Battle of Hoth Discussion

I don't usually post in this forum, I mostly lurk. Don't really know why but bear with me if this has already been brought up....


Why is it that during the Battle of Hoth the Imperials need to take down the shield in order for Vader to land? They also need the shield down in order to bombard the planet, but since Vader wants to capture Luke they arent going to bombard it... So I guess the point of the thread is a question as to why the Imperials needed to destroy the shield generator for Vader to land...The AT-AT's got down through the shield somehow, why couldnt Vader's shuttle?


Also a question in my mind is how in the world did Admiral Ozzel actually screw up coming out of hyperspace? He came out too close to the planet, trying to surprise the Rebel base...Vader gets all fussy and calls him clumsy and stupid, but if they had come out of hyperspace sooner the Rebels would have had more time to prepare defenses and plenty of time to activate the planetary shield...


Hopefully this all makes sense

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

Think about the battle of Naboo in TPM, when the droids rush through the Gungan shield array. It blocked the laser blasts being hurled at them, but allowed ground forces to penetrate the shielding. I'm guessing that the shield on Hoth was much the same way, except that it was angled like a flying saucer or something. You had maybe 50 meters off the ground before the shield coverage took effect, but this shield didn't allow fighters to pass through. Similiar to what we see in ROTJ.

So before Vader could land, the generator had to be knocked out, otherwise Vader would have to walk the distance to the Echo base.

As for the surprise attack, the Rebels already figured that the Imps were coming, so they were ready to evac anyways. At any rate by coming out of hyperspace too soon, it didn't allow the Imperial fleet time to get into blockade position fast enough and to organize their ground forces accordingly. Unless they army was prepared to debark the second they exited hyperspace which is unlikely given Vaders "Prepare your men for a ground assualt". So the army wasn't ready to debark and that just confirmed to the Rebels that the Imps were here, giving them more time to evacuate, or more time to destroy anything of value.

 

Wow, Errant, I'd never been able to understand why coming out of lightspeed to close was a bad thing, though that greatly helps. Though I disagree with your shield explanation. The shield only protected the base. Not the entire planet. Remember Veers said the shield "covered an AREA (sorry don't know how to do italics) of the sixth planet of the Hoth system, not the entire planet. The shield generator did not cover itself, just the base. Thus, (as Vader said), the walkers landed beyond their energy field, take out the generator, thus allowing Vader to land.

 

If Death Squadron were able to exit hyperspace from further away, Vader would probably send some squads of TIE fighters and bombers to sledge the Rebels' defenses to the ground while he would swoop into Echo Base and take Luke. The fighters would probably be able to sneak in before the Rebels catch on and turn on the shield.

 

Yeah, that does make sense.

 

But TIE bombers pose the same problem as a bombardment from the Executor: Luke's death


It seems that if he went through with sending bombers in, he would risk killing Luke and then pretty much screwing himself over

 

Luke could've been just as easily killed by an AT-AT (which he almost was). Besides, Vader knew Luke was a pilot, and would wind up fighting against the TIEs or attempting to escort and evacuation.

 

And how would Vader go about capturing Luke when he is in an X-Wing fighting off TIE fighters? That course of action just doesnt make much sense to me

 

Well, Vader knew of the Millenium Falcon. That's why he was after it the whole time in the movie, because he thought Luke was on it. Notice when he got on Hoth he went directly to the hangar where the Falcon was. He assumed Luke would leave on that.

 

Course Vader could have come down with Veer's Walkers. But I guess he was too important to risk in battle. He could have faced Luke on Hoth in the snow. Now there would have been a cool scene.

Luke drops from the AT-AT, watches it explode and then turns to face Vader.
"Hello, young Skywalker."

 

Wouldnt have been much of a fight seeing as Yoda hasnt trained Luke at all yet...Would be a cool scene though

 

About the landing, well it might have been some imperial protocol, Vader would not simply get there and start hacking and slashing his way in. He is a top dog afterall.... And Ozzel, didn't he try to warn the rebels that way? I always thought him to be sympathetic to the alliance because of his overall actions. Remember how he tries to convince Vader that Hoth isn't the rebel base?

 

Well, Vader knew of the Millenium Falcon. That's why he was after it the whole time in the movie, because he thought Luke was on it. Notice when he got on Hoth he went directly to the hangar where the Falcon was. He assumed Luke would leave on that.

I think Vader's plan was to capture Han and Leia from the start. Vader knows his son will go after his freinds, just like Anakin went after Obi-Wan.

 

I'm more curious as to Vader got the salt and snow damage off his leather after storming through Echo base.

In the cut scenes there's gotta be some scene where Vader's scrubbing away at his boots with show polish and a rag.

 

Hehe.

I may end up standing corrected then, Razor, as when Vader caught Han and co. at Bespin he didn't seem too enraged that Luke wasn't there.

 

I always thought getting out of hyperspace to close to the planet was a bad thing because there could be some huge rush of energy that would alarm the rebels and that if they got out of HS further away they could sneak closer, and set up a blocade as mentioned.

Just thought about a thing: Needa said that the Falcon couldn't have a cloaking device due to it's size; could the stardestroyers have cloaking devices then, and thereby be able to sneak upon the rebels from a distance?

 

No, at the time, only medium-sized ships could have cloaking devices. They probably couldn't make them small enough for fighters and small freighters, and it was too expensive for one of the big ships.

 

No to unnecessarily re-hash, but the film's dialog explains why coming out of hyperspace too close was a mistake:

General Rieekan: "With all the meteor activity in this system, it's going to be difficult to spot approaching ships"

The proper strategy would have been for the imperials to come out of hyperspace further away and sneak up through the asteroid field, rather than to pop up right in front of the planet the way Ozzel did. Note that immediately when the Star Destroyers came out of hyperspace, the rebel base was aware of it and was able to get the shielf up before the Imperials could nail them.

Veers: "My Lord, the fleet has moved out of lightspeed. Com Scan has detected an energy field protecting an area of the sixth planet of the Hoth System. The field is strong enough to deflect any bombardment. "
Vader: "The Rebels are alert to our presence. Admiral Ozzel came out of lightspeed too close to the system."

Then, as explained above, the imperials had to land their troops outside the area covered by the shield and march overland to knock out the shield generator before the base could be destroyed.

If they had been able to sneak up on the planet using the cover of the asteroid field to mask their approach, they might have been able to carry out a crippling first strike against the base before they were able to get the shield up, thus preventing the successful evacuation of the base and the rebels' escape.

 

Hmmm... you might be on to something. Me, I always just thought that Ozzel was like most of the other Imperial Navy High Command, arrogant and rather self-absorbed. He was refusing to see that Piett or even Lord Vader himself saw something that he hadn't. Though he might have been sypathetic, seems unlikely that Imperial Intelligence would have missed that when he was assigned command to Vader's flagship.

 

In the cut scenes there's gotta be some scene where Vader's scrubbing away at his boots with show polish and a rag.

There's no way Vader does his own suit up-keep. That's what the Emperor's Hands were really for.