Rebel or Imperial?

One of the main things to consider is which side to choose: the game lets you pick Rebel or Empire to fight as the Rebel Alliance with Han Solo and Chewbacca, or Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers. The chances are you will already have your mind made up about this, but technically the Rebels are strongest individually, but the Empire have more unit transports, allowing them to deploy more troops to the battlefield to make up for it. Though this very much depends who you speak to!

In all other respects, the two sides are the same. They have the same types of unit: quick-to-build and dispensable soldiers, heavy turret-focused troops, tank-style vehicles, snipers, machine gunners and more. You are unlikely to encounter an enemy who has any units that you are incapable of matching or indeed training a version yourself which may look different, but shares the same characteristics. The same applies to buildings and research.

Something to bear in mind is that once you pick your side, you cannot change it. This governs which enemies you will be matched against, so make sure you pick the same side as your friends!

Note: Should you want to change your side, it's a case of uninstalling the game and eradicating its data from your system before you can pick again.