Space battles seem to work quite a bit differently depending on the alternate reality in which you find yourself. That said, I do think there are some tactics though, that should generally be avoided.
0:00 | Introduction
1:06 | #1
2:52 | #2
3:43 | #3
4:45 | #4
6:22 | #5
The Templin Institute. Investigating alternate worlds.
New episodes every week.
Other Divisions & Branches:
🔹 Patreon | https://www.patreon.com/templininstitute
🔹 The Templin Commissary | https://shop.templin.institute
🔹 Twitch | https://www.twitch.tv/templininstitute
🔹 The Templin Archives | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLN1_nXZbY2Vqa7_7LLNeyQ
🔹 YouTube Membership | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpqCsO-fb2_OzVxm7J9MslA/join
🔹 Submit Your Episode Idea | https://ideas.templin.institute/
Communications & Media:
🔹 Website | https://www.templin.institute/
🔹 Discord | https://discord.gg/templininstitute
🔹 Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/TemplinInstitute
🔹 Twitter | https://twitter.com/TemplinEdu
🔹 Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/TemplinInstitute
🔹 Subreddit | https://www.reddit.com/r/TemplinInstitute/
🔹 Mailing Address | Unit 144 – 919 Centre St SW Calgary, AB T2E 2P6
Background music “Building New Horizons” by Chris Haigh. Used under license from PremiumBeat.com
Ending music “Battle Forever” used under license from Shutterstock.com.
source
Before I see "The Templin Institute hates X and says it will NEVER WORK", let me remind everyone that we're speaking in generalities here. There are always exceptions to every rule.
In fairness to the Firefly movie, the reavers were insane. So to them the 1970s merry-go-round attack would seem legit. It also has the bonus of looking cool 😎.
Ok u picked tactics brhat only work some times and as in exploding stars if done right is big help
Lol most of these are useful the spinning one not so much but could work the other hell yer useful. Now if u picked tactics that like not using 3d and just use on on plane that is bad as is been static as is having u back against a planet inside its gravity well
A boarding action could be used for much more than taking over a starship. If your boarding method allows for it, you could conduct short raids to disable enemy systems, command, morale etc, before evacuating the boarding crew.
In Farsight: Crisis of Faith for example, Commander Farsight boards an Imperial ship and disables the Gellar Field generator, causing the ship to be overcome with daemons.
Another example would be the Boarding Drones in FTL: Faster than Light, which are launched at enemy ships and simply kill the crew and destroy systems. The boarding drones are expendable, so destroying the enemy ship while your boarding drone is stopping the enemy from repairing the shields is perfectly viable.
Side note: I am aware that all of the Phil Kelley books are stupid and I don't need a reminder.
I think the plan there was to violently swing a smaller Alliance ship against a larger one.
But yeah… the ultimate explanation is that Reavers be crazy. 😅
X4: Foundations boards with marines. Not nessarily real like you said, but you get to do it and is fun.
Spinning an enemy is not a good tactic? Triggerheart Exelica lied to me.
You're take on ramming is pretty dumb. If one side loses a battleship, while the other loses a jury rigged tug boat, the side with the tug boat wins.
I think "surprising use of terrain" and experimental weapons are fine but can't be relied upon for winning a war. All weapons were experimental at some point. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, and sometimes their use is situational.
Surprising use of space terrain probably only works when your enemy is underestimating you. Maybe they don't think you can or would blow up that sun or gas giant and destroy your fleet.
The only viable use for boarding parties might be for fix position space stations/planets.
I do remember in Rogue One where a Hammerhead rebel shi0 or something rammed ibto a star destroyer with enough force to move it and somehow not cave in. But it was epic as they say
In Cole's defense he orchestrated that entire battle. He ordered recon of the system by ONI prowlers, requisitioned huge amounts of material and ships for his fleet, and even recruited insurrectionists to help him.
Battle group India was able to annihilate the first 100 ships simply by defeating them in detail. The Covenant couldn't have ignited the Gas Giant because it took the full complement of the Everests nukes to do that. Also ths rest of battlegroup India was already withdrawing, so Cole gambled only his flagship on the chance of destroying 200 Covenant ships.
4:15 The thing that annoys me most about it's design was Disney apparently chose it because it seems less "Offensive" or "scary" for a Capitol Class to have a Tractor Beam instead of normal freaking guns/lasers/missiles. Yet let's think about it's application. It slams a Starship into meteors/objects…and then those poor souls get VACUUMED OUT TO SPACE AND SUFFOCATE A SLOW DEATH WHILE THEIR BLOOD BOILS. Yes, very ethical…how about you just shoot them next time Disney…okay?
Boarding can make sense if space ships are really valuable or whatever inside the ships are really valuable. Alternatively, if space ships in the setting are pretty much sailing ships in 15th century Earth in space.
One thing that makes no sense is the way media often portrays space warfare like naval warfare. There was an episode of Blake’s 7 where 3 Federation ships were chasing the Liberator, as much as I love that show that was a total facepalm. The writers seemed to think it was like The Hunt for the Graf Spee in 1939 where a British naval force pursued and then cornered the German ship. Naval ships can only move in 2 dimensions, an FTL spaceship like the Liberator can novelty freely in 3, and space is unimaginably vast. You would need thousands of ships to do that sort of “dragnet operation” with 3 ships it’s impossible no matter how good their scanners. Blake and his crew would have been able to evade them very easily by turning round and going above or over them.
What about the tactic where the whole fleet bunches up close together and flys slowly towards the enemy in a predictable trajectory and engages only at close range rather than spreadding out and using long range weapons?
In the case of boarding actions they can also be done in situations that you want something off the ship there is a high risk to doing them though presumably if they have decent missile defenses those missile defenses can also be used to shoot the boarding pods down as for ramming yeah that's a desperation move there is the concept of ships being specially built for that purpose but the problem is you effectively leave yourself open to attack as the person with guns can just focus fire on you meaning you're likely to be destroyed in the attempt as for gimmick weapons that's going to depend on the gun for example in Wing Commander prophecy the alien plasma cannon that they salvaged was very useful and it was gimmick weapon so I'm going to say it depends on the gimmick weapon as for your number four that's going to all depend on the enemy forces not realizing what you're doing any group with adequate FTL ability could just simply get out of Dodge before the environment affect destroys their ship so it's going to require a lot of things to go your way The last one that's just stupid
I'm surprised you didn't say "fight in two dimensions," which is in a lot of depictions of space battles in film and tv.
Like you stated a tractor beam can be effective to control other ships and since ships are hard to hit because space is big you can use a tractor beam to hold a ship in place while the rest of your fleet gets to hammer it with laser, torpedo, and ASB fire.
Boarding actions can be effective if utilized properly for instance if you have teleporters you can teleport robots or droids that self destruct when they die onboard an enemy ship have them cause havoc onboard and as they are destroyed it blows up the ship from the inside where they aren't reinforced for such blasts. But trying to hijack a ship? Not very effective and again use droids so you don't suffer too many losses and if they vent the ship it won't affect the droids due to their lack of need of oxygen. But generally you won't do this is in a large engagement unless it has being or special knowledge that you need to gain an advantage.
The easiest way to win FTL is by boarding.
You get on the enemy ships, and kill all the people working the guns. Those people have WAY less HP than the guns, on the ship do.
Or you board, and destroy the engine, or shield, making the guys abandon the ship cannons, to try to kill your away team, again, making their ship easy to take/kill.
I missed 2 bad tactics:
1. horizontal nose-to-nose formation and assaults, as if on a 2d-plane
2. dog fights. Our current weapons can strike enemies kilometers away. Lasers and rockets, not effected by atmosphere, should and would not be used at point blank range
One gimmick weapon from Star Wars i remember was the gravity well generators . Those were highly effective for Grand AdmiralThrawn . Trapping an enemy on the plane of battle.
I still find the use of energy weapons in space combat laughable in universes that have shields against them but not kinetic weapons. It seems like a giant, starship-sized mass with boosters and some guidance do way more damage than lasers. I know this video said that ramming wouldn't be very effective, but I'm not talking about ramming a starship with a full crew onboard. I'm talking about launching what amounts to a huge missile.
Assuming boarding is a tactic that's even possible due to shield and armor systems, I think using drones to infiltrate and shut the ship down could be a viable tactic. Not every part of the ship will be as hardened as critical systems, so depending on how easy it is to just outright destroy the ship, it may be faster to just board it. This is however, heavily dependent on the relevant tech in the setting.
An interesting video which reminds me of the first Death Star in the first Star Wars film. Such a vast amount of resources and time were spent on building what was a massive ray gun, at great expense presumably, when capturing and propelling a huge rock, or asteroid would have accomplished the same end with no exhaust vent for Luke Skywalker to hit. A ludicrous plot point which made for stunning action scenes but was totally impractical.
You spin me right round baby right round like a record player right round baby!
C.J. Cherryh's take on space Combat in her Union vs Alliance novels is the most realistic I've ever encountered.
Ramming an enemy ship would work if it was remotely controlled from a safe distance
In the Reavers defense for number 5, they are all violent psychotic adrenaline junkies. So I can see them doing that kind of thing.
I also love in many sci-fi settings, the order for evasive manoeuvres. But of course, the next shot is of the ship, flying in a straight line
Ive always wondered how boarding action would even WORK in a space ship. You've got a completely enclosed warship, presumably with thick and heavy armor, basically everywhere. You somehow send your little sad ass boarding party pods or boarding party ships to slam through the enemy ship's walls? WHere? how? lol…..and thats if the escorting fighters and point defense doesnt erase your crew before it gets there.
Great video! Hadn't thought about how difficult boarding a ship would be in space!