StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I know part of the reason this has change and seem so disjointed is due to the fuckup Lucas provided; but you could still find some fun with this.

The Clone Wars had the nascent federal Republic forces use shielded starfighters, many types with hyperspace capabilities (i.e. Y-Wings and Z-95) and non-hyperdrive capable craft like the V-19 Torrent and V-Wing. Capital ships were used but they tended to be starfighter carriers (i.e. Venators) with a relative lack of ground assault. This was presumably intended against the separatist droid forces and smaller separatist warships.

Fighters were more 'valued' arguably under the Republic as they were at a numerical disadvantage. Though there were TIE fighters in the Old Republic and they had some limited usage, they do not seem to be used in the Clone Wars heavily (out of universe note: one of those fuckups Lucas pulled).

The Planetary and Sector fleets which were loyal to the Republic presumably had more Z-95s and Y-wings in usage and they probably received a lot of the Old Republic fighters which were turned over to various rebels due to various reasons (see the Alliance soldiers in Episode IV; their uniform was used by many planetary security forces). This explains why it was stated the early Rebel Alliance had more Y-wings and why they lost more of them, they were mas produced in the Clone Wars. (the Y-wing thing was from Star Wars databank website)

The Imperials replaced their Republic-era fighters with TIE fighters more or less, and got rid of most of their Venator Star Destroyers but kept the Victories (Victories were half as large as Venators, so they had more of a 'purpose' while Venators were presmably redundant?)

Apparently capital ships received more funding than fighter craft when the Imperial navy had to decide whether to increase their Star Destroyer numbers or to continue with the Old Republic investment in fighter craft. For some reason they chose to increase the Star Destroyers over more hyperdrive capable fighters (I remember this being in the old official databank). The difference in the ships is a massive change IMO, even though shielded fighters are not exactly more durable in combat, and the omnipresent Star Destroyers and a nearly galactic peace removed the need for long-range fighters for reconnaisance or raids, though the Empire still used hyperspace-capable craft like the Skipray Blastboat).

Was the imperial doctrine changed from the old republic's background mainly due to propaganda (TIEs being a symbol of human power and uniformity; as opposed to people remembering the varied and unique markings on the Old Republic fighter craft - apparently part of the reason they chose TIE fighters relatively early on was due to that).

When did the transition to TIE fighters from Republic craft come anyway? I guess the old republic craft were mainly given to the remaining planetary security forces. Which meant they tended to fall into rebel and resistance hands.

It's odd as I thought there was a bigger 'gap' between old republic and imperial doctrine, though that was just the fighters which were different apparently.

The way I see as the last major galaxy wide conflict was about 1000 years ago, so it wouldn't be supricing that when the Clone Wars hit the republic was trying out different doctrines and stategies to find the one that works the best. Possibly it was desided that in the post-Clone Wars empire large fleet carriers weren't needed and Victory that's more ground assault/space combat oriented (also Imperator/Imperial-class came to use soon after the Clone Wars).

as why more star destroyers vs more hyperdrive capable fighters, you must remember that shields on a starfighter won't take a direct hit but will protect against lesser threats, but hyperdrive and shields cost money and I guessing the bean counter in the senate desided it was more cost efficient to build large capships that take alot of damage to destroy then starfighters that can be alot easier to destroy (and cann't effectivly take out capships anyway).

Why more Star Destroyers I'd say Fear. if you have a small group of attack ships and see a massive Star Destroyer heading to you your going to run for it. You have to remember the Emperor ruled with Fear and by creating massive ships you could spread fear a lot easier. Also one or two of these ships would be enough to settle any planet that maybe giving you trouble.

They had enough ISDs to spare three of them to oversee what was essentially a Secret Service mission on Tattooine in ANH when a handful of Carracks would have sufficed for the interdiction of outgoing traffic part of the mission and you ignore that they can bring in ships from anywhere in the Empire in a matter of hours.

Lord Revan wrote:The way I see as the last major galaxy wide conflict was about 1000 years ago, so it wouldn't be supricing that when the Clone Wars hit the republic was trying out different doctrines and stategies to find the one that works the best.

I would think they would still have the random information from the thousands of years in the past (databanks, reports, etc)as it does not seem that technology changes so much in the Star Wars universe. People still study ancient Roman/Indian/Chinese/Greek/Persian/Mongol/Zulu battles in the Earth which were thousands of years old so I would assume you could see the same there from the academies. Also Planetary Security forces and Sector fleets were designed to technically fight each other if it came from that so I would think there were some useful strategies in there. Granted it might be disjointed as you said. Also, there were still decent scale outer rim wars and I would assume they could learn from those cases

as why more star destroyers vs more hyperdrive capable fighters, you must remember that shields on a starfighter won't take a direct hit but will protect against lesser threats, but hyperdrive and shields cost money and I guessing the bean counter in the senate desided it was more cost efficient to build large capships that take alot of damage to destroy then starfighters that can be alot easier to destroy (and cann't effectivly take out capships anyway).

It also could be that due to no massive droid armies to oppose them, the 'main' reason for shielded invested fighters were gone. Assuming the droid armies outnumbered the clones by a noticeable amount.

There was something else I forgot; sorry. I will try to remember to put in here.

Saxtonite wrote:

Lord Revan wrote:The way I see as the last major galaxy wide conflict was about 1000 years ago, so it wouldn't be supricing that when the Clone Wars hit the republic was trying out different doctrines and stategies to find the one that works the best.

I would think they would still have the random information from the thousands of years in the past (databanks, reports, etc)as it does not seem that technology changes so much in the Star Wars universe. People still study ancient Roman/Indian/Chinese/Greek/Persian/Mongol/Zulu battles in the Earth which were thousands of years old so I would assume you could see the same there from the academies. Also Planetary Security forces and Sector fleets were designed to technically fight each other if it came from that so I would think there were some useful strategies in there. Granted it might be disjointed as you said. Also, there were still decent scale outer rim wars and I would assume they could learn from those cases.

well one of the major issues that effects doctrine and hasn't been really tested on that scale is logistics and I would assume alot of the Sith War doctrine was studied on a theoretical level, also while there isn't much obvious technological advancement, good example is that fighters could threaten Hammerheads or the Sith cruisers by more or less themselves while only way a fighter can threaten a Venator or a TradeFed battleship is by hitting vital spots once a capship has brought the shields down.

Look at World War 1 and World War 2 for example when you get down to it there wasn't that much "new" technology invented in the era between the world wars that would usefull in the battlefield but alot refinement to the pre-existing ones (like tanks or airplanes) was done and that changed the doctrines for WW2.

Jan Dodonna made it clear. The Galactic Empire don't think snubfighters present a threat to major capital ships anymore and subsequent exploration along those lines reveal that the Empire use TIE fighters in a pure interceptor and support role.

The Galactic Republic however relied heavily on a carrier doctrine and so did the Trade Federation.

It may have been a natural evolution of the Clone Wars, as the Imperials sift through the results. There may also have been a propaganda movement away from starfighters, given the Jedi starring role in unshielded fighters.