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Eck: “Thrawn’s genius tactic!” Me: Do you know how little that narrows it down?

TLDR: Thrawn is the first Star Wars tactician in history to learn how space works and actually take advantage of it.

Nobody : Most Admirals : we must flank the enemy in order to win Thrawn : *yeet that ship*

I want more Thrawn content. I WANT MORE

Really Timothy Zahn’s genius tactics

Thrawn is my favorite Starwars character

The Yeet Catapult

I love that the Thrawn stories have more emphasis on military tactic. this is a great demonstration of utilising existing technology creatively without destroying the universe. so compliment to the author. in general there is a great dyssinance between teh movies and the expandet universe, even the Clone wars series depicted space battle much different than the movies did and Rogue One also had more emphasis on space battles. it always depends on who is writing these stories, but I really wish we had a bit more consistency and common ground in teh star wars universe.

Thrawn catapult, a classic move but quite efficient. If you have a few minute I'd like to show you my new master piece. The dorito formation, do not be fooled by his name like most of my ennemies.

Stuff like this is why we should have a Halo story written by Timothy Zahn.

I'd be super interested to hear your description of the battle between the Chimera and Savit's forces at the end of Treason. That battle seems... difficult to imagine without pictures.

What to do against rebels as imperial commander? Something UNHEARD of, like REVOLUTIONARY. Point defense

I saw Catapult and immediately thought he strapped a hyperdrive on an asteroid and shot it at the enemy ships after deploying it from the hanger of his ISD

Guess who's back, baby. Didn't see that coming, huh?

A very interesting tactic on Thrawn's part, not exactly surprising since he's a genius, but still impressive ingenuity nonetheless. Nicholas Farrell's question and your response definitely peaked my interest in optimal battlegroups, and I wonder if could apply the same kind of analytic thinking to other groups; the Rebels, CIS, Republic (Clone Wars era), or even other franchises, for example Halo's UNSC or Covenant (not that they really needed improved strategy but would be neat to hear your ideas). Honestly I would go on with others however I'm not too sure just how much necessary information is available for other factions like Mass Effect's System Alliance for example, or if you think you would even need just as much raw data as what exists for Star Wars and Halo. Keep up the great content mate, always look forward to new work from you!

Thrawn showing off his brilliance once again

I believe that in book they called this manouver a Slingshot

OMG i just heard this tactic on the audio book, then opens KZfaq and the first video my eyes lands on is your breakdown of it

That's almost Creed levels of infiltration. Now if only Thrawn could infiltrate a SSD the same way...

It's a stroke of tactical genius. It uses Newton's 1st law of motion - that an object will move in a straight line at a constant speed unless it is subjected to a force - in a simple but brilliant way.

Do BIONICLE lore 6th attempt

Well, tractor beams do have their limits, but that is entirely based on the object being pulled & such.

Timothy adding marvellous strategies to the universe.

I honestly love this channel so much, I love Star Wars and the empire. And this guy does so much of it.

It's so sad that basically at the end of the book we hear of his impending doom. Rebels did Thrawn wrong and I ain't ever gonna get over it. ):

The tactical Yeet

Ahh, nothing like Thrawn's tactical maneuvers to put you in a good mood. Also, second attempt: Resurgent-class Star Destroyer VS Separatist Lucrehulk

I'm so happy you showed this strategy. This was a highlight in the novel for me😁

Thrawn's biggest mistake was calling it catapult instead of the far superior Trebuchet.

Thrawn: “Engines who needs em?”

Painting ship with red makes them faster. Thrawn: genius!

#AsKEck How would you have commanded the Rebellion fleet at Scarif?

VF-1 Valkyrie variable fighter( SDF Macross) vs Viking mech ( Starcraft). Reaver class titan( Warhammer 40K) vs LED Mirage Mortar Headd( Five Star Stories).

Everything Thrawn does is pure genius, unless he is in Star Wars Rebels

This reminds me of the NJO tactic of "dry dropping/shadow launching" torpedoes used by the Jedi against the Vong.

Such a weird fight in the book. “Ok everyone. We need to make this look good for the empire so let’s not use lethal weapons at first.”

It would be really interesting to see what kind of tractor beam maneuvers could be pulled off when multiple ships are working together

This is actually the perfect kind of tactic for Thrawn. From a literary standpoint. It is clearly smart and inventive, showing cleverness of the one who uses it, but it isn't world or lore breaking. (LOOKIN AT YOU HOLDO) If you have some good tractor beams you can do it, but once you do it a few times the enemy would catch on and notice it (nose down ship flipping up it's nose) and if you were to use this for launching fighters all the time or make a ship built around it then it's stealth advantage would be lost, as your big catapult system would point one way, probably draw enough power to be noticeable, and launch fighters on a predictable trajectory. (I assume if you know WHERE in space to point your better sensors finding something is easy, as that is how we find stuff in space now). So it's a great strategy that can catch someone unsuspecting off guard, but does not fundamentally change the nature of combat.

This guy is basically Napoleon Bonaparte of Star Wars

Vs matchup Sgt. Johnson(Halo) vs Captain Rex(Star Wars)

These battle break down/strategy videos are my favorite

0:19 the face I make when Eckhart's uploads

I have a modification. Thrawn does the same thing during battle, or before battle, but has the cockpit cleared of all control systems and technical equipment and then stuffs the cockpit full of explosives. That way no pilot is at risk and a powerful explosion can be dealt directly to the ship. A sort of drone kamikaze attack.

background music "Space Echo" really fits with this

Really like that tactic and the name you gave for it. Also cool how it can be used for scouting and letting a starfighter come close undetected and then do damage.

TL:DR No one: Thrawn: oh yeah it's big brain time!

Thank you so much for this video. I always love visually seeing tactics that ships use from the books. ESPECIALLY THRAWN.

In the latest Age of Resistance issue Holdo does something similar and uses the tractor beam to increase the speed of her CR-90 (which it shouldn't be able to do) fire its cannons and blast through the hangar and decks above it before flying through the star destroyer (again it cant because it the firepower). Have no idea how one small corvette can do that to a destroyer. As you said a tractor beam cannot manipulate the speed of a vessel.

Interesting that Moff Gideons ship had the launching system you spoke of...

Please never stop making videos!

You should do a short episode about the infamous "Dinner Squadron". And "Silly Squadron". And no, I'm not joking. Read the "Wraith squadron" books.

It was so artistically done.

Marc Thompson does a great job of doing Thrawns voice for the book.

Two or perhaps three ISD's could work in tandem with their tractor beams all pointed to a small location where many Tie-Defenders could fly through with their shields up & then get accelerated significantly in catapult-fashion toward a distant location without them needing their own engines at all. The fighters would be essentially launched to where they could sneak up extremely stealthily on the enemy ships. Most Star Wars ships seem to only use energy-scanning sensors instead of sensors like radar to detect objects coming toward them, and so the catapult would be very brilliant as a stealth-attack tactic.

If you knew exactly where your enemy was (y'know, by using powerful _telescopes)_ you could sling a bunch of *proton bombs* at them, perhaps with a *ion bomb* appetizer. Although the compressed gas launch tubes might be better, if aiming is inaccurate with the Thrawn catapult. A actual battlefield tactic is if you can guess they're going to maneuver to a certain spot on your opposite side (because it makes obvious sense) is to soft launch a bunch of bombs using the bulk of your ship to hide the launch, and let the enemy capital ship run into your instant minefield.

this is actually called the slingshot fighter maneuver it CAN use the tractor beam as a slingshot to shoot fighters to point-blank range, which is great for TIE Defenders to work at full capacity, or like mentioned in the Thrawn: Treason, sling a Grysk cloaked gravity well/bomb to the enemy or in the TIE Defender case, a thrawn pincer would also work as TIE Defenders have hyperdrives

This is the kind of strategy i want to see from Thrawn in Ahzoka show. With breaking the norm and surprising the protagonist nearly everytime.

Imagine using the tractor beam to pull asteroids into enemy ships...

well.. idk if they say it in the book but it'll likely be retconed later when they need to use the tractor beams to do something other then pull so I'm going to just theorize now that the tractorbeam was used specifically because it could be hidden by the ships hull. it's on the underside, it's facing backwards so long as it's disengaged at the right point there'd be no visable energy signal.. but meh that's just a possibility

I loved this maneuver. It showed Thrawn's genius.

Just discovered this old video. I'm really excited to see Thrawn's military genius in whatever role he plays in the Disney+ Star Wars universe.

Great video. Interesting note about the tractor beam, though.....especially since Thrawn used the repulsor mode on the tractor beam to launch cloaked asteroids into orbit around Coruscant during the Thrawn Trilogy. Maybe he had the Chimera's tractor beams upgraded after this?

#askEckhart Could some small flotilla/squadrons sling around a planet/moon to inertially get into batlle position?

Great video EckhartsLadder.

So, could two star destroyer operating close together tether the same TIE with their tractor beams and sling it between them without the need to maneuver? I guess it would either work or tear the fighter in two, so IDK.

Cool video! I always like it when you do videos about space tactics

I’m on the second book. To know he gets Defenders later on. I can’t wait. Lol

I had prior to reading the thrawn trilogy believed that ships especially bigger ones and specifically the isd I line as they have a sensor array on top of the bridge had some sort of optical sensors using ai and cameras or at the very least I believed they had used lidar in starwars

I also love how he modified this tactic with asteroids,to shut down coruscant for a time

#AskEck Seeing as it's Canon (partly) through Star Wars: Commander, is it possible that the Galactic Empire's Project: Blackwing had a secret objective of unlocking immortality (possibly based on one of Plagueis's attempts) and used by Palpatine around the time of the Battle of Endor? Seeing as the original version of the virus in Legends was created by Darth Drear in order to achieve immortality for Sith Lords, something Canon Palpatine was looking for due to believing that the Empire shouldn't out live him. I'm probably thinking about this from randomly becoming interested in the Death Troopers novel recently for some reason. (Sixth attempt, please answer).

You could absolutely make a launch tube for that kind of fighter launch using in-universe tech. Imagine a standard launch tube with a ring situated at the mouth of it with two or more tractor beam emitters facing into the tube. Assuming both tractor beams are pulling with the exact same force, they should cancel the vertical momentum from their offset position giving you only horizontal pull the entire way down the tube and out. Of course, it's all a matter of whether or not it's worth it to incorporate a dedicated launch tube like this when you can perform the maneuver without it.

Like how a good deal of "genius" tactics or inventions seem to also be things that when explained are just so amazingly simple or obvious yet nobody tried it or thought of it before. (Both in fiction and irl) As for alternate ways to launch the ties, I dont really know how powerful the tractor beam of a star destroyer is... but assuming it would be able to easily pull in things the size of the mel falcon or larger using main tractor beam, I would imagine smaller versions could be placed on the SD simply to catapult ties. Possibly by aranging them in a certain way or maybe considering smaller versions, have some that are deployable that could extend below the hangar and pull the target towards it. Once the desired amount of momentum is generated, just deactivate it and raise it back up into the SD out of the ties way. Im also not certain how detectability works exactly with diff types of thrust / engines but maybe an idea similar to real life rocket assisted takeoffs, where an airplane would have special rocket motors affixed to it in order to help bring it up to take off speed on short runways. The idea being the tie is dropped from the SD with very basic rockets like the aformentioned types affixed to the tie that would fire propel it along its way, then just hit a button to detach them. Seems like it would be a very simple and very cost effective way to stealthily launch ties ...or well any fighter really. This though is operating on the idea that a chemical rocket (not a star fighter engine etc) would not be detectable at long ranges. Also, the rocket assisted method would sort of have more of a benefit than Eckharts catapult / launch method as his would have more sophisticated equipment and machinery, that given shouldnt pose any issue for an SD, could still be prone to failure and still use power (even if in virtually in detectable levels) and would be unusable in the event of a malfunction. The rockets however.....super disposable, super easy to mount and use, if any fail it wont really hold up anything like how a broken sling would. Just slap on rockets n try again. Overall though i think Ecks idea is the better one though.

Nice tactic, but still the thinking is in 2D, not the 3D space allows. If you enter a system at the edge or outside scanning distance. Flying in on a large arc, adjust the axis of the capital ship so launch bay(s) can just drop the fighters out and the inertia can slingshot them without any discernable energy output.

If you were a commander in the imperial Navy, what ship would you want to command and why?

As for rebellyeeters I think you could have an Interdictor cruiser with raider-class corvettes and a victory as for thrawn-pincerting it into the rebells face.

First its not Thrawns maneuver but created by planers on Coruscant. Second its called slingshot not catapult. Booth details are metioned in the novel

5:00 problem.. beginning of episode 4.. they nullified the cruiser's speed so it didn't have the ability to fly off, and the tractor beam was from above it, not behind. They could have accelerated enough to slide the ship ahead, and since the tractor beam was inside the hangar, the edges of the hanger door would actually block the beam. It doesn't just pull, it can also push and move to the side as well, at least in Ep4.

Magnificent tactic. Finally someone who can use space to his advantage. Thrawn is really a genius.

o boy i must digging more about Interdictor Star Destroyer after watching this

I know this video is a few months old now, but... This tactic could be used on a larger scale, if ISDs or capital ships allow wings of fighters to attach themselves to the hull, then when the capital ships drop out of hyperspace, with a short bit of thrust, the fighters could then detach at the right time and continue forward unpowered. Now the large amount of fighters might end up being detectable, depending on their distribution once launched, but they could just as easily "launch" in a large cone, over-shoot their targets, and simply power up and attack the enemy flanks. This method of launching large amounts of fighters could also be supplemented with the launching of 'dummy fighters'(basically objects that simulate fighter silhouettes and sensor profiles) within the real fighter formation that would further confuse and distract the enemy.

I think what the Empire needed was a brilliant tactician capable of make the TIEs work. It's doable, but only if the Empire understands that their only advantage is overwhelming force: quick deployment, and optimal flight formation allowing concentration of firepower wherever there is a weakness in the Rebel fighter screen/raid group. An X-Wing can't fight ten TIEs at once. This technique also greatly reduced casualties as Rebel will be overwhelmed and swarmed so fast they won't inflict much damage.

If you can bring ties that close a swarm of tie sized torpedoes were a neat thing

#AskEck - In Star Wars the Last Jedi, the new republics capital ship hyperspace jumps through the First Orders fleet, which causes tremendous damage. What is stopping a Star Wars faction from making, basically hyperspace missiles to combat enemy fleets? I imagine hyper space drives are expensive but the effect seems worth it to me.

Wasn't there that one time in the Thrawn trilogy where that bridge officer tried to use the tractor beam to push a deliberate debris cloud out of the way to try to get a lock on Luke or something like that?

I did not expect anything less from a genius like thrawn.

like the calm music in yr videos

Please show how the mass effect end battle could be improved! Otherwise I'm more than happy with your content. Great channel.

I just finished this book and wanted to revisit the battle 😀

Not really related but: I just realized how effective the zygerrian transport will be for space fighting. It can change engine orientation midflight, fall behind pursuing fighters and blast them. It can also spin itself around by reversing one engine and shoot enemy fighters. Same with the turtle tanker. Would be fun to see this as a pirate/bounty hunter tactic.

To the question 1 interdictor , 4 VSDs, 6 carrack cruisers, 2 lancer frigates, 1 ISD II now in terms of fighter wings depending on contingent and capacity: half tie defenders and half assault gunboats

The best way to reconcile the issue of "actual space physics" and the usual "star wars space drag" thing is simple. The standard power sources used in any star wars vessel are THEMSELVES the source of this "space drag." That is why you can just drift away as long as you literally have nothing powering you other than a short-lived battery or something.

It is no Thrawn Pincer, but it is a neat little trick. Wouldn't be even nearly as useful if it weren't for the TIE Defenders, but since he has state of the art starfighters at his disposal it might work brilliantly. Whether to ambush attacking foes or to sneak closer to a capital ship. All in all, I like it.

The tactical yeet maneuver

Tractor beams _might_ be able to push, but if you're _pushing_ the Tie-D with a tractor beam, then it's much more likely that your enemy will see _the tractor beam._ By pulling in the way that Thrawn did, you can hide the tractor beam behind the ISD for the entire time that you have it turned on. Thrawn's method is _much_ more stealthy than pushing the Tie.

I know this isn’t quite the most relevant video to mention this on, but Star Wars Armada has just revealed the design for the New Republic’s Starhawk capital ship, as well as Palpatine’s Unknown Region fleet for Episode IX. You might want to check them out if you get the chance.

Almost done with it, right at the end

Something I’ve been wondering since your frigate video; if the composite beams of the LAAT exists, why haven’t we seen records of it being specifically adapted as a CIWS-type system? As we saw in Landing at Point Rain, they’re certainly capable of being used for the task.

Is "Thrawn: Treason" canon?

#askEck how do 1Mil clone troopers make a galaxy spanning war (i konw they briught many more but still)? Like ww2 on earth had armys by the thousends. Is it just star wars inconstitency