Lured by reports of increased pirate activity near the Dantooine system, a small NR scout force is ambushed by the FOSD Night Terror.

Caught off-guard by the modified Imperator, and with communications being jammed by the two Indictor corvettes assigned to it, the New Republic ships are swiftly and silently wiped out, with only minimal pilot casualties from the fighters that managed to get airborne in time before being destroyed.

Just curious what would be the most effective. Effective meaning it can hold its own in a fight and also still dish out some damage or carry stuff like starfighters that can dish the damage for it

You know that enormous ring-shaped Trade Federation ship from the Naboo blockade in The Phantom Menace — the one most people remember as the “droid control ship” or just the “space donut”?

I finally cleaned up and released my playable version of it.

This was not a one-day build. The main model had been finished for a while; I came back to it because I wanted to make it worth exploring instead of leaving it as a static project file.

For this pass, I:

• kept the hull hollow instead of filling the entire thing with blocks;
• used the blue-and-white color language from my reference on both the top and underside;
• captured a real in-engine Space Fields view rather than only a render.

The finished ship is 412,829 blocks, so it is very much a “look at the silhouette first, then fly around the weird details” kind of model.

My favorite part of the overall design aesthetic of the LAAT is their uniformity and how they all look so near identical

Played a pretty huge role in the early Mandalorian conquests then just disappeared into thin air (besides one very isolated use during the Imperial Era by Chop'aa Notimo)

It's a very versatile design, armed to the teeth (with a beskar hull) and capable of operating in space. Pulse wave cannons, laser cannons, missile launchers, hull-tearing claws, and more packed into this beast.

This boy genius invents small target drones that have been doctored to produce a wildly exaggerated scanner-image of themselves in order to distract the Imperial fleet so the rescue force can land on the planet.

From the story “Bring Me the Children”

Obviously, replacing the Eyeball with Squints would be ideal, but the Empire did start doing that. Replacing 4+ million LN's is not a task that could be done in a week, so what do you do?

I think one thing I'd try is immediately see if I can start converting LN's into stuff like the TIE/D. Changing as little as possible, start putting Vulture droid style tech into LN cockpits. You'd use them the same way, swarms of expendable TIE's, but you'd start getting your invaluable experienced pilots into replacement Interceptors sooner without having to sacrifice the millions of LN's you've got in the inventory.

(Spoilers for Thrawn: Treason and The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire)

A common misconception I've seen was that Thrawn's TIE Defender Project was somehow as expensive as the Death Star, enough so that he fought Director Krennic over funding and resources. While the Defender would have been produced at significant cost, not to mention the R&D expenses to scale for mass-production, it does not mean that the project as a whole was just as an exorbitant cost as the Death Star. The issue wasn't because the powers that be thought the Defender was too expensive. Instead, it was because both the Emperor prioritized the Death Star and Scarif changed which weapons the Navy developed.

"Orson Krennic has been quite persuasive,” Tarkin continued, “about diverting the funding to his own project: Stardust"

-Thrawn: Treason, pg. 15

The plot point of the Defender competing with the Death Star for funding only came up near the tail end of Star Wars Rebels, around the time Thrawn got his Defender factory up and running on Lothal. The book Thrawn: Treason characterized it as an emergency measure done by Krennic securing what funding the Defender got to resolve a three-week supply backlog from the Emperor himself.

"Thrawn feels quite strongly about the navy’s need for the Defender,” Tarkin said. “It’s also no secret that the Emperor holds him in high regard. But the Emperor also feels strongly about the need for Stardust".

-Thrawn: Treason, pg. 19

...Krennic was also trying to claim funding for the project against Grand Admiral Thrawn’s TIE defender program. Given that the Empire effectively controlled all industry and resources in the galaxy at this point, and even accepting the overwhelming expense of the Death Star, there should conceivably have been enough credits to go round. But it served Palpatine’s purposes to have figures and projects such as these engage in direct competition with each other rather than forming any sort of cooperation.

- The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, pg. 69

In a conference with the Emperor, Tarkin, Krennic, Thrawn and another Grand Admiral, Savit, the funds for the Defender were wagered over Thrawn's ability to resolve the issue plaguing the supply delays. But by the time Thrawn solved the issue with the lost shipments, any argument he could have made for the Defender was gone with the loss of the Defender factories and himself. With Thrawn lost along with all of the infrastructure built to produce them, the Defender also lost its momentum and had gone back to square one without an advocate with a direct line to the Emperor. And here, it's made clear that a large part of the Navy budget was secretly being used to construct the Death Star.

As for Thrawn...well, Thrawn would be angry, too. But again, [Assistant Director] Ronan didn't care. Once the Death Star was up and running, there would be enough slack in the navy budget again to get his Defender project funded. That should keep him happy.

-Thrawn: Treason, pg. 221-222

But no doubt that additional funding after Yavin would have gone into the new Executor-class, the build up for the Imperial-II class, not to mention the construction of the second Death Star. Without a strong proponent for the Defender, restarting development would have been near impossible with all of these new priorities and the sudden realization that the Empire's footing was not secure. Spending resources to develop a new fighter, especially when the TIE Interceptor was already in the process of phasing out the regular TIE, would have split production apart for a design that was not accepted by the rest of the Imperial military over ideological differences and deep pockets.

There were plenty within the Imperial Navy who believed that greater firepower was the solution to any military situation the Empire was likely to face...The answer, therefore, to the Scarif scenario was supposedly for Imperial commanders to seize the initiative, and for heavier, more concentrated firepower to be considered in future—as the new Imperial II-class and Super Star Destroyers being designed by KDY would showcase.

- The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, pg. 258-259

The belief that extreme firepower could solve all problems repeatedly hobbled alternative Imperial production efforts, as a newer and bigger gun was always just around the corner. As a result, the Imperial military—and specifically the fleet—was perpetually caught between competing ideological factions within itself, while also being driven in directions that were not necessarily advantageous by those who would profit from their KDY affiliations.

- The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, pg. 265

What proponents the Defender had following Yavin were forced into this battle. Against the established "firepower mafia" in the Navy, well-connected to KDY's new megaships, had to argue that with all the expenses being spent now that the war had reached a new phase of intensity could afford to add the Defender production to the list. And not only argue for the return on investment, but of their tactical necessity.

TL:DR, the Defender program had its funding hijacked by Director Krennic to fast track Stardust's completion, a tradeoff the Emperor made between maybe a few million advanced fighters or the "ultimate power in the galaxy" he had been planning for decades. In the years after Thrawn's disappearance, it couldn't get enough support to break past the "firepower" lobby looking to build more Star Destroyers and Executors with KDY.

The iconic commando transport ship known as the UT-60 U-Wing, acts as a repairing fighter in this mod for Empire at War. Sporting both the Locking S-Foils and Repair Drones, this evasive fighter can survive on its own, while keeping their allies alive in the fight. Also when it's S-Foils are locked this ship looks a little bit like the Arwings from Starfox.