Amusing question, In A new hope, we dont see the Death star escorted by any star destroyers, or any other vessels, we can assume at least one can be docked in the massive space station, and of course it has tons of Tie Fighters, but no real escort fleet.

We know the Super Laser of the original star destroyer could not target capital ships, and the Rebel Fleet is rather small at this point, but if they gathered the entire "assembly" of Rebel forces, could the Rebel Alliance have stormed the Death Star, and take control of it.

Especially considering the new U-Wing, and the multitude of various other transports like the Falcon and Ghost at their disposal. The X-Wings fly ahead, just like in A New Hope, while the rebel boarding force hangs back, the X-wings distract the turbo lasers, possibly destroying or at least knocking out generators for them temporarily with Ion Torpedo's. The U-Wings fly in force, storming the hanger bays on multiple levels, the Ghost with its Jedi storming yet another floor, and Luke, and friends in yet one more, head towards the prison level to free support.

A-Wings and other ships fighting off Tie Fighters by the wings.....

The main threat to this entire enterprise would of course be Darth Vader.... Could Luke, Ezra and Kanan Jarrus stand up to him, What if Asoka showed up as well.

Could the Alliance actually MANAGE to successfully hold a few floors of the death star long enough for more Alliance support to show up before Imperials blockade the Death Star.

Would the Emperor foresee such an attack!

DISCUSS NOW!

Minor rogue one spoiler if you haven't seen it yet. But the first death star COULD target capital ships.

However smaller and faster ones like blockade runners would probably be safe.

Even if the rebels could somehow take control of the death star. The imperial fleet could bombard it to slag since their fleet is way bigger and more powerful than the rebels.

No. The Death Star's own defenses were "designed around a direct, large scale attack". It was built with the need to defend itself from an attack like that in mind and had plenty of turbo laser firepower to slag any big ships that got close.

Even if the rebellion could land troops on the station, there were probably more stormtroopers on the death star than combat troops in the entire rebellion.

The Death Star was the size of a small moon, with many, many levels. So boarding it would be akin to a full scale invasion of a small planet that was inhabited by nothing but enemy combatants.

DISCUSS NOW!

NO!

Or maybe yes, if we want to. What is it with so many posts ending in 'discuss'? Is that an American school thing or something?

But getting through 7000 TIE Fighters and a bunch of docked cruisers, in addition to the known (that Ciena Ree novel) docked Star Destroyers with enough troops to combat a few hundred thousand stationed troops.

That would be like the remnants of the Belgian army launching a succesful counteroffensive beating the Germans completely in 1917.

Rogue One really does make the Empire seem less stupid.

Minor rogue one spoiler if you haven't seen it yet. But the first death star COULD target capital ships.

I don't recall it ever targeting them in the movie - though if it can target cities, it ought to be able to target ships. Still, might be a bit of a struggle if the ship is moving and maneuvering.

The "ordinary" turbolasers though - I could see it using a lot, against fleets.

In the Rogue One novel, there's a reference to one of the things the Empire demanded of the superlaser design team, being a rapid recharge rate to full power. More rapid than the 1 per 24 hours that the EU gave. It's unclear if the demand was fulfilled, but it seems plausible that it was. And of course firing at low power gets around a low rate, even if it had one.

Minor rogue one spoiler if you haven't seen it yet. But the first death star COULD target capital ships.

I don't recall it ever targeting them in the movie - though if it can target cities, it ought to be able to target ships. Still, might be a bit of a struggle if the ship is moving and maneuvering.

A city is usually quite a bit larger in surface area than a capital ship though.

Depends on the city - good point though. I could see the Death Star being able to hit a stationary Large ship, like the Profundity or Home One - but it would struggle to hit a moving smaller ship.

Depends on the city - good point though.

Not a lot of cities smaller than 1200 by a few hundred meters. . That's a street. .

You could fit 3 Home One's end to end in Central Park. .

Anyway, we know DSII hitting capital ships, it's not unlikely that DSI had similar targeting capabilities. Which seems a bit weird, when aiming for a planet precision aiming is not exactly high on the priority list you would assume.

Minor rogue one spoiler if you haven't seen it yet. But the first death star COULD target capital ships.

I don't recall it ever targeting them in the movie - though if it can target cities, it ought to be able to target ships. Still, might be a bit of a struggle if the ship is moving and maneuvering.

A city is usually quite a bit larger in surface area than a capiital ship though.

When the death star arrives an aide asks tarkin if they should start targeting the rebels ships. He says no attack scarif since Vader is taking care of the fleet.

Spoilers as always.

The Death Star did bullseye a communications hub smaller than a CR-90. That far off hit was just the planet blocking the remaining 99.9% of the blast. If it can snipe Krennic from orbit, it could probably have hit any of the stationary ships. What it might not have been able to do compared to the 2nd DS is fire a fractional of a one reactor shot in order to rapidly recharge and do so again like in ROTJ.

As for taking over the Death Star, that's pretty much impossible. Even if the garrison only inhabited the surface of the station, it would likely outmatch anything the Rebels could muster. But we're talking layers upon layers under the surface which greatly expands the surface area. Canon estimates put the garrison as about as large as the combined armed forces of the United States. It doesn't matter if the Rebels had a trillion fighters, the narrow corridors would be too much of a bottleneck to feed a full fledged assault through which means the invaders would constantly have to push into withering fire while the defenders could just fall back to the next block.

In space, pretty much anything larger than the Falcon would be turned to scrap by the station's defensive weaponry. Once again, small moon. The Rebels barely made a dent in the turbolaser batteries during the actual DS run, there's no way they could occupy all of them at once. And if the station actually launched all of its TIE Fighters, then the Rebel fighters would be hopelessly outmatched.

As far as Jedi are concerned, Kanan and Ezra were absolutely stomped by Darth Vader during their sole duel against each other. Ahsoka is implied to have lost to Vader and Luke at that point had deflected a grand total of 3 remote droid bolts in his entire career. I'm certain Vader would make a beeline for them as soon as lightsabers were brandished and even if they were in different groups he would have enough time to dispatch each group at his leisure before the others had a chance of making a dent in the station's defenses.

In summary, it is important to remember that the infiltration of the Death Star in ANH was just that; an infiltration. Coming in the Imperials didn't consider them a threat and going out the Imperials wanted them to escape so they could be tracked back to the Rebel base. Considering the Falcon was caught in the station's tractor beam while the station was still globe sized in the cockpit, I'm sure the Falcon could have been destroyed at leisure had the Imperials wished.

Alrighty, I'll put forth my two cents on each of the points from the OP.

Capital ships would have been no good. Rogue One seemed to hint that the superlaser could indeed target capital ships, retconning from Legends canon. Using a single firing chamber as they did in the movie, the laser probably wouldn't need the full 24 hours to recharge (unless they retconned that too). But even without the superlaser, during the briefing before the assault on the first Death Star it was stated that the Death Star's defenses were designed to repel any large ship attacks, hence why a fighter squadron was sent instead.

But let's say the Rebels just sent GR-75 transports and what U-Wings they have left escorted by every fighter and combat-capable freighter they have. Those transports might small enough that they may be able to evade the large-ship defenses long enough to get into hangers (assuming the Empire doesn't shield its hangers when under attack). And the fighters might be able to damage enough defense turrets to allow smaller craft through.

The only problem with that is the legion of TIE Fighters the Death Star can/would spew out. The Rebel fighters would be outnumbered and the chances of getting anything through would lower significantly. In the movie, only Black Squadron was sent out against the 30 Rebel fighters because Tarkin (assumingly) believed Vader and his best pilots could handle that small of a Rebel squadron (which they almost did) and didn't think of them as a threat. A larger Rebel force would call for more TIE fighters.

But let's give the Rebels the benefit of the doubt and assume they somehow made it inside with minimal losses to their transports. It still doesn't bode well for them. Conquering a battle station the size of a moon would require an army the likes of which the Rebel Alliance didn't have. Capital ship reinforcements would have been impossible because of the aforementioned outer defenses, and a second wave of transport ships would also have been very unlikely with the Imperials now on full alert. All while Imperial reinforcements are coming to assist.

They're also invading a titanic space station that is under complete imperial control full of more stormtroopers and security forces than any of them can imagine. They'd have to slog through section after section while simultaneously trying not to lose the areas they've already taken, including the hanger(s) they've come in from. Even if they made it to a detention block with prisoners, that's not going to be enough extra troops to take the station. The Imperials would quickly and fairly easily start cutting the Rebels off, cornering them, and win that war of attrition. Could the Rebels hold for a while in the areas they manage to take? Sure. But defeat the Imperial forces and take a significant section of the battle station? Absolutely not.

But the Rebels have the Force on their side! Except it's not enough. If we pretend Ezra, Kanan, Ahsoka, and Luke were all there, they'd definitely be great for moral support. And be among the Rebel's biggest advantage in this assault. Only Luke's not a Jedi at this point, or trained in any way outside of a lesson or two from Obi-Wan. And Jedi can be overwhelmed in a fight. Throw enough stormtroopers at a Jedi and eventually the Jedi will fall.

If we throw Vader into the mix, Luke, Ezra, and Kanan are hopelessly outmatched. Ahsoka would probably end up standing alone against him, and the outcome of that is not in favor of Ahsoka. Though she would be the only one of the three to give him an actual fight.

In the end, a direct assault on the Death Star with what the Rebels had had an improbable chance of success. The Rebels have made the impossible possible in the past, but in trying to invade the Death Star, it's easier to just blow the thing and go home.

Whats amusing is Yoda actually managed to "take control" of the station by Jedi Mind Trick, during a What if comic and ended up crashing on the "Imperial Center" killing himself and the Emperor, just as Leia Han and Chewie and Luke escaped on the falcon... I know it was based on what if Luke missed the shot...

The only thing that really annoyed me about that comic is...

As you can see, Death Star explodes on impact...sure sure but I cant remember the aftermath being mentioned, and if we were to speculate, everyone on the planet would have died I think considering the reactor size and just straight up weight and force of the impact..., thus turning Yoda into a villain just as bad as Palp......

Amusing question, In A new hope, we dont see the Death star escorted by any star destroyers, or any other vessels, we can assume at least one can be docked in the massive space station, and of course it has tons of Tie Fighters, but no real escort fleet.

We know the Super Laser of the original star destroyer could not target capital ships, and the Rebel Fleet is rather small at this point, but if they gathered the entire "assembly" of Rebel forces, could the Rebel Alliance have stormed the Death Star, and take control of it.

Especially considering the new U-Wing, and the multitude of various other transports like the Falcon and Ghost at their disposal. The X-Wings fly ahead, just like in A New Hope, while the rebel boarding force hangs back, the X-wings distract the turbo lasers, possibly destroying or at least knocking out generators for them temporarily with Ion Torpedo's. The U-Wings fly in force, storming the hanger bays on multiple levels, the Ghost with its Jedi storming yet another floor, and Luke, and friends in yet one more, head towards the prison level to free support.

A-Wings and other ships fighting off Tie Fighters by the wings.....

The main threat to this entire enterprise would of course be Darth Vader.... Could Luke, Ezra and Kanan Jarrus stand up to him, What if Asoka showed up as well.

Could the Alliance actually MANAGE to successfully hold a few floors of the death star long enough for more Alliance support to show up before Imperials blockade the Death Star.

Would the Emperor foresee such an attack!

DISCUSS NOW!

We'll take this one bit at a time, with a little not to the previous post where yes; Yoda would become the worst villain in galactic history by killing 100X more people than ever lived on Alderaan and destroying the human homewold all in one fell swoop.

Renaming the planet "Imperial Center" does not change the entire population into scum so vile that genocide is a moral option.

So as for the speculation.

Spoilers as always.

The Death Star did bullseye a communications hub smaller than a CR-90. That far off hit was just the planet blocking the remaining 99.9% of the blast. If it can snipe Krennic from orbit, it could probably have hit any of the stationary ships. What it might not have been able to do compared to the 2nd DS is fire a fractional of a one reactor shot in order to rapidly recharge and do so again like in ROTJ.

Huh, funny. I'd interpreted the laser going through the tower but hitting outside the base as a bit of an aiming error, but still effective in its destruction, not as an intentional "let's just hit the top of the tower (where they had no knowledge of Krennic being there) and see what happens next".

Ah well.

Huh, funny. I'd interpreted the laser going through the tower but hitting outside the base as a bit of an aiming error, but still effective in its destruction, not as an intentional "let's just hit the top of the tower (where they had no knowledge of Krennic being there) and see what happens next".

Still sounds like a valid interpretation to me - that they intended to hit the tower dead on but instead only the fringe of the beam hit the tower.

How about hacking it? Wasn't there an EU story about on of the IG -88 droids uploading itself into the death star?

Thats actually the death Star 2, IG-88 steals the Death Star Main Core Computer, and copy pastes himself onto it, and attempts to tank control to cause a Droid Rebellion all across the universe, and right when he is about to use the death star to transmit the "Attack" command for the droids, Wedge's torpedos hit the control tower, and Lando fires into the core, destroying IG-88.

Its the first story i think in Tales of the Bounty Hunters novel. Its a entire story, and quite well written, if you didn't read the entire thing you should.

Assuming that a strike force could land in the Death Star's hangar bay and a lot, lot, lot of troops, the problem still remain that they would have to fight through a lot of levels to actually reach something critical (I highly doubt that there is an express train between the hangar and the main power generator). The more time that passes, the more stormtroopers are likely to eventually remember that there must be a crate of grenades somewhere and we all know how efficient grenades are

DISCUSS NOW!

NO!

Or maybe yes, if we want to. What is it with so many posts ending in 'discuss'? Is that an American school thing or something?

No, it a Bulgarian click-bait sort of thing. Not sure why people write posts that way.

To answer the OP:

From Wookieepedia, the first Death Star was 160km in diameter. That's large enough to stand out even compared to entire countries (Japan, for instance, is 230km at its widest), and that's just two dimensions! When you consider the number of levels which must exist (even allowing for significant room for the superlaser, reactor, etc.) it's highly unlikely that the Alliance would be able to field a force that could pose a serious threat in a frontal assault. Moreover, even if the forces could be gathered and the landing made, keep in mind that there are probably countless blast doors between the hanger bays and anything important. Any assaulting force would be quickly locked down until the Empire could bring its overwhelming numerical superiority to bear on it.

Assuming that a strike force could land in the Death Star's hangar bay and a lot, lot, lot of troops, the problem still remain that they would have to fight through a lot of levels to actually reach something critical (I highly doubt that there is an express train between the hangar and the main power generator). The more time that passes, the more stormtroopers are likely to eventually remember that there must be a crate of grenades somewhere and we all know how efficient grenades are

Only if it's tossed into a shuttle. Otherwise you're more likely to drop it at your feet after being shot.

"A blaster bolt may have your name on it, but a thermal detonator is addressed "to whom it may concern" "

OK REVIVE THE THE THREAD WITH AN ALTERNATIVE QUESTION...

What if During the battle of Yavin, Rebel Forces launched capital ships like CR-90s to assist with dealing with the fighters in the area of the Trench Run and created a "air superiority" zone around where the rebels were focusing there attacks. If we base the Battle of the Death Star as a planetary invasion, wouldnt it be possible to not INVADE the ship then, but at least create a temporary "free fly zone" along a small surface area by destroying Turbo Lasers, to allow CR-90s to give fire support for the then bombers and X-Wings actually performing the Trench Run.

Since there are so many of you who claim the First Death Star CAN target capital ships, at least larger ones, we can deny the rebels anything larger then the CR-90, which means no Nebulon Bs or anything.