Why Holdo's hyperspace kamikaze doesn't break anything.

I've heard a lot of complaints, and participated in a number of discussions, about how Holdo being able to hyperspace-kamikaze the cruiser Raddus into the superdreadnought Supremacy "breaks" everything about combat in Star Wars.I'd like to talk about why that isn't the case, and why it isn't really that complicated why that isn't the case. Hopefully I can lay the matter to rest.First, we'll talk about tactics.The question is often asked, "If a hyperspace kamikaze attack can destroy ships, why isn't it used all the time?"Well, the answer to that is simple: for the same reason that kamikaze attacks have have always been uncommon in warfare in general (the hyperspace bit doesn't even matter).Why? Logistics. War is, above all else, a logistical affair. Combat is practically an afterthought. A purpose-built kamikaze ship takes no less raw material, and typically no less time, to build than a conventional ship. But it can only be used once, and it is only useful in a large-scale pitched battle, which is a small minority of the engagements in a war.On the other hand, a conventional ship can be used for reconnaissance, cargo runs, troop transport, patrols, raids, minor skirmishes, etc. that comprise most of a ship's use in a war, and in the rare pitched battles. And it can be re-used indefinitely, so long as it isn't destroyed.The upshot of this is that using sustained kamikaze attacks causes much more attrition for the faction using them than the faction on the receiving end. It guarantees a disadvantage in the logistical effort that is the war.The only major example in history of sustained kamikaze attacks is Japan toward the end of WWII - and it was a major failure for them, not a success. It wasted their air strength, increasing Japan's vulnerability to American strategic bombing, and helped hasten Japan's defeat.This is why no military before or since has used kamikaze attacks as a feature of their military doctrine.TL;DR: Kamikaze tactics aren't used because they're more costly to the attacker than the target. That applies in Star Wars too.The other issue is the "physics" stuff.The common comment/question/complaint is along the lines of, "if a hyperspace ram could work, an object at the speed of light would cause so much damage than an X-wing could destroy a planet," with (as far as I can tell) the implication being that a ship going to hyperspace can't collide with stuff and cause any damage.Well, that's true with hard science. But Star Wars isn't hard sci-fi, and many technical aspects aren't explained and don't need to be. Instead, what we see is what we get.What we see, and what we get, is that the Raddus (a 3 kilometer ship) jumping to hyperspace cause serious damage to, but did not destroy (and indeed left operational enough to conduct a ground assault) the 60km Supremacy, and a cluster of smaller ships.Why? Well, a perfectly workable answer to that is rather simple, and lies square between the complainant ideas that either a hyperspacing ship can't collide with ships at sublight, or that absolute vaporization of everything ever would result. Basically, when you're jumping to hyperspace, a collision simply delivers partial energy. It's that easy.So, instead of either "no interaction" or "an X-wing can vaporize a planet," we simply get what we have on-screen, because that's all Star Wars is at the end of the day: a perfectly manageable ratio of about 1:20 between the size of the hyperspace kamikaze and the size of the target it can significantly damage. (This doesn't allow for "hyperspace missiles" that would surpass the power of the Death Star, as I've frequently heard mentioned, because a 1/20th planet-size missile would be much bigger than the Death Star itself, and single-use only.)TL;DR: You can't mix and match hard physics and Star Wars physics. Star Wars physics shows it's destructive, but not that destructive.At the end of this, we're left with something that doesn't upset the Star Wars combat dynamics we're familiar with: a method of attack that's generally wasteful and not too useful, but can be dramatically effective under specific circumstances when you've got a ship you're going to lose either way. via /r/StarWars http://ift.tt/2HrlNeP