Talk:Second Battle of Tiamat

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Size

I'm pretty sure this was the single largest battle of the war between the Alliance and the Empire. Yang's battle in the Iserlohn Corridor doesn't count as that was under the El Facil flag. Is there any evidence to the contrary? I don't think the Battle of Amritsar is a candidate since the depleted Alliance fleets would have made for a smaller total number of participating ships compared to Tiamat. Iracundus 13:44, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

First Rantemario would have been bigger. The Alliance brought only 8,000 ships less than they had at 2nd Tiamat, but Reinhard brought 112,700 warships alone (and 41,900 supply ships backing them up) to the party. Vympel 13:57, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Ashbey Surviving

Would it have changed the course of the War that much? Sure, there'd have been an highly competent Admiral who might have been able to bring about a more cohesive approach to the war, but Ashbey, although a formidable tactician, wasn't much of a long-term strategist.

Besides, he was starting to alienate the rest of the 730 Mafia, Cope and Warwick in particular. I wonder if those two would have stuck around much longer. FPA Forever 12:22, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Depends on whether Ashbey surviving would have affected the construction of Iserlohn. If Ashbey could have halted the construction by attacking, then it might have kept the strategic situation more fluid, and the Alliance would have preserved more strength instead of whittling it away in the failed Iserlohn offensives. If Iserlohn's construction still proceeds, then I don't see Ashbey really changing the overall big picture. Ashbey's flair was for individual battles, not a grand strategy approach aimed at winning the war. Ashbey's victories were led only to the destruction of Imperial fleets, which while aggravating, did not substantially weaken the Empire as a political entity. Even 2nd Tiamat didn't really change things other than buying the Alliance maybe 10 years of breathing space, since the Alliance could not capitalize on the victory. It was only later when the Alliance had Iserlohn as a supply base that it could actually have the ability to launch an offensive into the Empire. The entire history of the war prior to the animation is essentially of ongoing minor battles that only accomplish the destruction of some field forces, punctuated about once a generation by a major Imperial offensive that gets turned back by the Alliance. Iracundus 17:08, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Very true. In fact, the only way history would have been drastically changed would have been if Ashbey had been able to look past his own ego and think strategically, and had pushed for his initial fortress project. With a space fortress guarding Alliance territory, the FPA might have had enough breathing space to rebuild its economy and defenses sufficiently. FPA Forever 02:10, 6 July 2012 (UTC)