Not gonna lie read the title as feet for a second.

I had always just assumed that Thrawn kept the exact number of ships he needed to achieve maximal effect and sent the rest back to hold down the fort because he recognized that other commanders relied on numbers to be effective. I've always quite appreciated how the trilogy demonstrated the potential power and versatility of an ISD by only having one or two of them in most engagements yet still handling the task at hand. Of course, Zahn's intention was probably to show exactly this in the hands of a good commander, but it's always been a high point of my Star Wars experience.

My impression always was that Thrawn operated quite deep within NR territory considering he attacks worlds like Bilbringi that are on the other side of the galaxy compared to his territory. The actual "frontlines" at the border probably took up most imperial and NR ressources while Thrawn was jumping around with his ISDs

One minor correction, there is some hint of Imperial division and disunity even within the Thrawn Trilogy novels with Fey'lya's dismissal of Thrawn as a Grand Admiral when he mentions it is most likely a self-promoted Moff or someone who just assumed the title to draw support, rather than a genuine article. There's also the power grab C'baoth attempts in The Last Command with Pellaeon mentioning that there's a need to remind the rank and file(he particularly mentions the young recruits) that Thrawn, not C'baoth is in charge. It's minimal, granted but it is there.

OH I'd had the idea that the Reaper was actually En-route to Bilbringi but he'd never actually TOLD Thrawn or Pellaeon that. (Or maybe Thrawn had been told and that's why he was insistent he could recover if he held out a little longer. He just didn't tell Pellaeon because he liked wowing him.)

Thrawn was a tactical genius, he genuinely was playing chess with half the pieces and still almost won.

I always thought the later worldbuilding retroactively 'fixing' issues with the older EU works was a masterclass. This 'arc-welding' makes it sound very much like the Chinese warlord period which this is all based on, with small but motivated groups able to out-maenouvre the jealous, scared status-quo loving warlords.

I love the digital fleets you put together!

I thought Thrawn had a few simultaneous raids that were at least 24 ISDs in flotillas of 2-6.

Considering some Warlords backed Thrawn I always was under the impression of he had relied on Vasslization, especially given the Cuitric Hegemony and Corellian Sector Lent some support to him.

Was the Imperial Fleet was massive on paper, but it is absolutely tiny in the controlling of a entire Galaxy, as a twenty five thousand star destroyers and assistance crafts like cruisers and frigates were too few.

I always assumed that Thrawn used the bulk of the Empire's fleet to occupy and secure conquered lands, so his offensive fleet, backed up with Battle Meditation, needed only a small but elite force to push the New Republic back.

You know I was just thinking of how Thrawn has the same "Last of the Romans" mythos as Flavius Aetius (or Belisarius) surrounding him.

Zahn's books remain the only sequels I accept.

Thrawn probably also found it poetic to use rebel tactics against the New Republic small numbers hit and run on worlds where they were needed just like the Rebel alliance did to the Empire

Thrawns small scale fleet was, at first, mostly to do with manpower, I believe. Also that He didn't need to rely on overwhelming numbers to achieve his tactical goals. His encounter with the at the start of HttE showed that.

It is a bit odd that Thrawn does offhandedly mention a Bespin Garrison, but the Atlas has Bespin on the far side of the deep core from him, so it would have to be some sort of undercover garrison. Then again Sluis is ALSO over on that side of the galaxy, and he had major offensives in that area,.I guess he had routes through the Deep Core, but that was Palpatine's stomping grounds and he wouldn't want Thrawn getting too much of a whiff of what he was building up.

I really love that the fact that the Thrawn's Trilogy is turned into an RTS Game from what were originally books, and we are getting essentially Lore Updates from Corey and his team that develop Thrawn's Revenge. Like how Warcraft is an RTS Series and they release books, but only in reverse lmao XD Like 90% of my Star Wars Lore, I've only known the Thrawn Trilogy through the games only. And to see and hear this awesome lore is just really nice :D

Your astrography videos are always a treat, theybseem like they might be a bit of a pain to make, so I hope they're worth it viewership wise.

Good points, would add that many ships were also probably lost to defection and destruction in prior actions. As an addition I would argue that the New Republic fleet in the period is experiencing a similar lack of ships as it is still trying to build up its numerically inferior forces, and also defend a majority of the galaxy from the empire. Trying to be strong everywhere means they have a similar lack of ships to Thrawn.

You had me at Thrawn

I think that Ardus Kaine held back the Reaper to secure the loyalty of the non imperial members of the PA during the Thrawn campaign.

So glad to see these kinds of videos return! My craving has only been satiated by rewatching the backlog

Because he's a genius. And an absolute chad.

I always thought it was larger than normal due to his capabilities, he just kept most in reserve to build up the Hand.

I remember reading that Thrawn wanted to spare Akbar and Home One at Bilbringi as a message to the New Republic. I might be wrong, though.

Fine account of characters and plausible motivations that makes for 'realism' in fictional world building. In the real world there is a reason for dispatching select task forces - or commandos - instead of an all out offensive - if not solely to keep a low profile that can be obscured or be underestimated in their operational potential and accumulating, _systemic_ effects - when e.g. entire fleets can't react to a nearby attack due to the destruction of fuel supplies or it's paranoid dispersion to scatered boatloads. Such approach can make for captivating storytelling with a cast of readily comprehensible - memorable - characters, interacting with another in relatable drama, thereby maturing in their arcs to a satisfying resolution (here, tragic failure that shows how the personal regiment of the Glactic Empire depended on Godsent cadres).

Wait what map added Ruling Council Territory? Was that one of the online addendums of the Atlas? I had noticed the Post-Isard and Post-Dark Empire(IE Crimson Empire) Council imperial territories never got maps in the paper one.

Another great video Corey!

I wish some EU authors read LOGH novels before writing their own novels, Yoshiki Tanaka who's author of siad novels did managed to write battles with at peak hundred of thousands ship in battle and it's not that hard you can just scale up think Thrown is grand admiral and has admirals under him and there is nothing stoping any of them to have at least dozens of ships under everyone command amassing to few hounded ships in total.

5:18 Minor point of correction: Thrawn and Pellaeon were planning to leave Ackbar alive at Bilbringi so his return would put him under suspicion and otherwise further the New Republic's political dissent.

Great breakdown. Just the best stuff as ever!

I loved the Thrawn Trilogy back in the day and was sad when they made it non-canon. I always assumed that we were only seeing a small part of the conflict. I did not read all the source books, so I always assumed that there was not really a 'static' frontline between the Empire and NR - just system they 'control/influence'. Also lines are hard to make in 3D space. I think there is also an issue with scale - the galaxy is a big place. I remeber hearing that the Empire had 10,000 Start Destroyers back in the day, that didnt make sense to me as a kid. But then saw that the Empire was supposed to control a Million worlds. So, if each SD visited a planet for a week, and then moved on - it would still take them just shy of 2 years before they visited all the worlds (1M / 10K = 100 (weeks) = 2 years). It does make more sense that 90% of Empire and NR ships are 'on patrol/showing the flag' in systems they alreay control - so the battles are only showing a small portion of the available ships. Also, writers sometimes have an issues with numbers/scale. But enjoyed the video.

I like the lore, well done.

Its not the size of the fleet, its how you use it ^_~

I am excited to see how the new Thrawn story unfolds in the upcoming shows

Thrawn's Fleet at Full Strength 25 Imperial-class Star Destroyers 2 Victory-class Star Destroyers 3 Interdictor-class Star Destroyers 10 Interdictor-class Heavy Cruisers 178 Dreadnaught-class Heavy Cruisers 12 Strike-class Medium Cruisers 24 Carrack-class Light Cruisers 6 Assault Shuttles 51 Plasma Jet Mole Miners 4 Golan II Platforms 22 Controlled Asteroids

Still gives me goosebumps, seeing what will be his infamous fleet on X-Wing Alliance. Anyone remember that Azzameen mission with that in mind?

Talking of the remnant, would love for you to do a video on the battles at bastion and the following battle of borosk

Basically, Thrawn was granted his old command. He was tasked with the destruction of the New Republic. Both Moffs and Warlords played the political game, show us success, and gain our support. What's interesting is the gamble Thrawn takes working with a mad jedi.

One thing I wonder is if it is possible to hold a consistent frontline at the borders of certain faction ? Because we often get the impression that any ship can jump to any planet.

On paper, the inclusion of the Reaper at Bilbringi would have surely won the battle in favor of the Empire... perhaps also ensured the deaths of Ackbar and Rogue Squadron. But there are larger problems overall. For one, I think Thrawn would still have ended up assassinated, as the issue with the Noghri remained. And it was the loss of Thrawn that lost the battle, not so much the Imperial resources remaining at Bilbringi. Pellaeon sounded a tactical retreat, and things were getting chaotic, but there remained a solid chance that they could have held their ground. It wouldn't have been pretty, the shipyards would've been destroyed, and a lot more Imperial assets lost (and they'd probably have to leave anyway), but the victory remained possible. Including Reaper in their assets would've probably been the deathknell of that NR fleet, but without Thrawn, what are they going to do next? Things would probably have still resulted in the Fourth Battle of Coruscant (9ABY) and the expulsion of the NR. The Rogues would be missed, but honestly, most of their work for the NR had already been done and their one remaining battle of note was the Battle of Mon Calamari, which may have resulted in a massive NR defeat even with Luke's help sabotaging the World Devastators. But the Empire probably would still be defeated. As for the loss of Ackbar.... again, a sore loss, but most of his biggest and most notable battles have already been won by 9ABY, so I don't think it'd have been a huge loss without him? Maybe take the NR a couple more years to consolidate, but it's not like there aren't capable officers who can pick up the slack, like General Bel Iblis, Sien Sovv, or Admiral Krey'fey. As for the topic itself, Thrawn probably knows exactly what assets he needs to make his campaign work, and having additional vessels at certain points would've been extraneous on his limited resources. It wasn't until after taking Wayland and Ukio and the Katana Fleet that he could start doing bigger actions.

Out of universe, the world-building after Zahn was often really poor. Having read Zahn, and seen the movies, and played the X Wing games (all with similarly sized fleets) why would subsequent authors think it was sensible to talk about "10,000 star destroyers"? Even a guy with a fleet of 200 Victory class Star Destroyers (painted red) is massively over-powered really. As for the fracturing of the Empire into warlords after End or, that's actually not so bad, but it's inconsistent as a prelude to the Thrawn stories that preceded those later books. Psychologically, once self interested officers form their own empires, then "the" Empire is dead-and-buried.

Can you make some battle breakdowns from whatever happens with the Grysk in Zahn's canon books?

If I want to get into the legends books, should I start with the Thrawn trilogy?

I tend to see the imperial numbers as much smaller than we normaly think. Resourcebooks stats the Star Destroyer fleets to be in the ten ouf thousends but I tend to see them in the houndreds at most. This is much more in line with the capital ship numbers here on Earth during the both world wars whom we know GL took heavily inspiriation from. So even if there where many more escort ships spread around the world/galaxy there where only a limited number of main battle ships for either the emperor not Thrawn and thats why we "only" see a few dozen ships at the battle of Endor when there should be houndreds if not thousends if the reference books are correct. J.

Its not the size of your fleet......... ITS HOW YOU USE IT!!!!

40k universe is same size, and logh is smaller but both have 100k ships in space battles. Star wars just fails to grasp the size of a galactic conflict

I misread the title as “making sense of Thrawn’s tiny feet” and was very confused

it's a bit like the Battle of Endor, where the Film says that TWO ENTIRE FLEETS that consisted COMBINED ... around? less? 100 Larger Ships? Ofc. they hadn't more since it would take another 22 Years to get a believable large Fleet on the Screen but the Two Fleets also get somewhat reconned that they are not the full forces of both sides and where the Rest of the Ships might be And if you go from that route that the Ships in the Movie ARE the full Forces of the Galaxy, then then 200 Ships of the Katana Fleet und Thrawns initial Flotilla sound also much more impressive, the downside of beeing the First in a Made up Universe

The Pentastar Alignment did not join Thrawn. Ardis Kain was considering it by the time of Bilbringi, but he was still officially neutral.

Another awesome video about the Expanded Universe NOT Fizney Wars which is 💩 aka 🗑 and thank you for analyzing the real Thrawn

Does thrawns confederation eventually become the territory of the Imperial Remnant?

I still prefer the minimalist approach since all the Original movies and most of all that followed, The Clone Wars, and Dusney + show all seem to support that smaller scale rather than the much bigger galaxy the novels and source books portray. You can rationalize it as the galaxy being much smaller and connected due to the way hyperspace lanes work but Star Wars just doesn't work for me when it tries to have the ridiculous 40k scale that a truly galactic sized "universe" would have.

I'm fine with the relative scaling between different groups and with the individual impact of characters, just please add two or three zeroes to _everything_ to put it on a genuinely interstellar scale? Sincerely, a sci-fi nerd who's gone way too deep into the sci-

People use "fleet" to liberally. Like in the recent Manadalorian, calling it a "Mandalorian Fleet" lol

Yes. Disney has put Thrawn into peoples minds. Now they'll grow tired of his few Disney Wars appearances, and find the truth; The sequel trilogy we were supposed to have.

I think i misread the title