StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Having recently rewatched AOTC, I was confused as to what the clones were attempting to do during the battle. Mace and the Jedi, I know, went there to rescue the three prisoners. But, after they themselves were rescued by the clones; it just looks like both armies just stand in the plains firing at one another while the gunships do all the heavy lifting. So, what were the strategic and operational objectives for the First Battle of Genosis?

prevent as much of the separtist hardware from getting off Geonosis as it was possible and possible secondary objective of eleminating the droid factories.

Lord Revan wrote:prevent as much of the separtist hardware from getting off Geonosis as it was possible and possible secondary objective of eleminating the droid factories.

I think you've missed the most important one, and got the others in the wrong order.

1) Capture the Separatist leadership, and stop the war before it starts.

2) Destroy the droid production lines.

3) Destroy or capture as many Separatist warships as possible.

Captain Seafort wrote:2) Destroy the droid production lines.

Back when the movie first aired, Mike estimated that the lone factory we saw could produce 82,000 droids per day. With those kind of numbers, it would be essential to take that capability away from the CIS.

Captain Seafort wrote:1) Capture the Separatist leadership, and stop the war before it starts.

2) Destroy the droid production lines.

3) Destroy or capture as many Separatist warships as possible.

So, the results of the battle then are:
1) FAILED
2) SUCCEEDED
3) ???

Add to the above that supposedly only 20 of the 212 Jedi got to walk away from the battle. Would ya'll say this was a strategic victory for the Republic?

CIS was forced to rebuild a good chunk of their hardware and infrastructure that was lost in Geonosis, giving the Republic time to go into a warfooting for the first time in a long time. While it wasn't an absolute victory it was still a victory as it gave the Republic time to deal with their logistical issues and meet the CIS at more equal footing.

According to the Clone Wars cartoon, the GAR occupied Geonosis and later had to recapture it after rebellion.

That said, looks to me as if the operation on Geonosis had multiple objectives. Looks to me more like a point destruction raid with a TRAP mission rolled into it.

According to the novel, the Republic fleet had to break through the space forces, then land troops. The gunships provided both CAP, CAS, and troop mobility to ORP's around the battlefield.

CAP was hitting enemy ships to prevent them from escaping, CAS hitting hard points in enemy formations, and then shuttling troops needed to redeploy as tactically necessary.

About the only thing missing was orbital support from the cap ships, not sure why. Perhaps they wanted the factories intact, or at least capable of giving intell and not vaporized.

Anyway, looks to me like a galactic version of a snatch and grab with a TRAP mission for the Jedi tossed in.

The overall strategy may not have been very good; the generals responsible would be Yoda and a bunch of clones with no actual combat experience. Granted that the clone officers had extensive training and simulation, but the only trainer we actually saw was a bounty hunter who would know nothing of planning large scale military operations.

That said, the clones were presumably intended as "boots on the ground" to support the overall goals of capturing the droid foundries and any physical intel located on the surface. As a side-effect they had to fight their way into the major built-up centers of Geonosian industry, which would result in major pitched battles against the droid armies outside the droids' own foundries.