Re: Stormtroopers

--- Richard and Emily Bell <rlbell@sympatico.ca>
wrote:
> 
> Star Wars: A New Hope does not give any indication
> that there are that many tie fighters. 
-----
Most Starwars sources rate the Deathstar at 700 ties.
If we use FTFB and device the 700 into the six areas
with 100 in reserve, the 24 rebel fighters would be
outnumbered 4 to 1, a very manageable number for
superior pilots in superior craft.

> Given that the tie-fighters enjoy full 3D freedom of
> movement, it is really hard to keep them from going
> where they please without comparable numbers.
-----
The Deathstar is a hard reality that ties cannot
ignore.
Ties have a history of running into anything that they
get reasonably close to! 

> Fighters cannot hold space, or even deny space, they
> can only intercept.  I think that if two rebel
squadrons
> could hold off that many tie-fighters, we would have
> been treated to combat scenes much like those seen
in > Battlestar Galactica (the cylons had great
numbers of > poorly piloted craft).
-----
The story is of Luke and his exploits, the other rebel
pilots are not necessary to the story line, except
that they are able to hold off the ties until Like
does his thing.

> If I was commanding a wing of tie-fighters that
> outnumbered the rebels 3-1, and they were trying to
> screen something, I would detail two thirds
> of my force to drive away the screen and use the
> remaining third to blow away the protected units.
-----
Innovative thought was not really rewarded in the 
Empire.   You would have been given orders, you 
would carry them out or die!

This is corroborated by
> the rebel radio
> chatter which implies that they were not all engaged
> at all times.
-----
The chatter was Lukes squadron, other units were 
never mentioned once the attack began.	 This infers
a command radio channel and a tactical channel for
each squadron.

> I have also played EA's "Janes' WWII Fighters", and
> one situationthat
> you can find youself in is flying a single P-51
> against four FW-190's.
> The only shots I can get are head-to-head gunpasses,
...
-----
A head on pass with an FW190 is the nearest thing
one can do to commiting suicide.

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