From: Thomas Barclay <Thomas.Barclay@s...>
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 03:42:42 -0500
Subject: Stormtroopers N tie fighters
It has been said: Based on the more "realistic" battles in the X-Wing series I can say that 15 X Wings can kill a lot of TIE fighters, and a Y-Wing that wants to waste torpedoes on a flight of TIEs can knock out 6-8 in a head-on pass from more than 3km. The Imperials want at least 2-1 odds against X- and Y- wings, preferrably 3-1 just to make it challenging. I could see 90-120 elite TIEs being involved, and most of those ending getting smoked. I'll have to look into the X- Wing Allliance mod scene and see if anyone has tried to do the battle as one big mission. [Tomb] Obviously you never played TIE FIGHTER. You were obviously flying against the reserve squadrons and the rejects from the Empire's first line formations. In Tie Fighter, it was admittedly a challenge to take on an X-Wing with a classic tie fighter (can you see no shields, Batman?) but some of the advanced TIE FIGHTERS could stand with any rebel fighter in the game. And as an added plus, if you learned how to fly in a fighter that couldn't take a good hit, then you could wade through better fighters quite easily. [Tomb] A lot of our perception of the Empire is from seeing some small chunk of them in action against the ultimate Rebel Leaders. They did fairly well on Hoth, and I think the planet Yavin would attest to the potence of Imperial Power. If you look at the source material for WEG and from most of the novels (argh!), you discover that the Empire is large and has very potent military forces. Or so we keep getting told. If it isn't actually true (and some game rules might make one think it was not), then the Empire has one incredibly potent asset: Great PR. If their guys get slaughtered in racks, and they still keep adverts going that say a Stormtrooper is the Best of the Best and keep getting recruits, that pretty much says it all. [Tomb] One last thought before you dump too much on Tie Fighter pilots. If you consider the three sanctioned Han Solo books by Brian Daley (the earliest, pretty much, of the SW novels, long ago) to be canon, then Han went to Imperial Academy and was an interceptor/fighter pilot. So apparently they have had a few excellent pilots from time to time. [Tomb] One last thought: If anyone hasn't hunted up the internet movie Troops, you really have to. It's a cross between COPS and SW. It shows a day in the life of Imperial Law Enforcement (Stormtroopers) on a little place called Tatooine. And it puts a WHOLE other spin on the Beru/Owen Lars crime scene. Oh, and it is _really_ well done for something not done by Lucas Himself.