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Just how good was the New Republic Armed Forces in equippment, training and resources compared to the Imperial Armed Forces? This is something I've been thinking about for sometime now.

Far, far, far less.

In a compare contrast mode:

Starfleet
In the Empire a local moff controlled the local sector forces. The largest ships in these forces were a handful of star destroyers or star cruisers. Grand Admirals or Grand Moffs commanded larger areas of operation and could call upon massive ships including star battlecruisers, star battleships, star dreadnaughts, or even strategic weapons such as torpedo spheres and orbital nightcloaks.

The Republic took a different tact - rather then paying and supplying local forces that would be called up to aid large ships, they let local sectors purchase a severly restricted number of small ships and munitions and had areas of operation made up of a large number of star cruisers, star destroyers or carrier destroyers. This allowed them to cover large areas yet did not carry with it the threat of overwhelming firepower. The folley of this choice was shown time and again, and eventually they began to accquire a limited number of larger ships that were allotted to loyal commanders. However the decision of small lightly armed ships pervaded their thinking through the fall of the New Republic.

In temrs of training it is difficult to determine whose was superior. certainly the Empire had superior discipline, but there are no detailed accounts of fighting between the two forces when the forces were equal.

Army
In both cases the army was usually local sector or planetary forces that could be called up by the high command. However the Empire paid for or donated much of the army's equipment and severly influenced local academies, where as the Republic is not know to have done so. The Imperial Army was also well trained in coordinating with the Imperial starfleet in invasion and defense operations, while the Republic method was usually to have the navy remove orbital or space elements while the rebellion was taking place on the ground and meet up after.

Starfighter Corps
Imperial starfighters emphaize speed and manuverability, while Republic ones favor firepower and durability. The merits of this equipment choice can be debated, but the level of training that the Imperials had was far superior. During the Galactic Civil war the pilots of the Republic were largely "hotshots" who recieved their training elsewhere and joined the Republic after gaining extensive experience fighting Imperials on thier own. Thus they had already been filtered by attrition to be the very best and were as good or better then their Imperial counterparts. But when the Republic trained the pilots themselves the difference in quality was evident - it is notable that the majority of combat deaths seen in series such as X-wing are pilots trained by said hotshots. This training gap was pushed further when the hotshots began to leave and was finally noticed by the chain of command 12 ABY. By this time however the problem was so bad that bombing crews would refuse to attack hostile targets, resulting in sound defeat for the Republic.


Marine Corps
The Imperil stormtroopers were met by the Republic shocktroopers. The two forces had a similar armerment, though the weapons the shocktroopers carried were more divese, and carried more weapons with them thein their Imperial counterparts did. Shocktroopers themselves appear to have been highly competent, at one point completley routing the entire crew of a Yuuzhan Vong ship the squad boarded. The experience of their officer corps is questionable however, as starfighter pilots were known to suit up and lead missions as shocktroopers. As this happened during the rebellion however, it may have been more due to a lack of personnel then policy. It appear that the stormtrooper outnumbered the shocktroopers by a significant quantity, but that is to be expected as the stormtroopers had formerly been the quadrillions of soldiers making up the Grand Army of the Republic.

We should probably also take into consideration the fluff that occupied some of the upper echelons of the Imperial command. I don't doubt the fighting abilities of the men (and few misguided women) of the Imperial Armed Forces, but there are probably more examples than you can shake a stick at, of Imperial commanders too arrogant, or stupid (probably political appointee) that lead their men to the slaughter or infighting.

Trytostaydead wrote:We should probably also take into consideration the fluff that occupied some of the upper echelons of the Imperial command. I don't doubt the fighting abilities of the men (and few misguided women) of the Imperial Armed Forces, but there are probably more examples than you can shake a stick at, of Imperial commanders too arrogant, or stupid (probably political appointee) that lead their men to the slaughter or infighting.

I'd imagine its exactly the opposite of what you opine - the rule and decision making ability of fools is severly restricted in the military, and while sociopaths may rise quickly to command, the ratio of sociopaths in the militayr would mirror that in real life, and the later Republic.

Thank you for that informative post. And now I can understand why the New Republic failed so miserably against the Vong.

OmegaRed wrote:Thank you for that informative post. And now I can understand why the New Republic failed so miserably against the Vong.

It wasn't so much a lack of equipment or poor tactics and the like so much as sheer incompotence on the part of the New Republic government. There were also a lot of planets that decided to immediately surrender in return for promises the Vong never kept anyway.

Shadowtraveler wrote:

OmegaRed wrote:Thank you for that informative post. And now I can understand why the New Republic failed so miserably against the Vong.

It wasn't so much a lack of equipment or poor tactics and the like so much as sheer incompotence on the part of the New Republic government. There were also a lot of planets that decided to immediately surrender in return for promises the Vong never kept anyway.

Incompetence that may have been a cause of a weakened Republic armed forces.


We do know that the NRDF has went through a "peace dividend" of sorts, with older, experienced soldiers retiring. An economic boom was drawing away experienced and potential personnel from the NRDF.


While the attitudes towards a Yuzhan Vong invasion was incompetent, one cannot dismiss the possibility of a weak NRDF too. After all, it was the weak position of the British navy and army that led to an incompetent Far East Stragety,aka, the Singapore Stragety.

The Black Fleet Crisis books Leia says that Republic fleet strength was greater than both sides combined during the civil war.

Although I doubt this is realistic seeing as so much of the old Imperial fleet that is often creditied as making up the bulk of the NR force was chewed up by warlord in-fighting.

Darth Tanner wrote:The Black Fleet Crisis books Leia says that Republic fleet strength was greater than both sides combined during the civil war.

Although I doubt this is realistic seeing as so much of the old Imperial fleet that is often creditied as making up the bulk of the NR force was chewed up by warlord in-fighting.

Nitpick: Princess Leia said that they can call on more ships than was fought during the largest battle of the civil war.

If we assume that was the battle of Endor, and assume that this includes the sector fleet on blockade duty, that approximately 2k ships.

And of course, one must question whether this means combat ready starships or ships that can respond to any crisis. Since Ackbar talks about a fleet having extended duty while another fleet enjoys "home" duty protecting Coruscant, its more likely to be the former.

Concerning the Imperial fighter corps, a good proportion of what I know about them comes from the X-Wing books, which are not particularly accurate or reliable, regardless of their storytelling quality. It makes no sense that the guerrila force would be able to deploy fighters at least twice as capable as the government force, so are there any other sources that don't have as much rebel-wank in them?

The X-wings were originally going to be made for the Empire, but the entire production team for it defected to the Rebellion and gave them a brand new ship to play with.