Books The Essential Guide to Warfare by Jason Fry and a pseudonymous Scotsman

Regarding art i would LOVE to see an evolution of ALL the dagger shaped capital ships that existed (since that may be too much the evolution of SD, from the Clone Wars to end of the GCW would sufice). I would also like to see good representations of not only ships, but also troopers and ground warfare machines during LOTF. We have little in the way of visual imagery from that period.

 

An image (or multiple) of Imperial Star Cruisers and/or Star Battlecruisers, please.

Hmm, that dagger-shaped warship image idea made me think of a Matryoshka doll, for some reason.

Cool, don't know much about them besides the ragtag fleet from the Stark Hyperspace War.

How will the various non-galactic military forces be handled, by sub-chapters or by paragraphs, like the planets in various regions detailed in the Atlas?

Hmm, Corellian Engineering in a chapter devoted to the Republic's decline? Don't quite see the connection. Is this related to their isolationism in the CW or something new?

With one year left, how far is this book coming along? Was the Atlas almost done by this time before its release or halfway through?

Thanks for your interest in these debates, hope it's productive!

 

Art requests: I would love to see Killik ships! The designs sound cool, but I personally always just imagined the Dartships as being Wraith Darts (which is probably wildly inaccurate), and the giant Egg-shaped hive ships to resemble the Gomtuu/Tin Man from that one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Also, the Loronar warships and Needle fighters from Planet of Twilight.

Importantly, Hutt warships from the Legacy era. The Hutts were a significant part of the Confederation during the Second Galactic Civil War. We saw their warships and troop transports at Commenor (was that in Inferno? or Fury?) and again at Klatooine (in Allies). But to my knowledge, the only spaceships belonging to the Hutts that we've seen were Jabba's yacht, and those used by Hutts' entourage.

Last, I'd like to have a look at the military strengths of some of the non-Republic/Empire/NR/GA governments. We've heard of some Chiss ships, but never really seen any. We know in general that the Centrality uses older Imperial ships, but what else? Same with the Corporate Sector Authority, the Hapans, etc.

 

Is there going to be some look at Mandalorians past and present I wonder?

 

I'd love to see the fleets that guarded the Bootana Hutta.

 

Hutt warfare in general would be great to have something on. A major expansionist empire like them must have had some interesting stuff, ship/vehicle/infantry-wise. Things like this.

On this note, I'd be really interested in a picture of the Chiss Star Destroyer.

 

There's stuff about the Hutts and Mandalorians, absolutely. We followed a rule of thumb for the Atlas that I thought was wise: The book can't baffle or scare a relatively casual fan who's seen the movies and picks the book up in a store. There have to be recognizable people, ships etc. to give folks avenues into the complexity of the EU.

Most of the features about groups, corporations, etc. are spread through the text right now, sidebar-style. So it doesn't mean anything that Corellian Engineering appears in the chapter about the Republic's decline. When the first draft is done stuff will get swapped around to try to ensure better connections.

I estimate the book is about 25% done. Honestly, the Atlas was delayed so many times I can't make a comparison, and the Atlas text was only about half the work -- Dan and I were both heavily involved with the maps, so it wasn't like our jobs were done once the writing was complete and from then we'd occasionally consult with the artists. One thing I'm doing differently with Warfare is trying to write it chronologically instead of skipping around. The timescales are enormous and the pace of technological innovation over all that time is ... how to put this ... curious. So I thought it made sense to do at least the first draft in order for better flow and to let ideas build on each other. I think that means the first 25% of the book will be by far the hardest. At least I hope so.

 

Ah, I see. That makes sense.

So, chronologically, how far back is this going? Pre-Republic?

I've noticed there are ebbs and flows in the military designs. Usually in relatively peaceful times between big events, there seems to be a precedent for creating scaled-down designs. Core Galaxy Systems Dreadnaught (between the Great Hyperspace War and the Great Sith War), Rendili StarDrive Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser (between the New Sith Wars and the Clone Wars), etc.

Right before Ulic's fall in TOTJ, there's also large command/battleships leading inadequate forces that barely manage to go through Exar Kun's Sith War and then get replaced right after.

By the Jedi Civil War, the Interdictor-class cruiser is said to be equal in firepower to the Star Destroyers of the future. (New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels)

So there are few big changes in tech, and on the soldier-side, the main changes seem to go from slug throwers to beam-tubes to blasters and then stay at that level.

 

My art requests:

Mandator-class Star Dreadnaught

Dedicated Siege Platforms blasting away at a shielded world (if you want to indulge my nostalgia, the DSPs can vaguely resemble these space stations from Star Fox 64 )

GAR conscripts and/or other non-clone forces

CIS droid army fighting a Republic-aligned droid army

A scene or two from the Unification Wars

Cal Omas

That Imperial military get-together thingy in the Imperial Palace seen in TIE Fighter's opening cutscene

The Imperial Communications Ship present at the Battle of Endor

New ship designs introduced in LOTF

Clone army that preceeded the GAR

That's all for now...

 

Semi-related to that, info/pictures of non-Jango clone forces in the Empire (or the late Republic, if they started having them as far back as then).

The regular stormtroopers' views on their clone counterparts, and/or vice versa, would be really interesting.

 

This. We've gotten some hints (if Klick from SOM is any indicator, the Clones are a tad condescending), but it'd be nice to see it expanded upon.

 

Vor'e ner'vod.

 

Nick pretty much covered my wish list. I probably would add the dark shadow to the rise of the Alliance military -> NR/GFFA... the de-evolution of the Galactic Empire into the squabbling warlord-doms and eventually coherence into the Imperial Remnant and Second Imperium (and can we get an official name for them, like the "Grand Coalition of Imperial Moffs" or something? I can't believe that they would really call themselves the Imperial Remnant, at least in an official capacity)

For some reason, I'm really fascinated with these guys, especially with the glimpses from the Atlas - their rise after the Stark Hyperspace War, their role in creating the Katana fleet... I presume that they are the unspoken power base associated with Tarkin in Rogue Planet, and that they form the "secular" core of Imperialism - and where the constant friction with the "cultist" Imperialists leading to the rebellions of the Trachta and Zaarin.

Hmmm... the Iotrans are said to have been credited as being the founders of several powerful military orders in the Secrets of the Sisar Run...

As I've probably hinted before, I'd like to see a lot more about the various military companies. (I'm also curious about the briefly-mentioned contract from Rogue Planet that CEC got to design cruiser escorts for the Rendili Dreadnaughts).

I think someone else had brought up the role of cyborging in the SW universe - the tech is there, but it's more of an oddity to see it, especially in a military role. (Of course, the smaller-scale "implant" technology showing up in the KOTOR games hasn't really shown up much elsewhere)

Here's an odd request for this era - the strange development of the Z-95, with the top-hyperdrive-engineer-turned-senator designing it (POT) apparently while working with Bahalian Shipyards, with the prototype Z-95 "Onyx Star" being stolen and turned over to Subpro ("The Crystal")

I recall some of the KOTOR-related material talking about a "great leap forward" between its period and the TOTJ era only 40 years prior, but I can't find the source. KORCG does note the fairly significant change caused by the development of the miniaturized navicomputer, though.
But I'll note that there have already been selective explanations - such as the NEGD, which credited the GOTO rebellion for setting back droid development for millennia, for instance.

 

Officially, I think they just call themselves the Empire.

 

About the Militarists, I would like to see a link between Ranulph Tarkin and the Ubiqtorate's Founding Fathers since their goals were essentially one and the same:

Frankly, I could see the Ubiqtorate making use of the Militarist paramilitaries (I would have liked to see them style themselves as the Republican Guard if Galaxy at War hadn't retconned that name into an obscure term for the Senate Guard) in their shadow operations to undermine the power of the Senate. I also wonder how close the Ubiqtorate was to Darth Sidious pre-ROTS, and whether the Ubiqtorate acted to topple the Senate on their own initiative or merely ended up as Palpatine's pawns.

 

I'd prefer if they thought this out on their own instead of Sidious being behind every single idea.

 

Possibly, but that the name "Galactic Empire" might not taken seriously when they were neither might've led to something else. The end of LOTJ notwithstanding, by the Hand of Thrawn duology the Imperials seemed like they had given up on the concept of having an Emperor again. I just wonder if they eventually gave some sort of official title during the interim period.

COMPOR/COMPNOR was probably firmly in their camp as well.
There's also the question about the Outland Security Force that Tarkin was part of - official Republic organization, or paramilitary group? Rogue Planet seems to suggest the latter, echoing the "Republic Navy" from the Stark Hyperspace War - Tarkin doesn't have enough "connections" to get Rendili Dreadnaughts, despite the Militarists being responsible for the Republic commissioning the Katana fleet in the first place.
Considering Armand Isard was the RSB head by the time the Clone Wars started, I don't doubt that the helped Palpatine, but here's the question - do you think they knew anything about his Sith allegiances? I think that's what primarily sparked the Imperial rebellions during the Rebellion Era - they don't like Jedi, but they don't care for the Sith either. And Armand did eventually betray the Emperor (although the nature of his actual betrayal is clouded by Ysanne's damning - but possibly partially-fabricated - portrayal of his activities).

 

I should just wait and make a big wishlist, because everything you guys bring up reminds me of something else I want to see. Now it's info on the Judicials: forces, scope, organization.

 

Another ominous fact about the Militarist paramilitary: its ranks were filled with those who believed in Humanocentrism...

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But then that begs the question of why the future Imperial Intelligence would compete with COMPNOR's ISB. Perhaps Palpatine post-ROTS arranged for the Militarist/Ubiqtorate's "plants" within COMPNOR to be "cast aside" along with anyone else who wasn't an ideological flunkie?

 

Okay, I'm not going to argue with the consensus here - Empire internally and Imperial Remnant by others.
So I'll rephrase the question - do you think the ruling body had a title like the IRC or the IIRC? Council of Moffs seems a little boring. (And I imagine that any trooper that suggested "Mofference" was immediately shot and vaporized)

I guess similar to the rivalry between the ISB and the Imperial military itself.
Then again, Palpatine loved creating a climate of constant in-fighting - which culminated in the brief Imperial Civil War mentioned in the DESB.

Tarkin himself has a similar speech to what Jace Dallin said in Rogue Planet...

 

What exactly the IR's ruling body is is an even bigger kettle of fish. Military junta headed by Pellaeon? Autocracy of Pellaeon with Moffs as feudal lords? Consulate of Pellaeon and Moffs? It seems to change with each series and sometimes each book; sorting out the IR is something that a guide to governments would be very nice to resolve. I have my own thoughts on how its disposition in the NJO, DN, LOTF, and FOTJ all fit together, particularly the odd shifts in LOTF.

 

The Militarists are absolutely fascinating. What's really interesting is that they're the core of New Order Imperial ideology -- authoritarian, big-military, humanocentrist hawks -- yet they're present as this faction in the Old Republic that predates Palpatine. Meaning that he essentially hitched his Empire onto them, coopting them rather than spinning out Imperial ideology himself. As Palpatine never overtly allied himself with any political faction during his senatorial career, it would be very interesting to learn to what extent the Militarists were involved in his administration, before the Separatist crisis and Clone Wars sweep them into ascendancy.

(You can see a three-way division in the authority figures of the Empire: there's the Sith faction, the Militarist faction, and what I'll call the administration faction. The administration faction is the beings of his administration, the people he had around him the longest and who made up his top aides during the Republic days, the power brokers of his Chancellorship, and his top administrators under the Empire -- Sate Pestage, Ars Dangor, Kinman Doriana, Sly Moore, Mas Amedda, Janus Greejatus. They're Palpatine's personal circle, are mostly aware of his Sithdom, and make up the actual core of his government throughout his Senate, Chancellorship, Empire, and even Dark Empire days. Then there's the Sith faction, which consists of his Sith apprentices, darksider followers and private Sith agents during his Republic days, and Vader, the Dark Jedi, Emperor's Hands, Inquisitorius, Church of the Dark Side, and general stark-raving-loony power-worshipers under the Empire. He kept them secret and segregated under the Republic, shuffling most of them into the Separatists. He then basically destroyed that set entirely and brought in a new set for the Empire, which were integrated into the power system. With the Dark Empire, they were moved into power alongside the administration set [who were basically Sith cultists themselves, but differ in their role up to then and the fact that the administration isn't, by and large, Force-sensitive] as the whole stark-raving-loony Sith-cultist aspect took over, which seems to have been Palpatine's long-term plan anyway. The Militarists, then, are the disposable faction, the preexisting Republic powerbase that Palpatine used as his mass supporters and with which he filled out his Republic war effort and Imperial government. It was their ideology that was sold to the masses, and they who made up the military, the Moffs, the Grand Moffs, and half of Imperial Intelligence [the other half being Cronal, the Prophets of the Dark Side, and the stark-raving-loony element]. However, they seem to have purely been the warm bodies that Palpatine needed for the ruling of the galaxy at the moment, until the Church of the Dark Side could spread and the whole Sith element could usurp complete control. Yet they're the only element of the Empire that survived. [Arguably, there's a fourth element, that of the preexisting power elite -- the Core nobles, business magnates, etc., of the Republic, which Palpatine also coopted and blended slightly with Militarism in the public ideology. But, despite their presence at court, they are not so much an "Imperial" feature as a constant of every government in power; they played the same real role in the Republic, Empire, New Republic once established, and Galactic Alliance. They were really just trappings for the government and sources of money, industrial production, and legitimacy, similar to the Militarists.])

Which also helps explain the

 

Going through the book now, I found quite a bit of interesting quotes besides Tarkin's "humans are the future" statement...

The funny thing is that none of the Trade Federation's known vessels have been built Sienar's company. What TF ships have yet to have a known designer, I wonder?

The implication is that the PT-era Jedi have never ordered any snubfighters for themselves up until the Seperatist Crisis. Any vessels the Jedi would have owned at that point, including the Delta-6s, would have to be "donations" from outsiders in order for the EU to maintain consistancy. Going back to the previous quote, maybe the starfighters the Jedi reinforcements used at the end of the Battle of Qotile were actually Sienar ships that were built for the Trade Fed?

Any objections to that particular statistic?

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That's enough quotes for now, but as an aside, it would be amusing if the EGTW had a brief IU-excerpt from Raith Sienar describing a couple-or-so military product designs that he obtained and placed in his private museum of design failures.

 

Havac: The broader distinction you discuss, with administrative insiders and Sith cultists contrasted with the Militarists, seems to map pretty closely with the distinction made in Heroes and Rogues between "Imperial Elites" and "Traditional Imperials."