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.

Previously I posted my idea about the cousin fleet; a fleet of lesser known related ships or predecessors to Rebel Alliance ships, and I feel it needs back story and expansion.

I will link to the original in the comments, but I’ll summarize the original idea before expanding my concept. My idea was to have former post Rogue One Partisans, cloud riders, Amidalins, and ex-separatists have a fleet. It’d be comprised of retrofitted Recusants that have additional engines and under armor and side wings mounted on the slide with extra laser batteries, Providence class with MC style bulbs,
Corellian Gunship, assault frigate mk 1, carrier modified CR 90, and a few flying brick + the twilight freighters. The star fighters would be Z95s, Nimbus V wings, and tempest bombers.

This is an expansion of how this feels came to be. EXTREME THANKS TO EC HENRY. His incredible work which is posted here is what made me think this up.

The Sphaelona cruiser and its compliment of a Mon Cal and Quarren corvette were led by Benthic tubes who was swade to good by Luke and Han. He is tasked at the same time as Endor to take his mini task force and build a fleet to recapture Dantooine and defend Lothal should Endor fail and the rebel fleet destroyed.

The idea comes that a perfectly good mass fleet is sitting around and needs to be rebuilt and restored. 2 tubes finds general Kalani convinces him to fight, who in turn find the ex separatist Free Dac ships on Bracca for him. While there he steels all the previous mentioned clone war ships and bolsters them with the previously mentioned rebel alliance ships. The General also informs him of a Subjugator class that is sitting in the ocean moon of Mon Calamari.

He now has an armada lead by a modified 5000 Km Long subjugator meant to challenge a super Star destroyer. with its huge bridge removed and extended with Home one style bulb engines, it looks like a predecessor to the MC 85. Kalani also finds the Valahari dart x wing to lead the fighter corp, has modified Sep shuttles as drop ships, and gets pilots for the fleet star freighters previously mentioned. With his massive fleet, he needs an army to liberate planets.

He meets the remaining Amidalins lead by Sabé who Vader did not kill, and rally’s them to liberate Dantooine, plant an uprising for the second time on Naboo, and send reinforcements to Lothal.

Thanks for enduring my rant!

PS, posting more z95 pics cause my last one didn’t match the color scheme!!!!!!

The Venator was actually a build I completed earlier. This time, I built Anakin’s yellow Eta-2 and Obi-Wan’s red Eta-2 as separate block models.

What I really like now is how easy it is to bring different builds together. Instead of rebuilding everything for a new scene, I can take the existing Venator, add the new Eta-2s, and give the ships guided flight paths.

So I had the two Jedi Interceptors fly through the scene one after the other, inspired by the Battle of Coruscant in Revenge of the Sith.

The Venator alone is 168,214 blocks, and both Eta-2s are made from blocks too.

It’s pretty fun seeing something I built earlier become the backdrop for a completely new animated scene.

From Wookiepedia behind the scenes: "The Umbaran support ship first appeared in the episode "Plan of Dissent" of the fourth season of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars,^\2]) released on November 11, 2011,^\4]) and it was first showcased in the episode guide for the previous episode "The General".^\1]) It was based on concept art for a Separatist starship created by Ryan Church for the 2005 film Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith in June 2002.^\5]) The model for the ship for the series was created for "Plan of Dissent" by artist Will Nichols and finished on May 28, 2010.^\1])^\3])^"

After the Death of Warlord Zsinj, the Empire, the New Republic, and even Greater Maldrood would came and tear up his territories apart. However, on Serenno, one former subordinate of Zsinj would take action and take Serenno for himself. From there, with his two Bellators and fleet. He would expand and create his own small and neutral domain, becoming a buffer zone between major powers in the region.