tharkûn wrote:I always assume the iniator gets the element of the surprise. If the question is reversed, could a Jedi kill a platoon of marines, then he gets the advantage of surprise.
Yes and no. I would assume that the Marines have a defensive perimeter set up and are expecting some sort of attack. If someone were to assume that they were living in barracks on a military base during peacetime and had no inkling whatsoever of an attack, that would be just terribly unfair. I would never concoct such a grossly weighted scenario.
If you are on defense you have to assume that enemy will try to hit when your pants are down, a lone man cannot protect against every eventuality 24/7.
Which is why we should try not to handicap one side, and assume that both sides are alert and aware of the other's presence and intent, if not his precise location.
And how would they do that? Jedi's should make excellent snipers (give their ability to make reflect kills with sabers ... that requires far more control) so the marines will be looking at one shot kills with zip in ability to see muzzle flash. Given that our Jedi can make hash out of 2 man sniper teams they can't kill him that way.
If we assume that the Jedi pulls out all the stops and uses any weapon that will get the job done instead of sticking to his lightsabre, a Jedi still has no power to reduce the muzzle flash of his weapon, or eliminate the Marines' ability to estimate the direction from which the bullet came. It would be even easier with a blaster rifle, which has a highly visible tracer. They can then drop artillery and mortar fire on his general location.
Of course the real kicker is the force choke. In TESB Vader force chokes Admiral Ossel without the good Admiral even being in a direct line of sight. How in hell do you even attempt to track a target who can kill you without a direct LOS and leaves no evidence pointing out which direction the attack came from.
True enough, but as I said, I suspect there are limitations to how often a Jedi can use that before he wears down. He could kill a LOT of Marines before he runs out of juice (the power required to break someone's neck or choke him to death is far lower than the power required to disable a metallic battle droid), as I've said since the beginning, but this doesn't mean he's got endless reserves.
If the marines even get close all the Jedi has to do is run away. The area the marines have to search goes up with the radius squared. If the Jedi runs merely twice as fast as the marines he can force them to search through 4 times as much area. It would be the poor marines sent to track him that would suffer from lack of nourishment/sleep ... not the Jedi master.
Hey, I'm not saying that the Marines wouldn't get hurt; I'm just saying that as the numbers increase, the Jedi would eventually get overwhelmed. Most certainly by the time you've got a full company, he would not have the strength to Force-choke them all, and they'd have so much firepower that they could flatten the whole area he's in once they have an idea of his location.
Mind you, it depends on the ROE. If they're in civilian territory, they have orders not to use indiscriminate area-effect weapons, and the Jedi is willing to use sniper weapons, it would be a whole lot worse. Force-assisted marksmanship would be a scary thing.