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Spin off of the thrawn thread
If a mysterious "accident" were to befall Borsk Fel'ya shortly before the Vong invasion, and the senate brought Ackbar out of retirement and gave him full command over all the NRDF's resources, how much damage could he do to the Vong?

A lot...

He would have had the brains to be decisive and attack. That would have helped a lot.

Every halfway decent officer without being bound by stupid politicans should have been able to stop the Vong.

That is the perfect responce to both polls. I love it!

But what if... it's a trap!

Bob the Gunslinger wrote:But what if... it's a trap!

He seems to do rather well in those situations, as long as the enemy leader is insane, and I think some of the Vong leaders (If not all) would qualify.

If he did come out of retirement it would seriously fuck him up!
When we actually see him in Destinies Way (IIRC) old age and a life of high stress have taken they're toll on him heavily and IIRC he's been retired since the end of the HoT Duology.

I doubt that he would have been THAT much more effective than he already was. It took him ages to devise that plan of his over Ebaq 9, and it would have been harder on him if he was in command of the entire NRDF at the time. The best thing he would do is take the gloves off and put the right officers in place, but I doubt that he would make any particular strategically brilliant decisions. Don't get me wrong--he would probably be able to stop the YV just because those things would be enough, but I doubt that he could deliver victory after victory like the one at Ebaq.

Master of Ossus wrote:I doubt that he would have been THAT much more effective than he already was. It took him ages to devise that plan of his over Ebaq 9, and it would have been harder on him if he was in command of the entire NRDF at the time. The best thing he would do is take the gloves off and put the right officers in place, but I doubt that he would make any particular strategically brilliant decisions. Don't get me wrong--he would probably be able to stop the YV just because those things would be enough, but I doubt that he could deliver victory after victory like the one at Ebaq.

As much as I love Ackbar, I agree with 'da Master. Ackbar's Ebaq victory came about only as a result of 3 years of observation of YV tactics and abilities, something that he had relied on very much prior to his retirement. If Borsk had managed to overcome his pride and called Ackbar back, there may have been some difference, but not on the level that Ebaq was.

The problem is Ackbar was retired and he was only getting 2nd hand reports from friends. If he had have been in the loop from the beginning i'm sure he coulda pulled out a few victories, enough to put the Vong on the back foot for a while. Also he is well know for his previous disputes with Borsk Fei'lya and would have told old Borsk where to get off if he was interfearing with his activities. The problem boiled down to the Supremem Commander of the NRDF being a pussy.