Grand Admirals, Vader, or Piett---who was the Empire's premiere tactician?

It's a tough call I think.

For me, The Grand Admirals don't exactly live up to their name. I'd say Thrawn was clearly the best of them and probably the best tactician in the Empire since tactics was his "thing."

On the other hand, I'd say Thrawn is still not as terrifying to most as Darth Vader. Whenever the Empire had victories, it was Vader at the forefront.

Piett was also said to be as good as a Grand Admiral. He might only have been a Captain but he WAS the Captain of the Executor.

 

I have the same sourcebook you do, GAJ

Plus it WAS Piett who knew to follow up the lead.

Who is the better officer? A perfect one whose too stupid to learn from a single fatal mistake or one smart enough to survive long enough to cover it up.


It never says he's mediocre, merely that his record isn't spotless but appears to be because he's smart enough to cover up his mistakes.

 

Thrawn did more with less, but my vote would fall to Captain/Admiral/Grand Admiral Pellaeon. Retreating is a tactic that has served him well, but through it all he and more importantly the empire has survived. Vader never struck me as a very good fleet commander, like when he steered his fleet into an astroid field for no good reason thus losing a Star Destroyer. Han and Leia got away anyway. Then he lost them again by ordering the Falcon's hyperdrive deactivated, instead of just grounding the ship completely.

 

I would have thought that too, but remember in HoT when the NR learned that Thrawn had returned, they all but went into the fetal position and started crying. They were absolutely terrified.

 

To be fair, I tend to wonder how they reacted with the Emperor's Return.

And a possible Darth Vader one.

(the original plot for DE before Lucas changed it)

 

That's only a mistake because it didn't work.

If the ship was grounded completely, they'd have taken another.

 

Indeed

 

The Grand Admirals. Or, really, those of them who were actually good at what they did and not political hacks or some such. Vader was good, but at Derra IV he turned to Thrawn to make the plans. Piett, as well, might have been better than some of the GAs, but not all. If Palpatine wanted some battle plans reviewed, he wasn't going to turn to Piett or Vader. Or, for that matter, Il-Raz, but the competent GAs are the ones we're really talking about. But it's not as if Vader and Piett weren't a match for the Rebellion's best.

 

I don't have evidence to back up my claim, but I'm thinking Pre-ANH Vader was the Empire's greatest tactician. There isn't a whole lot of information from RoTS to ANH to really back up this claim though. The problem that we see later, is that Vader's goals do not necessarily match up with the overall goals of the empire. He was just hell bent on finding Luke that he did some rather crazy things....such as order a decent amount of ships into an asteroid field....allowing shuttle Tydarian to land on the Endor Moon, etc.. I can't imagine what his officers were thinking during that period.

 

I dare to say that an organisation as large as the GalacticEmpire doesn't have a single "premiere tactician". Keep in mind, that the GE was never the monolithic entinity it is most times portrayed as, but a conglomerate of different views and ideologies competing for dominance and that would be mirrored in the approach different people have to the doctrine of its military forces.

Aside from that, wasn't it said that many of the most tactics and strategies of the GE are the brain-child of the late Grand Moff Tarkin? And that Admiral Ackbar knew how to effectively fight the empire, because he knew those tactics and strategies from his time as Tarkin's slave?

 

Teshik and Thrawn are definately skilled officers, and Grant seemed to be the best of what the Empire had left after Endor. Zsinj certainly was very capable. Vader certainly was talented and capable, though he seems to be more of a fighter than a leader.

 

What evidence do we have that Grant was better than Thrawn? All I've read on the subject seemed ambivalent. We know Grant was pretty brilliant and that he WANTED to go up against Thrawn in a pissing match, but that match never came about, so I don't see how we know enough about the dude to speculate.

 

I don't think anyone's said Grant was better than Thrawn, just that he was reasonably well up there with him and the best thing the Empire had between Endor and Grant defecting, which was before Thrawn came back.

Grant thought he could take on Thrawn; either he was supremely arrogant, or he actually had a decent shot. Given that he was a Grand Admiral, supposedly the best of the best, I don't find it that hard to believe he was a tactical genius.

 

Well, we know that at least three of the Grand Admirals weren't particularly skilled tacticians, and had arisen to that rank on virtue of other qualities. Perhaps Grant was a Grand Admiral due to him being a member of the aristocracy. I mean, I'm sure he was PRETTY good, but one wonders if his standing may have influenced things a little in his favor. In this case, we could easily take the "wanting to take on Thrawn" bit as arrogance, as we know he was a Blue Blood who scoffed at meritocracy and its products, such as Thrawn. Sounds pretty damn arrogant to me.

 

I point out that while Grant was "exiled" to the Pentastar Alignment, he was no doubt wielding more influence and authority than the crumbling and decadent shell of the Core Worlds.

Grand Moff Kaine and he were no doubt a formidable duo.

 

Ailing?

Grand Moff Kaine's Territory was a font of stability in the Empire and now makes up the Imperial Remnant.

In fact, I suggest he be retroactively named the Second Emperor!

;-)

 

Come to think of it, Zaarin was not very bad either. Sure, he had a large technological superiority over Thrawn, but his ability to evade Thrawn for almost half a year while remaining a very active guerilla fighter is very impressive.

Ultimately, of course, Thrawn is the best of them all. His campaign against the New Republic retook a quarter of the galaxy in only a few months, which is essentially unprecedented.

 

True, on the other hand, we also have Darth Revan's takeover. How much did he conquer?

Operation: Shadowhand was also a Blitzkrieg that attacked worlds that Thrawn had never been even near.

 

"True, on the other hand, we also have Darth Revan's takeover. How much did he conquer?"

Uncertain, but he never reached the Core Worlds, and he did so in more time than Thrawn and with a much larger pool of resources to tap.

"Operation: Shadowhand was also a Blitzkrieg that attacked worlds that Thrawn had never been even near."

Perhaps. But it was also a terrific waste of the Empire's fleet and failed to accomplish the one thing that actually mattered: the destruction of the Rebel military force.

Thrawn did more in less time with less at his disposal.