick 
the planet's ass unless you have some serious defenses both in space and on the
ground. This launches you into Grand Admiral.

GR1: Grand Admiral:

This is the final rank with no real objectives, just like Admiral. Everything 
is at your disposal and you get access to the Diplomacy screen which, all 
things considered, isn't very useful. Try to get Meson Projectors, Flagship 3s, 
and Cruiser 3s researched as quickly as possible. The Meson Projectors should 
keep your planets safe from even the Dargslan fleets if you play them right. 
The flagships will allow you to hold the maximum amount of ground forces, and 
the cruisers have insane weaponry with bombs and missiles. If the Dargslan take
any planets just take them right back and keep at your research and production. 
When you take over the last Dargslan planet you win the game.

If other races are still alive it'd be a good idea to become buddies with them 
if for no other reason to keep them off your back. None of them will stand a 
real chance against the Dargslan but races like the Eclaps and the Sulleps 
should survive longer than others, and those can be a major pain should they 
find you an enemy.

Random Tips:

LI2: Lieutenant:

Lieutenant rank doesn't really have a lot of tips considering it's so 
straightforward. The only things I can suggest are modifications to the 
colonies and orders of operation.

 - I highly suggest only repairing what is absolutely necessary at this point 
in the game. You should really be demolishing all the unimportant buildings on 
Achilles, that is, leaving only the Nuclear Power Plant, Radar Telescope, 
Military Spaceport, and Fire Brigade. Getting the Fire Brigade to 49%, and then
letting it work on all the other buildings is a good idea because it will 
repair them for free to an operational level. Repairing the Nuclear Plant to 
full is also a good idea because it maximizes the power output.

 - At your financial discretion, remove the Prefab Housing and replace them 
with Arcologies. This may not be a wise decision but it will save time and 
effort later if you find yourself with the spare money.

 - Remove tanks from San Sterling or Naxos and put them on Achilles in 
preparation for Captain.

CA2: Captain:

Captain rank offers a bit more freedom so this tips section is definitely worth 
a look. This is where strategies will start to diverge.

 - If you want to raise money fast you can begin building a tax base instead of 
throwing Ion Projectors on every single colony. Do this by adding Police 
Stations and other morale-boosting buildings.

 - Defense is like Vegemite; it's only good if you spread it thick. Having one 
Ion Projector on a colony isn't gonna do Jack, three or more are necessary to 
repel a Garthog fleet. Similarly, having a Barracks is a good idea but not 
fully utilized unless you add the extra vehicles to the planet. Keep this in 
mind when deciding on how to build your defenses.

 - As with Lieutenant, think hard about what you want to keep and what you want 
to destroy. The Recreation Centre on New Caroline is a good way to boost tax 
income, but demolishing it is a short term cash boost. Also, having a Military 
Spaceport on Centronom, so close so the one on Achilles, may be frivolous 
considering they bring in a lot of money.

 - Although it is ultimately a matter of opinion, building a fleet is rather 
unwise unless you have all your colony matters settled first as the missiles 
the Garthogs will launch are likely to rip it apart. Your colony building 
however will endure into the next rank almost unscathed.

CO2: Commander:

 - You don't have to attack the Garthog planets in any particular order, the 
one I outlined is entirely personal preference. Keep in mind the longer you 
play the better defended all the planets become, so in whichever order you take 
them try to keep momentum going.

 - Exterior 14, how controversial. Should you take it or leave it be? The gains 
could be enormous; the addition of an extra planet and the stolen technology of 
the Fortress. On the other hand the far superior Morgath shall attack you at 
every turn, and even with Plasma Projectors they're hard to repel. Plus, the 
planet itself is a tough nut to crack. So, what to do? This tactic is only for 
the bold and preferably experienced. If your economy is well founded and your 
planets amply defended then you can take a shot at it. A possibility would be 
to create an entirely new fleet just incase the planet defenses rip your main 
one apart. I'd wait until the Garthogs are on the ropes and you have plenty of 
bombs and Rocket Sleds. Furthermore, only attempt to take the planet if you are 
planning on doing a ground-based defense in Admiral. If not, then Fortresses 
really won't be a priority and certainly won't be worth getting the Morgath mad 
early.

 - If you freeze the game, fire a bomb, unfreeze and quickly refreeze, fire 
another, unfreeze and quickly refreeze... you get the idea, you can fire bombs 
really fast. This gives more bombs a better chance of hitting their target 
without getting shot down.

 - Fighters are your best disposable friends. Build many and keep your fleet 
fully stocked as a full fighter brigade can easily dismantle space bases and 
projectors alike. Their effectiveness grows significantly as you advance in the 
ranks and unlock Fighter 5 and 6 but even now they are the best way to keep 
your destroyers and cruisers in top shape.

 - Don't fire missiles at space bases and enemy flagships, their ECMs will send 
them flying back at you.

 - The Ychoms have Fusion Projectors and Space Base 2s at their disposal, do 
not trifle with them.

 - Instead of adding all the left over Light Tanks to your fleet you could sell 
them. Unless you're strapped for cash I wouldn't recommend this as they make 
great shock troops for softening up the enemy.

 - The Garthogs took my planet, wat do!? Don't panic. They can't build defenses 
any faster than you can, just fill your fleet with what you have and turn off 
nearby radars so the fleet hovering over the planet disappears. Then attack 
quickly to reclaim it. You shouldn't run into more than a few fighters in orbit 
and no more than 8 tanks on the ground.

AD2: Admiral:

 - Be wary of frequent alien attacks. Even if you manage to repel their fleets 
with planetary and orbital defenses, due to the *unique* way in which Imperium 
Galactica calculates damage, any structure that was even hinted at being hurt 
during the encounter will be critically wounded and require repair. In some 
cases the aliens will attack the same planet with such frequency that it will 
be impossible to rebuild before the next wave.

 - You'll notice a lot of the technology you gain access to says "upgraded from"
or "slower than" in the research description. You don't actually upgrade units 
to become the next tier, it's more to give you an image of the stuff you're 
researching. The majority of the technologies described as this are really not 
that great compared to their later counterparts.

 - Admiral rank is where the major differences between Normal and Hard modes 
are noticed. If in Normal mode the other races will apparently be more 
preoccupied with the Dargslan and less concerned with rapid expansion. In Hard 
mode even if you progressed quickly you will be hard pressed to find any 
available planets. I had luck finding some in the upper right corner of the 
Starmap but that was only three planets. Also, the enemy attacks combined with 
extremely powerful fleets compared to their counterparts in Normal mode will 
cause the game to slow to a grueling pace, with nearly every spare dime going 
towards rebuilding your colonies. I'd highly suggest you spend what you can 
reinforcing your tax base and getting your income as high as possible.

 - Completing all the research isn't necessary or even really warranted given 
the nature of the game at this point. For instance you don't need the Hubble 2 
and it has a strange pattern of dev. centers to research that don't fall in 
line with anything else. If you want it, fine, but it's not mandatory.

 - Although I mentioned reequipping your Commander fleet as an Admiral fleet in 
the other part of my FAQ I should point out that only applies to the destroyers 
and cruisers. You definitely want to upgrade your ground forces, flagships, and 
fighters. Fighter 4s and 5s are incredibly deadly even against reinforced 
Dargslan defenses.

 - It's important at this point to understand how weapons scale. Both lasers 
and guns have 4 levels, and they increase exponentially. A Laser has 5 power, 
Pulse has 10, UV has 20, and UV Pulse 40. Stacking them adds more, so 4 Lasers 
would be 20 power while 4 UV Pulse would be 160.

GR2: Grand Admiral

 - With all your additions in Admiral your tax base should have increased 
exponentially since Commander. All this increased income means you can spare no
expense in fortifying your planets and not have to worry about money. For 
instance, in addition to having Meson Projectors you could include the durable 
Space Base 3s on your planets, especially frequently attacked ones. Having a 
stockpile of about 100 of these isn't absurd towards the middle of the rank.

 - If you find you really want more money in a ridiculous way you could try 
killing off the population of an alien planet. It shouldn't be hard to figure 
out how to do this, just destroy all the buildings and jack the taxes up. Once 
done you can recolonize it as a Human planet. It takes a while and in the 
meantime will have an impact on your income but the new Human colony will, in 
the long run, produce more income.

Contact/Legal

You can contact me at "woohookittys@msn.com" with any suggestions or comments 
about the FAQ. Please include "IG" or "Imperium Galactica" somewhere in the 
subject. Please contact me before hosting this FAQ on a site other than 
www.gamefaqs.com, I'm usually pretty open to letting people use my material 
however.
Imperium Galactica is a trademark and copywrite 1997 of GT Interactive Software
Corporation. All other trademarks and copywrites are owned by their respective
holders.