Why couldn't Thrawn have a ship attached to the hull of the Star Destroyer traveling at speed, decouple, then have the Destroy stop and ship drift into points of interest without thrusters?
Finally some intelligent thinking in SW tactics, but it still wouldn't have worked due to a single oversight. Those TiE's were stored aboard the SD, meaning they were not kept at the same temperature as the vacuum outside. In fact they are some 270-290 degree's warmer than space, and since pre-launch they were not cooled off to drop them to the ambient temperature of space (about 2-3 degree's kelvin). So while they have zero electronic emissions, they would look like a road flare at midnight to a thermal scanner. However the fact that this works, means thermal scanners aren't part of a standard sensor suite aboard star wars capitol ships, which when you think about it, is something Thrawn would have known.
@@cgi2002 A fair point, though given the number of other phenomena that can occur in space, shipboard instruments are probably calibrated to look for heat and energy emissions within a certain range, rather than giving an alert whenever any kind of signature was detected. And if relatively close to a star, it will be comparatively warmer. I don't know exactly where this tactic was used, since Eckhart avoided spoilers and I haven't read the book yet, but if it was in a star system it might not have been that cold. And if it was in an inhabited system, they might already be having to sort out a lot of unimportant information. Even so, the ambient heat of the TIE could still be a limiting factor on this tactic. Though using it in an already active battle would make it more viable, if still risky; at that point, a ship's sensors would definitely be more focused on active signature rather than the comparatively low-key signature of an inactive TIE.
cgi2002 since Space is a vacuum the only way to detect heat would be through thermal radiation, something that the fighters probably wouldn’t give off much of if they had no systems on.
Me too.... however I hope the last book of this tetralogy will be "unshacled" in unknown regions... where Thrawn and Ezra will get something truly done...
Nope, we are not getting more true Thrawn (the EU is dead and this blue guy from Rebells is NOT Thrawn, Thrawn doesn't brawl, Thrawn doesn't try to shoot a (shielded!) starfighter (a Tie-Defender, which does have shields - unlike most Tie-Fighters!) with a blaster-pistol...seriously, what they are now doing to the character just sucks (original Thrawn was a mysterious, larger than live character and a tactical and strategic genius...this new guy is a pale copy (like a clone that didn't quite come out right!))
DreamingFlury It was a play on the film Patton it was just there to be there honestly. It's based on the scene where patton starts shooting at the German planes with his personal side arm. While he acknowledges the pilots for their skill. Like thrawn does to his enemies in the lothal rebels group.
Timothy Zahn just has that awesome ability to look at the Star Wars Universe and figure out combos and correlations that expand the lore just by going over what is there. Which makes sense, since he played a pivotal role in establishing EU/Legends lore.
@@lucassanchez9050 Interesting! Do they still retain their Sith connection? I noticed Timothy Zahn and James Luceno putting some of the old lore into their canon books.
Wouldn't work in 'real life', the tractor beam wouldn't perfectly transfer kinetic energy to the TIE -the TIE's structure will heat up due to deformation and against the background of deep space it would be detected. Even collisions with the random particles present in space would generate detectable heat and light.
I love that the Thrawn stories have more emphasis on military tactic. this is a great demonstration of utilising existing technology creatively without destroying the universe. so compliment to the author. in general there is a great dyssinance between teh movies and the expandet universe, even the Clone wars series depicted space battle much different than the movies did and Rogue One also had more emphasis on space battles. it always depends on who is writing these stories, but I really wish we had a bit more consistency and common ground in teh star wars universe.
Thrawn catapult, a classic move but quite efficient. If you have a few minute I'd like to show you my new master piece. The dorito formation, do not be fooled by his name like most of my ennemies.
@@mazyar-7 This makes perfect sense within the context of the story. Thrawn's enemy relied solely on sensors , and in SW you can't sneak up on someone in space unless you completly avoid scanning / sensor reading by either using stealth / cloaking devices or shutting down the craft. But when you shut down the craft, it's just gonna float in the vacuum of space. So the only way to a launch it towards a target, more or less controlled, is to essentialy "catauplt" the craft via tractor beam, exactly the way shown in this video. From purely logical and technical POV, this absolutly makes sense.
@@lkvideos7181 That part of it makes sense, dont get me wrong, but the problem with it is that 1- the fighter has the same temp as the interior of the ship which makes it super easy to find with an infra red scanner and 2- I refuse to believe some advanced form of lidar doesnt exist in starwars. The reason it doesnt make sense is cause they can easily detect and shoot it.
@@mazyar-7 To further expand on the context, Grand Admiral Savit had Thrawn outnumbered with his 4 ISDs against his 1 in that engagement, and held him basicaly hostage on his flagship Firedrake. So there was little reason to expect anything from Thrawn's single ISD really, especialy without their commander onboard, and the situation didn't really warrant such a thorough sensor sweep. Competence and expectation always play a huge factor. For an ISD crew to do something like that, is incredibly unconventional. Usualy imperials are painfully predictable. But the Chimera wasn't your avarage ISD, it was Thrawn's crew and he came up with that idea. Plus, these things happened several times in the movies. Like when the Millenium Falcon escaped Death Squadron. The heros were also completly oblivious to Boba Fett's presence in the same field of debris / space junk *they* were hiding. Or when Jango Fett.surprised Obi Wan over Bespin. Lidar may exist, but that doesn't mean it's automaticaly used all the time, especialy when such manouvers aren't expected and standart instruments are sufficient to mark enemy craft. We also gotta keep in mind that if Lidar etc exist, than there are probaly also counter measures. I also need to check it again, because iirc a cloaking device was used when they tested that "slingshot" / catapult manouveir before that battle.
I'd be super interested to hear your description of the battle between the Chimera and Savit's forces at the end of Treason. That battle seems... difficult to imagine without pictures.
I saw Catapult and immediately thought he strapped a hyperdrive on an asteroid and shot it at the enemy ships after deploying it from the hanger of his ISD
A very interesting tactic on Thrawn's part, not exactly surprising since he's a genius, but still impressive ingenuity nonetheless. Nicholas Farrell's question and your response definitely peaked my interest in optimal battlegroups, and I wonder if could apply the same kind of analytic thinking to other groups; the Rebels, CIS, Republic (Clone Wars era), or even other franchises, for example Halo's UNSC or Covenant (not that they really needed improved strategy but would be neat to hear your ideas). Honestly I would go on with others however I'm not too sure just how much necessary information is available for other factions like Mass Effect's System Alliance for example, or if you think you would even need just as much raw data as what exists for Star Wars and Halo. Keep up the great content mate, always look forward to new work from you!
I can tell you one thing in regards to this thinking and the groups you listed. It wouldn't have worked against the Covenant (they literally tracked every bit of dust around high charity, and anything larger than a football got slagged), by extension it fails against the UNSC as they have the same if not better tech now. And it also fails against the Systems alliance, their entire stealth system is based around heat management and emissions, this situation still has a heat problem. The TiE is stored at room temperature before launch, and isn't cooled to match the background levels of space, meaning its far too warm and would stand out massively. Even if it was chilled, it lacks a heat management system to make up for the pilot heating the inside of the TiE with their body heat, which would in turn heat the window and the sides of the ship. Even a few degree's would stand out in the vacuum, it is after all quite uniform in its emptiness.
@@cgi2002 I apologize but you seem to have misunderstood me. I don't want to see this tactic applied elsewhere, I want to know Eckharts' opinions on optimal battlegroup structures For those groups in their respective universes.
Axton Lunark I fail to see how this is a mark “genius” it feels like this sort of scouting before battle should be common place, even if the exact method is a bit unconventional, it’s not that off the wall
@@Ravenous1369 oh I see. I misunderstood then. Got to admit I'd like to see his opinions on battlegroup/fleet structures. I would also love to see if he could come up with an ultra realistic fleet/ship logic. For example a universe were heat management is a thing, speed of light delays, high speed targeting, electronic warfare, etc. Does it just become fleets of drones fighting each other, with humans in overall strategic control or do people still have a place in combat. Are strike craft realistic option in that situation, or do they just serve as chaff/mobile CIWS.
It's a stroke of tactical genius. It uses Newton's 1st law of motion - that an object will move in a straight line at a constant speed unless it is subjected to a force - in a simple but brilliant way.
The sad thing is that it takes a tactical genius to figure out that the space ships and fighters don't need to keep their bloody engines always on to fly forward in space.
ANY OBJECT!? USS Prinz Eugen, are you typing me that a Single Star Destroyer could pull the Death Star all by itself? That a Tug, as featured in “Star Wars: the Clone Wars”, is powerful enough to move an entire Planet!? Sun!?!? A Black Hole!?!?!? Despite how Humorous I’m making this, I’m actually pretty serious about the point I’m making here.
@@nickvinsable3798 With just pushing and pulling at different angles and with different outputs it could work. For instance set up a series of tractor beams and you could have a tractor beam "Rail gun" like set up, obviously not like an actual rail gun but you could preform the thrawn catapult without maneuvering the star destroyer
Sigh, USS Prinz Eugen, I thought I didn’t need to explain this. The limits I was referring to has to do with the mass & power generation of the object with the tractor beam & the object on the receiving end of the tractor beam #AskEck, with the unveiling of Thrawn’s tactics & the Star Hawk, what are the supposed limitations of gravity wells & tractor beams?
VF-1 Valkyrie variable fighter( SDF Macross) vs Viking mech ( Starcraft). Reaver class titan( Warhammer 40K) vs LED Mirage Mortar Headd( Five Star Stories).
This is actually the perfect kind of tactic for Thrawn. From a literary standpoint. It is clearly smart and inventive, showing cleverness of the one who uses it, but it isn't world or lore breaking. (LOOKIN AT YOU HOLDO) If you have some good tractor beams you can do it, but once you do it a few times the enemy would catch on and notice it (nose down ship flipping up it's nose) and if you were to use this for launching fighters all the time or make a ship built around it then it's stealth advantage would be lost, as your big catapult system would point one way, probably draw enough power to be noticeable, and launch fighters on a predictable trajectory. (I assume if you know WHERE in space to point your better sensors finding something is easy, as that is how we find stuff in space now). So it's a great strategy that can catch someone unsuspecting off guard, but does not fundamentally change the nature of combat.
Fulcrum 4.0 only 2 star destroyers with little anti fighter capability, with a lot of ties. Here’s what I would do: Maunever the dorean gunships and antifighter frigates toward the shield gate, as all of the ties were coming out of there. Keep the main fleet out of range, and have the ywings and xwings and maybe some z95s pelt their shields and engines until they’re down. Then move the fleet to the aft of the ISD’s, as their firing arcs cannot reach there. Boom ya won.
Daniel Wells if their particle shields are still up the fighters will just go splat on the windshield :( ya gotta weaken/destroy the generators to do that.
I would try a more Direct bombardment of the shield ring rather than sending bombers after it. Also would definitely have the ships scatter to retreat rather than all hyperdrive forward and into vaders trap.
Really like that tactic and the name you gave for it. Also cool how it can be used for scouting and letting a starfighter come close undetected and then do damage.
I have a modification. Thrawn does the same thing during battle, or before battle, but has the cockpit cleared of all control systems and technical equipment and then stuffs the cockpit full of explosives. That way no pilot is at risk and a powerful explosion can be dealt directly to the ship. A sort of drone kamikaze attack.
In the latest Age of Resistance issue Holdo does something similar and uses the tractor beam to increase the speed of her CR-90 (which it shouldn't be able to do) fire its cannons and blast through the hangar and decks above it before flying through the star destroyer (again it cant because it the firepower). Have no idea how one small corvette can do that to a destroyer. As you said a tractor beam cannot manipulate the speed of a vessel.
Two or perhaps three ISD's could work in tandem with their tractor beams all pointed to a small location where many Tie-Defenders could fly through with their shields up & then get accelerated significantly in catapult-fashion toward a distant location without them needing their own engines at all. The fighters would be essentially launched to where they could sneak up extremely stealthily on the enemy ships. Most Star Wars ships seem to only use energy-scanning sensors instead of sensors like radar to detect objects coming toward them, and so the catapult would be very brilliant as a stealth-attack tactic.
Great video. Interesting note about the tractor beam, though.....especially since Thrawn used the repulsor mode on the tractor beam to launch cloaked asteroids into orbit around Coruscant during the Thrawn Trilogy. Maybe he had the Chimera's tractor beams upgraded after this?
this is actually called the slingshot fighter maneuver it CAN use the tractor beam as a slingshot to shoot fighters to point-blank range, which is great for TIE Defenders to work at full capacity, or like mentioned in the Thrawn: Treason, sling a Grysk cloaked gravity well/bomb to the enemy or in the TIE Defender case, a thrawn pincer would also work as TIE Defenders have hyperdrives
Nice tactic, but still the thinking is in 2D, not the 3D space allows. If you enter a system at the edge or outside scanning distance. Flying in on a large arc, adjust the axis of the capital ship so launch bay(s) can just drop the fighters out and the inertia can slingshot them without any discernable energy output.
If you knew exactly where your enemy was (y'know, by using powerful _telescopes)_ you could sling a bunch of *proton bombs* at them, perhaps with a *ion bomb* appetizer. Although the compressed gas launch tubes might be better, if aiming is inaccurate with the Thrawn catapult. A actual battlefield tactic is if you can guess they're going to maneuver to a certain spot on your opposite side (because it makes obvious sense) is to soft launch a bunch of bombs using the bulk of your ship to hide the launch, and let the enemy capital ship run into your instant minefield.
I think proton bombs are active and use an energy containment field. Proboblly very detectable. However tie deffenders carry small proton torpedoes so maybe with enough shielding and a timer you could pull it off
You could absolutely make a launch tube for that kind of fighter launch using in-universe tech. Imagine a standard launch tube with a ring situated at the mouth of it with two or more tractor beam emitters facing into the tube. Assuming both tractor beams are pulling with the exact same force, they should cancel the vertical momentum from their offset position giving you only horizontal pull the entire way down the tube and out. Of course, it's all a matter of whether or not it's worth it to incorporate a dedicated launch tube like this when you can perform the maneuver without it.
Like how a good deal of "genius" tactics or inventions seem to also be things that when explained are just so amazingly simple or obvious yet nobody tried it or thought of it before. (Both in fiction and irl) As for alternate ways to launch the ties, I dont really know how powerful the tractor beam of a star destroyer is... but assuming it would be able to easily pull in things the size of the mel falcon or larger using main tractor beam, I would imagine smaller versions could be placed on the SD simply to catapult ties. Possibly by aranging them in a certain way or maybe considering smaller versions, have some that are deployable that could extend below the hangar and pull the target towards it. Once the desired amount of momentum is generated, just deactivate it and raise it back up into the SD out of the ties way. Im also not certain how detectability works exactly with diff types of thrust / engines but maybe an idea similar to real life rocket assisted takeoffs, where an airplane would have special rocket motors affixed to it in order to help bring it up to take off speed on short runways. The idea being the tie is dropped from the SD with very basic rockets like the aformentioned types affixed to the tie that would fire propel it along its way, then just hit a button to detach them. Seems like it would be a very simple and very cost effective way to stealthily launch ties ...or well any fighter really. This though is operating on the idea that a chemical rocket (not a star fighter engine etc) would not be detectable at long ranges. Also, the rocket assisted method would sort of have more of a benefit than Eckharts catapult / launch method as his would have more sophisticated equipment and machinery, that given shouldnt pose any issue for an SD, could still be prone to failure and still use power (even if in virtually in detectable levels) and would be unusable in the event of a malfunction. The rockets however.....super disposable, super easy to mount and use, if any fail it wont really hold up anything like how a broken sling would. Just slap on rockets n try again. Overall though i think Ecks idea is the better one though.
I actually thought that you would talk about another maneuver Thrawn came up with, although I must admit I don't remember which book we are talking about. This tactic actually used some kind of launching catapults. The Imperial Forces needed to blockade a planet without having the forces necessary to do that. So Thrawn _convinced_ the enemy that he actually did that, without him actually doing it. He did that by launching... rocks at the planet. Huge rocks the size of a Tie fighter. Each was equipped with a cloaking device, which Thrawn allowed to "fail", so the rebels could see that he was launching invisible rocks. Which could easily destroy an X-Wing or even bigger ships. But most of the time he let the catapults on his ship run hot by letting them, well, catapult without an actual object getting thrown. Just launch after launch after launch, without _actually_ throwing rocks at the enemy. Buuut, since the rebels sensors could detect those catapults working _and_ since the rebels were now convinced that he is throwing invisible rocks (because he showed them by allowing a couple of cloaking devices "fail"), they became convinced that he actually completely blocked the planet with thousands of invisible rocks that can't be detected and thus not destroyed or avoided and thus would actually keep ships from launching. So in the end, the rebels did not launch their ships, although they actually could have.
Cool, I think that was it, thanks for pointing this out! And I have discovered and subscribed to EL not too long ago and by now I am still busy looking through all of his videos. That guy seems to produce an insane amount of high quality vids in high frequency, so I might have missed this. :)
@@Furzkampfbomber Glad to have been of assistance. Yeah, Eckhartsladder produces a lot of good content, so sometimes it can be a bit hard to find the right thing. I found him through his Thrawn campaign related videos, so everything related to that part of the lore is pretty well known to me.
well.. idk if they say it in the book but it'll likely be retconed later when they need to use the tractor beams to do something other then pull so I'm going to just theorize now that the tractorbeam was used specifically because it could be hidden by the ships hull. it's on the underside, it's facing backwards so long as it's disengaged at the right point there'd be no visable energy signal.. but meh that's just a possibility
How about Sci-fi versus of Force Sensitives (Star Wars) vs Mutants (Marvel) vs other super powered beings from Sci-fi? The reason I chose Mutants over something like the Avengers is because, due to being a species, they all have similar traits and you wouldn't need to go as specific with the Avengers where each of their members gained powers through different ways eg: Iron Man has no powers when outside his armours, Hawkeye and Black Widow are normal humans with lots of training, Thor is naturally more powerful than the others due to being an alien, Captain America is basically a 1940s Spartan-II, Hulk is the only one with true powers in the original team, etc.
I had prior to reading the thrawn trilogy believed that ships especially bigger ones and specifically the isd I line as they have a sensor array on top of the bridge had some sort of optical sensors using ai and cameras or at the very least I believed they had used lidar in starwars
@@marrqi7wini54 And I think this is why it could be a good tension building dramatic device, as the slinging element should have to coordinate with the main element, or the main element should have to push thru some obstacles to take advantage of the sllnging manouver.
Yes they could, even scientists that launch probes into space use flybys to get into a position and speed that makes them go where you want. It won't work in an emergency though since you need to calculate and do the math so it will probably be used before battle,calculated and then sling and fly by when ready. Or you can use a heat shield and also use an objects atmosphere to slow down and enter a certain path.
#AskEck Seeing as it's Canon (partly) through Star Wars: Commander, is it possible that the Galactic Empire's Project: Blackwing had a secret objective of unlocking immortality (possibly based on one of Plagueis's attempts) and used by Palpatine around the time of the Battle of Endor? Seeing as the original version of the virus in Legends was created by Darth Drear in order to achieve immortality for Sith Lords, something Canon Palpatine was looking for due to believing that the Empire shouldn't out live him. I'm probably thinking about this from randomly becoming interested in the Death Troopers novel recently for some reason. (Sixth attempt, please answer).
I think what the Empire needed was a brilliant tactician capable of make the TIEs work. It's doable, but only if the Empire understands that their only advantage is overwhelming force: quick deployment, and optimal flight formation allowing concentration of firepower wherever there is a weakness in the Rebel fighter screen/raid group. An X-Wing can't fight ten TIEs at once. This technique also greatly reduced casualties as Rebel will be overwhelmed and swarmed so fast they won't inflict much damage.
General Kenobi I fail to see how using the freaking properties of the battle ground you’ve been fighting in for millennia at this point is “genius” more like not brain dead.
Something I’ve been wondering since your frigate video; if the composite beams of the LAAT exists, why haven’t we seen records of it being specifically adapted as a CIWS-type system? As we saw in Landing at Point Rain, they’re certainly capable of being used for the task.
I know this video is a few months old now, but... This tactic could be used on a larger scale, if ISDs or capital ships allow wings of fighters to attach themselves to the hull, then when the capital ships drop out of hyperspace, with a short bit of thrust, the fighters could then detach at the right time and continue forward unpowered. Now the large amount of fighters might end up being detectable, depending on their distribution once launched, but they could just as easily "launch" in a large cone, over-shoot their targets, and simply power up and attack the enemy flanks. This method of launching large amounts of fighters could also be supplemented with the launching of 'dummy fighters'(basically objects that simulate fighter silhouettes and sensor profiles) within the real fighter formation that would further confuse and distract the enemy.
Wasn't there that one time in the Thrawn trilogy where that bridge officer tried to use the tractor beam to push a deliberate debris cloud out of the way to try to get a lock on Luke or something like that?
As for rebellyeeters I think you could have an Interdictor cruiser with raider-class corvettes and a victory as for thrawn-pincerting it into the rebells face.
So, could two star destroyer operating close together tether the same TIE with their tractor beams and sling it between them without the need to maneuver? I guess it would either work or tear the fighter in two, so IDK.
The best way to reconcile the issue of "actual space physics" and the usual "star wars space drag" thing is simple. The standard power sources used in any star wars vessel are THEMSELVES the source of this "space drag." That is why you can just drift away as long as you literally have nothing powering you other than a short-lived battery or something.
Generally, I thought the slingshots were the coolest parts of the book. Less-so a Thrawn thing, I thought it was very on-point for Zahn. Hey, wait, was this just something Zahn wanted anyway???????
Not really related but: I just realized how effective the zygerrian transport will be for space fighting. It can change engine orientation midflight, fall behind pursuing fighters and blast them. It can also spin itself around by reversing one engine and shoot enemy fighters. Same with the turtle tanker. Would be fun to see this as a pirate/bounty hunter tactic.
So you're telling me a star destroyer's sensors can detect a small cloud of nitrogen gas from maneuvering thrusters, but not a giant hunk of metal like a TIE?
I know this isn’t quite the most relevant video to mention this on, but Star Wars Armada has just revealed the design for the New Republic’s Starhawk capital ship, as well as Palpatine’s Unknown Region fleet for Episode IX. You might want to check them out if you get the chance.
5:00 problem.. beginning of episode 4.. they nullified the cruiser's speed so it didn't have the ability to fly off, and the tractor beam was from above it, not behind. They could have accelerated enough to slide the ship ahead, and since the tractor beam was inside the hangar, the edges of the hanger door would actually block the beam. It doesn't just pull, it can also push and move to the side as well, at least in Ep4.
You could cover the launch of some fighters (or probe droids) by a quick burn of your capital ship’s own engines (in reverse), then time it so everyone cuts power (nearly) simultaneously. All an enemy would see is a quick blip on their scopes. 😊
Starting a new KOTOR campaign in about 30 mins at www.twitch.tv/eckhartsladder
EckhartsLadder cool
Shadow stormtroopers vs ODST
Why couldn't Thrawn have a ship attached to the hull of the Star Destroyer traveling at speed, decouple, then have the Destroy stop and ship drift into points of interest without thrusters?
Starship versus General skywalker vs the covenants imperial admiral.
Eck: “Thrawn’s genius tactic!”
Me: Do you know how little that narrows it down?
Made me chuckle. Take a like.
TLDR: Thrawn is the first Star Wars tactician in history to learn how space works and actually take advantage of it.
THANK YOU.
Finally some intelligent thinking in SW tactics, but it still wouldn't have worked due to a single oversight.
Those TiE's were stored aboard the SD, meaning they were not kept at the same temperature as the vacuum outside. In fact they are some 270-290 degree's warmer than space, and since pre-launch they were not cooled off to drop them to the ambient temperature of space (about 2-3 degree's kelvin). So while they have zero electronic emissions, they would look like a road flare at midnight to a thermal scanner. However the fact that this works, means thermal scanners aren't part of a standard sensor suite aboard star wars capitol ships, which when you think about it, is something Thrawn would have known.
@@cgi2002 A fair point, though given the number of other phenomena that can occur in space, shipboard instruments are probably calibrated to look for heat and energy emissions within a certain range, rather than giving an alert whenever any kind of signature was detected. And if relatively close to a star, it will be comparatively warmer. I don't know exactly where this tactic was used, since Eckhart avoided spoilers and I haven't read the book yet, but if it was in a star system it might not have been that cold. And if it was in an inhabited system, they might already be having to sort out a lot of unimportant information.
Even so, the ambient heat of the TIE could still be a limiting factor on this tactic. Though using it in an already active battle would make it more viable, if still risky; at that point, a ship's sensors would definitely be more focused on active signature rather than the comparatively low-key signature of an inactive TIE.
Brandon Flowers
This is why I love Thrawn books. His tactics bring out the greatest minds and mental prowess of the community.
cgi2002 since Space is a vacuum the only way to detect heat would be through thermal radiation, something that the fighters probably wouldn’t give off much of if they had no systems on.
Nobody :
Most Admirals : we must flank the enemy in order to win
Thrawn : *yeet that ship*
Yeet: Yes, Empty of Every Thought. Or Yet, Everyone Else Talks (in English). Or maybe Youths, Ever Evading Thinking.
@@MonkeyJedi99 maybe the last one
reading that in his rebels voice made me die lmao
Bohemian ! That nobody doesn't even make sense. They flank the enemy cause they're at war
Casually board ship
Grab controls
Yeet the ship
I want more Thrawn content. I WANT MORE
Me two buddy
Same here. We needs the blue boi
Me too.... however I hope the last book of this tetralogy will be "unshacled" in unknown regions... where Thrawn and Ezra will get something truly done...
Nope, we are not getting more true Thrawn (the EU is dead and this blue guy from Rebells is NOT Thrawn, Thrawn doesn't brawl, Thrawn doesn't try to shoot a (shielded!) starfighter (a Tie-Defender, which does have shields - unlike most Tie-Fighters!) with a blaster-pistol...seriously, what they are now doing to the character just sucks (original Thrawn was a mysterious, larger than live character and a tactical and strategic genius...this new guy is a pale copy (like a clone that didn't quite come out right!))
DreamingFlury It was a play on the film Patton it was just there to be there honestly. It's based on the scene where patton starts shooting at the German planes with his personal side arm. While he acknowledges the pilots for their skill. Like thrawn does to his enemies in the lothal rebels group.
Really Timothy Zahn’s genius tactics
Timothy Zahn just has that awesome ability to look at the Star Wars Universe and figure out combos and correlations that expand the lore just by going over what is there. Which makes sense, since he played a pivotal role in establishing EU/Legends lore.
@@Agonis100 speaking of adding to lore, the Dashade species is canon again which, o gotta say, is pretty badass
@@lucassanchez9050 Interesting! Do they still retain their Sith connection? I noticed Timothy Zahn and James Luceno putting some of the old lore into their canon books.
@@Agonis100 Timothy Zahn is Thrawn.
Wouldn't work in 'real life', the tractor beam wouldn't perfectly transfer kinetic energy to the TIE -the TIE's structure will heat up due to deformation and against the background of deep space it would be detected.
Even collisions with the random particles present in space would generate detectable heat and light.
Thrawn is my favorite Starwars character
My top five are:
Thrawn
Revan
Atton Rand
Lumiya
Darth Bane
DarksaberForce mine are:
GONK droid
GONK droid
GONK droid
GONK droid
GONK droid
The Yeet Catapult
"You may YEET when ready"
Thrawn was a true yeeter
The Yeet-a-pult
I've just learned a new english word, thank you! :D
The Thrawn Yeet
I love that the Thrawn stories have more emphasis on military tactic.
this is a great demonstration of utilising existing technology creatively without destroying the universe. so compliment to the author.
in general there is a great dyssinance between teh movies and the expandet universe, even the Clone wars series depicted space battle much different than the movies did and Rogue One also had more emphasis on space battles.
it always depends on who is writing these stories, but I really wish we had a bit more consistency and common ground in teh star wars universe.
Thrawn catapult, a classic move but quite efficient. If you have a few minute I'd like to show you my new master piece. The dorito formation, do not be fooled by his name like most of my ennemies.
And what would that be?
“If you have a few spare hours, I’d like to show the details of how this device is a masterpiece of design”
- French Famas Lady with a shooty drone
An actual spearhead for once, you know. The thing one would think star destroyers were designed for.
@@Matt-uk7zq it was so artistically done...
Mitth'raw'dorito's thrawn is french confirmed
Stuff like this is why we should have a Halo story written by Timothy Zahn.
I think Halo has some pretty good showcases of tactical thinking in the comics. And those actually make sense unlike this one.
Mazyar - Every book I’ve read features tactical thinking either by ground forces or by the navy
@@mazyar-7 This makes perfect sense within the context of the story.
Thrawn's enemy relied solely on sensors , and in SW you can't sneak up on someone in space unless you completly avoid scanning / sensor reading by either using stealth / cloaking devices or shutting down the craft.
But when you shut down the craft, it's just gonna float in the vacuum of space. So the only way to a launch it towards a target, more or less controlled, is to essentialy "catauplt" the craft via tractor beam, exactly the way shown in this video. From purely logical and technical POV, this absolutly makes sense.
@@lkvideos7181 That part of it makes sense, dont get me wrong, but the problem with it is that 1- the fighter has the same temp as the interior of the ship which makes it super easy to find with an infra red scanner and 2- I refuse to believe some advanced form of lidar doesnt exist in starwars. The reason it doesnt make sense is cause they can easily detect and shoot it.
@@mazyar-7 To further expand on the context, Grand Admiral Savit had Thrawn outnumbered with his 4 ISDs against his 1 in that engagement, and held him basicaly hostage on his flagship Firedrake. So there was little reason to expect anything from Thrawn's single ISD really, especialy without their commander onboard, and the situation didn't really warrant such a thorough sensor sweep.
Competence and expectation always play a huge factor. For an ISD crew to do something like that, is incredibly unconventional. Usualy imperials are painfully predictable. But the Chimera wasn't your avarage ISD, it was Thrawn's crew and he came up with that idea.
Plus, these things happened several times in the movies. Like when the Millenium Falcon escaped Death Squadron.
The heros were also completly oblivious to Boba Fett's presence in the same field of debris / space junk *they* were hiding.
Or when Jango Fett.surprised Obi Wan over Bespin.
Lidar may exist, but that doesn't mean it's automaticaly used all the time, especialy when such manouvers aren't expected and standart instruments are sufficient to mark enemy craft. We also gotta keep in mind that if Lidar etc exist, than there are probaly also counter measures.
I also need to check it again, because iirc a cloaking device was used when they tested that "slingshot" / catapult manouveir before that battle.
I'd be super interested to hear your description of the battle between the Chimera and Savit's forces at the end of Treason. That battle seems... difficult to imagine without pictures.
Mark Schaukowitch I would love to see a diagrammed breakdown because that was such a wildly elaborate battle
What to do against rebels as imperial commander? Something UNHEARD of, like REVOLUTIONARY.
Point defense
I saw Catapult and immediately thought he strapped a hyperdrive on an asteroid and shot it at the enemy ships after deploying it from the hanger of his ISD
great idea
Guess who's back, baby. Didn't see that coming, huh?
Thrawn I think you’re over blown and over hyped.
@@isaiahdobesh5109 Thank you Isaiah, very cool!
If you were he the empire would have won
From one thrawn to the other, how do you feel about our new show with Lars Mikkelsen
Thrawn, Moff Gideon stole your catapult idea with his Class 546 Cruiser! I got a Bellator, two interdictors, and four Fulgor-class pursuit frigates.
A very interesting tactic on Thrawn's part, not exactly surprising since he's a genius, but still impressive ingenuity nonetheless. Nicholas Farrell's question and your response definitely peaked my interest in optimal battlegroups, and I wonder if could apply the same kind of analytic thinking to other groups; the Rebels, CIS, Republic (Clone Wars era), or even other franchises, for example Halo's UNSC or Covenant (not that they really needed improved strategy but would be neat to hear your ideas). Honestly I would go on with others however I'm not too sure just how much necessary information is available for other factions like Mass Effect's System Alliance for example, or if you think you would even need just as much raw data as what exists for Star Wars and Halo. Keep up the great content mate, always look forward to new work from you!
I can tell you one thing in regards to this thinking and the groups you listed. It wouldn't have worked against the Covenant (they literally tracked every bit of dust around high charity, and anything larger than a football got slagged), by extension it fails against the UNSC as they have the same if not better tech now. And it also fails against the Systems alliance, their entire stealth system is based around heat management and emissions, this situation still has a heat problem. The TiE is stored at room temperature before launch, and isn't cooled to match the background levels of space, meaning its far too warm and would stand out massively. Even if it was chilled, it lacks a heat management system to make up for the pilot heating the inside of the TiE with their body heat, which would in turn heat the window and the sides of the ship. Even a few degree's would stand out in the vacuum, it is after all quite uniform in its emptiness.
@@cgi2002 I apologize but you seem to have misunderstood me. I don't want to see this tactic applied elsewhere, I want to know Eckharts' opinions on optimal battlegroup structures For those groups in their respective universes.
Axton Lunark I fail to see how this is a mark “genius” it feels like this sort of scouting before battle should be common place, even if the exact method is a bit unconventional, it’s not that off the wall
@@Ravenous1369 oh I see. I misunderstood then. Got to admit I'd like to see his opinions on battlegroup/fleet structures. I would also love to see if he could come up with an ultra realistic fleet/ship logic. For example a universe were heat management is a thing, speed of light delays, high speed targeting, electronic warfare, etc. Does it just become fleets of drones fighting each other, with humans in overall strategic control or do people still have a place in combat. Are strike craft realistic option in that situation, or do they just serve as chaff/mobile CIWS.
I believe that in book they called this manouver a Slingshot
Yep. That is correct.
Thrawn showing off his brilliance once again
Timothy adding marvellous strategies to the universe.
OMG i just heard this tactic on the audio book, then opens UA-cam and the first video my eyes lands on is your breakdown of it
It's a stroke of tactical genius. It uses Newton's 1st law of motion - that an object will move in a straight line at a constant speed unless it is subjected to a force - in a simple but brilliant way.
The sad thing is that it takes a tactical genius to figure out that the space ships and fighters don't need to keep their bloody engines always on to fly forward in space.
That's almost Creed levels of infiltration. Now if only Thrawn could infiltrate a SSD the same way...
I about choked on my lunch imagining a small asteroid suddenly revealing a Executor, along with a healthy THRAWN
_Mon Calamari cruiser flys by cargo freighter_
_freighter immediately turns into a Executor_
Rebels: NANI?
CREEEEEEEEEEEED!!1
Ahh, nothing like Thrawn's tactical maneuvers to put you in a good mood.
Also, second attempt: Resurgent-class Star Destroyer VS Separatist Lucrehulk
This reminds me of the NJO tactic of "dry dropping/shadow launching" torpedoes used by the Jedi against the Vong.
Well, tractor beams do have their limits, but that is entirely based on the object being pulled & such.
A series of tractor beams spread out over the underside, along with some careful programing you could manipulate any object in their fields.
ANY OBJECT!?
USS Prinz Eugen, are you typing me that a Single Star Destroyer could pull the Death Star all by itself? That a Tug, as featured in “Star Wars: the Clone Wars”, is powerful enough to move an entire Planet!? Sun!?!? A Black Hole!?!?!?
Despite how Humorous I’m making this, I’m actually pretty serious about the point I’m making here.
@@nickvinsable3798 With just pushing and pulling at different angles and with different outputs it could work.
For instance set up a series of tractor beams and you could have a tractor beam "Rail gun" like set up, obviously not like an actual rail gun but you could preform the thrawn catapult without maneuvering the star destroyer
Sigh, USS Prinz Eugen, I thought I didn’t need to explain this. The limits I was referring to has to do with the mass & power generation of the object with the tractor beam & the object on the receiving end of the tractor beam
#AskEck, with the unveiling of Thrawn’s tactics & the Star Hawk, what are the supposed limitations of gravity wells & tractor beams?
@@nickvinsable3798 Ah okay, well it would work on any object up to around the size of a blockade runner then. I wasnt thinking about moving a moon.
It's so sad that basically at the end of the book we hear of his impending doom. Rebels did Thrawn wrong and I ain't ever gonna get over it. ):
Or, mabie not.....
Thrawn is still alive.
I honestly love this channel so much, I love Star Wars and the empire. And this guy does so much of it.
Do BIONICLE lore 6th attempt
Андрей Шурочка hero factory is better
@@radiumuppet lol no, they're just robots
I second this attempt
BONKLES LIVE *STOMP-STOMP*
Makuta says yes!
VF-1 Valkyrie variable fighter( SDF Macross) vs Viking mech ( Starcraft).
Reaver class titan( Warhammer 40K) vs LED Mirage Mortar Headd( Five Star Stories).
Culture General Offensive Unit(excession era or later) vs anything
Culture wins HAHAHAAHHAAHAHAH
Thrawn: “Engines who needs em?”
This is actually the perfect kind of tactic for Thrawn. From a literary standpoint. It is clearly smart and inventive, showing cleverness of the one who uses it, but it isn't world or lore breaking. (LOOKIN AT YOU HOLDO)
If you have some good tractor beams you can do it, but once you do it a few times the enemy would catch on and notice it (nose down ship flipping up it's nose) and if you were to use this for launching fighters all the time or make a ship built around it then it's stealth advantage would be lost, as your big catapult system would point one way, probably draw enough power to be noticeable, and launch fighters on a predictable trajectory. (I assume if you know WHERE in space to point your better sensors finding something is easy, as that is how we find stuff in space now).
So it's a great strategy that can catch someone unsuspecting off guard, but does not fundamentally change the nature of combat.
The tactical Yeet
You may YEET when ready
@@benmurray212 three minutes to YEET
'd like to tell you where to stuff that imaginary word, but I like being able to stay subscribed.
@@MonkeyJedi99 yeet it up your own ass and quit getting upset over new words so much
YEET at will.
This guy is basically Napoleon Bonaparte of Star Wars
Except Disney has thus far done a *HUGE* disservice to the character.
Painting ship with red makes them faster.
Thrawn: genius!
#AsKEck How would you have commanded the Rebellion fleet at Scarif?
Use Gungans as cannon fodder.
Fulcrum 4.0 only 2 star destroyers with little anti fighter capability, with a lot of ties. Here’s what I would do: Maunever the dorean gunships and antifighter frigates toward the shield gate, as all of the ties were coming out of there. Keep the main fleet out of range, and have the ywings and xwings and maybe some z95s pelt their shields and engines until they’re down. Then move the fleet to the aft of the ISD’s, as their firing arcs cannot reach there. Boom ya won.
Daniel Wells if their particle shields are still up the fighters will just go splat on the windshield :( ya gotta weaken/destroy the generators to do that.
I would try a more Direct bombardment of the shield ring rather than sending bombers after it.
Also would definitely have the ships scatter to retreat rather than all hyperdrive forward and into vaders trap.
Nicholas Wong Star Destroyer can just turn around to engage the fleet...
I'm so happy you showed this strategy. This was a highlight in the novel for me😁
And everything he did after
Interesting that Moff Gideons ship had the launching system you spoke of...
It would be really interesting to see what kind of tractor beam maneuvers could be pulled off when multiple ships are working together
Such a weird fight in the book.
“Ok everyone. We need to make this look good for the empire so let’s not use lethal weapons at first.”
You should do a short episode about the infamous "Dinner Squadron". And "Silly Squadron".
And no, I'm not joking. Read the "Wraith squadron" books.
Thrawn's biggest mistake was calling it catapult instead of the far superior Trebuchet.
Skaldak indeed.
The Thrawn catapult was Eck's name for this maneuver. Eckhart is still a great Star Wars UA-camr, but Thrawn would clearly know better than this.
Also, the Thrawn trebuchet is a nice alliteration, but that’s besides the point
Nono it's just an error
It doesn't become a mistake unless he refuses to correct it ;)
The TIEbuchet?
Everything Thrawn does is pure genius, unless he is in Star Wars Rebels
Imagine using the tractor beam to pull asteroids into enemy ships...
Or explosives
Really like that tactic and the name you gave for it.
Also cool how it can be used for scouting and letting a starfighter come close undetected and then do damage.
Thank you so much for this video. I always love visually seeing tactics that ships use from the books. ESPECIALLY THRAWN.
These battle break down/strategy videos are my favorite
Vs matchup
Sgt. Johnson(Halo) vs Captain Rex(Star Wars)
In my day, we didn't have any fancy schmancy tanks! We had sticks! Two sticks and a rock for a whole platoon! And, we had to share the rock!
That's not fair! Atleast give Rex a partner, I think Cody will do fine.
I have a modification. Thrawn does the same thing during battle, or before battle, but has the cockpit cleared of all control systems and technical equipment and then stuffs the cockpit full of explosives. That way no pilot is at risk and a powerful explosion can be dealt directly to the ship. A sort of drone kamikaze attack.
Marc Thompson does a great job of doing Thrawns voice for the book.
In the latest Age of Resistance issue Holdo does something similar and uses the tractor beam to increase the speed of her CR-90 (which it shouldn't be able to do) fire its cannons and blast through the hangar and decks above it before flying through the star destroyer (again it cant because it the firepower). Have no idea how one small corvette can do that to a destroyer. As you said a tractor beam cannot manipulate the speed of a vessel.
Two or perhaps three ISD's could work in tandem with their tractor beams all pointed to a small location where many Tie-Defenders could fly through with their shields up & then get accelerated significantly in catapult-fashion toward a distant location without them needing their own engines at all. The fighters would be essentially launched to where they could sneak up extremely stealthily on the enemy ships. Most Star Wars ships seem to only use energy-scanning sensors instead of sensors like radar to detect objects coming toward them, and so the catapult would be very brilliant as a stealth-attack tactic.
Just discovered this old video. I'm really excited to see Thrawn's military genius in whatever role he plays in the Disney+ Star Wars universe.
I’m on the second book. To know he gets Defenders later on. I can’t wait. Lol
Great video. Interesting note about the tractor beam, though.....especially since Thrawn used the repulsor mode on the tractor beam to launch cloaked asteroids into orbit around Coruscant during the Thrawn Trilogy. Maybe he had the Chimera's tractor beams upgraded after this?
TL:DR
No one:
Thrawn: oh yeah it's big brain time!
this is actually called the slingshot fighter maneuver
it CAN use the tractor beam as a slingshot to shoot fighters to point-blank range, which is great for TIE Defenders to work at full capacity, or like mentioned in the Thrawn: Treason, sling a Grysk cloaked gravity well/bomb to the enemy
or in the TIE Defender case, a thrawn pincer would also work as TIE Defenders have hyperdrives
I loved this maneuver. It showed Thrawn's genius.
This is the kind of strategy i want to see from Thrawn in Ahzoka show.
With breaking the norm and surprising the protagonist nearly everytime.
Nice tactic, but still the thinking is in 2D, not the 3D space allows. If you enter a system at the edge or outside scanning distance. Flying in on a large arc, adjust the axis of the capital ship so launch bay(s) can just drop the fighters out and the inertia can slingshot them without any discernable energy output.
If you knew exactly where your enemy was (y'know, by using powerful _telescopes)_ you could sling a bunch of *proton bombs* at them, perhaps with a *ion bomb* appetizer.
Although the compressed gas launch tubes might be better, if aiming is inaccurate with the Thrawn catapult.
A actual battlefield tactic is if you can guess they're going to maneuver to a certain spot on your opposite side (because it makes obvious sense) is to soft launch a bunch of bombs using the bulk of your ship to hide the launch, and let the enemy capital ship run into your instant minefield.
I think proton bombs are active and use an energy containment field. Proboblly very detectable. However tie deffenders carry small proton torpedoes so maybe with enough shielding and a timer you could pull it off
It was so artistically done.
I also love how he modified this tactic with asteroids,to shut down coruscant for a time
You could absolutely make a launch tube for that kind of fighter launch using in-universe tech. Imagine a standard launch tube with a ring situated at the mouth of it with two or more tractor beam emitters facing into the tube. Assuming both tractor beams are pulling with the exact same force, they should cancel the vertical momentum from their offset position giving you only horizontal pull the entire way down the tube and out. Of course, it's all a matter of whether or not it's worth it to incorporate a dedicated launch tube like this when you can perform the maneuver without it.
Like how a good deal of "genius" tactics or inventions seem to also be things that when explained are just so amazingly simple or obvious yet nobody tried it or thought of it before. (Both in fiction and irl)
As for alternate ways to launch the ties, I dont really know how powerful the tractor beam of a star destroyer is... but assuming it would be able to easily pull in things the size of the mel falcon or larger using main tractor beam, I would imagine smaller versions could be placed on the SD simply to catapult ties. Possibly by aranging them in a certain way or maybe considering smaller versions, have some that are deployable that could extend below the hangar and pull the target towards it. Once the desired amount of momentum is generated, just deactivate it and raise it back up into the SD out of the ties way.
Im also not certain how detectability works exactly with diff types of thrust / engines but maybe an idea similar to real life rocket assisted takeoffs, where an airplane would have special rocket motors affixed to it in order to help bring it up to take off speed on short runways.
The idea being the tie is dropped from the SD with very basic rockets like the aformentioned types affixed to the tie that would fire propel it along its way, then just hit a button to detach them. Seems like it would be a very simple and very cost effective way to stealthily launch ties ...or well any fighter really. This though is operating on the idea that a chemical rocket (not a star fighter engine etc) would not be detectable at long ranges.
Also, the rocket assisted method would sort of have more of a benefit than Eckharts catapult / launch method as his would have more sophisticated equipment and machinery, that given shouldnt pose any issue for an SD, could still be prone to failure and still use power (even if in virtually in detectable levels) and would be unusable in the event of a malfunction. The rockets however.....super disposable, super easy to mount and use, if any fail it wont really hold up anything like how a broken sling would. Just slap on rockets n try again.
Overall though i think Ecks idea is the better one though.
I actually thought that you would talk about another maneuver Thrawn came up with, although I must admit I don't remember which book we are talking about. This tactic actually used some kind of launching catapults.
The Imperial Forces needed to blockade a planet without having the forces necessary to do that. So Thrawn _convinced_ the enemy that he actually did that, without him actually doing it.
He did that by launching... rocks at the planet. Huge rocks the size of a Tie fighter. Each was equipped with a cloaking device, which Thrawn allowed to "fail", so the rebels could see that he was launching invisible rocks. Which could easily destroy an X-Wing or even bigger ships.
But most of the time he let the catapults on his ship run hot by letting them, well, catapult without an actual object getting thrown. Just launch after launch after launch, without _actually_ throwing rocks at the enemy. Buuut, since the rebels sensors could detect those catapults working _and_ since the rebels were now convinced that he is throwing invisible rocks (because he showed them by allowing a couple of cloaking devices "fail"), they became convinced that he actually completely blocked the planet with thousands of invisible rocks that can't be detected and thus not destroyed or avoided and thus would actually keep ships from launching. So in the end, the rebels did not launch their ships, although they actually could have.
Do you mean Thrawn's siege of Coruscant during the Thrawn campaign? If so he already made a video about it if I am not mistaking.
Cool, I think that was it, thanks for pointing this out!
And I have discovered and subscribed to EL not too long ago and by now I am still busy looking through all of his videos. That guy seems to produce an insane amount of high quality vids in high frequency, so I might have missed this. :)
@@Furzkampfbomber Glad to have been of assistance. Yeah, Eckhartsladder produces a lot of good content, so sometimes it can be a bit hard to find the right thing. I found him through his Thrawn campaign related videos, so everything related to that part of the lore is pretty well known to me.
If you were a commander in the imperial Navy, what ship would you want to command and why?
well.. idk if they say it in the book but it'll likely be retconed later when they need to use the tractor beams to do something other then pull so I'm going to just theorize now that the tractorbeam was used specifically because it could be hidden by the ships hull. it's on the underside, it's facing backwards so long as it's disengaged at the right point there'd be no visable energy signal.. but meh that's just a possibility
How about Sci-fi versus of Force Sensitives (Star Wars) vs Mutants (Marvel) vs other super powered beings from Sci-fi? The reason I chose Mutants over something like the Avengers is because, due to being a species, they all have similar traits and you wouldn't need to go as specific with the Avengers where each of their members gained powers through different ways eg: Iron Man has no powers when outside his armours, Hawkeye and Black Widow are normal humans with lots of training, Thor is naturally more powerful than the others due to being an alien, Captain America is basically a 1940s Spartan-II, Hulk is the only one with true powers in the original team, etc.
o boy i must digging more about Interdictor Star Destroyer after watching this
Dude beat a fellow grand admiral without even being on his own ship
That was a big oof on my part
All down to the capabilities of my crew
I had prior to reading the thrawn trilogy believed that ships especially bigger ones and specifically the isd I line as they have a sensor array on top of the bridge had some sort of optical sensors using ai and cameras or at the very least I believed they had used lidar in starwars
Cool video! I always like it when you do videos about space tactics
Please never stop making videos!
Thrawn is SO BOSS.
#askEckhart Could some small flotilla/squadrons sling around a planet/moon to inertially get into batlle position?
Physics says yes but be careful and be precise.
@@marrqi7wini54 And I think this is why it could be a good tension building dramatic device, as the slinging element should have to coordinate with the main element, or the main element should have to push thru some obstacles to take advantage of the sllnging manouver.
Yes they could, even scientists that launch probes into space use flybys to get into a position and speed that makes them go where you want. It won't work in an emergency though since you need to calculate and do the math so it will probably be used before battle,calculated and then sling and fly by when ready. Or you can use a heat shield and also use an objects atmosphere to slow down and enter a certain path.
#AskEck
Seeing as it's Canon (partly) through Star Wars: Commander, is it possible that the Galactic Empire's Project: Blackwing had a secret objective of unlocking immortality (possibly based on one of Plagueis's attempts) and used by Palpatine around the time of the Battle of Endor? Seeing as the original version of the virus in Legends was created by Darth Drear in order to achieve immortality for Sith Lords, something Canon Palpatine was looking for due to believing that the Empire shouldn't out live him. I'm probably thinking about this from randomly becoming interested in the Death Troopers novel recently for some reason. (Sixth attempt, please answer).
If you can bring ties that close a swarm of tie sized torpedoes were a neat thing
I think what the Empire needed was a brilliant tactician capable of make the TIEs work. It's doable, but only if the Empire understands that their only advantage is overwhelming force: quick deployment, and optimal flight formation allowing concentration of firepower wherever there is a weakness in the Rebel fighter screen/raid group. An X-Wing can't fight ten TIEs at once. This technique also greatly reduced casualties as Rebel will be overwhelmed and swarmed so fast they won't inflict much damage.
Couldnt the Defender just fire up it's engines for a few seconds?
That'd take feul
Magnificent tactic.
Finally someone who can use space to his advantage.
Thrawn is really a genius.
General Kenobi I fail to see how using the freaking properties of the battle ground you’ve been fighting in for millennia at this point is “genius” more like not brain dead.
I did not expect anything less from a genius like thrawn.
Great video EckhartsLadder.
Something I’ve been wondering since your frigate video; if the composite beams of the LAAT exists, why haven’t we seen records of it being specifically adapted as a CIWS-type system? As we saw in Landing at Point Rain, they’re certainly capable of being used for the task.
I know this video is a few months old now, but...
This tactic could be used on a larger scale, if ISDs or capital ships allow wings of fighters to attach themselves to the hull, then when the capital ships drop out of hyperspace, with a short bit of thrust, the fighters could then detach at the right time and continue forward unpowered.
Now the large amount of fighters might end up being detectable, depending on their distribution once launched, but they could just as easily "launch" in a large cone, over-shoot their targets, and simply power up and attack the enemy flanks.
This method of launching large amounts of fighters could also be supplemented with the launching of 'dummy fighters'(basically objects that simulate fighter silhouettes and sensor profiles) within the real fighter formation that would further confuse and distract the enemy.
Wasn't there that one time in the Thrawn trilogy where that bridge officer tried to use the tractor beam to push a deliberate debris cloud out of the way to try to get a lock on Luke or something like that?
im just picturing thrawn sitting down in a medieval catapult and yeeting himself at the rebels
As for rebellyeeters I think you could have an Interdictor cruiser with raider-class corvettes and a victory as for thrawn-pincerting it into the rebells face.
So, could two star destroyer operating close together tether the same TIE with their tractor beams and sling it between them without the need to maneuver? I guess it would either work or tear the fighter in two, so IDK.
The best way to reconcile the issue of "actual space physics" and the usual "star wars space drag" thing is simple. The standard power sources used in any star wars vessel are THEMSELVES the source of this "space drag." That is why you can just drift away as long as you literally have nothing powering you other than a short-lived battery or something.
Generally, I thought the slingshots were the coolest parts of the book. Less-so a Thrawn thing, I thought it was very on-point for Zahn. Hey, wait, was this just something Zahn wanted anyway???????
Real life physics in Star Wars? IT'S TREASON THEN!
Not really related but: I just realized how effective the zygerrian transport will be for space fighting. It can change engine orientation midflight, fall behind pursuing fighters and blast them. It can also spin itself around by reversing one engine and shoot enemy fighters. Same with the turtle tanker. Would be fun to see this as a pirate/bounty hunter tactic.
The tactical yeet maneuver
So you're telling me a star destroyer's sensors can detect a small cloud of nitrogen gas from maneuvering thrusters, but not a giant hunk of metal like a TIE?
I know this isn’t quite the most relevant video to mention this on, but Star Wars Armada has just revealed the design for the New Republic’s Starhawk capital ship, as well as Palpatine’s Unknown Region fleet for Episode IX. You might want to check them out if you get the chance.
Where is it?
A halo or mass effect style mass accelerator that launches unmanned drone ships.
*The Techo Union Would like to Know your Location*
Classic Timothy Zahn, he loves his tractor beam tricks in his SW books!
No one:
Thrawn: Yeets tie defender*
5:00 problem.. beginning of episode 4.. they nullified the cruiser's speed so it didn't have the ability to fly off, and the tractor beam was from above it, not behind. They could have accelerated enough to slide the ship ahead, and since the tractor beam was inside the hangar, the edges of the hanger door would actually block the beam.
It doesn't just pull, it can also push and move to the side as well, at least in Ep4.
You could cover the launch of some fighters (or probe droids) by a quick burn of your capital ship’s own engines (in reverse), then time it so everyone cuts power (nearly) simultaneously. All an enemy would see is a quick blip on their scopes. 😊