Second Cylon War (What If...)

Television, Movies Games and Books BSG-2003
#1

After watching bits and pieces of The Plan the other week, I began to wonder how the Colonials might’ve fared the attack on the colonies had the Colonial Defense Mainframe not crashed (as in the Cylons had really poor programming ground rules and their virus didn’t work as intended).

How would the two factions fare in an all-out fight? Let’s do the math, there were approximately 120 battlestars of various classes in the Colonial Fleet around the time of the attack. It’s never explicitly stated how many basestars the Cylons have at their disposal, but considering how quickly they nuked all the colonies in such a relatively short time span, you can presume they had a comparable number of capital ships as the Colonials.

I myself think that the Colonials might’ve come out on top, although I have no doubt they’d have taken heavy losses. No doubt some nukes would’ve gotten through their lines and probably hit some major population centers, but in the end I doubt very much that the Colonial population would’ve been whittled down to .000002% of its previous census.

#2

Interesting ideas for a discussion.
Where are you getting the 120 Battlestars from? I would have thought it was a lot less.

We saw from some of the engagements in the show that a Mercury class Battlestar (The Pegasus) could take on at least 3 Basestars. The Galactica, even falling apart towards the end of the show could take on 1 or 2.

I have no idea to the total number of Basestars, because the Cylon don’t seem to like fleets of more then 4-5 of them for some reason. Even on New Caprica, they only had 4 Basestars. Makes me think there may not be that many of them total, or they are just very spread out. How many did we see in the attack on the Colonies?

The actual weapons of the capital ships are probably comparable. The Cylon(z) had more fighters, but Vipers and Viper pilots always seemed to be more then a match for them, even on the crappy old Galactica.

The real problem is ultimately that the Colonials were not ready for an attack. Even without the virus, you get the impression that the Colonial fleet was degrading. If the Colonials had advanced warning then it would have been different.

#3

Back in the first part of the miniseries, Adama is addressing Starbuck after she reports to the CIC upon hearing about the attack. He states that the Cylons achieved total surprise and have taken out roughly 30 Battlestars. Starbuck replies “that’s a quarter of the fleet.”

Also, if you look on BattlestarWiki, it’s indicated it was around 120 on the article for the first part of the miniseries.

#4

Which would make sense if you think that they’re doing multiples of twelve (the original compliment of battlestars.)

#5

Makes sense. Some of that probably includes others smaller ships though, as we know there were several different types of Battlestars.

#6

Seems that this is as appropriate a place as any to ask:

I own the Plan, of course. I’ve never watched it. Should I?

#7

Other than “Of course you should watch it. You bought it,” I’d say yes. I quite enjoyed it and thought they did a good job of explaining why the Cylons did some of the things they did.

#8

regardless of the story, if you enjoy hot people topless, then yes…

as for the second cylon war without virus, I think it would have been a stalemate. If Cylon were confident that they can over power the colonials they would have . After all if they die, they just get downloaded.

For them to have kept peace for that long after skinjobs were running the show and Cavil sentences the final four to the 12 colonies, it meant they were certain a head on conflict would be pointless. That’s when they utilized the infiltration abilities of the skinjobs to be certain they achieve decisive victory.

#9

I own the Plan, of course. I’ve never watched it. Should I?

Yes. The fact that you have to ask tells me that this movie has been trashed by the greater BSG fanbase way too much. I can assure you that it is well above the “worth watching” line, and even above the “good” line.

#10

Interesting question—I think it would have been fought to a standstill. Especially if there were others like Caine who just didn’t give a frak.

However, the fact that “skinjobs” were walking around would have made it that much harder for the Colonials

#11

Never been much to sit on the side and not jump in…so here we go…after seeing the Plan, I thought Cavil’s plan was two-fold:

  1. Wipe out humanity…ALL of them… talk about hating your parents right? (and it was very clear who the guy in charge on the Cylon side was)

  2. have the Final 5 resurrect so Cavil could “in your face” to them too…amazing how this whole war we saw was sparked by essentially a robotic temper tantrum…

And I think Cavil felt so above the humans too that they didn’t “deserve” a chance to fight back

(I also thought the movie itself was an excellent addition to the series and adding a side of the story…and filled in a bunch of plot holes… very well, but I also saw the whole series on DVD over the last six months of last year too… I didn’t have to sit n wait for the next episode)

#12

Ok–I’ll take your word for it. I didn’t buy The Plan, it came with the S4.5 DVDs. I heard some negative reviews from friends so I decided to let my BSG memories wrap up with the conclusion of the show as it aired.

Actually, the end of the show was so emotionally wrenching that my rewatch never got past the conclusion of Season 3. I haven’t been able to put myself through it again. But when it’s time, I’ll watch the Plan, too.

#13

that’s true, had the nuclear wipe out not taken place, it might have been a lot harder to discover their existence.

#14

Over the course of the show how many basestars are destroyed by direct action from a colonial vessel? At least 10 probably? Well that’s with limited supplies, repair, and overall war plan. Battlestars wreck basestars

#15

10? i don’t recall that many destroyed by Battlestar Galactica.

For the longest time the strategy is be prepared to flee at the moment that a basestar shows up. Of course that might just be to protect the civilian crew. But if the basestar dropped couple more nukes on BSG, I think it would have gone down rather quickly.

#16

Including Pegasus.