What's your opinion on locating the Rebel base? Do you go for a remote system or a populous one? They each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

A remote system is unimportant for the Imperials at the start of the game and for most of it. The only need one to build a 2nd death star. The are also on the edges of the map so they are farther from Imperial starting locations for the most part. Being towards the edge is also dangerous. You sometimes can get trapped by Imperials and have no way to retreat. You can reinforce the base on the map, but it draws Imperial attention. If they see a remote system with troops its usually a sign that somethings there. You can also use this as sort of a bluff, but Rebel units are pretty precious so its hard to use any significantly for a bluff.

Populous systems are always of interest to the Imperials, some more so than others. I probably wouldn't use Mon Cal or Utapu (sp?). However, you can reinforce the base on the map without causing too much suspicion on the Imperial side. A lot of times as Imperial I assume the base is on a remote system and don't go base searching on populous systems. You do run the risk of the Imperials gaining loyalty in the system and revealing your base. If you have loyalty, (which you should gain ASAP) you double up on resource collection.

What do you think?

Except for a few cards, most of the time the Imperials need units in the system to create Imperial Loyalty so the risk of that seems fairly low. Hopefully, it will happen towards the end of the Empire's turn to give you more time to move the base before you get squashed.

To my thinking, I prefer remote systems over populated ones, for one simple reason. The Empire probably isn't going to find the Rebel Base in time by conquering every single system on the map, so they will have to be a little more judicious in moving troops from world to world, and then it becomes a question of which world's they want to focus on. Remote world's only really give them a chance to either stumble onto the Base, or prevent the Rebels from moving their later on. Invading Populated Systems give them the same advantages as the remote systems, as well as increasing Imperial build totals, and possibly denying the Rebels builds in return.

So, if I'm playing Imperials, I can either invade Dantooine and hope it's the Base, or I can invade Naboo and hope it's the Base but at least increase my build if it isn't, while potentially stealing builds from the Rebels. And, as the Rebels, can either hide out in a remote system, far away from Imperial starting points, and hope I can lure the Empire away from my Base with builds on the other side of the map, and eventually grind out a win, or just hope I didn't pick a system the Empire wants for production or to deny me production.

In my first game, I used the Death Star to gain the loyalty of Mon Calamari, mostly because I wanted the Star Destroyer production base there. As I haven't gotten to play much, I can't say for sure if populous or remote planets are best, but I can say that the Rebels do not want to put their base in a system that produces more uncommon items for the Empire. As an Imperial player, I want control of places like Corellia and Mon Calamari, so I will be sending ground troops there, and if the Rebels are hiding there, I will find them. Star Destroyers are valuable, given that not only do Imperial ground units need transport, but so do TIEs, so I'll do whatever I can to get those nice, lethal transports built.

Populous worlds might be decent choices if their production is limited to fighters and troopers, as these are more common, and will make a planet less of an Imperial priority. Then again, both fighters and troops die more often, so the Empire will probably want as many of those as they can get.

...hide....far....far....far....away....