Ori ring altar, or Goa'uld Al'kesh's rings?

[Mister Oragahn]

Let's look at those two different systems.

The first one, used by the Ori to deploy ground troops, is some kind of ring altar, or ring base, and is carried by an Ori fighter, with no particular exception, and dropped a few ten meters above the ground. It lands loudly, and is immediately operative.
It must be particularily massive, since its underneath is bulged, so it couldn't stand properly on a ground surface mainly made of solid concrete or metal, so it would actually have to literally smash into such hard surfaces to become stable.
However, it seems to be able to do so, literally crushing the ground beneath.
Once quickly deployed, the altar is immediately usable for troops waiting in the warship in altitude, and the fighter which carried it can resume any other operation.
A ring altar doesn't require any ship to function, it's independant, and not a big target to shoot at. It seems relatively sturdy as well.
However, it lacks any sort of auto defense.


The Goa'uld use Al'keshes (mid range bombers) to deploy soldiers on the ground, or very large troop transports.
The advantage of the Al'kesh is that it's mobile and armed, however, it's also a big target, visible from a good distance.
We've never seen an Al'kesh be used as a relay to beam Jaffas down from a motherships. An Al'kesh will only beam down people it already carried from the get go as far as we've seen (that is, not that much).
However, I wonder why we didn't yet, since it's largely plausible.
For example, anyone can get onboard a Tel'tak (cargo ship) by using its rings, with the right code, even if you're beaming off from a ship like the Prometheus or a 304.
An Al'kesh can deploy its ring both inside and outside, just like a cargo ship.
I believe it could be possible for an Al'kesh to receive a matter stream from a mothership (eventually the stream would hit the apex of the pyramid structure of the bomber), deploy its rings down, and reintegrate soldiers on the ground.
Repeat the operation.

So which system do you think is the most efficient in terms of tactics and ressources?

[Ravroz]

IMHO I would have to say for safely moving larger numbers of troops in a short period of time I would have to give it to the Ori. Without having to move in ships and making the vulnerable to enemy fire. However the problem with this is that it makes a stationary target for enemy fire to be concentrated on. As soon as enemy troops materialize they would be almost immediately cut down if fire was properly concentrated.

[ManiacMike]

It makes you wonder if the ori have beaming technology, because using rings in a war is very risky. If the area gets compromised the ori warriors coming through the rings will get mowed down one after another by enemy fire.

[wise one]

and it might be intercepted by other ships with rings like an ori rings down to a planet but then a hatak is in the way and the jaffa slaughter them

and we know they are compatible with each other since vala in beachead used the rings but was sucked in by the wormhole that made her ring in the ori galaxy

[monkey_man132]

From "Flesh and Blood" I can see an Ori fighter having a lot more durability and armament than any Al'Kesh so I'd say a fighter swinging into place and dropping rings is way better than big fat Al'Kesh.

[Jarnin]

So which system do you think is the most efficient in terms of tactics and ressources?

Here's an alternate view on such a subject.

The Ori were pretty much content until they discovered that the Milky Way was full of heretical demonspawn. That's when they decided to go on a crusade and purge this galaxy of evil.

In other words, as far as we know, they hadn't been at war since the Alterans left that galaxy several million years ago. They had to recruit an army from their loyal followers, they had to build ships and weapons to fight in their crusade, and they did all of that in a period of about a year.

Sure, their technology is better than the Goa'ulds, but that's because the Ori ascended beings give their Priors all the technical information they need to build a better weapon. Tactics, on the other hand, isn't one of their strong suits.
They've been out of the game far too long for their Priors to have any experience in war, and the ascended Ori don't have direct communication with the guys on the ground. The Ori tell the Doci, who tells the Priors, who tell the men who are running the war. In the case of Adria, she was making all the calls but she didn't seem to have much of an idea how to wage a war either. They would show up with their superior weapons and say "join us or die". If their targets decided to fight, they'd destroy the surface of their planet and be on about their way. There wasn't really any fighting going on, it was a zerg attack.


As for the rings, the Goa'uld employed ground based ring platforms as well, which is funny because we know that those platforms were built by the ancients and were compatible with the Ori ring systems. So why didn't the Ori soldiers simply ring down to existing ancient ring platforms?

What it really comes down to is that that scene where the Ori fighter drops that portable ring platform looked cool. It was eye candy and wasn't meant to be anything more than that.

[Master_Templar]

It depends on the situation too. The issue you have with the Ring Platform is what happens anytime someone deploys large numbers of troops on a ring platform, they bunch up and become very easy targets for weapons fire. The second disadvantage is in theory you could beam aboard the ship when troops deploys. The advantage of course is the near impossibility of hitting the platform with any significant firepower. You could even in theory drop them over your enemies lines when they create a line and surround them quite quickly (the Ori don't have issues with Meatgrinder tactics, right?).

On the other hand, the Goa'uld troop transporter (like what Anubis used in Full Circle) are big large floating targets, which have no real apparent weaponary, so would require a fighter escort or they will be shot down. What they can do is put a large amount of troops on the ground, very quickly. As seen in Full Circle, the Transport ship managed to put 100's of Jaffa on the ground in a very short time, whilst a squadron of Gliders and Al'kesh bombarded the Abydonian position. They also appear sturdy, being able to take a hit from a missile launcher with no really effect. And considering a Missile hits with about as much force as a Staff Cannon (the main armament of the Alkesh), it is safe to assume they can take a bit of fire without succumbing to quickly.

So essentially, both forms of transport have their advantages and disadvantages. And in a pitched battle between the two (taking motherships out of the equation), the Jaffa would be able to put more troops on the ground more quickly, leaving the Ori underpowered initially. The Ori have more chance to use infiltration and more 'clever' tactics, by using strategic placement of rings, making it much more difficult for Jaffa forces to advance upon the Ori, as they would have to leave Jaffa to guard every platform.

[wise one]

jaffa has alot of training and have actually been in full scale wars and would noe what to do in battles, the ori soldiers are farmers and peasants with no experience in fighting

[Ripple in Space]

Troop deployment goes like this:

Asgard beams (hypothetically, since they don't have ground troops)
Wraith Darts (Can sweep-beam entire units in a flash.
Ori Platforms (quick drop platform)
Al'kesh traditional.

[Mister Oragahn]

I'd go with the Al'kesh. You can move your ring platform at will. It is mobile. The ori one is stuck. What it gains in lower ressources requirements, it looses in polyvalence and adaptation.

Now, those ori altars could be significantly cheaper to produce, and if ori battleships had many ring platforms onboard, technically the Ori could have dozens of fighter to carry an altar each, adn thus be able to deploy those ring bases at many points, covering much more zones than Al'keshes can.

Al'keshes don't seem to be that cheap ships after all. We don't see many of them in combat, and actually, having them used as relays for troop deployment would forbid them from engaging the enemy. They'd be like ring outposts.

Seriously, both systems have advantages, and even more when you play with theories, but they both have flaws as well.

Though it wasn't part of the topic, Wraith Darts are interesting on their own.
They can quickly drop much more troops than rings can.
A squadron of Darts just has to fly above a given zone, they don't even need to slow down that much, and they'll beam Wraith down.

The problem, however, is that if you want to deploy Wraith, you always need to use Darts, which means forcing them to travel betwen combat zone and behind the frontline.

Contrary to an Ori altar or Al'kesh, the only way to beam down more wraith troops is to use mroe darts.
Now, darts actually come in large numbers, and Wraith can actually use cruisers to land on the ground and deploy vast numbers of troops if necessary.
Darts have the advantage that a swarm of them can deploy troops at many different locations, extremely quickly, while a cruiser is slower.

[Wraith_Boy]

jaffa has alot of training and have actually been in full scale wars and would noe what to do in battles, the ori soldiers are farmers and peasants with no experience in fighting

Though they may have been implaned with such knowledge via the Ori before coming to this galaxy.

[garhkal]

Though they may have been implaned with such knowledge via the Ori before coming to this galaxy.

Though where would the Ori have garnerd such knowledge? Remember being ascended does not make you all knowing, it just increases your understanding of things..

[Master_Templar]

The Troops seem to be go fairly well in combat from what we have seen in the Tv Series. And what they lack in skill, they seem to make up in overwelming numbers and very highpowered weaponary.