Ultra-massive megaships are not very effective when kinetic weapons do so much damage (and are screen-piercing and so must be dodged) or when your opponent has weapons like the Wave-Loom. The Umiak have a few ultraheavy ships like the TTK, but they are very careful in how they use them, because those are expensive items to lose, even for the Umiak.
Consider that the history of battleship warfare on Earth was a perpetual game of chicken, with opposing commanders afraid to commit their expensive big ships to battle for fear of losing them.
Even in it's own milieu, these mega star destroyers are silly. Let's not forget that the
Executor was taken out by a single A-wing.
Werra wrote:Arioch wrote:neither side keeps bases here and there is not much in the way of patrol activity. The Loroi mostly depend on Farseers to keep tabs on enemy movement in the Steppes, and any Umiak patrols that enter the Steppes are likely to be attacked by Loroi raiders, so any Umiak reconnaissance must be in force. And neither side is expecting enemy forces to arrive from the galactic North direction.
So, uh...how are the Umiak even able to fight this war blind? Kikitik seems famous for having survived an assault twice. So there can't be that many ships getting back to Umiak space.
1. Their border defenses have to be extensive and multi-layered. The vast majority of Umiak fleets sit on defense.
2. Defense through offense. If you constantly pressure the enemy by making them defend their own territory, that makes it difficult for them to attack your territory. Since these are largely suicide attacks, the Umiak use older ships (and crews) that have been rotting on defense for 10+ years to the point where their readiness is starting to suffer.
This is only possible if you can substantially out-produce and outnumber the enemy. Loroi intelligence doesn't know just how badly they are outnumbered by the Umiak fleet, but some estimates go as high as ten to one.
Werra wrote:We'll see when we learn more about the Umiak nation. But they started the war prepared and with a massive, successful surprise invasion.
Yet despite that and all the ships and torpedoes they field, the war's been a draw. So they can't be that much more powerful than the Loroi, in which situation their waste of ships becomes very dangerous.
The nature of jump travel lends itself to natural strategic bottlenecks, and together with the lengthy time scales of system travel, this favors the defender if he knows where an attack is coming. In this environment, the Loroi Farseer ability is a huuuuuuuge advantage. While the Loroi can concentrate a large percentage of their forces in one location either on offense or defense, the Umiak have to keep the majority of their forces on defense spread across the border, lest they be surprised by an unexpected Loroi counterattack.