Saga Atomic/Nuclear Bombs

There were wheeled juggernauts in Episode 3.

 

I don't understand why the AT-AT's had such tall, vulnerable legs and moved so slow. Juggernauts of the clone wars would be so much more devestating than an AT-AT

 

AT-AT's had blaster proof armor. They were slower than the juggernauts, but they were far tougher, could handle any terrain and probably hit harder.

 

Apparently they're capable of going a lot faster than we see- I'm told that maps of Hoth show that they were crossing ice and had slowed down for safety.

 

You're right. 60 kph AFAIK. Whereas ATSTs can get up to 90 kph.

 

Might be interesting to see how fast its legs would have to move, at that speed- like a clockwork toy.

 

What about mouse droids?

 

It'd be like the Robot Chicken scene where the AT-AT's are racing on Hoth.

 

I forget what novel it was but it mentioned that they existed but no one had used them for a long long time.

 

A nuke is used in Darth Plagueis, as well as in Vector Prime.

 

Waitaminute, something that would have to weigh over 2,000 tons has to slow down because it's walking on thin ice?? Damn, if it was that close you might as well just zip some shuttles in and be done with it.

 

Not the thinness- the slipperiness. AT-ATs are probably on the order of 200-400 tons.

 

In Plagueis?

How? When?

Wookie has nothing on this.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nuclear_bomb

 

Page 385, chapter 26: Their Baser Nature:

He had placed one hand on the device's keyboard when the sky seemed to give birth to a sphere of blinding light. Following a moment of absolute stillness, a cascade of infernal energy descended on what remained of the fort and concentric rings of explosive power radiated outward, leveling everything within a twenty-kilometer radius from ground zero. The Infiltrator was lifted like a bird caught in a thermal, and for a moment all its systems failed.

Plagueis sat in enraged disbelief.

Somehow Veruna and his cohorts- Gardulla, Black Sun, and the Bando Gora- had gotten their hands on a proscribed nuclear device. None of the Sun Guards could have survived the blast; but then they didn't deserve to. Nuclear weapons were scarce, and the Echani had obviously neglected to check with the few black-market suppliers that had access to them.

 

In Mandalorian Wars, Mandalorians used nukes to destroy Serreco. That's the only case I know.

 

In the RoTJ novel "thermonuclear fireworks" are mentioned during the Battle of Endor. Later Proton torpedoes were described as nuclear- though more recent sources have their component be baradium rather than hydrogen.

 

They have atomic and nuclear weapons in the Star Wars galaxy, but they are not used for most times, because in space the explosions lacks the shock wave created in atmospheres. Also they're very expensive if compared to regular laser weapons.

According to the ICS, a Acclamator's main laser turrets provide 200 gigatons TNT firepower each shot, which is nothing but nonsense. With such fire power, 200 gigatons TNT per single shot, four guns each turret, 12 turrets, so 48 guns able to fire hundreds of 200 gigaton shots is a battle you could molt a planet to slag in a day with one ship.

A Venator-class cruiser's reactors annihilate 40,000 tons hypermatter per second at maximum capacity, which seems to be a bit to high, too.

The Essential Guide to Warfare mentions the Republic Navy was unable to make a planet inhabitable until 15,000 BBY, which makes no sense too, the galactic civilation has used interstellar travel and space warfare for 10,000 years at this time, while Earth has developed only really primitive space flight by now and it's people are able to nuke their world inhabitable since 50 years.

 

I still gag at the 200 gigaton thing. SD shots are measured in tens of megatons, and that's all the energy coming at you not spread out in an explosion. They could have at least said somewhere that they decided to mass produce smaller yields or something.

 

That's exactly how the writer, one Curtis Saxton, got the figure in the first place- he read about "Base Delta Zero" which involved rendering a planet uninhabitable- concluded that it must involve total surface melting, in the space of about an hour, by one ship, and set the yields for the guns high enough for it to work.

Other writers, like Gary Sarli, however, concluded that a big fleet, over a long period- days- was needed- and didn't necessarily require melting, just heating.

 

I wish they would just release a single book dedicated to establishing the technological stuff in Star Wars. Take inspiration from all the history books (many I have) that talk heavily on how much firepower a WWII sub has, or how many machine gun barrels/and amount of rounds a P-51 Mustang could carry. Just make it uniform and have people who know what they are talking about and have been shown the complexity of Star Wars. Because it seems when they release a "tech book" on this stuff, it doesn't clear things up...it just makes it more confusing.

 

Jane's Fighting Ships but for Star Wars? The various Essential Guides, Incredible Cross Sections, etc books could be gathered together, and rechecked for this sort of oddity.

A detailed description of a Base Delta Zero operation, that made it clear how it works, might help.

 

Yeah. A book like that. I would like to understand why the tactics in Star Wars are so WWI and WWII ish. Like thousands of troops running at each other and dying in huge casualties when you could just drop a bomb and blow the whole army up. Or why they bother with tanks when they could just move orbiting ships into the area and bombard it them.

 

I'd blame the authors for that. And George Lucas.

 

Yeah...but I just want to try to make a reasonable answer on it. Like in "Landing at Point Rain", all the clones are being shot down outta their gunships cause they are flying directly at the enemy. And the enemy isn't even shielded, at least not that area. So why not just orbital bombard it and then just bring in a few squads of clones to clean things up...kinda like what we do today?

 

Because the authors. Also known as plot-induced stupidity