Talk:Battle of the Corridor

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Ship Count

Does anybody know if there is a precise count of the total Imperial ships? As an aside, just why Mecklinger thought Yang had more ships is beyond me as there weren't 100,000 ships for Yang to confiscate in the remnants of the Alliance. Iracundus 23:41, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

I don't believe so, no. An estimate using the standard High Admiral-fleet size range of ~15,000 ships each is the best you could do. As for Mecklinger, I believe he thought that Yang had closer to 40,000 ships as opposed to 20,000, so he didn't want to attack with a numerically inferior force (i.e. 15,000 vs 20,000, with the other half blocking the Neue Land entrance) alone. Silly, of course, its a contrivance for Mecklinger to be passive for *days* - if he had attacked Yang's position would've been untenable. Vympel 02:28, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

About the only reference I can find offhand is that for Fahrenheit and Bittenfeld after their defeat. Yes, you are right in that it is a contrivance to keep the Empire from truly leveraging its numerical advantage. If Mecklinger had bitten the bullet and gone to battle, the situation would have been similar to the Eleventh Battle of Iserlohn. Eventually Yang would have had to turn to deal with the other Imperial force in the other direction, and been weaker after already fighting Mecklinger. The fear that Mecklinger had about an attack into the Empire if they fought and lost was excessive given that Yang could not possibly have had enough to hold both Iserlohn and do anything significant to the Empire's territory. If Yang had given up Iserlohn to head into the Empire with everything he had then he would have lost his greatest supply base. Yang would have become a fugitive fleet on the run in enemy territory that was hardly likely to rise up to support him after the Alliance's botched invasion.

Now one could argue Mecklinger's caution was a growing symptom of the problem starting to affect Reinhard's admirals. They were starting to become increasingly passive instead of using their own initiative due to some stiffening of the command hierarchy. The inactivity of the Imperial admirals at the Battle of Shiva after Reinhard's collapse is another instance of this passivity. They all stood around waiting for orders from above. Actually the last few times we see the admirals show initiative in the New Galactic Empire, such as Lutz's failed trap for Yang, Fahrenheit/Bittenfeld in the Battle of the Corridor, and Wahlen/Wagenseil at the Eleventh Battle of Iserlohn, they all end up being defeated. Iracundus 04:57, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

A *lot* about LOGH is highly contrived. To enjoy it, one must often suspend disbelief.FPA Forever

I was just noting that particular contrivance offhand. Anyway, I don't think Mecklinger's actions can be explained by passivity due to stiffening of the command heirarchy. Mecklinger wasn't under Reinhard's direct command and control at the time (they had no communications), he merely declined to engage - contrary to Wahlen and Wagensiel as you refer). It is of course completely correct for the admiralty to defer to Reinhard when under his direct command, if you disobey orders you get yourself killed after all, demonstrated multiple times in the show. That's not a failure of the system, its the system working but a component (i.e. Reinhard) being broken and nobody being told about it (until Bittenfeld and Eisenach had enough and finished it). Vympel 05:39, 10 February 2013 (UTC)