Andrew Bucholtz · @AndrewBucholtz
12th Feb 2013 from Twitlonger
Specific critiques of that Wired piece on The Battle of Hoth (http://ow.ly/hF1k1), conveniently in one tweet:
-"In essence, the Rebels built a shield that can’t keep an invader out and complicates their own escape."
No. The whole point of the shield is to stop base defences from being wiped out by orbital bombardment. It did that. Vader's initial plan was to come out of hyperspace far enough away that the Rebels wouldn't raise the shield and it could be destroyed by long-range bombardment. Smart. Having the shield is smart on the Rebels' part. (You'd think they'd keep it up all the time, but perhaps that draws too much power.) The only shield-related blunder was Ozzel's, and he paid for it.
"Vader jumps into the Hoth system with a handful of Star Destroyers; only six are shown on screen. That’s got to enforce a blockade of an entire planet."
According to http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Hoth, though, they had a Super Star Destroyer, two Imps, four Impstar Deuces and a Victory-class. That's a hell of a lot of firepower. Moreover, they're not going up against capital ships. The Rebels have nothing that's space-only here, only ships that can land planetside (medium transports, snubfighters and such). The Empire's got more than enough force here, especially when you consider how good in combat these ships are: arrange them around the planet, and each has a pretty good shot of taking out what comes into its sector. (What is surprising is that they didn't bring an Interdictor (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Immobilizer_418_cruiser), though; that would have seemed logical for a blockade. However, Interdictors were "produced in very limited quantities prior to the Battle of Hoth". Perhaps it caused the Empire to rethink its priorities.)
"A smarter plan would have been to launch TIE fighters against Echo Base — since aircraft and spacecraft can get past that Rebel enemy shield — to lure the Rebels into an evacuation from Hoth through their shield’s chokepoint."
How do they presume aircraft and spacecraft can get past the Rebel shield? They're guessing the shield only extends straight up? Maybe that's based on Rogue Squadron's snowspeeders, but wouldn't it seem more logical that they just opened a hole in the shield to let those through, as they did with the transports/ion cannon blasts?
"The weaponry on the AT-AT Walkers doesn’t overwhelm or destroy the few laser-artillery pieces the Rebels have to protect the generator."
Uh, yes, yes it does. The Rebels' cannons and the snowspeeder blasters do diddly against the AT-ATs. The only two things shown to work are bringing them down with harpoons and tow cables/cutting them open with a lightsaber and chucking a thermal detonator inside. (This is also probably why they didn't receive air support; there wasn't seen to be anything that would threaten an AT-AT, as Rebel snubfighters are useless in atmosphere. Thus, the TIEs were kept in orbit for the blockade.)
"For reasons that never get explained — and can’t be justified militarily — Vader joins the Stormtrooper assault on the base."
They can be explained, and justified: seems likely that by this point, Vader wanted to capture Rebellion leadership, not wipe them out. Keep in mind that he's already sensed something weird about Luke thanks to the Death Star trench run, and that he later captures (and does not execute) Han and Leia. Interrogating leadership also makes sense at this point, as there are other Rebels scattered around the galaxy. The initial long-range bombardment plan wasn't necessarily "wipe out the base"; it seems more logical to read it as "wipe out the defences."
"He flies into an asteroid belt — which somehow the Imperial Fleet had failed to account for when planning its hasty “blockade”"
Flying into asteroid fields is stupid. As cited by 3PO. It's unexpected, and it also wouldn't work for anything bigger than a small freighter. Hell, the TIEs mostly died chasing the Falcon, and they're way more maneuverable. And how do you "account for" an asteroid field?
"At the very most, the Empire’s assault on Hoth killed a couple of low-ranking Rebels and destroyed a few transit ships."
No. "The Battle of Hoth was a major disaster for the Rebel Alliance. The Rebels lost thousands of soldiers and pilots who either died during the defense or were killed when the ships transporting them off Hoth were destroyed. The loss of the base itself put the Rebels on the run once again, struggling to reorganize its battered forces. Of the thirty medium transports that fled the planet, seventeen were destroyed, resulting in massive material and personnel losses. The sheer loss of men and materials severely weakened the Alliance's combat capabilities in the war, giving the Empire an edge over the Rebels for some time as they pursued their fleet" http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Hoth.
Wiping out over half of the enemy transports, plus plenty of ground forces, plus putting the Rebels into another disorganized run, is hardly a bad thing. The assault wasn't as successful as it could have been, certainly, but a lot of that's thanks to ingenuity from the Alliance and some major luck. The Rebel leadership barely made it out. It's not a decisive Imperial victory, but it is a win for the Empire.
(I'm clearly one of the world's nerdiest people.)