CIS gunship Question

[Darth Fanboy]

Nowhere in the entry for the Droid gunship does it show the ability to carry crew or passengers. Yet in Battlefront II it's a droid gunship used to board the Imperial Star Destroyer used to quell Gizor Dellso's uprising on Mustafar.

Now my question is does this mean that at the very least some droid gunships were used to accomodate crew? Or is this just an example of game mechanics, and that the boarding of the ISD must have happened under different circumstances?

[Lord Revan]

If the carring capability is present only in Battlefront II, it's not too much of a leap to dismiss it as game mechanics, as hostile boarding action in SW happens mainly to disabled ships (the fire power of the guns makes the approach needed for boarding suicidal in anything but very rare cases).

[Darth Fanboy]

If the carring capability is present only in Battlefront II, it's not too much of a leap to dismiss it as game mechanics, as hostile boarding action in SW happens mainly to disabled ships (the fire power of the guns makes the approach needed for boarding suicidal in anything but very rare cases).

That's how I look at it too, but because part of the plot of the game involves the ISD being boarded by reactivated CIS battle droids and thus can be considered low level canon, I figured I'd pose the question. I understand game mechanics are invalid as a way of determining capability, but that doesn't mean they invalidate the plot. Hence this minor dilemma.

[VT-16]

If it's mostly carrying compact battledroids in some compartment, I don't suppose that's too implausible.

[Darth Fanboy]

If it's mostly carrying compact battledroids in some compartment, I don't suppose that's too implausible.

Sounds reasonable, like I said though, didn't see anything in the ICS so I figured I'd pose the question.

I was working on a fic idea involving droid gunships when the thought hit me. In order to keep in line with continuity i ended up making the Gunship used in the story a customized variant, so it could hold a couple of beings as a gunship converted into an armed shuttlecraft.

[Anguirus]

Nowhere in the entry for the Droid gunship does it show the ability to carry crew or passengers. Yet in Battlefront II it's a droid gunship used to board the Imperial Star Destroyer used to quell Gizor Dellso's uprising on Mustafar.

In Battlefront II, tri-droids and Vulture droids carry B-1 pilots. Not to mention that most of the larger ship models are horribly inaccurate.

Definitely game mechanics. Though there is a larger droid gunship in Battlefront I that I tend to imagine as the craft General Grievous flew down to Coruscant in Labyrinth of Evil.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Fuck Battlefront; its obviously not a realistic depiction of combat as it occurs. Of course, the luminaries at Wookieepedia insist on shoehorning every mission at is occurs into the continuity.

[VT-16]

Hey, it gives us more battles --> more dead clones --> less talk about 3 million.

[Stark]

And fills continuity with absurd shit you have to excuse by saying 'well, that's from the games'.

[VT-16]

Yeah, but I'm used to having to explain game mechanics =/= canon to people, so it's not that bad for me. :P

[loomer]

Can always just go with the line that it's a modified version of a CIS gunship, or a variant that only saw limited production, like the MI-24DU in reality.

[Darth Fanboy]

Definitely game mechanics. Though there is a larger droid gunship in Battlefront I that I tend to imagine as the craft General Grievous flew down to Coruscant in Labyrinth of Evil.

This is what Greivous used for that particular mission.

[Anguirus]

Definitely game mechanics. Though there is a larger droid gunship in Battlefront I that I tend to imagine as the craft General Grievous flew down to Coruscant in Labyrinth of Evil.

This is what Greivous used for that particular mission.

Thanks for the info, but I was referring to the "gunship" in which he chased down Palpatine's mag-lev train. There were two Republic gunships (one secretly subverted by the CIS) and one CIS "gunship" that dropped battle droids and was subsequently destroyed by the Republic ones, IIRC. (Also at least one Vulture droid got involved in the furball.)

[Connor MacLeod]

The hull of the droid gunship is arguably big enough to (or perhaps with a little modification, since it is somewhat modular) carry troops - I have no probelm with a variant.

However, if the BF gunship looks identical to all other examples (like the ROTS:ICS cutaway) then we can dismiss the visuals from the game (which is also covered in canon under the "Stylistic differences" clause - ie differences between artists drawing of Luke nad how he appears in the movies, etc.) sinec we know the ROTS:ICS gunship has no room for troops.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Fuck Battlefront; its obviously not a realistic depiction of combat as it occurs. Of course, the luminaries at Wookieepedia insist on shoehorning every mission at is occurs into the continuity.

Worse, they try to shoehorn a mission where you deliver a targetting beacon for a precision orbital bombardment of a droid factory on Mustafar as a Base Delta Zero.

[VT-16]

Well, a BDZ is the complete destruction of all enemy assets. That game mechanics just sets up such an event.

[Darth Ruinus]

Well, a BDZ is the complete destruction of all enemy assets. That game mechanics just sets up such an event.

Yeah but, a targeting beacon?

[Darth Fanboy]

The way SW canon has been explained to me, the storyline Battlefront missions took place unless something higher in the canon contradicts them. I agree with IP though that in the case of Battlefront and BF II it seems rather stupid to include them, although I must admit that if the missions are all canon, it speaks well for SW hyperdrive if members of the 501st legion are spirited away at some point during Battle of Kashykk in order to participate in the Raid on the Jedi Temple. The transit time had to have been hours or so in that case.

Very few SW games, even the ones I like, really fit into the continuity in any way without them being awkwardly crammed in.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Well, a BDZ is the complete destruction of all enemy assets. That game mechanics just sets up such an event.

Wookiepedia sources Battlefront II as the only source for the Battle of Mustafar and the BDZ, I've played the story mission dozens of times, and there's no mention of anything but a precision bombardment.

And since when was a BDZ classified as just the destruction of enemy assets? Last I checked it meant to reduce the planet to a ball of magma, devoid of life and the ability to do sustain it.

[Anguirus]

Mustafar's already a ball of magma.

Wookieepedia is full of shit, there was never a BDZ on Mustafar in Battlefront II. The only reason to do so would have been to obliterate the natives and destroy their successful mining industry, an industry the Empire could make use of. They wouldn't need a "beacon" to find the planet, and BDZ targets a whole planet.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Mustafar's already a ball of magma.

Pardon me I didn't know I needed to be so specific.

[VT-16]

Last I checked it meant to reduce the planet to a ball of magma, devoid of life and the ability to do sustain it.

That's usually the case, but BDZ could be performed on limited targets as well. There was a Imperial-affiliated mercenary group hired to perform it on cities and other limited targets in Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim.

But when the planet is covered in enemy assets, it's roasting-time.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Last I checked it meant to reduce the planet to a ball of magma, devoid of life and the ability to do sustain it.

That's usually the case, but BDZ could be performed on limited targets as well. There was a Imperial-affiliated mercenary group hired to perform it on cities and other limited targets in Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim.

But when the planet is covered in enemy assets, it's roasting-time.

And they specifically said it was a Base Delta Zero?

[VT-16]

I can't remember, it's been ages since I've seen it. I know CUSWE says it was, and that the First Sun Mobile Regiment was an army unit that contracted their services out to the Empire. That's it.

But this is the exception to the rule, BDZ means destroy all assets. More often than not that means destroying the entire planet.

[Connor MacLeod]

Indeed, the regiment often undertakes missions with the same objective as the Empire's "Base Delta Zero" command; the elimination of all assets of production, including factories, arable land, mines, fisheries, droids and sapient beings (particularily any witnesses that may have seen atrocities being commited.)

The First Sun are desribed as a "repulsorlift infantry regiment designed primarily to run search and destroy missions, which the troops of the unit jocularly refer to as SLAMs (Search, Locate, Annihilate Mission.) The First Suns are also mentioned to contract to the Imperial Army.

The implication seems to be that the repulsorlift forces itself may do the BDZ, but this is debatable, since we know from other sources that BDZ is a naval op, and its nigh impossible to gain 100% casualties in any reasonable timeframe without rendering the planet uninhabitable. Moreover, to be "mobile", the First Suns would arguably need starship transportation of their own.