The Essential Guide to Warfare: Star Wars

Count Dooku displays a Scorpenek droid to Separatist leaders (Tommy Lee Edwards)

The Confederacy of Independent Systems was born in 24 BBY, when the Jedi renunciate Count Dooku commandeered a Republic communications station in the Tion Hegemony to broadcast a fiery speech blasting the Senate and the Jedi for allowing the Republic’s ideals and morals to decline.

But while the Raxus Address shook the galaxy, setting off a wave of secessions by systems and sectors, throughout its brief history the Confederacy was more a movement than a formal, centralized government—a loose amalgamation of megacorps and worlds with a wide range of ambitions and political philosophies. Some of its members burned to destroy the Republic, but many others simply wanted to go their own way, and had little enthusiasm for replacing one central government with another.

The best-organized Separatist entities were its armed forces, and they, too, began as a loosely organized collective of military assets contributed by Separatist systems, sectors, and commercial factions. The Republic gave the Separatist war machine form and structure by deploying its newborn Grand Army and starfleets against Separatist worlds, forcing the Confederacy to centralize control of its military. That left advocates of peace in the Republic shaking their heads: Hadn’t they warned that the threat of violence would transform Separatism from an incoherent protest movement into something much more dangerous?

The Separatists’ initial military strength came from a hodgepodge of corporate and territorial assets. The Trade Federation, Techno Union, Commerce Guild, and IGBC had all invested heavily in warships and battle droids to defend their interests as security decayed in the galaxy, paying trillions of credits to military firms such as Baktoid Combat Automata, the Colicoid Creation Nest, Geonosian Industries, and Haor Chall Engineering.

These four corporate interests pledged their armies to the defense of the CIS, as did organizations such as the Retail Caucus, a conglomerate of commercial-goods makers that underwrote Separatist manufacturing plants in the early stages of the conflict.

But while popular accounts of the Clone Wars focused on the Separatists’ legions of battle droids and corporate flotillas, the Confederacy relied heavily on the armies and defense fleets of sectors and individual star systems such as Umbara, Thustra, and Persavi that followed the lead of Antar, Ando, and Sy Myrth in breaking with the Republic. Many of the battles of the Clone Wars were fought between armies of organics, with nary a battle droid or clone trooper in sight. In some divided sectors, battles were fought by soldiers on both sides wearing identical uniforms and opposing fleets were made up of the same classes of warships and starfighters, with only new insignia and hastily applied coats of paint indicating the change of allegiance.

In the first few months of the war, the Separatists pursued a defensive strategy, seeking to blunt Republic drives into their patchwork territory. In these initial campaigns, the Separatist military forces worked together poorly at best. But the Republic was unable to take advantage of the Confederacy’s disarray by mounting large-scale assaults on key fronts. Both sides faced a similar challenge: to build up the strength of their centralized militaries while coordinating the efforts of local forces.

The Confederacy’s first offensive moves weren’t bids for major territorial gains, but combinations of surgical strikes and terror operations intended to deny the Republic potential invasion corridors, undermine support for the war, and sever key fleets’ supply lines. Only after a massive military buildup and the appointment of General Grievous to overall command was the Confederacy capable of a sustained strike deep into Republic space. Of course, by then the Republic had been able to devote its superior industrial capabilities to prosecuting the war.

At the outset of the war, each of the major Separatist forces—the droid armies of the Trade Federation and Techno Union; the Commerce Guild’s Punitive Security Forces; the IGBC’s Collections and Security Division; and the Corporate Alliance’s Policy Administration directorate—had its own order of battle. Those orders of battle were reorganized by Grievous, who assembled task forces and armies from the various forces available to him. While each commercial faction had its own military leader, as did local forces pledging loyalty to the Confederacy, all reported to Grievous.

The command structure of the Trade Federation’s droid army was arranged according to a very simple chain of command: Battle droids reported to droid officers, and droid officers reported to organic commanders.

Squad (8 battle droids): A squad consists of eight battle droids. While organic squads were led by a sergeant, droid squads didn’t need an officer, as the squad members were directed remotely or programmed before an engagement.

Platoon (56 battle droids): A platoon consists of seven squads.

Company (112 battle droids, plus support droids): A company consists of two platoons transported via either an MTT or a troop carrier, commanded by a battle droid officer.

Battalion (784 battle droids, plus support droids): A battalion consists of seven troop-carrier companies and a squadron of twenty-four AATs, commanded by a battle droid officer.

Vanguard (1,232 battle droids, plus support droids): Designed to break through heavy defenses, a vanguard consists of eleven MTT companies and a squadron of eighteen AATs, commanded by a battle droid officer.

Regiment (4,368 battle droids, plus support droids): A regiment consists of four battalions and a single vanguard, commanded by a battle droid officer. A regiment is the total force carried aboard one C-9979 landing craft.

Division (21,840 battle droids, plus support droids): A division consists of five regiments, carried into battle via a section of five C-9979 landing craft.

Corps (109,200 battle droids, plus support droids): A corps consists of five divisions, carried into battle via a squadron of twenty-five C-9979 landing craft.

Army (218,400 battle droids, plus support droids): An army consists of two corps and represents the total surface force carried aboard a Lucrehulk-class battleship, commanded by the battleship’s captain.

As with the droid army, the Confederacy’s Navy was built up from hundreds of component fleets belonging to the commercial factions and Separatist systems and sectors, and combined under Grievous.

Section (2–4 vessels, plus maintenance and support crew): The smallest group in the Separatist admiralty is the section, commanded by a captain.

Flight (4–16 vessels, plus maintenance and support crew): A flight consists of two to four sections, commanded by a commodore.

Squadron (12–64 vessels, plus maintenance and support crew): A squadron consists of three to four flights, led by a commodore.

Task group (36–640 vessels, plus maintenance and support crew): A task group consists of three to ten squadrons, led by a rear admiral.

Task force (72–1,280 vessels, plus maintenance and support crew): A task force consists of two task groups, led by a vice admiral.

Fleet (200–4,000 vessels, plus maintenance and support crew): A fleet consists of three task groups, led by an admiral.

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COMMERCE GUILD DESTROYER

When the Commerce Guild aligned itself with the Confederacy of Independent Systems, it brought no massive military infrastructure along with it—its Punitive Security Forces were relatively small, and the Planetary Security Forces it controlled were needed to protect the resource-rich worlds that were the source of its power. But what the guild did have was matériel—massive amounts of it. Guild Presidente Shu Mai directed guild workers to fill superfreighters with raw materials and transport them to Techno Union ship-yards, where work gangs began mass-producing capital ships for the Separatist cause.

The signature ship of the wartime guild was the Recusant-class destroyer, based on a Mon Calamari design stolen by the Quarren radicals who would supply some of the Separatists’ greatest shipwrights. Commerce Guild destroyers were relatively cheap and quick to construct, pairing a light, angular superstructure with a heavy mix of turbolasers and smaller laser cannons.

Commerce Guild destroyers, first used as privateers to harry Republic shipping, were soon sent to the front lines. Their prow turbolasers gave them a significant punch at longer ranges, particularly when they were sent into battle in groups, while their lighter weapons and complements of droid starfighters (housed within the superstructure) provided an effective screen in close-range fighting. Tens of thousands of these ships supported the Separatists in countless battles across the galaxy, and Republic captains learned that even Star Destroyers were endangered by the forward-facing guns of multiple Recusants. Their vulnerabilities included very light armor, making them easy prey if their shields were taken down, and their droid brains’ inflexibility in combat.

RECUSANT-CLASS
LIGHT DESTROYER

BANKING CLAN FRIGATE

The InterGalactic Banking Clan viewed the HoloNet as a tool of the Republic and refused to use it for financial transactions. Instead, it created its own separate communications network of subspace and hyperwave transceivers to ensure financial orders moved across secure channels.

The IGBC built a network of mobile transceivers, housed aboard heavily armed capital ships. These Munificent-class star frigates (technically heavy cruisers) ensured that the Banking Clan would have access to its network from hot spots, and allowed it to move massive stores of currencies, precious metals, and other assets around the galaxy in relative safety.

When the Banking Clan agreed to support the Confederacy of Inde-pendent Systems, Chairman San Hill committed thousands of Banking Clan frigates to the cause, as well as droid troops from his organization’s feared Collections and Security Division.

The superior communications capabilities of Banking Clan frigates ensured that the Separatists enjoyed secure communications in battle and allowed the Hyper-Communications Cartel to broadcast a steady stream of pro-paganda to Republic worlds. But the frigates were also capable warships, ideal for protecting the biggest Separatist battleships against fighters and smaller cruisers, and capable of transporting droids and armor in reconfigured storage vaults. Most Banking Clan frigates were equipped with extensive jamming gear, originally intended to prevent espionage but ideal for disrupting the Republic warships’ communications and sensors.

The Banking Clan owned a number of space stations outside of the galactic disk that housed secret vaults, communications facilities, and meeting spaces. In the run-up to the Clone Wars, many of those extragalactic stations were refitted as shipyards and staffed by workers toiling in lonely exile above the bright wheel of the galaxy. Those shipyards and others on IGBC-affiliated worlds such as Gwori turned out tens of thousands of Banking Clan frigates for Dooku’s cause.

MUNIFICENT-CLASS
STAR FRIGATE

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WAR PORTRAIT:
GENERAL GRIEVOUS

Long before he was Supreme Commander of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, General Grievous was a gifted Kaleesh warrior shaped by his species’ long, bloody war against invading Yam’rii. Grievous was born Qymaen jai Sheelal, and became an expert sniper while still a youth. By the time he reached maturity, he had killed hundreds of Yam’rii and been hailed as a demigod.

After the death of his comrade-in-arms Ronderu lij Kummar, Sheelal took the fight against the Yam’rii to the invaders’ worlds, where he massacred warriors and civilians alike. The Judicial Forces separated the warring parties, and the Republic imposed ruinous sanctions on Kalee. With few alternatives, Sheelal accepted an offer of employment from the IGBC chairman San Hill to serve as a collections agent in return for IGBC aid to his planet.

What happened next still divides historians.

Some say Sheelal took the name Grievous in memory of his friend Kummar, and voluntarily remade his body—and eventually his mind—to make himself the equal of the Jedi. (Some add that Sheelal had dreamed of being a Jedi and been rejected as a youth.) In seeking “improvements” to his natural flesh and bone, Grievous turned himself into a cyborg whose only remaining living parts were housed beneath his ceramic armorplast mask and duranium armor. Once Grievous opted for mechanical enhancements to his own senses and reaction times, even his mind was part machine, and his organic past faded into dim memory, crowded out by his need for vengeance against the Jedi and the Republic.

Others tell a tale in which Grievous is as much victim as villain. Citing thirdhand accounts obtained from the IGBC and Serenno, these scholars claim that Dooku and other Separatist leaders sabotaged Grievous’s shuttle and recovered the badly wounded Kaleesh from the sea. What was left of his body was encased in armor, and his brain was altered by surgical droids, suppressing his memories and amplifying his aggression and rage. He awoke as a servant of the nascent Confederacy, engineered to lead its forces and destroy the Jedi. If this account of his origins is correct, Grievous apparently recalled little if any of his former life, with his memories destroyed or replaced by fictional constructs. But perhaps some echoes remained: He became enraged if mistaken for a droid.

Grievous’s early history may never be definitively reconstructed, but his later deeds were chronicled in chilling detail. After the Battle of Geonosis, Republic Intelligence puzzled over sketchy reports of a strange droid that destroyed entire clone companies and several Jedi. At Hypori, the cyborg general declared himself, killing the Jedi Knights Daakman Barrek and Tarr Seirr. He would soon become the face of the Separatist military, waging war against the Republic with the same pitiless ferocity he had shown against the Yam’rii.

Scholars differ in assessing Grievous’s abilities as a tactician. Some argue his attacks were brute-force affairs that succeeded only when he had an overwhelming advantage. But others note that Grievous had to mix and match very different Separatist assets in his campaigns, and did so ably. And they note that his constant aggression and willingness to absorb terrible losses without flinching served the Separatists well.

Grievous’s greatest successes came during Operation Durge’s Lance, the campaign into the Core that took Duro in a devastating assault, bombarded and depopulated the ancient world of Humbarine, and unleashed a terrible plague on Loedorvia. Soon afterward, Grievous would lead Separatist forces along secret routes through the Deep Core to Coruscant, where he captured Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in a daring raid. But his career was near its end: Obi-Wan Kenobi tracked Grievous to Utapau, cracked open his chest armor, and killed him with a blaster shot into his unprotected organs.

A massive warship boasting two tremendous ion pulse cannons, the Malevolence took shape at Quarren-controlled Pammant, one of the Separatists’ most valuable shipyards. Its designer was the rogue Sullustan shipwright Ruggle Schmong, who had tried and failed to get SoroSuub to explore his design for a starship plant that recaptured waste heat and other by-products of propulsion. SoroSuub repeatedly brushed Schmong aside, pointing out that his plant would require a massive hull and his proposed storage batteries would need to vent recaptured energy on a regular basis, making it ill suited for anything except a gargantuan mining ship or warship—neither of which was practical.

The Separatists, however, saw a use for just such a warship. The plant would power two ion cannons, whose barely controlled eruptions of energy could lay waste to entire Republic task forces. The military value of such a warship might be questionable, but Dooku thought she would make a supremely effective terror weapon, one that would drive Republic worlds to demand protection and so force Republic fleets to waste valuable time hunting the craft in the vastness of space.

Called a Subjugator-class heavy cruiser by her builders, the Malevolence was built within a gigantic dry dock that even the Republic’s best operatives couldn’t penetrate. And when the great ship lumbered out of dry dock, those spies were captured by Separatist agents who’d been watching them the entire time.

Grievous himself took command of the Malevolence, and reported to Dooku that the dreadnought had flaws: Schmong’s plant had a bad habit of bleeding energy that would surge into her other systems, sometimes knocking shields, communications, or other systems offline. But the ion pulse cannons were as devastating as Dooku had hoped, and were complemented by a massive array of conventional turbolasers, tractor beams, and squadrons of vulture droids.

The Malevolence left a trail of destruction, wild rumors, and fear across the Republic, striking at systems including Phu, Abregado, Vanik, Ichtor, Vondarc, and Ryndellia before she was crippled by Y-wing bombers led by Anakin Skywalker, Plo Koon, and Ahsoka Tano at the Kaliida Nebula and destroyed near Antar. The Devastation, built with different capabilities on the same hull design, was destroyed by a Jedi strike team on her way to Coruscant.

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WAR PORTRAIT: ADMIRAL TRENCH

Admiral Trench embodied the Harch species—long-lived, aggressive, and tough. Well into his second century by the time of the Clone Wars, this veteran of countless conflicts gave the Separatists much-needed experience in the war against the Republic.

Native to Secundus Ando, the Harch are distant cousins to the Aqualish species, with the relationship between them and the Ualaq subspecies the subject of much debate among geneticists. (The Harch consider such inquiries obscene.) The history of the Aqualish and the Andoan worlds—known among the Harch and some Ualaq as the Spiverelda—is long, bloody, and turbulent; at various points the Harch have served as the Spiverelda’s despotic rulers, led the region from behind the scenes as wily advisers, and been cast down by their subjects. In the last century of the Republic, the Harch ruling nests were firmly allied with Ando in its struggle against the Andoan Free Colonies.

Trench made a name for himself during that struggle, defending Secundus Ando against raiders from the Free Colonies and leading counter-raids up the Horos Spine to Andosha. During the Andoan Wars of 57–39 BBY he emerged as Ando’s greatest military leader, besting the Free Forces at Arbular, Horos, and finally the decisive Battle of Raquish in 39 BBY.

But Raquish quickly turned into a debacle. The Andoans had all but dismissed the prospect of Republic intervention, certain that Coruscant would confine itself to discussing Andoan demilitarization in committee. But the firepower on display at Raquish—and Trench’s ruthless tactics—convinced the Republic to intervene. The two sides were separated, sparing the Free Colonies, and demilitarization of the sector was enforced by a sizable Judicial fleet.

Seeing victory become defeat radicalized the Andoan leadership and Trench. More than a decade later Ando would become one of the first worlds to secede from the Republic. Trench spent that decade serving the Corporate Alliance: He destroyed pirate bases at Ord Namurt and Engira, seized the Kurosti merchant fleet in a daring raid at Prospera Jang, and in 34 BBY masterminded the Corporate Alliance’s assault on Malastare amid a disagreement about fuel allocations.

The Malastare crisis escalated after the Alliance hired Sikurdian pirates to seize Malastare’s fuel tankers. Trench then gathered a fleet of Alliance Fantail-class destroyers and Sikurdian privateers and blockaded the Malastare Narrows, seeking to force a settlement on the Alliance’s terms. After attempts to find a diplomatic solution failed, Malastare appealed to Supreme Chancellor Valorum to intervene.

Publicly, Valorum demurred. But he also feared that the Alliance might prevail in a shooting war, because the Dustig Sector Forces were weakened by corruption and neglect. Behind the scenes, he cajoled the neighboring Tyus and Var Hagen sectors to support Malastare, funneled credits to the Dugs to hire privateers, and dispatched military “observers” to the scene—including the Jedi Kep-She and a capable officer named Wullf Yularen, who’d fought Sikurd’s pirates with the Kwymar Sector Forces. In the subsequent confrontation, Trench’s flagship was destroyed and the Alliance forced to retreat, but many ships and lives were lost, and the ensuing scandal embarrassed the already embattled Valorum. (A year later the Trade Federation calibrated its own blockade of a Republic world with the lessons of Malastare firmly in mind.)

The Republic believed Trench was dead, but he managed to survive thanks to a pressure suit of Andoan mineral-fish armor and his own tough Harch hide. More than a decade later he reappeared, commanding the Separatist blockade of Christophsis from the Invincible. (Though technically classified as a Star Destroyer, the Invincible was billed as a dreadnought, one of the first of a line of scaled-up modifications of the Providence-class carrier/destroyer.) After recognizing Trench’s insignia, Yularen studied everything Republic Intelligence had gathered about Trench’s tactics. That knowledge helped him and Anakin Skywalker outwit the Harch admiral and break the blockade.

Trench was once again listed as killed in action. But Yularen had his doubts—after all, he’d seen the tough old spider survive the loss of a flagship before.

Admiral Trench aboard the Invincible (Chris Scalf)

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BIOWEAPONS

It is said that in the long history of warfare, infection and disease have killed more soldiers than actual combat. By the time of the Clone Wars that was no longer true—bacta, medical droids, and swift shuttling of injured beings to Republic Mobile Surgical Units and medical facilities had reduced the impact of such ancient battlefield woes. Moreover, the clone troopers’ identical genetic blueprints made it possible to standardize their care: They shared a common blood type, and the Kaminoans’ tinkering had eliminated the possibility of allergic reactions and tissue rejection.

But that shared blueprint made them vulnerable to the same illnesses, and gave Separatist researchers the ability to tailor viruses specifically for the clones. The Kaminoan traitor Kuma Nai released such a nanovirus on Kamino, killing the cloner Sayn Ta, but died before she was able to bring it to her Separatist paymasters. Later strains were spread by octuptarra droids: Veterans of battles such as Mikaster III and Uba IV would never forget the sight of octuptarras picking their way through the rubble, shrouded in veils of deadly, acidic vapor that ate through body gloves in minutes and left clone troopers convulsing and dying. Elsewhere, Separatist saboteurs volunteered to be infected and then infiltrated clones’ staging areas and recovery wards.

Other Separatist bioweapons were less discriminate in their targets: Hive viruses could sicken and kill not just clone troopers, but other organics. The use of such weapons sharply divided the Separatist leadership. Dooku warned that such tactics fed Republic propaganda, painting the Confederacy as a mechanized army unleashed by a few wealthy organics, and Nute Gunray and Lott Dod saw bioweapons as insulting to Neimoidians, who were often reviled and feared as bearers of pathogens. But Grievous eagerly sought all such weapons. They were singularly useful in terrorizing civilian populations, which to Grievous was the essence of war.

TACTICAL DROIDS

Separatist leaders such as the Kerkoiden Whorm Loathsom and General Grievous himself took direct control of ground battles, fighting alongside the droid infantry. And many Separatist battlefields saw organic troops defend their homeworlds against the Republic. But there was considerable truth to Republic propaganda branding the Separatists as cowards hiding behind mechanical muscle: The Neimoidians, Skakoans, and Muuns thought of combat as a degrading task fit for lesser beings and mechanicals.

Tactical droids, formerly known as CDE-T units, were designed to lead the battle droid legions where organic leadership wasn’t available. Baktoid Combat Automata designed them with advanced cognitive modules that could process vast quantities of data and feed them into superfast heuristic analytical processors. A tactical droid never left computing cycles idle; instead, it would constantly run simulations of imminent combat, calculating odds and changing its strategies on the fly.

In response to the entreaties of Baktoid designers, Separatist leaders allowed the CDE-T greater autonomy in making decisions, hoping that this would deliver superior results. And indeed, tactical droids proved far more capable than battle droid commanders in reacting to Republic tactics and changing situations. But that greater autonomy also led to a plague of behavioral anomalies.

Tactical droids were arrogant and pushy at best. They refused to accept roles subordinate to battle droid commanders and disdained organics as frail creatures ruled by emotions instead of the cool logic of mathematics. The complexities of organic relationships and hierarchies eluded them, and more than one Separatist officer discovered that his tactical droid had gone up the chain of command and recommended that he be replaced as unfit for a leadership role.

Occasionally, tactical droids refused to take no for an answer. The Third Battle of Aefao turned in the Republic’s favor when the Chevin Major Hoom Garaf was executed by his tactical droid, sparking a chaotic firefight in the Separatist rear guard. On the other hand, before the First Battle of Plagen a tactical droid assassinated the Kerkoiden general Piar Nagelsa, discarded his battle plan, and led Separatist forces to victory.

Following the Trade Federation’s defeat on Naboo, it ordered many first-generation B1 battle droids retrofitted with cognitive modules that allowed independent thought. That prevented remote shutdowns and let the Separatists teach the droids new things by uploading new programming. With Separatist warships light on organic crew members, B1s were programmed to serve a number of roles, from pilots and gunners to emergency responders.

But the B1s were being pushed to the limits of their programming. Retrofits allowed them to perform more specialized tasks, but they weren’t very good at them—and the Separatists needed their newer, more powerful cognitive modules for more capable war droids. Maintenance also became a problem: Diagnostics and memory defrag-mentation routines had a nasty habit of erasing the retrofitted B1s’ specialty programming and heuristics, and so were frequently skipped.

Without proper maintenance, many early B1s’ cognitive modules suffered data corruption and system errors, leading to shutdowns or behavioral anomalies. To the annoyance of Separatist commanders, retrofitted B1s often became “chatty,” offering running commentaries on their situations as their modules struggled to process data overflows.

Such problems were of the Separatists’ own making, the product of the Trade Federation’s skinflint ways and the Techno Union’s fetish for newer, better killing machines. But other problems were part of a shadowy war fought between Confederate and Republic saboteurs. A B1’s malfunction might be the product of maintenance deferred too long, or evidence of a virus inserted into Confederate computer systems by Republic slicers. Such viruses could turn the course of battles: At Agomar, droidekas and super battle droids turned on each other with laser cannons blazing, vaporizing hapless B1s caught between them as clones watched and jeered.

Viruses could be repaired if discovered, but slicers had other ways of doing damage. One popular technique was to alter the code directing the Separatists’ automated foundries and factories in small but devastating ways. Parts were made slightly too small or too large, targeting sensors were slightly miscalibrated, extra cycles were introduced into communications subroutines, and schematics were altered so that parts seized up, wore out, or burned up.