I agree that is would be better; but as it it, until at least 2010 when books based in the Forerunner-Flood War era come out, we do not have enough data on the Forerunner ships and weapons systems.

 But lets not forget the Energy Projectors on the big Covenant ships which can fire from 100000 miles away; at the speed of light. I beieve Covenant ships engage from a greater distance than SW ships, SW ships close to within a few thousand kilometers of each other. And lets not forget the inescapable fact that the Covenant could guide their plasma torpedos after they are on their way unlike that 200 gigaton blast that the Covenant ships just evaded now. But the Energy Projector is the only weapon I have range data on, so I could be wrong about the range for the rest of their ships. So I'll check it out now.  

I think the EU novels have some pretty good range for Star Wars.  I think it depends on how good their targeting data is as I recall that in the New Jedi Order series a ship fired from the edge of the system to hit a ship in orbit around Coruscant.  Not an Empire ship, but it should does demonstrate Star Wars weapons can have very long ranges.

Also the time period makes a large difference as the Empire has powerful superweaons

Depending on time period, here is a list of some of what the Empire could uses(going from my guide books):

SSD - Super Star Destroyers 8km long

Eclipse SSD - Eclipse Super Star Destroyer 17.5 km long, shields strong enough to ram enemies without hesitation, super-laser 'only' 2/3rds the power of the first Death Star's

The Death Stars obviously, with the seond being a much bigger threat as it can target ships with its main weapon

Sun Crusher - BIGGER THREAT THAN THE DEATH STARS - slightly larger than a fighter, quantum-crystalline armor makes it 'impervious to turbolaser blasts'.  Primary weapon called Resonance Torpedos which move at near lightspeed that force stars to go supernova.  Was placed into the gas giant Yavin in an attempt to destroy it, took sending it into on of the black holes of the Maw installation.

Galaxy Gun - space station that fires missiles with particle disintegrator warheads.  Each has a hyperdrive that can go from the center of the Star Wars galaxy to its edge in a matter of hours.  Missiles trigger a chain reaction on target planet that spreads like wildfire, explosively converting matter to energy.

I am not sure if the Empire ever had control of Centerpoint, if they did it would be game over for Halo

The Galaxy Gun would help the Empire the most as they could fortify a single system and blast away with it.  They could even destroy the Halos if they know where they are.

I think there are a few other superweapons I missed.

I have most of the SW books, but I have not heard of this weapon. If you could give me more info about is that would help.

I think that the SSD is around 16 kilometers long; I'v looked around sites and the length is a big debate. And for the Super Weapons, these is the reason I chose post Yavin and Halo 2, to help make it more baanced since this is when the first SSD's roll out and the Covenant is shall at the height of it's power.

Now, we have no numbers on the total amount of Covenant ships, but I think at the most it would be 20000 and at the least 10000. We know from First Strike that the Covenant were not really fazed by the lost of nearly 500 ships and a mobile command station with shields that could repel a small moon. And if the first DS is 120 kilometers in diameter than the Unyielding Hierophant is half that size. And then you have High Charity which is about half the size as the DS 2 for the 900 kilometer diameter size. The fleet that guards Hight Charity would be the largest in the Covenant Empire, I don't think there's any numbers for it, but I would have to guess at around 2500 ships max. As Cortana says it is the largest Covenant fleet anyone has ever seen. Now lets look at High Charity, it is powered by the Forerunner Dreadnought/Keyship which is only partly online. Now if the Unyielding Hierophant's shields could repel a small moon without power from a Forerunner ship, what would High Charity's shields and defense weapons be like?

Now I know what I said about facts, but in these points its the only thing we can do without more info.

 And as said before the Empire can not throw it's full military resources into the fray because that would give the rebels an opening to attack. And as for the UNSC, the only weapons they have that would allow them to stand against the Empire are the NOVA bombs and the Super Mac platforms, and the Spartans on the ground and SMAC's. And as said before, lets not get into that Jedi vs Spartan thing.   

This has been a UNSC transmission.

Lets see an Empire comparable ship with nearly the same amount of shield power, well the Eclipse as previously state a few replys ago, that it shields are strong enough that it can ram enemy ships without the fear of recieving damage, its main cannon the superlaser can destroy capitals and station in one shot, however it was ment to slash through any planetary shield and sear the landmasses of the planet and blow up certain moons.

Now saying that this halo ship can repel a small moon, the Eclipse could annihilate its shield in one shot with some hull damage. Then it can fire the rest of the weapons while recharging to fire again to ultimately destroy it.

Basicly

Eclipse will take two shots to destroy High Charity.

Deathstar will take one shots to destroy High Charity.

Galaxy Gun will take maybe one shot from any where in the galaxy.

Centerpoint  will take one shot if aimed right.

Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream

chapter 14

It lasted for around a minute.

It was for the fake superweapon Starlancer.  They made the Yuuzhan Vong think it was fired from a different system to put pressure on them.  While it may not be a normal weapon, it does demonstrate that with proper targeting data Star Wars weapons have a really long range.  It was used on day 39 of the Borleias occupation, which means it was put together pretty quickly as it doesn't sound like a normal Star Wars weapon.

I think Thrawn should be around soon after Yavin.  If the Emperor gives him command of the fight then the Covenant are in trouble.

My guide says that there were 4 initial SSDs by Endor, the Empire only needs one to go after the Rebels leaving any new ones free to fight the Covenant.

Plus TIE Advanced and TIE Defenders come out around this time also.  If the Empire mass produces the Defenders instead of stashing them away, it should have space-superiority over the Covenant.  Not sure if Missile Boats would be made as Thrawn would be busy fighting the Covenant.  If they are then they would be a big threat with thier massive weapon payload and SLAM system to get away after firing.

It looks like the winning strategy for the Empire is to get the Galaxy Gun up ASAP so they only have to send their ships on scouting expeditions to find targets.

woops double post

may put something here later

Well my guide mentions that both the torpedoes and armor of the Sun Crusher were as expensive to research and develop as the Death Star's superlaser.  The Maw Installation had no outside contact when it was developed so the Empire wasn't told about it.  Plus its inventor got mindwiped by a Jedi to prevent her from spreading her knowledge.  It is mentioned she managed to redevelop it but refused to use it for war(New Jedi Order I think when she is asked to help fight).

Going to sleep now

In TIE Fighter he is hunting down rouge Imperial Admerals between Hoth and Endor by direct command of the Emperor.

The question is: does Covenant technology(ships/weapons) count as art?

Cloaking technology might be useful for surprise attacks on known Covenant targets.

The main problem I see is that the Covenant will try to glass the first Imperial planet they attack, that would prompt the Empire to go from selective orbital bombardment to full Base Delta Zero on Covenant planets.  If it does escalate like that, the Empire will probably shift its fleet from going after the Rebels and bring its full might down on the Covenant.  While the Rebels are a threat, they do not make entire planets lifeless.  The Rebels will probably be busy building new bases and getting more resources, not focusing on attack the Empire right after Yavin.  By the time they are in a position to become a threat, the full might of the Imperial fleet should have worn down the Covenant enough that they can spare some to deal with the Rebels.

I think the Empire has a bunch of Victory class Star Destroyers it can spare at this point as the new Imperial Star Destroyers have replaced them on the frontline(they sold around 250 to the Corporate Sector Authority my guide says).  As they can operate inside a planetary atmoshpere they will be a decieding factor in gorund battles.

Also, we need to take the gravity well generators of Interdictors into account.  As slipspace becomes harder to calculate for around gravity wells, an Inrerdictor may jam any slipspace jumps around it(or make the calculations take a lot longer).  If the Interdictor can randomly 'pulse' its gravity well generators, it may make slipspace almost impossible around it.

Its the TIE Fighter video game.  Here is a link to a video of all the cutscenes in one video.  A noteworth scene is Thrawn's promotion to Grand Admiral.

Also, here some information on the Missile Boat.  If it is still developed, then it could pose a very large threat to the Covenant if deployed in large numbers.

The Missile Boat was armed with two high-capacity twin warhead launchers and a single nose-mounted laser cannon. The secondary pair of warhead launchers was exclusively assigned to carry a payload of concussion missiles, while the primary could be outfitted with an array of space-borne projectiles. Each individual launcher had a concussion missile capacity of twenty missiles, affording the Missile Boat a maximum load of eighty concussion missiles; the primary launchers could alternatively hold fifteen proton torpedoes, ten heavy rockets, or five heavy space bombs. This immense warhead capacity greatly overshadowed the TIE Bomber and Assault Gunboat magazines by more than sixty missiles. By the time of its deployment, the Missile Boat was afforded the use of advanced concussion missiles and advanced proton torpedoes. These projectiles fielded larger payloads and increased agility than their predecessors. Advanced concussion missiles offered Missile Boat pilots the ability to suppress more advanced starfighters such as Rebel A-Wings and rogue TIE Defenders.^[2]

The abundance of missiles led to the development of unorthodox tactics. Missile Boat pilots, armed exclusively for anti-starfighter work, often used advanced missiles as dumb-fire rockets against capital ships and space stations, supplementing their accompanying Assault Gunboats or TIE Bombers. Unlike their TIE pilot brethren, Missile Boat pilots could easily afford the use of missiles to overwhelm space station anti-warhead defensive systems, or defend targets from pursuing warheads.^[2]

The most noteworthy weakness of the Missile Boat was its single laser cannon. Should the craft's warhead stores run empty, pilots were forced to dogfight with a single cannon. Dogfighting in general could be problematic due to the fact the that Missile Boat pilots had only a single cannon reserve from which energy could be transferred to deflector shields. However, this single laser cannon did fire faster and could charge to full capacity in just ninety seconds, a major improvement over other laser cannons found in Imperial fighters.^[2]

Missile Boats were frequently equipped with a beam weapon system. The tractor beam was another tool the Missile Boat employed against TIE Defenders, robbing the Defender of its superior maneuverability and holding them on course while Missile Boat pilots attained missile locks. Alternatively, Missile Boats could be fitted with a jamming beam, a weapon that disrupted the fire-control systems of spacecraft, which allowed Missile Boats safer transit on bombing runs against capital ships.^[2]

Propulsion

A Missile Boat firing its primary warhead launchers, in pursuit of an enemy TIE Defender.

The Missile Boat was equipped with dual ion engines and a hyperdrive. Hyperdrive capability permitted the Missile Boat to compete with other advanced fighters of the era, and assume multiple mission roles by operating independently of bases and carriers. The Missile Boat was faster and more maneuverable than the Assault Gunboat, and its engines were also equipped with the new SubLight Acceleration Motor(s). The SLAM was an overdrive system that drained laser cannon energy reserve to boost the craft's engines to 200 percent output. Comparable to the Alliance's A-wing, the Missile Boat boasted a respectable maximum cruising speed of 125 MGLT. A pilot competent in energy management could push the craft's speed beyond 250 MGLT using the SLAM system.^[2]

Shields and armor

While the defensive armor plating, rated at 20 RU, was less than that of many non-Imperial starfighters—comparable to that of all types of TIE fighters—the Missile Boat's deflector shields were heavily reinforced, rated at 120 SBD, comparable to those of the Alliance's B-wing starfighter.^[2]

Role

The Missile Boat was specifically designed to counter the menacing TIE Defender. As byproducts of the space superiority role, shield and hyperdrive systems permitted the Missile Boat to assume various other starfighter roles. Missile Boats were used on several occasions as reconnaissance scouts to inspect enemy craft in distant systems. Considering the immense payload and deflector shield systems, the Missile Boat was also well suited as a heavy bomber, frequently inserted into enemy territory to destroy enemy capital ships. While these heavy bomber roles typically came with the assistance of fighter escorts, Missile Boats could operate autonomously in light of their dedicated concussion missile launchers, most appropriate for destroying enemy fighters. The Missile Boat was also frequently deployed on heavy assault missions. A major drawback to this role was the Missile Boat's lack of ion cannons. Missile Boats would be reliant on Assault Gunboats or TIE Defenders to disable mission critical craft for capture, thus making the Missile Boats responsible for the livelihood of the disabling craft.^[2]

Cygnus Spaceworks developed the Missile Boat during the Galactic Civil War as a dominantly projectile-weapon-based platform to counter the most advanced starfighters of the day. The advent of the Missile Boat was the result of a chain of events put into motion by the technologically-driven Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin, a highly respected officer in the Imperial Navy. Like many other noteworthy Imperial officers, Zaarin sought to increase his power; unlike most of those officers, he chose to stage a coup against Emperor Palpatine, pitting himself against Admiral Thrawn and the rest of the Imperial Navy. While planning the Rebel Alliance's ultimate defeat at the Battle of Endor, the Emperor ordered Thrawn to pursue and destroy Zaarin and his advanced TIE starfighters. Zaarin's defection posed a great danger to the Empire, as he possessed superior Imperial starfighters like the TIE Avenger and TIE Defender. Knowing this, Thrawn collaborated with Cygnus Spaceworks to design a new starfighter to counter the threat of Zaarin's treachery; the Missile Boat was the offspring of this collaboration.^[2]

A Flight group of Missile Boats engaging enemy fighters.

The Missile Boat's debut was during Thrawn's campaign to police various factions who mysteriously came into possession of TIE Defenders. The Missile Boat's first combat mission, flown by Imperial ace Maarek Stele, was to lead an assault on the Nami Strike-class cruiser Nuance, which was carrying an arms merchant who planned to sell TIE Defenders to the Rebel Alliance. Following this sortie, a lone Missile Boat was responsible for the destruction of three Carrack-class cruisers on a mission to wrest captured TIE Defenders from Thrawn's grasp. The Missile Boat accomplished this mission with only a squadron of TIE Fighters as cover. With the Rebel strike force destroyed, another solo Missile Boat was utilized to destroy a TIE Defender factory controlled by the Nami pirate Ali Tarrak.^[2]

Upon completion of a campaign to rid secondary forces of their TIE Defender possessions, Thrawn utilized the Missile Boat on a direct campaign against the rogue Zaarin. The Missile Boat was used extensively to raid Zaarin's supply convoys and defend loyal Imperial forces against attacks by Zaarin's rogue forces. During this campaign, Missile Boats were frequently employed as bait for the technologically greedy Zaarin. Missile Boats were responsible for protecting convoys from Zaarin's raiders—on one occasion, protecting a convoy carrying actual Missile Boats and on another, a decoy convoy meant to entrap Zaarin. Moreover, Missile Boat pilots were specifically instructed not to permit the capture of the new Missile Boat; the Missile Boat would not even be deployed, they were told, if not for the dire circumstances facing the Empire. In addition, during this campaign, Missile Boats were instrumental in the protection of the cloaking shield project aboard the CR90 corvette Vorknkx. Research personnel were quite shocked by the arrival of only a single fighter, but stated that there were rumors about its prowess.^[2]

The Missile Boat designated Mu 1, along with two scout craft, faced off against Nebulon-B2 frigate Z-Borus and its compliment of TIE Bombers and Interceptors. As the battle progressed, Zaarin brought more of his TIE Avengers to bear down on the research facility. Failing at their initial attempt to capture the facility, Zaarin's forces followed up the previous sortie with a larger onslaught of three Carrack-class cruisers and assault transports, all the while aided by traitorous TIE Defenders. A lone Missile Boat, backed by escort transports, repelled this intense attack, while the Muurian transport Shadow docked with the Vorknkx to enable its hyperdrive. Despite all efforts by Missile Boat pilots, the Empire was forced to evacuate the research platforms V1 and V2, but the Vorknkx was safeguarded and escaped to hyperspace.^[2]

During Thrawn's campaign against Zaarin, Darth Vader also employed Missile Boats in his campaign leading up to the Battle of Endor, involving the Bothan spies. Missile Boats were responsible for destroying a Bothan Dreadnaught-class cruiser attempting to transfer information to the Rebellion, performing raids and reconnaissance on the Rebel buildup, and wearing down the Alliance starship reserves prior to the battle. While Mon Mothma was not referring to the Missile Boat when she spoke of the Bothan sacrifice, Bothan blood was spilled at the hands of Missile Boat pilots.^[2]

Missile Boat cockpit and hangar views

The Missile Boat played a key role defending the Emperor himself, perhaps the most prominent of its accomplishments. Immediately following Darth Vader's preliminary arrangements for the impending battle at Endor, Emperor Palpatine boarded his private passenger liner Excalibur, en route to Endor. During its voyage, it came under attack by more of Zaarin's traitor forces. Maarek Stele and his Missile Boat, escorted by TIE Avengers, repelled an attack composed of the Victory-class Star Destroyer Zeplin, the Nebulon-B frigate Kimik, and a number of Assassin-class corvettes. With the Missile Boat having thwarted the bulk of the attack force, the Excalibur escaped into hyperspace.^[2]

After Darth Vader's strategic campaign against the Bothans, Admiral Zaarin became privy to the Emperor's plot to destroy the Rebels. While Zaarin too detested the Rebellion, his henchman, Namuura Din, sought to defect to it. Missile Boats played a role in the capture of Namuura Din and his flagship, the Victory-class Star Destroyer Zeplin; moreover, Missile Boats were responsible for the inspection of a Rebel craft carrying a stolen Missile Boat, dubbed Sealion, and information concerning the operational status of the second Death Star. Upon this discovery, the Empire was faced with the perilous task of retrieving this classified information. Missile Boats led an assault on the Rebel cruiser Link, which was carrying the stolen Missile Boat; although Imperial forces captured the Rebel cruiser, the captured craft escaped, but was quickly located on a Rebel platform. In what would prove to be their last sortie, Missile Boats facilitated the capture of the Rebel platform and the stolen Missile Boat. Following interrogation, it was assumed that the Rebels had insufficient time to reverse engineer the Missile Boat, exposing its secrets. Despite this fact, the Emperor deemed the loss of the Missile Boat too great a threat to his elaborate plans to crush the Rebel Alliance; thus it was ordered that all Missile Boats would be put into storage until the Rebel "problem" was solved. The Emperor's recall order was never rescinded after his death at Endor, and the few missile Boat production facilities already in operation were destroyed by Zaarin during his campaign. Following the death of the attempted usurper, Imperial Missile Boats were never again seen in combat.^[2]

As an experimental craft, the Missile Boat never achieved fruition as a result of the Emperor's recall. Training facilities had begun training elite pilots to form a new Missile Boat unit, from which some anticipated impressive results; this was subsequently halted by the Emperor's command. Maarek Stele, however, was among the small number of pilots who were known to have piloted the Missile Boat.^[2] One of the few innovations of the Missile Boat program that would see later use was, ironically, deployed by the New Republic rather than the fragmentary remnants of the Empire. The SLAM overdrive system was used by Koensayr Manufacturing on the BTL-S8 K-wing bomber—^[6]many of which were carried on the Viscount-class Star Defenders that the New Republic sent against the Imperial Remnant.^[7]

Its okay.  I only know about it because I got the X-Wing Vs TIE Fighter bundle pack which included TIE fighter for cheap 5+ years ago.  I went through the story with invincibility on just to find out what happened next.  Plus I know what is like to focus on a good book.

I was looking around for more Covenant ship data when I came across a bit of info from First Strike I forgot about. And you sure don't see this sort of security for the Emperor.

 Quote. They gathered data and emerged into the cold vacuum, where they were recovered by the hundreds of supercarriers and cruisers in station-keeping positions around the massive, bulbous planetoid that dominated the heavens. Not a single rock larger than a centimeter could enter this space without being identified, targeted, and vaporized. Authorization codes were updated hourly, and if any incoming vessel hesitated for a millisecond with the proper response, it, too, met unyielding destruction. Unquote.

Page 338 of Halo: First Strike. Now this shows that the Covenant have at least a few hundred Supercarriers, which would most likly be around 10 kilometers long, the size of the smaller SSD's.

And lets look at the Empire with their security: they are guarding the Emperor but let a ship with outdated codes through. Why did Vader let that ship through when he could have caught it with the tractor beams and taken Luke to the Emperor and avoided the risk that they could take out the shield bunker? The main rebel fleet would never have known if they had been captured before landing or not until they won or lose the battle. The Empire is sloppy with their security; it's seen from A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.

The Covenant have the numbers, the tech and ships to win against the Empire. In the end it would most likely be a guerilla war. But as I said before the numbers of Star Wars can be a curse, a guerilla war could mean that if they can attack farming planets the Empire starves.  

This has been a UNSC transmission.   

Now that I look at it more the Return of the Jedi was not the best to use for that, A New Hope would have been used better for it.

I did not say they are vastly superior with their tech, I was just saying that they had many advantages such as guiding their plasma torpedos at a distance after it being fired, their pulse lasers, which are really lasers because they move at the speed of light; as far as I know all laser weapons in SW are plasma based. And the Scarab walker which can easily out flank the AT-AT and any escorts on the ground; it's not every day you see an AT-AT walker walk on a huge building and drop down to engage or a pair of AT-AT walkers drop out of the sky and land intact. On the ground the Covenant would have the numbers, their would be thousands of every troop type the Covenant have fighting; the Drones give them local light air support against Storm Troopers, the Hunters would blast away Storm Troopers with their FR cannons in the mode they have in H2 and H3. And then the Elites with their stealth generators could wait for Storm Troopers to pass by where their hiding and slice them up with Energy Swords. And lets not forget the most deadly Elite there is: the Gold Elite, the Field Masters and the Ship Masters. The Covenant have proven they can build on the scales that the Empire can with less planets. In space they are vastly out numbered, but it will also hinge on the ship types used by both sides. Even if the Covenant have to leave ships to guard their worlds that could shall mean up to 4000 Covenant ships attacking, but this would also depend on how the the Empire arrives: by Hyper Drive or some sort of portal.  

And if the Covenant launch attacks against the Empires farming planets first then that would mean they have to draw more ships from other places to ensure they do not starve as more are glass, which could leave ships hundreds or even thousands of light-years away from other places that the Covenant could then glass. And lets not forget the Covenant have a lot of mobile space habitats which could make it hard for the Empire to track them down. In the end a guerilla war would mean the Covenant victory is ensured.

This has been a UNSC transmission.      

Davemazing, you need to lighten up a bit man . he's just messing around

(I think someone forgot to take their pills this morning )

  no offense