Try as I might, I have virtually no success with covert ops in this game. Could someone explain the detailed mechanics of how they work?

OK, here's the situation. Thanks to some advice earlier, I'm in a commanding position in the galaxy. All I need to do is take Coruscant. Problem is, it doesn't seem possible. Because there are two defensive shields there, I can't launch an assault or damage them with bombardment.

So, I figured I'd launch a sabotage attack to knock out a generator, but no matter how many bodies I throw at the problem, it doesn't work.

I've had Luke (now a Jedi Master), Han, Chewy, maybe a dozen other characters, and dozens of infiltrators on a sabotage mission, including multiple decoys, but nothing seems to work.

There are at least 9 soldiers on the planet, and two characters, one of them the emperor. There may be more, but, of course, espionage missions always get foiled.

So, how do I crack this problem? Am I missing something important here? How many decoys matters? Does stacking all those infiltrators in a single mission even do anything?

Thanks in advance.

Well, what i usally do in such a situation is, getting more ships, with high bombing values, to that planet. Can't tell you an exact number, but if you have enough ships the Generators will fail und be destroyed.

But save before you bombard the planet. Sometime civilian targets will be hit to if you aim for military targets.

Sending too many personnel can backfire. Definitely don't send force-sensitive characters, Palpatine will be there to detect them instantly.

Do you know how to use decoys?

If planetary bombardment can't get through the shields and sabotaging the shields always failed, just like in the movie, the assault on Hoth, select planetary assault, send all your soldiers

I don't think its correct that Force Users can detect/foil other Force users but it is true that Luke sometimes has scripted events when he's on missions on systems where Palpatine or Vader are but if you don't see those messages I wouldn't worry

Your Options: Massive Bombard, Sabotage Shields, Sabotage Troops

General tips on sabotage: Yes you shouldn't send too many on the same mission as it has some unknown effect on your chances of being foiled. I think the upper limit I've seen is 4-6 on mission with 4-6 as decoys. Further, generic characters (Guerillas, Saboteurs etc) should be your B-Squad versus named characters. Sabotage missions require a high Espionage rating to avoid detection and high Combat to destroy the target.

If you don't have enough ships to massively bombard the planet to overwhelm the shield *and* you can't sabotage the shield try a different approach. Try sabotaging the troops, and once a few of those are gone your chances of successfullysabotaging the shield will increase. Also look for a General on the planet, he improves all the ratings for troops garrisoned there and should be captured as soon as possible after thinning the garrison.

Lastly don't be afraid to play dirty. Full-Scale Bombardment is a viable option and if you're in a position to blockade Coruscant without trouble you'll be able to handle losing favor in Sesswenna

Palpatine and Vader have a way of being able to detect/foil missions where you have force sensitive characters, meaning it's generally better to send in only Luke and one or two force sensitive characters with him to do a mission. There should be a special event whenever you send Luke to do something like capture Vader or the Emperor though, and outside of taking complete control of a planet one of those two are on that's probably your best bet to capture the Emperor which could make taking out the troops on the planet easier. Also remember that in terms of sending in a crapton of characters on a mission, in some instances you get diminishing returns and having too many decoys on a mission may actually be detrimental (generally 2 decoys will do, sometimes 3 at max though characters make better decoys than those spy/infiltrator forces). Generally unless you're trying to capture Darth Vader who has an absurdly high combat rating, a combination of 4-5 characters/spies is usually all you need for one mission including decoys. There are some exceptions to this but that's the general guidline I go by.

Though if there's a General stationed on the planet and there's a crapton of Stormtrooper regiments there, I don't think there's going to be any way to break that defense running sabotage missions. If you're in the end game and have the game basically won to the point the Empire has hardly anything left, better to just build up a big force of B-Wings and send them on some ships that hold a good deal of fighters like Liberator Cruisers or Escort Carriers since B-Wings offer nice bombardment value as a bomber type fighter. Eventually you should have enough bombardment value to break two gencore shield generators and take out some stuff on the planet (save the game before bomardment though in case you risk hitting civilian targets and turning public opinion in that system against you).

Well, the Empire is dead, long live the Republic.

Thanks for the advice-I was able to win after about 1000 days. I probably could have cut that in half had I known what I was doing at the beginning, haha. The advice to specialize my systems was crucial. As the Rebellion, I decided to concentrate my meager forces all into one sector and avoid spreading out my fleet. I'd use diplomats to keep converting worlds in the Empire's sector and keep them busy while I developed my own sector on the other side of the galaxy. When I'd assembled my fleet, it was never close. The Empire, apparently, is not familiar with the Mahan doctrine.

As it turns out, sabotage would have been impossible before, so I followed the advice of getting a massive fleet and muscling my way through the defenses.

The one disappointing thing was that capturing Darth Vader was much, much easier if Luke is nowhere around. Han, Chewbacca, and a few others were all that it took, but when I reloaded to try to get Luke to win, he would fail at every type of mission I attempted. This was after I'd destroyed/captured every other Imperial presence on Coruscant. I gave this tons of attempts, but it seems conclusive that Luke (maybe any force user) sours any attempt again the Sith lord. It feels like it should be the other way around, where the only way to capture him is to use Luke and a bunch of his apprentices, but that's the surest way to fail. Han, Chewy, and a few non-jedi are all that's needed.

Luke can capture Darth Vader all by himself, but he needs to be at least a Jedi Knight and have at least somewhere around 170-180 combat rating. Have to pick and choose between recruiting with Luke in the early game or running him on missions to get his skills up which are crucial for later portions of the game, since against a human opponent capturing Vader will be increasingly difficult.

He was at combat rating 217 by the time I gave up. Now, that was below Vader's 220, but even still, no combination of operatives with Luke could ever win, whereas a much weaker combat team without him always won.

Were you sending operatives with him as decoys or trying to help in capturing Vader?

I tried all combinations, as far as I could tell.

In addition, any mission with Luke was dramatically more likely to involve it failing and his being captured.

It seems to me that even with 12+ decoys and 1 (or even trying 2) really solid operatives that missions on hostile planets become impossible to not be 'foiled' once there are a certain number of unit types (or if there is a General). I had once tried sending in Luke on a rescue mission with Chewbacca as a decoy, along with 8 infiltrators and it was still foiled. Same with other non-force heroes. It consistently fails or succeeds too so I don't think it is RNG. I wish we had a guide with the exact breakdown mechanics of when missions are useful and when they are a waste.

I don't use covert missions except early in the game for this reason.

I've had the same experience. Han and Chewie to capture Vader and the Emperor. I think you only need decoys if there are troops on the planet (or a fleet stationed above, not sure about fighters).

The only "result" I've had in trying to capture Vader with Luke was having Luke captured and sent to the Emperor in Coruscant. Which brought me to a situation similar to what this thread was about originally... :(