Wraith vs. Ender's fleet

[Daryl Froggy]

Okay here is the scenario:

Ender, Bean, and the rest of the group are in control of their fleet* that has just come upon a Wraith fleet** culling a human colony world. The Wraith hives spotted the incoming ships hours ago and have sent their cruisers to remove the possible threat once it came closer.

What would happen given these general parameters?

* A fleet 125 ships strong of roughly equivalent strength to those used in Ender's Game.

** 12 hives and 36 cruisers there are no darts as they are all culling the planet below.

[Crazy Tom]

The Wraith have an enormous advantage in terms of hyper drives, but it;'s negated by their lack of tactical sense and the fact that they have to close the range before they can attack Ender's fleet, which will wipe them out with their disintegrator beams.

[Daryl Froggy]

Actually those 'beams' appeared to be missiles to me... so long as you were talking about Dr. Device and not something else.

[Crazy Tom]

Actually those 'beams' appeared to be missiles to me... so long as you were talking about Dr. Device and not something else.

They were missiles on fighters, on capital ships they were used in beam form.

[Daryl Froggy]

Really? Did they say that in Ender's Game?

[s09119]

Okay here is the scenario:

Ender, Bean, and the rest of the group are in control of their fleet* that has just come upon a Wraith fleet** culling a human colony world. The Wraith hives spotted the incoming ships hours ago and have sent their cruisers to remove the possible threat once it came closer.

What would happen given these general parameters?

* A fleet 125 ships strong of roughly equivalent strength to those used in Ender's Game.

** 12 hives and 36 cruisers there are no darts as they are all culling the planet below.

Ender would wreck them. The IF's technology is light-years past the Wraith in some respects, and the M.D. Device is a perfect example of this; even if the Wraith had shields, they'd be utterly useless against it. The wave would collapse the entire enemy fleet into dust, and I doubt you'd really even need Ender or Bean's brilliance to pull it off.

Now if Ender had commanded the Ancients war against the Wraith, and if they had had a Dr. Device-like weapon at their disposal, that could be tricky. The Wraith, like the Formics, could send messages telepathically and inform all the others about the superweapon the Lanteans had in their arsenal. But I think that in the end, Ender would still come out on top. His ability to understand his opponents at the level he does would be the Wraith's undoing.

[jds1982]

Really? Did they say that in Ender's Game?

I'd have to read Ender's Game again, but when they are explaining the M.D. Device to Ender it sounds like a beam weapon. In the later novels they have an M.D. warhead, so it's possible they might have both.

[Daryl Froggy]

You know I really need to reread Ender's Game. Pretty much the only thing I remember is that I liked Ender's Shadow better.

I wonder how the Wraith would fair against the more conventional weaponry of the IF warships? Would it be similar to the Ancient satellite, would it be a knockoff of the Asgard beams on the 304, or would it be weaker?

Ender would wreck them. The IF's technology is light-years past the Wraith in some respects, and the M.D. Device is a perfect example of this; even if the Wraith had shields, they'd be utterly useless against it. The wave would collapse the entire enemy fleet into dust, and I doubt you'd really even need Ender or Bean's brilliance to pull it off.

Now if Ender had commanded the Ancients war against the Wraith, and if they had had a Dr. Device-like weapon at their disposal, that could be tricky. The Wraith, like the Formics, could send messages telepathically and inform all the others about the superweapon the Lanteans had in their arsenal. But I think that in the end, Ender would still come out on top. His ability to understand his opponents at the level he does would be the Wraith's undoing.

Other than the M.D. Device, which I am unsure of its ability to traverse shields, what technology would the IF have that the Wraith wouldn't have already surpassed?

Hm. There is at least one thing that is different with the Wraith as apposed to the Formics. For one they understand humanity a lot better so they may be able to read into Ender's strategy a little better.

[Vladius]

I don't like Ender's Game, so the Wraith automatically win. *Sticks tongue out* NEH!

[Daryl Froggy]

Wow and I thought that I was childish and a fool... nah scratch that last bit.

[Vladius]

Wow and I thought that I was childish and a fool... nah scratch that last bit.

Just kidding. Why do you always use that font, by the way?

[Daryl Froggy]

My initial reason was so that I could find my posts on a crowded page, now it is just a matter of habit.

[Vladius]

Cool.

[s09119]

Other than the M.D. Device, which I am unsure of its ability to traverse shields, what technology would the IF have that the Wraith wouldn't have already surpassed?

They say in the novel that the wave can pass right through the ecstatic shield, which is as close to a generic sci-fi "shield" as they come in Ender's Game, so I'm assuming it can go through them, too. That's just an assumption, though, but if Stargate shields are made of plasma, it should rip them apart like any other bit of matter.

Hm. There is at least one thing that is different with the Wraith as apposed to the Formics. For one they understand humanity a lot better so they may be able to read into Ender's strategy a little better.

Wraith don't understand the Tau'ri at all, though, that's why we keep winning. They're used to pathetically-primitive bands of humans who can't put up any real resistance, whereas the Atlanteans are a continually-advancing world of humans with hundreds of variations of weapons and vehicles. I think the IF would have the same advantage in that area, but their lack of hyperdrive technology would be a serious weakness for them...

[Crazy Tom]

Really? Did they say that in Ender's Game?

Yes, I think it when when Ender was being briefed on the whole plan that they say something along the lines of "our weapons have great spread", I assumed they wee talking about a beam because eclastic fields made missile attacks obsolete and meant that you could not see the ship, but you could still guess pretty well since the generator had to be in the exact middle.

On the subject of IF versus Wraith it depends very much on the initial situation, how many worlds the wraith had, how many the IF had, how long it would take to reverse engineer each others technology.

[Daryl Froggy]

Tom, take a gander at my first post and you will notice that I was only mentioning a singe encounter.


True s09119, the lack of IF hyperdrive would be a problem though I don't think the Wraith do tactical hyperspace jumps so it would be fairly useless in combat save for a way to retreat.

[jds1982]

One has to remember that at encounter speed (i.e. not in hyperspace) the I.F. ships would probably be faster. They do travel at near light speeds, which as far as I know, we've never seen the Wraith do.

[s09119]

One has to remember that at encounter speed (i.e. not in hyperspace) the I.F. ships would probably be faster. They do travel at near light speeds, which as far as I know, we've never seen the Wraith do.

That's true, but they can't fight at that speed; they only travel at near-c, and relatively-speaking, it takes them two weeks to perform the Park Shift in order to slow down to sublight if I remember right from one of the later books.

EDIT: I lied, apparently the shift back to sublight is instantaneous, it was the early I.F. messenger ships that took two weeks to switch back and forth.