Defeating a Death Star

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Can a Death Star be defeated by conventional means ?

Yes
19
43%
No
25
57%
 
Total votes: 44

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Sarevok
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Defeating a Death Star

Post by Sarevok »

How do you destroy a fully operational Death Star II battlestation. No sabotage or other tricks are possible. The Death Star must defeated in conventional fight. No superweapons are allowed.

IMHO destroying a fully operational Death Star is nearly an impossible task. The only conventioanal way to overwhelm its shields is to use an astronomical number of ships. Even without the shields the Death Star remains a thousand kilometer sphere of nearly indestructible neutronium.
I have no idea if it can be destroyed using technology available to the SW galaxy.
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Post by KhyronTheBackstabber »

There is no way to destroy a fully operational DSII. It has too much firepower, protection, and it's just plain too big. You'd have better luck taking down a battle ship with a toothpick.
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Post by Spanky The Dolphin »

Did the Death Stars use neutronium in their hulls? :?
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Post by FTeik »

Torpedospheres.

Lots of torpedospheres.
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Post by Sarevok »

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Did the Death Stars use neutronium in their hulls? :?
Star Destroyers use neutronium as armor. Since the Empire wanted the Death Star as the ultimate weapon they may have used the strongest material available which is neutronium. Also the Death Star would have been destroyed by its own forces of acceleration when moving if it was not built using some impossibly strong material. Anyway it is just a guess, correct me if I am wrong.
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Post by NecronLord »

It has a thick armour belt below the surface made of dura-armour. Thus containing neutronium
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Post by DPDarkPrimus »

Would "conventional" include a GSV or two?
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Post by Isolder74 »

The Death Star II had the design flaw shored up. This is why the Rebellion could not pass up any chance to destroy the station. If it was finished they would be no possible way to destroy it and the Rebellion would effectively be over. The only way to fight this death Star would be to build your own Death Star!
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Post by Sarevok »

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Would "conventional" include a GSV or two?
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Post by Ghost Rider »

You would need a fleet in the worth of hundreds if not thousands.

The firepower it had with it's Turbolasers combined with the off-axis and better targeting of the main gun...screws most fleets.
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Post by YT300000 »

I the shields are down, you need billions of SSDs to slowly rip the station to pieces. Or a dozen ESDs ready to fire their superlasers. 11 would be destroyed, and one would fire, blowing away a portion of the DS, overloading the reactor and destroying the station.

In other words, a near-impossible task.

If the sheilds are up, don't even bother to fight.
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Post by StarshipTitanic »

YT300000 wrote:I the shields are down, you need billions of SSDs to slowly rip the station to pieces. Or a dozen ESDs ready to fire their superlasers. 11 would be destroyed, and one would fire, blowing away a portion of the DS, overloading the reactor and destroying the station.

In other words, a near-impossible task.

If the sheilds are up, don't even bother to fight.
Overloading the reactor? Unless they have it aimed directly at the reactor, it's more likely going to slice through the thing, only causing "minor" damage.
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Post by Howedar »

I expect the same mass and/or worth of smaller capital ships would take out a DS without undue difficulty.
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Post by Sea Skimmer »

Of course it can be destroyed. It does not have unlimited power or strength. Once a hemisphere is clear of turbolasers you simply keep firing until you carve a path to the core. How many ships might be needed for this? Millions easily.
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Post by Dark Hellion »

The only thing that can beat a giant sphere of death is an even larger sphere, so ram in with kuat drive yards that'll show that upidy deathstar whos the boss of giant spheres.
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Post by vakundok »

Could Interdictors bomb it with moons or very large asteroids? (Interdictors are said to be able to create a planetary level gravity well. Maybe two of them could move a moon to a new course.)

Ehh, forget it, most likely they could not be accelerated to the speed at which the DS would be unable to avoid them.
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Post by Enforcer Talen »

give me a galaxy gun, a couple of world devastors, and several weeks, and I might manage it.
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Post by Cpt_Frank »

Enforcer Talen wrote:give me a galaxy gun, a couple of world devastors, and several weeks, and I might manage it.
That leaves you with several weeks since superweapons are not allowed.
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Re: Defeating a Death Star

Post by nightmare »

evilcat4000 wrote:How do you destroy a fully operational Death Star II battlestation. No sabotage or other tricks are possible. The Death Star must defeated in conventional fight. No superweapons are allowed.
No superweapons? Many, many standard ships.

Otherwise, I'd use two Eclipses, ready to fire as they jump in. Or just pelt it with GG missiles from the other side of the galaxy until it explodes.
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Post by Spanky The Dolphin »

Dark Hellion wrote:The only thing that can beat a giant sphere of death is an even larger sphere, so ram in with kuat drive yards that'll show that upidy deathstar whos the boss of giant spheres.
Incorrect. There is little to no evidence that Kuat Drive Yards is enclosed inside of a Dyson Sphere...
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Post by consequences »

this is messy, none of the strategies I have for reducing DS1 effectiveness are going to help, unless they somehow still left the shields open for snubfighter penetration.

First, get a number of Interdictors to lock it in place.
Second, deploy a nightcloak system around it to blind it as much as possible.
Third, assemble the largest SW fleet you've ever imagined, at a minimum, tens of thousands of heavy capital ships.
Fourth, throw as many noncombatant vessels as you can strip from your economy at it at .99C simultaneously, to attempt to create localised shield overload, while continually bombarding it with your super fleet.
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Post by Enforcer Talen »

Cpt_Frank wrote:
Enforcer Talen wrote:give me a galaxy gun, a couple of world devastors, and several weeks, and I might manage it.
That leaves you with several weeks since superweapons are not allowed.
o_O define superweapon. the death star is a lot higher on the scale then the little toys I mentioned.
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Post by Spanky The Dolphin »

The Death Stars, World Devestators, and the Galaxy Gun were all classified as superweapons, EF...
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Post by Ghost Rider »

Enforcer Talen wrote:
Cpt_Frank wrote:
Enforcer Talen wrote:give me a galaxy gun, a couple of world devastors, and several weeks, and I might manage it.
That leaves you with several weeks since superweapons are not allowed.
o_O define superweapon. the death star is a lot higher on the scale then the little toys I mentioned.
True...but I believe most would qualify them as Superweapons given what their primary use was for.

It seems the OP was refering more towards fleets with the highest being an EclipseSD being the largest allowable ship.
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Post by Ted C »

For starters, truly obscene numbers of fighters would be needed. They can get inside the main shield and strafe the surface, eliminating turbolaser batteries and shield generators. If you expect one fighter to clear a 10 km by 10 km area (which is probably expecting a lot), then you'll need over 25,000 fighters (plus enough to counter the DS2's own fighter complement).

Once the fighters suppress the station's firepower and shielding, capital ships can safely approach (the need only stay out of the superlaser's line of fire at this point) and start pounding slowly but steadily through the surface. Blast a tunnel through to the core and blow the reactor: end of death star.

An operation like this could potentially be handled by a minimum of 350 Imperial Star Destroyers, depending on the fighter resources and other fleet defenses (i.e. capital ship escorts) available to the DS2 (which would increase the requirements for the attacking fleet accordingly).
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