Why didn't the Empire just attack Mon Calamari?

Okay, I got a question here. I think it's a question that is bugging a lot of us, but maybe like some of you, I keep on forgetting to ask it.

So, why didn't the Empire attack Mon Calamari sooner, or even before the Emperor was dead in ROTJ? I mean, come on. That was like the one place where the Emperor had his biggest proff to use the military. Why not take out Mon Calamari? A fleet of four Imperial-class Star Destroyers, two Imperial II-class Star Destroyers, three Victory-class Star Destroyers, three Victory II-class Star Destroyers, twelve EF76 Nebulon-B Escort Frigates, six Lancer Frigates, six Bulk Cruisers, six Dreadnoughts, twelve Carrack Cruisers, and six Escort Carriers could of laid waste to Mon Calamari easily and could of forced the Rebels to use much smaller vessels like the Frigates, Cruisers, and Corvettes, and Corellian Gunships a lot more and not have the Mon Calamari Star Cruisers.

Without the Mon Cal Cruisers, the Rebellion would of lost at the Battle of Endor most likely, regardless of what Luke did to the Emperor or that the shield generator was blown up by Han and the gang.

 

You're forgetting the lesson of Alderaan.

Tarkin, Vader and Palpatine believed the terror spectacle of Alderaan's destruction would quell the galaxy with fear. Instead it fanned the flames of rebellion.

What you advocate the Empire could have done, but would the act have been of strategic value given how Alderaan backfired? I suspect not. That in crushing Mon Calamari and weakening the Rebellion militarily, the Empire would have strengthened the Rebellion politically.

Palpatine was aiming for the kind of victory at Endor that would have proclaimed the Empire's superiority over the Rebellion, both in military terms and regarding the ethos of the Rebellion. Palpatine's message may be said to have been:

"The Rebellion was defeated at Endor with ease. Their ideals of different inferior races working together to overthrow the New Order died at the hands of my legions. They claim it is better to die for freedom, so they died. None have risen to replace them, none have continued the fight because it is over. There is no longer a rebellion, no longer an army nor is there any cause. The Rebellion is dead and its ideals are false."

JB

 

Tarkin, Vader and Palpatine believed the terror spectacle of Alderaan's destruction would quell the galaxy with fear. Instead it fanned the flames of rebellion.

Uh yeah. That kinda failed because the Rebels like...blew up the Death Star.

I eonder how well that lesson would have worked if the DS was still around.

 

Tarkin, Vader and Palpatine believed the terror spectacle of Alderaan's destruction would quell the galaxy with fear. Instead it fanned the flames of rebellion.

Uh yeah. That kinda failed because the Rebels like...blew up the Death Star.

I eonder how well that lesson would have worked if the DS was still around.

i think it would have worked quite well if after destroying Alderaan, the DS had survived the rebel attack at yavin. (and probably destroyed the rebel base on Yavin IV)-- sounds a lot like ANH:Infinities here!

Tarkin may have been right -- fear of having this weapon turned on your own planet would keep rebellion down. Of course, there might be suicidal groups that revolt in order to get their own planet blown up. I figure if they used it about once every few years, everyone else would mostly stay in line. In addition, people would tend to move to more pro-Imperial worlds to feel safer, or to have a more secure business future. Ironically, the remaining rebels would have the best chances of survival by hiding on largely populated pro-Imperial worlds, that Tarkin would not be able to zap, but then the rebels wouldn't be able to hide their ships as easily in populated imperial systems. (also the rebel alliance would suffer from the loss of alderaan, the yavin base, and the loss of their figurehead princess senator)

going back to the main topic -- why didn't the empire attack mon calamari... perhaps after the alderaan backlash, they decided not to attack targets that had massive civilian populations (even if they were mostly non-human). the mon calamari shipyard built primarily passenger liners (which some were later converted to warships -- were these conversions all done at mon cal or done secretly elsewhere - at rebel bases?) so there would be a public relations disaster of attacking a backwater planet that was a major producer of civilian ships. better to get the rebels isolated from the rest of society and smack them down cleanly, by luring them into a trap, than to deal with the backlash of attacking a populated planet.

 

In addition, people would tend to move to more pro-Imperial worlds to feel safer, or to have a more secure business future. Ironically, the remaining rebels would have the best chances of survival by hiding on largely populated pro-Imperial worlds, that Tarkin would not be able to zap, but then the rebels wouldn't be able to hide their ships as easily in populated imperial systems. (also the rebel alliance would suffer from the loss of alderaan, the yavin base, and the loss of their figurehead princess senator)[/]

Yeah. The Rebs would have had a tough time.

The Mon Cal cruisers were refitted underwater.

 

The Mon Cal cruisers were refitted underwater.
wonder if they scraped off the barnacles before returning them to space...

 

Bravo . . . in your opening post, why did you specifically list those numbers in your proposed Imperial strike group?

 

I don't know I thought it endearing.

And although the ships may have been refitted underwater Trias an Imp Strike fleet in orbit would have made has of any other facilities they have, not to mention the quite obvious blow the **** out of the floating cities routine.

 

Bored mostly, Excellence. Was thinking how many ships it would take, then just wrote it down.




I never knew the Mon Cal Cruisers were refitted under water. This makes things more easiler to understand the political side of it.

 

ermmm...in dark empire...Ackbar says that Mon Calamari was on the Empire's list of targets for the Death Star...

 

Dude, it was first on the list.

 

Have you ever played the Balance of Power expansion pack for X-wing v. TIE Fighter? The whole premise for the Rebel side is to convince the Airam Sector to join the Alliance so that they have a backup shipyard to build vessels (all types I think), and to spread out the Empire so that they couldn't amass a fleet large enough to smash Mon Cal (it is mentioned in the instruction guide that the defenses of Mon Cal are strong enough only to defend against an Imperial Task Force.

It may be assumed that this was happening all over the galaxy, so that Mon Cal ships were made in shipyards across the galaxy, all the while forcing the Empire to hunt them or risk leaving some system or sector open to infiltration and exploitation by Rebel cells.

If I were to say why the Imperials were never able to amass such a huge fleet is because they were playing defense (probably more to do with the bureacracy of careerist officers and moffs than actual tactics).

Problem is: there's no proof one way or another.