Comparison of the EpIII and NJO Battles of Coruscant

[Darth Fanboy]

So i've just finished rereading Labyrinth of Evil for the second time, and it got me to thinking. How would the Republic as of LoE/RoTS defend against the Yuuzhan Vong invasion as took place in 'Star by Star' andhow would the Separatists fare against the NR held Coruscant?

From my first impressions it looks like the Old Republic was waging a far better defense despite Grievous capturing Palpatine (although that was engineered by the Sith Lord himself). The New Republic's Coruscant to me seemed underdefended and the defense poorly managed. But I think it would only be proper to do a more thorough comparison eh?

*grabs Star by Star and begins scouring*

[Chris OFarrell]

So i've just finished rereading Labyrinth of Evil for the second time, and it got me to thinking. How would the Republic as of LoE/RoTS defend against the Yuuzhan Vong invasion as took place in 'Star by Star' andhow would the Separatists fare against the NR held Coruscant?

From my first impressions it looks like the Old Republic was waging a far better defense despite Grievous capturing Palpatine (although that was engineered by the Sith Lord himself). The New Republic's Coruscant to me seemed underdefended and the defense poorly managed. But I think it would only be proper to do a more thorough comparison eh?

*grabs Star by Star and begins scouring*

Uhh its completly different.

Star by Star has the NRDF engaging the Vong in a multi day long running battle with three fleet groups as they moved in towards Courscant. Then Courscants dramaticly increased orbital defence platform network engaging the Vong with the remaining fleet groups helping. Then the Vong sent their invasion waves down to Courscant after running through the minefield. Then the surface to space weapons engaged the Vong.

The Vong had a huge fleet, something like 20,000 ships IIRC. They lost something like 12-14 thousand ships from memory and most of the rest were damaged.

Episode III has the Seperatists sending a far less powerful and numerous fleet into Courscant orbit where the Republic fleet engages it in a huge brawl, which they eventualy win thanks to superior numbers and Palpitines strategic playing around.

The Episode III fleet would be creamed against the Vong.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

The Episode III fleet would be creamed against the Vong.

I won't be so sure. I think in total numbers, the Star by Star battle is larger, but the Vong and NR fleets are both disproportionately made up of little vessels. A NR fleet has a SD:support ratio of about 1:20, the in Agents of Chaos, the opposing Vong unit has a similar composition.

At least from a glance on the screen, the proportion of large vessels in the OR and Separatist fleets was much higher (you see lots of Venators and comparably sized Separatist ships, and not many small ships).

Besides, a lot of the NR's pains were self-inflicted by incompetent Fleet commanders. Kreffey, oh Kreffey, we are talking millions vs at least trillions - if you don't know what I'm referring to, you hadn't read SbS.

[Noble Ire]

Episode III has the Seperatists sending a far less powerful and numerous fleet into Courscant orbit where the Republic fleet engages it in a huge brawl, which they eventualy win thanks to superior numbers and Palpitines strategic playing around.

This can be chalked up to the fact that it was a lightning raid to capture Palpatine, not a full blown invasion. Nevertheless, the battle show in SbS is far more significant, and Coruscant's defenses seem to be more formidable by a wide margin (Orbital mine shell, more defense platforms, possibly a more through and powerful shield set up.) The NR may have been pitiful when it came to waging the offensive portion of the war, but the defensive force around Coruscant was actually quite impressive.

[Noble Ire]

At least from a glance on the screen, the proportion of large vessels in the OR and Separatist fleets was much higher (you see lots of Venators and comparably sized Separatist ships, and not many small ships).

Your right about the OR fleet makeup (almost entirely Venators, with a few Dreadnaughts and Acclamators thrown in) but a significant portion of the Seperatist force were the smaller Banking Clan and Commerce Guild frigates, like the one that gets cut in half on screen. These ships are closely analogus to the smaller Vong cruisers.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

Your right about the OR fleet makeup (almost entirely Venators, with a few Dreadnaughts and Acclamators thrown in) but a significant portion of the Seperatist force were the smaller Banking Clan and Commerce Guild frigates, like the one that gets cut in half on screen. These ships are closely analogus to the smaller Vong cruisers.

Well, I'm not too familiar with Separatist vessels. For some reason, my local bookstore decides to import the fucking NEGWT (that awful replacement of the old EGWT) rather than the EP3:ICS.

Close enough, since it is the OR fleet that would do the defending. The impresssion I got from SbS is that the Vong were doing a saturation attack - attacking regardless of losses hoping some would actually make it all the way to the planet. They are causing losses to the NR but they are getting the worse half of it despite outnumbering the NR fleet.

The orbital defenses only were important because the Vong fleet wasn't sufficiently attrited. And they weren't sufficiently attrited because a huge portion of the NR fleet wasn't even firing thanks to Kreffey. After that, Kreffey seems to be skirmishing rather than attacking in force.

[Noble Ire]

Close enough, since it is the OR fleet that would do the defending. The impresssion I got from SbS is that the Vong were doing a saturation attack - attacking regardless of losses hoping some would actually make it all the way to the planet. They are causing losses to the NR but they are getting the worse half of it despite outnumbering the NR fleet.

The orbital defenses only were important because the Vong fleet wasn't sufficiently attrited. And they weren't sufficiently attrited because a huge portion of the NR fleet wasn't even firing thanks to Kreffey. After that, Kreffey seems to be skirmishing rather than attacking in force.

This is all true, but it is impossible to tell how the first battle of Coruscant would have been fought if the Seperatists had attacked in a traditional fleet movement rather than a strike under the planetary shields using secret hyperspace routes to subvert most of the fleet. The OR was forced to attack enmass to keep the CIS pinned down and away from their escape vectors.

[Darth Fanboy]

The Episode III fleet would be creamed against the Vong.

But if what you're saying about the battles being compeltey different is true, and I'm sure it is, then if the Vong were invading the OR the same way they were the NR, then the OR would have waged more of a defense than what they did in Episode III. Whic makese sense to me now after looking through both LoE and SbS because during LoE Palpatine did commit a lot of ships to the Outer Rim Seiges. Interesting.