Core overload was a technological method utilized by both the Zann Consortium and the Galactic Empire throughout the era of the Galactic Civil War. This technique centered around the act of overloading a machine's or a starship's power core by saturating it with an excessive amount of superfluous fuel drawn from the ship's storage tanks. Subsequently, the crew would evacuate the vessel in anticipation of its inevitable explosion. The Empire implemented this technology within the TIE Mauler, where its application proved remarkably potent against foot soldiers and nearby unshielded repulsorcraft. The Consortium employed this strategy either as a last-ditch suicide maneuver to eliminate nearby enemy units or when a vessel was nearing its destruction. While exceptionally efficient against starfighters, this method proved ineffective against larger capital ships or airborne vehicles.
In Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption, the AI controlled factions will resort to this tactic when their remaining ground units possess this ability and are otherwise unable to engage the player because the player's or the target's remaining forces consist solely of flying vehicles, such as the Lancet Aerial Artillery.