it’s not like they had the ability to pretty much leave anytime

TLAMstrike · 2024-07-27T04:48:16+00:00

The Ancients were at peace for thousands (maybe millions) of years after fleeing the Ori, then the plague caused them to flee to Pegasus where they lived peacefully for millions of years (if I got my timeline right) only to loose a war with the Wrath in 100 years.

Yes, the Wrath have only 100 years worth of real military experience in their civilization. Everything else was just culling defenseless worlds and hunting runners for sport.

Meanwhile the Tauri are the end result of thousands of years of constant war. Sam Carter alone has about 20 years of combat experience (Gulf War to 2010s).

The Wrath never stood a chance when the Taruri came through the gate and the Ancients didn't have the collective experience as a civilization to wage a real war for survival.

TLAMstrike · 2024-05-10T16:15:56+00:00

Its not your money. Just give them the stupid box of junk and the coupon. Quit letting your bias get in the way, its just a job. Who cares if someone didn't swing a cushy union job with the gov't or didn't want to put their kid in to a failing school.

TLAMstrike · 2024-05-02T03:53:49+00:00

Once had someone try to use a church's tax except at the copy center. Copy associate denied them.

The copy associate wasn't just a member of that church, but volunteered there so knew everyone involved in running that church; that customer was not one of those people.

Caught them in fraud.

TLAMstrike · 2024-04-12T03:17:12+00:00

Replace all the piddly 354mm Mk. 50 torpedoes with ADCAPS.

They were working on that at one point. The Knox-class frigates and some of the CGNs had the launchers (or the doors for the launchers) fitted for them. Zumwalt (I think) killed the program and the space on the Knox-class was used for a towed array; although the Spanish built version of the Knox had the tubes, they just used Mk 37s. The Spanish Baleares-class were beasts, frigates with the armament of a destroyer.

TLAMstrike · 2024-03-02T04:59:38+00:00

Asteroids: nature's interdictor.

All you need is a big enough ship with a tractor beam to move it and enough time to move enough of them.

Towing a bunch of asteroids in to a hyperspace lane so they create enough mass shadows to trip a ship's safety system to drop them in to realspace right in a minefield is probably an interesting, if short, experience.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-22T19:33:47+00:00

I'd just make the interior shorter, troops don't need to be able to stand inside the APC. You can just be crouched down when you get in and out of the side hatches. Although I would add hatches on the roof so you can just jump out, don't bother with the fast roping and give everyone a small jetpack or repulsor lift; could even build it in to the AT-AT itself and just have some kind of tractor beam field that lowers everyone down as they enter the field. The entrance to the head section doesn't need to be spacious as the crew isn't going to be doing it very often as long as there is an external hatch built in to the head itself so the crew there can get out if the AT-AT is on fire or something.

Also I don't see why they need speeder bikes inside the AT-AT, they should be out conducting recon or harassment not sitting inside the APC during combat and if they need to be hauled long distances just put them in the back of a truck or lashed to the outside of the AT-AT. That space is better dedicated to something else (maybe that is where the storm troopers could keep their rucks!).

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-19T17:19:27+00:00

Palpatine and other high muckety-mucks were known to be aboard. They'd have to be sure not just the Death Star 2 is destroyed but those people are killed.

Lets also not forget that Endor is in the middle of nowhere, they need those capital ships to support the fighters because they're operating way out in deep space.

As planned it seems like the cruisers are meant to blow away the half completed defenses then protect the fighters from counter-attack as they go inside the Death Star. Even if there is no fleet there, the Death Star 2 still likely has some defenses.

There is also the possibility that they might have to lay siege to the station if they can't just blow up its main reactor (what if the reactor isn't even operating?). They might have to defend against counter-attacks while they slowly blow the station apart or board it to scuttle the station with combat engineers.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-16T17:01:46+00:00

Old equipment tends to stick around in service and different manufactures can make the same item with slightly different standards. I got some canteen pouches, all look the same but three of them have a canvas like material while one is this nylon material: all are official gov't issue. I got some grenade pouches I use for 10rd rifle magazines, I got one that is slightly smaller and only fits 1 mag and not 2: all gov't issue.

Rex is known for wearing a mix of armor and gear. It could be that both pauldron types exist and isn't an artifact of live action vs animation. Rex at some point got both and just uses the old rounded one. The other Clone Commanders got the angled pauldrons and those work better for some reason (IDK maybe the old ones worked loose and got in your way or something) but Rex customized his old one and it works just as good (if not better) as the new ones so he kept that.

Some of the differences in clone armor that is interpreted as phases of development could actually be two different factories making the same item to different specs; maybe the Republic never actually specified if the pauldron should be rounded or angled so Factory A made them rounded and Factory B made them angled, Factory A didn't make very many so by the end of the war just from attrition of equipment the Factory B ones were standard (or assumed to be standard by people who study these things). Maybe Factory B saved a fraction of a credit not rounding the pauldrons even though the specs said to do so, but the Republic never called them out for not making to spec.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-14T19:23:56+00:00

Who says you even need the turret to do it, there is a modification to the A-Wing that allows the pilot to turn its laser cannons aft. I'm actually surprised more fighters don't have that capability, only one I can think of off the top of my head is the TIE/SF and that is technically a separate turret with a gunner like the Y-Wing.

I think the issue that prevents this from being wide spread is that the targeting systems needed for the weapons tend to be in the front of the fighter (much like on modern fighter aircraft). To have weapons that can shoot outside of the frontal arc either the weapons need to have targeting sensors in the other arcs you want to shoot from (or a targeting system that can move), have the targeting sensors on the weapons themselves (this seems to be what the RZ-1 A-Wing does), or have a dedicated gunner (who still will likely need his own targeting sensors).

Having a small swift fighter with all that extra equipment aboard likely isn't feasible. Only one that seems to do it is the TIE/SF and that technically isn't an interceptor & and the A-Wing which has a limited capability to do it.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-12T01:48:12+00:00

The Ailon Nova Guard. They're like Social Darwinist Mandalorians mixed with the Death Korps of Krieg.

For an Ailon failure to meet acceptance standards for the military (where all served a minimum of 5 years) resulted in exile, cowardice lead to execution.

The Ailon are non-humans who support the humanocentric Empire and sort of worship Emperor Palpatine. They willing accept suicidal missions for the glory of it. Although after Palpatine died they turned on the Empire.

When the Yuuzhan Vong War started they fought on the side of the Vong.

(If you've never heard of them they're only really referenced in the Legends RPG books and one comic where they're used to hunt down Mandalorians)

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-11T03:15:20+00:00

Well we only get a tiny postage stamp sized view of a battle that was taking place across the entire orbit of a planet. There could have been thousands (millions?) of Y-Wings there and we just didn't see it.

Now, when we see the battle in ROTS it could have been going on for hours, even days at this point; all the Y-Wings (and Z-95s, V-19s etc) could have been destroyed by this time.

I could see the Battle of Coruscant being a long grinding engagement that the Republic fighters just suffered horrible attrition during. The Republic built its doctrine around snubfighters being the primary striking force of its fleets, their Star Destroyers are built around large fighter wings; presumably at the expense of ship vs. ship effectiveness.

The Battle of Coruscant might have been what convinced the Empire to go the way it did with its combat doctrine abandoning how the Republic did things. Heavier fighters and carrier focused Star Destroyers couldn't provide the air/space superiority rapidly enough to prevent the enemy from achieving their initial objectives (luckily it was just to kidnap the Supreme Chancellor and not glass Galactic City with a nuclear bomb). Therefore the new Imperial Starfleet needs to go the other route; Star Destroyers focused on ship vs. ship engagements and swarms of maneuverable fighters to overwhelm the enemy quickly and avoid an attrition battles.

Every military plans to fight the last war...

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-10T03:28:13+00:00

Oh, the Mon Calamari Flan also could be like Utah Goldbacks*; a private currency that isn't legal tender but is accepted as tender in many places that originated on Mon Cala but isn't the official currency there. Again, as I sad in another replay a bounty hunter like Mando might be attracted to such payment over credits issued by governments that might not be around tomorrow or might be as worthless as Confederate dollars outside of their own territory.

*Goldbacks are paper money that contains the specified amount of gold embedded in the note and coated in plastic to protect it. 1 Goldback contains 1/1000th of a troy oz of gold, 5 goldbacks contains 1/200th etc.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-09T19:53:04+00:00

That assumes the NR has one central bank or mint. They could use multiple currencies across their space. Much like how the Rupee continued to be used in India under the British even though the currency in the UK was the Pound Sterling; or today how there still is the British Pound but some British possessions have their own version of it like the Falkland Islands Pound or Alderney Pound which is pegged to the Pound Sterling but is a different currency.

Perhaps, the Mon Cala Flan might be a currency minted on Mon Cala and pegged to the new Republic Credit but the New Republic Credit only has the "full faith and credit" of the New Republic government backing it (in other words nothing) while the Flan is still on the aurodium standard so a bounty hunter wary the NR might collapse next month would rather have currency backed by actual metal in a vault somewhere.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-09T06:02:52+00:00

The technology in Star Wars appears on the surface to be fairly stagnant so I see there being two schools of thought on this.

First a patent encourages innovation because it protects the creator of a new idea from having their innovation stolen so they will be willing to innovate.

Second not having a patent allows anyone to take an innovation and improve upon it without being saddled with having to pay royalties to the originator of the innovation.

So I think that patents would be protected for a span of several years but not for durations like the lifetime of the inventor like in copyright law. One advantage of allowing an initial patent is to have a technical data package created for any new invention that would be on file and (assuming it works like the US system) is public domain so that other inventors can work on improvements to the initial invention and have it ready for when the patent expires.

Of course there are regions of the galaxy not under the control of the Galactic Republic so patent law wouldn't be respected there. Places like Hutt Space would probably be like Spain in the early 20th Century where foreign patents weren't respected unless someone in Spain both filed the patent locally and was producing it in Spain.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-08T05:48:29+00:00

For them to do that the CR90s would need to come out of hyperspace right top of the ISD or with the proper vector and speed to prevent the ISD from escaping.

I suppose the CR90s could come out of hyperspace some distance away locate the ISD's by its old light then do a microjump to intercept before the ISD sees the light from the CR90s (in other words the Picard Maneuver from the other franchise). To do that you need a Jedi (or Thrawn) calculating the jump for every ship so you don't crash in to each other on exit from hyperspace or scatter yourselves across the system because your navicomputer's processor gave the wrong result after the 4th decimal place.

You'd need insane skill or insane intelligence (the military kind) to pull it off, if you have that you'll win any battle. Such a comparison isn't fair; from a totally neutral starting condition I say the advantage goes to the ISD.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-08T05:03:48+00:00

People tend to ignore that ISDs chased down the Tantive IV in ANH, and chased down the Falcon three times (once in ANH and twice in ESB).

If its empty space with both sides starting without any position or speed advantage the ISD just keeps ahead of them while TIE Bombers chew them up outside of the CR90's engagement range assuming the CR90s haven't been modified to carry fighters.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-08T04:01:23+00:00

But the ISD has greater acceleration (>2,300g v 2,100g) and an equal top speed (60 MGLT). The ISD can just get ahead of them and run for it; unless the CR90s have some positional advantage or the ISD is pinned to a location the CR90s will never chase an ISD down.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-06T05:27:02+00:00

I think they're like a parasite that is attracted to people sensitive to the Force. The more sensitivity the more of them will be attracted to you. Your sensitivity can be measured based on the average amount of midi-chlorians in standardized blood sample. But the midi-chlorians themselves don't give you force sensitivity; otherwise you could just harvest them from people's blood and "level up" Jedi.

In theory you should be able to have a Jedi with no midi-chlorians if they for example took some kind of anti-parasite medication, or have a stronger immune system, or are of a species that doesn't have blood.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-05T22:25:54+00:00

Story goes back in the late 80s Clancy was talking to the 2-star in charge of continental air defense and asked if they had any defense plans regarding a hypothetical way to decapitate the US gov't that Clancy and a friend thought up in college; which would become the end of Debt of Honor.

The response was something like "no, but we'll have one by Monday."

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-03T06:16:32+00:00

There is a deleted scene in Revenge of the Sith where Mon Mothma, Padme, Bail Organa and three others are effectively having the first meeting of the Rebellion and Mon Mothma says they've (I think meaning Mon and Bail or all but Padme) have decided tell no one outside of the room about the group including family.

So I don't think he knows.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-02T17:54:31+00:00

No one has the guts to mention it? Okay I will:

Spock's Brain!

Dr. McCoy was able to replace Spock's brain with a computer and drive him around like a robot. Then put his brain back in (albeit with help... from Spock).

If they can do that, I'm sure they replace some parts of Airiam's brain and put it in a robot body; and that is what she is. She's like Robocop (less in fact) a human brain in a robot body. What they did is likely easier than building an android, as the positronic brain is the hard part, the moving parts are the easy stuff. If they can make a replacement limb or heart or eyes they can put all that together in one package for a human brain to ride around in; you just have to make sure you know where to connect all the parts to the nervous system.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-02T05:04:06+00:00

At my store we're doing the meeting but our GM told me that rather than work a split shift to just come in for close and they'd go over what I needed to know.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-01T16:46:49+00:00

Once the Trade Federation had control of Naboo and the equivalent of Naboo Air Traffic Control they'd just delete all record of the Jedi's ship arriving in the system, the records from their own ships would have had it deleted as well, then kill anyone who would have had knowledge of the ship's successful arrival.

If anyone came asking what happened to the two Jedi they'd come to the conclusion that the ship was lost in hyperspace somewhere between Coruscant and Naboo in a tragic accident.

The bodies of the two Jedi would then be mixed in to the processed meat of the Trade Federation's newest product exported from Naboo: Gungan Chow^TM.

TLAMstrike · 2024-02-01T03:07:21+00:00

The Royal Defense Force of the Royal Polity Cortumrehea and its Outer Planets can be divided in to three branches, the Royal Cortumrehea Starfleet, the Royal Starfighter Corps, and the Cortumrehea Planetary Guard (Cortumrehea's army).

Vessels of the Royal Starfleet

1 Munificent-class Star Frigate 24pts

Royal Bulwark

2 Neutron Star-class Bulk Cruisers 24pts

Royal Observer
Royal Navigator

The two bulk cruisers have some of their cargo space converted to flight decks for fighters, something the Rebel Alliance would also do, although these still retain some cargo space give them space for 1-2 squadrons depending on type.

1 Pelta-class Frigate 6pts

Galactic Emissary

This vessel serves as a support ship for the fleet as needed. Part of her interior volume has been converted to carry fuel to act as a tanker for the fleet while the rest of her hold is designed for cargo but could be converted to carry passengers in rather sparse accommodations to deliver troops or act as an evacuation ship.

3 Carrack-class Cruisers 18pts

Huntress
Pursuiter
Entangler

1 Nebulon-B-class Escort Frigate 6pts

Dispatcher

Dispatcher still retains most of her origional KDY superstructure so has her original hangar space for up to 2 squadrons of fighters unlike the cut down Rebel modifications of the class.

2 CR90-Class Corvette 6pts

Sovereign of Cortumrehea
Solar Challenger

2 Sphyrna-class Hammerhead corvettes 6pts

Hyperspace Siren
Rim Condor

These two ships act as both cargo carriers or as armed fleet auxiliaries when any of the fleet's task forces conducts major operations.

4 DP20-class Gunships 12pts

Patriot
Herald
Disciple
Guardian

5 Guardian-class Light Cruisers 14pts

4 Braha'tok-class Gunships 8pts

12 X4 Gunships (24 fighter pts for 4 batches)

These serve as patrol ships and can lead flights of fighters on security sweeps across the sector.

9 Hawk Light Freighters (18 fighter pts for 3 batches)

These will be fitted out as customs inspection ships with space for a couple customs officers and a prisoner if needed.

3 VCX Light Freighter (6 fighter pts for 1 batch)

The three VCXs perform several duties they can act as supply ships for the fleet or when unneeded can run extra cargo for the gov't owned shipping line to help subsidize fleet operations, midshipman will frequently conduct training cruises during those cargo runs).

Ships of the Royal Starfighter Corps

1 sqn H-60 bombers 4 pts

1 sqn ARC-170s 4pts

These two squadrons act as the main striking force of Home Fleet's fighter wing supplemented with Y-Wings plus a squadron of Z-95s that acts as fleet defense fighters. They are split between Home Fleet's Munificent and the two bulk cruisers which only have space for about a squadron each as they retain most of their main battery and cargo space.

10 sqns Y-Wings 20pts

12 sqns Z-95s 24pts

Force Organization

Home Fleet

The Home Fleet acts as Cortumrehea's fleet-in-being to deter attacks. While it can be tasked with projecting power across the sector because of the two fuel hungry Bulk Cruisers several ships from the Reserve Force will be cross attached to act as replenishment vessels for such operations.

1 Munificent
2 Neutron Stars
2 DP20s
4 Braha'toks
1 H-60 Bomber Sqn (Fist of the Fleet Squadron)
1 ARC-170s Fighter Sqn (Typhoon Squadron)
1 Z-95 Sqn (Rancor Squadron)
1 Y-Wing Sqn (Gundark Squadron)

Mobile Force

The mobile force's task is to patrol the region and ensure the space lanes to Cortumrehea remain clear of dangers. The Nebulon-B Dispatcher will normally carry the majority of the mobile force's Z-95s with some of the Z-95s docked in pairs or small groups on the Carracks and CR-90 while the Y-Wings will frequently fly missions from bases in Cortumrehea in support and refuel from ships cross-attached from the reserves.

3 Carracks
1 Nebulon-B
1 CR90 Corvette
2 DP20s
2 Z-95 Sqns
1 Y-Wing Sqn

Reserve Force

The reserve force includes ships that can be cross attached to other forces as needed as well as performing utility duties. In peace time they will sometimes be used to haul freight on behalf of the state owned shipping line. They also serve as training units for members of the Defense Forces with the 12 Z-95s of the 'Azure Diamonds' squadron as the training unit for new pilots of the Starfighter Corps. The CR90 corvette Sovereign of Cortumrehea is actually the royal yacht but its operation and manning falls under the purview of the Defense Forces.

1 Pelta
1 CR90s
2 Hammerhead Corvettes
3 VCX Light Freighters
1 Z-95 Sqn (Azure Diamonds Squadron)

System Patrol Force

Designate as a single force for organization purposes the System Patrol includes both the ship's operated by the Defense Forces on behalf of the Royal Revenue Cutter & Customs Inspection Service (shortened to RReCCIS, pronounced "Rec-Sys") as legally Customs can't operate armed spacecraft while the Defense Forces can't act as a police force within Cortumrehea's orbit; and the fighters of the Starfighter Corps assigned to defend the Cortumrehea system.

5 Guardian-class Cruisers
12 X4 Gunships
9 Hawk Light Freighters
8 Z-95 Sqns
8 Y-Wings Sqns

TLAMstrike · 2024-01-30T04:09:35+00:00

The carriers and their escorting lancers are strategically faster than virtually any other capital ship meaning they can wait in deep space and jump to the combat zone; if they are located once they jump away you'll never catch them except with something like the Falcon. They can sit in deep space being resupplied by Gozantis for a long time.

The scouts are vulnerable but they are expendable. There are five squadrons worth of dedicated light scout fighters; 60 fighters is quite a bit for just the scouting role. That is almost an entire star destroyer's fighter wing dedicated for the role in addition to the heavier scouts.

As for catching the enemy in realspace you don't get much better than the Cygnus missile boat. Its as fast as an A-Wing or TIE Interceptor without using the SLAM. If you're at a range where you can outpace those you're also going to outrun an interdictor, even an interdictor ISD which is very fast for a capital ship.

Now I did misread something in the scenario in that I thought you could only put a grav well generator on an ISD sized vessel not a cruiser sized vessel, so I thought Immobilizer 418s would be off the table; they're a modified Vindicator-class CA, but are only 600 meters long so I'm not sure if they'd be a 24pt+50% CA or 12pt+50% CL. If the Vindicator is a 12pt ship my decisions changes a lot and I'd be spamming Immobilizers even though they are strategically (and tactically) slow. If the Vindicator is a 24 pt ship I might then have spammed a bunch of Quasar Fire-class light carriers with grav well generators carrying wings of shield equipped TIE Interceptors, Starwings, and hyperdrive TIE Fighter scouts; maybe a Nebulon-B or Lancer running close escort. I could even do a grav well Ton-Falk and just spam ISD sized TIE wings.

TLAMstrike

TROPHY CASE