“Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption” is an expansion of the base game of “Star Wars: Empire at War” that was released 2006 and created by Petroglyph Games and published by Lucas Arts.

Being almost 12 years old, the base game has held up considerably well.

You can reign supreme as the strong imperial navy and hyperspace Star Destroyers into battle to quickly send rebel forces scurrying for safety. As the Rebel Alliance, you will use quick attacks and strategies to drive back imperial forces.

This game may be fun, but with modders creating almost entirely different games, it gets better.

I present to you the “Awakening of the Rebellion.”

“Awakening of the Rebellion,” created by Steiner Modding Group, takes place after the battle of Yavin 4 and the destruction of the first Death Star.

The empire has retreated to the core worlds to regroup. The Rebel Alliance revels in their victory, but not for long. A criminal organization known as the Black Sun have started becoming a real threat to the galaxy at large.

I have only been playing as the Rebel Alliance since I got the mod, and have yet to beat the game, but it is as challenging as it is fun.

Besides, the game is Star Wars and the creators made the ship models look fantastic.

There are three very wonderful reasons why I find this mod to be enjoyable albeit difficult to play:

First up is the way money in “Awakening of the Rebellion” is given out.

In the other mod that I have played for “Star Wars: Forces of Corruption,” you could buy up every build slot on a planet with spice mines to produce mountains of credits, and eventually, you have captured half the galaxy’s worlds, and you are quite literally earning more money than you can spend.

In “Awakening of the Rebellion,” Steiner Modding Group remedied this by giving planets a base income of credits, and that is it.

You can make a little more on the side by sending out smugglers to grab credits from your enemies, but that is about it. I’m not sure how much the Empire is earning, but it sure as hell is more than my puny rebels are getting.

Buying and pre-planning are very important. For instance, would you rather get that nice shiny Assault Dreadnought or buy up a factory and a couple of rebel camps to later build tanks and squads of rebel soldiers?

The choices made with currency in this game/mod are crucial and can mean a lot.

That leads me to my second reason for loving this mod: Losing ships almost physically hurts.

During a planetary siege, I could give less of a damn about losing rebel troopers or vehicles because they can be replaced quickly, and they are relatively inexpensive to recruit.

What I can’t stand to watch, however, is my beloved Mon Calamari Dauntless-Class Battleship be torn to pieces after just getting it.

Saving up for a mighty warship in this game is a terrible risk. On the one hand, getting the ship will improve your chances of winning a space battle. On another hand, you are not using credits to bolster your forces in cheaper and quicker ways.

On one more hand (I have three hands), once that ship is built there is no guarantee whatsoever that it will be able to last its first engagement with an enemy fleet. In the last mod I played, losing a ship just meant I had to left-click over the same ship icon a couple of times and I became better than before.

This game makes you feel like a real commander who, after a devastating loss, must reorganize the grand strategy and come up with a way to cope and still come out on top.

Having emotion after losing a ship keeps the game not stagnant and always interesting. Speaking of not stagnant and always interesting, did someone order a scary-smart artificial intelligence?

The base game of “Empire at War” is fun, and it does have its form of a challenge when dealing with the AI. Yes, the AI controls the imperial navy, but all it ever did was just send the most durable ships at you with no strategy until you or it lost the battle.

Steiner Modding Group has vastly improved upon the AI, and in doing so, they created the smart, deceitful little monster that makes “Awakening of the Rebellion” seem like a real war.

If I have intrigued you into considering buying the game “Empire at War: Forces of Corruption” and the “Awakening of the Rebellion” mod, you can find both on the Steam store.

I do recommend waiting until a Steam sale, but that won’t be long because Christmas season is coming up and I can almost guarantee that the game will be on a holiday Steam sale.