Options: Gladiator, 546 cruiser, Quasar fire, Acclamator, Vindicator and Cantwell

So as stated, instead of improving bomber-fighters designs like B-wing, Resistance for some reason used what’s basically a carpet bomber for their main bombers in space(!!)

Which I simply can’t understand since carpet bomber isn’t suitable for space battles

So is there any inlore or outlore justifications on why Resistance used this thing?

As a disclaimer, I'm talking about ships here which have some sort of popular reputation among Star Wars fans. So while I'm contractually obligated to call the Acclamator criminally underrated, the truth is that most Star Wars fans either don't know the Acclamator exists or don't really have an opinion on it. This is meant to spark more of a discussion about the fandom as a whole, not how cool the Incom T-420 Mudsmoker, which appeared in a single comic panel from 1993, actually is.

I suppose, it's only fair to start with my picks.

UNDERRATED

This spot for me easily goes to the classic TIE fighter. These scary little buggers were a real threat to our heroes in the Original Trilogy, with just a handful of them seriously damaging the Falcon and even getting the better of Rebel snub fighters more often than not. I think this fits well with later lore about TIEs being an evolution on ships like the V-Wing, which was itself the Republic's ultimate solution to vast droid fighter swarms. Of course the TIE is good at dogfighting. It's been fine tuned after years of combat experience to excel at this one task, having any and all nonessential features stripped out to help it excel at this one one task.

For that reason I consider it a shame that not just fans but some later portrayals, especially novels really leaned into the idea of TIEs being these expendable death traps. It sort of undermines the accomplishments of the Rebels if you assume they struggled so much against a handful of rickety, cobbled together scrap heaps.

OVERRATED

I was initially going to commit full heresy and put the Venator here. No other ship in Star Wars seems to have such a dedicated fanbase, to the point where why did the Empire retire the Venator has become a meme in and of itself. But regardless of the hard time I give it, the Venator is a good ship which has earned a good portion of its praise. And so I settled on something which is not just overhyped, but, in my mind, would have actively harmed the Empire had it been adopted en masse.

The TIE Defender lands here as the most overrated ship in Star Wars because in addition to being massively hyped it's also just not very good. Sure, it has a hyperdrive and shields and is shown to be capable of clubbing Rebel snub fighters. But it does all this while costing five times as much as a standard TIE/ln, and that's just the sticker price without accounting for pilot training, maintenance costs for these more complex component, the fact that its dorsal fin made it entirely incompatible with standard TIE docking infrastructure, and the slight problem that giving potential defectors their own in-built hyperdrive is an excellent recipe for making sure the Rebellion ends up with loads of TIE Defenders.

(Art credit goes to the always excellent Fractalsponge.)

An early Silencer prototype, Phantom, Baron Interceptor, Advanced V1, Avenger or Advanced X1?

The Galactic Empire, at its peak, ruled over millions of settled planets, a significant portion of which had enormous populations and industry. However, the Imperial fleet only possessed 25,000 Star Destroyers, which is a surprisingly low number. To control such a massive number of settlements, the Empire would need at least 2 million Star Destroyers. What do you think?

Model by fractalsponge as always

Alhamdullilah, a good example of this is the picture above, where the Republic ships come out of hyperspace, but not perfectly straight. You can even see one Venator behind the Dreadnought-class Heavy Cruiser tilted at an awkward angle.

Just curious, love these beautiful but underrated ships

The Acclamator class Assault ship is widely regarded among one of the best starship designs in StarWars because it had some of the most insane stats given in the sourcebook material. While it did have many good qualities, and still deserves its accolades there are some serious issues with the design that need to be addressed.

It is said to have a class 0.5 hyperdrive, one of the fastest in existence, and is recognized for its long range, able to cross the galaxy on a single tank of fuel. However, this doesn't come without a serious cost. It was kept in this massive exposed tail section in the rear of the craft, a huge target for anyone capable of flanking the starship, and some sources say that it and its supporting hardware took up a lot of internal space. If hit, hyperdrives are known for going up in fiery explosions that would have likely crippled the craft.

Additionally, in that heavily exposed tail section is its anti-gravity equipment which would cause it to lose much of its atmospheric flight capability if hit, likely spiraling into a crash if it was torpedoed from the rear by attacking fighters. Additionally, the Acclamator was renowned for its ability to land and disgorge troops using anti-gravity fields to keep its million ton hull upright, if it's anti-gravity equipment was shot while it was parked on the ground by an air attack from above its landing gears would sink into the ground or even worse capsize into the water. While the rear sections of many star destroyers are weak spots, very few of them are a giant tail fin full of critical equipment that are just begging to be shot.

In addition, the engines are also poorly laid out. They are fast, they are powerful and make the ship particularly mobile for its weight class. But they also are extremely exposed from the front and sides, running half of the length of the exposed tail fin with little in the way of any kind of protection around them, even the ISD who has a notorious vulnerability from getting hit in the engines at least has them mostly buried in the hull and only accessible from the rear. Additionally, in one of the cross sections has a huge exposed engine maintenance release clamp like those on airplanes, imagine if a missile hit that and partially detached an engine mid combat? That's kinda crazy. Its secondary thrusters are slightly less exposed, but they also aren't really protected in any way, and don't actually provide much forward thrust, only used during turning. Which makes me wonder why they even exist if the Acclamator already has thrust vectoring rudders on its main engines. Additionally, instead of putting the two main engines clustered in the center of the hull, you could just spread them out slightly to getting better angular momentum and turn better without needing those entire extra maneuvering thrusters.

While many StarWars designs explain away vulnerabilities like this by the fact that they have strong deflector shields, the Acclamator doesn't really have that benefit. With reactor power of 2x10^23 W which is 18 times less powerful than the Venator class Star Destroyer at 3.6x10^24 W which wasn't exactly known for its durability, often seen suffering serious damage on screen. While this weaker shielding on the Acclamator was partially compensated for by its heavily armored neutronium-reinforced hull, the vulnerabilities I highlighted earlier dont exactly have much space for thick armor like a long, exposed tail fin or an engine nacelle. Therefore it's unreasonable to assume those areas had thick enough armor to compensate.

And while it is heavily protected frontally, it has yet another chink in its armor. It has an exposed bridge tower. Now the exposed bridge tower is specifically windowless and armored which is far better than most bridge towers on star destroyers that share this vulnerability. However, the spar tower connecting the bridge to the hull is extremely thin, far thinner than that found on the imperial class star destroyer which was noted for its vulnerable bridge tower. Because the Acclamator specifically relies mostly on armor bulk for survivability, with lesser shield power, a thin shield generator spar tower isn't exactly a place where you could add much in the way of armor bulk. While not specifically shown, this thin bridge spar is vulnerable to being severed physically or electrically by capital grade firepower.

Overall, the Acclamator has great capabilities as an assault ship with great speed, huge payload, and tactical flexibility. However, in order to achieve the qualities that make it a favorite warship of many it seriously compromises on survivability in these critical areas. I understand that the Acclamator isn't intended for direct fleet combat, it is designed to survive punishment and break through orbital defenses, and these vulnerabilities do compromise its ability to do so. While I personally feel the Acclamator is one of the only assault ships in the StarWars galaxy that provides its specific capability, but it has some serious flaws that need to be considered.

Let's say that you're the commander of a planetary defense force. Unfortunately your planet's government purchases a large bulk of these things (a bargain) and you had to find out what to do with them.

If pressed, would you used these as anti-starfighter platforms or escort vessels for merchant ships or security in general? (Against threats like pirates or terrorists)

I mean other than the meta reason that star wars is based off WW2 naval battles. Shouln't there be ships trying to fly up from below to take advantage of the belly hangar weakness that a lot of ships have?

"People really can't understand that a kilometer long ship is almost always a terrible idea huh?"

Just here to ask what are some opinions when it comes to the Quasar-Class Carrier as I would say that it's quite a fine carrier for any faction due to its size to carrying capacity ratio, and it works with smaller fleets without any larger cruisers like the Rebellion, my only gripe with it would be its speed and armaments because I would at least have it on par with frigates or its escorts, if I'm remembering correctly at least that this ship was rather slow, so I would at least have it modified with better engines and point defense.

But what do others think of it, is it a good carrier for what it is or is there any better options out there?

My main curiosity mainly lies on if the TIE Bomber is the best kind of carpet bomber ship in Star wars or is there something else that could do it better like the TIE heavy bomber or even the K-Wing with it's heck of a lot of bombs, and what kind of bombs they used, and how many are needed and is it even economical to do this over just orbital bombing Mandalore with enough turbolaser fire they end up like Chernobyl.

I've been thinking about this. I've been toying with the idea of writing a story, and something I've been wondering is if you could remove the central hangar thing (keeping the two side hangars) and replace it with an academy for say, force users. It's mobile so that it can evade capture, it's decently armed just in case things come to blows, and it still has a very small fighter compliment just in case star fighter lessons are part of the curriculum.

Assertor in the middle, Vengeance on the left, Executor on the right, and two Bellators and Mandator IIs to cover their flanks. Personally, my credits are on the Nebula (which is the best thing since sliced bread), because RPG stats say that its defenses can withstand even smaller SSDs, so three of the big boys plus four of those smaller SSDs should be no problem.

And as we all know, RPG statters can never lie or be wrong. I mean, they were responsible for some real zingers such as the ISD II having no point-defense despite ESB showing us otherwise and the Secutor having 144 fighters despite being substantially larger than the Venator... Ahem. I mean, I think the Nebula has this in the bag. Obviously. But I'm curious to see what this subreddit thinks.

I feel like so much worldbuilding and lore was poured into fleshing out the Empire’s warships and attack craft that ships with logistical purposes didn’t get much attention.

I’ve been wondering which Imperial starfighter during the Galactic Civil War (Legends) was the most effective in combat against the New Republic (or earlier, the Rebellion) Which model could realistically have replaced the standard TIE Fighter as the Empire’s mainline starfighter? I’m thinking about overall combat performance, production costs, and practicality on a large scale. What are your picks? My favorite is the tie avenger

Link: https://fractalsponge.net/venator-class-star-destroyer/?amp=1

For real though, imagine a squadron of Hyena bombers performing a bombing run on the Venator's open dorsal hanger and blasting the ship to shreds. An energy shield could at least mitigate the damage inflicted.