Palpatine's Plan to Replace EVERY TIE Fighter with TIE Interceptors NOT Defenders, Avengers, etc.

[@starwarsreadingclub]

What does everyone think, did the Empire get it right with the TIE Interceptor? What model would you have chosen considering the position of the Imperial Navy: (i) TIE Defender, (ii) TIE Advanced, (iii) TIE Avenger or (iv) TIE Interceptor? I hope that you enjoy today’s video and that you all have a wonderful end to your weekend this evening!

[@NirateGoel]

Tie Defender

[@illusiveman1613]

Star Wars Reading Club the tie defender

[@damdumah2552]

Star Wars Reading Club tie phantom

[@JanPeverell]

Star Wars Reading Club The TIE Interceptor would have been fine as backbone of the starfighter corps if they added shields to it. The TIE Defender was too costly to be build en masse and should have been reserved for the top fighter squadrons of the navy

[@doorcf]

A High-Low mix of Defenders as the high (best squadrons) and interceptors as the low (the backbone of the fighter corps).

[@achillesa5894]

Thrawn: "Hey palps maybe you shouldn't build a massive battle station because it's stupid, build more ISDs instead" Palpatine: "No I'm gonna do as I like" *2 Death Stars later* Thrawn: "..."

[@Dalipsingh111111]

They should have built more TIE Defenders and place them on the ISDs. OR DEAR GOD, HIRE SOME BETTER DEATH STAR ARCHITECTS!!!!!!!

[@shadowwarrior2371]

I like to think, in my own sort of headcanon, that Palpatine was going to build the Death Stars even without Tarkin's massive influence: Palestine obviously knew of the Far Outsiders, and Thrawn and the Chiss at large had fought them in the past. After years having past I'm assuming someone (either the Chiss or someone else) would've fathered more intel on them and their capabilities, perhaps even revealing the existing of their Worldships - the idea of finding out to some extent about the Vong isn't far-fetched or out there, there were pretty well developed plans for season 7 or 8 of TCW that involved the Vong and how they were gathering information and probing the galaxy at large. Anyways, Palpatine would've wanted something to combat the potentially disastrous and powerful Vong. Now the long absence of the Far Outsiders might've calmed the Emperor's worry about them and further allowed Tarkin to influence the use of the Death Star (to force the Galaxy into fearful submission). Thrawn, on the other hand, might've been okay with at least one Death Star because he was in the Unknown Regions setting up defenses, exploring, and setting up his little Confederation and such. He knew a weapon like the Death Star could've been exceptionally helpful against the Far Outsiders and so he didn't protest too much at the massive use of resources. Of course, he would've preferred the installation be place under his command as part of his Unknown Regions mission and expeditions, rather than having it get blown up by a farm boy from a backwater world lol made Palpie realize the important of protecting his throne, power, and empire not just from domestic dissidents, but and had intel on their capability

[@dontuseyourcellulardata7599]

Or just build a couple of eclipse class ships

[@spaceboomer564]

Palpatine wanted an ultimate weapon that would instantly frighten the Galaxy into submission so he would no longer need to spend so much time dealing with the bureaucracy or military leadership and focus his efforts on discovering the key to immortality, and he wanted to do that as soon as possible because obviously he was starting to get on in age. Thrawn's plan to strengthen the Imperial Starfleet to the point of being unstoppable would have worked, but it would have taken more time and more battles, during which things like ending the bureaucracy would not be so instant. Basically Palpatine's impatience largely did him in.

[@BalrogUdun]

FastAsHeck historically speaking thrawn was right when you make a giant dreadnought you just create a massive target. Japanese learned this the hard way in WW2.

[@reddevilben2112]

I also think that palpatine just did not want his fighters to have hyperdrive cause it would make it to easy for his pilot to defect

[@18videowatcher41]

True, but considering the tactics used by the Empire, hyperdrives on their disposable fighters are unnecessary. The higher quality fighters, like the TIE Defender and Hunter, would benefit from hyperdrives, though. And in fact the TIE Defender is equipped with a hyperdrive. Don't recall whether the Hunter is or not.

[@Benjamin1986980]

Lacking hyperdrive is quite reasonable given their naval strategies. However, lacking Shields is just wasteful of Pilots. The Tie Fighter could dominate any Smuggler or pirate Force. It was only when a coordinated military Rebellion broke out that the advanced Fighters were even necessary. However, even these skirmishes often led to the loss of several ties and their pilots. People are more expensive than ships, so it's shocking that the Empire just threw them away

[@ninetails6218]

Benjamin of Houston If they were just clones I’d understand

[@Amadeus8484]

He could have also had them built WITHOUT hyperdrive and just with extra shields or weapons or something.

[@jakealter5504]

Amadeus which is why the x wing is better than the tie, it might not be as fast or maneuverable but the x wing is more durable and is better at keeping the pilot alive

[@JanPeverell]

All of the Empire's problems could have been solved if they hadn't devoted so many resources and credits to building ever bigger ships and superweapons as representations of the Tarkin Doctrine.

[@krysistheabyss]

ImperialistOpinions to much went into the death star

[@papaofthejohns5882]

Trillions upon trillions of Doonium.

[@achillesa5894]

They should have just listened to Thrawn

[@Paerigos]

Well everyone should always listen to Thrawn :D

[@JanPeverell]

Thrawn is both the Emperor we need and the Emperor we deserved

[@18videowatcher41]

I think replacing the standard TIE Fighter with the TIE Interceptor would've been a smart move, but only if a few conditions are met. First, equip the Interceptors with shield generators. Second, supplement them with squadrons of some of the better TIE models such as the TIE Defender and TIE Hunter. These more expensive models should be flown by the elite of the Empire.

[@floseatyard8063]

Same here

[@chromaticorb]

Thrawn had the right idea with Defenders

[@tomsimpkins1211]

Far too expensive to actually be of wide scale use. Defenders cost as much as a whole wing of regular TIES, meaning each loss of them is a larger loss than some TIES, as well as them being harder to fly meaning you can't get as many pilots out as fast. Also, if a carrier gets taken out before it can unload those, their fleet's horribly crippled. You can't slap Defenders on racks hanging off the side of everywhere like we see with TIE's. While Defenders are plain out better in a fight, logistically they're worse.

[@darthjarjarthewise3279]

Tom Simpkins Equip an interceptor with a shield? It is possible

[@jameslewis2635]

Yes it is possible to equip an interceptor with a shield. The down side is that the power drain from the shield lessens the amount of energy you can put into propulsion so you go down to X-wing speeds while having better maneuverability, weaker armament (as you have no torpedos) and no hyperdrive.

[@highlander723]

We're talking about the fucking Empire and what the hell is all this about cost they built the freaking Deathstar for the cost of the Death Star they could have outfitted every single Star Destroyer with at least two squadrons of tie Defenders.

[@kornkernel2232]

True, though they could've R&D to make the powerplant to be bit more powerful and more efficient to compensate the added energy draw and mass. I think the possible reasoning is they need something that they can deploy to counter from the Rebel's threat fast while minimizing the cost. The added shiled may not be much but it makes the TIE Interceptor last a bit longer in dogfights, that means the more dangerous to the Empire's enemy to engage them for too long. TIE Defender on the other hand could've be still manufactured bit more to be available on several important fleets and systems as a powerful complementary to the swarm. Even just 3 TIE Defenders among 50 TIE Fighters/Defenders would be very effective to counter any threat. You basically have powerful starfighter piloted by an ace eliminating key targets while the rest do their swarming roles.

[@JimmyCerra]

I think it has more to do with weapons. Imperial Philosophy seemed to favor win battles using overwhelming force. With no shields, TIEs can devote more power to weapons and speed. In A New Hope, it didn't seem that it took many direct hits for X-Wings to lose their shields (maybe 2 or 3 max). Perhaps the Imperials reasoned that the quad cannons on the TIE Intercepter could deliver more firepower and thus overwhelm the target's shields.

[@Pro_Butcher_Amateur_Human]

TIE fighter pilots were usually very talented, and they had to be. They saw the lack of shields as a point of pride - they were so good they didn't need shields.

[@KikBlava]

Of all the ships, the TIE Interceptor is the most comfortable one for me to sit in while playing Battlefront II. I feel like a vulture casually speeding towards rebel scum.

[@morris9974]

Well but it is easily destroyed too

[@desertstorm272]

Bucketheads

[@thiccchungo1041]

Honestly don’t understand why anyone would use the fighter, interceptor has it better in every important area in my opinion

[@DininDalael]

Considering the Empire wasn't lacking Resources until after the 2nd DeathStar blew up, there was no reason to not to give Imperial pilots some of the best starfighters. At that point the Empire's resources seemed limitless. Pilot training takes time and good, qualified pilots are hard to get. Wasting their lives needlessly was costly and inefficient.

[@matthewstahl2487]

Wasting the lives of imperial pilots was costly, but inefficiency had nothing to do with it.

[@demanischaffer]

If only those darn Rebels didn't steal the X-wing prototypes

[@rafaelnishizumi6330]

even if they did the imperial doctrine focus on star destroyer and starfighter as 2nd role

[@Primex007]

The rebellion didn’t steal the x-wing prototype the empire had chosen the tie fighter over the x-wing so the rebels got the better fighter without stealing the prototype

[@thezigrat561]

TheReal Lifehacks then they would have to rdepend on the slower Z88 head hunter

[@rigelkent8401]

How much would an x wing cost compared to the Tie .

[@michaelcoulter1114]

TheReal Lifehacks Lol, they stole entire factories, not just plans! Well, the Incom employees who were pissed that their company was just nationalized took the plans and tooling, as well as production lines, and offered them to the Rebels.

[@alphawolf8640]

One of the Empires biggest and earliest mistakes was stopping the production of the clone army as well as making low quality fighters.

[@oscarbay9482]

AlphaWolf hmm I don't agree, the clone army should never have been build in the first place.

[@IIDarkForeverII]

They did not need Clones to defeat rebels. Their naval doctrine was the one to blame

[@mmGunTankMAPattonIII]

It's more the lack of weapons and adaptations to the main rebellion threat. Why build thousands of Star Destroyers with no anti-starfighter emplacements (and crappy fighters, the only anti-starfighter capability) when THE SOLE REBEL THREAT IS STARFIGHTERS. It's not like the rebels could match even a quarter of the empire in capital ships so shy build 60 heavy turbo lasers when you NEED dedicated anti-starfighter weaponry?

[@GeneralWildDog]

You gotta give Rebels a chance to win.

[@repinswatson6452]

The could of built a lot of fucking star destroyers or more tie interceptors or more recruits or clones as yoh say. The death star was extremely expensive and took way to long to build.

[@sokuna2404]

Tie fighters made perfect sense to me because you have to remember how big the empire was. Most of their duty was spent on garrison and patrol duty on thousands of star systems. More fighters means more fighters on patrol or scouting. The other thing to remember was the the Star Destroyer was the original super weapon. It was stated that several together could reduce the surface of an entire world to slag. Basically any system where a Star Destroyer was is subject to total annihilation which means that a mass uprising is impossible. You can destroy a Star Destroyer's tie complement but you can't take out the Star Destroyer itself, or at least that was the thinking pre-Yavin.

[@herichimoify]

Very excellent analysis. Your focus on the most important aspect of military hardware, that being doctrine and purpose, instead of which one had better this or stronger that was well done. Cheers.

[@westforlols1425]

"Your overconfidence will be your downfall" Truely the better statement from Luke to describe the imperial navy. Edit: or this case their fighter lineup.

[@summer20105707]

You're faith in your friends is yours. And later on Kylo betrayed the new jedi order. Palps was also right.

[@strikeflyer]

I wonder if any imperial admiral used quality starfighters over cheap tie fighters as their normal starfighters

[@Bryan-dr5qy]

strikeflyer aquamos Thrawn

[@sempermilites87]

Well not really. Thrawn didn't go WAY out of his way to get quality starfighters. Sure he did try, but if/when the Imperial High Command deemed it unnecessary for Thrawn's mission, Thrawn just did what he could with the weapons he had.

[@brokenbridge6316]

It might have helped or it might not have. Who knows?

[@Shadx27]

In the PC game Tie Fighter, Admiral Zaarin emphasized superior star fighters in his tactics. It allowed him to nearly perform a coup against the Emperor.

[@germanvisitor2]

Isn't Thrawn the main part of imperial high command?

[@David_Alvarez77]

It seems unbelievable that the Empire could not have put together enough high tier fighters to counter the rebel alliance. If the rebels cold produce enough of these to do damage to the Empire, then the Empire--which had much more resources one would think--could have too.

[@18videowatcher41]

Also, the Empire had some excellent pilots, and even their bog-standard pilots were considered to be quite good.

[@lihkan]

And yet, First Order uses the old TIE Fighter, because nostalgia sells...

[@nano31742]

i mean its not the exact same. in fact id say the FO used better TIEs

[@Penguin-lc3eg]

It's not the same TIE fighters. The first order has much better TIE fighters and gave them much needed upgrades like shields. Empire used numbers over quality, first order uses quality over numbers.

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

lihkan Well they have a rear turret, shields, hyperdrive, life support and missile launchers.

[@lihkan]

Only the special forces ones. And they still retain the stupid wing design limiting pilots view, which TIE interceptor somewhat mitigated.

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

lihkan Yes, they should have used TIE interceptors with upgraded life support, missiles and shields.

[@antwan1357]

Even though it seems like the Empire is saving credits , it really was bleeding credits left , and right. It would have been cheaper to keep the clone wars era carriers , and simply upgrade them with better fighters. Due to on going production costs if a weakness would be discovered on a type of Tie ship you could simply put on a upgrade much more easily or modification then one gigantic undiscovered weakness in a behemoth ship. With only one Empirial Pilot , or two lost until the new patch can be incorporated.

[@dominicvucic8654]

I would use a mix of interceptors hunters advance defenders and phantoms because air superiority is key to any naval battle don't believe me as my friend thrawn or look at the battles in the Pacific theater of world world war 2

[@eltostado3304]

dominic vucic or even the European front with US bombing

[@gagislobista2]

they should have improved TIE Interceptor with shields and compensate that with more efficient solar arrays

[@kornkernel2232]

True! By just having shields and improving the engines to compensate the added mass (which it shouldn't be that too heavy to add), the TIE Interceptor can be really more effective and formidable fighter for the Galactic Empire that will always give a second thought to the enemies of the empire. Especially with large numbers, the dogfight with shielded swarm of TIE Interceptors would be really risky. Only TIE Interceptor would be missing are hyperdrives and better life-support systems which are unnecessary anyways, especially if they have TIE Defender for special missions. It would be just slighly costly, but far from being costly as TIE Defender.

[@briansouthparkstudio1357]

but when with the fighter design that had already been show to have massive disadvantage from lower weapon count and the side solar panes being to big a target side on

[@WanderfalkeAT]

@@briansouthparkstudio1357 Some say Solar Panels, some say Radiator Panels.

[@PFTW]

Please continue your SWTOR: A Complete History, series! I'm really looking forward to it. The Prelude was well done and very informative.

[@sc_art5408]

It would've been so much cooler to see an army of TIE Interceptors rather than TIE Fighters

[@dhwwiiexpert]

So an Air Force of space A6M5 Zeroes.

[@tomsimpkins1211]

If I had been the Emperor, my fleets would've still included the Imperial Star Destroyer, but also would've had more Victory's and Artiquens, about 50% more than they use now, as well as updated Venators for support, shifting them to the back of the fleet, reducing their amount of point defense and giving them a pair of quad heavies to use as a sort of sniping ship+carrier. Each ISD would be accompanied by: 2 Venators, 4 Artiquens, a pair of Victory 1 or 2's, and their fighter comp would be 30% Tie, 20% Tie Bomber, 20% Tie Interceptor, 20% Tie Advanced x2, and 10% Tie Defender. The Advaned and Defenders would act as sort of an elite wing, going out on raids after the battle to take out scavengers and following those who flee to their bases, the rest of them doing their regular job in fleet support. Artiquens and Victories would engage in medium-close range while ISD's practically ram through their fleet, with Venators sniping from the back and Bombers-Defenders doing attack runs on their support and command ships. Tie's would still be important to the fleet, kind of just there to offer fire support. Though, if I had been the Emperor I would've updated the Arc-170 and sped up the X-wings production and had those make up most of my wings, with V-Torrents taking the role of the Ties.

[@dat581]

The top speeds mentioned are in atmosphere only. X-Wings can still out run a TIE Interceptor if shield and cannon recharge power is dumped into the engines.

[@RazielTheLost]

The implementation of launchers for missiles or other solid munition not only added lots of weight for them and the systems meant to handle them, but it really shoots the cost per unit up

[@antwan1357]

Individually tie fighters beat xwings on paper , but what people don't take into account is squadron tactics. A Tie is the ultimate in staying on your flank , but team efforts remove flanks.

[@Lord_Shadowz]

The TIE Interceptor was a good choice. They could put hyperdrive and missile modules on the interceptors as the missions dictated as well.

[@wolfu597]

The TIE's could easily be replaced, but those who flew them were all top students at the Imperials Naval Academies, and replacing skilled pilots is no easy feat. The years of training, along with the resources and funds used to train and educate them, and then put them in a cheap fighter that has no shield protection, that's not what I call a good investment.

[@nicolasreinaldet732]

The TIE interceptor is good, but i think that the empire will have more advantage with a starfighter that could make be used to make missions alone when a star destroyer was unecessery. The TIE avenger wil be perfect to it. With the TIE interceptor like a interveptor and version of the defender like a bomber, to give suport to the avenger.

[@deathtrooper7730]

Instead building death stars they could buuld more advanced tie fighters

[@Spartan3D213]

Or at at least raider corvettes with the success of the cr90s.

[@BungieStudios]

So the Empire wants their TIEs to swarm the enemy, but they do not want to build carriers. Fuck me, how is that supposed to work? No wonder they lost. If they're going to field fewer ships, wouldn't it make sense to build air-superiority fighters? Not mass producible and expendable harassers? It's like the US and Soviet Union swapping air and ground units but keeping the same naval units. The US rolls up on the scene with expensive carriers, destroyers, frigates, the whole shebang, and bolstering cheap Commie Tanks, helicopters, and fighters aircraft. Meanwhile the Soviets pull up driving our Abrams, carrying Light Anti Tank missiles, and flying our expensive aircraft, but only having ships that at least get the job done and pack some punch.

[@kornkernel2232]

It is indeed contradictory. ISDs though larger but the capacity for star fighters are lower than the Venator-class Star Destroyers, which means less Tie Fighters can be launched at once. Not a big swarm really and add to that TIE fighters are considered expendables, easier to destroy with not alot of firepower to even compensate, it is not really effective against Rebel's fleet with X-Wings. The only reasoning I can think of is that the Empire is not used to large fleet battles like what they experienced with Rebel fleets, thus their strategy is only good for pirates and smaller conflicts while they project their massive ISDs to the system for fear and submission. Galactic Empire is really only aiming for psychological tactics rather than traditional warfare tatics. Well as they said, it is written by the storyteller, not a war veteran. There are tons of issues with Galatic Empire's military's structure if we really go deep into it, Star Wars seems that weren't thought about that at the first place despite the title.

[@papaofthejohns5882]

They could have at least had a mixture of all of them (except TIE Fighters) on the Death Star and Super Star Destroyers, as it would give them many advantages and wouldn't be so costly as there were not that many SSDs or DSs.

[@xnikolai09x78]

Badass I love noncannon stuff. Keep it up

[@Lazuli2-6]

How would the republic's fighters do against the empire and rebellion fighters on a one on one dogfight? If the subsystems were upgraded to meet the empire and rebellion specs?

[@riverplasmahero2508]

Awesome video as always!!! The empire says it couldn't mass produce tie defenders, and yet it built 2 Death Stars, I think they would have been better off replacing the ties with tie defenders in the long run. Because instead of spending a ton of credits on producing a bunch of ships you expect to get blown to bits, you spend a ton of credits on ships that you expect to survive more than a few encounters. But as far as the Imperial naval doctrine goes, I think their best choice was the avenger, because of the shields and better weapons. But, if they had actually gotten around to replacing the ties with interceptors, they would have done much better. Can't wait to see what you do next! Thanks SWRC!!! :D

[@kommnado8096]

If the empire had devoted its resources to the tie defender the rebellion would’ve lost much quicker

[@robertowilliams467]

Wrong at 6:25. The Tie interceptor has "...an increased armament of SIX laser cannons instead of two..." (not four laser cannons as stated in the narration).

[@dangwancie4797]

Tie fighters are good for keeping under guarded locations. I'd place shields on interceptors and have few, but more resilient, accompanied by regular ties. Having specialized like the defender, or even the tie phantom as squad commander privilege.

[@icepicjoey]

Or ace pilots.

[@lazarus8472]

Simply outfitting the interceptor with deflector shields and an upgraded engine would have allowed for the Imperial Capital doctrine to continue unhindered. Interceptors already proved their worth at the battle of Endor easily outmaneuvering and overwhelming rebel ships. Had they been just slightly more durable, the empires fleet doctrine would have been perfect.

[@chomabcjabeb233]

Well atleast the Thai fighter is better than the India fighter

[@CodexOfXol]

CHomab Cjabeb Nah, I think I'll still take the Gurkha over a Thai footsoldier.

[@AGS363]

The Gurkha are from Nepal though.

[@tyronethechef4606]

india fighters shit in thier streets

[@theempiredidnothingwrong3227]

I see what you did there lol

[@darthrevan3315]

Russia fighters are really advanced

[@Springfield1191]

I think that Palpy had an issue with the need to compensate in certain areas.

[@zxKAOS1]

You might even say, them A-Wings and X-Wings, gave those TIE Fighters, the AX!

[@commandplay]

The standard Tie Fighter is like the Japanese A6M zero. Agile but had no armor. And all of this info is from Legends now. Tie fighters were highly effective in a New Hope.

[@quazar5017]

The "Tie Advanced", code Name: "Tie Advanced X-1" - sophisticated naming conventions going on there

[@Orionk0k0117]

If weight is such an issue to build superior fighters, why do they not use hyperspace rings like the Republic used during the Clone wars? This should give their fighters (Tie defender, etc) an edge for mobility and the ability to jump into light speed cheaply.

[@darnellsmith363]

Hmmm...the emperor was right for simplest of reasons...if we have weapon of mass destruction fighting bases, cruisers & destroyers would've made the last two decades of fighting easier. Building Interceptors is a smart move to combat A-wings until the Death Start is completely. Only other considered project should've been commissioning Tarkins super weapon escorted by a squadron of Tie phantoms and two destroyers

[@steelrideproductions371]

So the TIE was a WWII Japanese Zero essentially. X and A wings were the American Corsair and British Spitfire Mk XV

[@DeDerpyDerp_]

Seems legit.

[@billthecat2410]

It's easy to see a match that happened in WW2 with the Japan Zero fighter. It resembles a fast light weight but easy to destroy fighter aircraft and what happened to then once a slightly better American fighter was built to fight it. A great plane can only take you so far when tactics and hard to destroy fights are used. Even large numbers can't make up for this which history has shown. The Tie fighter is a real waste. Because a lot of it is related to pilots living long enough to gain experience that also would be much harder for the Empire than the rebellion.

[@gargoyles9999]

Brandon BillTheCat at the beginning if the war Japanese pilots were some of the best in the world. The training hours were higher than even the Americans. The problem was that unlike the Americans who were rotated back State side and put to work as academy instructors (20-25 missions I believe) the Japanese were kept flying until they died. Without that experience to train and guide new recruits, Battles were over before they even began. Even if the Japanese had comparable fighters, Rookies with only a 100 hours or less training will be ripped apart by veteran squadrons ie The Marianas Turkey shoot

[@Gustav_Kuriga]

Something not noted in this video: maneuverability and speed are often what determines the better air superiority/interception fighter if all we're using are direct fire weapons rather than FaF missiles. Deflector shields are actually only really useful against ground fire, as the best protection against enemy fighters is to not get one on your tail in the first place. Sounds obvious, but that's why we didn't have heavy bombers in WWII going along unescorted. By star wars logic, the heavier protection would outweigh the lack of maneuverability, but this was repeatedly shown to not be the case in WWII. In addition, the star wars universe is incredibly unrealistic in how aerial and space combat is handled. Besides getting into ultra realism where ships are just bits of sand in the ocean, in space there is no top speed. There is only acceleration, as you have no atmosphere to contend with. What ships can accelerate the fastest? A-Wing and Tie Interceptor. Speed usually trumps maneuverability in a dogfight if both pilots are competent. X-wings should honestly be cannon fodder to anything that is both faster and more maneuverable than they are, as said fighter would be able to keep on their tail constantly, completely removing their advantage of a deflector shield with continued fire.

[@Seraphil1]

Funny thing is, A New Hope shows this quite well. Multiple times during the Death Star battle we see the X-wings get a TIE Fighter on their tail, and they are completely unable to shake the TIE off. Only when another X-wing comes in to rescue them do they survive the chase, otherwise, the faster TIE kills them. A New Hope really portrays how dangerous the TIE Fighter can be.

[@thegreenmanofnorwich]

I thought it was interesting that even though we've only seen them fire from the wing tips, they have a total of ten laser hardpoints (4 wingtip, 4 at the junction of the wing and the support strut, and 2 below the cockpit window)

[@venkelos6996]

On a massive scale, I feel like this makes sense; even the Emperor didn't really have unlimited resources, and while Star Destroyers were expensive, truly massive amounts of resources were funneled into two costly Death Stars, which were then blown up, so they couldn't afford swarm clouds of TIE Defenders, even if they had wanted to. Still, I am surprised that Palpatine didn't make use of a few "scalpels", to coordinate with his hammers; some of his own "hero ships" to deal with the most significant opposition. In my RPG for Movies era, that's what one Moff did, to try and earn her own points in the system. Maybe EVERY ship couldn't be updated, but she took the best TIE aces she could get, gave them TIE Hunters, upgraded the squad leader to a TIE Advanced V2 (Lord Inquisitor's TIE with an integrated Droid socket), and tasted them with eliminating the highest priority targets, likecRogue Squadron, and male them heroesvof the Empire, for the people to cheer for, as Reaper Squadron hunted down the evil terrorist Rogues. Wedge and Luke obviously survived, but several other Rogue X-Wings bought it, and two other whole squadrons were eliminated. True, the Emperor didn't want anyone seeming more important than him, bur even he had to admit good publicity, patriotism, and successfully neutralizing key opponents were valuable. Sort of wish real Star Wars had dome that, but then this meant I could, so that's good.

[@seanrea550]

interceptor as the main fighter of the fighter fleet but supplement the fighter corps with more advanced models like the avenger and defender. so each ship would have a hand full of more advanced fighters supporting a less advanced swarm. your ace squadrons could fly the more advanced craft so that the pilots are better used due to better equipment.

[@blindoutlaw]

Well, TIE Fighters were designed to work as part of a fleet so they didn't need hyper drives. Unlike the rebels who used them as hit and run star fighters Also a life support system in a single seat fighter seems pointless. You take damage to the cockpit and that rebel pilot is dead. TIE pilots have a suits to keep them alive in this circumstance As for shields. Honestly, what shields?! X-wings and other rebel fighters get blown up after the same amount of shots as a TIE. Shields exist as plot armour for heroes when needed

[@banebeard]

Defenders were better overall, undeniably, but had the glaring weakness of being many times more expensive and far more difficult to produce and maintain since it incorporated so many "extra" features. Shitty though they might be most "baseline" TIEs were cheap, easy to fix and in spite of technical shortcomings exceedingly effective against most if not all intended targets, especially when used en masse. Outfitting a military is expensive and time consuming, infinitely more so on a galactic scale. Not only do you have to design, test AND manufacture everything, you still gotta ship it around and when faced with the high paced antics of those awful "Rebels" it makes total sense to choose the more easily produced model since it's still a huge upgrade from your standard TIE and you don't have to go through the trouble of force choking your banker to get another "loan", you can just do it for fun instead :-).

[@drdkenobi6531]

Outfitting any Tie Series fighter with a hyper-drive strikes me as a waste of resources. Rig it with at least heavier armor or a concussion missile launcher instead.

[@Odinfang]

Tie defender. I would even commission my own star fighter with light vibra chrome plating for even greater protection.

[@CS_Mango]

I'mma say that the tie interceptor only really needed a good shield. The imperial navy should have build a better carrier. And anti fighter guns for the isd

[@TheCastellan]

Who's idea was it to make those big 'wings' that block the side vision? It's like the Dralthi.

[@Segord]

If you have ultra costly ISD with limited angar space for interceptors you should fill it with as many power/space efficient ones as you can. So tie defenders/tie avengers/missile boats are #1 choice here. Also Empire had cloning technology and could make as many ace pilots as it needs (clone cost is near 20000 credits). And when you place ace pilot in superior fightercraft force multiplier will be tens of times greater than from horde of green pilots in cheap TIE Fighters/Interceptors. And if TIE Defenders become standart fighter it production and maintenance costs will go down eventually. And when superrior fighters of Empire will clear skies from Rebel crafts they can take loads of proton torpedoes/missiles and go for anti capital duty in masse.

[@ronjon7942]

I think the Interceptor w a shields and hyperdrive upgrade (Legends, which is what I follow anyway) would make me sign up as an Imp - pretty decent weaponry and sooo maneuverable, and I think it can outmaneuver an A-Wing. I’d also want the chin guns as well; wish they could be ion cannons, but having six laser cannon is a nice bump up from the suicide TIE. It also looks like it has a big improvement for visibility, although it still isn’t great. I wonder if it could still out dance the A-Wing with the hyperdrive, shields, and chin lasers upgrade. The Defender is pretty amazing, too. I’d like to see how it turns, compared with the Interceptor. If it meets or beats it, then Defender for me, for sure - with a chin weapons package.

[@darrellhall6622]

If the Empire had the Defender or Avenger at the battle of Endor in great numbers then the battle would be different.

[@GeneralWildDog]

So, to be short, Imperial Luftwaffe's main-stream starfighters are concentrated on one or two particular aspects, while Rebel Air Force is more well-balanced, the outcome is Rebels can adapt changing combat scenario way faster than Empire.

[@Kilory-Star_Wars]

Ah, World War II references. Even George Lucas made the Galactic Civil War seem like World War II.

[@smartwulf918]

If I had to present my opinion as a squadron commander, I would have a more rounded out complement to include some of the more advanced fighters: 20% bombers, 60% Interceptors, 10% miscellaneous transports/logistical, and the remaining 10% for the high-end models. Maybe have some TIE Avengers for scouting/advance recon, and a few Defenders for anything outside the operational scope of the Interceptor, as well as having the good pilots and flight crews be on rotation for Ready Five status.

[@tiefightergaming2912]

I think palpatine also wanted to replace the standard tie with interceptors for astetic reasons. The tie interceptor's wings look kind of like the wings of ships like the sith inflitrator from the phantom menace as well as other ships from past sith empires.

[@ShpoopTV]

I may be a little confused that space ships have a top speed. And a top speed in the thousands of kph, not in relativistic speeds that you'd see on spacecraft with continuous impulse.

[@departed402]

I know you're a big Darth Bane fan. Please do a video on the duel between Darth Bane and Darth Zannah against the team of Jedi on Tython. Perhaps lead in with where Bane and Zannah were in their master-apprentice relationship, Bane's armor, and what each of the Jedi combatants brought in terms of specialties. I think you've done enough backstory on Bane to really do this battle justice!

[@Feiora]

And yet it would have failed as a mainstream fighter when the rebels started introducing newer version of their current strike crafts and completely new models from wherever they found them. At some point the Empire would have had to recognize the limitation of the standing doctrine and make augmentations or scrap it and come up with a whole new doctrine in the years to come, had events not have gone as they had...

[@venkelos6996]

I get this idea, and based on Imperial doctrine, it even makes sense, but I am surprised they didn't use SOME advanced craft. Star Destroyers carried a decent compliment of fighters, so it seems odd they didn't section off their best aces, and maintain one or two flights of superior fighters. Under general circumstances, the Interceptors would have been launched, and up to the task, but different ships fir different jobs. They carried TIE bombers; they didn't strap bombs to TIE fighters, and drop them, or crash them, so they understood this. They could've maintained a squad of Avengers, or Defenders, and used them fie scouring, longer-range sorties, and softening up tough threats for when the lumbering SD caught up, and spewed its clouds of Interceptors to finish it off, and support the carrier. I guess the Empire preferred only one sution; their "right solution" to any problem. Personally, as a ship commander, I'd prefer a showy squad of Defenders; Avengers, if necessary, thatvid use if needed, and Interceptors for general duty, which would still maintain the core value of the Star Destroyers.

[@Shellacious]

Always a big fan of the interceptor

[@dieterhorvat5176]

I think the interceptor makes nice visual sense: Tie fighter gets trashed by Xwings, Xwings trash the Death Star, Empire starts fielding Tie Interceptors, which also have 4 blasters, and could be seen as a ship built specifically to deal with Xwings

[@superkamiguru6856]

They still aren't as good as the X-Wing. They don't have shielding, A Co-pilot, a hyperdrive, or a life support system. If they built those into it, then the Interceptor would be like a cheaper version of the TIE Defender that is equal to the X-Wing.

[@captain_frost20]

Honestly if I where head of the empire, I'd cut down on the amount of super weapon (executor, sovereign, Galaxy gun and such) and focus primarily on smaller ships (VSDs, Vindicator, Enforcers, Venators), production of heavy fighters instead of mass production of weaker tie fighters which cost more money in the end, as well as put the resources saved from not building super weapons towards more Imperial Class Star destroyers and research into Capital Class size carriers because fighter support is extremely important. Hell I would've kept the ARC-130s in the military simply because they where better then the tie fighters and have them assigned to ships that patrol the outer rim.

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

Captain Frost I would put a superlaser on all my ISD, or even design a completely new ship. One shot every enemy ship. That also mean I can eliminate most turbolaser and replace them with a point defense laser sistem.

[@captain_frost20]

Sergente A That is a pretty good idea, it'd probably cost a lot of money and if one of those was destroyed, it'd be pretty bad. Let's not also forget how the ship what have to be much larger to support the reactor so the ship doesn't A) destroy itself after one or two shots or B) every system on it would shut down since the reactor would go down. As for the point laser defense system it can only fire so fast and the rebels are tricky fighter pilots.

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

Captain Frost Then every ship would carry TIE Interceptors with upgraded engine, upgraded reactor and shields. A single one of this ISD would still cost less than a Death Star and still do a lot of damage even to planets. It would also be more versatile.

[@captain_frost20]

Sergente A You do have a point there, but the laser would take a minute or so to charge before firing, and it wouldn't be accurate against smaller ships such as the CR90, CR Gunship, MC30s ect. It also be weak to attacks from all sides except the front meaning if it were flanked the ion cannons on the MC ships could take it's shields down very fast while supporting ships would release a volley of turbolaser shots at it, probably damaging the laser system and because of the ISDs having their turbolasers replace with point defense systems it wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight.

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

Captain Frost But I said the ISD would have less turbolasers and more lasers, not no turbolaser. It would still use turbolasers, only less.

[@chasslez]

I mean, according to Legends, TIE Defenders had no actual competition when it comes to performance. The only Rebel starfighter that outperforms the Defender within its given specialty is the Y-Wing, and that's only because it doesn't have a bomb bay. They out-speed(in a straight line) and out-maneuver A-Wings, out-gun B-Wings, and out-class X-wings in just about every way. Adding shields and a hyperdrive give it the ability to operate autonomously from a carrier, something few other TIEs can do. Their only downside was their cost-per-unit, something it shares with the TIE Advanced, TIE Hunter, and TIE Avenger, which is why I gotta give it to the Interceptor as a primary starfighter.

[@TheCsel]

Personally i think they made the right call with the Tie Interceptors, but should have traded out the Tie Bombers with advanced Y-Wings. Take out the hyperdrive and beef up the speed. A tanky figher-bomber would compliment the TIE role nicely.

[@jonathandupree8562]

Your generic TIE grunt is just plain suicidal. And the TIE Defender jockey is bloodthirsty. But the TIE Interceptor pilot, he's suicidal and bloodthirsty. When you see a squad of those maniacs flying your way, you'd better hope your hyperdrive is operational. -KYLE KATARN

[@Kilovotis]

5:42 that picture is on my wall lol...

[@mider9996]

Emperor: we can’t afford better, safer ships...now excuse me I gotta see about the giant planet destroying weapon

[@Regal99]

This is why in E7 all the TIEs should've been Interceptors.

[@Amadeus8484]

I'd go with TIE Defenders :)

[@corruptangel6793]

I think you're underestimating the tie fighter. it was stupidly fast and agile with a nasty bite. The reason it lost to the rebels wasn't speed or inferior tech, but the pilots themselves. The Xwing for example was slower and less agile than a tie fighter, but only by a tiny margin as an elite Xwing pilot could easily match a tie fighter when locking Sfoils. it was the rebel pilots, with more training and more life and death battles endelssy added up that cost the empire. moreover, many of the ranking officers of the rebel alliance were former imperial navy wether as officers or pilots (such as wedge who was an imperal pilot and han who spent time in the imperial officer academy) They knew imperial tactics exremely well and thus knew how to counter them best. there was a lot more into the poor showings of the tie fighters rather than just the vehicles themselves. one battle the empire post due to ties losing to the rebel fighters was not die to the fighters themselves, but the imperial commander in charge of the entire battle group being intirely incompetent. sending the fighters where the should not be and just fucccking up everything.

[@tekkamanraiden6065]

Interesting, I always thought the Tie Advanced was a experimental prototype, I didn't know they had plans to mass produce it.

[@schitflowsdwnhil]

The Avenger (called Advanced in the game) and Defender were the best parts of the DOS and win95 SW Tie Fighter game

[@Amadeus8484]

For just the Star Destroyers I would have TIE Defenders with more shields in exchange for the lack of Hyper Drive. Of the 72 in each wing, 60 would be TIE Defenders, then the other 12 would be split between 4 TIE Phantoms and 8 TIE SUPER-Interceptors or something very fast. They would be piloted by drones or by pilots on the Star Destroyers themselves using consoles. The rest of the TIEs would be TIE Fighters or normal TIE Interceptors and maybe a handful of TIE Bombers. Of the BILLIONS of TIE Fighters, it makes sense only the ones on Star Destroyers would need to be super TIEs.

[@Amadeus8484]

There are 25,000 Large Star Destroyers. With each one having a wing of 72, that is 1.8 million Tie Fighters. Even if every single other Tie fighter stayed as Tie Fighters, the ones for the capital ships should have been Tie defenders. NO excuse.

[@shaijordan8407]

Play the same mission back to back on the original N64 Rogue Squadron with an Interceptor...they don't need shields 😂

[@toughmanrandysavage3077]

Am I the only one who thought that little piece of plastic in the middle of pizzas looked like a star wars ship lol.

[@PJOZeus]

Not enough fighters on the capital ships themselves for their size and the abandonment of smaller class vessels - at the very least a regular compliment of defenders would have served very well There may be plenty of ships in the empire overall, but in a singular fight with limited rescources, not enough fighters, hence needing more advanced models to compensate, or a larger capacity to compliment the capital ships

[@demi-femme4821]

The Empire made a mistake in switching to the ISD. Venators had plenty of firepower (the 12 turbolasers statistic comes from Incredible Cross Sections, which lists the ISD-1 as having 13) but had so much more fighter space and a superior hyperdrive. The switch was entirely for political reasons, and ot shows how useless Palpatine and Tarkin are.

[@doomblackdragon]

Now what about the TIE Aggressor. Which was kinda of an upgraded version of the Tie Interceptor. Also I think Palpatine was an idiot. He did so many mistakes. If he was going focus on the Star Destroyers as the back bone with limited fighter support. He should have gone with the TIE Defender. Even though it could not be mass produced. It did not need to be thanks to the fact one TIE Defender was like 20 Tie Interceptors. The TIE Defender was perfect for the Empire naval doctrine. Having limited but extremely superior fighters. As their job was just to take out fighters/bombs. Maybe add in some point defense lasers on the star destroyers to support the TIE Defender.

[@LordInquisitor701]

The problem with the empire in my opinion was the Death Star you create a. Military asset That is too expensive and very difficult to replace I would have put the resources into the eclipse as well Bellator class start destroyer and keep small groups of Defenders tie and Interceptors as the main force

[@merendell]

I could see not bothering with hyperdrive and other systems but no shields was always foolish. Yes the ties were cheap but you have to factor the cost of training the pilot into the cost of the craft. Increase to pilot survival results in more experienced and effective fighters. If you need to replace inexpensive craft and expensive training due to lost pilots every fight your not saving much by cheaping out on the craft. Sure lifesuport hyperdrive and missile launchers makes sense to cut due to the combat role of the tie but shields are not something to skip if you have a choice.

[@johnpatz8395]

My question is, why did they bother with the Ties at all when they could have used droid fighters, even if they weren't up the quality level of say the X-wing the ability to carry huge numbers, in the same hangers, would allow them to use a wolfpack type tactic to take out the rebel fighters.

[@Pro_Butcher_Amateur_Human]

The TIE Interceptor was less well armed than an X-Wing and slower than an A-Wing. It wasn't even much that faster than the Y-Wing. It still didn't have a hyperdrive so they had to slowly launch in waves from their capital ships while the rebel fighters could jump in from hyperspace and make a couple of attack runs before the TIE's were in space. They still didn't have shields either, which makes them dangerous for extended flights because of the exposure to the radiation in space. Not to mention the inability to deflect laser cannons. Considering that X-Wings were fairly cheap and A-Wings vastly superior, the Empire's stupidity in keeping their contract with Sienar Fleet Systems to design their starfighters is astounding.

[@Sheir01]

If only the empire built more ships and less super weapons... LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE!!!

[@timeshark8727]

I don't think the military doctrine of the empire was flawed in any way, at least not in regards to the fleet. Their defeat was due to the insistence on super weapons, arrogance at the top, and *PLOT* not due to any problems with their fleet or ships compared to the rebel ships. It doesn't matter if it takes 3-5 tie interceptors to take down an x-wing if you outnumber the enemy 10+ to 1.

[@jonathaniamartino5136]

So no tie DVD player in the back or five point sound then ? Well that sucks I need my theme music bro! Lololol

[@Max_Da_G]

Why not make the TIE Interceptor with shields and life support system? That'd increase survivability, keep the speed high and cost down.

[@nicholaswong6737]

Ideally, the empire should have phased out the standard tie and replace it with the tie defender. The rebels would lose their air superiority advantage. However, realistically, I agree that it would be hella expensive to mass produce.

[@davidgiles4681]

1st tie defenders cost way too much for the naval doctrine - swamp them with snall ships and use the small ships like mosquitos to eventually destroy them. Thrawn had a more flexible naval doctrine of - flexible warfare. Huge monolithic stations took far too much material, men, and effort to build, maintain, and run. It was better to have thousands of Star destroyers (with tie defenders [top of the line fighter - that a pilot can survive a direct hit {shielding), hyper drive (can scout for you), and better armor (if shields go boom, can take a hit)). If more pilots survived, more could train more pilots and the Rebels would lose (due to the expert training of hardened combat pilots). In fact it was a very well known American General that said, "non-mobile fortifications are monuments to stupidity." Japan had excellent planes. Her Pilots were top of the line. But, Japan did what the Empire did. They had lightly armored planes. When one crashed in Pearl Harbor, it was put back into service. The US then discoverd it lacked almost any armor at all. It relied upon nimbleness and expert pilots. Those two combinations created a very powerful weapon. Only at the end of the war did Japan finally produce a plane on the equal with the US. At that time it was too late. At the end of the war, Japan lacked the resources to train expert pilots (as they were shot down). Rookie Japanese pilots were going against American hardened Combat pilots (and lost because of that). The US took the zero and inserted changes into American planes - heavy armor for the pilot, more powerful engines (out run the zero), 6 - 8 50 cal mg(s) - that tore a zero to shreds, etc... If you had thousands of Star Destroyers (with Tie Defenders) you could establlish a blockade so easily that not even the Falcon could enter or leave. Tarken was a military genius. The interceptor is a beautiful machine. It is a vast improvement of the Tie. But, it still holds 95% of the negatives. It also lacks any hyperdrive. It lacks shielding. It has more firepower. It was meant to fight a wings. 2nd - the emperor had an ego the size of the galaxy. He "knew" how to run a military. That was wrong. Leave the Mil in the Mil hands. This was the reason the Mil so despised the Jedi. The Jedi lacked any Mil training and commanded huge levels of troops (which cost far too many lives that could have been saved). That alone irked the true Military Persons. I can understand that.

[@smashingpots9928]

I always liked the TIE phantom prototype which had a cloaking unit.

[@masbeetleboy]

I can understand where many of you are coming from in choosing the TIE Defender over the TIE Interceptor, but I think that the interceptor was the right choice at the time, and would be one of their best fighters. It appears that the Empire dropped the ball on building an immediate successor to the standard TIE fighter that couldn't match the Rebellions best fighters. The TIE Interceptor had no shields, hyper drive, or even life support. The X1 did plus better weapons , and the TIE Avenger and Defender would soon follow, so why no build them. Were these types really too expensive for the Empire to mass produce? I don't think so, but they would have been impractical.We must remember that the Empires one major advantage over its enemies was logistics both in manpower and in resources. Not only had the conquered territory it also had to maintain it. This meant keeping constant pressure on its opposition, and the introduction of a vastly improved and advanced new standard fighter would not only cost more money but also more time, and all this was going on just after the destruction of the first Death Star.The TIE Interceptor at first glance does not appear to offer as much as the more advanced TIE types and it isn't too much of an improvement over the standard TIE. The Interceptor was a little more agile, a little faster and better armed. But we should all remember that the Empire was retooling its fighter corps when the second Death Star was destroyed, and we are still talking about basic "barebones" Interceptors.As time went on, after the Emperors death, the Interceptor would be modified with shield generators, hyper drive units and specialized heavy weapons to maximize its effect. All this plus the fact that it came with 6 laser hard points and 2 launchers from day 1 made them the most versatile fighter in the Imperial arsenal with the exception of the Defender. Advanced Interceptors were even used by the Emperors Royal guard and not the Defender.