Basic Capital Ship Tactics

Capital Ship Tactical Overview

Capital ships are the most powerful instruments of destruction available to space navies, but they are not without weaknesses. They are expensive to build and maintain (for they consume a lot of power, require complex redundant systems, and need very large crews), and they are relatively slow and not very maneuverable (and are therefore vulnerable to massed enemy starfighters or bombers).

Capital ships are typically designed for fleet warfare, and are often positioned in armadas stationed in high orbit around a strategic planet, when defending, or they form the primary attack groups in most offensive fleets. There are, however, a few exceptions to the typical definition. For example, the Sienar Fleet Systems GAT-12 Skipray Blastboat is considered a capital ship because of its heavy armament, despite being a mere twenty five meters in length and operating primarily in the role of a heavy assault starfighter. These vessels are commonly fitted with ship-to-ship and anti-fighter defensive weaponry, ranging from heavy ion cannons to turbolaser turrets. Many capital ship classes also serve as carriers and are able to deploy starfighters, landing craft, and other resources as required.

Given their size, capital ships require relatively large crews, employing in some instances thousands of beings. An example is the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, which was 1,600 meters long and requires a crew of 37,000 to operate at full efficiency. There are also examples that utilize a much smaller number of active personnel, whether by means of advanced control systems or simply necessity, as in the cases of the Katana fleet and the Errant Venture, respectively.

The multidimensional battlefield makes space warfare tactics complex and difficult to master. In addition to the complexities of space combat itself, related operations and logistics are equally complex. For example, known hyperdrive lanes are a factor, as the angle of attack determines which starships will be in range of the entering fleet and vice versa.

Interdictor warships are able to hold fleets in realspace at will, preventing enemy retreat. In this sense, they are a valuable addition to any fleet. However, these vessels are rare, meaning many commanders have to resort to trapping their adversaries in an existing gravity well (such as that of a planet) to prevent their escape. Such tactics are risky at best because they rely on outsmarting your enemy at every turn, because an unanticipated maneuver could allow the ambushed force either to escape or to turn the tables on the ambushers, trapping them in the gravity well.

The source of a fleet's ships - a shipyard - is very valuable, and makes an important target for an opposing force. As they require ships to defend themselves, shipwrights are also very vulnerable and the defending fleet must destroy any opposition before it can damage the docks. In this case, speed is an important factor for the invaders. However, planets providing strategic material for the war effort are also of paramount importance, because without adequate supplies, after a certain period, any combat starship loses the ability to engage the enemy, either through lack of fuel, lack of munitions, battle damage that cannot be repaired, or the starvation of the crew. Consequently, campaigns could often depend upon cutting the enemy's supply lines, either by attacking the supply ships, or preventing the enemy from reaching their supply ships.

Various Commanders will use asteroids or floating piles of junk to ambush unsuspecting ships. The only major problem with this idea is that it almost always damages the target ship in numerous, unpredictable ways.

In general capital ships fight other capital ships, and starfighters fight other starfighters. Exceptions include starfighters equipped with proton torpedoes or other warheads, and capital ships, like the Lancer-class frigate, which are designed specifically to fight starfighters. However, most capital ships are equipped with anti-starfighter cannons to aid their fighter escorts or to serve as a front line defense against fighters in lieu of an escort.

When capital ships fight each other, one of the most basic tactics is to maximize the damage one does to one's enemy, and minimize one's own damage. This is often accomplished by maneuvering the ship so that you have more weapons to bear on the enemy than vice-versa, as well as presenting a narrower profile for the enemy to shoot at. However, in Mon Calamari capital ships in particular, it is possible for two or more ships in close proximity to one another to collaborate their energy shields, sharing the strain of enemy bombardment between them to minimize overall damage. Also, capital ships can rotate, allowing their shields to pick up enemy shots in areas that were still at full power, while giving areas where the shields have been battered time to recharge.

In addition, there is also an intelligence element to space warfare, with each side in larger engagements attempting to intercept and decrypt enemy communications as part of a larger effort to predict what the enemy will do next— with the intention of either preventing them from achieving their intentions or minimizing the damage that can be caused by their plans.

Other tactics include using starfighters to distract the larger guns of capital ships, minimizing damage to frigates and other capital ships. This is ineffective if the ship has anti-fighter defenses such as point defense turrets. This tactic still provides bombers and larger ships the opportunity to do damage. However, some commanders consider this course of action suicidal.

Specific Tactics

Starfighter screen

As its name suggests, the Starfighter screen was a purely defensive formation in which a capital ship or freighter would have its starfighter escorts form up in front of it to engage enemy fighter squadrons before they could close in on the larger vessel. As the description suggests it was a very basic, but effective maneuver.

Marg Sabl

The Marg Sabl closure maneuver was a simple maneuver well known in Imperial Navy circles both before and after the Battle of Endor. It was an opening tactic where the superstructure of the starfighter-carrying vessel would turn to face the oncoming enemy's vessels, allowing the starfighters to launch without risking attack. It was typically followed up by a massed assault of starfighters clustered in a group. Grand Admiral Thrawn used this tactic against an Elomin commander quite effectively at the Battle of Obroa-skai.

Thrawn Pincer

The Thrawn Pincer was a tactic pioneered by Grand Admiral Thrawn and used by him at the Battle of Bilbringi. The tactic first called for Interdictor cruisers to create a gravity well, which denied the enemy an easy escape. Then, reinforcements could jump through hyperspace into the general area and be pulled out of with accuracy and surprise which would otherwise be very difficult to achieve. Admiral Ackbar used this same tactic to help defeat the Ciutric Hegemony.

Ackbar Slash

The Ackbar Slash was a space warfare tactical maneuver devised by Admiral Ackbar. It involved one side's ships forcing their way into the middle of an enemy formation. The desired result was that, with enemy gunners running a high risk of shooting their own forces, they would be hesitant to fire. The other side would have no such risk, and be able to cause higher damage to their enemy. If the enemy ships did choose to fire, the risk of them hitting each other still worked to the advantage of the attacking fleet. In addition, the enemy ships in this situation could usually bring no more than half of their weapons to bear, while nearly all of the weapons on the ships executing the Ackbar Slash could be used, as there would be enemies on both sides to target.

Slashing the deck

Slashing the deck was a tactical maneuver used against enemy capital ships by the Dark Lord Kaan at the First Battle of Ruusan. The technique involved any number of smaller ships, usually ranging from snubfighters to corvettes, that would fire all guns while cutting in along a vector that minimized the amount of guns the enemy capital ship could bring to bear against them. When the enemy capital ship tried to change direction to bring more guns about, the smaller ships would pivot and double back for another pass along a different vector to inflict even more damage. However, the tactic focused heavily on the element of surprise and was almost useless if the enemy could call upon the support of other ships.

Tallon Split

The Tallon Split was a tactical maneuver designed by Rebel military instructor Adar Tallon, after whom it was named. The maneuver was theoretically simple, but took a great amount of skill, precision, and concentration to execute correctly. When applied successfully, the Tallon Split would allow two starfighters to inflict a considerable amount of damage on an unsuspecting capital ship. The tactic called for two starfighters to fly extremely close together as they approached a capital ship, so close that the larger ship's targeting computer would detect the two fighters as one approaching ship. At very close range, the two fighters would split apart: one fighter would continue on a strafing run of the capital ship, while the second would draw fire away from the first. The attacking fighter would have about five seconds to cause damage on the capital ship before it was clearly identified as a second ship. Even so, those five seconds would allow enough time to cause serious damage to the larger vessel.

The tactic was executed with surprising success during the evacuation of Hoth in 3 ABY by Rebel starfighters flying escort for GR-75 Medium Transports attempting to run the Imperial blockade of the planet. Most notably, Rogue Squadron pilots Wedge Antilles, Derek Klivian, Wes Janson, and Luke Skywalker employed the tactic to help the transport Thon's Orchard safely reach hyperspace. Antilles piloted his X-wing close to Klivian and Janson in their BTL-S3 Y-wing starfighter as "one target," as they attacked an Imperial-class Star Destroyer blocking the transport's flight path. In conjunction with those two ships, Skywalker also attacked from a hidden location flying underneath the transport. The Star Destroyer was distracted and damaged enough to allow the Thon's Orchard to reach safety.

A-wing Slash

Pioneered by Garm Bel Iblis, this strategy required a number of large starfighters to mask the approach of smaller starfighters or missile weapons behind them, then moving out in what appeared at first glance to be a flanking attack, wrong-footing the gunners of enemy point defense weapons to allow the force approaching behind the large starfighters to slip through the enemy's defenses, often allowing the smaller fighters or missiles to inflict critical damage to the enemy.

Alpha Strike

An "Alpha Strike" was a term used with large starships with multiple weapons emplacements. The idea was to fire all weapons at the same spot, at the same time, to cause optimum damage. This could make a blast far more powerful then what any one weapon could do. An example of a ship prime for this tactic would be a star destroyer. Its angled, arrowhead design made the Alpha Strike perfect for the ship. The reasoning was to destroy the enemy ship immediately, before it could fire, as to not prolong the battle. The only problem with this was that if the opening salvo didn't get past the opposition's shields, then the "alpha strike" ship would be defenseless for a period of time. The aggressive nature of the Empire made this tactic very popular amongst the Imperial fleets. Many others also employed this technique, such as the Yuuzhan Vong.

Loran Spitball

This maneuver was named after Wraith Squadron pilot Garik Loran who developed the tactic. Specifically the tactic was used with the CR90 Corvette Night Caller. The Loran Spitball was a quick way for the corvette, which housed nine X-wings in a bow hold, to launch their missiles at an enemy from within the ship. By lowering its bow shields and opening the hangar doors, the X-wings could target whatever enemy the ship was facing and launch their barrage. This was used effectively as a surprise attack on two occasions for the Wraiths.

Kettch's Drill

During the Third Battle of Kuat in 7 ABY, Commander Wedge Antilles designed a tactic for members of the Hawk-Bats to eliminate a number of enemy starfighters early in the engagement. The maneuver called for the Hawk-Bats to attack three waves of oncoming TIE fighters head-on, rather than attacking the first wave and then breaking off to engage them in dogfighting. The plan worked perfectly, as the Hawk-Bats destroyed many fighters almost immediately, and succeeded in keeping the Imperial forces of the Kuat system away from the forces of Warlord Zsinj.

Beambating

A small Imperial naval unit would chase a Rebel Alliance unit to a world known to harbor Rebel sympathizers, who would launch reinforcements. The Imperials would stage a retreat, followed by the larger Rebel fleet, to a point where a pre-arrange Imperial attack group would emerge from hyperspace and obliterate the Rebels.

Carom shot

During the Battle of Bakura, a tactic was seen known as a Carom shot, where a warship would ram a second ship, using its momentum to ricochet it into a third ship.

---

These tactics are just some of the near-infinite possibilities available to capital ships and their fighter escorts. The material on this page was adapted from Wookieepedia.

---

Please return to the main orientation page and proceed onto Part IV.