StarDestroyer.Net BBS

...does it take to overcome the shields of one ISD?
Would a B-Wing squadron fully loaded by proton torpedoes represent a threat to one ISD if their fighter escort was gone?

It depends on the type of torpedoes and shields of the ISD.

I estimate teh capital grade CMs used by the VSD and the heavy torps like those used at the final battle agaisnt the Lusankya to be about 600 MT a pop.

Going by those and my current estimate for shields, to bring down one section of an ISDs shielding it would take 16 of those striking at the same time to down it.

B-Wings wouldn't be much of a threat. LTL's could pick them off fairly easily. After all, they are big and not too fast.

But before being destroyed, they could probably collapse a portion of an ISD's shields.

I'd say a wing of B-Wings might stand a chance of hurting an ISD's shields. I don't think they'd kill her though.

A VSD? They might be able to render her unfit for combat.

I'd say a wing of B-Wings might stand a chance of hurting an ISD's shields. I don't think they'd kill her though.

We know that a single wing of a star destroyers TIEs only one squandron of which is bombers can kill smaller ships and threat larger ones. The superior B-Wings are classified as assault starfighters and carry massive firepower combined with excellent shielding maneuverability. They would stand a decent chance of taking down an ISD shields and even killing it if they got lucky.

A VSD? They might be able to render her unfit for combat.

A VSD does not stand a chance against a wing of B-Wing starfighters.

We know that a single wing of a star destroyers TIEs only one squandron of which is bombers can kill smaller ships and threat larger ones.

Define "large ones", because I can't recall a single instance in the EU where TIE fighters and bombers alone threatened anything much bigger than a corvette. But then, I have been slacking off in my EU knowledge, lately...

The Bacta War case of a VSD being taken down isn't admissible: the Victory-class and the Interdictor dropped to realspace right next to Wedge and Booster and them, which means they deaccelerated from high-fractional-c velocities through the fringes of the Graveyard.

Rubble pounding your shields at .25 c is not a good thing.

Their shields were already all-but down and the Rogues were using some sort of shield penetrator/disruptor on their warheads.

evilcat4000 wrote:They would stand a decent chance of taking down an ISD shields and even killing it if they got lucky.

Justify please.

Illuminatus Primus wrote:The Bacta War case of a VSD being taken down isn't admissible: the Victory-class and the Interdictor dropped to realspace right next to Wedge and Booster and them, which means they deaccelerated from high-fractional-c velocities through the fringes of the Graveyard.

Rubble pounding your shields at .25 c is not a good thing.

Their shields were already all-but down

You sure? SW shields "heal" pretty quickly (as quickly as they can dissipate the heat and as long as the physical equipment is in good working condition). Also, the Millennium Falcon easily withstood that same situation.

Also, a wing of fighters much greater than a squadron of fighters. A wing of B-wings (72 B-wings, by Imperial wings... that's 800+ heavy torpedoes) should be able to take out an Executor (80 torps to cause shield collapse in TBW, they can fire a volley of up to 144 torps).

A squadron of B-wings should have the firepower to take out an ISD, as long as their torpedoes are comparible to the high-yield torps used against the Lusankya. (A single squadron of X-wings shouldn't have powerful enough torpedoes to do much against an ISD, though... a squad of X-wings can only briefly take down a VSDs shields, and even then, its shields are easily brought back online.)

and the Rogues were using some sort of shield penetrator/disruptor on their warheads.

Huh? Where does this come from?

Mad wrote:

Illuminatus Primus wrote:The Bacta War case of a VSD being taken down isn't admissible: the Victory-class and the Interdictor dropped to realspace right next to Wedge and Booster and them, which means they deaccelerated from high-fractional-c velocities through the fringes of the Graveyard.

Rubble pounding your shields at .25 c is not a good thing.

Their shields were already all-but down

You sure? SW shields "heal" pretty quickly (as quickly as they can dissipate the heat and as long as the physical equipment is in good working condition). Also, the Millennium Falcon easily withstood that same situation.

So now all of the Graveyard, all of the time, has fragments the same mass, uniformly? That's quite the leap-in-logic.

Let's examine:

In Star Wars: A New Hope, the Millenium Falcon drops to real space among a cloud of small debris, around the size of a man's head or so. Its further out than the Death Star, as we see, which was six planetary diameters away. I think it is a safe conclusion through observation and inference on distance from where Alderaan would be that the Falcon encountered some of the smallest debris, rapidly hurled away from the explosion due to its lighter mass.

Now in X-Wing: Bacta War, the Corruptor drops from realspace right within close range of the Rogues and their friendlies. This area of the Graveyard (six years after A New Hope) is so dense that it would tear a Victory-class without shields into scrap before anyone could hype away to get help (Wedge says as much after the Corruptor is abandoned to one of her former pilots). In the Core Worlds, even a semi-significant world should only be less than an hour away by most hyperdrive speed calcs. Now, the Corruptor had to deaccelerate from near-c velocities into such a region.

Also, what is this about "healing" quickly? They were engaged immediately upon re-entry and the dissipation matrix didn't have much time to bleed off excess heat from all the asteroids smashing into the shields, not to mention the energy shields had to be very quickly activated and started off with a dissipation system strained by the particle shields on re-entry, as well as any of the affects the momenta of the colliding objects had on the shield projection system.

Mad wrote:Also, a wing of fighters much greater than a squadron of fighters. A wing of B-wings (72 B-wings, by Imperial wings... that's 800+ heavy torpedoes) should be able to take out an Executor (80 torps to cause shield collapse in TBW, they can fire a volley of up to 144 torps).

A squadron of B-wings should have the firepower to take out an ISD, as long as their torpedoes are comparible to the high-yield torps used against the Lusankya. (A single squadron of X-wings shouldn't have powerful enough torpedoes to do much against an ISD, though... a squad of X-wings can only briefly take down a VSDs shields, and even then, its shields are easily brought back online.)

Leap in logic. "They're called proton torpedoes so they must all be the same."

The torpedoes used against the Lusankya were intended for large tube mounting on a space station. These are big torpedoes. They have a lot more in common with the Acclamator's torpedo tubes and the Victory's assault concussion missiles than fighter warheads.

Not to mention the Lusankya is not a to-specs Executor. Its a highly specialized escape vessel for Palpatine that was buried under Coruscant. It is not a warship. It had only two wings of fighters (look at the 17.6 km Executor's hangar bay--the normal Executor has to have a lot more). Its shields appear rather weak, as do its weapons (the Executor model had over 400 ISD II-sized turrets).

Not a normal Executor.

Mad wrote:

and the Rogues were using some sort of shield penetrator/disruptor on their warheads.

Huh? Where does this come from?

The straggler torpedoes from the first salvo "pierce the shield, collapsing it" and continue to impact the hull.

It is their passing-through the already damaged/disrupted shield region that collapses it. I can't think of a better explanation that shield-disruptors; we know they exist in SW (Galaxy Gun missiles).

Mad wrote:

and the Rogues were using some sort of shield penetrator/disruptor on their warheads.

Huh? Where does this come from?

Illuminatus Primus wrote:

The straggler torpedoes from the first salvo "pierce the shield, collapsing it" and continue to impact the hull.

It is their passing-through the already damaged/disrupted shield region that collapses it. I can't think of a better explanation that shield-disruptors; we know they exist in SW (Galaxy Gun missiles).

Relevant quote from TBW
"Then several torpedoes arrived late and pierced the shield at its heart, causing it to collapse. The tardy torpedoes and two concussion missiles pounded the destroyer's hull, blasting aprat armor plates and crushing turbolaser batteries."

I definately agree with IP that there is a shield piercing affect here but I think it raises that question that perhaps the torpedoes are not just piercing damaged shields but fresh ones. The torps impacted all along Corrupter's length, meaning the damage would be spread out(I think) and I doubt some 16 torps would be enough to seriously damage the sheilds of a Vic II, though I could be wrong

Illuminatus Primus wrote:[So now all of the Graveyard, all of the time, has fragments the same mass, uniformly? That's quite the leap-in-logic.

I didn't say that. I wouldn't expect them too hugely different, considering the ranges involved in flying at velocities that are best represented in fractiosn of c.

Let's examine:

In Star Wars: A New Hope, the Millenium Falcon drops to real space among a cloud of small debris, around the size of a man's head or so. Its further out than the Death Star, as we see, which was six planetary diameters away. I think it is a safe conclusion through observation and inference on distance from where Alderaan would be that the Falcon encountered some of the smallest debris, rapidly hurled away from the explosion due to its lighter mass.

First off, the Falcon was one planetary diameter from where Alderaan should've been:

ANH novel, p102 wrote:"I've triple-checked the coordinates, and there's nothing wrong with the nav 'puter. We ought to be standing out one planetary diameter from the surface. The planet's glow should be filling the cockpit, but--there's nothing out there. Nothing but debris." He paused. "Judging from the level of wild energy outside and the amount of solid waste, I'd guess that Alderaan's been...blown away. Totally."

Given that, nothing but the largest, slowest chunks should be in the area where the Falcon arrived. The fast stuff would be at the outer fringe, further away than the Death Star. Not sure on how far the Falcon had to travel in realspace after reverting, it could even be less than a lightsecond if reversion is fast enough. The field itself should be a few lightminutes in diameter based on the time of destruction until the Falcon's reversion. (I think it was a couple minutes from Obi-Wan's statement until reversion, can't quite remember.) The Falcon would've been scrap if it wasn't for shields, at those speeds.

Now in X-Wing: Bacta War, the Corruptor drops from realspace right within close range of the Rogues and their friendlies. This area of the Graveyard (six years after A New Hope) is so dense that it would tear a Victory-class without shields into scrap before anyone could hype away to get help (Wedge says as much after the Corruptor is abandoned to one of her former pilots). In the Core Worlds, even a semi-significant world should only be less than an hour away by most hyperdrive speed calcs. Now, the Corruptor had to deaccelerate from near-c velocities into such a region.

And a bunch of fighters and freighters also jumped in that same area. If the Corrupter took heavy damage, then those freighters and fighters wouldn't have stood a chance. Since they survived, the Corruptor couldn't have had that much damage.

Besides, they weren't in the Graveyard yet:

The Bacta War wrote: p193: Wedge's X-wing revertedt o realspace above the plane of the elliptic in the Alderaan system. Spread out in a flat disk, the rubble that had once been Alderaan looked like the crumbs left behind after the cutting of a ryshcate.
...
The Rogues in their X-wings had come in first and oriented themselves toward the Graveyard. The most likelyt hreat to them would come from there, from pirates or others hidden amid the debris.

p195: One of the freighters began to move forward, but as it cruised in right below the Ice, a huge patch of space went from black and star-strewn to white, angular, and deadly. The Interdictor Crusier's bulk eclipsed a massive slice of the Graveyard.

p196: One third larger than the Interdictor Cruiser, the Corrupter appeared to interpose its bulk between the cruiser Aggregator and the snubfighters.

p201: "'The Corrupter is currently not under power and is driften down into the Graveyard.'"

From that, the Interdictor (Aggregator) jumped in above the Graveyard, and the Corrupter jumped in even further away from that debris field. The ship drifted into the field after losing power.

Also, the Aggregator was able to jump out even after its shields were overwhelmed. If the debris was too thick where they were, that would've been suicide.

Leap in logic. "They're called proton torpedoes so they must all be the same."

Strawman. I explicitly stated: "as long as their torpedoes are comparible to the high-yield torps used against the Lusankya." It's accepted that the B-wings carry heavier torpedoes than other fighters, like X-wings.

The torpedoes used against the Lusankya were intended for large tube mounting on a space station. These are big torpedoes. They have a lot more in common with the Acclamator's torpedo tubes and the Victory's assault concussion missiles than fighter warheads.

The B-wing does not carry fighter warheads. X-wings do.

Not to mention the Lusankya is not a to-specs Executor. Its a highly specialized escape vessel for Palpatine that was buried under Coruscant. It is not a warship. It had only two wings of fighters (look at the 17.6 km Executor's hangar bay--the normal Executor has to have a lot more). Its shields appear rather weak, as do its weapons (the Executor model had over 400 ISD II-sized turrets).

Not a normal Executor.

It's the Executor's sister-ship. The people who built it thought they had built the Executor herself! It may have had some modifications after it was built, but there's no reason to believe such modifications would reduce reactor output or diminish shielding capability. (It was able to punch through Coruscant's shields from the inside, and an escape ship should have good shielding... Isard's supposed escape shuttle had much heavier shielding than a normal shuttle, so there's no reason to believe the Lusankya would have weakened shielding.)

The straggler torpedoes from the first salvo "pierce the shield, collapsing it" and continue to impact the hull.

It is their passing-through the already damaged/disrupted shield region that collapses it. I can't think of a better explanation that shield-disruptors; we know they exist in SW (Galaxy Gun missiles).

You might be reading too much into that. The same torpedoes don't have the same effect agains the Aggregator. The momentum of the torpedoes may have finished off the already-overloaded shields (straw that broke the camel's back). The Rogues were really rogue at this point, so getting high-tech torpedoes would pose quite a problem. Especially since these supposed high-tech torps that are capable of being carried by fighters aren't hinted at anywhere, either.

Mad wrote:The B-wing does not carry fighter warheads. X-wings do.

Can you show me where the B-Wing has room for warhead much in excess of the size of those carried by the X-Wing, which often have low-kiloton-range yields?

Mad wrote:It's the Executor's sister-ship.The people who built it thought they had built the Executor herself!

Strawman. All indications simply suggest there was a Executor-class being constructed at Kuat known as Executor. Do you have evidence that they knew about the specifications and that the fact it's existance was disguised by listing it as Executor has anything to do with its specifications?

Mad wrote:It may have had some modifications after it was built, but there's no reason to believe such modifications would reduce reactor output or diminish shielding capability.

The firepower unleashed by the Lusankya appears to be vastly less than the Executor. The Executor had over 400 heavy turbolaser batteries--a single broadside or even partial barrage could be expected to punch clean through the shields of a comparitively small Imperator-class vessel, and destroy it. The reactor volume, if even remotely proportional to smaller ships, should provide it with firepower and shielding vastly in excess of what we saw at the Battle of Thyferra.

Since it did not appear to instantly knock out attacking capital ships, and because the firepower unleashed to hurt the Lusankya to the point where Corran Horn felt it in danger of breaking up with much more abuse appears to me less than the barrage which disrupted the shields of the Executor such that Arvel Crynyd could ram the main bridge.

Not to mention shields have nothing to do with the Lusankya escaping, and the Lusankya's was only stocked with a mere two wings of fighters, and she was designed to support a massive unorthodox repulsor bed.

The Lusankya is a specialized escape ship and a prison.

Mad wrote:(It was able to punch through Coruscant's shields from the inside,

I highly doubt that it simply punched through: the Executor and her escorts were powerless before the Hoth tactical energy shield. Rather, they probably powered it down--would it be better for Lusankya to run about, razing Coruscant and trying to disrupt the defense system to escape or risking the Lusankya ramming the shield and then crashing into the city, killing billions; even trillions more?

Mad wrote:and an escape ship should have good shielding... Isard's supposed escape shuttle had much heavier shielding than a normal shuttle,

It was customized for Fliry Vorru's use, she just nabbed it because she thought it was a good choice. Red herring.

Mad wrote:so there's no reason to believe the Lusankya would have weakened shielding.

Sure there is: capital ships' turbolasers are the choicest methods of punching through enemy ships. If the average warship was as vulnerable to warhead ambushing as the Lusankya, SW combat would be very different.

Mad wrote:The same torpedoes don't have the same effect agains the Aggregator. The momentum of the torpedoes may have finished off the already-overloaded shields (straw that broke the camel's back). The Rogues were really rogue at this point, so getting high-tech torpedoes would pose quite a problem. Especially since these supposed high-tech torps that are capable of being carried by fighters aren't hinted at anywhere, either.

The attack on the Aggregator produced all sorts of gaps in the shielding, allowing warheads to slip through. Perhaps the shield-piercers simply increase the likelyhood of bleedthrough and shield irregularities not unlike those exploited on a much larger scale by Torpedo Spheres. However, I made no hypothesis of a mechanism, so don't use strawmen and claim its never seen anywhere (though it was with the Aggregator).

And one would expect "rogue Rogues" not to amass enough space-station scale warheads to ambush and Executor-class vessel. Oh, but they did.

If starfighters were so excellent at knocking out VSD scale ships, it wouldn't be cost-affective to build them.

Personally, I deride the idea of Stackpolian starfighter combat and I prefer the canon model for SW combat.

I got the impression the corrupter was hiding in the graveyard.
B-Wings would waste a victory "victim" star destroyer and would stand a good change of at least crippling a ISD.
They're specificlly desinged to kill capital ships and in Solo Command a single squad was sent to crack the engines of an SSD.
The only thinfg thats would stop them was if the star destroyers have their TIEs.
LTL arn't effective in shooting down fighters. This was why the Lancer was devoloped.

Crazedwraith wrote:B-Wings waste a victory "victim" star destroyer and would stand a good change of at least crippling a ISD.

Their torpedo bays aren't that big. Surely they could never carry bombs as powerful as the ones the Acclamator carried.

They're specificlly desinged to kill capital ships and in Solo Command a single squad was sent to crack the engines of an SSD.

Never read it. Were the fighters going to hit while the ship's shields were down? I find it difficult to believe that 12 fighters carrying torps weaker than those that were used to kill the Lusankya were charged with blowing through a SSD's shields.

The only thinfg thats would stop them was if the star destroyers have their TIEs. LTL arn't effective in shooting down fighters. This was why the Lancer was devoloped.

Yet we see an ISD's LTLs nailing the Falcon numerous times in TESB, and the only reason the Falcon survived was because it had vastly superior shields than those of a fighter like the B-Wing. In ROTJ the Executor's LTLs nail an X-wing racing down its superstructure from the side. That would've given them a split second to hit the fightert and they DID. The only reason the Crynyd's A-Wing got through (I speculate) was that the Executor's sensor domes were just destroyed, reducing accuracy.

Darth Garden Gnome wrote:Never read it. Were the fighters going to hit while the ship's shields were down? I find it difficult to believe that 12 fighters carrying torps weaker than those that were used to kill the Lusankya were charged with blowing through a SSD's shields.

They were sent in as support for the Mon Remonda. Much like the fighters engaging the IMperial fleet at Endor.

Darth Garden Gnome wrote: Yet we see an ISD's LTLs nailing the Falcon numerous times in TESB, and the only reason the Falcon survived was because it had vastly superior shields than those of a fighter like the B-Wing. In ROTJ the Executor's LTLs nail an X-wing racing down its superstructure from the side. That would've given them a split second to hit the fightert and they DID. The only reason the Crynyd's A-Wing got through (I speculate) was that the Executor's sensor domes were just destroyed, reducing accuracy

You'll grant that the falcon is a much bigger target than a b-wing. Dam now only if i refute the Executor one........ I dont suppose u'd except that being a lucky shot? the exception that proves the rule??

Darth Yoshi wrote:They were sent in as support for the Mon Remonda. Much like the fighters engaging the IMperial fleet at Endor.

So wait, they sent in a squadron of B-Wings AND the Mon Remonda to crack the SSD's shields? Forget to add that in or something Wraith?

You'll grant that the falcon is a much bigger target than a b-wing.

I'll also grant that its a shit load faster and more maneuverable than an B-Wing has been or ever will be.

Dam now only if i refute the Executor one........ I dont suppose u'd except that being a lucky shot? the exception that proves the rule??

Given the SPLIT SECOND interval that the shot had to have been fired in to hti the X-Wing, I highly doubt it was a 'lucky shot'.

Darth Garden Gnome wrote:

Darth Yoshi wrote:They were sent in as support for the Mon Remonda. Much like the fighters engaging the IMperial fleet at Endor.

So wait, they sent in a squadron of B-Wings AND the Mon Remonda to crack the SSD's shields? Forget to add that in or something Wraith?
.

1) Its crazedwraith. Cant emphasis the crazed enough
2) its ben a while since i read solo command so i may have mis-remebered.
3) After re-reading the relevant section. I dont see anything saying about the mon remonda attacking. Do have a qoute Darth Yoshi? Im reading chapter 2 for this. maybe we're thinking bout different bits?
4) I conceed that Star Destroyers seem to be able to shoot down starfighters.

I was probably thinking about the Razor's Kiss battle.

Anyway, it was a squad of B-wings with support from Wraith and Rogue Squadrons. The 24 X-wings fired in unison, followed by a salvo from the B-wings and sustained ion fire.

Darth Yoshi wrote:I was probably thinking about the Razor's Kiss battle.

Anyway, it was a squad of B-wings with support from Wraith and Rogue Squadrons. The 24 X-wings fired in unison, followed by a salvo from the B-wings and sustained ion fire.

oh yeah meant to attmit the X-wing assitancee in my last post.(REALLY)
Wraith only 9 X-Wings at the time though.

EDIT oops wrong again. only 8 x-wings and 3 TIEs. i remembered the wraiths had 3 ties at the time but forgot they only had 11 ships

Illuminatus Primus wrote:Can you show me where the B-Wing has room for warhead much in excess of the size of those carried by the X-Wing, which often have low-kiloton-range yields?

So a bomber designed to go up against capital ships is going to have kiloton-level torpedoes as its standard anti-ship weapon? It's generally accepted here that B-wings carry stronger torpedoes than X-wings, and it doesn't make sense for them to have anything less than mid-megaton ranged weapons. I'll try to respond to this point in more detail later if I can find more solid evidence.

I find it unlikely that kiloton-ranged torpedoes are standard on X-wings, either. Sure, Luke's was that weak, but the Rebels needed to use fast, maneuverable torpedoes agaisnt the main reactor, and not slow, powerful torpedoes. I'd like to know where these "low-kiloton-range yields" occur, and why "often" should be taken to mean standard.

Strawman. All indications simply suggest there was a Executor-class being constructed at Kuat known as Executor. Do you have evidence that they knew about the specifications and that the fact it's existance was disguised by listing it as Executor has anything to do with its specifications?

There's no real indication that it was different, either. Otherwise, there'd be some eyebrow raising about an underarmed commandship being built for Darth Vader. Nothing of modifcations were made in the briefing, either, so the Rogues planned their attack as if it were on an Executor-class.

The firepower unleashed by the Lusankya appears to be vastly less than the Executor. The Executor had over 400 heavy turbolaser batteries--a single broadside or even partial barrage could be expected to punch clean through the shields of a comparitively small Imperator-class vessel, and destroy it. The reactor volume, if even remotely proportional to smaller ships, should provide it with firepower and shielding vastly in excess of what we saw at the Battle of Thyferra.

"Appears"? That's not good enough. We don't know how much firepower the Lusankya was pumping out. We don't know how much they were holding back for various reasons. The overconfidence of Drysso and need to avoid wasting supplies (especially since the Rogues had been targetting their supplies in the build up to the Battle of Theyferra) may have let him use less than full strength. He wanted to capture the Freedom, so he ordered ion fire to it.

Also, the Freedom may have positioned itself in ways to prevent full firepower from being directed to it. The Freedom did try to stay above the Lusankya, which reduced the SSD's ability to hit the smaller ship. Even so, the first attempt to knock out the Freedom with ions was partially successful. Tactics such as getting inbetween Thyferra and the Lusankya were likely employed, making missing the target an unattractive option for the SSD.

Further, those are unconfirmed guns: http://www.theforce.net/swtc/ssd.html#weaponry "They may be a similar kind of gun, but this identification is unconfirmed. There are at least several hundred of these likely turrets. Images of the Executor's plunge into the surface of the second Death Star provide a conveniently lit top view of the ship that shows at least 126 bumps on part of the starboard side. Extrapolating this density over the entire dorsal hull suggests over 400 emplacements in total" You're making an assumption, not using solid evidence. You can't say the Lusankya had less firepower than the Executor when we don't even know for sure how much firepower the Executor had!

As for shielding... how can you say that it had weaker shielding when you don't even know the yields of the torpedoes being used!?! That's circular logic. Instead, we can assume that the ships were the same (with no solid evidence to the contrary) and that the torpedoes were of high yield.

You have no solid basis for either weaker weaponry or shielding.

Since it did not appear to instantly knock out attacking capital ships,

It took out the shields to the Freedom with one volley of ion fire at a bad angle, and knocked the ship out of action for at least a short period of time.

and because the firepower unleashed to hurt the Lusankya to the point where Corran Horn felt it in danger of breaking up with much more abuse appears to me less than the barrage which disrupted the shields of the Executor such that Arvel Crynyd could ram the main bridge.

Except that it was under a barrage of heavy torpedoes of unknown yield, whereas the Executor didn't have those heavy torpedes. Without knowing a yield, there's no reason to assume the Lusankya was weaker. You're using gut feeling over real evidence, and it's not good enough.

Not to mention shields have nothing to do with the Lusankya escaping,

Better shields make for easier escapes. There's no reason for the Lusankya to have weakened shielding.

and the Lusankya's was only stocked with a mere two wings of fighters,

Isard was having resource difficulties at the time.

and she was designed to support a massive unorthodox repulsor bed.

Evidence that the ship had to be significantly modified for that? Evidence that any such modification reduced shielding capability?

I highly doubt that it simply punched through: the Executor and her escorts were powerless before the Hoth tactical energy shield. Rather, they probably powered it down--would it be better for Lusankya to run about, razing Coruscant and trying to disrupt the defense system to escape or risking the Lusankya ramming the shield and then crashing into the city, killing billions; even trillions more?

The shields had just come back online after being downed, they may not have been in the best working order. They may also have been sabatoged so as to be brought down more easily. Nobody made any comment that the shields were lowered intentionally... the characters knew that if the Lusankya made it, it could cause all kinds of trouble all over the galaxy.

Sure there is: capital ships' turbolasers are the choicest methods of punching through enemy ships. If the average warship was as vulnerable to warhead ambushing as the Lusankya, SW combat would be very different.

No, it wouldn't. Torpedoes have to be fired from close range to not be shot down, and it's difficult to get an ambush that big and that coordinated against a ship the size of an SSD. (Especially since they usually have lots of escorts.)

Torpedoes overload shields due to their insane wattage, but only if timed just right (by the best pilots). Without a properly cooridinated attack, torpedoes are useless for bringing down shields. Typical combat situations against large ships and their escorts make it incredibly difficult to get a proper volley off.

The attack on the Aggregator produced all sorts of gaps in the shielding, allowing warheads to slip through. Perhaps the shield-piercers simply increase the likelyhood of bleedthrough and shield irregularities not unlike those exploited on a much larger scale by Torpedo Spheres. However, I made no hypothesis of a mechanism, so don't use strawmen and claim its never seen anywhere (though it was with the Aggregator).

I don't trust the hypothesis... it'd have to apply to torpedoes in general if it were true, but such a mechanism is never referred to in regards to typical torpedoes being used against capital ships. There's not enough evidence for it.

If starfighters were so excellent at knocking out VSD scale ships, it wouldn't be cost-affective to build them.

Starfighters aren't so excellent at it. The situation has to be just right, and the pilots have to be the best. Even in TBW, against the best, the Corruptor would've survived if the Alderaanian War Cruiser hadn't showed up. (It rolled to protect the downed shields, which would be up by the time the third volley hit.. the second volley would have to hit the fresh shields. Then the Rogues would be out of torpedoes.)

Personally, I deride the idea of Stackpolian starfighter combat and I prefer the canon model for SW combat.

I see, so "I don't like it, so I'll ignore it." BTW, B-wings took out an ISD in the script to RotJ.

Well, 80 was enough to take down an SSDs sheilds and start ripping into the hull.

Admiral Johnason wrote:Well, 80 was enough to take down an SSDs sheilds and start ripping into the hull.

Michael Stackpole= Brain Bugs

YT300000 wrote:

Admiral Johnason wrote:Well, 80 was enough to take down an SSDs sheilds and start ripping into the hull.

Michael Stackpole= Brain Bugs

So was GL, but I don't hear much wining.