Could the Old Republic have survived without the Clones?

[Baffalo]

Alright, this question kind of got to me as I was getting ready this morning. Palpatine was engineering himself a massive galactic conflict in order to play both the Republic and Separatists against one another for his own benefit. In order to ensure the Republic was able to fight and possibly win, he commissioned in secret an army of clones that would be entirely loyal and willing to fight to the death for the Republic so that the war would be intense almost from the very beginning. But the question I do have to ask is, if the clones hadn't been available to fight, would the Republic have withstood the Separatists?

Now of course, with an army already available, the Separatists would have no doubt succeeded in launching attacks on several worlds loyal to the Republic while the Republic scrambled to try and form an army. They were obviously trying to do so in AotC, only to have the clone army plopped conveniently in their laps. The entire issue of whether a military needed to be created is just casually brushed away after the army appears, despite a few senators like Amidala protesting against such an act (something I'll get to in a minute).

The biggest issue facing the Republic would be whether they would only work with volunteers, or begin conscripting people from across the Republic? From the words Palpatine used, the Republic had been without a major standing army for over a thousand years. No doubt almost every citizen in the Republic had grown complacent in not having to fight a major war every few years, so the thought that not only had war again returned to the galaxy, but that they themselves might be forced to fight in it might have seriously pushed some worlds to openly throw in with the Separatists rather than anger their voters.

Those worlds that remained loyal to the Republic would be facing rather insurmountable odds, no doubt compounded by the fact that they would have to try and create military leaders with no experience to lead soldiers with similarly no experience into battle. The first few battles, as a result, would no doubt have been bloodbaths for the Republic. Separatist forces would've decimated them, and even more worlds would fall as the Separatists marched across the galaxy. Over time, of course, some would probably emerge with the experience necessary to wage a war and lead the men, but at that point, would it make a real difference?

If the Separatists gained a suitable advantage in terms of numbers, planets and resources, only extreme incompetence on the part of the Separatist leaders on a level that's impossible to imagine would save the Republic. Would the Separatists be content simply carving away a chunk of the Republic and leaving two large superpowers? Or would the Separatists pursue a war of conquest and try to take the entire Republic? Would they face military resistance or simply find worlds bickering and squabbling over who should contribute to the war effort in what way?

And don't forget, if the Separatists did conquer the Republic, would it remain stable? The founding members are several rich and powerful corporations, each one eager to create a monopoly. Would they merge together, assuming they hadn't already, into one mega-corporation? Or would they begin to bicker after the war and let the holdings break into pieces, with each piece governed by a separate corporation?

[Simon_Jester]

A great deal depends on the strength, organization, and 'draftability' of existing defense forces. A certain percentage of human beings will always enlist in the military if there's any military to enlist in to begin with, and the Republic had to have some kind of military before the war or the Trade Federation wouldn't have been worried about Republic intervention in Episode I.

There could never have been enough clones to decide the war- one planet's production of soldiers that took ten years to grow, against half a galaxy's production of robots that took hours to build? Come on. While the offensive forces that punched out the heaviest Separatist strongholds might have been clones, the bulk of the role of holding the line would default to normal forces.

So the question isn't whether the Republic could have survived without the clones; it's whether it could have survived without the offensive military spearhead provided by the clones.

[lord Martiya]

I think the answer to Jester's question is yes, for two reasons:
1)in space combat the Republic, or at least some of its members, could provide Star Dreadnoughts at a moment's notice, while the Separatists needed a while to field the Malevolence. That would give the CIS Navy a desperate run for its money, at least in some sectors that are, incidentally, the ones producing most of the Republic starships;
2)in ground combat the Republic showed an enormous superiority in terms of artillery, at least in the initial phase (I'm not sure about later parts). Once the guns started firing, the battledroids started exploding by the millions (see the Battle of Muunilist: the ground portion of the invasion was dominated by the Republic Army thanks to the heavy artillery devastating the droid army, who managed to stand a chance only when Durge started destroying the guns).

[SCVN 2812]

Does the Republic have the resources it needs to stand against the Separatists? Probably, on paper at least.

The planetary defense forces should be enough to blunt a Separatist offensive but while the Republic may have an advantage in the overall quality of their force. What they don't have is the ability to act as a coordinated, unified force to do more than defend their individual systems. The Separatists presumably have had a bit more time on how to work out how they will function together and brush up on thousand year old theories on how to go about fighting a galactic scale war. This is a problem for the Republic and this where the Clones came in.

The Clones showed up right when the Republic desperately needed a substantial force with a single set of doctrine and hardware that could be thrown into offensive actions right now and without having to bleed off the defense forces. While the Republic worked to take tens of thousands to millions of different military services and try and turn them into one military that can talk to each other, fight with each other and from the same rule book and preferably fight with a cleaner supply chain, the Clones could be out on the pointy end, keeping the Separatists from having free run of the galaxy and fighting the battles that would result in politically untenable casualties.

Where they absolutely necessary? Probably not but I think it would have been a much uglier war, especially in the opening months, without them. Without the Clones, the Republic would have had to rely on not one, but hundreds of thousands of navies and armies with their own specialties, methods and more importantly: their own worlds to defend, until they could stitch them together into something resembling a national military and increase the size and quality of the force beyond the peace time levels. The Separatists probably could have won some major victories just by being better organized and having a clearer idea of their objectives and command structure than the Republic. Losing Kuat or Rendilli for example would have been a real kick in the teeth if the Seppies could muster the forces to take on their defense fleets and the Republic couldn't coordinate an effective defense.

[The Original Nex]

Why couldn't the Republic have made it's own droid army rapidly to counter the CIS?

EDIT:

Of course, They will ultimately lose out on the initial offensive that the clones provided them after Geonosis; catching the CIS more or less flat-footed and immediately forcing them to react to the sudden appearance of a fully equipped military. I just wonder why it's generally assumed that the Republic would have to rely on training volunteers or conscripts when they could have just utilize droids like the CIS does.

[Darth Tedious]

Why couldn't the Republic have made it's own droid army rapidly to counter the CIS?

I think with the more prolific droid-building powers (the Geonosians, the Techno Union, the TF, the Muuns) all being in the CIS, the Republic's ability to produce droid armies would be severely outstripped.

[Danny Bhoy]

If the clones did not exist or were not available, I reckon that Palpatine would have needed to provide the Republic with fodder of some sort that (a) the Jedi could command in battle; and (b) to kill the Jedi with ultimately.

I don't think the Republic fodder needed to be very good, or even as good as the Sep droids, just lots and lots of them. If they were not as good as the Sep droids, he could always handicap the Seps to ensure that the war didn't end too quickly. Point I thought was to make the war long enough to bog the Jedi down in so that they would be totally enshrouded in the dark side until the Jedi realised too late that his hand was up their collective robes.

[Baffalo]

Something I noticed in the video of the Battle of Geonosis is that the Republic not only had the artillery already mentioned but also air support. Throughout the video, I never once saw any droid fighters rise into the sky to fend off the transports delivering troops and armored vehicles. This to me seems to be a huge oversight, given that we know Trade Federation fighters can land and take off autonomously. I'm unsure if the fighters were busy in space, but none even attempt to take out the transports that act to take out several droid vehicles and clear the way for the clones to advance.



Now, as seen in this video below, the problem of air support seems to have been partially corrected by the time of the Battle of Kashyyyk. We see several saucer shaped vessels escorting the battle tanks as they approach the shore, and peeling off to engage what might possibly be the Wookie defense force. The battle is also primarily fought by the Wookies, since there are fewer clones than we see even escorting General Kenobi around. The lack of vehicles in the campaign might also show that while clones are front-line troops, they might not always be in a position to deploy heavily in all theaters of war.



I think it's clear that the statements so far, that the clones acted as the spear of the Republic during the early days is certainly true. And their sheer numbers and advanced training early on meant that they saw combat first and most often, leading to the same scenario that came about with the French Foreign Legion: they saw the most combat and became some of the best soldiers in the world simply because those who survived learned the harsh lessons of war and told the new soldiers what to expect. It would make sense for the clones then, as the war went on, to go from simple line troopers to being more along the lines of special divisions sent to accomplish tasks the regular forces can't handle.

I certainly agree that the early months of the war would've been particularly brutal, and it might possibly have been compounded by the fact that a certain senator from Naboo was actively resisting the creation of a military even though she herself had first hand experience with why a military was needed in the first place! I sometimes wonder if Padme was actively working for Palpatine a few times, since every action she takes inexplicably advances Palpatine's goals in some way. She seduces Anakin, resists the Trade Federation and then the creation of a military and thus stalling the creation of it until it became a crisis, all of it seems to be a ruse designed by Palpatine to set up the Republic and Anakin in particular to betray the Jedi. Remember, Palpatine didn't begin twisting Anakin good until after Padme married him, thus giving him a reason to return to Coruscant on a regular basis and give him plenty of chances to chat with his buddy Palpatine and get further twisted.

[Adam Reynolds]

1)in space combat the Republic, or at least some of its members, could provide Star Dreadnoughts at a moment's notice, while the Separatists needed a while to field the Malevolence. That would give the CIS Navy a desperate run for its money, at least in some sectors that are, incidentally, the ones producing most of the Republic starships;

The problem for the Republic navy is that almost all of their heavy warships are extremely limited in range as noted in the AOTC ICS. Before the Clone Wars, the main long range units available were the Dreadnaught-class cruiser. On the plus side we know that much of the Republic navy consisted of non-clone units given that we see almost all of their high ranking officers are non-clone. We also see naval officers in TPM on the Republic Cruiser that transported Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon.

The planetary defense forces should be enough to blunt a Separatist offensive but while the Republic may have an advantage in the overall quality of their force. What they don't have is the ability to act as a coordinated, unified force to do more than defend their individual systems. The Separatists presumably have had a bit more time on how to work out how they will function together and brush up on thousand year old theories on how to go about fighting a galactic scale war. This is a problem for the Republic and this where the Clones came in.

Especially since this lack of organization will be combined with the lack of long range forces that was created along with the Clone Army.

Losing Kuat or Rendilli for example would have been a real kick in the teeth if the Seppies could muster the forces to take on their defense fleets and the Republic couldn't coordinate an effective defense.

This seems pretty unlikely in light of the massive Mandator class dreadnoughts available for the sole purpose of defending Kuat.

[The Romulan Republic]

Regarding Kuat, the Confederacy might or might not have the firepower to capture it, but what about a hit and run designed to cripple the shipyards? The shipyards, from a strategic perspective, are the most valuable thing about Kuat anyway.

[Adam Reynolds]

Something I noticed in the video of the Battle of Geonosis is that the Republic not only had the artillery already mentioned but also air support. Throughout the video, I never once saw any droid fighters rise into the sky to fend off the transports delivering troops and armored vehicles. This to me seems to be a huge oversight, given that we know Trade Federation fighters can land and take off autonomously. I'm unsure if the fighters were busy in space, but none even attempt to take out the transports that act to take out several droid vehicles and clear the way for the clones to advance.

According to the AOTC ICS, the Geonosian starfighters were mostly used to attempt to break the Republic blockade. In addition, the game Jedi Starfighter does depict both Geonosian and droid starfighters being used against both the Republic forces in space and against gunships and Jedi starfighters in aerial battles.

I certainly agree that the early months of the war would've been particularly brutal, and it might possibly have been compounded by the fact that a certain senator from Naboo was actively resisting the creation of a military even though she herself had first hand experience with why a military was needed in the first place! I sometimes wonder if Padme was actively working for Palpatine a few times, since every action she takes inexplicably advances Palpatine's goals in some way. She seduces Anakin, resists the Trade Federation and then the creation of a military and thus stalling the creation of it until it became a crisis, all of it seems to be a ruse designed by Palpatine to set up the Republic and Anakin in particular to betray the Jedi. Remember, Palpatine didn't begin twisting Anakin good until after Padme married him, thus giving him a reason to return to Coruscant on a regular basis and give him plenty of chances to chat with his buddy Palpatine and get further twisted.

Funnily enough, someone else had the same idea and the thought to turn it into a fanfic. The premise is that Padme is really Sidious's daughter and is secretly working as his agent. Though the story is rather poorly done, the inner monologue she gives can be rather entertaining, especially her commentary about Jar Jar. Lure of the Dark Side

Padme brought her full attention back over to Anakin and the podracer. She noticed that Jar Jar was still helping, but what drew her attention was some sort of force field he was hovering around. Anakin took that moment to suddenly call out, "Hey Jar Jar. Keep away from those energy binders. If your hand gets caught in the beam it's gonna go numb for hours."

As Anakin was saying all this to Jar Jar, the freak dropped the tool he was using and it landed right under the energy binder. He made sure to stay away from the binders as he bent down to pick the tool up, but when he got up his mouth got caught in the beam and he yelled. Padme rolled her eyes. Jar Jar than continuously screamed about how his tongue was fat. His hand than got caught in a part of the podracer and so he started screaming about that.

Above the yelling Padme heard C3PO say to R2, "You know I find that Jar Jar creature to be a little odd."

Like duh, he's a freak.

R2 gave a chirp of that clearly agreed to what 3PO said

More seriously, none of the claims of Padme assisting Palpatine have much merit. Padme's rise to the defense of her world was actually the opposite of what Palpatine wanted. If she hadn't done what she did and died as he had intended(and Qui-Gon foresaw and prevented), he would have been the only one available to speak for Naboo which would have allowed him to use it and her pointless death to his political advantage. How does her resistance to the creation of a military help Palpatine? He had always wanted to create the military publicly. Without her resistance to his plans, he would have been able to start the Clone Wars sooner rather than later. Regarding her use in manipulating Anakin, that started long before he married Padme. Remember the scene in AOTC where Anakin discusses sending Padme off to Naboo with Palpatine, Anakin refers to the guidance that he had given him implying that its had occurred for years.

[Baffalo]

Regarding Kuat, the Confederacy might or might not have the firepower to capture it, but what about a hit and run designed to cripple the shipyards? The shipyards, from a strategic perspective, are the most valuable thing about Kuat anyway.

Sun Tzu writes What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations. They were clearly taken by surprise at Geonosis and thus, their plans disrupted. If they'd been able to assemble and launch their attack, their ultimate goal would be to achieve their objectives as quickly and with as little destruction as possible, again depending on the ultimate goal of the CIS. I think that goal needs to be discussed, because we don't really know what the goal might be, so I'll outline what I think they might be.

Carve a chunk out of the Republic and establish themselves as rulers
Let's say the CIS leaders wanted to build their own nation out of the Outer Rim. The rich core worlds of the Republic may be centers of manufacturing and construction, but no doubt they relied upon the raw materials of the Outer Rim to fund their operations. With the supply of droids and raw materials cut off in ready supply, the Republic would be forced to conduct trade with the CIS after the war or simply find new sources of materials within the core worlds that haven't already been tapped. With the Outer Rim under their control, the corporate heads would become monopolies, keeping everyone there in economic slavery and using their vast droid armies to suppress any rebellion while using their trade ships as a navy to enforce order and keep pirates away.

To keep the Republic from attacking, they would no doubt want to strike the Kuat Drive Yards and any other major ship building facility fast and hard. A lightning strike against several targets, even if the damage was superficial at best, would not only delay any shipbuilding until the damage was repaired, but also cause Republic morale to drop. Democratic populations tend to fare the worst when it comes to war fatigue, and no doubt many people in the rich and prosperous core would be happy to let the CIS run away with what they already held, so long as they didn't threaten them anymore.

Seize control of the Republic by force, installing themselves as rulers
With a large enough droid army, the CIS leaders could've launched a massive strike at the heart of the Republic, Coruscant. Establishing a blockade and landing forces at the Senate, they could chorale as many senators as they needed and told them to sign away the Republic or die. No doubt many of the senators, fearful for their life, would capitulate. Upon this announcement, no doubt instantly rebellion would spread like wildfire, with many surrounding core worlds sending their fleets to stop the CIS. This scenario seems less likely to me, given that the possibility of worlds breaking away and forming resisting governments. Quite a bit of money would need to be spent trying to maintain control, and it would take years to accomplish. They need to be fast and efficient.

Capture the Senate and force a treaty granting the CIS autonomy in the Republic or Outer Rim
This theory is sort of a hybrid of the two above. The CIS is first and foremost fueled by greed, and see themselves as oppressed by Republic taxation and legislation. If they went and seized the Senate by force, they have two options: Make the Republic sign a treaty giving them free-reign and tax-free operation throughout the Republic, or granting them their own independence. Given they chose the name Separatists, I think it's clear which route they'd choose to go with.

By forcing the Senate to capitulate and sign away a chunk of their own territory, it can cause internal fissures to widen and, ultimately, lead to the collapse of the Republic entirely. I say this because if the Separatists can easily raise an army and break away, what's to stop other worlds from doing so? What's to stop Kuat from breaking away and selling their shipbuilding services to anyone they chose? They have the naval might to bomb Coruscant to dust, and can just sit in orbit and demand the Senate comply. Hell, they might take several surrounding worlds for good measure. And some worlds on the fringe might simply break away and not come back. With threats across multiple fronts, the Republic might just ignore them or won't be in a position to force them back into the fold.

With planets and sectors breaking away, it wouldn't take long for the Galactic Republic to become a hollow shell of its former self. No doubt many core worlds might remain united, but instead of one happy united galaxy, it would be divided into several small nations constantly fighting for power amongst one another. The CIS would've accomplished their goal and would've won in the long run if the Republic broke up, since that eliminates their biggest threat to independence. They could then invade and conquer smaller chunks of the galaxy, and ultimately control everything simply given enough time.

[Darth Tedious]

Just going from the canonical story, wasn't secession the CIS's supposed goal?
Based on that, I would say your third theory is the most likely possiblity.

[Eternal_Freedom]

A thought on striking Kuat:

Those Munificent frigates have those absurdly powerful bow turbolasers, the "blast-melt a 100km ice moon" or whatever. The shipyards presumably wouldn't be armoured very much. Just getting a fleet of those frigates in close and letting fly with a single salvo could be devastating.

[Broken]

I think you are underestimating the size and scope of Kuat's shipyards. It's one of the few things that the WEG EU material got right in their Platt's Starport Guide regarding the scale of the Star Wars universe.

pg 38
Due to the high volume of starship traffic around Kuat itself, direct hyperspace travel to the planet is forbidden. It's also impossible. The Kuat system proper consists of a star, four planets (including Kuat), and thousands of stardock facilities orbiting Kuat's sun. Navigators plotting direct courses are surprised when their hyperdrives cut out before the ship is even near the system - the stardocks extend that far out.

Given that traffic is heavily restricted and monitored in the Kuat system, it is the most simple and basic of security measures to place your military and research facilities on the inner edge of the Kuat shipyards even further away from prying eyes and surprise attacks. A surprise attack could doubtlessly wreck enormous damage given the sheer size of the target, but that also gives tremendous redundancy and reserve capability. Kuat is a Core World with thousands of years to worry over the crown jewel and centerpiece of their economy and just as long to develop plans for defense and deploy assets to best protect themselves.

[SCVN 2812]

This seems pretty unlikely in light of the massive Mandator class dreadnoughts available for the sole purpose of defending Kuat.

I don't see why. A Mandator may be the equal of a thousand Separatist light destroyers but they have more than just light destroyers. The Munificent frigates seem to be disposable planetary turbolasers with engines. According to ICS they can pierce the shielding of large battlestations. I don't see why enough of them couldn't be used to handle the Mandators. If the Munis can't get close enough, fast enough without being slaughtered then the Separatists do have bigger ships such as the Lucrehulk battleship refits which should be able to handle Mandators at a couple dozen to one. There is also the Malevolence type cruisers.

When most of your forces are designed to be disposable, I think the question is not really whether they can do it or not but how much is it going to cost them. With the Clones and their naval support, massing enough firepower to crack hard nuts like Kuat or Rendilli would require them to pull literally thousands, if not tens of thousands of frigates and destroyers and dozens, perhaps hundreds of Lucrehulk BBs off their stations for a mission guaranteed to result in very heavy casualties. Win or lose, a good chunk of those ships are not coming home again, thousands of worlds will be left understrength during and after the campaign. Which is a problem if during or after the campaign there is still a potent, organized force left to pose a threat to these worlds. With the Clones, the Republic had a small but high quality, high mobility force not tied down to the defense of a specific target. Said force could merrily rampage through understrength Separatist systems during or after the Separatist attack on Kuat. Losing one Tattooine is an insignificant loss, a couple thousand add up to a few planets actually worth a damn, not to mention makes for really embarrassing headlines on the nightly news.

Without the Clones, then any reprisals for hitting a major system will be hodge podge and while they could be painful, the Separatists effectively win the war if they can destroy a significant chunk of the Republic's shipbuilding capacity while maintaining an edge in industrial capacity and the quality and size of their fleet. Smashing Kuat to bits before the Republic has a chance to organize the members' standing forces is one of those high risk, high gain scenarios. If you win, you win the war. If you lose and you don't have the forces left to defend against reprisal strikes, you've lost the war. Which is why the Separatists probably didn't try anything like that until they got desperate. Fighting a thousand battles of attrition in second and third rare systems with dozen ship squadrons may not win the war quickly or decisively but it has the advantage of not losing you the war in a hurry either.

[Baffalo]

This seems pretty unlikely in light of the massive Mandator class dreadnoughts available for the sole purpose of defending Kuat.

I don't see why. A Mandator may be the equal of a thousand Separatist light destroyers but they have more than just light destroyers. The Munificent frigates seem to be disposable planetary turbolasers with engines. According to ICS they can pierce the shielding of large battlestations. I don't see why enough of them couldn't be used to handle the Mandators. If the Munis can't get close enough, fast enough without being slaughtered then the Separatists do have bigger ships such as the Lucrehulk battleship refits which should be able to handle Mandators at a couple dozen to one. There is also the Malevolence type cruisers.

When most of your forces are designed to be disposable, I think the question is not really whether they can do it or not but how much is it going to cost them. With the Clones and their naval support, massing enough firepower to crack hard nuts like Kuat or Rendilli would require them to pull literally thousands, if not tens of thousands of frigates and destroyers and dozens, perhaps hundreds of Lucrehulk BBs off their stations for a mission guaranteed to result in very heavy casualties. Win or lose, a good chunk of those ships are not coming home again, thousands of worlds will be left understrength during and after the campaign. Which is a problem if during or after the campaign there is still a potent, organized force left to pose a threat to these worlds. With the Clones, the Republic had a small but high quality, high mobility force not tied down to the defense of a specific target. Said force could merrily rampage through understrength Separatist systems during or after the Separatist attack on Kuat. Losing one Tattooine is an insignificant loss, a couple thousand add up to a few planets actually worth a damn, not to mention makes for really embarrassing headlines on the nightly news.

Without the Clones, then any reprisals for hitting a major system will be hodge podge and while they could be painful, the Separatists effectively win the war if they can destroy a significant chunk of the Republic's shipbuilding capacity while maintaining an edge in industrial capacity and the quality and size of their fleet. Smashing Kuat to bits before the Republic has a chance to organize the members' standing forces is one of those high risk, high gain scenarios. If you win, you win the war. If you lose and you don't have the forces left to defend against reprisal strikes, you've lost the war. Which is why the Separatists probably didn't try anything like that until they got desperate. Fighting a thousand battles of attrition in second and third rare systems with dozen ship squadrons may not win the war quickly or decisively but it has the advantage of not losing you the war in a hurry either.

That is certainly the thing that must play out in every commander's mind throughout the war. Do we strike it big and change the entire balance of power? Or do we strike where the enemy is weak, hoping to make life more difficult and possibly counter in the future? It's a constant give and take. You have to have enough ready to stop the enemy, but you also have to strike the enemy and make him hurt. It's the same whether we're talking a real war here on Earth, the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War, all of it.

The CIS seemed to be reeling after that first attack on Geonosis. They were caught by surprise and had to retreat in a hurry. Even if a large chunk of their army escaped, the loses they did suffer and the reveal that the Republic isn't a helpless sitting target would no doubt cause them to fall back, go on the defensive, and redraw the plans on how they're going to go about their goals. No longer are they just facing the defenses around another planet, but they also must contend with a force that can strike back if they fail. The presence of a military force with enough power to actually counter your own will make anyone with a rational brain pause.

The Battle of Coruscant seemed to me to be one that spoke highly of desperation. The CIS was being soundly defeated by trained forces throughout the galaxy as the Republic got into full war-time production mode. The clone army was at its most formidable, with troops who had been fighting for years, with Jedi who knew how to effectively deploy their forces, and the ships were getting more and more powerful to deliver them. No longer were the Republic warships simply heavy troop ships but were now also full carriers that could deliver heavy firepower and lots of fighters. The Republic was beginning to win simply by out producing the CIS and they knew it.

It was the same with the American Civil War. Both sides expected a quick, decisive battle to win the war. One side had the trained commanders who were ready for war, while the other had the ability to produce four guns for every one the Confederacy did. In the end, the Union won just by throwing more bodies at the problem. The same could be said of the Old Republic. They had the bodies, they had the manufacturing, and they were able to grind the CIS to dust. Coruscant was the last big gamble, and after that, the CIS fled and tried to go on the defensive. By then, Palpatine was where he wanted to be, and he sent Vader to seal the deal and bring the war to an end.

[Lord Revan]

wasn't a good chunk of the CIS' success due to Palpatine providing (thru Count Dooku) information on when to strike and where (not to an extent that Republic would find out it was but still) as well as doing intentionally some poor military desessions to help guide the conflict to what ever direction he wanted.

[MKSheppard]

Alright, this question kind of got to me as I was getting ready this morning. Palpatine was engineering himself a massive galactic conflict in order to play both the Republic and Separatists against one another for his own benefit. In order to ensure the Republic was able to fight and possibly win, he commissioned in secret an army of clones that would be entirely loyal and willing to fight to the death for the Republic so that the war would be intense almost from the very beginning. But the question I do have to ask is, if the clones hadn't been available to fight, would the Republic have withstood the Separatists?

Yes. Very easily.

What Palpatine really needed the clones for was to be able to execute Order 66.

O66 makes the clones make sense -- because that way the Jedi would not sense anything coming, no malice or what from the clones when order 66 came. Getting the Clone Armies to be led by Jedi like Skywalker or Kenobi was just an end towards that means, getting the Jedi near their executioners.