The Battle of Hoth

Maybe they didn't have time to move & possibly Vader had a second formation ready to come out of lightspeed to intercept them

 

The Empire was deployed, by Vader's order, so that nothing could get off the system. They were surrounded even if we didn't see the other side of the planet in the movie. They took off from the side they did because that's where the Ion Cannon was and it was a fixed position.

 

It was a epic battle.

 

What didn't make sense to me was the huge "Ion Cannon". If you are a "small rag tag band of hit & run rebels" why set up a large, full scale battle weapon that can strike star destroyers or command ships in orbit?

Hoth was not intended to be a long term base. It was picked because large attack or bomber type strikes would be complicated by the asteroid field near the planet. Also, smugglers & fugitives hid there so any Empire checks would seem like small ships not a large rebel base.

 

Hit and run was their offensive strategy, the ion cannon is a defensive weapon. And it actually was a hit and run weapon, it hit ships which allowed them to run for it. It seems to me a very likely weapon for them to have. It's maybe kind of big for a rag-tag group but we don't know if they bought it (or how much it cost), stole it, salvaged it or what. They have a lot of toys that they've come across through various means. I think the Rebels were hoping more for not being discovered at all then trying to pass their base off as smugglers. It wasn't the Ion Cannon that gave them away anyway, it was the shield generator.

 

I concur, the visual transmission from the probe droid featured the (shield) power generator which was rather massive, it would seem that Vader (unlike Ozzel) immediately realized that it would be too big for simple smugglers' purposes.

I should also add that according to the first draft of ESB, Hoth had been chosen because it featured the perfect strategic location in the Granida Cluster for the Alliance purposes, something Vader was probably equally aware of.

 

I always figured the rebels had been weakened by constant heavy attack from the Empire - hence having to go into deep hiding

 

Well, they are rebels- they're not going to have great supplies, which is going to make bigger battles tough.

 

Ahh, the greatest battle in Star Wars of all time.

I always cheer at the “Good shot, Janson” line from Wedge Antilles.

I know a lot people fail to recognize the AT-ST you see in the battle as well.

 

Well, I don't want to alarm you or anything, but there's this thing called outer space...

 

The new threads are so full of fanboi rage - I like coming back to the elegant threads from a more civilized age. Be flattered, please.

And you're right about the moisture. X-Wings don't do well submerged in swamps.

 

Cool your jets Jr or you'll find yourself floating home ...

The Hoth Rebs used because X wings did not get converted to the snow/ice/hostile environment. It's in the script audio book or novel. Snowspeeders were mostly cargo & supply vehicles. Weapons & harpoons were added.
Outer space & atmospheic conditions are another.

TFM

 

the Rebel's technique is to part their powers.

Amid the clash of Endor they split their armada, one half was sent to Sullust, as a redirection, the other to Endor. It bodes well, so their armada isn't completely devastated in one fight.

Amid Hoth their principle objective was to clear, likely the equivalent with Yavin.

 

To resurrect the old thread. Why didn't the rebels attack the At-Ats from behind where they had no offense. Instead of facing them head on to deploy a tow cable, they could of easily gotten behind them and Luke wouldn't have a 2 pilots dead.

 

IMHO, I'd say that in 1980 X-Wings had been established as starfighters and there was a distinction being made between starfighters and vehicles suitable for planetary environments.
The only issue for the Rebels referenced in the movie was adapting their speeders - their surface vehicles - to the cold on Hoth.

I suppose, you could equally argue why didn't the Empire just send in a load of TIEs rather than have walkers slowly trundle towards the base - of course the real reasons are variety, excitement, sell more toys etc, but the point is that that distinction made sense at the time, given the context, and given that what the X-Wings did at the battle of Yavin - skimming the surface of the battle station - was supposed to be understood as unorthodox and risky.

And this distinction is consistent across the first six movies - there are vessels which operate in outer space, and another set which are deployed across the surface of planets with no real crossover.

To me, it only becomes an issue because TFA introduced starfighters dogfighting over the surface of planets, and as a consequence we are trying to come up with retroactive solutions to a problem which was never really there...

 

Well it's not something that TFA invented, it's something that's been discussed for many years due to appearances all over the EU and video games. For decades we've been told that starfighters and slightly larger ships like the Falcon can do their thing in an atmosphere. Maybe not as well as specialized ships with specialized weapons, and perhaps not as well as they do in space (also depending on the conditions of the planet, like Hoth or Dagobah for instance), but they've been shown to do it. In TESB we see TIE Fighters giving pursuit through Bespin's atmosphere.

 

I’m assuming that that’s what Luke did, as he was able to escape Hoth without a problem.

As for the Interdictor topic, the canon novel Heir to the Jedi had Luke piloting against an Interdictor Cruiser and I distinctly remember that he said something about how they weren’t used very often anymore and were a rare sight at that point. The book takes place shortly after ANH, so three years later and they’re most likely even rarer to find. I’d assume that the cost of production was too great and they were constantly getting destroyed in Star Wars: Rebels. Plus, like others have said, the Empire most likely moved quickly (and sloppily) as they didn’t want the Rebels to escape again.

 

Unless Vader's orders were ignored, Hoth was surrounded. As was already discussed the reason they evacuated from the side they did is because that's where the Ion Cannon was placed. It's possible Luke took a different route but I don't imagine a single X-Wing would warrant too much of a response even if it were noticed.

 

I think the Rebels were depleted by the time of the Battle of Hoth. There's no question about it