What was Ozzel's Big Mistake?

Connor MacLeod · Post by **Connor MacLeod** » 2004-05-05 12:21am

The Radio Drama, novelization, and Galaxy Guide 3: ROTJ make it rather clear (especially the last one) that Vader intended to bombard the base from a distance. It was not to be a heavy bombardment, but a "clean" one - likely surgical strikes designed to prevent escape and neutralize their defenses. This does not neccesarily require massive firepower (kiloton range firepower is sufficent for wiping otu the generators for example - Veer's "maximum firepower" quote proves that) to do so. The Galaxy Guide 3 made it clear that the asteroid field would have provided cover for their entry.

Instead, Ozzel chose to come out of hyperspace close to Hoth, feeling the advantages of "a close striking distance" as well as surprise were more useful. The Rebels detected them, and subsequently raised shields, preventing bombardment. Hence, Ozzel screwed up and was executed.

hvb · Post by **hvb** » 2004-05-05 07:20am

Crazedwraith wrote:In Rogue Squadron Novel Rogue two gets hit by a planetary defense ion cannon and dies.

YT300000 wrote:In I, Jedi, Corran shoots one of the avians attacking his (IIRC) Z-95 with the fighter's ion cannon, and it goes into a seizure, falling to the ground.

Well that settles it then.
Cap-ship ion cannon must be somewhere between, so are likely the HTL-scale ones are also fatal to pilots no matter the protection build into the starfighter, and the LTL-scale cap-ship ion will probably only disable a fighter but is fatal to exposed ground troops on a direct hit, and probably fatal even if it hits at a short distance (whether this is works out as 50m or 500m for a lethal surge ... I'm not going to try to work the math. Any takers for the task?

).

Bugsby · Post by **Bugsby** » 2004-05-11 12:52am

Everyone is talking about how the Empire did not want to simply burn Hoth Base to the ground because of Luke, but that isn't entirely true. Keep our timeline in mind here. Vader had no real contact with Luke until Cloud City. The closest he got was to see Luke at a distance in the DS hangar bay after Obi-Wan fell, and he shot at his ship at the first DS battle. But even then he didn't know it was Luke, per se. "The force is strong with "this one.""

Furthermore, even if he did know about Luke's existance (hell, he didn't know about Leia!), he would have no way of knowing that Luke was a rebel on Hoth. The fixation turns to Luke specifically only after the transmission from the Emperor in which the Emperor commands Vader to hunt Luke down. This would make an order for orbital bombardment very strategically sound,a nd would explain his anger at Ozzel. I could be wrong about this, of course, but its something to think about.

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2004-05-11 01:08am

Of course it did not take long for it to get around that it was a man by the name of Skywalker that fired the killing shot on the Death Star. If you were Vader would this not spark your interest in taking him alive.

He just had to know! Wouldn't you if your name was Anakin Skywalker and you felt the force strong in this pilot wouldn't suspect it could be your son?

So when Ozzel ruined his chances of capturing Skywalker the easy way I'd imagine he was a little pissed.

Burak Gazan · Post by **Burak Gazan** » 2004-05-11 02:02am

Bugsby wrote:Everyone is talking about how the Empire did not want to simply burn Hoth Base to the ground because of Luke, but that isn't entirely true. Keep our timeline in mind here. Vader had no real contact with Luke until Cloud City. The closest he got was to see Luke at a distance in the DS hangar bay after Obi-Wan fell, and he shot at his ship at the first DS battle. But even then he didn't know it was Luke, per se. "The force is strong with "this one.""

Furthermore, even if he did know about Luke's existance (hell, he didn't know about Leia!), he would have no way of knowing that Luke was a rebel on Hoth. The fixation turns to Luke specifically only after the transmission from the Emperor in which the Emperor commands Vader to hunt Luke down. This would make an order for orbital bombardment very strategically sound,a nd would explain his anger at Ozzel. I could be wrong about this, of course, but its something to think about.

Opening crawl Episode V:

It is a dark time for the rebellion. Although the Death Star has been destroyed, Imperial troops have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy.

Evading the dreaded Imperial Starfleet, a group of freedom fighters led by Luke Skywalker have established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth

The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space....

Obliterating the rebels is a bonus, but Vader is clearly interested in one individual in particular

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » 2004-05-11 02:36pm

With the advantage of surprise that Ozzel lost them, Vader's forces would have had a much greater chance to capture the rebellion leaders before they could escape. As it was, they had time to evacuate the base, delaying the imperial troops just long enough to allow their escape. If the rebels had less warning, this would have been a lot more difficult.