Force sub: Rebel Strike Force vs WW1

[Cykeisme]

Nah, I don't think the Rebels' demolition charges were capable of blowing through the outer walls/hull/doors of the shield generator station. If that was the case, they wouldn't have worried about the blast doors closing; they could've blown them open instead of trying to hack the electronics or trick the defenders into opening it.

I would surmise that the huge explosion that tore apart the bunker complex and shield projector dish was the (massive!) secondary explosion from the reactor going boom.


Anyway, the OP's rules are fair. The WW1 guys are limited in the same way that the Stormies were.. they didn't get to bring any artillery or air support, so the WW1 guys don't either.
Meanwhile, the Rebels can only do what they did in the movie (and a bit of EU stuff, apparently).

[DudeGuyMan]

Nah, I don't think the Rebels' demolition charges were capable of blowing through the outer walls/hull/doors of the shield generator station. If that was the case, they wouldn't have worried about the blast doors closing; they could've blown them open instead of trying to hack the electronics or trick the defenders into opening it.

Unless blowing open that bunker door would have left the tunnel it protected collapsed/buried in a crater while alerting every soldier on the base at once. I don't have a hard time believing that their explosives, meant to thoroughly demolish a critically important enemy target, might have been that powerful.

I can't find any information on how powerful their "proton grenades" are, but something even a tiny fraction as powerful as a proton torpedo should be pretty damn substantial as far as ground combat goes. I don't know, Wookieepedia doesn't really seem to be big on describing explosive yields in useful terms. Even if their explosives aren't powerful enough to breach an Imperial blast door, that doesn't mean they won't monstrously fuck up WW1 fixed defenses.

The main problem is that they'll have to throw them by hand. Even under cover of night and smoke and whatever dust their initial grenades blast into the air, getting close enough is liable to be horribly bloody and difficult. I'm assuming that if the grenades are extremely powerful, they'll set long timers and run the hell away after throwing. Better hope nobody picks it up and throws it back into the woods.

I would surmise that the huge explosion that tore apart the bunker complex and shield projector dish was the (massive!) secondary explosion from the reactor going boom.

In which case all you really need to do is blow that reactor, although for something generating enough power for a shield capable of turning away SW fleet bombardment, that explosion was pretty damn small.

In any event, all they really NEED to destroy is the projector dish, and that really shouldn't be hard at all if they can get close to it. Couple charges near the base. Even if the whole thing didn't go up, I'll betcha failsafes would shut it off if it wobbled even a couple of degrees. Energy fields strong enough to absorb SW capship bombardment moving randomly around your fleet and otherwise unshielded installation are BAD.

[Srelex]

Nah, I don't think the Rebels' demolition charges were capable of blowing through the outer walls/hull/doors of the shield generator station. If that was the case, they wouldn't have worried about the blast doors closing; they could've blown them open instead of trying to hack the electronics or trick the defenders into opening it.

I would surmise that the huge explosion that tore apart the bunker complex and shield projector dish was the (massive!) secondary explosion from the reactor going boom.

Could it be more likely that they simply didn't bring enough explosive to use it in such a manner? Such oversight has happened in real life. And was the explosion one continous one or did we actually see evidence of a secondary boom?

[Batman]

WRT the Rebels simply blowing their way in through the closed blast doors/walls-by the time they had to worry about that they no longer HAD those explosives thanks to being ambushed by the Imperials while PLANTING them earlier, hence R2/Han trying to hack the doors.

[bogy_shashav]

Oh god, some little cumstain comes into the thread, thinks up some off-the-wall tactic that clearly violates the spirit of the scenario, and then shits his panties in fury when I don't immediately declare him winner of the thread and king of the internet.

Hey, it's Stark and he's just going through the motions. If he didn't do that people would be thinking that he's sick or got assimilated by Facebook like DW or something.

The actual shuttle problem is easy to fix, though: let's just amend the thread so that the airspace around the dish is still watched by Imperials with real SW tech ray guns. So the rebels can't use the shuttle or the Imperials would blast them out of the sky.

For a ground assault to be necessary, isn't it obvious that the dish itself IS protected by the shield and possibly AA turrets, not to mention the Navy above? I mean we can just have another flight of x-wings zipping by! But we don't, instead we have one of the most hilarious secret operations I've seen, if we don't count the lovely fiasco in Iran.

[Sea Skimmer]

In any event, all they really NEED to destroy is the projector dish, and that really shouldn't be hard at all if they can get close to it. Couple charges near the base. Even if the whole thing didn't go up, I'll betcha failsafes would shut it off if it wobbled even a couple of degrees. Energy fields strong enough to absorb SW capship bombardment moving randomly around your fleet and otherwise unshielded installation are BAD.

I wouldn’t be so sure about that being easy; the shield generator towered over the surrounding forest. We never get a close look, but if those trees around it are the same height as all the other endless tall trees we see on Endor it may be in the range of 400ft or more tall. That’s a pretty big object to try to blow up with anything even vaguely like chemical explosive satchel charges. It’d have to be pretty damn strong just to hold itself up in a strong wind. The base may be like a small skyscraper with countless redundant girders.

Now of course, even if the shield generator antenna was totally immune to damage, given enough firepower you could just vaporize the ground holding it in place (the foundation might go to bedrock though given its size) and make it fall over. This is similar to the concept for blowing through the earth for access underground. But a demolition charge the size of an atomic bomb has some rather serious problems. The biggest and simplest of them being that if you set the charge … then you’ve got to run away! That’s going to take a long time on foot, which means a long delay on the bomb timer, which means lots of time for more Imperial troops to show up and disarm it. This is not good at all for a mission requiring close coordination with the Rebel fleet attack force.

Even mere modern technology would have made it entirety feasible to bring a 150kt nuclear warhead along for the job and carry it on foot. But that’s just not a very practical option. Smaller power charges need far more precision in placement to be effective, in this case internal to the facility, but they also meant the Rebels could blow them as soon as they got back outside. Even in the ambush that took place, if the Rebels had even another minute or had just been prepared and ready enough to hold off the ambush, they could have blown the place on time.