Where are the Cruisers?-Battle of Yavin

Why didn't the Alliance send Cruisers to attack the First Death Star? It's not like they didn't know it was there untilLeia,Han, Luke and the droids arrived(the plans were stolen on parts.) Did the Rebels not have any heavy ships,Mon Cal., Frigates, Dreadnaughts, or something . I know that the Imperials defense is centered around a full scale assualt some smaller ships would take it down easier, but some big guns on the Alliance's side wouldn't hurt. Could someonme explain this?

 

I guess they would've been no match against the death star. The rebels needed small, fast and sneaky ships such as the X-wing and the Y-wing. Remember an imperial dude saying the ships were "avoiding the turbo lasers" or something like that.
In ROTJ they use the fleet in the attack because the DS2 is supposed to be not operational, but IT WAS A TRAP!!!

 

They needed small ships to get down the trench.

The larger cruisers in ROTJ were there to battle the Star Destroys, not the Death Star itself.

 

right. besides, everyone knows who dick cheney is LOL LOL just kidding jedi_master_ousley

 

I thought the Mon Calamari weren't officially part of the Rebellion at the Battle of Yavin. I'm probably wrong though.

 

I think that if Lucas had made ANH today that battle probably would something more along the lines of the Battle of Endor in RotJ. You'd probably be seeing all types of ships on both sides as well as the Death Star. Lucas loves those kinds of visuals...I think the reason why you didn't see more ships there in 1977 because the special effects were new and limited by today's standards.

 

Well... the death stars defenses were meant to repel attacks from large ships, so large ships would probably get wiped out. Fighters were able to evade the defenses of the DS and take out the battle station

 

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

 

They were. At least the EU states the Mon Calamari joined the Alliance some time before the Battle of Yavin. Also the EU states that the Rebel capital ships were in other parts of the galaxy at the time.

 

If you want to get technical how did the Alliance ships evaded the tractor beams from the DS?,

"passing...through....deflector....shield" some Alliance dude I think it's Red Leader.

Real life reason: "Too much trouble to desing, develop and animate the ships"

In-universe reasons:

1) Yavin was a Rebel Base they were not expecting the DS to show there. Remember Vader hid a transmitter in the MF and they followed the rebels there so the Rebels were not 'expecting' an attack per se. In ROTJ the Rebels Attacked!, so the cruisers may have been at another rebel base.

2) The defenses of the DS would have made it impossible for cruisers to attack it, only small fighters are able to attack it.

 

If you want to get technical how did the Alliance ships evaded the tractor beams from the DS?,

Well, the Millennium Falcon was much larger than the X-Wings. There's plenty of room for people to walk around or do whatever on the Falcon, while the X-Wings simply have a cockpit. Perhaps the size difference contributed to the Falcon being caught in the tractor beam - the small size of the X-Wings/Y-Wings may not have been enough for the sensors to pick them up as a threat.

 

They didn't. The Death Star never used them, because Tarkin never ordered them to. It's the same reason he didn't launch any fighters to intercept them. "You overestimate their chances!"

It's the Magnetic field.


And the cruisers were just somewhere else. They don't have that many to begin with you know. That pathetic display at Endor was the entire rebel fleet.

With only a handfull of ships, they can't be everywhere.
And, as everyone else has said, they would have been usless anyway.

 

I was under the impresison they didn't obtain larger battle-capable ships until after they "proved themselves" against the Death Star.