"You'll fight me, but I'll be the one who leaves alive"

The Empire: "Turbolasers need a cooldown time, better mount eight turrets of octuple cannons." The Hapans: "So, what if we made the *entire battlecruiser* into a rotary cannon?"

It’s absolutely wild how important the Hapans are, especially for coming from such a wacky novel. Honestly, the whole novel is one of the most important

The Hapans were such an interesting idea: a multi-system star nation encompassing the equivalent of a sector that was a member of the Galactic Republic, yet held enough autonomy to endure the establishment of the Galactic Empire. But other than it, Corporate Space, and Hutt Space, there weren't many equivalents to it.

This and the Victory-class are both deserving of screen time. They're so well known in the EU that it's stupid not to give some fanservice by just including them..

Interesting fact, the Hapan turbolasers were never mentioned as being slower in their introduction, instead implying that they effectively fired 3x faster than their imperial counterparts. The slower rate of fire was added later in an RPG book.

Speaking of Hapan Battle Dragons, one of the most underrated starfighters is the Miy'til class starfighter which is a starfighter used by hapans capable of reaching an incredible speed of 160 MGLT.

I love this ship, it looks so different from basically anything else in sci-fi. Also, Battle Dragon is the only name for a ship class cooler than Star Destroyer.

Honestly, the ship design just gives me a lot of Leonardo Da Vinci but if it was futuristic vibes

Hey man that's a great musical frog voice. Gotta love the Hapans, all their designs are either cool or interesting or both, different and their own thing but not especially weird, and they get some decent lore and development. Feels like the faction always got treated with a fair amount of care and attention.

Smoking recreationally implies the existence of competitive smoking. I always found the Battle Dragons to be so close to what I want but just barely missing the mark. You could slap more weapons on that thing for some incredible overlapping fields of fire. It's a similar disappointment to the Resurgent class star destroyer, More surface area for more forward facing firepower. That's just my personal nitpicks, though, the design's still very unique and memorable. Get well soon, Eck!

So stoked for this, the Hapan are my favourite faction within the Star Wars universe by far, and the Battle Dragon is just plain awesome.

*sees thumbnail* Ah, I see Eck is going on about the Hapan Battle Dragon again.

I’m loving the snarky-ness of your titles and content. It brings a breath of fresh air to your channel. Keep it up and stay snarky!

I’ve always found the Hapans super interesting and I’d love to see a hapan jedi. The battle dragon is also one of my favourite ships.

Having most of the guns on the battle dragon be on that rotating belt seems like it could be a liability as much as an advantage. That belt takes one shot, and it’s not moving anymore.

I already know about the Batlle Dragon but I still want to fight, name a time and place Eck

I was upset when I learned the Hapan Battle Dragon the Nova cruiser were flipped. The Nova *looks* like a dragon, and the Battle Dragon looks a bit like a nova. Really cool ships though.

I love the Battle Dragons, and didn’t Darth Krayt have his own version?

I recall that idea from like the 1990s ... I think in the original Star Wars RPG material. The basic idea was that their main weapons had 1/3 the rate of fire of the others, but they rotated the guns to fire one third of them at a time. However, at the time I was also an avid Star Fleet Battles player, and the basic idea didn't make sense tactically to me. In SFB, there are numerous weapons that take multiple turns to recharge, but you never use them piecemeal. Instead, you take advantage of the multi-turn recharge to get in a big powerful attack with all main weapons at once, and then use the recharging turns to more freely maneuver (such as facing less damaged shields toward the enemy).

One of my favorite ships from legends. In swarms, they are beasts, thus the name, and following a trend of Hapan inspiration from marine and sea life, they have a clamshell appearance. A big reason we see them so much is because eventually Ben Solo marries into the royal family.

The Courtship of Princess Leia is interesting not only as a novel but as the impact it had on the EU. From the X-Wing novels to any time the hapans show up, it all started there.

Hapes gave me one of my favourite EU characters, Tenel Ka. Long may she reign.

The thumbnail was the first time I verbally said “what” in response to a notification. Then you said it was a Hapan design, and everything made sense.

So if the outside edge rotates does that mean if you replaced the guns with big metal teeth you'd have a giant chainsaw ship?

Several notes of correction here, firstly, the task force sent into Hapes led by Grand Admiral Teshik(the passage you quote from Essential Guide to Warfare) was sent there on a deliberate suicide mission with inadequate forces as a means of punishing Teshik for an earlier failure, it was never intended to actually succeed in any way. Secondly, the Star Destroyers captured by the Hapans are not from coordinated efforts by the Empire to take the Cluster, but from Imperials attacking the Consortium after Endor, during the Imperial fragmentation, since we have no records of officially sanctioned Loyalist, Zsinj or Greater Maldrood(the main Imperial factions immediately bordering the Hapans) we can relegate these to isolated attempts by forces lacking any real support from a major faction on their incursions, thus their capture.(This was a common enough occurrence after Endor that we have entire fleets lost this way) Had the Empire wished to crush the Hapans, there's no doubt at all that they could have done so, The Queen Mother openly states as much in Courtship of Princess Leia to Isolder. The Essential Guide for Warfare specifically mentions that it was a mystery to most of the Imperial High Command why the Hapes Consortium was left alone, but it is hinted at that they were left as an example of the dangers of isolationism by the Emperor, but more likely it is because there was also no real need to expend the effort to crush them since they were hostile to all outsiders and didn't trade or interfere with the Empire's business outside their borders, they effectively denied their territory to any opponents of the Empire and so in a very real way, freed up Imperial forces to operate elsewhere.

5:58 Gotta love the Dreadnaught Class casually photo bombing a video about Battle Dragons 👌

Hapes is a delight, and I enjoy whenever it comes up in media (I'm excited for the day Corey finally does a video about Hapes' FIRST force tradition, the Millinarians). Designing the warships for EAWX was a blast and a highlight of working on the mod. :D The lore around them, and the Battledragon in particular is pretty muddled. The team nearly split over figuring out the stats for the vessel. Alot of it comes from RPG mechanics, which are more open to interpretation. For example, both the RCR and SAGA have the BD with defensive stats equivalent to the ISD2. Given the amount of battle damage described in the books for Hapan vessels, one way to look at them is being extra tanky vessels. On the other hand, they are small vessels, and they break convention of larger=sturdier/more powerful. Another RPG game mechanic muddling is that Hapan turbolaser's are never described as inaccurate (only limited in targets) or take longer to recharge. This started as a mechanic in the WEG RPG to avoid 40+weapons aimed at players or opponents since they didn't have size penalties like larger Imperial ships. These mechanics are never mentioned again, and instead are replaced by the slow firing rate of the RCR (Firing once per 3 turns). SAGA, which simplified the number of weapons that had to be dealt with at the table into 'batteries', completely did away with all of that for a single firing battery attack. Fascinating to work with, but not something you want on every Hapan space unit. Eventually, I rationallized the mechanics as if they had larger-than-standard power generators, and the problem with the weapons were like a high-end graphics card inside a small laptop chasis-there's not really a good way to cool it with the space you have if you're deadset on firing what is essentially over-charged shots for the weapon battery. These are things concept artists have to think about when you're filling in the faction roster and making fanon and [legends] canon work seamlessly next to each other. Not to mention the lore aspect was our Exploration gameplay element to some extent, so conveying culture and doctrine through gameplay took center stage. Which is how they developed their current glass-canon gameplay. Hapes has a "First pass" doctrine and utilized walls of firepower while also being exceptionally defensive turtles-which became their space units' general offensive capabilities and their terrifying quick-to-build battle stations respectfully. It's fun, but not fully supported by the lore (see BD being closer to ISD2 in tankiness). Some of the proposed plans for how to handle the Battledragon in particular, since they are terrifying to face and a great change of gameplay pace, included Battledragons being resources as nobles could be called to arms or influenced-so they would have been like marshalling knights and not something 'built' in the traditional sense. And loosing one would be like that Risk player building up for several turns loosing one of their pieces because replacing them would become a real hurdle. Encouraging the player to horde and be careful with them. But that was complicated and fell by the wayside for other ideas, eventually becoming the longer ship build times (which are still much nicer than the ~120sec/3wk build times I originally proposed). They were a delight of a faction to work on and design for, and some of the most fun in game design I've ever had. :D One of the comments below I saw also described the ship as being similar to fan conceptions of the Nebula. While doing the research, one of the 'theories' that started to form in my mind was that was on the other side of the NR deal for weapons tech: Ion weapons and compactization technology and techniques in other areas. So yes, I'm glad that was picked up on. I kept looking at that going 'this almost seems intentional....' and ended up using the Nebula as a baseline stand in (since we didn't have BD stats finalized for a long time) for where proposed ships would fall in the roster and gameplay composition for the faction. By and large, I found the best way to understand hapan technology lore when you're trying to make sense of it is to think of them as more alien tech than the standard galaxy. I think that where where a lot of folks stumble with their lore. Their tech development are much closer to the Mon Cal and Chiss than most realize (even being able to adapt the technology of Mon Cal shielding to Novas), and not as close to typical galactic conventions. On a final note, I've always wondered what it was in the SWTOR-ish era (because it's just after that general window in time) that causes their isolation. It's fun speculation but, alas, will have to remain such.

All right, then, square up! Come on, Doge Boi, let's throw hands, I ain't afraid to go back to the spice mines!

I love the battle dragon definitely one of my favorites

These things are OP in Thrawn's Revenge. Very fragile as they've not got any hardpoints, but with a little micro they can absolutely shred enemy ships that should on paper be far stronger. These battle dragons are what people wish the Nebulae class star destroyers were.

The Hapes Consortium: Interesting lore, extremely unfun to fight in Thrawn's Revenge

These titles are great gives me a chuckle every time i check your channel

I’d be honored to fight you!

The Battle Dragon looked dumb as hell to middle school me, but I loved the Nova class. Then as I've grown up this ship has become an unironic favorite. It is such a neat and well thought out design, especially for that era of Star Wars ship design.

I'll learn the lore and then fight you on Twitter. our battle will be legendary

Once I saw the title. I was like I will 😅

i won’t learn the lore, i refuse

Video idea: The Separatist Droid Army vs Skynet with its force of terminators. Who would win & why

Good video. Love seeing 'doggy time' at the end. Thanks again.

One thing I never understood, If the Hapans could capture Star Destroyers why didn't they reverse engineer the faster firing Imperial weapons from the ships they captured?

Omg ive been interested with these ships thanks for making this vid 🙏

I love the creative titles of these videos.

“I took up smoking recreationaly” 😂😂😂😂

I freaking LOVE the battle dragon, and the Hapans as a whole

Remind me that time in Empire at War AOTR in the game mode where you add to expand yourserlf. I was holding Kessel and the Hapes came with 93 cruisers and 25 battledragons against a tier 3 space stations, 2 galons and a small defense fleet. The sheer rate of fire of those battledragons where really something to behold and not to underestimate. I have push them back after losing 60 cruisers and 17 battledragons and half of my defenses. A core gaming memory

I've had the Essential vehicle guide for years now and still go back and read it.

Years ago when I was an AFOL (Adult Fan Of Lego), and making my own Mocs. I learnt about the Haps Contortion Battle Dragons and was intrigued to make Lego models that were in scale to that large official release of the Star Destroyer. Plus there seemed to be absolutely no other fan made ones of this particular ship. Used LDD to design both versions with the differing saucer shape in the fan media. However, when it came to building the one with the more round saucer configuration, LDD did not accommodate for weight distribution as the upper saucer kept tilting forward. And I had to completely redesign the mid structure to accommodate the upper saucer.

It's a really cool and interesting ship, but from above I cannot unsee it as looking like the Enterprise-D bridge dome macro-sized and with guns haha

Amazing video love it

Had to pause the video after 10 seconds because I was laughing too hard! Oh, and the rest of the video was good too. Keep up the good work, Ecks!

I’ve never learned the lore. However, my first sighting and encounter of them were in some mod of Star Wars: Empire At War. After watching my roommate playing that game for a year, I decided to buy it as well, and went straight to the mod as my first playing experience. As the Greater Maldrood, I got my fleet’s ass handed to me against a huge swarm of those ships.

I've read on that ship during the Battle of Dathomir against Warlord Zsinj and later see on a mod too. They look very interesting including their name

Love this, Courtship was one of my favorite novels growing up, Star Wars or not, and this ship always sounded so cool and the design is really different than anything else in SW. Get well soon Eck 🙏

It looks kinda silly, but I like that it stands out at least. I thought it wad a Star Trek ship from the thumbnail.

Eckie is a stoner now. Welcome to the gang

Watched and thumbs up for the title alone!

Imagine if a gatling-gun would rotate the barrels like this instead of the way it works, haha

Never have I been more compelled to watch a video more by its title than this one.

The thing that really makes me dig the depiction of the Hapans is not just that their technology lags in certain areas but outpaced the rest of the galaxy in others (e.g. their triple ion cannons were point defense death machines that made a Lancer's quad-lasers jealous) or in some cases even go in different directions entirely. The writers then took that technological divergence and had the Hapans design their ships to compensate for the weaknesses of their technology (if we have three times as many guns the one-third fire rate doesn't matter if we can point them at the target in rapid succession) and in a way that could be argued to reflect their culture. When you're a highly stratified monarchy with soldiers arrayed to support the rulers you'd likely reflexively think leadership is extremely top down and targeting a single command point for swift elimination would cripple an enemy more that dealing with an array of weaker supports all around you.

Calm down you dont need to fight me, but if you do i hope youll fight ship to ship

Hey you finally did a video on the Cylon Basestar :D

Lore: it's OP as fuck

Speak of the dragon and it appears! Also the reason for the shafts connecting the upper and lower hull is that the rotating gun placements could spin out excess water from salad greens.

i remember these from the first edition of the essential guide to vehicles/starships.

Done LEGO design streams of this, the Miy'til fighter and the Nova-class. All really fun designs.

I love the bird of novas design so much

On one hand, I would love to learn about this ships lore. On the other hand, if I don't, I will get to meet Eck because he will have to fight me.

The intro is gold 😂😂

Dude, I had forgotten all about this ship. I've always wanted to see the rotation of the blasters.

The hapan turbo lasers were improved during the lost tribe of the sith and abeloth crisis after the second galactic Civil War. Also Jason's baby mama was a felow jedi and later queen mother of the hapan consortium

I'd love to see a Hapan Battle Dragon upgraded with Mon Cala shields and targeting computers. It would take an all-ready powerful ship and make it nigh unstoppable.

Hapes Battle Dragons seem like they are inspired by the saucer sections of Star Trek ships. Heck it even looks like the bridge is in the same place.

These things aesthetically remind me of the race track on Ord Ibanna from Star Wars Ep1 Racer. Like I legit had to go back and check because I was certain one of these was raced around but.. no, they just both featured a lot of those open spaces with semi-vertical bracing and suspension parts. (Never read of the EU books so I wasn't familiar with these otherwise.) Very interesting and unique design!

Really got me there with that intro joke and simpsons clip

I struggle to think of another faction in Star Wars that punches above its weight as hard as the Hapens do. Cheers Eck! Get some hot water with lemon down you, soothe your poor throat.

Hope you get better soon 🙏

Definitely one of the more interesting non-aligned (non-Empire and non-Alliance/New Republic) ships.

That intro is golden

I love the design of the hapen ships it reminds me of ancient space ship

“I decided to take up smoking recreationally” that’s the kind of honesty that you won’t find on other Star Wars KZfaqrs

Not going to lie, when I saw the title I was only mildly curious. Then the thumbnail loaded and I immediately exclaimed "Oh shit, it's those things!" And I immediately proceeded to watch. And I'm delighted to have learned more, I don't remember the old book I had explaining that it could create mass shadows, imagine having that capability in every ship of one of your most used classes... Great stuff. I would love to see a scene or some game where the rotating weaponry was actually featured, that deserves proper presentation.

The second I saw the thumbnail, I was like "That's a Battle Dragon! Ohh, this is gonna be GOOD!!"

I would love to hear about the new chiss ships and weapons! I loved how different they were!

The hapan support ships, I didn’t catch their name, but they remind me of Klingon bird of prey ships.

Always loved the courtship of princess leia , great stories in it, I would love if Lucas himself financed wrote produced an adaption of it, maybe a duology to keep it all plus extras

The Hapes Consortium(spelling?) was great. The Courtship of Princess Leia was one of my favorite books. Playing to win a planet in a Sabacc game is so cool. It sets the ground work for so much of the "Legends" universe.

This ship has always reminded me of a Leonardo Da Vinci designed weapon system. You know that weird tank with canons all around it. I think it was the same concept, shoot one, turn the tank, shoot the next one and so on.

It give me Base Star vibes the way the two plates meet, so I guess a Base Plate then.

The Battle Dragon is one of my favorite designs in sci-fi. It’s a very clever way to overcome its disadvantages, albeit a vulnerable one (disable the rotation system and that’s it).

I loved the Hapan Battledragons in legends. The Hapans were so underutilized in EU, isolationist space pirates turned government. So cool.

I watched the video on mute captions off. Fight me ladder-man.

I remember thinking they were a derpy design with an obvious weak point (the neck of the hourglass), but loved the uniqueness of the design and how they used design to overcome technical limitations.

Shout out to the essential guide to vehicles and vessels!!

0:33 Spock: "A Bird of Prey" Chekov: "In Star Wars!?!?!"

That title is beautiful

6:51 - "a Hapan woman" is certainly an interesting way to refer to the Queen, I'll give you that.

I still can't believe you liked _Courtship._ "Kiss my wookiee" is the jump the shark moment for the Expanded Universe. Also, is it really Hapes as in "Apes?" I thought it was Hay-Peez, like the Pleiades (hapans like pleiadians, etc), but I don't watch Star Wars TV shows so for all I know it was written into Rebels or Bad Batch something. And, like, Hapes wouldn't really reduce to Hapan, unless it was a plural of "Hape," which I'm pretty sure isn't a thing or a famous name or anything.

Have you done a video on the ships of the Corporate Sector's fleets?

I like it. It's visually distinct from imperial or mon cal or correllian stuff, but it still fits with the setting. It's different enough to be memorable but still looks like it belongs in Star Wars