Battle of Hoth Force Sub - A-10s

Enterprise E · Post by **Enterprise E** » Sat May 30, 2009 12:58 am

In this scenario, the Rebel Snowspeeders are replaced with an equal number of A-10 Warthogs. Assume competency. How does this change the Battle of Hoth?

Post by **Mike DiCenso** » Sat May 30, 2009 3:43 am

That begs the question: What do we know about the ability of AT-AT armor to resist kinetic impacts?
-Mike

Post by **Jedi Master Spock** » Sat May 30, 2009 5:11 am

Only what we see from watching them fall over. I.e., very little.

The GAU-8 gun, which the A-10 is famous for, has a peak rate of fire of 4200 rpm and a 207 kJ muzzle energy, as I've mentioned on the main website, and so around the dozen-megawatt range. So if the AT-ATs have similar resistance to bullets as blaster bolts, they are likely to be able to ignore that. If not, they're still not likely to hurt too badly from the gun. I don't think the Warthogs are advised to strafe the AT-ATs any more than the Rebel landspeeders.

The A-10, however, has other options, including the AGM-65 Maverick missile, which will hit the AT-ATs with hundreds of megajoules. Given that the steam blast effects on the snowy ground suggest 10-100 megajoule normal bolt yields, that's probably enough to threaten them; if not, the Warthog can also be deployed with 2000 pound laser-guided bombs, which may not hit squarely when dropped from above, but should have a good chance of knocking the AT-AT over onto its side if nothing else.

Enosh · Post by **Enosh** » Sun May 31, 2009 12:20 am

the general idea of actualy flanking the at-at instead of going at it from front almost getting killed and then turning around to do another atack from the front for no inteligent reason at all and despite every gun the thing has being at the front (atleast from what I know), works wonders

oh and whats the accuracy of these things? can they hit the legs with a missile?

Post by **Jedi Master Spock** » Sun May 31, 2009 5:14 am

Enosh wrote:the general idea of actualy flanking the at-at instead of going at it from front almost getting killed and then turning around to do another atack from the front for no inteligent reason at all and despite every gun the thing has being at the front (atleast from what I know), works wonders

oh and whats the accuracy of these things? can they hit the legs with a missile?

Well, for the AGM-65A, 50% will land within 1.5m. Later versions have improved to no worse than a 1.2m CEP.

If you buy Saxton's mega-scaling for AT-ATs, the legs are something like 2m wide. Aiming for the legs with Mavericks would be a little bit iffy even then - if you miss one, you might hit another, but I bet the legs are the most solid part of it. You'd be hoping to trip it, or maybe get lucky and disable a joint.

I would probably try the head, the neck, and the sides and rear of the body first, and if that didn't work, then tell everybody to aim for the legs to try to knock them over.

Airlocke_Jedi_Knight · Post by **Airlocke_Jedi_Knight** » Sun May 31, 2009 5:41 am

I think the neck is probably the best option, though the side armor didn't look to be all that thick. Legs should definitely be a last option, though, as they are likely solid durasteel. Exactly how strong durasteel is, I dunno, though it is used as hull plating for capital ships, so I would think it is pretty tough.

Enterprise E · Post by **Enterprise E** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:02 pm

I agree about the neck armor looking weak. It seemed as if even the Snowspeeder weapons could penetrate it to destroy the downed walker. It makes me wonder why they didn't try that tactic on the other walkers, especially since they would be out of the line of fire from the walkers in order to exploit it. The head armor also seemed a lot weaker than the body's, since the thermal detonator blew the head apart, while it had been placed inside the body, and the main body still seemed relatively intact after it exploded. At least it wasn't blown apart like the head and neck.