Fanclub The Sith Empire - Lords of the New Sith Order - Continuing to put the Laughter into Manslaughter!

I would put all spoilers in spoiler tags, anyways.

 

I finally got the copy of Star Wars Visionaries I ordered. Very cool collection of short stories and Eyes of the Revolution has some of the best artwork by far. It is indeed a fine addition to my collection.

 

I struggled this term as I really have not been able to review a lot of content throughout the forum as I normally can and have. Most of mine are abstains but for a few...

 

Spoiler

I just *can't* right now.

 

I will try to meet the deadline, but I am faced with so many deadlines at work, it's killing me. Now I know why they call them "deadlines". X(

 

Watching final Jeopardy.

 

Presenting my final task as delegated by @dragonsith13 of the Sith Empire. *bows respectfully and encapsulates content in spoiler tags to spare others the pain of scrolling*

Spoiler

Task #15 - Ground and Space Battles

Master Space and land battle. With your recently acquired knowledge of tactics, identify a Space and a Land battle within the SW universe. Lay out the objectives of the engaged forces, strengths, force sizes, tactics used. Who were the Commanding Officers? Where they successful or not? How were they employed?Detail out the engagement.

Part I
Ground War - The Battle of Dathomir

I have selected this battle for a number of reasons, one being that it was an impressive victory for General Grievous to which many tactics of the Art of War are tied.

It is notable that the majority of battles in which Grievous was unsuccessful are ones that Count Dooku had a hand in. The massacre on Dathomir, however, is one battle in which Grievous had full control of his army and the strategy, proving that he is indeed knowledgeable on the battlefield and not so inclined to retreat. The Art of War warns against having sovereigns involved in commanding the battle from afar, for they are ignorant of the details on the front and it opens the army up to blind spots and being led to imminent defeat. The Battle of Dathomir proved this to be an absolute truth as the incapacitation of Count Dooku prevented his interference in Grievous's business. His involvement was limited to commanding Grievous to exterminate the Nightsisters as punishment for the betrayal of Asajj Ventress.

Grievous landed on Dathomir when his target was completely vulnerable, celebrating the reintegration of Ventress into the Nightsister clan. He struck without warning, first delivering a brief air strike and then deploying a force of B1 battle droids followed by a battalion of B2 super battle droids. Part of what I love about this battle is the different variations ofdroids and vehicles used.Grievous held nothing back as he started this battle, making quick work of overwhelming the primitive warriors of the Nightsister clan and exploiting their weakness to the fullest.

The Nightsisters fled into thefoliage of Dathomir to regroup and form a plan, but Grievous allowed them no such luxury as he deployed DDTs (DefoliatorDeployment Tanks) to burn up any shelter the Nightsistersmight otherwise have. In so doing, he forced Ventress andthose in her command to a defensive that was doomedfrom the start.

Ventress and her clan put up an impressive fight by coming back as offensively as they could. While some of the Nightsisters spread out strategically and attacked at long range with bows and arrows, Ventress, followed by other Nightsisters armed with melee weapons, charged the enemy front with Ventress employing her Jar'Kai lightsaber skills to cut through the advancing battle droids and their AATs (Armored Assault Tanks). She successfully cut through to Grievous with the correct strategy focused on taking out the commander and, by extension, bringing a halt to the organized advancement ofhis ranks.

A brief bout of hand to handcombat between Ventress and Grievous showed both to have remarkable skill, however,Ventress managed to put Grievous down and she might have succeeded in defeatinghim, but the General called on his droids to open fire on Dooku's betrayer, woundingher. Grievous then moved in to deliver the final blow.

About that time, Mother Talzinand Old Daka conspired tobring in reinforcements in the form of undead Nightsisterscalled out of their burial pods by a magical chant from thelatter. Grievous and his army were promptly attacked by this new wave of reinforcements,allowing Ventress to escape and holding him off from pursuing her to her demise. Although Grievous's objective changed by orders from Count Dooku, he was still in charge of organizing his attack. Given instructions to abandon the mission to kill Ventress and focus on finding Talzin and Daka, he took abattalion of B1, B2, and commando droids with him toput a final end to the battle.

Daka and Talzin, accompanied by a handful of Nightsisters,had made the fatal mistake of sealing themselves in a smallarea from which there was no physical escape. Although Talzin managed to escape by way of her magic, the others in thecave with her were lost as casualties to Grievous's blade.As soon as Daka was dead, her power died with her and thereinforcements she hadbrought back from the grave fell lifeless once more. This is where Grievous committed the necessary act of cutting theenemy off from allies and reinforcements. As soon as the undead Nightsisters were nomore, the remnant of living Nightsisters dropped like fliesunder the barrage of blaster bolts unleashed by the droidarmy.

In this battle, there were two types of commanders: active and passive. Grievous was obviously one taking on the active role, placing himself directly on the frontline as he so often did in battle. Daka was passive, deploying her undead reinforcements from far beyond the battlefield where she assumed she would be safe. This again emphasizes the problem with having a distant commander. Daka was blind to when Grievous was on the move and realized too late that he had the upper hand.Ventress was another active commander on the battlefield,engaging the enemy with the best offensive she could muster from her resources. Unlike Grievous, Ventress was workingwith other living beings who shared her belief that Dathomir was their home and had to bedefended.

It might be easy to assume that Ventress was defeated because her army was outnumbered and the forces they faced had advanced weaponry, but this is incorrect. My previous task has already proven that numbers and weapons mean next to nothing. Ventress's mistake occurred before the Battle of Dathomir ever began. She failed to know her enemy on two separate occasions. CountDooku is a treacherous man whom one does not attempt to double cross and expect to walk away unscathed. Not only was he her enemy, he was herformer master, which left little excuse for her to misjudge or underestimate him. Shebecame so absorbed in running and hiding that she failed toconsider the type of man Dooku was and there would berepercussions for her traitorous actions, no matter where she ran or hid. A better course ofaction would have been initial flight followed by theexpectation that Dooku would attack and building a goodoffense to meet that attackwhen it came.

Her second failure to know her enemy came when she challenged Grievous, bargaining with him that if she won, he would call off his army and leave and if he won, he would have the surrender of the Nightsisters. While she made a credible move appealing to Grievous's pride as a warrior, she should have known he would renegotiate the deal. But this all ties to her failure to know Dooku. Had she really considered the type of man he was, she might have known Grievous would sooner cheat and recommence his attack whether she won or not. Why would he place himself on Dooku's chopping block byhonoring the deal, knowing his failure would not be takenlightly by his master? It's also worth noting that Grievous never did agree to the dealanyway. He merely responded to Ventress's terms with the declaration that he had always been the better warrior. Ventress and her clan may not have suffered such a tragicmassacre for which the episode was named if she had onlyknown her enemy as well as sheknew herself.


Followup Challenge
Many times a battle can hang on a knife point. The margin for error being razor thin. As such these are opportunities if properly identified by an opponent or yourself when analyzing the flow of the battle. What opportunities do you think presented themselves in which the commanders Ventress and Grevious could have taken advantage of and turned the tide even more in their favor. Pick two points specifically for each and detail them out. Show how hypothetically they may have change the battle of properly executed and taken advantage of.
[/I]
As stated before, I feel Asajj Ventress's outcome would have been better had she known her enemy, both when it came to Dooku seeking to destroy her and her confrontation with Grievous. She was advised by Mother Talzin to forget her Sith ways and put all of it behind her, which was foolish counsel for her to heed. She needed to continue to think like a Sith and she would have been a few steps ahead of her enemies. I see no flaws in her attackmethods. She was good, leading the Nightsisters in a directoffensive against the enemy, utilizing the terrain and attacking from above and below while pushing the advance, she and her clan looting the enemy as they went, feeding off the enemy's resources of weapons and transport. Her only flawwas failing to know the enemy enough to accurately anticipate what they would do.

As for Grievous, he too made a few errors that had an impact on the outcome for him. Hisfirst mistake was waiting to deploy the defoliators. Heshould have done thisimmediately because, if he had, he might have burned up all the burial pods of the deadNightsisters and completely prevented Daka from resurrecting them as an army. I don't believe he made anymistakes in engaging Ventress after hearing her terms, butthere was one crucial moment in their fight that could have accomplished the original task he had set out to do. At one point in the fight, he and Ventress locked sabers and Grievous, declaring "Enough of this!" delivered a powerful kick to his rival that sent her reeling. He hesitated long enough to let Ventress recover and that was the mistake that would have killed or at leastwounded/damaged him badly if he hadn't called on his droids to open fire. After delivering the kick, he should have shiftedright into relentless assault while Ventress was reeling from the blow. There is no doubt he would have killed her and then been able to move on toannihilate Daka. I don't see any way he could have successfullydestroyed Talzin as she used her magic to escape just as Grievous was about to cut her down, but in any case, had henot hesitated in his one-on-one with Ventress, Talzin wouldhave been the only Nightsister to survive the massacre.

Task #15 - Part II
Space Battle

I have chosen to focus on two battles for which the Malevolence was present. There were actually three separate battles, but the final deviated from classifying as a true space battle. I wish this Subjugator-class flagship would have survived longer than it did. It was a very impressive Separatist craft with unique and effective abilities. I have chosen to cover the life and usage of this cruiser because, over the span of three battles (the final being one of infiltration), there were both Separatist and Republic victories to be mentioned, if only for the sake of proving that I am not completely biased in who fights and plans more effectively. Both parties have their moments, though the final result was ultimately a Republic victory, much to my disappointment.

The Battle of Abregado
This battle kicked off with Separatist forces having the upper hand through the element of surprise. Grievous launched a series of merciless blitz attacks on several Republic warships, catching them off guard and decimating them, thereby leaving no witnesses. The only thing the Republic knew was that there was a weapon of mass destruction out there able to cut down their forces rapidly and with little effort. With this "secret weapon" leaving no trace of identity in its wake, the Republic had no choice but to send an investigative team out to try and track it. This effectively forced the Republic into more vulnerability because they had no idea what they were up against and they sent out one of their finest to gather intelligence: Jedi master Plo Koon.

The fact that Koon and Commander Wolffe's Wolfpack battalion (makes me wonder if this name was inspired by the Kriegsmarine Wolfpack of 1942) discovered the Malevolence was of little concern to Grievous or Dooku because they had thus far possessed the means to annihilate all witnesses to the existence of the massive killer cruiser. When Plo Koon contacted Anakin Skywalker for support, Dooku ordered Grievous to jam the transmissions, a wise move as this cut off allies and reinforcements, isolating the Jedi master and his squadron.

The ion cannons on the Malevolence were pure engineering genius. Able to shut down all power on any vessels they were fired upon, this is how Grievous was able to destroy entire fleets with minimal loss to his own resources. As Grievous commanded that the Malevolence be positioned to attack, Koon ordered for counterattack measures to be taken by his fleet of three star destroyers. However, whether the ion cannons were involved or not, Koon would have been wiser to take evasive action because his fleet ended up being too far out of range to do any damage to the Separatist flagship anyway.

As it stood, the Malevolence'sion cannons were fired and the wave engulfed all three of the Republic star destroyers, shutting down every power source from shields to life support. The crews aboard the three vessels, including Koon, were forced to make use of escape pods and flee the destroyers as the Malevolenceopened merciless fire on them. Unfortunately, the pods also were affected by the ion cannon blast and they were devoid of communications or life support, putting the crewmen aboard them in dire straits.

Following the loss of the Republic fleet, Dooku ordered a group of rocket droids to be deployed with a boarding ship to break into the pods and expose the Republic's forces to the vacuum of space. One by one, the droids targeted each pod and eliminated those inside who had laid eyes on the Separatists' secret weapon until all that was left was the pod containing Plo Koon and the three remaining clone troopers with him. It was time to go on the offensive. Able to survive for a time exposed to the elements of open space, Plo Koon ordered his troops to put their helmets on and they exited the pod to fight off the attacking rocket droids. Meanwhile, the power gradually returned to their pod and Commander Wolffe remained inside to maintain the distress signal they had managed to power up.

Plo Koon and his troops were eventually found and rescued by Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano, but when Dooku and Grievous lost contact with the rocket droids, they knew something was up and sent out scanners. The Jedi shut down their power systems in order to conceal their location, but a medical droid tending to the clones was left turned on and pinged on the scanners, alerting Grievous to the presence of Skywalker's freighter. Under Dooku's orders to leave no witnesses, Grievous went on the attack and fired the ion cannons. Unfortunately, Skywalker managed to swiftly pilot the freighter through the debris field and jump to hyperspace before the wave could engulf them. This battle gives pretty good examples of knowing when to fight and when to retreat and it would seem the younger Jedi general Skywalker made the better judgement call in initially facing the Malevolence.

The Battle of the Ryndellia System
Grievous' next objective from Dooku was to target a medical station with the Malevolence. Destroying the facility would effectively wipe out over sixty thousand wounded clones and erase the place where the Republic could send any future casualties, thus having a long term impact on their forces. Pertaining to the Art of War, I do believe the goal may have been to merely seize control of the facility if Grievous had any use for it (living off the enemy'sresources), but with an army of droids, his next best option was to destroy it.

This portion of the battle implements the basic nature of the wild: pick off the sick and the weak. Grievous employed this tactic as he took to blasting medical transports with the ion cannon and then blowing them out of existence withturbolasers once they were defenseless and immobilized. This was child's play to him and he said as much during thebeginning stages of the battle.

It is not clear how the Republic gained intelligence on what the Separatists were up to in the Ryndellia System, but somehow they were alerted to Grievous' activity and deduced that his succeeding target would be the medical station. With this knowledge, Anakin Skywalker devised a strategy to bring down the Malevolence, marking Grievous for death in his position on the bridge. Taking with them a battalion of elite clones known as the Shadow Squadron, Skywalker, Tano, and Koon set out to destroy the super weapon of the Separatist forces.

Knowing where Grievous was going to turn up in relation to the medical station, Skywalker charted his course taking a shortcut through an old smugglers route. While his ideas were good, Skywalker made his plans as though the rest of his men were as confident and capable as himself. Being an extraordinary pilot whose abilities were augmented by the Force, he failed to realize that his excessive confidence would place his men in danger. As they took the shortcut through Balmorra Run, they were confronted by a school of neebray mantas. While not inherently aggressive, the neebrays were massive and maneuvering around them was a frightening challenge for the Shadow Squadron and one of them took damage during this perilous part of their journey. Skywalker at last made the decision to order all wings into a single file formation behind him and led them the rest of the way through the neebray-infested nebula.

Skywalker's plan to directly attack the bridge of the Malevolence was a good one. Grievous gave his commands from this position and Skywalker was of the mindset to cut off the head and the rest of Grievous' army would fall. What he did not wager properly was being so severely overrun. Not only did Grievous utilize the ion cannon and turbolasers; he also deployed several vulture droids to dogfight the oncoming Republic squadron. Skywalker lost nearly half of his men even before the ion cannon was fired, which Grievous refrained from doing until after the vultures had already made successful attacks. Upon the firing of the ion cannon, Skywalker ordered his men to give it all they had on an upward acceleration and try to get beyond the radius of the wave. Maintaining formation is likely what made this idea not go over so well. Another two members of the Shadow Squadron were lost to the cannon and they were bringing up the rear in the formation. They might have survived had they chosen to accelerate downward instead of maintaining formation and following Skywalker upward.

Even after the substantial losses incurred, Skywalker was still determined to adhere to his plan of taking out Grievous on the bridge. His padawan Ahsoka Tano ended up being the wiser of the two, insisting that a new plan was needed if they were to ensure no more lives would be lost on their side. Skywalker had to swallow a lot of pride and change his objective, announcing to his squadron that their new target was one of the Malevolence's ion cannons. In formation, they flew straight into where the cannon was connected to the ship and opened fire with torpedoes as Grievous was charging the plasma rotors. This resulted in overloading the charge and wrought severe damage on the ship; damage in which even the hyperdrive became disabled. Reinforcements headed by Obi-wan Kenobi then arrived on the scene to continue the destruction Skywalker had begun on the retreating Malevolence, but even their unload of relentless firepower did little to deter the massive cruiser in its slow retreat to Separatist territory.

Grievous was warned about underestimating Skywalker early on in the battle, to which he replied that, if anything, Skywalker would underestimate the Malevolence and its power. I believe both fell to a certain level of underestimation and this contributed to losses they may not have suffered otherwise. However, I don't think there was much Grievous could have done to prevent what Skywalker did to the ion cannon. In my opinion, part of the flaw was rooted in the engineering of the ship. The ion cannon would have been more effective and useful if it were mounted on a turret so it could be turned and aimed. As it stood, the ship had to position itself broadside against any oncoming threat in order to fire on the target. Exposing the broadside of the vessel was risky regardless of how much punishment it could take. Even superficial damage amounts to costly repair eventually. Though Grievous was forced to relinquish his target and retreat, this battle counts as a partial Separatist victory. I suppose it is because Grievous escaped with his life and managed to destroy several medical convoys, though he was not able to take his original target.

Followup Challenge
Knowing your opposite commander is the most important aspect, having Even greater barring than troop strength and position.

All of those things can be mitigated through strategy and outmaneuvering ones opponent.

What could have been done by either commander to effectively change the battle in their favor?

Grievous may have been able to prevent his ion cannon and hyperdrive from being destroyed if he had deployed another squadron of vulture droids immediately after firing the ion cannon. He probably put a bit too much faith in this super weapon, failing to think through worst case scenarios (i.e. Skywalker and his men evading the blast). Deploying vulture droids for his own protection and that of the Malevolence may have deterred the Shadow Squadron in their original mission and the one they later shifted to at Skywalker's command. He also had an issue with the speed of the hyperspace travel, which he complained about. Had the transit been faster, he may have arrived before Skywalker andhad the time to annihilate theconvoys and the medical station. As it stood, Skywalkerbeat him to the target with his shortcut through Balmorra Run.

As for Skywalker, he probably should have approached the battle more cautiously for the sake of the Shadow Squadron. They were able clones with the courage to do the job, but he failed to consider the fact that none of them could pilot as well as himself and asking them tokeep up with him and his Force-augmented piloting likelyplayed a role in him losing half of his ships. His plan was also a bit impulsive. He failed to take the time to really gain intelligence on the Malevolence before engaging it. Though there was an urgency to stop Grievous, he had Plo Koon at his disposal for detailed information. He would have been wise to consult the elder Jedi and glean more information from his firsthand encounter and he might not have fallen to underestimating the abilities of the Malevolence as Grievous predicted he would.

Had a few difficulties maintaining the formatting for this one for some reason.

 

About to rewatch now. Time to process. Then let it circulate and...process.

And Lady B, *bows*
Excuse me, Dawn Herald, Sith Lady B,
spoilers can be obtained, but, please watch the episode, it's better that way. More, shall we say, interesting.
*meditates and realizes she already knows*

 

*goes ahead and tapes next week's episodes*

 

Good episodes have a tendency to do that.

 

I avoided them when I was bumming around youtube.

 

I suck up every spoiler I can get my hands on if it's something I'm interested in or might possibly spend money on (i.e. movies, books, etc.).

 

Those spoilers will make a fine addition to your collection, in other words?

 

Exactly! I couldn't have put it better myself.

 

No it doesn't. It means you want to know what happens ahead of time so you can prepare yourself for a plot twist.

 

Same here. I tend to check the wikipedia entries for the movies to see if the specific plot summaries are available yet.

 

You guys are weird!

I HATE being spoiled going into a movie or a book if I am any level of interested. *Especially* anything SW related. If you tell me a SW spoiler before I see a film or read a book, expect to get punched in the throat. Hard.

 

@Kaleesh-Cyborg

Well done +3 prestige for your final task.

With that I believe you are well above the allotted final trail marker.

Everyone I will be taking kaleesh now....

*places Black hood over his head and binds his arms and legs.

I’ll have him back in a few months.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

*muffled under the hood* After spending a year under your tutelage and roleplaying with you, Master @dragonsith13 , I cannot say this surprises me, but...you are still unpredictable as hell.