As a veteran IG2 player of both the original game and the modernized version, I’m going to share with you the strategies I use to consistently beat the game’s 3rd to last Impossible Difficulty scenario, Light Heart.
 
 

LIGHT HEART Part I – The Great Preparation

The scenario, Light Heart, is essentially the inverse of the game’s final scenario, Snowball In Hell, but this time it’s you playing as the Toluen against the Cheblon Clans. Winning this scenario is dependent on one condition: liberating the planet Light Heart from the Cheblon Clans, whether through conquering the planet outright, or doing enough damage to it’s infrastructure to cause the planet to revolt to your empire or become United Pirates.
 
 
However, the difficulty in winning this scenario is not actually in conquering planet Light Heart, but rather, charting your path across the galaxy, and holding enough territory as you conquer and colonize planets to eventually reveal the location of planet Light Heart, all while fending off constant Cheblon attacks.
 
 
So to begin, you should know that winning this scenario comes to down to four pieces of key technology, and one main planet. Those are as follows:
 
 
Heavy Space Bases
 
Heavy / Advanced Torpedoes
 
Cruisers
 
The Stealth Radar
 
Planet Magellan 1
 
 
There is one key event that should take place each time you play this scenario, that turns the tide of the conflict in your favor and sets things in motion for your eventual victory, and that is luring the Cheblon fleet into an ambush on planet Magellan 1. In this key event, Heavy Space Bases armed with Heavy or Advanced Torpedoes will destroy the Cheblon fleet, leaving them with too few ships to mount an effective counter attack, giving you the opening you will need to establish offensive momentum, thus winning the scenario.
 
 
But in order to make this event happen, you must first embark on the Great Preparation.
 
 
In my previous guides for the game’s other Impossible Difficulty scenarios, I talk about the importance of dedicating certain planets to play certain roles, and then renaming those planets so they are easily recognizable on the Starmap. In my game, planets with the highest Production and Population percentages usually become dedicated to producing Ships, which take longer to build and cost more credits than Tanks, and planets with the second best Production and Population percentages become dedicated to producing Tanks. Everything else is used for Research purposes.
 
 
On these planets, I will rename and add the letters SHPZ (short for Ships) to the end of the planet’s name to indicate that planet’s role as a Ship-producing planet, and TANX (short for Tanks) to indicate that planet’s role as a Tank-producing planet. This way, planets won’t have to share the resources of population and energy between producing Ships and Tanks, which maximizes their output. However, if a planet has high enough statistics, I sometimes break my own rule of thumb and will rename a planet with SHTX (Short for Ships and Tanks), and will use a planet to produce both Ships and Tanks, usually skewed towards Ships with 2 Ship Factories for every 1 Tank Factory.
 
 
Name your planets accordingly on the Starmap by selecting a planet, and then pressing both Mouse Buttons at the same time. As you can see in the following image, I generally use planet Aurora 3 for producing Ships and Tanks (breaking my own rule, and naming the planet SHTX (short for Ships and Tanks), while planet Aurora 5 is a dedicated SHPZ planet. Also, the key planet Magellan 1, with it’s impressive ratios of 150% Production Capacity, and 180% Population Growth, is also a SHTX (Ships and Tanks) planet.
 
 

 
 
The next step in the Great Preparation is to prepare your empire to research the proper technologies you will need to defeat the Cheblon Clans. You will NEED to research up to at least Cruiser level technology, but before you can do that, you will need to construct and power the proper research buildings, as you begin the game with inadequate research capability.
 
 
Begin by going ahead and researching the Laser Turret while it’s available. During the mid to late game in this scenario, you will need to deploy enough Tanks to not only take territory, but also to defend and hold territory against Cheblon counter attacks, and while your other research buildings are being constructed, you can begin and complete the research of the useful Laser Turret, and have it ready for deployment on your future Tanks.
 
 

 
 
Research the Laser Turret for deployment on future Tanks while your additional research buildings are under construction.
 
 

 
 
TIP! Don’t forget to go into the Research screen and Double The Money to complete Researches in half the time!
 
 

 
 
When you build your research centers, don’t forget to also build Fusion Plants to power them!
 
 
On your keyboard, use the Page Up and Page Down buttons to cycle through your planets, and on any planets that are NOT already dedicated to producing Ships or Tanks, build as many Research buildings as your population will allow. Don’t forget to also account for power requirements, as you will need to construct Fusion Power Plants to make sure your research buildings are ready for use immediately after construction!
 
 
When building your research buildings, a very important strategy to learn is Research Shifting, which means building enough research centers to make full use of your total population for ALL THREE BRANCHES of research, but only powering up the buildings for the branch of research you’re currently doing.
 
 
For example, in the following photo, I have turned off three Tank Research buildings. Powering down the three Tank Research buildings makes an additional 7,500 workers available, giving me a grand total of 7,908 available workers.
 
 

 
 
I need to focus on improving my Ship Technology, which means I need to shift the population away from Tank Research towards Ship Research. After constructing three Ship Research centers alongside my Tank Research centers, those workers will then be allocated towards Ship Research instead.
 
 

 
 
In the future, as my research needs shift between Ship, Tank, and Building research, using this method of only powering up the research buildings currently needed will save you critical time, as you can simply power up the appropriate buildings related to each branch of research, and shift your working population into the branch of research currently needed!
 
 
Go ahead and build enough research centers and power plants to make full use of your total population, but only powering up the buildings for the specific branch of research that is needed. As you can see in the following photo, I went ahead and constructed four more Building Research centers, but will leave them powered down for now, allowing the population to focus on Ship Research instead.
 
 

 
 
After you have cycled through each of your planets and constructed enough research buildings to make total use of your population, the next step in the Great Preparation is to clean up a few unnecessary buildings on a few planets, which will not only give you a small credit boost, but will also free up more workers for the construction of Factories and Fortresses, which are far more important.
 
 
In the next section, we will cover the best ways to utilize each planet to prepare for battle!
 
 
 

PART II – PREPARE FOR BATTLE!

In the previous section, The Great Preparation, we covered setting up your empire to make sure you’ll be ready to perform the researches you’ll need to win the war against the Cheblon Clans.
 
 
In this section, Prepare For Battle, we will cover some much needed changes you’ll need to make on several planets to make sure your empire is as ready as possible for the inevitable conflict with the Cheblons.
 
 
On planet Aurora 4 you will find a Planet Shield, 4 Planetary Guns, 2 Spy Centers and a Tank Factory. Trust me when I tell you that all eight of these buildings will be virtually useless in your war against the Cheblons, and the workers and energy they use can be put to more effective use.
 
 
Go ahead and detonate the Planet Shield, the two Spy Centers and all four Planetary Guns to free up workers and energy on planet Aurora 4. As a bonus, each time you detonate a building you also gain back a portion of the credits used to construct it! It’s your choice as to whether or not you want to detonate the Tank Factory, as you can always use it to build supplementary Tanks, but I do recommend strictly dedicating certain planets to play specific roles, and Aurora 4 will be a Research planet with most of it’s population dedicated to Research. Afterwards, use the available population and energy to construct and staff more research centers.
 
 

 
 
Detonate these useless buildings.
 
 

 
 
TIP! As there is no Spying to be done in this scenario, cycle through each of your planets and detonate ALL Spy Centers, gaining back credits, energy, and available workers!
 
 

 
 
Utilize the available population for more Research Buildings instead.
 
 
Next, on planet Magellan 1 you’ll find a Rocket Fortress, which is practically useless against Cheblon Tanks. Detonate the Rocket Fortress, then use Magellan 1’s robust population to build additional Machine Gun Forts, and then more Ship and Tank Factories as the population allows. Remember, Magellan 1 is a key planet to winning this scenario, being the southern most starting planet, closest to the Cheblon borders. This planet will essentially become your staging ground for seeking out planet Light Heart, as well as facilitating the future ambush to destroy the Cheblon fleet.
 
 

 
 
Detonate Magellan 1’s Rocket Fortress.
 
 

 
 
Build more Spaceship and Tank Factories. Later in the game as your research levels increase, you may want to improve these to Advanced Spaceship and Advanced Tank Factories.
 
 
On planet Aurora 5 you will also find another Planetary Gun and Planet Shield. Detonate these useless buildings and build Spaceship or Tank Factories in their places, provided you have dedicated the planet to producing Ships or Tanks.
 
 

 
 

 
 
Finally, at this point in the scenario you should have long since completed the research of the Laser Turret. Proceed by researching Range Extension, followed by the Laser Fortress.
 
 
Early in the scenario, you will make use of Tracked Tanks armed with Laser Turrets and Range Extension to attack and weaken Cheblon Colonies. As your technology levels increase, you will eventually upgrade to Anti-Gravity Tanks and possibly Megatracked Tanks if needed. Also, Laser Fortresses should provide more than enough defense to protect your colonies from Cheblon attacks.
 
 

 
 
Research Range Extension
 
 

 
 
Research the Laser Fortress
 
 
Next, once the research of the Laser Fortress is completed, cycle through each of your planets and try to build at least TWO Laser Fortresses on EVERY planet, as your population allows. Build your fortresses close together so that in the event of an attack, they can combine their firepower and eliminate Tanks much more quickly!
 
 
For any planets that already have Machine Gun Forts, build your Laser Fortresses flanking the Machine Gun Forts, as enemy Tanks will be forced to engage the weaker fortresses first, leaving the more powerful Laser Fortress free to finish off any stragglers.
 
 

 
 

 
 
Build your Laser Fortresses close together to combine their firepower!
 
 

 
 
Build your Laser Fortresses flanking your Machine Gun Forts.
 
 
Finally, at this point in the scenario you should be ready to begin production of Ships and Tanks. However, the most important armaments you will construct first are at least TWO Heavy Space Bases over EACH of your Ship Production planets.
 
 
Recall that the key to winning this scenario is fighting your way through the galaxy to find and reach planet Light Heart, all while fending off constant Cheblon attacks. Accomplishing this is going to take many ships, and protecting your Ship-producing planets is paramount to victory! Planet Magellan 1, being the closest planet to Cheblon territory, will become a prime target for the duration of the scenario, but you should also take care to make sure Aurora 3 and Aurora 5 are also heavily defended!
 
 
Build at least TWO Heavy Spaces Bases, armed with Advanced Torpedoes, above each of your Ship-producing planet, starting with Magellan 1!
 
 

 
 

 
 
Once each of your planets is defended by at least two Laser Fortresses, and your Ship-producing planets are defended by at least two Heavy Space Bases armed with Advanced Torpedoes, your empire should be in a good state to defend itself against any Cheblon attacks.
 
 
Continue to improve your chances by next researching the Beam Laser, the Cruiser, the Stealth Radar, and the Heavy Torpedo, and then upgrade your Heavy Space Bases with Beam Lasers and Heavy Torpedoes. When you reach this point, you will be ready for the Great Ambush!
 
 

 
 
Research the Beam Laser
 
 

 
 
Research the Cruiser
 
 

 
 
Research the Stealth Radar
 
 

 
 
Research the Heavy Torpedo
 
 
When you reach this point in the scenario, the Cheblon Clans will have already revealed themselves, or will be close to revealing themselves, but the preparations you’ve made for battle will delay their declaration of war as they build up their forces. As you can see in the following photo, in my game, the Cheblons first appeared within the radar range of Magellan 1 with a fleet of 14 Ships and 22 Tanks.
 
 

 
 
Once the Cheblons have appeared, the next section will discuss how to prepare for and execute The Great Ambush!
 
 
 

PART III – The Great Ambush – Sword And Shield

By this point in the scenario, you should have accomplished several important steps outlined in the previous sections.
 
 
1. Each planet should be defended by at least 2 Laser Fortresses.
 
 
2. Your Ship-Producing planets should be defended by at least 2 Heavy Space Bases, armed with Advanced or Heavy Torpedoes.
 
 
3. You should have researched up to at least Cruiser level technology.
 
 
By the time all of these tasks are complete, the Cheblon Clans should have revealed themselves by entering the radar range of Magellan 1. When this happens it’s only a matter of time before the Cheblons declare war, so you want to be prepared to lure them into an ambush which will destroy their entire fleet with 90 to 100% consistency!
 
 
Begin by building a Cruiser and placing it in orbit above Magellan 1, which should now be defended by Heavy Space Bases. Build and construct at least one Tank, and the Cheblon Fleet will see this decoy fleet as a threat, and attack.
 
 
In the following images, I named my decoy fleet the ROOK fleet. After the Cheblon Clans have declared war, they attack the ROOK fleet with 21 Ships and 28 Tanks!
 
 

 
 

 
 
The Cheblon Fleet takes the bait and attacks the decoy Rook fleet, stationed above Magellan 1
 
 
When the battle begins, order your decoy Cruisers to fall back behind the Heavy Space Stations.
 
 

 
 
As the Cheblon fleet pursues your Cruisers, have your Heavy Space Bases target the lead ships! Since Torpedoes have a range that spans the entire distance of the battle map, the Cheblon fleet, which will consist mainly of Corvettes and Heavy Destroyers, will fly straight into a salvo of Torpedo fire and be annihilated before they can become a threat!
 
 

 
 

 
 
Order your Heavy Space Bases to target the lead ships of the Cheblon fleet! Advanced and Heavy Torpedoes will destroy their ships in 1 or 2 hits each, decimating their entire fleet!
 
 
By the time the remaining ships have finished flying through a hail of Torpedo fire, they won’t have the numbers or firepower left to be of any threat to your Heavy Space Bases, and the Cheblons will lose their entire fleet right as the war begins.
 
 

 
 

 
 
Once the Great Ambush is accomplished and the Cheblon fleet is destroyed, now is the time to bring the pressure and establish some offensive momentum, but you should not underestimate any Cheblon counter-attacks!
 
 
The most powerful weapon in the Cheblon arsenal is the Ship-Manipulator, which they may develop rather quickly in the scenario. To counter the Ship-Manipulator, you should equip your Ships with Computer Jammers that prevent enemy Ships from using their special weapons. However, Computer Jammers are only effective at fairly close range, meaning you should also equip your Ships with powerful Shields to allow them to withstand close engagements.
 
 
The drawback to using Computer Jammers and Shields, however, is that using Defensive technology comes at the cost of Offensive technology, meaning you will not be able to equip your Toluen Ships with Torpedoes.
 
 
To counter this problem, I recommend creating two cla*ses of Cruisers that are designed to play specific roles, one being that of Defensive, and the other naturally being Offensive.
 
 
In my game, I call this the “Sword and Shield” method.
 
 
Shield cla*s Cruisers are equipped with Computer Jammers and strong Shields, and are designed to engage the enemy at close range to keep them jammed, preventing the Cheblon ships from using their extremely powerful Ship-Manipulators.
 
 

 
 
TIP! Toluen Ships are equipped with bomb bays, and come equipped with Napalm Bombs by default, but these are useless in this scenario. Save yourself some credits by changing the Bomb Bay option to -None-.
 
 
Sword cla*s Cruisers are equipped with Heavy Torpedoes and Battle Computers, which causes your Ships to do an additional 30% damage for every hit! They are designed to engage the enemy at long range, relying primarily on ma*sive Torpedo fire to finish off enemy ships.
 
 

 
 
The reason for this method is that during the mid to late game, the Cheblon ships will become increasingly more powerful as they begin to deploy Ship-Manipulators, which is arguably one of the most effective weapons in the entire game, and can decimate your fleets. Using Computer Jammers is practically a necessity against the higher level Cheblon ships, but requires close range combat to be effective, meaning it is likely you may be forced to lose some Ships in your quest to liberate planet Light Heart.
 
 
The Shield ships will essentially act as decoy vessels and sacrificial lambs, drawing the fire of the Cheblon fleet while keeping them jammed, preventing them from using their Ship-Manipulators while the Swords destroy the enemy fleet with superior firepower from a distance.
 
 
Set your Ship-producing planets to begin building Sword and Shield Cruisers around the clock, which should fight in tandem with each other for every space battle.
 
 

 
 

 
 
The Sword and Shield cla*s Cruisers will operate in pairs. I generally recommend 2 Swords for every 1 Shield, as the Shield ship’s role is to keep the enemy jammed while relying on it’s Shields to survive the battle, while the Sword ships use their superior firepower to deliver the most damage.
 
 
In the next section, we will discuss the strategies you will need to learn and employ to maintain offensive momentum against the Cheblon Clans on your path towards planet Light Heart. Once you have destroyed the Cheblon fleet, winning the scenario will mean actively advancing into Cheblon territory, and taking and holding that territory until planet Light Heart is finally revealed!
 
 
 

PART IV – Offensive Momentum

At this point in the scenario you should have successfully executed The Great Ambush, and the Cheblon fleet should be reduced to space dust.
 
 
To win the scenario and reach planet Light Heart, you need to take full advantage of this turn of events and keep up the offensive pressure.
 
 
As your credits will allow, begin researching technologies that will give you an edge in both space and ground combat.
 
 
I recommend researching and upgrading to Heavy Cruisers, Turbo Lasers, Photon Blasters, and Anti-Gravity Tanks equipped with Heavy Turrets. Although it shouldn’t be necessary, you may also want to research and equip your Ships and Space Bases with the all powerful Destructor Ray.
 
 
As time and your credits allow, I also recommend eventually upgrading your colonies to use Advanced Ship and Tank Factories, and Magma Plants. Heavy Fortresses are optional, but really shouldn’t be necessary, as the time and credit investment is put to better use elsewhere.
 
 
Also, the Cheblon Clans make use of Fleet Cloaking Technology, so as soon as you can, research and upgrade to the Stealth Radar.
 
 
Don’t be afraid to temporarily suspend the production of Ships and Tanks for a few months, to build up the necessary credits to equip your Ships, Space Bases, and Tanks with new technology.
 
 
As the scenario progresses to this point, you should attempt to construct at least THREE or more fleets of at least 3 Cruiser cla*s Ships each that will play shifting roles as you fight your way towards planet Light Heart. As stated before, I recommend fleets of at least 2 Swords and 1 Shield, adding more Ships as you go along.
 
 
One fleet will serve as an Offensive Fleet, who’s role will be to invade planets head on and either conquer planets outright, or do enough damage to the planet’s infrastructure that it eventually revolts to United Pirates.
 
 
The second fleet will serve as a Defensive Fleet, who’s role will be to shadow the Offensive Fleet and hold each planet until you can construct Fortresses so that the planet can defend itself. Remember, conquering a planet requires you to destroy all Fortresses located on that planet. Immediately afterwards, the planet will be temporarily vulnerable to counter-attack while your own Fortresses are being constructed. In order to reach planet Light Heart and win the scenario, you will need to hold territory and increase your empire’s radar range and reach into the galaxy, which means the Defensive fleet will remain in orbit above recently conquered planets while Fortresses are being constructed, leaving the Offensive fleet free to keep up the pressure elsewhere.
 
 
Thirdly, the Hunter fleet will be responsible for actively hunting down and eliminating any Cheblon fleets that enter your territory. As you fight your way across the galaxy, you can expect the Cheblon fleets to constantly try and mount counter-attacks against your fleets and territory. You DO NOT want to give the Cheblon fleets enough time to build itself back to threatening numbers, so you MUST suppress the fleet by keeping it under constant attack.
 
 
Begin by ordering your initial fleet to search South-West of planet Magellan 1, which should reveal the Cheblon planets closest to your territory. Once you’ve located several Cheblon planets, deploy satellites over these planets to determine which of them has the highest population, as these are the planets you should target first.
 
 

 
 
Establish a search pattern to the South-West of Magellan 1 to locate the closest Cheblon planets.
 
 

 
 

 
 
Locate the most populated planets first as priority targets, such as Tra 4 with it’s population of over 35,000 citizens. You want to shut these planets down and remove them from the war effort as quickly as possible.
 
 
Early in the scenario, as the war has just begun, your fleets may still be too small to conquer the most heavily defended and populated Cheblon planets. At this point you shouldn’t be focused on conquering and holding planets, as your fleets and Tanks are still being constructed, but you should instead focus on slowing the Cheblons down by invading their planets and doing as much damage as possible, specifically targeting their Colony Hubs, Power Plants, Research Buildings, and Factories.
 
 
In my previous guides I call this strategy the “Wrecking Ball Protocol”. It means as you invade planets, and it becomes clear the planet is too well defended to occupy, you can still remove that planet from the enemy war effort by destroying it’s Factories, preventing it from producing further enemy Ships and Tanks, and destroying it’s Research buildings, causing the enemy technology level to stall so that you maintain technological superiority.
 
 
Begin by targeting the Colony Hub. Not only is the Colony Hub an expensive building for enemy empires to replace, it also prevents the construction of any further buildings until it is restored, including any other buildings that are destroyed during the Wrecking Ball Protocol.
 
 

 
 
Always attack the Colony Hub. No other buildings can be constructed without this most important building first.
 
 
After destroying the Colony Hub, target the planet’s Factories and Power Plants. This will prevent this planet from supplying the enemy war effort, making it essentially useless. With the Colony Hub and Power Plants destroyed, this will buy you time to build up your own fleets, and eventually construct a fleet large enough to conquer planets outright while slowing down the enemy forces.
 
 

 
 

 
 
TIP! Survey each planet’s layout, and deploy your Tanks on the side closest to the enemy Factories!
 
 

 
 
Try to invade each planet from a direction that gives you access to it’s Factories, to destroy as many as possible before it’s Tanks and Fortresses can interfere. This way, as the space war rages on and your Swords and Shields eliminate enemy Ships, the Cheblon Fleet won’t be able to replenish it’s numbers as quickly, helping your Hunter fleet to keep them suppressed.
 
 
You should be establishing offensive momentum by deploying fleets of Swords and Shields, fighting in tandem with each other, and invading the most populated Cheblon Planets and targeting the Colony Hubs and Factories. Continue to upgrade your Ships and Tanks with increasing levels of technology, especially upgrading your Shield cla*s Cruisers with more powerful shields, and outfitting your Anti-Gravity Tanks with Heavy Turrets.
 
 
In the next section, we will discuss Space War tactics in detail, as I show you the strategies I use to make the most effective use of the Sword and Shield method, as well as taking and holding territory, all the way to planet Light Heart!
 
 
 

PART V – The Space War

As mentioned earlier in the guide, the Cheblon Clans will eventually make use of the Ship-Manipulator as their primary offensive weapon, and if deployed it will decimate your fleets as your own Ships turn against you! You DO NOT want to allow this to happen. EVER.
 
 
To counter this strategy, you must equip your Cruiser cla*s ships with Computer Jammers to stop the Cheblons from using their Ship-Manipulators. However, your Ships have to remain within targeting distance of other Cheblon weapons to continue jamming them, meaning they will be under heavy fire. Therefore, it is important to outfit your Ships with increasingly powerful Shield technology, such as Gravity or Deflector Shields to help them survive close quarters engagements.
 
 
Again, the drawback is that using Computer Jammers and Shields comes at the cost of using powerful, offensive weaponry, such as Heavy Torpedoes and Battle Computers. You can rely on deploying the Destructor Ray, but being the most powerful weapon in the game means it has an extensive charge time, which will often put your Ships at unnecessary risk as you wait for it to charge.
 
 
Solving this issue means deploying two cla*ses of Cruisers that fight in tandem with each other, previously named the Sword and Shield method.
 
 
Shield cla*s Cruisers are outfitted with Computer Jammers and strong Shields, and attack the enemy head on, jamming them at close range to prevent the Cheblons from deploying their Ship-Manipulators. Meanwhile, the Sword cla*s Cruisers are equipped with Heavy Torpedoes, Photon Blasters and Battle Computers, and optionally, Destructor Rays if desired, attacking the enemy from a safe distance while the Shield Cruisers draw enemy fire.
 
 
The strategy is very simple. At the start of every space battle, have your Shields target the lead enemy ship. The enemy fleet will typically target the closest ships in their vicinity, and should engage your Shields at close range, causing themselves to be jammed while the Swords fall back to a safe distance.
 
 

 
 
As the battle progresses, the Shield Cruisers will bear the brunt of the attack, relying on their Shields to hold out while the Swords destroy the most powerful enemy Ships in a barrage of Heavy Torpedo fire.
 
 

 
 
Even if your Shield Ships are destroyed, they will have accomplished their role in buying your Swords enough time to destroy the strongest enemy Ships with a barrage of Torpedo fire, while keeping them safe from the extremely dangerous Ship-Manipulators. At the conclusion of the battle, any weaker enemy Ships that remain will have to close distance on the Swords to continue their attack, and will end up flying headlong into Heavy Torpedoes that should finish them off.
 
 

 
 
Neutralize the strongest enemy Ships first, destroying any Ships that could potentially be armed with Ship-Manipulators, leaving only weaker Ships remaining.
 
 

 
 
As the weaker Ships close on your Swords, they will fly straight into a salvo of Heavy Torpedoes and be destroyed. Afterwards, replenish your fleets with additional Shields as necessary.
 
 

 
 
Once you’ve dealt with any Cheblon fleets, continue to press the attacks against their most heavily populated planets. As you build and grow your fleets over time, you will eventually be able to invade a planet with enough Tanks to take the planet instead of only slowing it down, granting you that planet’s radar range, and exposing neighboring planets as you search south for planet Light Heart.
 
 
Remember, as you invade each planet, you must survey the planet and decide if you have enough Tanks to destroy each Fortress and conquer the planet outright, or if you need to engage the Wrecking Ball Protocol to slow the planet down until you can either conquer it later, or leave it to revolt into United Pirates.
 
 
Since you must hold territory and advance your empire south towards planet Light Heart, attack in staggered waves, where one fleet attacks and takes a planet, and then waits in orbit above that planet while you build Fortresses so that it can defend itself, while a second fleet actively hunts down and eliminates any Cheblon fleets that could potentially counter-attack.
 
 
As you can see in the following photo, my Bishop and Knight fleets have fought their way South, conquering planets Tra 4, Tra 10, Exterior 10 and Exterior 9. However, after taking these planets they were devoid of Tanks. The Knight fleet falls back to Magellan 1 to restock on Tanks while the Bishop Fleet remains in orbit above Exterior 9, guarding the southern border against any potential Cheblon counter-attacks.
 
 

 
 
As the Knight fleet restocks on Tanks and the Bishop fleet guards the border, multiple Laser Fortresses are constructed on Exterior 9 so that the planet will eventually defend itself while the fleets continue to advance.
 
 

 
 
Afterwards, the Knight fleet returns and relieves the Bishop fleet, so that it can also restock it’s Tanks. Once both fleets are fully restocked with Tanks and the colonies are able to defend themselves with Laser Fortresses, both fleets continue to press south, taking and holding territory in the search for planet Light Heart.
 
 

 
 
You may also notice that I decided to make planet Tra 4 a SHTX planet (Ship and Tank producing planet). As you fight your way into Cheblon space, you may want to consider dedicating certain planets as production planets, so that your fleets won’t have to travel as far back to restock on Tanks as your empire grows.
 
 
Finally, you will eventually discover the key planet, Centaury 3!
 
 

 
 
Centaury 3 is an important planet in this scenario, because conquering Centaury 3 reveals within it’s radar range the scenario-winning target. Immediately to the West of Centaury 3 is planet Light Heart itself.
 
 

 
 
The next section will discuss strategies to win the game’s 3rd to last Impossible Difficulty Scenario, planet Light Heart.
 
 
 

PART VI – LIGHT HEART

Congratulations! If you’ve made it this far, the hard part is over, as liberating planet Light Heart is actually a rather simple task.
 
 
As stated earlier, winning this scenario doesn’t actually require you to conquer planet Light Heart, as the goal is only to liberate the planet from Cheblon occupation. As such, you can simply invade the planet and do as much damage as possible to the colony, causing it to revolt in time.
 
 
As you can see in the following photo, planet Light Heart is an extremely, heavily defended target, boasting an impressive ten fortresses, and is littered with Tanks. Also, the abundance of Advanced Tank and Spaceship Factories on this planet will mean it will become a constant headache in your quest to win the scenario, as enemy fleets loaded with Tanks will constantly flow from this planet, impeding your progress.
 
 

 
 
The easiest way to win the scenario at this point is to have all fleets converge upon Light Heart as soon as it’s discovered.
 
 

 
 
Finally, land your Tanks to the NORTH of the Colony, and attack by making your way south, destroying as many buildings as you can target before enemy Tanks and Fortresses can interfere.
 
 

 
 

 
 
If you continue to press the attack from the North, destroying the Colony Hub in the process, you should only have to level about half the colony to get Light Heart to revolt from Cheblon rule. Once that happens you will be treated to the victory screen, and congratulations on completing the game’s 3rd Impossible Difficulty scenario, Light Heart!
 
 
In a final section I will discuss strategies to use in the event of a Cheblon counter-attack, and what to do if Cheblon forces ever manage to land Tanks on any of your planets.
 
 
 

PART VII – Counter Attack Strategies

In this final section of the Light Heart guide, we’ll discuss strategies on how to survive if the Cheblon fleet ever manages to invade one of your planets.
 
 
If you’ve executed The Great Ambush as outlined in Part III and destroyed the Cheblon fleet, and then have your own fleets on a steady rotation of capturing planets, defending planets until Fortresses are built, and hunting down any Cheblon fleets that wander into your empire’s radar range, the Cheblons should never land a single Tank on any of your planets!
 
 
However, from time to time they might manage to sneak past your defenses. In fact, I’ve even had them circle the whole map and attempt a sneak attack on Magellan 1 from the side!
 
 
Defending against the Cheblon Tank forces, however, is actually a very simple matter. You only have to know which Tanks to focus on, and which ones are safe to ignore.
 
 
The Cheblons use a combination of offensive Turrets such as Laser Turrets and Heavy Turrets, and strategic Turrets such as Tank Paralysers and Tank Manipulators. This is a glaring weakness in their ground forces, as strategic turrets have NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER on Fortresses!
 
 
So if the Cheblon Clans manages to land an invasion force of Tanks on your planets, simply click each Tank to find out if it has an offensive turret or a strategic turret, and order your Fortresses to focus their firepower on the offensive Tanks first, as they are the only real threat to your colonies.
 
 
As you can see in the following images, Tanks equipped with Paralyser Turrets deal NO DAMAGE to your Fortresses! Deal with these Tanks last, as they are not a credible threat.
 
 

 
 

 
 
Focus on any Tanks with Laser Turrets or Heavy Turrets first, and your colonies should survive every invasion attempt with little to no difficulty!
 
 

 
 
Thank you for checking out my guide. I hope the strategies outlined here will also lead you to consistent success when playing through the Impossible Difficulty scenario, Light Heart.
 
 
– Brandon
 
 

 
 
I hope you enjoy the LIGHT HEART – How To Beat It – Impossible Difficulty – Imperium Galactica II guide. This is all for now! If you have something to add to this guide or forget to add some information, please let us know via comment! We check each comment manually!