Fun Exercise: Whose a worse military commander Ludo Kressh or Daala?

I wonder how this will work.

 

For this thread to stay open, answers must be answers beyond the simple repeating of names.

 

She did have no less than four military engagements in her career!

1. The Battle of Kessel
2. The Third Battle of Mon Calamari
3. Her battle with Pellaeon in Darksaber
4. Her fight against Moff Gelleles

Honestly, its more honestly "God hates Daala."

1. The destruction of one of her ISDs because of Kyp Duroun really isn't her fault.
2. The loss of the Knight Hammer isn't her fault either, it was inadequate onboard security.

Her only two losses that were genuine failures were her attempt to recapture the Suncrusher and the assault on Mon Calamari.

And even Thrawn suffered an ISD loss from a ship ramming.

 

I'd say Ludo. He has no military experience, opposes expanding the Sith Empire, then gets defeated twice by Naga. Pfft.

 

I think Jello's referring more to the fact that she enlisted and was never officially made a commissioned officer... and was given her Admiral rank entirely unofficially by her lover, Tarkin.

 

Well she was in Officer's training in the Academy at Carida so I don't think she was a Non-com actually. I furthermore think that she probably was at least a Lieutenant's rank or higher while in the service of Grand Moff Tarkin.

In the end, her rank was recognized by the remaining Imperial Warlords.

 

As a Tarkin was a Grand Moff, would he not have the authority to promote officers serving under him?

 

That does make me curious a bit. Moffs simultaneously hold Surface Marshall and High Admiral Ranks, I wonder what Grand Moffs hold.

 

Daala was a Corporal (at best). That is neither an officer-rank nor is it a Navy-rank.

 

That would depend on how much authority Tarkin has. Considering he's a Grand Moff and rules Oversector Outer like it's his own personal kingdom, I'd say it's well within the realm of posibility that Daala is an official Admiral. Remember the Emperor handed out ranks as party favors.

 

An odd statement, whats your justification

 

I never quite bought that whole scheme. Palpatine thrived on bureaucracy and he did award those loyal to him with pretty impressive benifit packages, but he was no fool. When the Bantam writers inserted little things like that into the books, they had no real idea of the deviously clever mind that Palpy possesed, Nero or Caligula might have given generalships to thier favorite raqcing nerfs, but Palpatine was smarter then that. If Daala was an admiral, she'd probably earned it. How she earned it is up to you, but Palpatine sure didn't give it to her 'cause he was sloshed at the Purge celebratiohn. Sure she wasn't a tactical genius, but she wasn't as horribly incompetant as some might say. (This coming form a guy who hates Daala with no restraint? Wierd, huh?)

Ludo Kressh on the other hand...The guy was blown up by Naga Sadow on his personal battleship not once, but twice. Or was it three times? I can't be sure.

 

If she was at the Carida Academy, then she was, at the least, in training to become an officer. By definition, that is what military academies produce.

 

K_K: Did Palpatine even know that she had been promoted to Admiral? IIRC it was Tarkin (her lover ) who promoted her, and sent her to the Maw, and in the JAT (can't remember which exactly) she recalled being discriminated against because she was female at the academy...

 

K_K: Actually Palpatine did give Il-Raz a Grand Admiralship simply for being an excellent political crony. And Palpatine throwing out ranks isn't that stupid, it would certainly help keep powerful nobles (Like the Tagges) indebted to Palpatine. Then there are men like Ozzel who got to where they were through their lineage. And keep in mind that bureaucracy does not in and of itself breed competence.

 

Palpatine it should be noted was deliberately cultivating an Empire of fools. Recall that he didn't want a Strong Empire. The Empire was Stage 2 of a 3 Stage plan.

Stage 3 was psychopaths like Harrsk, Devalarius, and Syn worshipping the Dark Lord and his Sith minions as Gods.

It's not good to have intelligent officers whom have plenty of military power to oppose you.

 

Daala also knocked heads with Bel Iblis around the time of Pellaeon's last offensive against the NR.

Do Grand Moffs have the authority to promote officers on their lonesome?

 

Grand Moffs are not purely civil officials. They hold Military Command titles in addition to their titles as Civilian governors. Actually, I always assumed that there was no line whatsoever but the EU has made it clear that Moffs hold military rank IN ADDITION to their Moff titles.

Moff Tarkin controlled all military forces in the Outer Rim and weirdly, only the Emperor could gainsay him for whatever he chose to do with them.

Even a Grand Admiral probably couldn't overrule him.

 

Was that's Tarkin official power (precedence over the GAs) or just something unofficial deriving from his long mutually-beneficial partnership with Palpatine?

 

I think its one of those things that derives from conflicting areas of expertise and concern. The Grand Moffs, like the Grand Admirals, only answered to the Emperor and yet had influences that extended over one another's territory. A Grand Admiral was technically senior in influence range (He patrols the galaxy) but the two probably were equal in the Grand Moffs territory.

Its part of Palpatine's manner of keeping everyone on their toes. Sort of like who has operational control when a Grand Admiral, Grand Inquisitor, and Grand Moff are in the same room? No one does because Palpatine made the chain of command indistinct.

Moffs had though, according to the Imperial Sourcebook, ranks of Surface Marshall and High Admiral. I imagine that Grand moffs had at least that.

Hence, Daala could be promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral (which I imagine was her rank) by a Moff let alone Tarkin himself.

Remember, Tarkin COULD just give his Star Destroyers to whomever he wanted.

 

Good work Jello, Mild correction though: Technically, Palpatine was being "spoken for" by Ars Dangor to Palpatine. The Imperial Sourcebook says the Emperor chooses Grand Moffs even if Advisors can appoint Moffs.

 

The Grand Moffs don't necessarily answer to the Ruling Circle though, though they seem to have seniority. It's one of those things where Ars Danger and Pestage's role as essentially the Emperor's proxies take place. They were more or less running the Empire by the Battle of Endor but NOT with their own power. It's a obscure but clear distinction to make.

Before the Battle of Yavin, Vader was the Emperor's proxy and not Supreme Commander. Afterwards, he was promoted to this position.

(Though in truth Vader COULD do whatever he desired because he was a Sith Lord, the Emperor simply made that position official)

As stated, I find the statement "demoted to Grand Moff" to also be a fairly specious one as well, even if the Grand Moffs were inferior in some ways.

It's also important to wrap your mind around that the Government of the Empire doesn't entirely work like our governments because it doesn't make sense on several levels....and this was deliberately engineered.

Incompetent or failing our governments may include, but rarely were they engineered to have inefficiency.