Star Wars: Empire at War - Fresia

Star Wars: Empire at War - Fresia
This is a hint / walkthrough for a planet in Star Wars: Empire at War. The index of all our guides for Empire at War is here.

Rebellion Campaign
Fresia is the site of Mission 3 (Theft of the X-Wing).

Space Battle
There is no space battle. After Mission 3, you can take the orbital space without resistance.

Land Battle
What makes this Mission hard to pull through with no unit losses is the absence of Build Pads. Even the enemy has no Build Pads except for those reserved for the mission script to build Anti-Aircraft Turrets (when they lose turrets, there is no Build Pad left behind).
There is a lot of water, but also a lot of fords, and your T2-B Repulsor Tanks have no advantage in being able to cross water. Because the paths are quite narrow, having too many T2-Bs is a liability due to traffic jams.
Because of many Turrets, I waited for a Y-Wing Bomber to have Bombing Runs before starting this mission.

For this mission, I left one squad of T2-B Repulsor Tanks near the starting Reinforcement Point to defend the Rebel Pilots. Some infantry came, but they cannot overwhelm the T2-B's shields and in the drawn-out shootout were eventually cleared.

The other squad of T2-B Repulsor Tanks took point. The remaining units were all PLEX Troopers, which I grouped together so that one volley from the group can generally destroy an AT-ST Walker.

On a small island on the west as you head for the Power Generator, there are several AT-ST Walkers. I used a Bombing Run to clear these as the narrow area made it hard to bring up the PLEX Troopers while retreating the T2-Bs. At the entrance to the Imperial Base, I waited for another Bombing Run to clear the turrets at the entrance before moving in. I rushed the T2-Bs to soak fire, and brought up the PLEX Troopers to quickly clear the AT-ST, then retreated them until the T2-Bs had finished off the Imperial infantry.

At the northeast Reinforcement Point, it is probably not worth it to try to secure the Reinforcement Point. Instead, let your PLEX Troopers quickly destroy the TIE Maulers (before they self-destruct), and wait for the Imperials to start landing the AT-STs. If you call a Bombing Run at that point, it should clear the AT-STs all in one go.

After the Power Generator is down, use C-3PO and R2-D2 to take over the harmless TurboLasers. The enemy will still recognize them as Rebel units and attack them, thus buying you time or drawing fire away from you.

Before moving the pilots to the X-Wings (and triggering the building of Anti-Aircraft Turrets), wait for a Bombing Run. You can clear all four Anti-Aircraft Turrets from the middle of the map in a single Bombing Run. If you didn't time it right to also clear the reinforcements landing there, it doesn't matter as you just need to destroy all Anti-Aircraft Turrets to win the mission at that point.

After Mission 3, you can return to Fresia to take the planet without resistance.