Absolutely loved seeing the Venators escort the ISD. It makes so much sense and really just complements the IDS and covers it's lack of Starfighters.

seeing an ISD flanked by 2 venators is honestly terrifying.

I think we can all agree an imperial star destroyer next to the venator is a sight to behold 😍

The mixed fleet is like having a sniper be guarded by an machine gunner, no one is getting pass that at any range

The biggest problem with the Star Destroyer is that it was designed by artists and not military minded people. Kind of in universe, to inspire fear, and out.

Honestly the Empire is lucky the Rebllion never got hold of Venators. The Rebels made great use of starfighters and hit-and-run tactics, I feel that the Venator would compliment their tactics greatly.

It’s about time you admitted it. Better late than never. Your humility is truly beautiful. Incredible actually.

Let’s be honest, the Venator is sexy. Stately, clean lines, it always looks good on screen. That’s reason enough to be a fan. Pairs well with a side of Secutor. Also, been going over some of the EAW mods, small craft superiority is king.

Psychologically, the Venator seems like a firm hand - it could slap, it could punch, or it might not do either. The Imperial Class always seems like a hand fixed in slap mode, just shy of punch mode, and it almost has to do one or both.

The honest explaination is that it's far easier for their writers to make their villains stupid than to make their heroes smart.

I compare a Venator and an Imperial Star Destroyer like two boxers: The Venator is an "out-fighter type" who has a long reach and relies mainly on the jab (short quick strikes) but can't take a lot of hits while the ISD is the "brawler-slugger" who has great punching power and a very strong "chin" (i.e. can take a lot of hits without being affected) but also has a very short reach. Basically the Venator is lethal at long range fighting but is highly vulnerable to up-close fighting so the ISD needs to get up close in order to do any real damage

to me, the perfect fleet core was always a mix of both ISD/Victory/Tector (especially Tector, funny how in legends they were introduced at the beginning of the clone wars) for a hammer and anvil strategy, with the battle line (think of it as the slow line of mighty dreadnoughts aligned at Jutland) being the anvil that protects the fleet and prevent the event of Venator carrier being overrun and also to break ships of the line and starfighter being the hammer, able to cut down critical points like shield and engine to make the enemy fleet break down upon the weight of the destroyers anvil. Obviously I tend to include picket lines of Arquitens/Lancer/Crusader to protect my own ships from a hammer tactic but that's it, a mix of both type of capacity, in 2 types of ships designed to do what they're going to do

The intro of these videos keeps getting more exotic each day...

Empire at War is a real-time strategy game set in Star Wars. The naval space battles are cool as hell because you actually have to build a balanced fleet. Tartan gunships are best at taking out fighters and bombers, Victory and Acclamator cruisers are your frigate defenses, Interdictors are specialist ships that fuck up the enemy fleet, and your Star Destroyers are the big bois that lay the smackdown. With mods, you can get Venators which are pretty great, but the Imperial Dreadnaught is the real fuckin' deal.

Honestly, everything you said made sense. Venators were simply stopped in manufacturing, and the Empire focused on building ISDs. Eventually, the Venator was rendered slowly obsolete as tools and parts made the ships unusable. However, there is nothing to really suggest that the Venator was completely retired, either. The same can be said with the Acclamator and the Arquitens Cruisers which were still being used as well. In the final SW Rebels episode, even the Dreadnoughts were still being used in the Empire, although most likely in a limited support role. Against the Rebel Mon Calamari, it's very likely the Venators would have struggled in battle as the tough shielding would have made the Rebel Cruisers hard to destroy. Most likely, the surviving Venators were simply kept in rear guard duty to help protect other Imperial worlds as the plethora of ISDs were thrown into the frontlines.

I have to admit, one ISD with 2 venators scort combo makes a lot of sense. Enough fighter patrols to keep the rebels away, enough firepower to pacify several star systems at once. But thankfully for the rebels, the imperial navy was too busy back stabbing each other and being consumed by sith A-hole energy and doctrine.

It was nice seeing hints of the...transitional phase in regards to the Imperial Navy. The gradual implementation of the Tarkin Doctrine where the threat of force became a more potent (and cost effective) weapon than force itself. As you mentioned, with no real near peers to fight and the focus more on holding territory and subjugating fixed worlds, the ISD is pound for pound the perfect tool for the job. The "When all you have is a hammer" approach going a long way to quelling resistance and insurgency without firing a shot. Or enacting punitive reprisals against those foolish enough to challenge the Empire's might. So as the Outer Rim sieges wound down, the Venator would gradually be phased out. The introduction of the ISD marking the true final sign that the Republic of old was gone and the Empire now stood in its place.

No, thank you for the video, I never thought about the Venator still being operated in 5 or so BBY

I like the idea of having an Allegiance-class Battlecruiser flanked by two Venators. Seems like a good combo.

I think the biggest problem was that the Empire never successfully created a true successor for the role the Venator fit. There were a bunch of different vessel types that captured parts of the roles the Venator filled but they never quite recreated the mix of strength of the Venator. If the Empire had been able to make a Venator-equivalent that worked with the TIEs and produced them in acceptable quantities to allow for them to be the primary escorts then the rebellion would have been in trouble. Imagine a Venator successor that had half the primary armament but a very good point defense setup combined with a hanger or multiple hangers that had twice or three times the capacity of the ISD combined with the dedicated control facilities similar to the Venator. The amount of both point defense and fighter cover it would bring to a formation would have been staggering and made small battlegroups very well defended against the tactics the Rebels preferred.

The Venators would have made an excellent support vessels while the ISDs act as a capital ship flanking with the Arquitens light cruiser

Or escorts were put in establishment, but never built due to Death Star cost overruns. Kinda how Yamato and Musashi killed all other IJN production for few years.

Love waking up to some Generation Tech. It’s like breakfast cartoons as a kid, but for adults.

The Imperial Star Destroyer is the embodiment of the concept of a "used future" of a military ship built by a civilization in decline. Those present could not build at the same level as those whom came before them. Go back to SWTOR, the military ships then were more flexible, had long range weapons, and the starfighters had energy shields. (The reason the Tie Fighter did not have shields was the Empire was to cheap to have them added.) To make up for this, the Imperial Star Destroyer had more armor put on to it. Keep in mind how much graft was happening during the last days of the Republic and the days of the Empire. The ruling body wanted products produced by the cheapest bidder.

Man, that formation is so sick looking that only needed anti starfighters screeners.

The Rogue Squadron books showed how weak the USD were. 80 concussion missile launchers were enough to get a USD to surrender. Cheap missile launchers bought en masse slapped to thrusters. 3 salvos, like, 20 seconds of fire, was a threat enough to scare a ISD captain

Holy Crabs love how you don't take yourself so seriously - keep up the good work

I watched this entire video did not miss any of the awesome content. Did Allan just sneeze?

i can listen this guy all day

If you want to completely occupy a system, just use an acclimator and a venator, both of which did their jobs better than the ISD

Great video! For escorts I go with some Imperial Light Cruisers too, which you do see in Imperial Fleets in 'Rebels' . As for the Bismarck, well after the successful torpedo strike by the Swordfish on the rudder, allowing for Royal Navy battleships and cruisers to catch up, the 16-inch guns of HMS Rodney put really big holes into the German battleship, craters which still can be seen in the wreck, Rodney even might have pulled off a torpedo hit as the 1920s BB at an underwater battery which did fire off a shot at the Bismarck.

Great video GenTech. Agreed, loved seeing the Imperial Venators.

Man that formation of that fleet using venators as the pawns and imperial 1 as king but was it serving as fleet command meeting star destroyer?

In a nutt shell. The Empire moved towards a more "Standardisation" model. Which meant they could produce mass quantities of the same ship, saving in cost on parts and servicing. Instead of having hundreds of different model ships, each requring variants of different parts. The idea of mass in numbers over quality. Not saying that the ISD werent quality but you get my point. The Emperor was all about projecting power. And having LARGE numbers of devastating ships was his forte. But all the same, all uniform. That was evident in Rise of Skywalker.

The best use we ever see of an ISD is in Rogue One. Showing up at point blank, guns blazing and tearing through anything smaller than it establishing space superiority in seconds. We also see that if caught off guard, a couple ion bombs and a crippled corvette are all that are needed to cripple one ISD in turn.

That was a great combo, but I'm still partial to many of the combinations shown in the TIE fighter and Rebellion games from the 90s- Carracks, Dreadnoughts, Nebulon-B2s, Escort Carriers, Loronar Strike Cruisers, Victory IIs, Interdictors, and a few others from the RPG sourcebooks like the Vindicator, Gladiator, the Lancer, the Tartan even. Then again, I also love the XG-1 Star Wing Assault Gunboat and the GAT-12G Skipray Blastboat, as well as the Assault Transport, so I may be a bit biased by my own nostalgia for the games of my youth. I can argue that they all have their place, more ship types just makes sense for a galaxy as vast and as old as Star Wars.

"alot of people say that, the size of your turbolaser matters alot. but ive always thought its more about, how you USE your turbolaser".💀

Your videos are always such a breath of fresh air!

I always admired the engineering and machines of the Empire ⚙️🖤

I was going to say the reason why they didnt have Venator class around is because of maintenance costs. Those things cost a pretty penny to keep functional and well, the Empire was pretty cheap when it came down to it. A bunch of bean counters that werent interested in spending money on outdated ships that represented the Jedi/Republic.

Absolutely love the new setting!

Venator was peak design and no one can change me otherwise ❤

Love the intro for this video man

Great content as always

That thumbnail looks like a fleet of sharks

The samurai has entered the room.

To be fair, other warships would also cover the ISD's lack of space for starfighters. From Escort Carriers to Acclamators and Victory-2s, other warships could carry starfighters just as well as an ISD. A single Acclamator can carry 80 LAAT gunships, just imagine how many TIEs it can carry. The Storm Commandos even got their own version of an Escort Carrier that was smaller and more versatile than an ISD, but it can also throw TIEs at you like one.

I think that A New Hope said it best when they were talking about the attack on the Death Star. "The Empire doesn’t consider one-man fighters to be much of a threat."

In last jedi . There were fighters the captain didn't launch quickly enough and thier were 3 batlecruiser escorts , she should have been completely protected, And even with the delay only one ship got into fireing position

My friend, i love your channel. Watch it all the time. Need to say something about something you said in this video. You mentioned the Death Star and how Tarkin basically ignored any threats. Well Tarkin was not worried about anything being a danger to the Death Star, not just because of his hubris. He had been in on the design of this project after he stole the credit from Director Krennick. No one could have figured out until it was in battle and the Imperials analyzed the attack runs from the cursed rebels. Up until that point Tarkin and Admiral Motti were very confident in the battle station. When Tarkin was told of the danger he thought they had little chance of hitting that small port before he blew up the rebel stronghold on yavin. Had i been Tarkin, i would have shot the gas planet and let that blast destroy yavin. Now onto the ISDs. Those capital ships were designed to take on multiple combatants at a time. They were pretty indestructable. Yet they showed that differently in the movies so the damn cursed rebels could win. One HUGE example, there us no way possible that the SSD Executor after losing its main bridge would have just keeled over and crashed into the Death Star. The secondary Battle Bridge, if you will, would have taken over immediately and would have moved the ship away from the battle. Some people are saying " well the engines were being attacked and were in the process of blowing up" WRONG. The Executors engines were also protected by a force shield, both particle and ray shield. Yes there were areas that could have been attacked near the engines, but the ship could have popped into Hyperspace, with a captain calling a general retreat. The shield generators up on the bridge wings, totally stupid. Too easy for any ship or asteroid to crash into. They were heavily protected by multiple shields of their own. That damn crash would have just skirted across the shield leaving the bridge fully protected. Now one of my biggest pet peeves. Hans Imperial Llamda class shuttle. Its crew compliment was around 25 plus pilots. So where did allnof those other damn rebels come from on the planet???????????????? If the Imperials had to lower the shields for han to take the shuttle down to Endor, then where did the extra rebels come from? A legion of stormtroopers totals 14,000 troops including troopers, officers, logistics, medics, etc, etc. So how in the hell did 25 rebels and a bunch of damn teddy bears succeed in blowing up the shield generator. Not possible. George Lucas you screŵd up the writing here.

The final episode of Bad Batch and the 2nd episode of Tales of the Empire represent a transition period for the Imperial Navy shifting from Republic to Imperial naval doctrine. New Imperial Star Destroyers escorted by Venator Star Destroyers. V-Wings were in use till they got the TIE production lines fully started.

3:47 Limitation in resources, the vast size of space for patrol or field of operations for capitol ships, chance of combat, and an officer’s own arrogance are all elements that are factored into deciding if an escort is necessary or not.

The reason why this in transition period of the empire, sees their fleet be so effective and badass is because it is the fleet that the republic was supposed to have by the end of the clone wars. An all arms fleet of carriers: such as venators, backed up by missile boats: victory class destroyers, battleships in the imperator renamed imperial class destroyers and backed up by effective fleet of multiple escorts and fighters. Allowing it to patrol and protect all of its territory and meet any threat that might crop off and eventually the threat of the rebel alliance if it had been kept as it was for entirety of the empire's reign.

great entrance!

The Venator make sense as escort vessels for the ISD. It's almost like the vessels were meant to work together before Tarkin had his "bright" idea for battle doctrine. Just imagine how potent these fleets could have been if they'd been left mixed as they were. The only additions needed would have been some Acclimator groups as, essentially, larger heavy bombers/mobile bases. Something akin to the Alkesh in use.

Just a reminder, the ISD I carried 72 fighter craft. That’s about on par with a Nimitz class super carrier. I truly think it’s a case of captains not knowing how to utilize their fighter wings and the pilots not working together to fight an enemy.

What would be cool is if thawn uses both venators and star destroyers the next time we see him

"Do refrain from intercepting an enemy whose banners are in perfect order, do refrain from attacking an army drawn up in calm and confident array: -this is the art of studying circumstances. It is a military law not to advance uphill against the enemy, nor to oppose him when he comes downhill." -Sun Tzu. Personally, I'd like the ultimate Combo, Combine the size of the Imp Star destroyer with the Venator, Then you can tack on more guns but keep that nice fighter compliment. Then make the victory class with those side missile bays the same size as an Imp SD and then combine it with the landing gear and storage as a acclamator and bada bing you get a fleet of heavy assault aircraft carriers with Victory class battleships that also work as dropships for the army.

11:30 And technological advances in blaster technology and shield systems eventually caused those CW-era tech to become obsolete. Like Cold-war era weaponry used in modern times.

What I think happened is the mixed fleet arrangement was indeed a thing for a while, however Escorts perform the job of taking fire away from the Primary Capital ship, meaning they were destroyed first during the engagement leaving only the Star Destroyer and because of Tarkin, they were simply never replaced.

5 Venator fleets for every 1 star destroyer. Venator starfighters for patrolling and anti-capital ship bombing runs, and star destroyers for orbital bombardment.

5:00 What's more likely is cost cutting and power management... City sized blasters are not power efficent and the ship in battle is meant to constantly be shooting them so it likely can't shot point defense blasters.

2:20 'just imagine what these massive artillery towers could do' *recalls episode shown on screen where multiple blasts land a foot away from Kanan and don't even faze him*

and he still missed the point of everyone prior to WW2 thinking WW1 was going to be another Battleship vs Battleship war, hence why they made so many, not realizing were History was heading towards

It would be really cool to see if in Ahsoka season 2 or the Dave Filoni stand-alone movie Thrawn manages to find a few Venators and fix them up to compliment his fleet. The Imperial Remnant is already scrounging off whatever scraps they can find as it is, so Thrawn could turn all the barely flying junk heaps the remnant has into a formidable tactical force.

What's impressive is the Empire had the Executor and at least three Imperial II-class star destroyers present at Hoth. They were not able to break the shields of the Rebel base on Hoth.

0:38 lmao image if they got rouge oned by the star destroyer right there

Hey Allen at 4:30 you say its not about the size of your turbo laser, but more how you use it. Trust me guys, bigger or smaller your...closest ally...has a preferred or ideal size for turbo laser compatibility. Additionally, you never want to hear about your rival having a larger turbo laser than you, regardless of what your ally's preferences are.

25,000 is legends number.

5:07 The design is entirely Sith-inspired with the triangle shape and the emphasis on the attack with little consideration for defense of any lives in pursuit of the ship’s crew’s goals.

I’m actually curious about how the Imperial navy doctrine would be during the transition period between the Republic and Imperial navy like the fleet composition and stuff like that

If you look at at the design in the cutaway view, and keep in mind that the planets of the Mid and Outer Rim are sparsely populated (based on what we see in the films and TV shows), you begin to see the Imperial Star Destroyer wasn't intended to be a capital combat ship. Its a mobile repression unit. From that point of view a wing TIE fighters, a couple of AT-ATs and 9,700 Stormtroopers would probably be enough to cow a population. If not, then I imagine the Star Destroyer pointing its broadside at your population centers would end your defiance pretty quickly, even if your cities are ray shielded.

Don't the ISD 1 and 2 have modular Garrisons for setting up forward command centers in a few hours

Hello dude! Happy Monday.

One of my favorite fleet or attack force is the one shown in the beginning of Star Wars squadron. Like it was a proper fleet made up of all imperial assets properly.

1 ISD supported with several Venators to provide fighter cover

i loved that shot with the 4 venator and isd i asume the empire still would have some venator arround as part of a defence fleet i am guessing that scene take place a few years before rebels since thrawn is only an admiral

More about the Empire went into the big gun approach and that is the system that they adopted as technically speaking no one in the Extended Universe had true access to warships only civilian ships with guns installed and the original Rebel fleet was composed of civilian ships, outdated Old Republic and CIS warships they salvage along what they stole from the Empire. Eventually they gained actual warships from an ally that had the manufacturing capabilities to make actual warships. Now in Cannon, they are introducing planetary defense warships that I find outrageous that the Empire would allow those planets have them or produce them.

The beginning of the video combined with the title made me a little affraid we were about to see a sword wrapped in some paper.

I'd say what the Imperial Navy should have done was create a Venator-style carrier designed with TIE fighters in mind. I can imagine Thrawn seeing the advantages of such an escort ship, especially one equipped with TIE Defenders.

Also, I'd hardly call this the peak of the Empire's naval power. I can imagine a couple of Mon Calamari Cruisers, some old fighters, and some Corellian Corvettes serving as anti-fighter screens would devastate an ISD and its Venator escorts. The Mon Cal cruisers would gang up on the lone ISD, the Corellian Corvettes would mow down the masses of fighters unleashed by the Venators, and some old-ass Y-Wings can blow holes on those Venators while the lone ISD is sunk by the Mon Calamari Cruisers. Now if you have three ISDs, that's a different picture. They'd be able to match the Mon Cal Cruisers in battle, maybe even destroy them. Two of the ISDs would engage the Mon Calamari Cruisers and hold them off, their thick armor and shields making it hard for the Y-Wings and other fighters to even damage them, while the third ISD annihilates the Corellian Corvettes with its superior firepower and tractor beam. Once that's done and the corvettes are gone, they'll release their TIE Fighters to mop up the enemy fighters while the TIE Bombers and the ISD that was fighting the corvettes would turn to join its brethren in destroying the Mon Calamari cruisers. Once again, Alan, there is a method to the Emperor's madness. Question his designs if you must, but they worked. There is a reason why the Rebellion spent most of the Galactic Civil War in hiding, and why elite groups like Rogue Squadron would only operate for a few minutes before leaving, since they know that if they stay too long, ISD reinforcements will appear in droves, and they'll have to retreat. Most of the ISDs were destroyed in the civil war between Imperial factions when they had a disagreement of opinion on who should succeed Palpatine; one of the New Republic historians even estimated that if the Grand Admirals agreed on joining forces against the Alliance after Endor, the New Republic would've been strangled in its crib before it was born.

The Empire in SW is similar in some ways to 40K, send in millions of men in massive ground campaigns. But then you look at the space fleets and even the Imperium in 40K uses mainly mixed fleets(you'd think 40K would be the setting guilty of using only the BIGGEST ships).

The Venator was made to fight a war, the Empire Class was made to not fight at all, they were supposed to look scary on paper, so they had ridiculous amounts of ridiculously oversized guns. They were meant to scare the regular Joes of the galaxy into submission, which also worked fairly well. And in certain situations they also were competent, as the ridiculously oversized guns weren't made of cardboard after all.

This is why the Secutor is my favorite Star Destroyer.

There is also the question if a captain from the Imperial Academy could even use a Venator the right way. Given, Imperial doctrine was simple, easy to understand and relied on following orders. A captain of a Venator doesn't have the time to wait for orders, because an enemy might close in before they arrive and a flotilla or fleet commander might use a Venator in his fleet like he would a Star Destroyer. This becomes even more a problem in the time before the Rebellion became more effective, With no enemy to fight, Venator's might have been give to captains fresh from the academy, went on patrol duty, intercepting smugglers and hunting pirates. Duties the Venator doesn't use much of it's fighter complement for. When the Rebellion became more effective, the pilots might have lost their edge if the Venator's even had their full fighter complement any more and it hadn't been cut down because they weren't using them and/or for budget reasons.

"You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon? It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. I've outrun Imperial starships, not the local bulk-cruisers, mind you. I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now." - Han Solo. Yes, the Empire had smaller class ships.

Hmm what irks me if a star destroyer enters a planets atmosphere should there be giant storms on the planet?

How is this up at 4 am

Because the venarators were way more expensive to operate as they had hundreds of very complex fighters as opposed to imps standard 72 ties and 12 tie bombers which were very simple ships just guns and engines with no shields or hyperdrives. Plus they lacked the ability to deploy mobile garrison bases plus new walker designs

Thank you Sensei! May I have another?

You were wrong

You actually brought up a flaw in the Star Destroyers without realizing it… It was designed for broadside barrages. In a straight up fight, that would be an absolutely tragic idea. Look at the Battle of Jutland or literally any other naval battle. Broadsides just give your enemy more to shoot at. Ideally, the firepower of a SD would be forward facing to utilize the geometry of the hull, turning it into a space Dorito of death, while minimizing its target profile. Defensive weapons would line the midline of the hull and stretch the length of it, and center around the control tower (the IJN Yamato has a great example of this since the gun emplacements are very distinct from the super structure).

If Thrawn joined in the 1st year of the Imperial era, he would have likely taken a bunch of these Venators to compliment his fight

The “Cruiser” that can dock on the bottom is more of a corvette. Cruisers are still capital ships and were the top tier naval vessels before the HMS Dreadnaut

It's over anakin we have the high ground ! (said the tactical droid)

before i saw these 2 shows, bad batch and tales of the empire, i had no idea the ISD was so much larger than the Venator.

Who knew combined arms warfare would have a place in Star wars

Long live the empire

Turbolasers are cheaper than smart munitions like torpedos or missiles and great for orbital bombardment, or overwhelming smaller ships. However at a certain point a squadron of starfighters can overwhelm a star destroyer. The biggest flaw with the star destroyer is how expensive and crew intensive they are. If the star destroyer was used as a supporting ship rather than a mainline force projector the empire would be much better. Less star destroyers but more advanced starfighters seem like a better option. Also I understand why having no point defense weapons was because of using fighters for point defense, but when you're fighting only a handful of pirate starfighters without torpedos why not just use laser canons protected by capital ship shields and keep your pilots alive. That way your pilots are only deployed when a larger enemy presents itself or if the laser cannons don't work initially. It's always better to have options. I also think remote piloted tie fighters would be great in policing and short range interception against weaker enemies that don't have jamming capabilities. If your lasers don't work deploy your remote fighters. If your remote fighters don't work use tie defenders. Save your torpedos, missiles, ships, and pilots when you can so that they are there when you really need them. Tie-defenders and bombers are a much cheaper way to destroy your enemies in space, and star destroyers are a much cheaper way to bombard a planet. However once the republic became the empire any hope of a smart military doctrine was gone. Imagine if palpatine was actually just a populist leader who only accepted power to help. No clone wars plot for power palpatine fixes corruption in the senate and creates a military to fight crime and slavery and defend against alien invasion. Rather than a "Galactic Empire" palpatine creates a "Galactic Alliance" with separatist and neutral worlds allowing them freedom from the republic senate but offers them protection. No need for clones we skip right to the creation of the "Republic Defense Force" to fight alongside other militaries in the galactic alliance. This consists of the Defense Fleet & Republic Marines, special forces, the judicial fleet acting as a coast guard, the starfighter corps consisting of long range starfighters, and the ground forces consisting of independent planetary defense forces training together ready to become a "Grand Army" during wartime. Starting at the law enforcement level I think a ship like the VCX-100 would be perfect for patrolling. You could even attach up to 3 starfighters to it and it was a more maneuverable ship than the gozanti. The gozanti was made by the same company but required more crew, was slower, and less well armed. For cargo transport their were better options too such as the hammerhead corvette, gr75, or larger ships. We could scale up law enforcement to the imperial light cruisers, hammerhead corvettes, and nebulon-b and pelta frigates for anti-piracy, search and rescue, and medical support. (All ships the empire controlled the manufacturers of but chose not to use, or use very little). For local defense of systems quasar carriers, light cruisers, and nebulon-bs, with remote ties and a handful of tie defenders and bombers would make quick work of pirates and even most rebel hit and runs. Add to important systems interdictor cruisers and you render hit and runs useless. For actual naval maneuver fleets venators escorted by the prior mentioned support ships could do well on its own to project power in most areas. Invasion fleets could include an ISD, an acclamator, and a venator with tie-strykers and bombers. Interdictors could be attached to either of these fleets when needed, and rather than a death star a handful of onager star destroyers could be used to break planetary shields an ISD could not. Also by not wasting resources on death stars the empire could have made on stealth ships like the IPV-C2 we saw in he clone wars and Tie phantom stealth tie fighter more common. The empire knew it couldn't be everywhere but wasted even more resources thinking "Scaring" people will work rather than focus on intelligence and only attacking when needed. The empire had the ships it needed, but it's strategy resulted in the wrong proportions of these ships to each other and resources focused in the wrong places.

El Bueno Episode from Generation Tech 🙂