The Empire Strikes Out - Inside the Battle of Hoth

[Neil]

The Imperial fleet seemed much more powerful than the Rebel fleet.  Whether the Emperor is assisting them or not, it shouldn't matter.

[viper37]

The Imperial fleet seemed much more powerful than the Rebel fleet.  Whether the Emperor is assisting them or not, it shouldn't matter.

The British looked superior to the Americans, yet the Americans won.
At Bull Run, the Federals lost to the Confederate.

It's not unusual in history to find examples of a superior force being defeated by an inferior one.

And we know that the Empire is kinda overstreched, from the first movie as a rebel fleet coming from an unknown base defeated the Imperials, and they can't seem to ammass huge fleets everywhere they go.

Presumably, without leadership, everything crumbles.  Not unusual.  And anyway, who's in charge now?  Who coordinates the attack?  No Emperor, no Vader, no Piett, no command ship, unable to communicate through shields... it becomes a slugging fest with ISDs in an "hold position".  And many of these ISDs must habe been interdictor cruisers with ligther armament.  A Mon Calamari Cruiser has superior firepower to a regulard Star Destroyers.  The rebels are in attack position, able to strike at the Empire's fleet with concentrated firepower.  All they need to do is target one of them at the time, starting with the biggest ships and fighters running interference.  The X-Wing, and the A-Wing are superior to the Tie Fighters, and the Empire didn't seem to have any Tie Advanced or Tie Interceptors in the fight.

When Luke escapes the Death Star, the battle is still going on. We can deduce from that that the empire didn't immediatly retreat, they kept fighting, but without coordination, they lost.

[Neil]

No, we know that the Imperial fleet is superior to the Rebel one, probably on a ship to ship basis.  "We won't last long against those star destroyers".

There was no fleet action in the first movie.

If we look at the ships seen in the movie, then the Imperial fleet has a huge preponderance of force.  Assuming that the Imperial chain of command went from Piett directly to the individual ship captains seems unreasonable.

TIE Interceptors were definitely there.  They were created for the movie.  I don't think that the Rebel fighters are that much better than the Imperial equivalents.

[Admiral Yi]

Is TIE an acronym?

[Neil]

Is TIE an acronym?

Twin Ion Engine.

[Tonitrus]

We know that there was a significant Imperial fleet there, just from having watched the movie.  The Rebel fleet is a little hazier, since I don't recall us ever getting a really good shot of the whole fleet at Endor.

I remember seeing shots of the Rebel fleet going into hyperspace to Endor...



vs.

[Admiral Yi]

Those Cockroach class gun boats are obviously no match for a Star Destroyer.

[Tonitrus]

I dunno...a Super Star Destroyer was no match for an A-Wing.

[Neil]

Yeah, but because it's not at Endor, it's possible that the Rebel fleet massed from multiple launch points.  Just considering all the options.

I dunno...a Super Star Destroyer was no match for an A-Wing.

I think that it would be better to say that a Super Star Destroyer was no match for a disasterous design flaw.

[PDH]

"Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here."

Though from another movie, that sums up the super star destroyer.

[chipwich]

Remember that Akbar and Calrissian ordered the Rebel capital ships to attack the star destroyers at "point blank range" while the star destroyers were ordered not to fire back, which presumably did quite a lot of damage.

[Razgovory]

Are people embarrassed to be seen with you guys in public?

[Neil]

Remember that Akbar and Calrissian ordered the Rebel capital ships to attack the star destroyers at "point blank range" while the star destroyers were ordered not to fire back, which presumably did quite a lot of damage.

The star destroyers were clearly firing back.  Once the Rebels came in close, it was on.

[PDH]

Are people embarrassed to be seen with you guys in public?

Only when they wear their "It's a TRAP" T-shirts.

[chipwich]

Remember that Akbar and Calrissian ordered the Rebel capital ships to attack the star destroyers at "point blank range" while the star destroyers were ordered not to fire back, which presumably did quite a lot of damage.

The star destroyers were clearly firing back.  Once the Rebels came in close, it was on.

Whoops, you're right, that was after the laser.

That said, the fact the rebels were able to take a risky by concentrating their firepower on the most heavily shielded enemy ship and not get totally wiped out suggests that the rebels had an acceptably strong tactical position. And Admiral Akbar does a sigh of relief when he watches the SSD crash, which suggests that the other star destroyers aren't that big a problem anyomre.