An Unexpected Ally

An Unexpected Ally
On Naboo, Rico meets with the Gungan leader, finalizing plans to attack the capital city of Theed at nightfall. Rico then boards a gunship back to his attack cruiser hovering over the planet, and we learn that Rico's Brigade has already fought and won a space battle for control of Naboo's atmosphere. The battle was costly, in no small part due to Rico's Brigade using cheaply made Imperial ships Racket captured after the attack on Vergesso.

Rico meets with Dodger, who specializes in attacking alongside allies. His role in the battle will be to load Gungan soldiers into their ships to perform a flanking maneuver on the Imperials in Theed. Rico reminds him that his mission is critical to their success, and he should try not to offend the Gungans, despite their notorious clumsiness.

Battlefield

 * Naboo
 * Theed

Combatants

 * Rico's Brigade
 * Dodger
 * Rico


 * Gungans
 * Galactic Empire
 * Stormtroopers
 * Stormtrooper Sergeants

Battle Results
Rico leads the main force of regular clone trooper infantry, plus several machine-gunners and rocket troopers, up the main street to attack the entrenched and numerous Stormtroopers, backed by two AT-STs, head-on. Meanwhile, Dodger leads the lightly-armed Gungans in a flanking manuever.

When the fighting starts, Rico's soldiers scramble for cover, many getting gunned down. Fortunately, the AT-STs go down quickly, taking parts of the Imperial defenses with them as they explode. The few clones with Dodger move forward quickly, but the Gungans hang back at first, before arming themselves with the Stormtrooper's blasters and engaging. Dodger gets knocked out, and the Gungan warriors are wiped out. Rico's group moves forward, despite having lost most of their normal infantry, taking out scattered squads of Stormtroopers throughout the city one at a time. Rico's Brigade soon mops up, winning the planet.

Trivia

 * This is the first episode in which the planet's local population is involved in the combat, despite both Twi'leks of Ryloh and Geonosians of Geonosis being considerably more combat-capable than Gungans, and having been enslaved by The Empire in Star Wars canon.
 * Rico and Racket's comments on how Gungans tend to mess things up are no doubt references to the most famous Gungan, Jar Jar Binks, who became almost universally reviled among the Star Wars community following the film's release. The fact that they still seem to respect them, though, is likely due to the Clone Wars TV series portraying Jar Jar and Gungans in a more favorable light.


 * In Star Wars canon, Naboo is Emporer Palpatine's home planet. No mention of this, or the embarrassment its loss would cause Palpatine is mentioned in this series. It's likely, though, that the Empire was simply in no position to retaliate with their closest fleet having been destroyed recently, and Rico knows this.