More between Damocles and Walker 957

This is an update on my tactical analysis of the battle in [i]The Hand of God[/i]

Walker 957 had some observations about my analysis of [i]The Batle of the Tylium Asteroid.[/i]

[quote]Good point about the basestars mobility and fuel needs. Although it could have jumped outside the area and sent in raiders, this would have been much less effective.

But on what I remember, it seemed that the freighters and Galactica jumped in on opposite sides of the base. The feint was to put Galactia on the ‘dark’ side of the base to avoid sensors, which is where a patrol might spot them.

Also, the Raiders inbound on the freighters pulled a 180 to acquire Galactica as a target.

The Vipers sent out against the Raiders were the true diversion, meaning that most of the new/less experienced pilots were probably flying them. We do see Hot Dog in that group.

An interesting point is that even though the Cylons lost, the Raiders didn’t just continue to attack, but instead run away. We’ve seen that they have FTL capability, a Raider could just as easily jump away, or serve as a messenger instead of FTL communications.

Creditted to Walker 957

[/quote]

This is my continuation of my discussion with Walker 957. D.

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For those of you who are confused as to the gun camera footage of the battle?

When you get the chance to see it again, look at the layout of the [b]Galactica[/b] staff’s manual plot of the battle on their “push table” as well as their “plexiglas threat plot”-an obsolete WW II manual plotting method aircraft carrier’s [i]air intercept tracking parties[/i] used to use to plot vectors of enemy in-bound “vampires” in [i]The Hand of God[/i].

You will see the battle was laid out in a triangular fashion.

The Colonials played the corners.

It was the Saul Tigh/Lee Adama plan to put [b]Galactica[/b] on the dark side of the base to use the base shadow cone to mask [b]Galactica’s[/b] in-jump from telescopic as well as active radar observation. Kara pointed out that the Cylons would have a covering patrol to unmask the Cylon base’s blind arc. That was one reason that the Tigh/Adama “conventional plan” was “scuttled.”

Raiders doing a 180 flip was a CGI glitch, and/or “cool”.

Or it could be at the close range approach vector that the Cylons used to set up their attack runs on the freighters, the raiders positioned themselves so that, the relative angle of approach to re-vector on [b]Galactica[/b] required them to 180 to achieve the correct new heading. Who knows?

The [b]Galactica[/b] strike package was a major feint to draw off the Cylon reserve and their fighting patrol and I never said otherwise. However it was the [b]Galactica[/b], herself, and not Strike One or the freighters that was the main decoy.

Callsign “Chuckles” was a Nugget. He was part of Lee’s flak suppression element in his strike package. He was splashed.

When the Cylon base was destroyed, their base “ground controlled intercept” radar and “positive control intercept” management of the battle space died with the base. Those raiders were vectoring blind.

Could the raiders have jumped? Who knows? Does the standard raider have to have contact with a navigation beacon like a transponder to home in on to aboard a base star?[MAJOR SPOILER TO FUTURE EPISODE!] to obtain jump co-ordinates?

It also, I should mention be an incomplete victory(from the dramatic point of view) if the episode’s writers didn’t have Strike One pursue and destroy the machines once the raider’s “master control” was destroyed.

There is also this. We, now, KNOW that Raptors can jump up to twelve lightyears, and keep a positon/vector fix on Galactica based upon the Lee Adama dialogue in the episode [i]The Hand of God[/i]. We know Raiders can jump. We have not seen Vipers jump. What we don’t know is the jump range of the Raiders without transponder support. It must be short. Maybe only a matter of light hours, if the Raiders need base stars to ferry them into attack range of major targets like planets.(I can’t say more than this without giving away MAJOR SPOILERS in the season closers. D.)

Now that I have answered these points, Walker(And I think you for pointimng them out! )…..I can add the following.

Cylon raiders seemed to be slaved to some “master control” communication system with an overall “fighter intercept director”. This seems to be an attempt of the writers to deliberately mirror “Soviet” air battle doctrine that insisted on “positive ground control” of all aircraft in an air battle-leaving little or no initiative to the lead pilots of individual flights.

It was made painfully obvious that the Colonial SWAC Raptor’s crews(Boomer and Crashdown especially) performed the AWACS function in the “Western” air battle doctrine of supplying information, warning, and tactical intelligence to the Colonial Viper pilots so that they could make local decisions themselves based on information they received. The recall from [b]Galactica[/b] made in accordance with the information supplied by the Boomer/Crashdown team was in accordance with the battle plan and did not amount to the close battle management style of the “Soviet” system, but rather the generalized battle management style of the “Western” system that left local initiative in the hands of the pilots. Witness Lee Adama’s unconventional tactics in his attack on the Tylium fuel processor and Kara’s pounding into that by-the-book-pilot’s head(before the battle) to show initiative at the point of contact/decision;

[i]”We only get one shot at this. Don’t frak it up by overthinking!” [/i]

What’s the point?

Once the Cylon raiders lost their master control, they were unable to handle the situational awareness of their battle space. They became gunnery targets for the surviving Nuggets of Strike One and the returning survivors of Strike Two.

So Ablespacewoman Dualla could say in transmitting the William Adama order;

[b]”Tear them up!” [/b]

And Vipers outnumbered five to one had a jolly time splashing Raiders in a frenzy of duck hunting.(Not shown on film.).

That also implies another thing.

Raidsers CANNOT jump without a navigation beacon and positive control.

They lost that when their base went bye bye.

It also suggests that their base stars were beyond communication range.

It also proves that the Cylons and Colonials have FTL radio, but practiced EMCON when necessary to mask their unit locations.(Notice; that the the Boomer/Crashdown team practiced radio silence when they passively detected the Tylium facility? And that they vectored out immediately beyond Cylon raider jump pursuit range and probably used an indirect return vector to [b]Galactica[/b]?)

It suggests further evidence that raiders have limited jump range. It also suggests that neither the Colonials, nor the Cylons can locate the positon of a ship after a long range jump without some kind of beacon.(Episode entitled; 33).

These are points I didn’t bring up because: either’
1. I didn’t think of them.
2. You hadn’t brought them to my attention, yet.(Thank you!)
3. The points were too obvious for me to explain.
4. Discussing the points in detail would reveal future episode plot elements.
5. The points were peripheral to the main discussion.
6. The post was already complicated enough for me to keep track of the main subject without bogging the reader down in sidebar details.

Still the battle analysis covers a subject episode rich enough that we can keep this thread going(hint hint ); with a discussion, where people can point out my errors and I can update my analysis; as others present new observations and new ideas as to what happened and why.

Who knew that one episode would occupy so much effort?

Did anybody ever do this kind of battle analysis for the old Battlestar Galactica episode [i]Gun on Ice Planet Zero[/i]?