These combinations should be largely intuitive tanks crush infantry and artillery units decimate tanks, though there will be at least a few unique counterunit setups. You'll see this represented onscreen units firing on their favored enemies will kick up noticeably larger explosions-a clear visual cue that you're doing something right (or, if your units are getting hit by their counterunits, a clear cue that you need to change up your strategy quickly). Every unit in the game will have a "counterunit" that can defeat it easily (so there won't be any individual "superunits" you can churn out exclusively to win), but every unit in the game will also have a favored enemy unit it will be extremely effective against. As it turns out, the general idea behind combat between the game's various units goes a step beyond rock-paper-scissors. We were able to sit down with a skirmish map on the fertile soil of the doomed planet Alderaan, where Rebel forces were forced to defend themselves from an Imperial ground assault, complete with the huge walker armors first featured in The Empire Strikes Back. Maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but this here's an empire at war. At this year's E3 in May, LucasArts will also unveil more galactic map details as well as new information on hero units, including major heroes and minor heroes, who may join the Rebel Alliance or the Empire. Join us now for exclusive new updates on the game's galactic map, combat strategies, and more details on how you'll be able to wage war on terra firma from space. This ambitious strategy game from publisher LucasArts and developer Petroglyph (a Las Vegas studio composed of many members of the original Westwood Studios team that helped create the real-time strategy genre with Dune II and Command & Conquer) is looking better than ever. The biggest event in the entire game industry is fast approaching, and before E3 gets here, we wanted to be sure to take an updated look at Star Wars: Empire at War.