Lit Fleet Junkie Flagship- The technical discussions of the GFFA (Capital Ships thread Mk. II)

Having a Porax-38 in the Rebel fleet would be nice. Just, aesthetically, I think Star Wars needs a P-47 or F4F equivalent; something that while still has a sort of plane style aesthetic, a la the X-Wing, is a little chunkier. The Imperials are the ones with the little zippy fighters! Rebels need a punch.

 

I'm still confused as to why the Empire can't use tractor beams to completely shut down Rebel starfighters. When Rogue Squadron comes in to raid an Imperial supply convoy, a Star Destroyer or strike cruiser captain can just engage tractor beams, lock them in place, and blast them into space dust.

 

Rebels' season 2 premiere implies that regular ISD tractor beams have a short range, need good timing/aim, and have a tendency to grab ships they maybe shouldn't.

 

if caught in tractor beam follow these steps.
1. Point nose of fighter at capital ship
2. target tractor beam projector
3. fire proton torpedoes or concussion missiles
4. after PT or CM destroy tractor beam projector turn and run.

 

I know Luke did that in TTT, but that along with Luthen's example seems to make it out to be an uncommon tactic that doesn't have a high chance of success.

The TCW episode "Grievous Intrigue" comes to mind as well...when Obi-wan's ship gets tractored, a clone asks if they should fire at the source. But then maybe it's easier to do with turbolasers at close range.

 

I figure if the tractor beam is still on it will just pull torpedoes and missiles right to it.

 

So apparently there was a Art of Star Wars: The High Republic book that came out last month. Anyone know if there are any exclusive ship goodies in it?

 

Don't know about how exclusive some of the pics are but there is a decentish amount of fleet content - 16 pages I think. Could have probably used another 12 pages or so. Do NOT expect to see any reveals of novel designs that haven't yet appeared elsewhere (which is a shame). Mainly concept art. Was surprised to see pretty much EVERY ship is from concept art from another Star Wars project. Knew about the prominent ones like the Vector and the Longbeam but even the individual transports are repurposed art.

Works to the advantage of some ships, like the aforementioned big two as well as for example Ty Yorrick's ship, which is a neat design. Not so much a fan of the Ataraxia which from the novel description I pictured as much more ornate (like figurehead sporting ornate) or the Gaze Electric which I pictured as a Warhammer 40K gothic leaning design rather than just a shoe-horned in Mon Cal concept. Really doesn't seem to fit the latter.

Not really a deep dive into any given ship design (really just a single pic of any vessel) but nice mainly for the ships you don't really see as much of like Yorrick's or one of the Jedi's personal ships whose name I forget (maybe that Umbaran Wayseeker Jedi?).

 

I like they did that with all the old concept art. I think there are a lot of really cool alternate designs when you look at what went unused.

 

I agree that it is great to see some nice designs we may not otherwise see on screen or page get salvaged. Like any other choice, sometimes the resulting ship is one I like, sometimes not so much. I think the Vector in particular is a really nice one - different, evocative of a new (old) era and just a really distinct shape. Looking at some of the ST concept art (TFA in particular), there are plenty of ships I both preferred to what appeared on screen and would be happy to see show up elsewhere. The High Republic Art Book refers to designs coming from pretty much all the of the films concept art (ie. PT, OT, ST, RO, Solo).

 

Headcanon:

• Tractor beams come in many flavors and intensities depending on purpose. Small ones for docking and cargo movement. Large ones for vessel capture. etc. Fighters present a unique challenge due to small size, fast speed, and close proximity, that makes tractor beams difficult to attune, target, and maintain lock on them. Too small for big emitters and too fast for the little guidance beams.
  
• Tractor beams tend of be kind of a "area of effect" tool. The potential of tossing out a tractor beam and catching your own fighters while trying to snag the enemy are real. And in the case of the Empire...if you snag your own TIEs in a tractor beam with a Rogue Pilot still loose...that is like handcuffing yourself in a fight.
  
• Pilots understand the threat profiles of all weapon types, including tractor beams. Perhaps the patterns we see flown are less random and more determined to weave around the most likely affect areas of tractor projection.
• Tractor Beams are intensely power hungry...perhaps most cruisers, though carrying multiple emitters, can only project 1 or 2 beams at any given time.
• Tractor Beam operators are the guys who failed out of turbolaser operating school. Not exactly the best of the best.

 

In squadrons at least capital ships do use tractor beams on fighters, though it is possible to get out of them with a strong boost. The devastator did have to take out the Tantive IV's reactor before it could tractor the ship in - it is possible that beyond the giant ones on the death star or the specialized Cantwell class, tractor beams aren't strong enough to hold ships with their engines active.

 

Well to bring up Luke again, he was basically screwed until he did the little proton torpedo maneuver. If there were some other standard tactic for escaping a tractor beam lock, he would've done it. So at least in Legends, it seems a Star Destroyer can capture an X-wing in most normal cases.

 

I was thinking about this a bit.

In the assault on the Death Star at the end of ANH...don't all the rebel fighters pass through the "magnetic field"...

Now I know the glossary was screwed up, and since that film both commonly understood science and the fleshing out of the EU gave that phrase different meaning. But initially, I think the audience in 1977 was to infer that the fighters were moving through the same field that captured the Falcon earlier...only the fighters were able to escape it and engage the station itself...meaning it was possible to escape it...somehow.

 

That's really a shame. I've been looking for more pre-CW Republic capital ships and was hoping the cruiser mentioned in the Wookiee would already have a design.

Guess we'll have to wait for the next phases for that.

 

Whoops duplicate from bad connection

 

Do they show a picture of the Third Horizon?

--Adm. Nick

 

Nope. That was what I was looking for as well.

 

Yeah. No ships outside of what another source may have already depicted (ie. comics mainly). I mean you might get a specific new image of a ship you haven't seen before from concept work (either from the High Republic work or the progenitor source) but not any reveals of a ship that was never visualized previously unfortunately. Was also hoping the capital ships from Midnight Horizon may have been shown but no dice. Really, I would describe the ship section as decent but the main draw for a prospective buyer would be the Jedi art.

 

True. And in canon I suppose Vader got stopped cold by star destroyer tractors...so I guess it isn't 100% consistent.

Interesting, I never heard that interpretation before - and the tractors were always said to be beams earlier while a field is different - usually I hear people theorize that meant the death star's shields. Honestly, I am still curious what exactly the magnetic field is - I wasn't aware there was an official explanation.

We do see some Republic cruisers in Eye of the Storm - though I would guess they are Pacifier class rather than Emissary class.

But yeah, shame there is not more. In particular, it sounds like we don't get anything for the Nihil flagships, which were some of the designs I was most interested in.

 

Actually I did end up buying it anyway for that exact reason. I really love the aesthetics of the Jedi they came up with.

Oooh I will look into that.

There is like one page of three sketches of Nihil ships that could be big enough.

Also something I did just realize is there isn't even anything about the Z-28 Skywing.

 

It's made by Incom at least.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Z-28_Skywing

 

Hmm, so T-65 is a starfighter...T-47 is an airspeeder...why does Z-95 have a "Z" instead of a "T"?

I guess there's also the I-7 Howlrunner. "I" for Incom? Imperial?

 

Ah cool, I will look forward to that when I get my own copy.

As for the skywings - well, if I remember correctly, those were a fan design that a comic book artist mistook as canon, so it makes sense it wasn't in the book.
Edit: Oh wait, apparently there was an original design in one comic, but then a later comic ended up using a fan design by mistake rather than the original one -


(details in the comment thread)

Yup.

In fact, we get a whole Incom Z line: the Z-24 Buzzbug (something that had been in use decades before Light of the Jedi), the Z-28 Skywing (the only one to get pictured, and ironically looks more like an A-Wing or Jedi Starfighter than a Headhunter or X-Wing), and Z-29 Skyhawk (a new model introduced in the Rising Storm).