Star Wars: Empire at War - Geonosis

Star Wars: Empire at War - Geonosis
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.

The Geonosian weapons ignore shields. Although every Geonosian has this weapon (possibly a sonic blaster), according to Star Wars canon, only the cybernetic Geonosian Elite Warriors had shield-ignoring Beam Weapons.

Imperial Campaign
You need to capture Geonosis in Mission 5 (Subjugating Geonosis) / Tech Level 1. Starts under Rebel control. Conquer Geonosis early as part of preventing the Rebels from building raid fleets -- Mission 5 does not end until you finish the Land Battle portion.

Space Battle
You get a free Acclamator during the battle, but it disappears after. Hmm...

Land Battle
The cutscene at the start basically tells you where the Rebel base is located, so you can try some blind bombing runs and hope the splash damage eventually destroys any Barracks and Factories, ending Rebellion reinforcements.
You can use Darth Vader to run past the native Geonosians, although you will want to come back and destroy their dwellings as one of the Mission bonus goals -- just leave a harmless Rebel facility standing (like an Officer Academy) to prevent the mission from ending.
If you ignore the natives, they will likely ignore you if you don't attack them. Instead, leave them alone for the moment and let the Rebels engage them instead (Which doesn't seem to happen on Hard difficulty). Units will automatically attack them, and you can't stop AT-ST Walkers from attacking them because the walkers can walk and shoot simultaneously.

Rebellion Campaign

Space Battle

Geonosis starts with a Hypervelocity Cannon. It ignores shields, and two shots will take out a Nebulon-B. You can, however, use Corvettes and Marauders which are too small for the Hypervelocity Cannon.

Land Battle

Geonosis has an Advanced Factory, which in turn has an AT-AT garrison. The AT-AT cannot be killed by a single Bombing Run, so you will have to be careful if it comes for you. If you can move your units quickly, try to get it to turn by running a unit of T2-B Repulsors behind it. Your T2-Bs should be able to take a few hits before going down. Once you have it distracted, get a swarm of PLEX Troopers to its rear or rear side to bring it down. MPTL-2a barrages are faster, but if the AT-AT turns to attack them, you may not be able to move them fast enough to avoid losing one.

If you don't yet have Mobile Proton Torpedo Launchers, you can use Geonosians to make suicide runs to locate facilities behind the area Shield for Bombing Runs. Keep them moving so they don't all go down when a Scout Trooper drops a thermal grenade. Go for the Advanced Factory first in case the Imperials decide to make another AT-AT.