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

The whole thing with Rendili, though, was the power of its home defense fleet. I wouldn't assume that the three or four Dreadnaughts we see in that area of space were all the forces that Rendili had.

 

Yeah, see my edit.

Six Dreadnaughts are almost the equivelent of an Imperial Class Star Destroyer, firepower wise. These were probably top of the line Rendili upgrades too (We know they were at least upgraded with launch hangars), so they may have had more firepower than usual. You would not want an Imperial Star Destroyer roaming around unaccounted for. Even if it was only 4-6 vessels, imagine thousands of planets with such firepower at their disposal, betraying the Republic and joining the CIS. That would be a creak, if not a pain, in the neck of the Republic/Empire. That was the argument Palpatine used, and the fearful atmosphere that existed during the Clone Wars allowed him to get away with it.

Therefore, the remaining unincorporated PSFs/HWDF were gobbled up by the Navy.

 

Well, the Rendili Fleet is barely represented in the comic - whereas Tiin states that the Fleet defecting would be a "serious problem", that is hard to believe if the ships that appear in the comic itself are taken literally as the entire fleet. While I still haven't found what box my copy of the NEC is in yet, the Atlas described the Dreadnaught fleet as "massive".
Reviewing the text of the article from Insider 71, the Reflex Amendment appears to be a step towards the total integration of the regional defense fleets. It doesn't seem to put the control of them under the Republic Navy, but allowing Palpatine "control in maneuvering military assets across areas of overlapping jurisdiction... the main focus of the constitutional change sees the direct responsibility of defense activity move from sector and planetary governments to Coruscant." Mon Mothma mentions that she preferred something that was "favoring equal cooperation between home defense forces and the Army of the Republic." (the article then goes on to mention "the Seswenna sector campaigns, which saw individual planetary military fronts united into 'priority theaters' commanded from a central authority on Eriadu.", which is a nice glimpse of a major military front that does not seem to involve the GAR directly... )
Note that they are referred to as 'home defense forces' and also being under 'sector and planetary governments'.
There's a little more in the Atlas about the Amendment:
"Under Republic law, during states of emergency the Chancellor could appoint a governor-general to coordinate military action with the Senator of a troubled sector. Chancellor Palpatine invoked this once obscure law frequently during the Clone Wars, arguing that passage of the Reflex Amendment made it not just his right but his duty." - p. 8.

Edit: Found my copy of the NEC. Here's the pertinent quotes:
"The passage of the so-called Reflex Amendment gave [Palpatine] authority over planetary and sector matters." - p. 70
"The planet Rendili, home to a critical shipbuilding operation, voluntarily joined the Separatists. Rendili's home defense fleet consisted of state-of-the-art Dreadnaughts that could bolster the CIS... the Republic Navy, led by Saesee Tiin and Plo Koon, arrived in full force in the Rendili system." - p. 77 [I'd be hard-pressed to state that a couple of Acclamators would be considered full force, so I imagine the Republic had some additional forces present]
"Chancellor Palpatine issued an order that immediately nationalized all similar, planetary-level defense fleets." - p. 78.
Here only "planetary" defense fleets are mentioned. Note that the Reflex Amendment apparently gave him authority, but the fleets were still semi-independent - it was the fallout of the Rendili Fleet Crisis that nationalized them.

Edit2: Forgot about the CSWE. Here's the info from the entry on "Rendili":
"Given the powerful warships represented within the fleet, the Republic made it of paramount importance that Randili remain within its fold... such a narrow victory prompted Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to push for legislation to bring the various home fleets of Republic worlds more firmly under the direct command of the central government."
And the Reflex Amendment:
"A constitutional amendment that gave Supreme Chancellor Palpatine unprecedented control in maneuvering military assets across areas of overlapping jurisdiction, cutting through bureaucracy and taking priority over local governments."
There's an entry for "planetary security forces" as well:
"A dedicated corps of beings who defended the borders of their home star systems from neighboring stellar nations and the nearby space lanes from pirates. Each existed apart from the Galactic Republic and was allowed to foster its own unique military culture. When the Emperor ascended to power and the Empire was born, he consolidated many planetary security forces into the Imperial Navy and Army and placed these in the hands of a council of admirals and generals - the Im

 

About Anaxes: even though its Citadel had training centers, it seems officer cadets are mainly instructed on other worlds. I wonder if Anaxes is where the Navy keeps its staff colleges for officers who are promoted to higher ranks? With all the focus on the cadet-training military academies, institutions like staff colleges are all but forgotten in the EU. I hope this situation is somewhat rectified in any sections describing Anaxes.

 

I think I will start with the development of the Navy first.

With the Ruusan Reformations the original Republic Navy ceased to exist. In its place we get the forces of the Judical Department answerable to Coruscant and the Senate on one side and the various planetary/sector-defence-fleets on the other (in cases like Kuat sector and planetary naval forces might be identical, while not so fortunate/wealthy planets have to combine their resources). In serious cases the JD is supposed to be supported by the PDFs, at least in theory.

Since Coruscant and the Republic no longer have a centralized Navy, planets and sectors no longer have to pay for such an institution. Instead they have to finance, build-up and maintain their own defence-forces. While this would be no problem for wealthy planets and sectors, poor worlds are f?ed.

We also know from AotC:ICS and RotS:ICS, that legal restrictions as well as economic barriers forced technological limitations on potent military forces like the sector-fleets of Kuat, Corellia and Humbarine. Basically those ships/fleets were limited to their own sectors. On one side this probably helped keeping the peace, since those vessels couldn?t be used to attack/invade another sector. On the other side they were of limited to no use to the Judical Department in an emergency for the same reasons. Rendili circumvented this by establishing a network of small and medium shipyards in the middle and outer rim (AotC:ICS).

As stated above poor worlds and sectors were at a severe disadvantage as far as their protection against pirates, slavers and hostile neighbours was concerned. Basically they had two options:

1) To put themselves under the protective umbrella of a larger organisation. Many worlds probably didn?t join/hand over their voting rights in the senate to the TradeFederation or CommerceGuild for economic benefits alone, but also for protection against pirates and other threats. Any organic forces those worlds would have had and would have been able to contribute to the CIS would have been replaced by droid-forces.

or

2) To combine their resources into sector-defences of their own. The RotS:ICS has this to say about Utapau: ?The TradeFederation protects its position in remote galactic regions by placing embargoes on arms sales to planetary governments. As a result Utapauns rely upon self-made, down-scaled ships - their biggest anti-pirate Rendili-Dreadnought is one-fifth of the size of a TradeFederation-battleship.?

Here we see the reason for the shoddy make-up and lack of Star Cruiser-level and above vessels in most sector-fleets of the outer rim even during the empire. Here is the reason for the vast disparities in numbers and age of ships we see in different sources describing the sector-fleets of the outer rim, where most of the action we see takes place.

We know from the ISB, that Imperial sector-fleets were ten times larger than sector-fleets of the republic era. While this means an infusion of new vessels and especially star destroyer-level ships into the sector-fleets the Imperial High Command would have been incompetent/stupid to NOT distribute those new ships by priority. Which means, that once again the poor and unimportant worlds are f?.ed.

During the republic officers for the fleet of the Judical Department and the planetary/sector-defence-fleets were trained at the academies. These officers are the so-called ?generationals? or ?traditionals?, in some cases originating from dynasties associated with fleet-service for centuries, if not millenia. Then comes the empire and the fleet increases by a factor of ten and suddenly a huge number of new officers is needed. Too many to be provided by the ?old families?. Aside from promotions based on merit a dictatorship like the empire wants its new ships in the hands of politically reliable officers, which results in a lot of command-positions being held by political appointees.

The result is a vast slope in performance/merit/abilities found in Imperial Admirals and Captains across the galaxy ranging from imbe

 

Man, FTeik, for big chunks of that it's like you read my draft over my shoulder.

I haven't dug into Rendili specifics and continuity, but there are two factors that may be relevant in considering its fleet:

1. It was a founding world of the Republic, and therefore entitled to representation on its own in the Senate (see the Atlas) as well as dominating its sector, a special status that probably extended to its defense allowances as well.

2. It was one of the galaxy's greatest shipwrights.

Re Legacy, yes, the final chapter deals with this period.

As teasers, here's the to-do list for the rest of the long weekend:

* D'harhan
* Irmenu
* Rendili StarDrive
* Shipwrights and Shipyards (may be written as background and not as an actual section)
* Pre-Empire Academies (ditto)
* Army (initial notes; it gets its own section later)
* finalize the classification system

A lot to do (possibly too much), so I'd better move along. Happy Fourth!

 

Happy Fourth, Jason! That's quite a laundry list, too.

@FTeik: That's a very nice and reasonable summary for the changes and developments for both branches of the galactic military!

I do wonder if the appropriation of Humbarine fleet assets and its subsequent disasterous mishandling by the Republic war council was one of several causes that led to increased support for Palpatine's home fleet centralization, coming to a head with the Rendili crisis. Oicunn seemed to appreciate the strong, central leaders over the Republic bureaucracy's bungling of the situation.

Speaking of Rendili, with the quote from ROTS:ICS about "Utapau's biggest Rendili dreadnaught" we have a possibility for variable designs around the same ship frame again. Whether scaled up drastically or minimally. Since they were making those models over a period of at least 80 years and in shipyards of different regions, there's bound to be a lot of differences.

 

Bless you, Jason! Legacy has too much potential regarding militaries to not devote a chapter.

RE: Anaxes vs. Coruscant, I think your idea that the restored Galactic Navy draws heavily from Anaxsi traditions is the best way to go. Given Anaxes role as the "Defender of the Core" for the multiple millenia, it makes sense that when the government on Coruscant decides to commission a Grand Army and Navy that they would lean heavily on Anaxes for the skills to essentially rebuild a navy from scratch. In my view, the Judicial Forces were probably looked down upon by the traditional navy families on Anaxes as being a "second tier" force or a plaything for the Senate's more bellicose members.

It might be fun to explore the naval forces of Anaxes. Perhaps the world maintained a substantial private navy that was in all but name the "Republic Navy"? Basically, a private planetary naval force that was always ready in case some other galactic power or entity threatened the Republic? Having a federal-esque force that is in a constant state of training would help explain where the top echelons of the Republic's fleet officers came from at the onset of the Clone Wars. Considering that all Core worlds valued Anaxes for it's role as defender, is it possible that worlds like Corellia, Duro, Kuat, and others periodically sent their own navies for training at Anaxes?

--Adm. Nick

 

I like this focus on Anaxes, it's certainly earned it, being the go-to place for in-universe fleet junkies.

How about making the Whelm into the SW equivilant of the HMS Victory, the oldest warship still in service? Except, actually combat-worthy. It being the visual symbol of Anaxes' millennia-long service to the Republic.

 

My thoughts about Anaxes:

1. Axum-Anaxes naval forces wouldn't have been used beyond sector borders. Anaxes's title of "Defender of the Core" is mainly derived from how Anaxes enthusiastically plays host for the OR/Imperial/NR/GFFA naval warships that DO defend the Core. However, part of this role would have included running institutions like staff colleges (not to be confused with military academies like those on Carida, Raithal, and Prefsbelt IV) that could be used by galactic navies and PSFs. In addition, Anaxes could be a primary site for war games conducted by naval forces.

2. I'd like to see more about how Anaxes celebrates naval institutions. Libraries containing registries for naval vessels and records of all known naval battles. Museums showcasing famous capital ships, starfighters, other space craft, and exhibits dedicated to renowned fleet commanders. Trade shows where the major shipwrights go to show off their latest warships. Historical reenactments where restored warships (and reconstructions) act out great naval battles with holographic lasers and explosions! Statues! Memorials! Anaxes needs to be the Washington D.C. of starfleets!

3. What sort of traditions does Anaxes contribute, anyway? I know this may be a long shot, but maybe a brief shout out to a march or hymn that originated from the Azure Imperium that is used as standard repertoire for naval bands? I'm somewhat of a sucker in this area, but I don't think it's fair how the Clone Army has quite a bit of Mandalorian chants (with pro-Republic lyrics) yet there's nothing for the Navy.

 

I thought the point of nationalizing the PSFs was so that they wouldn't have to be entirely destroyed in order to make the galaxy reliant on the Imperial armed forces...

 

Yeah, Palpatine getting total control of these assets won't matter if they're destroyed. Modernizing is one thing, but I doubt he'd want to take away significant parts of the navy when he needs it the most (solidifying his rule).

 

If PSF leadership is an issue, officers can just get purged instead and replaced with loyal New Order flunkies. That way, most of the ships and personnel survive to serve the New Order. Besides, the Rebellion Era Sourcebook states that post-CW PSFs were turned into the Imperial Navy, which implies that they couldn't all have been destroyed anyway.

 

Rendili seems to have been the primary go-to corp for the Republic for military contracts from the TOTJ to just prior to the Clone Wars. They are making the big ships in the KOTOR era, circa 3000 BY, and in the ROTE era. And yet we know virtually nothing about the planet, system or region itself (other than being ruled by an Arch-Provost).
By the 29 BY, the Dreadnaughts are a regular part of Republic forces (Judicial Department, I presume) and by 27 BY they are being sold to the Corporate Sector and the larger Core Worlds in large numbers - considering the trans-galactic nature of the ships, that appears to be an interesting relaxing of the implied rules of the Ruusan Reformation - that warships were supposed to be local range, at least for the non-Federal forces. Considering that Tarkin was still unable to requisition even one while getting ahold of lesser ships, implies that the change was somewhere between 29-27 BY. (That may indicate that the Acclamators began being planned around then, although the tight secrecy surrounding it might indicate that they weren't worried about the legality issues).
By the start of the Clone Wars, they are said to already be obsolete, even before the appearance of the first Star Destroyer types - but is still said to be a "mainstay" of the Republic fleets. This may indicate further loosening of capital ship regulations in the 27-22 BY, most likely in latter portion as a result of the beginning of the Separatist Crisis. (An "armed transport" exception is already on the books, considering that the TF had been allowed to partially arm their freighters with the consent of the Republic prior to the Battle of Naboo, and the IGBC was allowed to create the "Munificent-class" frigates supposedly for transportation of riches). A minor arms race of a sort probably erupted amid the wealthier sectors, leading to a divestiture of the Dreadnaughts replaced with newer vessels, sold second-hand to poorer systems - which is likely how Utapau got their Dreadnaughts. While the Dreadnaughts are said to be Rendili's 'latest' military ship in 27 BY, I would think they would have presented a newer ship during this period - which could be (as someone had suggested earlier) a newer version of the Dreadnaught.
On a related note - I would love to see something in the EGTW about the Blissex family and the father/daughter rivalry in design. It would seem that she presented the Imperator/Tector versus his Victory design, and he temporarily won out - which would be a explanation on why we really see nothing of the former other than the testbed ships during the Clone Wars. While he went on to design the lamented Republic-class SD, we don't see much from him - or Rendili itself - in capital ship design into the NR era. However, I would imagine that the "Victory-class" designs showing up in The Swarm War trilogy would be some sort of iteration of his classic design.
NEGVV notes that "Rendili did not receive any notable military contracts during the Galactic Civil War..." - capital ship-wise they seem to be only making small customs vessels for the Empire, apart from the renegade team that made the Assault Frigate Mk II conversion of the Dreadnaughts. The Empire still seems to be contracting them for special weapons platforms, like the Bavos-class stations used in the Core Worlds - but KDY appears to have gotten temporary ascendancy over them during the RE in the military ship market.

 

Unless the quote from Illustrated SW Universe means Rendili did both heavy weapons platforms and heavy battleships. If anything, they could have worked on designs from other firms, like Fondor did with Kuat's Executor design.

I'd like to know more about the doings of the Humbarine sector. Apart from the capital world, the rest of the sector was said to have many industrial planets. Wonder which seen/referenced Imperial warships could have come from their shipyards.

Not to mention Corellia. "Big, Corellian ships" anyone? The oldest known ship-reference and after 33 years, little to no information.

 

Looking at the product listings for KDY over time - there's a discrepancy in the NEGVV. Namely, that it states KDY "continued to work almost exclusively for Imperial Remnant forces." - yet they are apparently being contracted by the New Republic to build new "battleships" during the first YJK story arc.
Someone had suggested that the unnamed ships were the Republic-class cruisers that were mentioned first in Destiny's Way. But checking back, its manufacturer was KSE - not KDY. And KSE is a former KDY subsidiary that was spun off as a separate corp and bought out by Alliance/NR-friendly investors.
So, we have in the NR era the still Imperial-friendly KDY, and the Republic-friendly KSE that would be the source for any NR "Kuat" military contracts.

"Largest battleships" (as the text of the quote goes) would imply "notable military contracts", contradicting the later NEGVV. I also doubt KDY would allow anyone to challenge their dominance of Imperial capital ship manufacture. YMMV.

The EGPM noted that KDY made sure that all Executors after the first one would be made by them, so - not likely. I'm not sure what other firms you could be referring to.

 

I hope you elobrate more on the connections between Rendili ship designs and the Mandalorian warships that inspired them. Who knows what other Rendili vessels besides the Dreadnaught and the Lictor Dungeon Ship were based off Mando ship attributes?

 

Around 8 ABY, the KDY design team flees Kuat for the Deep Core when the NR takes it. I'm not familiar with the KDY/KSE situation, but it's possible there were two "Kuat Drive Yards" after that; one Imperial-loyal one continued by the employees who fled, and not on Kuat, and the reconstructed NR-loyal one actually based out of Kuat.

 

That's a possibility...KSE doesn't appear to have been based on Kuat, and a corp-in-exile KDY wouldn't necessarily have to either.
The Essential Atlas has this:
"Despite the loss of the senior KDY design staff (who fled to Byss aboard the Eclipse during the battle), the New Republic soon had the Kuat yards turning out vessels to bolster Admiral Ackbar's navy.
During the Yuuzhan Vong War business boomed at KDY as the yards hummed with wartime orders. The company suffered a blow to its image when the public learned that Kuati Senator Viqi Shesh - responsible for landing the lucrative government contracts - had been living a double life as an enemy collaborator."
Apart from the Republic-class cruisers made by KSE, I don't see any mention of new KDY ships showing up in the NJO series - perhaps the Rejuvenator-class?
It almost looks like the NR had nationalized the Kuat shipyards for a time (and again, I'm wondering what specific vessels they were making for the NR)

 

My only issue with that idea is that the plan was basically to wipe out the Rendili fleet if it did not join the Republic. Tiin was leading that effort with Acclamator class cruisers. I mean...ehh... it just sounds silly that an entire sector fleet was given the "join us or die ultimatum". "Yeah...how you going to enforce it?" would be my response. Really, a whole sector fleet is going to be hunted down and destroyed?

I can see a planetary fleet being given that ultimatum in an attempt to prevent it from joining the greater Seperatist fleet and encouraging planetary fleets all over the galaxy to join the same.

I would say that planets were allowed to provide materiel and income to sector fleets, while being allowed by most sector force agreements to keep their own planetary defense fleets separate from regional sector fleets(though they could be called on in times of emergency). The Republic took over the regional sector forces before nationalizing the planetary level forces. The Rendili Fleet Crisis merely provided the reason for taking away the Homeworld Fleets as well as the sector forces.

I see we have several quotes posted above that refer to the nationalizing of planetary defense fleets after the Rendili Fleet Crisis.

A comment was made above about the lack of transgalactic hyperdrive in pre Clone Wars warships. That only makes a real difference in limiting the scale of wars that neighboring sectors could carry out between each other before the Clone Wars. If the Republic nationalizes all the navies in all its sectors, it assures that it has some[ ships to deal with battlefronts across the galaxy, since there would be some type of fleet in many sectors. The real problem would be reinforcing fleets in one sector with ships from a fleet in another sector.

It would also be a problem, as Fteik stated, to transport troops across the galaxy at the beginning of the war.

As Fteik stated, already existing armies would be defending their homeworlds, while the GAR would be the Republic mobile force, initially at the beginning of the war.

According to Shatterpoint, this was officially the Republic strategy when the war started. It was created by Yoda. The Republic would engage the Seperatists in very limited ways on multiple fronts with the GAR, never committing to full scale offensives, while the Republic war machine was ramped up and organized.

Speaking of Yoda, it might be explained how the Jedi High Council ties in with the Republic High Command.

Off topic:

Also, what about other orders of Knights? Orders beside the Jedi Knights. Also, can we delve into the Order before it came under the jurisdiction of the Judicial Department, back during the TotJ and New Sith Wars era when it was more like a Western, Medieval military order of Knights. It was a sovereign military order with its own navy and army. They also had titles like ?Lord?. I?d like to learn more about that version of the Jedi Knights, plus any non Jedi ?Knight? military orders that existed.

 

Ah. The Coruscant and the Core Worlds Sourcebook states in the Anaxes section, that though the PSF's formed the core of the new Navy, the Empire did work to destroy many of their traditions and make the Navy conform to Imperial standards.


Many generationals were replaced with New Order flunkies.

Also, Anaxes Citadel(or whatever it was called..check the sourcebook ) was built 700 years before Yavin to futrther to prestige of the Republic Navy...seems like an odd period to build such a structure..considering the Republic had no officla Nvay at the time.

 

I wasn't saying that Rendili's fleet was a sectorial one, though - just that the term 'home defense fleet' could refer to either planetary or sectorial fleets. The text of the Reflex Amendment article in HNN seems to follow this terminology. As Jason noted, Rendili was a location to itself as a founding member of the Republic, and probably also had dispensation to have a much larger home fleet than a normal planetary system.
As far as the Acclamators... the series came out before many details were known about ROTS, IIRC - and that was the main Republic ship as far as they were aware (they probably avoided using the VSDs because of the uncertainty of the timeline at that point). As noted, the actual size of the Republic response was probably greater.

On a slightly related note - we need more info on the "Architect of the Old Republic Navy" himself - Admiral Adar Tallon! (slightly related because he was at the Battle of Rendili...)

 

Sending a larger force would have needlessly alarmed the Rendili Homeworld Fleet. For the purposes of diplomacy, two Acclamators are enough to serve as a military escort.

According to post-Ruusan law, the Chancellor could appoint governor-generals to work with Senators of troubled sectors during times of emergency. Most likely, the Republic's Sector Fleets are special Judicial taskforces run by such governor-generals and thus only exist on a temporary basis.