Post by boot on Sept 8, 2019 7:38:03 GMT -6
BROADSIDES!
I am coming to the conclusion that the weapon technology for capital ship warfare in the Star Wars universe is relatively short range. All the evidence that we have points to that. Just about all of the space battles that we see in the films are at close range. This isn't Traveller where targets are thousands of kilometers away, long outside of visual range.
No, the capital ships in Star Wars seem to act like old 1700's sailing ships, going broadsides at a relatively short range because of the range of their primary weapon, the canon.
Turbolasers must be a weapon similar to canon--where range is not that long, relatively speaking.
Even the Death Star gets fairly close to Yavin IV before the Super Laser is fired. It fires from the far side of Yavin, which is a long distance, but not as long a distance as you might expect.
The relative short range of turbolasers, too, could be the reason starfighters are relied upon so heavily. Turbolasers are not effective at very long ranges, so the fighter squadrons exist to take the fight to the enemy at long range.
In the films, we see only two instances of long range fighting. In The Last Jedi, the First Order ships seems to have a weapon that fires at long range as they pound away at the four Resistance ships that are fleeing them. Only that big mother of a ship has weapons that can fire this far, and it doesn't have many of them.
LOOK AT THIS VIDEO. Note how the Resistance vessels are being hit once every second or so, and the Star Destroyers are not firing.
The other long range weapon that we see is, of course, the hyperspace weapon used by Star Killer Base. This weapon fires across star systems, with a range measured in light years. But, it takes an entire planet to house such a weapon--and it draws its strength straight from a star.
I am coming to the conclusion that the weapon technology for capital ship warfare in the Star Wars universe is relatively short range. All the evidence that we have points to that. Just about all of the space battles that we see in the films are at close range. This isn't Traveller where targets are thousands of kilometers away, long outside of visual range.
No, the capital ships in Star Wars seem to act like old 1700's sailing ships, going broadsides at a relatively short range because of the range of their primary weapon, the canon.
Turbolasers must be a weapon similar to canon--where range is not that long, relatively speaking.
Even the Death Star gets fairly close to Yavin IV before the Super Laser is fired. It fires from the far side of Yavin, which is a long distance, but not as long a distance as you might expect.
The relative short range of turbolasers, too, could be the reason starfighters are relied upon so heavily. Turbolasers are not effective at very long ranges, so the fighter squadrons exist to take the fight to the enemy at long range.
In the films, we see only two instances of long range fighting. In The Last Jedi, the First Order ships seems to have a weapon that fires at long range as they pound away at the four Resistance ships that are fleeing them. Only that big mother of a ship has weapons that can fire this far, and it doesn't have many of them.
LOOK AT THIS VIDEO. Note how the Resistance vessels are being hit once every second or so, and the Star Destroyers are not firing.
The other long range weapon that we see is, of course, the hyperspace weapon used by Star Killer Base. This weapon fires across star systems, with a range measured in light years. But, it takes an entire planet to house such a weapon--and it draws its strength straight from a star.