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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''Space battles are always [[This Is Reality|a lot more exciting on TV]] than they are in real life...''
|'''Col. John Sheppard'''|''[[Stargate Atlantis]]''}}
This is the [[Super-Trope]] for many [[Tropes in Space|tropes]] and clichés concerning ship-to-ship combat...
[[Space Fighter
It may be [[The Climax]] of a tense [[Mexican Standoff|standoff]], the conclusion of a [[Stern Chase]], or the outcome of a [[With Catlike Tread|cunning surprise attack]]. Two [[Cool Starship
In a ''really'' [[Rule of Drama|dramatic]] battle, he or she may turn to [[Crazy Enough to Work|daring and original plans]]
Once damage has had some time to accumulate, and the [[Crazy Enough to Work|daring plan]] has had a chance to either work impressively or fail spectacularly, one of the ships will usually find it prudent to invoke the [[Know When to Fold'Em|Thirty-Sixth Stratagem]] and attempt a [[Hyperspeed Escape]]. An [[Lawful Good|honourable opponent]] will let them go; a lowly [[Space Pirates|Space Pirate]] may get out the [[Tractor Beam|boarding hooks]] instead, and prepare a [[Boarding Party]]. If the quarry manages to slip away, there may be a [[Stern Chase]].
If neither side is willing to retreat, sooner or later one of the [[Cool Ship
Note that such a confrontation need not be an epic [[Final Battle]]. Starship Scuffles are routine in [[Space Opera]], and may be used to [[Standard Establishing Spaceship Shot|establish the setting]], throw a minor obstacle in the protagonists' path, introduce a villain, or even just provide a lead-in to other, more important parts of the plot. Of course, [[Space Battle|epic battles in sci-fi settings]] often ''will'' make use of this trope.
When this trope is [[Averted Trope|averted]], it will generally be done in one of two ways: Either large ships will engage in [[Old School Dogfighting]], displaying manoeuvrability usually reserved for [[Space Fighter
To see the different kinds of ship likely to be involved, inspect the [[Standard Sci-Fi Fleet]]. If the ships are [[The Battlestar|Battlestars]], this trope may occur side-by-side with [[Old School Dogfighting]]. This trope is not to be confused with [[Space Battle
▲To see the different kinds of ship likely to be involved, inspect the [[Standard Sci-Fi Fleet]]. If the ships are [[The Battlestar|Battlestars]], this trope may occur side-by-side with [[Old School Dogfighting]]. This trope is not to be confused with [[Space Battle|Space Battles]], though there is certainly overlap.
{{examples}}
* ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'': There is a space battle scene fitting this trope. [[Justified]] in that it's a virtual battle in a computer game programmed by Japanese high-school students, who would be expected to have learned everything they know about military combat from movies and TV shows.
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Captain Harlock]]'': Bonus points for the hero's ship looking like a mash-up of a submarine, battlecruiser and galleon.
* ''[[Space Battleship Yamato]]'' featured this trope aplenty, especially in the big battle at the edge of the solar system in the very first episode, which was ''very'' obviously inspired by World War II naval engagements. Of course, it's hard to imagine making the [[Space Is an Ocean]] trope any more explicit than this show did...
== Film ==
* The various ''[[Star Trek]]'' films, nach. ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Wrath of Khan]]'', ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country|The Undiscovered Country]]'', ''[[Star Trek: First Contact|First Contact]]'', ''[[Star Trek: Insurrection|Insurrection]]''... ''[[Star Trek]]'' is essentially the [[Trope Codifier]], after all.
** In the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'' film, we see some beautiful examples, though aversions of [[Point
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' gives ''far'' more focus to [[Old School Dogfighting]] between [[Space Fighter|small fighters]] than to this trope. Usually when capital ships engage each other it is a brief fight. One side will be attempting a [[Hyperspeed Escape]] from the very start, or the fight will be a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] with one side at a huge disadvantage, and in either case there will be little time for a
** ''[[Star Wars]]'' plays this trope straight in the opening battle of ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]''. Among other things it lets us take a look at the starships' broadside cannons. The only thing they lack is that they're not muzzle-loaded.
** The Battle of Endor from ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'' starts out more as a Battle of Midway-style melee, with snub fighters attacking the enemy capital ships, but once the Death Star cranks up its superlaser the Rebel cruisers have no choice but to go in and engage the Imperial Star Destroyers toe-to-toe so that at least the Death Star can't get a clear shot at them. The novelization sort of lampshades it; there's a line to the effect that the opposing capital ships are now exchanging broadsides at point-blank range like the oceangoing vessels of another time and place.
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* In ''[[Andromeda]]'', another [[Gene Roddenberry]] series, capital ships occasionally got close enough to one another to fire Anti-Proton guns at each other. But most of the time they lobbed relativistic missiles at blips on the tac screen several light-minutes away. And due to gravity manipulation most ships could maneuver like fighters anyway.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and [[Stargate Verse|its sequels]] started to feature space battles that fit this trope perfectly once the [[Humans by Any Other Name|Tau'ri]] developed their own spacecraft using [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]]. [[Boarding Party|Boarding Parties]] often played an especially large role, however, and early on the still-experimental [[ISO Standard Human Spaceship|human ships]] were more prone to [[Phlebotinum Breakdown]].
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' would partake in this or [[Old School Dogfighting]] (the latter typically for the [[Space Fighter|fighters]], but occassionally for the faster or more advanced capital ships as well). If one side got the jump on the other before they could react (typically by [[Hyperspeed Ambush|ambushing them]] as they exited a [[Cool Gate|Jump Gate]], or jumping on them from a [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|jump point]] of their own making once the target had been lured into a predefined killzone in a inversion of the [[Hyperspeed Escape]]) then the fight would be [[Curb Stomp Battle|spectacularly brief]]. If both ships had fair warning that a fight was about to ensue, then it would be relatively lengthy, with the ships launching fighters and long-range attacks, using electronic countermeasures or [[Shoot the Bullet|interceptor weapons systems]] to avoid incoming fire while trying to get close enough to allow their own weapons systems to [[Point Defenseless|overcome the enemy's defenses]]. On at least one occassion, a duel between two enemy warships resulted in ''[[Mutual Kill|both]]'' [[Mutual Kill|ships being destroyed.]]
** The first battle of the Earth-Minbari War (after the failed first contact) was near the Vega colony. The Minbari fleet closed to weapons range and waited for the slow Earth ships to take the first shot. The whole battle lasted about 12 seconds with most Earth ships destroyed in the first Minbari volley. Only one ship (a prototype ''Omega'') managed to get close enough to [[Ramming Always Works|ram]] a ''Sharlin'' war cruiser. Nearly all battles against the Minbari were usually [[Curb Stomp Battle|pretty short and one-sided]]. Oh, and to add more similarities with the Age of Sail, humans had to "eyeball" their weapons at the Minbari (i.e. visual targetting only), as the Minbari stealth systems prevented normal weapons lock.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* [[BattleTech]]'s space combat spinoff, BattleSpace / AeroTech has this as one of its core mechanics. WarShips brawl with each other at ridiculously close ranges. The battles are very brutal and reminiscent of sea battles from the age of sail. However, it has advanced rules for Newtonian flight physics instead of the [[Old School Dogfighting]] style physics, and three dimensional movement is important. Likewise, the fiction usually averts this, with direct combat between capital ships typically fought entirely by instruments and mathematics.
* The ''[[Warhammer
** Additionally, 3D combat is handwaved as "just another range modifier", and since most of these battles take place over such insane ranges, the planar weapon distribution could even be structural, only requiring maneuvering rockets to aim in the z-axis (from the frame of reference of our 2D game surface).
* ''Task Force'' Games: ''[[Star Fleet Battles]]'' and ''[[Starfire]]''.
** The latter influenced the portrayal of space battles in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' books, as one of the creators of the game was also the novels' author, though how the two universes actually use this trope differs.
* ''[
* Ground Zero Games's ''[[Full Thrust]]'' pretty much plays this trope straight. Optional rules provide varying degrees of aversion.
== Video Games ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Gratuitous Space Battles]]'' was explicitly designed to provide a pure fix of
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' averts
** The space battle at the end of the first game looks a little more like a dogfight. The space battles in [[Mass Effect 2]] are all between the same two ships, and manage to give the impression of an aircraft attacking an oceangoing ship.
** The battle in the first game is a ludicrously short-ranged one for the setting; the Citadel flagship is actually unable to bring it's main weapon to bear fast enough before being overwhelmed by smaller enemies much lighter human Cruisers take out in a single shot.
** The battles in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' tend to be one-sided on the part of the {{spoiler|Reapers}}. However, we do get to see geth and quarian fleets slug it out without much maneuvering involved. Interestingly, despite the Codex claiming that the quarian heavy capital ships were upgraded with the [[Wave Motion Gun|Thanix cannons]], we never actually see them in action. They keep using their standard [[Magnetic Weapons]].
* ''[[Infinite Space]]'' has this to a hilt, especially in cutscenes.
* The [[X (video game)|X]]-Universe games often feature slug fests between capital ships at fairly short ranges, even though the weapons will reach out
* ''[[Star Trek Legacy]]'', ''[[Star Trek: Bridge Commander]]'' and the ''[[Star Trek Starfleet Command]]'' games all feature this heavily, as their respective settings lack [[Space Fighter
* ''[[Nexus the Jupiter Incident]]'' is a game designed around this concept. While there are fighters in the game, they're pretty much useless until the enemy's [[Point Defenseless|flak]] [[Beam Spam|lasers]] are disabled. All fights are big slugfests, especially the climactic fight in the penultimate mission, where the player's fleet must fight against the constantly incoming enemy ''fleets''. Lasers are specifically used to knock out enemy systems but don't do much physical damage. The other weapons are meant to damage the hull ([[Magnetic Weapons|mass drivers]]) and shields ([[Energy Weapon|energy shells]]).
** Also of note is that [[Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon|Fixed Forward Facing Weapons]] are the exception, not the rule. Most guns are turreted and located all over the hull, so you will often see ships rotating to bring additional weapons to bear while the ones currently facing the enemy are recharging.
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* ''[[Starslip]]'' has a few instances of this trope, usually with [[Better Than a Bare Bulb|humorous lampshading]] of the various associated clichés.
* One of the fillers for [[SSDD]] [http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20080707.html explains] why real life space battles wouldn't look like the movies.
== Web Original ==
* ''[https://eldraeverse.com/2014/04/27/non-standard-starship-scuffles/ Non-Standard Starship Scuffles]'' on The Eldraeverse is a comment on the trope, as the name suggests.
{{quote|So, y’know, since I now have various fictive people critiquing it in my head with extra sarcasm, here’s some metafictional commentary on the way things actually work:) }}
{{reflist}}
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