Talk:Glassing: Difference between revisions

Talk:Glassing (edit)

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→‎Trivia Section, the Data Pads and the Concept of Glassing

Anton1792

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 In her journal, Halsey mentions the glassing of Arcadia. There's no quibbling about with "they just hit the cities" - they burned the whole thing. So either the Committee vastly underestimate the Covenant's firepower, or their numbers. Remember, this is an enormous empire that could span thousands of star systems. How many ships could they produce, and how many would they need for internal/external security? -- [[User:Specops306|<b><font color=indigo>Specops306</font></b>]] [[w:c:halofanon:user:Specops306|<u><i><font color=blue><sup>Autocrat</sup></font></i></u>]] [[User talk:Specops306|<u><i><font color=purple><sup>Qur'a 'Morhek</sup></font></i></u>]] 01:47, 25 October 2010 (EDT)
+''"The careful immolation of every vital part of the planet."''
+It seems to implicate that not every square inch is hit - only areas vital to functioning of a colony (Grain Belts, fresh water bodies, forests etc.) Remembering as well, that the second colonisation of Arcadia was by rural farmers. It served as a bread basket after the initial invasion. To destroy it as a population centre - destroy cities. To destroy it as a farming world, you may need to destroy such regions as grain belts. (vital parts). She then seems fairly sceptical of the destruction itself in the remainder of the passage. More to the point, it seems to indicate what I am saying. They only target the vital parts, because they cannot destroy every ''single'' part.
+As for the total ship count of the Covenant Empire, there is no solid number, but you can get a rough ''idea''. First get a base number. This is the amount that was destroyed in the War:
+- Chi Ceti: 1
+- Second Battle of Harvest: 1
+- Alpha Aurigae: 12
+- Harvest Campaigns: At least 1. These campaigns lasted for 5 years.
+- XI Bootis A: 8
+- Groombridge-1830: 3
+- First Battle of Arcadia: 1 (perhaps 2)
+- The Rubble: 1
+- 18 Scorpii: 1
+- Psi Serpentis: 300
+- Algolis: 1
+- The Package: 1
+- TORPEDO: 7
+- Sigma Octanus IV: 3
+- Deliver Hope Trailer: 1
+- UPPERCUT: 2
+- Reach: 210 (Or 468 with new TFoR edition)
+- Line Installation 1-4: ~12
+- Alpha Halo: ???. At the end of CE, Cortana says "An entire armada obliterated".
+- Aftermath of Alpha Halo: 7
+- Second "Battle" of Reach: 20
+- Eridanus Secundus: 1
+- FIRST STRIKE: 485, Unyielding Heirophant
+- Earth: At least 15. (Unknown exactly how many ships Truth lost here.)
+- High Charity: ???. Battles between Brute and Elite probably yielded a moderate-high number.
+- Onyx: 54
+- Joyous Exultation: "Hundreds". Two massive combined fleets numbering in the hundreds, 60% wiped out.
+- The Ark: 30
+Total that we know: ~1180 (or ~1438 with TFoR re-release)
+- The Great Schism (Post Halo 3): ???. After the fall of the Covenant, this rapidly descended into scattered skirmishes, the end result of which forced the Sangheili to pull back to defend the Homeworld. They are running out of ships that cannot be easily replaced. So I am left with a sense that after the War, Covenant ships are not bountiful in number.
+Factor in the implied number at High Charity, Joyous Exultation, The full Battle of Earth, the undocumented Harvest Campaigns and all the other battles from the war that have unknown Covenant ship casualties, it is safe to assume that the Covenants loses were probably in the 1500 - 2000 range. Just imagine how many ships would be required to "smash" Earths defence net given the result at Reach, and then look at how many ships Truth had left that actually made it to the Ark (30).
+Joyous Exultation is an important point to note as well. If the NOVA at Joyous Exultation wiped out 60% of a fleet of "hundreds" which represented most, if not all, of the Sangheili fighting forces (Halo Encyclopaedia, Pg 201), then the remaining 40% will also only be in the "hundreds". It was described as essentially levelling the playing field between Loyalist and Sangheili forces, so the Loyalist fleet is also likely in the "hundreds", the same as the Sangheili after the NOVA. So if you take Loyalist and Sangheili (Pre-NOVA), then you have a total Covenant ship count that is 140% of the fleet of "hundreds" surrounding Joyous Exultation. "Hundreds" is less than "thousands", otherwise it would be described as such, would it not? Describing "thousands " in terms of "hundreds" (e.g. thirty hundred for 3000) is redundant. Add the loses to this concept, and it is not hard to believe the Covenant fleet not being as large as once thought.
+As for the power of their weapons. They state that it takes 15 seconds to glass one acre. How can they know this? They say they learned this by observing the Covenants weaponry in space. The weapon that is used primarily to glass has also been seen being used in space battles, the Energy Projector. If this weapon was that powerful there would seriously be no competition. The difference in wattage between a week and 30 years for the amount of energy required to glass a planet in anything near totality is so large that it is impossible to underestimate by that amount. At the very least, it represents a plot hole as to how Humanity is able to last more than a few seconds against the Covenant in space. Or possibly that the Covenant is so imitative with respect to their own weapon systems (borderline stupid) that they have such polarized weaponry. -[[User talk:Anton1792|Anton1792]] 14:36, 25 October 2010 (EDT)