Marg Sabl

The executes a Marg Sabl maneuver at the . — The *Resolute* executes a Marg Sabl maneuver at the Battle of Ryloth.

"You're going to pull a Marg Sabl closure maneuver? Why not? It was a good idea… a decade ago."

The Marg Sabl was a maneuver used in space battles, first developed by Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano during the Clone Wars and then employed in the Galactic Civil War, most notably the Thrawn Crisis.

Characteristics

Clone Captain views a hologram of the Marg Sabl at the Battle of Ryloth — Clone Captain Rex views a hologram of the Marg Sabl at the Battle of Ryloth

The ship(s) executing the Marg Sabl would close at high speed against an enemy force. At the last moment, the ship(s) would angle their hulls against the enemy's attack vector, protecting its fighter groups as they sortie. These fighters would then form up and, concealed by the hull of the ship, conduct a flanking maneuver to attack the enemy ships; if the enemy commander is unaware of the maneuver, his fighters and point defenses would be unable to respond in time.

It was a simple maneuver that was obvious to spot, but when properly executed, it had a highly unstructured attack profile. As a result, most experienced opponents would not fall for it, though species with a psychological blind spot for unorthodox tactics, such as the Elomin or simple-minded OOM command battle droids, would. In the case of the former, the Elomin forces retreated, exposing themselves to complete destruction. In the case of the latter, the droids pressed their ineffectual assault, pinning themselves between the hull of the ship and the flanking fighters, which attacked from all sides.

History

"You see, Captain, there's an Elom [sic] commanding that force…and Elomin simply cannot handle the unstructured attack profile of a properly executed Marg Sabl."

―Thrawn, to Gilad Pellaeon^[2]

During the Battle of Ryloth, Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano suggested the use of the maneuver against Separatist battle droids that had been abandoned by their Neimoidian commanding officer.^[3] Decades later, it was used successfully by Grand Admiral Thrawn, who demonstrated the particular Elomin gullibility at the Destruction of the Elomin task force.^[2]

Behind the scenes

"One of the coolest parts of writing Star Wars books is when you occasionally see something you've done borrowed for use in another part of the vast Lucasfilm universe. In this case, it was the "Storm Over Ryloth" episode of the Clone Wars TV series, where the Marg Sabl maneuver is used against a Trade Federation blockade. What's even cooler is that the featurette of that episode on the DVD specifically credits the maneuver to Heir. Thrawn would have been pleased."

―Timothy Zahn^[4]

The Marg Sabl first appeared in Timothy Zahn's novel Heir to the Empire. The novel later inspired Star Wars: The Clone Wars director Dave Filoni to include the maneuver in the episode "Storm Over Ryloth."^[5]