Even before Empire at War came out, the Emperor was by far my favorite Imperial hero. And Empire at War proved to me that he can sure take care of business.

Anyway, enough blabble! Let's put the Emperor to the test for this friday's feature! Yeap that's right, I got exclusive permission from his highness to well, show off his electric personality. (pun intended )
The Emperor is available right of the bat in galactic conquest games.

Giving you a lightsaber wielding hero at day one! (Beat that mon mothma!) When used correctly the Emperor can be a force to be reckonded with. And to put him to the test, I sent the Emperor, and a loyal squadron of stormtroopers to Byss to deal with pirate scum that have infested the planet.

... *cough* anyways. Not like I would try something that stupid. *restarts galactic conquest*.

Well then... it's never a good idea to have the Emperor fight in a space battle. He will always assume command of the strongest capital ship in your fleet, be it an Acclaimator or a Star Destroyer, and this of course puts him at risk. If you are playing a galactic conquest with the objective to keep the Emperor alive, it is best to have him standing by until after the space around a certain planet is clean of rebel/pirate trash.

For testing purposes, I used my standard Imperial fleet to destroy the pirates orbiting Byss. A small group of tech 1 Acclaimators did the job along with Tartan cruisers.

Once the fleet was destroyed, I sent the Emperor to Byss and began a tactical land battle. Two troops (Emperor and Stormtroopers) v. a Pirate stronghold. With the right strategies this battle is entirely possible for the Empire to win. Just don't push autoresolve!

HINT: Dont send the Emperor and a loyal squadron of stormtroopers into space combat. It's not a pretty picture...

Byss is a pretty standard land map, upon landing the Emperor was anxious to get things going (As you can see).

Step One: Remove pirate patrol forces.

The key to winning this battle is to use the Emperor's special abilities. Because the Emperor is a major hero unit, he has two abilities that are very deadly against any enemy. His first ability is Force Lightning, as displayed in Episodes III and VI, the Emperor can whirl lightning at his enemies and kill them instantly. This ability can clear massives amounts of enemy infantry in mere seconds.

After moving the Emperor deeper into Pirate territory I finally encountered some resistance... Pirate Soldiers. Heh.. no match for the Emperor.

There goes pirate patrol squadron number 1. Now, Byss has a special structure located near its second reinforcment point. A Sensor Array. These building can be captured with any infantry unit and they provide a great bonus... they reveal the entire map.

Upon capturing this structure, I noticed that the pirate team was attempting to ambush the Emperor. Sending in more pirate soldiers, and some new units, a Pod Walker and a Pirate Skiff they thought they could suprise his majesty.