Lit Fleet Junkie Flagship- The technical discussions of the GFFA (Capital Ships thread Mk. II)

Akbar better be in command of that fleet because the Rebels are using the Ackbar classic strategy of sending your transports straight into battle!

 

Hahaha. I thought about that too. My guess is they're either there as ground force insertion/exertion ships (but given the size of the Rebel ground forces seen and the number of GR-75 this is unlikely) or they have been outfitted with some laser canons and act as a poor man's starfighter screen for some of the larger warships.

 

Not behind, in front. It's a TIE fighter being chased by the X-wing, the solar panels are what looks odd.

 

Top right behind the X-Wing...am I crazy or does that look like a Pelta-class frigate, maybe Phoenix Home? http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Phoenix_Home


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It can't be the Phoenix Home, since that was destroyed prior to the events of RO. That said, when I squint (because it's an unclear shot, not because you're projecting too much into it), it definitely looks like a Pelta-class frigate. Nice catch! Beyond awesome if it turns out it is!

 

Even in the old continuity, Turkana was not the first major space battle that the Rebels had won. It was the space battle over Topwrawa that involved the Imperial convoy with the Death Star plans being hijacked before it could reach Topwrawa and transfer the plans to its data vaults. The space battle for the convoy was considered to be the first major space battle that the Rebels had won.

Turkana was simply fending off the Star Destroyers so the fleet could escape.

It will be interesting to see if this battle in Rogue One is Topwrawa recanonized.

Though the aftermath of Topwrawa, with Red Hand squad capturing the comm center on the planet, was given a story, no Legends source had ever actually directly depicted the Battle of Topwrawa. A strange oversight as it was the first major space battle that the Rebels had won.

 

I don't think I'm comfortable with the idea of every new Rebel-Admiral so far being a Mon Calamari. The GFFA certainly should be more diverse than that. On the other hand it shows on the big screen, that the Rebel-Alliance around the time of BoY wasn't a "humans-only-club".

@MatthewTrias:

Toprawa is problematic in my mind for several reasons: for one the successful ambush and capture of a convoy sounds a little pathetic, even if it was the convoy transporting the plans of the DeathStar. Which is the second problem: at that time the battlestation is almost complete, so why are the Imperials shipping the plans around?

 

Oh duh I forgot about Phoenix Home...I still can't see anything other than a Pelta-class frigate

 

Spoiler: Not sure if I need to spoiler this, but just in case... Re: The Rogue One Admiral

While I am a tad annoyed about yet another Mon Calamari admiral, I'm just glad they decided to create an entirely new character instead of instinctively falling back on Ackbar. With all due respect to Nick, and as a fan of Ackbar myself, one of my pet peeves about Legends was the fact that Ackbar is so iconic that authors tended to use him whenever there was a need for a Rebel/New Republic fleet officer. I know that there were other admirals, but their appearances were often minor, mostly emphasised in sourcebooks, and not even remotely comparable to the appearances of Ackbar. By contrast, because most Imperial characters don't have the benefit of hero shielding, the Empire got a very diverse cast of interesting characters. Some were short-lived, some got repeated minor appearances, and others were iconic, but regardless of the case, it wasn't as if every single story that required an Imperial fleet officer relied on, say, Piett or even Thrawn. While Ackbar always will - and has more than earned - a lot of appearances in the future, I do hope that he has to at least share a little bit of page space with these new characters that have gained on-screen - and subsequently recognisable - appearances such as Admiral Raddus (assuming he survives RO), or, if my deepest wishes are fulfilled, the future Admiral Jun Sato.

 

The reason's I'm stoked about Admiral Raddus are varied, somewhat in line with what FTeik said above. First, it's nice to see a Mon Calamari naval officer other than Ackbar. The Mon Cala are supposed to be the backbone of the Rebel Fleet (in terms of ships & crewers), so presumably the fleet's officer corps would have a lot of Mon Cals too. Secondly, they made an effort to make Raddus look a lot different from Ackbar. Instead of the standard reddish/brown color, we see a blue/gray Mon Cala, plus one who appears to be a bit overweight. Finally, it provide a nice bit of diversity to the Rebel base on Yavin Four. George Lucas said that when he was doing the Special Edition he was tempted to add some Mon Calamari & Sullustans into the base, so showing a trio of Mon Calamari Rebel officers is in line with that vision.

Don't get me wrong- I'd love to see admirals of other species too. Duros admiral Voon Massa is canon again, I'd love to see him. Or an admiral of a TFA species, like the Abednedo (which were ardent Rebel supporters). As for my beloved Ackbar, it makes sense that he wouldn't be at the base, but rather with the main fleet. I suppose there is a chance we'll see him in RO, but if not I wouldn't be surprised to hear him mentioned.

--Adm. Nick

 

Euh. That was what was written in the radio drama.

I don't think the convoy was escorted by a Lancers and Carracks. The Empire has always been flashy even when it was trying to be discreet. Given the fact that they were physically transporting the plans shows they were worried about transmission interception. Given that the Empire would have gone to great lengths to keep the plans out of the hands of the insurgents, I've always imagined that 3 to four Imperial class Star Destroyers probably escorted the convoy. The Topwrawa plans had engineering schematics for the station and so were fairly important. If the Rebels managed to destroy that many ships Star Destroyers, it would be a fairly major victory for them. Turkana was only holding off Star Destroyers long enough to escape.

As to why they were moving them around, who knows. Not a question that particularly bugs me considering how inept governments seem in my own world. In the Death Star novel, a thought of Tarkin remarks how strange that there was even a partial set of plans at Danuta, and iirc, chalks it up to the stupidity of some bureaucrat somewhere within the Empire. Some group somewhere obviously felt there was great need to have a set of plans in the data vaults on Topwrawa.

 

Do you think we might see Imperial Arquitens-class ships in Rogue One?

 

Considering how prolific both the Arquitens-class and Gozanti-class are, I wouldn't be surprised.

--Adm. Nick

 

I believe the ROTJ novelization said that the transports were often packed with explosives and rammed into enemy ships.

 

Speaking or the Arquitens....do they now carry TIES? they launched a couple in Legends of The Lasat and then in this season I recall one launching them again.

 

They do, via external clamp from the look of it.

 

The ROTJ novelization does say that, even though we never see it on screen. While I can see that tactic being used somewhat, I don't see the Alliance turning every available transport into a fire ship.

Remember, the Alliance didn't expect to find the Imperial Navy waiting for them at Endor. They expected to find a not yet operational battle station. I always assumed that all the medium transports at Endor were there because the Alliance didn't want to leave their supply ships vulnerable for attack when the main battle fleet left Sullust. So they decided to have them accompany the fleet.

--Adm. Nick

 

Well they must have expected SOME Imperial capital ships there guarding the "unfinished" Death Star 2, otherwise I don't see why they'd bring the whole fleet instead of just using fighters.

 

No one in the stolen shuttle reacted when they saw the Executor and two star destroyers.

 

Fractal posted some images he made for an ILM competition, pretty nice. First one is my favorite:

Spoiler

 

I love Ansel Hsiao's models, can't wait for him to finish that Victory Star Destroyer... .

 

Finally found some images of the death gang ship. Not great ones, but something:
http://imgur.com/a/q6L8d

Also some of the Crimson Corsair's ship. Namely, the movie has the back end, and the legos game gives a lego-fied version of the ship's overall appearance, and which a fan has combined into this image.

The lego game also has some interesting ships used by the Ottegans, both fights and transports.

 

I found the ships in TFA extremely boring looking. All rounded off squares or cubes. The exception beeing "legacy" ships.

 

I think the one Finn and Rey were originally going to take from Jakku is kind of spiffy, though (as with most of the other ships) it appears so briefly that I needed screencaps to come up with that opinion.

 

It was 4 tubes in the shape of a cube. Just like all the other new ships.