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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9879542" data-attributes="member: 4937">Not all the ISN was snarling mustachioed evil villains that kicked babies and ate puppies.  The ISN was fully aware that the X-Wing was a good space superiority fighter, but in theory an interceptor leaning TIE should have the edge on space superiority fighters in a dog fight based on clone wars experience that smaller, faster, more nimble craft had the edge in dogfight.  ISN fighter pilots likely discussed that you did not attack an X-Wing head on, but treated it more like a bomber and tried to out maneuver it.  Most ISN commanders were not indoctrinated members of the Imperial Cult.  Saying that the rebels had good ships and good pilots wouldn't have been treasonous.  The ISN knew those things were true, and you can see that right from ANH when it's the Navy officer who is most respectful of his rebel opponents.The thing that would have gotten Arkanen in trouble was him saying that Rebel pilots were better trained than Imperial pilots.  TIE fighter pilots were taught that they had received superior training and were the best in the galaxy, and any deficiency in the TIE was the result of pilot error.  To some extent that's true.  In theory the faster more nimble TIE should chew up X-Wings - elite well trained squadrons could in fact do that.  The problem was that in vastly expanding the Navy, the Empire cut corners on training, TIE commanders themselves often weren't competent to improve on the training in the field, the whole corps was arrogant and believed the brainwashing about them being the best of the best and so they didn't need to keep improving their skills, and the TIE was utterly unforgiving in combat.  Many pilots never survived long enough to develop the elite skills that the TIE demanded since one mistake was lethal.  Imperial snub fighter strategy was based on Jedi and robot pilots, not on actual biological sentients.Saying that out loud too often would have gotten you sent to the infantry for undermining moral and questioning the orders of a superior officer."Yes, the X-Wing is a good craft Arkanan.  It's got a high tech hyperdrive.  It's got high tech shields.  It's got a high-tech life support system.  It's got an escape pod.  It's even got a survival kit and portable fusion generator tucked into it in case you crash land.  It's got a complex energy system to distribute power to its various components.  It's got provisions for several photon torpedoes.  It's got a Astromech to help the pilot manage the overwhelming amount of information all those systems provide.  You know what all of those systems have in common Arkanen?"Akranen sheepishly reciting academy training: Mass, sir. "That's right.  Mass.  All that mass allocated to systems that also have in common that none of them have anything to do with seeking out and destroying another snub fighter.  It's an over engineered monstrosity designed to pamper and give a sense of security to pilot that has inferior training.  But those shields won't deflect direct hits from modern weaponry, and all that mass means that you are a target and not a predator.  Once you get on the tail of an X-Wing, you can just stay there, and there isn't doo-doo that the pilot can do about it."</blockquote>

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