Today we discuss whether the UNSC could have actually won the Battle of Earth
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but on today's
content the UNSC s major mistake at the Battle of Earth was their failure to rely on and
Protect the planets extensive Super MAC defensive grid the question is how and why did this happen?
the UNSC isn't frequently portrayed as stupid and they certainly aren't here they're able to identify the
Tactics of the covenant quite well, even from very early on which is a great first step
They recognize that the cruisers are purposefully staying out of MAC firing range while smaller
Transports are spotted heading towards the orbital defense platforms in order to punch a hole through the grid Admiral hood even notes
How valuable the stations are and keeps the fleet in place to protect them
What's more the UNSC had advance notice that something was going wrong as Cortana reports to hood?
Another whisper sir near IO we have probes enroute suggesting
Not only that there was a sign of incoming danger
But that humanity was concerned enough with the threat that alerts were being sent directly to UNSC High Command
So they've recognized the threat and identified tactics
How did things to go so wrong?
The battle is basically over within the first hour the Athens in Malta ODPs are destroyed
Allowing the Covenant warships to both A move into position to decimate the UNSC fleet and be pushed through the defensive line to Earth's
surface after that any subsequent fleets are able to push through the existing hole or make new ones without having to face any
Resistance from the fleet the main problem is the UNSC realizes what is happening
But doesn't actually respond in a meaningful way the fleet moves and forms a defensive perimeter
But doesn't intelligently engage the main threat the boarding parties
I think this is because the UNSC was too worried about the warships themselves
We see for example, that long swords are flying into position with UNSC fleets not racing off to intercept the boarding craft
which do not appear to be particularly fast maneuverable or
Well-armed, and the fleet is positioned to protect against the Covenant capital ships
Which actually have to stay out of the fight lest they be destroyed
I'm not sure whether this bias
existed just because of how fearsome the Covenant fleet was and the fact that having your homeworld attacked is frightening or whether the UNSC just
Underestimated covenant borders. So the Covenant telegraphed their movements pretty clearly if I run command
Here's what I would have done
All UNSC frigates would have been ordered to move into position close to the orbital defense platforms
These ships are armed with pretty impressive point defense cannons and would have helped out in taking down boarding parties
It's true
The Covenant could have fainted and instead attacked a different trio of MAC platforms
But I believe I would have been able to respond actually moving
The frigates into position is probably the least important part of my plan in reality
The boarding transports are the easiest targets ever. They're not meant for direct combat
And the Covenant fleet is totally incapable of supporting them because of the ODP kill range
I would order any launched
longswords to move and intercept the borders as that's happening any station side ship side and hell even
Planetside longswords would also be moved to help protect against further star fighters without having your ODPs taken down from the inside
I don't think there's anything the Covenant can do the only real way to destroy a MAC platform is by sheer
overwhelming force or by attacking outside the weapons firing arc
Which is difficult
given the fact that the stations can rotate
The fleet that attacked reach was more than 10 times the size of the one that attacked earth with almost a thousand ships
Reach also only had 20 orbital defense platforms instead of 300 and they still managed to destroy hundreds of ships
I believe 300 ODPs represents a more or less impenetrable force immune to any traditional attack
That's why I feel comfortable moving literally every asset
I have to protect against the ODPs one vulnerability small fast move starfighters and perhaps very small capital ships
remember the ODPs themselves have defense turrets and we've got mostly frigates and long swords and
It's not like the Covenant blitzed the station either because the ships actually started outside of the kill zone launched from the main cruisers
so there's more than enough time to mount an intelligent response and that's ignoring the fact that
Really the frigates should have been in position
Anyway, there is no covenant capital ship with perhaps the exception of the CSO super carrier
Which can survive a shot from a super MAC platform. The MACs can also fire multiple times a minute
They can handle the big things
I really believe that as long as you can clear out any attackers that the stations would be fine
I also don't believe that the later arrival of truth sleet would have provided enough forces to overwhelm Earth's defenses
For one we know that the ships were being captained by brutes who probably wouldn't have a good understanding
Of how the ODPs work and with ships not able to actually breach the line an invasion of earth would be very difficult
however, not impossible
Well, it's pretty clear that no large covenant carriers would be able to make it to the surface
We still would have to worry about smaller ships attacking and one of the main weaknesses for orbital defense
Platforms were their ground-based generators
I would have as many anti-aircraft cannons set up around the ODP
Generators as possible and would station as many assets as possible nearby to protect them
The main point of my plan here is that I would never go on the offensive even with my larger cruisers the array makes traditional
attack at least in my opinion
Impossible so move everything else into a defensive position and let it do its job
I find it somewhat
ridiculous that with the point defense cannons of the station, the many ships and the long sword fighters that boarding craft were ever able to
even make it near to the ODPs and I really think the destruction of the Athens in Malta and the
Compromising of Earth's Defense Grid could have been prevented but that is just my opinion
What do you think here?
Am I way off did the Covenant just hit too fast and too hard what they have eventually overwhelmed Earth's defenses
Let me know all of that and more down in the comment section
Anyway, thank you guys so much for watching as always. This has been a carts letter. May the force be with you