However, I'd like to look at one point in particular:
This is precisely the case in the WWI-WWII era battles that SW fights are indeed based on.JC, Interrupted wrote:Mith, the bottom line is that you are basically claiming that a hand grenade is equal in firepower to a sixteen-inch battleship cannon, and refusing to accept that if this was the case, battleships would carry thousands of grenade launchers instead of a few sixteen-inch guns. If your claims were correct, we would be seeing a completely different strategic and tactical paradigm than what is visible in the movies. There is NO way around this.
If fighter torpedoes are equal in powerful to heavy turbolasers, the Venator's fighter wing is HUNDREDS OF TIMES more powerful than its main battery. If that were the case, it would NEVER EVER make sense for a Venator to EVER close to gun range with ANYTHING; it should stand off and launch fighters ONLY. The aviation cruiser concept would have REIGNED SUPREME instead of being consigned to the dustbin as a failed concept, and the Empire would have NEVER abandoned hyperspace-capable fighters for ones dependent on weak turbolaser-armed carrier vessels.
The most powerful weapons carried by any combat ship in WWII were torpedoes. Bombs from aircraft, in WWII, easily matched these.
So why didn't battleships carry lots and lots of torpedoes and bombs? Most powers moved away from torpedoes on battleships, focusing on big guns.
One, it was fairly hard to hit with a slow torpedo at long range. 16 inch shells, although less powerful than 24" torpedoes, flew much faster, were fired faster, and could be carried in much greater numbers. Torpedoes were mostly used on ships that you could afford to get in close with.
Two. Capital ships that carry bombs are called aircraft carriers. The greater effectiveness of bombs vs large gun shells is why aircraft carriers were considered more important after WWII, and the intermediary of a (fairly expendable) unit that can bring the payload to the target is necessary.
SW capital ships are precisely the same way. They mostly don't use missiles because they're expected to engage at longer ranges with a sustained barrage of cheap turbolaser bolts.
As pointed out in the thread, the role of the Republic Attack Cruiser aka Venator Star Destroyer as an "aviation cruiser" carrying more fighters than an ISD is not clear within the higher canon. We generally do not see the number of fighters described in the C canon being launched in the G canon; this was the case with ISDs and MCCs, it's also the case with RACs and TFBs.