I've just read through this thread. I am a bit disappointed with you guys. Along comes a Trekkie who seems much more intelligent than the average Trekkie debater, and is quite pleasant too. He asked very nicely what everyone thought of the Dominion vs the Empire, and if it would be more fair than the Federation. You guys pounded him to a pulp like he was Darkstar or something.
This was an opportunity to educate a newbie, who would have been receptive to it. But you estranged him.
Remember in 20,000+ years there are still unmapped or poorly mapped areas of Wars space.
Actually, that is based on secondary sources in the EU. Canon sources (films, scripts, etc.) trump those. In "Attack of the Clone," the Jedi librarian said "If it is not in our archives, it does not exist." Thus, all of those "pie slice" sections on EU galactic maps of "unknown regions" simply don't exist in canon. Dooku removed the files of Kamino. If we take the woman's word seriously, and she seemed serious, every planet in the galaxy, and the two satelite galaxies presumably, that Dooku didn't remove, are in the archives. Kenobi and Yoda were both confused that a planet wasn't on the charts, to the point that they had to think about it for a while.
Also note that in TESB, Piett knew immediately that Hoth was supposed to be "devoid of Human forms."
The entire galaxy is thoroughly mapped. Probably the two satelite galaxies too.
Lucas says in the commentary of ANH that the Falcon takes a few seconds to calculate coordinates, because it travels outside normal lanes. That is why it is so fast. It doesn't actually travel faster, but takes shorter routes than everyone else. Behind the scenes quotes aren't canon, but being an official DVD release, could be considered as secondary evidence.
As far as this scenario, as someone pointed out, you gave no time limit. Thus, the arguments about mapping the place are valid.
Yes, the Dominion would be a better adversary than the Federation. But they would be terribly overmatched. Even against just Vader's small fleet of 6 ships.
Okay, if the technobabblon beams can penetrate Imperial shields? If that were so, those beams would still have to contend with thick armor plating that is also superdispersive. Recall the armor on AT-ATs in TESB. "That armor's too strong for blasters!" Imagine a mile-long ship covered with that same stuff, but thicker. Even if these beams could go right through the shields, the Imperial ships could destroy Dominion ships before the Dominsion ships could destroy the Imperial ships. The firepower difference is that great - the Imperial weapons would go right through the Dominion shields too, but by brute force. So, in this scenario, it would be weapons vs hulls. Imperial ships have stronger hulls and stronger weapons.
The Ewok thing is actually just as valid as many Trek scenarios used here. But note a few things:
*The Ewoks were not winning. They occupied the troops' attention enough to allow the Rebels to get into the bunker.
*Their tactics to take out the AT-STs were ingenious. Using huge native trees to trip or crush them is very effective. This obviously took a lot of preparation.
*Ewoks are very strong. They threw rocks that looked very heavy. It knocked the troops down.
*I never saw an arrow hurt a trooper.
*As Mike said, most of the troops were at the other end of the compound.
*The battle was won because Han infiltrated the bunker, with the help of the AT-ST Chewbacca captured. The Ewoks caused enough confusion to allow this to happen. I don't know who saw the Ewoks route the troops, but you saw a different movie than I did.
Babtech on the Net is the most well-thought-out collection of Babylon 5 technical documents online.
-- Asuka
