Decepticons at Geonosis

[l33telboi]

So, events in that all too familiar galaxy far far away are rolling on as history would have it. The Clones have just saved the Jedi from from the arena on Genosis and are now heading to engage the bulk of the CIS forces.

But something strange happens then. They suddenly realize the Droids all have seemed to have vanished. Little do the Clones know that a random omnipotent beign has replaced them with the movie Decepticons just for kicks. The Decepticons are now lying in wait to assault the GAR out on the plains of Geonosis. The Decepticons will start with surprise on their side, as they are aware of the clones and their capabilities, but the clones aren't aware of the Decepticons at all.

So, all the Decepticons from the movie versus the Clone Army. Who wins?

Both sides will have massive doses of smart injected to their systems and will fight in a tactically sound way.

[l33telboi]

Ok, since it's a boring sunday with lots and lots of rain around here, i think i'll get started by outlining what the Decepticon side looks like.

Blackout:

Capable of transforming into a helicopter at will. Main armarments in robot form include a high-cliber machinegun, a rocket launcher as well as a very nifty shockwave weapon that is capalbe of incinerating large areas and sending tanks as well as cargo planes flying as if they were nothing but toys. Has also been seen to use his rotors offensively and shredding cars with them.

The biggest advantages this bot has is the shockwave weapon and his extreme manouverability. He can basically change into a helicopter mid-jump and fly away.

Scorponok:

One of the smaller decepticons who's only for seems to be a scorpion-like robot. It can burrow underground and move extremely fast when underground. Also has two rocket launcher like weapons on each arm.

The biggest advantages this both has is the burrow ability. The best use for him would be to pick off isolated stragglers or perhaps Jedi.

Barricade:

Can tranform into a police-car at will, though this wouldn't really give any real advantages in this scenario. Strong as heck, as he's been seen throwing around cars like they were nothing. Also has a shredder of sorts, but it's unknown how effective it would be.

Mini-Decepticon:

I don't know what this one is called. But it's basically a smaller then human robot that showed itself very capable of infiltration and hacking. Has two small-caliber machinguns and can throw shurikens.

Best offensive use would probably be sabotage or assassination.

Starscream:

A robot that can turn into a F-22 at will. Main armarments include a chain-gun and missile launchers.

Best offensive capability is the high manouverability given as a figther, coupled with the ability to almost seemlessly transform back and forth between fighter and robot form.

Devastator:

Can turn into a large tank-thingy at will. Is armed with a large turret and two smaller ones in tank-form. As well as RPG launchers and a machine-gun in robot form.

Bonecrusher:

Can turn into a construction vehicle of some sorts at will. Extremely high landbased manouverability, as he can basically 'rollerskate' his way across terrain. Seems to prefer his fights up close and personal with fists and wrestling. But he also sports a bladed arm of sorts which he can fling at his enemies.

Megatron:

Can turn into a futuristic looking fighter at will. Same manoverability as Starcream but sports a huge honking energy-rifle for good measure.

[sonofccn]

Well considering that thier are eight IIRC decepticons up against an entire army and that these robots are vunerable to early 21th century weapons I predict a long and very bloody battle that will end with the Republic being the victors by weight of numbers if nothing else.

A blaster rifle shot on high should be enough to make the transformers sit up and take notice. Espically if it's in a vunerable spot where the armor is thin. Shouldn't be enough on it's own to kill but multiplied by a legion of grunts could ruin the robots day.

The lack of an actual fighter is going to hurt, and I see Starscream devestating thier LAATs before he goes down. He was quite manuverable and (possibly?) armed with missiles.

Besides air however I feel the Republic will do okay. The AT-TE can go toe to toe with the other decepticons and have a semi-decent chance of success. Success being measured in holding the field at the end of the day, not in a low death to kill ratios.

[l33telboi]

Yeah, the Decepticons won't have it easy against such large numbers. But heck, i never wanted to make thread where one side was completly overwhelming in any case. Those kinds of threads bore me. I did however actually think about arbitrarily deciding there will be more then one of the same Decepticon at this battle, like ten starscreams instead of just one for instance. That would've made this more of an open battle rather then the sneak-fest it's going to be now. But for some odd reason it occured to me that a thread where one side will have to be sneaky and strategic wouldn't hurt at all.

The emphasis is shifted from direct firepower comparison to how different assets are used tactically, in essence.

The weapons used against the Decpticons in the movie is going to be an entire chapter in itself, because boy did the terminology get thrown around in that movie like there was no tomorrow.

Grenade launchers firing discarding SABOT rounds? And in the same sentance where SABOT is mentioned it's also implied that the extreme heat from them would be what would hurt the Decepticons, rather then the kinetic penetration for which SABOTs are really used? The visuals and the logic behind what we saw would have us believe that the people talking about SABOTs were a wee bit crazy. But that would be breaking SoD, so how exactly one is to quantify what was fired at the Decepticons is one heck of a questionmark.

Even more so when you start looking at some of the damage the other Decepticons took. Take Scorponok for instance. It took a beating like there was no tomorrow and managed to crawl away, even though he was obviously hurt. Starcream took a direct hit from a F-22 missile launched at him and it didn't even seem to affect him. And Megatron gets pounded by multiple F-22 launched missiles (some possibly from Starscream), a large number of those magic SABOT rounds and this after being in a prolonged fight with Optimus Prime, yet he's still doing his best to kick ass.

In short, the movie is quite hard to make sense of, but in the end i really don't think it will result in such extremely bad durability for the Decepticons. It needs a whole lot more work though.

A guess would be that the blaster fire from the rifles will be about as effective, perhaps a bit less effective, then the SABOT rounds and the rockets and 'tank-shells' would be about on par with what we see used in the TF movie. The visuals on Genosis never really managed to impress me. But then again, i find it very hard to believe that clone weaponry wouldn't be better then modern stuff.

Key thing here for the Decepticons will be stealth, range and their high manouverability. A good start, when it comes to tactics, for instance, would be to have the RPG and Missile equiped robots doing long-range attacks and catching the Clones off guard. This way they could probably take out a few 'for free', so to speak. Starscream, Megatron and Blackout could perhaps use their speed to dodge enemy fire while bombarding the Clones from the air.

Then during the confusion of all that, while the Clones attention is focused on the airborne and seen attackers, you'd have Frenzy (the little decepticon) and Scorponok taking out targets of importance (Jedi, high-ranking officers etc) stealthily.

This of course would provoke a rapid response by the clones. Their numbers would spread out. They'd seek cover and the LAATs would probably seek out the less manouverable Decepticons.

Real face-to-face fighting wouldn't be happening 'till the very end i think, because it would be detrimental to the Decepticons. And given their higher mobility, it would seem they pretty much get to choose where, when and how the fighting is going to be done. For the most part at least. The LAAT's could be a problem.

Starscream or Megatron against LAAT's would make for one beatiful scene though. Just picture LAAT's instead of the F-22's that Starscream takes out. Never did i think a scene with a flying robot vs. F-22's could look that good.

[Mr. Oragahn]

The Decepticons will go down a way or another.

The only ones that seem worth the job are the flying ones, and the driller bot, which can attack anytime anywhere.
Problem is that the Jedi will be able to see it moving in the ground, and the surprise element will likely disappear.

The flying bots will take a lot of pounding, but will go down, in the light of the number of flying vessels the republic has.

The other land units, stuck on the ground, will just be facing most of the fire barrage, and will just get destroyed after a short while.

The helicopter bot will move around kick some mechanized units, but it will also be shot down by AT-TEs and LAATs.

Plus the Jedi will come with some funky shit, with no Sith to bother them, and though many of them will die, a single Jedi Master approaching one of those bots should be enough to get rid of it.
Lightsabers will be a pain.

There just aren't enough numbers for the Decepticons.

[sonofccn]

I don't see how the decepticons wil be able to employ much stealth. Starwars sensors are not top of the line, but they at the very least should be capable of detectings LAATs and AT-TEs driving around with out real drivers and in short order figure out those are the bad guys.

I admit the transformers were agile as all get out shifting from robot to veichal to robot seemingly as needed as they jumped around, but they didn't strike me as all that much faster then the terrestial machines they were impersinating. I don't see how the ground units definatly, but also the air units, will be able to traverse enough distance to escape the counter attacking clones.

I fear the decepticons will get pinned down and demolished. Not capable of hiding, or running away, nor any hope of wining a straight up fight the only question will be how many clonetroopers must perish before the transformers are scrape metal.

Scrap metal I'm sure Palpy will be quite eager to get his hands on. Then by the battle of coruasount he could unleash his new and improved Ventors that transform into giant robots and cut the enemy vessels apart with giant energy swords and chainsaws. :)

[l33telboi]

So it seems the Decepticons ultimately fail to sheer numbers involved.

Ok, let's change things a bit. What's the smallest force you think you can use to win this? What's the minimum amount of troops you need to accomplish the goal of wiping out the clones? You can pick more then one of the same Decepticon and arbitrarily decide to leave some of them out completly.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Well, obviously, the republic has like a million clones if not more landed all over Geonosis.
With the many Acclamators seen flying in the atmosphere, we are looking at a hell of many mechanized units.

The Decepticons need more aerial cover, and more subterranean support from drillers.

I'm thinking about a thousand robots, if not more, will be necessary.
As for the repartition, let's keep things easy and assume an equal distribution of copies, even if the surface units are pointless here.

There's also the problem of what happens to the bots which use missiles and bullets. Do they run out of ammo? Logically, yes.

[l33telboi]

There's also the problem of what happens to the bots which use missiles and bullets. Do they run out of ammo? Logically, yes.

Actually, this is more then a good point and something i started thinking about when it comes to Frenzy. He's a wee tiny bot and could perfectly mimick a cell-phone. Presumebly also the weight and mass involved since he managed to fool someone into thinking he really was a cellphone. But he has these two pistols he keeps shooting, as well as launching shurikens the size of cd:s. From where does he keep on taking his mass for all this?

The All-Spark at least was able to displace it's mass several times over, considering it shrinking into a tiny cube when compared to the mass it exhibited in the opening when the asteroids hit it.

Now obviously they don't have unlimited mass. But it does seem like they do have quite a lot of unseen and unfelt mass stashed away somewhere.