Why the LAAT gunship was actually TERRIFYING 

ok

I had one of those too. One of the guns broke off, sadly.

prefer the Mando one, but LAAT is still amazing!

​@@vakuzarthe razorcreast ship?

LAAT: uhh (asian uhh)

If there's one thing to praise the Prequels for, it's ship design. Like you see the precursors to the OT military ship designs, and there's just a fantastic design language. It's my number one issue with the Sequels, the lack of ship designs and storytelling via design.

If you’re starved for good SW content, check out the High Republic books… phase two is a little shaky but Phase 1 contains some of my favorite books in general.

@@granatmof I also like how the Prequels raised lightsaber combat to a whole new level, although not perfect it’s light years ahead of what the sequels gave.

​@@jamesongillen1608 I'm pretty sure high republic is one of the many things he's referencing

What disappointing things are going on with Star Wars right now?

Of what I remember, they did take inspiration of Mi-24 Hind

Sounds like an helicopter

​@@SamG_007Cus its one

@@Danspy501st sounds about right with the canopy

Especially in the newer productions where they made it sound bassier and more like a soft growl, especially from a distance

Hopefully the Osprey can be fitted with engines like the V280: only the prop-rotor changes angle while the engine is fixed to the wing. Will make it possible to shoot out the sides.

Also, the LAAT is built to play Fortunate Son over loudspeakers.

Bro it's just a space HUEY. [FORTUNATE SON]

Makes me think of a Sci fi gunship version of a B17 it's basically a flying fortress with the amount of fire power it has because God forbid you be a dinky little Droid trying to take potshots at it next thing ya know the gods of war have blaster bolts the size of that Droid and anti everything missiles hitting them in a crescendo of devastation

​​@@BigWheel. "I'm no senator's son"

Well you sound like that clone who said in a clone wars episode “these bugs can’t aim” and gets their LAAT shot down right away after saying the line. Granted there is always a need to build tension but this ship, other than attack of the clones, wasn’t shown as a OP weapon. It did it’s job which was to deliver clones into the surface and was adaptable but was pretty weak when engaged ship to ship and when they were facing heavy artillery fire

@@leonardoespino9780 Yeah, that is the effect of raising death flags. Other dumb statements: "This is my last battle, then I'm retired." "When we get back, I'm marrying my sweetheart." "I've got something important to say to you guys, but it can wait until after we mop up this detachment of droids."

@@MonkeyJedi99 well even if this is the effect of raising death flags, it still doesn’t invalidates my point. There are countless scenes where we see LAAT assaults and we see them get shot down like nothing. Like on the assault on ryloth with kenobi’s forces or umbara with anakins forces. Hell, the second battle of genesis episode is a clear example of what can happen when the enemies know everything (even if they were tipped off) of where and when the assault is going to happen

I mean if you want to be realistic. If it wasn't for balancing out starfighters, the LAAT would be a beast in dog fighting, sure it won't be able to outmaneuver a vulture droid, but it's multiple turrets would let it cut them down by the dozen, while also having the firepower to fight the smaller warships

@@leonardoespino9780 Was I supposed to label my previous response with (THIS IS ME JOKING!)?

I litterly was thinking the same thing, that would be so awesome

How are they gonna have enough people to operate a venator? It takes literally a small town of people to man one

@@funnelingspace9268 clone rebellion pls pls pls… imagine they find a kamino city that wasn’t shot down… and start cloning there… or they find a battle droid factory and reprogram them

Imagine the Batch facing down an AT-AT and getting their asses handed to them, until Rex, Wolffe, Gregor, and Howzer come in with a LAAT and destroy it with one of those green lasers. That would be badasss

Minimum crew for a venator would be 100

Especially in the Republic at War mod

The HMP's name is literally Heavy Missile Platform, it's like if an A-1 Skyraider had a child with a VTOL.

@@kabob0077 sounds powerful

​@@kabob0077 and throw in the A-10 Thunderbolt II for extra measure.

@@michaelandreipalon359 Yes.

I've spent the past three days digging the parts of my disassembled Lego one out of these bins. It will be worth it once I'm done.

could’ve just used a binder clip

I was lucky enough to have gotten the original AOTC gunship for $21 from walmart back in 2003. Never found the Toys R Us ARC Trooper repaint, though.

@@raser4329oh definitely

I've had a lego LAAT for like 11 years now, it's sick

i do believe you are right

I mean it took Inspiration from a Lot of vehicles imo. Those manned gunpods in the wings and to the side we're an actual Thing in some Bombers in WW2

Everyone into helicopters can admit the Hind is a genius design. But it's kind of in the same place as the AK-47, it's outdated but may never become obsolete. (see the B-52 for another 'oh God why!?' example of long lasting design.)

It enters the conflict as a Huey, and ends it as a Hind.

Lol well how many more missiles do you want the standard LAAT/i already carries 60 missiles.

@Pheonixx you can never have too many missiles

@@phoenixx913 Prehaps some extra launchers as well, so it has a higher rate of fire. Getting hit with 4 or even 6 missiles simultaneously would be more "impactful". And without the need for sliding doors for troops to disembark, the extra launchers could be mounted on the sides. No Core ship would've gotten off the ground, and the CIS heavy vehicles on the field would've been toast as well. Then there's the option of strafing runs with missile spam on approaching then bombs while overhead. And the option of having ion missiles for close air support of friendly ground forces, as it would take down droids but not organics.

Maybe include some emp rockets/gungan bomba tech to fire at the projected landing zone. Clearing the zone of droids without having to land in a firestorm would be helpful.

I saw a video by geetsly on the y wing during the clone wars. If I remembered correctly they mentioned a variant of the LAAT that was supposed to serve as a bomber, and the concept that the kaminoins saw the LAAT as a ship that could serve as basically an all in 1 starship, acting as a bomber, fighter, gunship, etc. as it turned out, the LAAT bomber sucked, and it was replaced by the y wing.

As far as Star Wars only goes, yeah it's a perfect specimen. Comparisons to OTHER sci-fi universes show that the LAAT does leave a lot to be desired. For instance, the Pelican in Halo is, in my opinion, the PERFECT dropship. It's fairly fast for it's weight, can carry cars and tanks, hold up to 13 to 15 people (and can hold more if they attach a carrier pod to the vehicle hauling mount), it has a rear gun in the troop bay, missiles, and a huge chin-mounted machine gun. Here's where it SURPASSES the LAAT, though. It can actually go to and from space and operate in exoatmospheric conditions. The two vehicles are very similar but I think that even without the Pelican being quite as heavily armed it still wins out because it can go into space and that helps tremendously with troop deployment.

​@@Eye_Of_Odin978 LAAT can do in space flight too, we see that during the Citadel arc of The Clone Wars.

The Thunderhawk from Warhammer 40k. Four Twin-linked Heavy bolters sponsons, two wing-mointed lascannons and either a Thunderhawk cannon (bigger than most of the Imperium's tank cannons) or a Turbolaser Destructor (which is a BIG FUCKING lascannon, more commonly used on Titans), and a variety of missiles and/or bombs can be installed. They look like flying tanks, and that's what they basically are. Their thick armour and construction means it can withstand a tremendous amount of punishment and still do its mission. And if we talk of the Great Crusade era's Thunderhawks, they also can have a Flare Shield, which is a miniature Void Shield that can block incoming damage (the technology is lost in the 41st millennium though). It's void-worthy, and while it is not as agile as a dedicated fighter, it can defend itself against aircrafts extremely well. It's void-to-void, air-to-air, air-to-ground, air-anti-infantry, air-to-fortifications and a very versatile and sturdy dropship. And all that is to deliver its cargo of 30 Space Marines, 7 feet tall genetically engineered super soldiers in basically body tanks. Or it can also be used to transport Land Raiders (big ass Space Marine tanks), Dreadnoughts (a walking coffin containing the almost-but-not-yet-dead remains of an Astartes hero, it's a walking tank), or Astartes Bikes (which, surprise, are armored bikes). And even the Thunderhawk PALES in comparison to its bigger brother the Stormbird, which was used in the Great Crusade as the main dropships, carrying up to 100 Space Marines, and having a true Void Shield and a multitude of even more powerful armaments compared to the smaller Thunderhawk. The Stormbird though are relics of a past age in the 41st millennium, while they were the common means of transport for Astartes during the Great Crusade. Only at the end of the Great Crusade and the beginning of the Horus Heresy does the Thunderhawk supplant the Stormbird in uses, not because the Thunderhawk is better though, but because it's easier to produce in mass quantity for lesser resources.

I think that he meant ball turrets and said the wrong feature.

I think a difference is that some of those that go back into space have a double-opening slide door on either side, making it sealed more for space travel (maybe??) a normal lat had just the one door on either side It could also be internal designs that aren't obvious

He did say "LIKE the sliding door." Could be other features. Also said USUALLY not always... but yeah I too have always found their handling of this a tad frustrating how limited the LAATs are *supposed* to be, but because they're so iconic and cool they get used for so much more in Star Wars media.

@@Lord-Emperor-Vader decided to look it up on the wookiee, and i think youre right. The main differences was that the cabin was sealed and that there were _flood lights_ instead of ball turrets

Me either!

Me neither, or the wing mounted laser cannons outside Episode 2

Especially when they were chased by two fighters...

I just chalk that up to visual effects budget and pretend it's still used

@@derrickstorm6976 Yeah, those two ball-turrets mounted on the wings almost never get used in actual episodes or movies for some reason. Heck, they even aren't really usable in the GAMES outside of a couple exceptions, namely Battlefront 1 Classic.

"We're out of rockets, sir!" Your ship is also bristling with directed energy weapons; why can't you use those?!

they ran out of energy since they've been in combat for a while@@Delta-V-Heavy

@@dragerdet Well, clearly they're not completely out of energy, since they're still flying. I dunno, it just always bothered me how the movie so very clearly demonstrated how heavily armed the LAAT was, and then felt like it just handwaved why none of those weapons could be used against Dooku for the sake of the plot. I know, it's definately not that big of an issue, it's just something that has always bothered me a bit.

​@@Delta-V-HeavyBy energy he means the ammo of their laser cannons

​@@brightlord-ov7cmVenator, X-Wing

But the AT-TE 🥺🥺

And if you turn the whole arsenal to work even most Jedi masters will fall to one LAAT.

Assuming of course, that the Jedi doesn't use the force to either throw a large object in the path of the beams or missiles or whatever else. Or using the force to shove the gunship around just long enough to throw off it's aim and allow for escape, or forcefully crash it. Or force crush it.

​@@jessegd6306 90% of Jedi wouldn't be capable of any of those feats

@@jessegd6306 Ergo not something a run-of-the-mill Jedi would be capable of doing easily.

@@jessegd6306 Even if a Jedi blocks a shot, you have three more cannons plus missiles and the front blasters to kill them.

The only time you see the rear gun being used i think is in the arena.

we saw both the first time the L.A.-A.T. was seen

i prefer the venator but I agree it's a really hot ship

The LAAT is honestly the best all around ship in star wars

The manned and placement of its weaponry kinda reminds me of the PBY-5A Catalina.

Really when you think about it most of the clones gear was overkill. The DC-15A for instance their standard issue rifle at the beginning of the war not even a heavy weapon when mounted on a tripod had an effective range of 10km. And when turned up to it's highest power settings one bolt was able to blow a foot and half wide crater in whatever it hit and just the regular powered bolts were able to blow off limbs and blow battle droids in half. And on top of that it had an accession cable launcher for scaling walls and cliffs and a sniper scope. And on top of that the rifles linked up with the targeting systems in clone helmets and projected a gunsight similar to a video game onto the heads up display, gave them targeting data and essentially gave them assisted aiming/aimbot. For a standard issue mass produced rifle that is ridiculously overkill.

Kinda necessary when the army you're facing outnumbers you probably 100 to 1 and has a fleet 4 times the size of yours. The CIS is pretty wild.

@@phoenixx913 The rifles may not have been designed for droids, but for Jedi. Order 66: Every clone within 10km has the ability to shoot you and chase you up walls and cliffs. Targeting systems allow them to shoot accurately and quickly at fast moving targets.

​@@nomz27 Honestly blows my mind how not a single Jedi looked at the specs for GAR standard issue gear and went "huh, this feels like it's got a very specific use in mind..." lmao

@@phoenixx913 The GRA feels like somebody decided to make an army entirely of Special Forces. No wonder they could only field a few million. I still stay the GRA ahould've included a general Infantry component of recruited regulars. At the very least, they could've freed up the clones from garrison and auxiliary duties. But then, Granpda Palps wouldn't have army he could control absolutely.

That wouldn't have been possible. Attack of the Clones was released in 2002, Half-Life 2 was released in 2004.

It fills the same role with a similar arsenal and it even looks like it Funny considering that there's also a clone wars arc that's heavily inspired by the soviet war of Afghanistan

New life goal unlocked 👍 Edit: gotta be blaring fortunate son for max points

Around the students a perimeter create.

Seen that

it has light shielding

I would prefer to split the roles between 2 different landers. One fitted for combat and escort work meant for clearing an area, and fitted for such, and the 2nd with bare minimum in self defense, but highly mobile just for hot dropping clones quickly. Merging the 2 results in a combat craft that is somewhat subpar in combat for the expense, and somewhat subpar when it comes to troop capacity, again, for the cost. I am basing this on the Russian experience with the MI-24, a helicopter gunship that also tries to act as a transport, and doing neither really well

That was deliberate, they took the Hind as inspiration. The Hind is iconic and just seems to work from an aesthetic perspective. It has perfect proportions and an intimidating presence (no matter that these days it's MANPADS bait).

@@casbot71 Outside of looks it even fills the same role as a dual gunship and transport. And the Hind being MANPADS bait is nothing new, it's been facing Stingers since the '80s

🙄thank you!

I said the same thing!

Speculation: Probably unstable to handle and difficult to both make and store. Like using a mason jar full of nitroglycerin, it'll blow up and definitely kill something, but you really wouldn't wanna use it if you had other semi-safe options like dynamite.