So I'm writing a Star Wars fic and the rebels are having a strategy meeting between skirmishes. They're positioned underneath a shield with a mile radius and the streets are barricaded. They know the enemy's probably going to send in walkers pretty soon, since they're more maneuverable than tanks. Of course these are city streets so we're not talking something big like the AT-ATs from the battle of Hoth, but something closer to the AT-STs from Endor. The rebels' solution is to decrease the shield radius, tightening the space between it and the barricades so the walkers don't have room to blast them apart. But the barricades aren't evenly spaced, so there are points where a walker could, at the very least, stick its nose through the shield and get a shot at the barricade. How can the rebels conceivably defend these weak points?
The Ewoks didn't do all that much damage with the rocks. They were able to trip the walkers and crush them in log traps. But it's much easier to do those things in a forest than in urban streets. Whatever trap they set can't be one that the troopers on the ground can disable before the walker approaches.
The point is that in Star Wars logic it doesn't take much ingenuity to defeat anything the Empire does, so if you're sticking to the lore, just about anything you come up with survive scrutiny. The franchise has set that bar as low as it will go.
walkers are stupid things - which is why they've never been seriously looked at in the real world - you could trip them up, you could blow holes in the storm drains to make them stumble, you could attack them from the buildings to either side, you could hit them with molotovs from the roof tops.. you could spray the street with oil to make it slippery, you could knock them over with vehicles, the list of possibilities is endless
Or three guys pulling a Spiderman into the side of the cab. All the weight of an AT-ST is in the top, what, third? If you can get some momentum going and knock into it like a wrecking ball with more force than it has staying power (hint: probably not that much), then it wouldn't be much of a trick at all to knock the damn thing right over. Once it's not balanced, it has no ability to fix it. Which is one reason they're part of the Sci Fi Rule of Cool, rather than the real world military's serious projects.
You could weaken the streets where the subway lines pass under. Ground troops wouldn't have enough weight to collapse things and would waltz through, but once the heavy armor arrived it would find itself in the sub-basement.
Don't go dissing the ewoks, this dude has a pretty solid argument that they'd be a match for anybody that came rolling onto their turf: Ewoks Are Sci-Fi's Most Dangerous Warriors
And then there's this gem: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/yub-jub-means-devour-the-weak-an-authoritative-study-of-ewoks-from-the-field-notes-of-davo-atten-boru-and-pladdo-cardigun-exo-naturalists
Yeah, it's kind of like trying to invade Russia. I get that part. But seriously, where's the air support? The Empire can blow up entire planets, but they can't spare a couple of TIE fighters to assault these fixed positions? Take Hoth for example. They've got the rebels entire braintrust in one building and don't have a warhead capable of hitting it? "Admiral, send in the walkers." "But, my Lord, we could just fire a few missiles and--" "Send in the walkers."
I read one discussion on that where someone argued that the Empire, like Hitler, had an obsession for the Biggest and Bestest Scary Terror Weapons and as a result ended up with things that were militarily useless because they appealed to the leadership's sense of style. Like the way a Tiger tank was so heavy that it needed a reinforced railroad bridge to cross a river where the lighter Shermans could cross on ordinary road bridges. A tougher beast, but costlier and slower to manufacture as well, so it could just get swarmed by "inferior" machines built by the Americans.
Hitler and the Empire may have had questionable battle tactics, but Hitler didn't have star destoyers and the Death Star. That's a good thing.
I thought they ruined the opportunity for bombardment when Ozzel came out of lightspeed too close to the system and allowed the rebels to activate their orbital shields, forcing them to deposit troops inside to destroy the base. Also, the Echo Base wasn't so much one building as an underground compound, and depending on how resistant said compound is to cave-ins, they would be fairly well-protected against attacks from standard bombers operating in the atmosphere. In this battle, the rebels don't have access to an orbital shield— you'd need much more control over the planet for that— but they do have a shield that can absorb most moderate attacks from blaster fire to starfighter bombs. It won't hold up against an orbital attack, which is going to arrive in a little bit when the battle reaches its climax, but the rebels are relying on their fleet to protect them from bombardment. Which it will, for a little while, before the Empire overwhelms them and the bombardment forces everyone to retreat underground. Wait. If they cave in several sewer passages that run under the battlezone, they'll end up cutting off a chunk of their escape routes. Yes, this is perfect. Make their strategy come back to bite them.
maybe add a projected image (an illusion) to make it look like there is nothing in those spots? So you still have the option that someone or accidentally a walker figures that out those are just projections, in case along the way you need to change the story, and plus an impenetrable barrier is just boring...I think.
It doesn’t need to be impenetrable. They just need to be deterred from entering the shield boundaries. If they can see the holes, they won’t even step through if they’re smart.
