Prompted by a comment in another thread, I have been considering the interaction of Star Wars ships, specifically a squadron of Imperial-class Star Destroyers, with ships from the Honorverse, specifically a squadron of Medusa-class Podnaughts. (If you don't know what that is, go read On Basilisk Station, and then keep going)

My first thought is that TIE bombers will come as something of a shock to the Royal Manticoran Navy. They are far, far smaller than any armed vessel the RMN has ever imagined. They don't have a wedge, so they won't be detected instantly, and they can operate INSIDE the wedge, no problem. Proton torpedoes are, in my understanding, roughly equivalent to contact nukes, and each T/B carries 12 or so. (drawing from the TIE Fighter game)

On the other hand, RMN point defence is not to be trifled with. Once they detect the T/B and proton torpedoes, they are toast.

My second thought is that a Podnaught is about 1.3 KM long, similar to an ISD length of 1.6 KM. The impeller wedge of a Podnaught is "hundreds of kilometers" long and wide. That means that not only could a TIE Bomber operate inside the wedge, an entire squadron of ISD could operate inside the wedge, too. This would, of course, put the ISD in range of the energy batteries.

My third thought, prompted by the second thought, is that weapons range on the ISD is about 2 KM, and weapons range on a Podnaught, with Ghost Rider (because of course) is several light minutes. Fire control for 200 pods of 8 missiles each, times an eight-ship squadron is 12,800 missiles. They can launch that salvo every two minutes, ten times. That, of course, is likely to leave a mark. Further, ISD don't have the kind of point-defence required to survive attacks of that kind.

The biggest challenge facing the RMN would be finding the targets. An ISD is a big piece of metal, but only slightly bigger than a Podnaught. In Honorverse, primary targeting is by way of gravitic sensors, detecting the wedge of ships. Star Wars ships don't HAVE a wedge, so they would go undetected for some time.

The only thing that might save the Empire would be the unknown power output of ISD Shields. It is reasonable that Star Wars shield technology is far and away beyond that of the Honorverse. Planetary Shields are common enough, and a terrorist organization can get their hands on a ground facility shield strong enough to hold off bombardment from a squadron of capital ships. It is conceivable that Turbolasers are far more powerful than Grazers. It is not out of the question, therefore, that laserheads might simply not be powerful enough to concern an ISD.

If this were the case, then it would be energy weapons only. The RMN still has the range advantage, to an insane degree. RMN energy weapons have a range of one or two light seconds, while the squadron of ISD would have to first batter down a sidewall, then fly another few hundred kilometers just to get in weapons range of the hull, all under continual fire from energy mounts and point defense clusters. (although if the ISD is shrugging off a few thousand laser heads, point defences aren't going to bother it at all)

Sadly, I don't think there's a good way to measure either grasers, turbolasers, shields or sidewalls in a way that would allow us to make a useful comparison.

I welcome any comment, criticism, correction, or question.

Anyone who wants to learn more of the Honorverse, go read On Basilisk Station. I think Baen Free Ebooks Library passes it out for free. Be warned; David Weber is an acquired taste.

I feel like I just read a verbal account of an acid trip....

But I am also strangely interested in this book now and will check them out!

Oh JgzMan, what have you done!

I do think its a rough comparison as Honor is truly SIENCE-fiction and Star Wars is FANTASY-fiction.

I have often found myself daydreaming of what would Star Wars tech/ships/weapons be like/behave like in the real physics that Weber purposes within the Star Wars universe itself. I think you would still have VERY cool ships, weapons and fight sequences. Weber is polarizing, as I have only met people who really love his stuff, but I have read online plenty of people who do not. However, as JgzMan pointed out: do yourself a favor and at least read Basklisk Station, Top Cow (or Image) also did a 5 or 6 part comic of it, pretty good representation.

I think the range issue, speed of the ships and weapons and the tech advantage, give the Royal Manticoran Navy a clear advantage here. (Just a quick disclaimer, I do understand we are talking about two fictional universes!) In "Honor of the Queen" (the 2nd book in the series) the RMN is dumbfounded to find one of their out of the way allies (The Greysons) still using thrust propulsion (like in SW).

The RMN seems to have a SOP of deploying sensor drones to cover wide areas, they would be able to detect and locate any SDs and fire upon them, my guess would be without the SDs even knowing they were in the system, let alone firing range. This would take any SD unawares and shields or no, they are sitting ducks.

However, lets say in your above examples, the SDs manage to close the distance, again my guess would be a good Captain would roll ship, present the top or bottom the wedge and "ram" any ship into oblivion with said wedge.

Again, lets say that the SDs manage to get within the wedge, the RMN ships have 3 layers of anti missile (and thus anti TIE anything) defense, that any physical attacks or attackers are going to get shredded. I always got the impression that the laser and grazers had a lot more firepower than the turbo lasers of SDs.

So, there is my 2 cents.

Ah, I never even considered the speed imbalance.

For the knowlessman, Honorverse ships are rated at accelerations. A large ship might pull 400 or 500 gravities of acceleration, with a practical maximum speed of 0.8c. Star Wars ships move at... some velocity. Never been made sure what.

Even with the sensor drones, locating the ISD would be tricky, but not impossible. In-universe, the best form of stealth is to simply turn off your wedge. Most of the cases where drones located powered-down ships was when those ships were in predictable locations, such as parking orbit.

I agree with you about the point defences. Once TIEs are registered as a threat, and the sensors dialed in, they are toast. Point defence intended to pick off 100 incoming missiles in one and one half seconds will make short work of a flight of TIE bombers.

On the topic of Grasers vs Turbolasers, I agree that we get the impression that grasers are more powerful, but that's because Weber describes them lovingly as the hammer of the gods. We never get any good idea of how strong a turbolaser is, so we have no way to judge how strong shields are. It could be one way, or the other.

Ramming with the wedge would be dirty pool. It would work really well, though.

Like you, I'm sure the RMN would have it all it's own way. The only thing that would suggest otherwise is the trouble with sensors, which can be overcome, and the posibility that SW shields are far more powerful than RMN weapons, which can't really be proven one way or the other.

My friend that I'm discussing this with strongly suggests that the Empire would have a huge force multiplier, by way of "Space Wizards."

Honestly I thought a better comparison would be the Stars at War series that Weber wrote with Steve White.

Some important things to remember, StarWars ships have FTL sensors and are not affected by a hyperlimit so they could pop out at say 5 light hours, get a fix on the various ships in system calculate their possible location and jump in right on top of them shooting. Since they don't use the same hyperspace you get no footprints.

Also ISD's shielding would not be penetrated by Honorverse weapons and all of the Medusa ships wouldn't have wedges or anything up. Maximum acceleration for Medusa vessel is 500g the executor class SSD at 10 KM long and Billions of tons has an Acceleration of 2000g. I am sure that ISD have a greater acceleration. Also StarWars various listed ranges are based on visuals in the movies. In several games the ranges are much farther. (still not in Honorverse class)