What would it take to beat the Minbari?

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Deepcrush
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What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Deepcrush »

In the other thread we have reached a circle point which will most likely not end. Too much bullshit.

So, what would it take for any of the younger races to beat the Minbari Federation in a war? For this you can gather together every member of the LoNAW plus the Narn, Centari and of course Earth. Also, there are two timelines for this war.

Earth-Minbari War timeline.

B5 post E-M War timeline.

I'll wait for someone else to post first before I put anything up.

EDIT!

Please use only canon source for this.
Last edited by Deepcrush on Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by SuperSaiyaMan12 »

Deepcrush wrote:In the other thread we have reached a circle point which will most likely not end. Too much bullshit.

So, what would it take for any of the younger races to beat the Minbari Federation in a war? For this you can gather together every member of the LoNAW plus the Narn, Centari and of course Earth. Also, there are two timelines for this war.

Earth-Minbari War timeline.

B5 post E-M War timeline.

I'll wait for someone else to post first before I put anything up.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Monroe »

Well I'll stick to specifics in the other thread but you would need to solve a few problems

-Stealth
-Information
-Weapons Technology

Those seem to be the big 3 that the Minbari hold. I've posted my thoughts on the first one and I think I solved it or at least put a bandaid on it in the other thread. Information really relies on either planning for the war or an ally. And weapons technology.. not sure how to bridge that gap.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Reliant121 »

Post E-W war:

The Centauri seemed fairly knowledgeable about the Minbari, they could assist in that front. Plus, technologically, they are the closest to the Minbari by quite a margin. Plus, the Centauri Primus is probably the only ship that stands a chance against a Sharlin. A Narn G'Quan or an Earthforce Omega might be able to dent a Minbari ship, but there must have been technological improvements from the Centauri that allowed them to Target Minbari warships.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Sionnach Glic »

It would probably take the combined efforts of the EA, Centauri, Narn, and a good chunk of the LoNAW.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Deepcrush »

Earth-Minbari War timeline, I'm thinking that only the Centauri and Narn have the weapons that are truly effective against the Minbari. Even then, the Narn really don't have much in the way of numbers.

B5 timeline (10-15 years later), Earth Force has the Omega which carries some very serious hardware and very serious numbers. The Narns have a fair number of their G'Quans turned out and the Centauri have their newer and faster Vorchan models.

I don't know if anyone has cured the stealth problem. So its going to be required that the races against the Minbari work on closing the distance as quick as possible.

Information wise, again, its all about time. You're going to have to search Minbari space, sector by sector. Thats just going to suck no matter how you put it.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Coalition »

Obscene production levels. I am talking a RTS level of production levels. A Total Annihilation, Supreme Commander, or similar Commander pops into Earth Alliance space, and begins to build drone ships.

The Minbari might still kill 10:1, but the sheer production means that the Minbari will lose. Since they are all automated ships, no humans are being lost, and comine that with transmissions from the battle, the humans will be learning as well, improving the ships for the next battle.

Without that aid, you'd want a combination of Abbai shields, Yolu superweaponry, Vree antimatter weaponry to kill fighters, Narn energy mines to keep Minbari ships closing, Centauri Battle lasers for better long-range, plus some way to defeat the Minbari jammers.

That is the key detail there, the Minbari jammers prevent lock-on (which in the B5Wars game means your to-hit penalty is doubled after all other modifiers), and their better sensors allow them to use more jamming without affecting their own targeting.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Deepcrush »

Everything you have here sounded good other then the Drone ships. Only the Centauri have been shown to have drone ships and they were noted as sub par. If you can crew an Omega with only 250 persons, I wouldn't worry about the losses. Plus, drones can't target through the jammers do to not having eyes.

What I haven't seen is anyone here pushing the Shadow Omegas. Those things did some damn nice hurt and they didn't have any trouble locking onto the White Stars.

I should have added in the opening OP "that you may only use canon for this" to avoid confusion and avoid the problems in the other thread.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by kostmayer »

I'd throw in a bit of espionage. Try and turn the Religious and Warrior cast against each other and start a Civil war.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Tyyr »

Good luck getting any operatives in. Espionage gets significantly more difficult when you're dealing with entirely different races.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Monroe »

Tyyr wrote:Good luck getting any operatives in. Espionage gets significantly more difficult when you're dealing with entirely different races.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Deepcrush »

Since the Minbari did in fact fall into a civil war, it might not be as hard as it sounds.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by SuperSaiyaMan12 »

Deepcrush wrote:Since the Minbari did in fact fall into a civil war, it might not be as hard as it sounds.
Hell there were tensions between the Warrior Caste and the Religious Caste before the Earth-Minbari War, and even higher tensions between the Warrior Caste and the Rangers.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Deepcrush »

SuperSaiyaMan12 wrote:Hell there were tensions between the Warrior Caste and the Religious Caste before the Earth-Minbari War, and even higher tensions between the Warrior Caste and the Rangers.
Thats because the Warrior Caste didn't like the idea of someone taking their place in the view of the council. When the Warrior Caste wouldn't ready for the coming Shadow War, the Rangers started preparing. When the Shadow War came, the Warrior Caste again refused to fight so the Religious Caste fought while the Worker Caste built brand new Sharlins and White Stars for them.

The Warrior Caste seemed to afraid to fight any war that would in fact not be a sure win for them. This would come out after the Minbari Civil War. The Warrior Caste would not only become more active in outsider affairs but also began joining the Rangers in droves. The whole thing became a matter of honor when Delenn shamed the Warriors as cowards unwilling to serve their duty.

This led the whole thing to swing in the other direction later on as the Minbari Warrior Caste became suicidal in their pursuit of duty.

-------------------------------------------

But, back to topic. The idea of supporting a civil war isn't that bad. We know that the Religious Caste had disliked the Warrior Caste for some time. The Worker Caste had spoken to Dukhat directly that they didn't like the idea of building warships yet in secret they were building them by the score for themselves and the Religious Caste. So much so, that during the Earth-Minbari War the Warriors controlled the bulk of the total Minbari Military. By the time of the Shadow War, the Warriors controlled little above a third.
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Re: What would it take to beat the Minbari?

Post by Sionnach Glic »

The problem is how do you spark off this civil war?
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