Battle of Endor: In praise of the Ewoks

Ewoks present a complicated series of sub messages within the short space of the Endor ground battle.  At first, they’re dismissed as short furry help (better than no help at all), when in reality, the Ewoks had effectively neutralised the Rebels, and given the Rebels proceeded to trounce the Empire, it’s a fair and furry bet that Ewok v Rebels would end poorly for the Rebels.  Ewok v. Empire is always advantage Ewok.  See, the thing about the Ewoks is the constant under estimation of the ability, their technology, and their low metal / non electronics combat systems against a high tech force with defenses tailored to high tech attacks.  The Empire probably had landmines, radar, laser trips and all the rest of the anti-vehicle technology you could want to stop snowspeeders, AT-ST, AT-AT, X-wing and Y-Wing.  I doubt that they had something that would pick up an organic component hangglider on radar.   Even if you credit the Empire with IR/heat sensors, the Endor moon would be a messy place to put that sort of visual equipment into effect in the daylight.

In the Return of the Jedi, do the Ewoks present with distinct forms types of combat strategy. Ewok v Ewok, Ewok v Empire Vehicle, and Ewok v Empire Troops.
1. Ewok v EwokCombat

The use of gliders, catapults and spears which were largely ineffective against the Empire‘s vehicles indicated that the Ewok clan that allied with the Rebels had weapons that were designed to a semi-medieval level (catapult), and post-medieval (gliders).  The gliders could be a specific repurpose of civilian Ewok flight gear (tree to tree transport, intra-village travel).  The weaponised response could be an effort to combat the Empire with the assistance of the Rebels.  The catapults look well suited to attacking other Ewok villages, given the arc like nature of the payloads, which would allow for strikes in the distance and well above the heads of Ewok ground troops.  Storming an Ewok village up the ramps and bridges would probably be a high injury / high fatality proposal, assuming the bridges and access points weren’t able to be withdrawn/destroyed by the defenders.

The Ewoks beat the Rebels and beat the Empire. They're hard core.

2. Ewok v Empire Vehicles

The Ewoks had built specific purpose traps and weaponised ambush points for destroying the AT-ST chicken walkers.  The proximity of the traps to the Imperial base indicates that the Empire and the Ewoks have had a steady detente with a limited Empire territory and established no-go zone for various Empire equipment.  It’d also explain the presence of the seriously heavy duty AT-AT on a “friendly” world such as Endor.  The AT-ST losses to the Empire from the Ewoks probably introduced a code of conduct amongst the pilots to avoid certain zones which was overriden by the pressing need to track down the Rebel troops.
3. Ewok v Empire hand to hand

The Ewoks clearly knew how to exploit the armour weaknesses of the stormtroopers. Deploying bolas for headshots, dropping nets and rocks, and specifically focusing on head trauma to reduce the effectiveness of the armour indicates some experience at ambush patrols.  Plus, given the way the Ewok intended to kill and grill the captured rebel troops, it’s a fair bet that a few Empire troops were trapped and roasted by the Ewoks. Plus, there were specific anti-speeder bike traps and defensive strategies put into effect by Ewok ground troops. Again, there’s a canon body of evidence to suggest the Ewoks had previously killed Empire troops. That Threepio was able to convince them to fight for the Rebels was a further indication of the Ewok-Empire animosity.

I’ve always wondered how the failure to land the Tydirium on an official Empire landing pad didn’t set off massive alarms in the Empire chain of command.  If any aircraft didn’t make their booked flight plan in most controlled airspaces (and the Empire had a set of space controllers on Vader’s command ship who were responsible for the shield access. They’d hand off the planet bound flight to a domestic airspace controller who’d guide the Tydirium through Endor flight paths to a destination. Assuming that our contemporary views of military air traffic control applied to the Empire).  I’ve wondered recently if the Tydirium didn’t report an engine failure, or some other half-mayday call, set down in the clearing, and then have thre Empire discover the abandoned shuttle with a speeder bike patrol reporting another set of civilians (parts and tecnical crew for the forest moon was the alleged cargo) lost to the damn Ewoks.

Death from Above.

The idea of the Ewoks as a peaceful bundle of cute furry merchandise in waiting bothers me, because it says that the viewer of ROTJ can’t see past the humans to look at the complexity of the battlefield.  The nature of battle indicates that there’s inter-tribe warfare at a fairly sophisticated level  of seige engines and air support (and presumably, counter attacks to the seige/air approaches), since these were readily available Ewok weapons brought to the battlefield quite quickly.  This was an armed tribe who were willing to mix it up with the Empire who had the ranged weapons on their side – and the Ewoks were still willing to bring it to the battle and more than hold their own in the fight.