Okay, why the Decepticons go with enhancing three of their most powerful warriors to serve as planet devastators (Sixshot, Black Shadow and Overlord, the Phase Sixers) when just bombarding a planet from orbit would do?

Would it be much cheaper and more widespread to have the Decepticon fleet handle Phase Six (kill everything on a planet) duties rather than three dedicated warriors. Especially since the Decepticon fleet is more numerous.

 

I mean that would destroy a ton of resources.

For as much as they fuel on fighting and destruction, they have also lived in starvation and know what it’s like to NEED them. The Enhanced soldiers can destroy the locals, but leave the the resources.

 

Exactly

The infiltration protocol wasn’t designed to destroy worlds, it was designed to conquer them. The whole point of it was to secretly destabilize the government and leave society on the brink of collapse, then send in one of the Phase Sixer to lush it over the edge. According to MTMTE issue 7 (“Rules of Disengagement”), there was also allegedly a seventh phase that was supposed to be put into action once the Decepticons won the war - “repopulation.” That definitely implies that they wanted to keep the resources, something that orbital bombardment wouldn’t allow for.

 

Psychological warfare and logistics presumably. Orbital bombardment would presumably be the standard operation across the galaxy - knock out military installations and points of cultural significance, till the planet surrenders. Planets might still think they have a chance if they can knock out enough of the invading fleet, even though they might come back, which gives them some hope. At the same time, the fleet has to maintain a supply chain to keep it going. Soldiers might get complacent just shelling everything for years on end till the white flag of surrender goes up.

On the other hand, the Decepticons can just send a singular soldier to the planet and let them go wild. This guy is quite literally indestructible and is essentially death on legs. Stories are going to spread of their power, how no matter what you throw at him, the Phase Sixer is just going to keep fighting till there's nothing of worth left. Trying to save some part of themselves, planets and factions would start preeminently surrendering once they got wind of an infiltration unit operating somewhere in local space. On the flip side, the Decepticons don't have to worry about maintaining a sustained siege and all the details that it entails, including maintaining supply chains and troop morale

 

Yeah...Overlord and Sixshot had that rep. No wonder why Prowl wanted to dissect Overlord to make Autobot Phase Sixers.

 

Wasn't the entire point of the Phase Sixers that they were just sent to 'clean up' the rest of an already conquered planet? I'm sure orbital bombardments already would've happened and then they send one of their Sixers in to deal with what was left, after the previous five phases.

 

You say it would be cheaper and more widespread, but I would argue that the Phase Sixers are more efficient.

Instead of sending at least one warship and lots of personnel (plus all the logistics involved), the Decepticons only need to send one apparently completely self-sufficient dude.

Was it "already conquered" or "on the brink"? I got the impression that a Sixer was sent in to make sure organised resistance was totally impossible so other 'cons could mop up. Like, in The Last Stand of The Wreckers when we first see the Wreckers, they're fighting back against a Phase Six operation with no Phase Sixer in sight, so it seems that the Phase Sixers only get sent in when the situation warrants it.

 

But the loss of one Phase Sixer would be more devastating compared to a warship. A warship can be replaced and new crew trained but since Phase Sixers need a rare material (and the last got used up by Overlord) to make them near indestructible, well, the loss of one Phase Sixer would be more devastating since they can't be replaced.

 

Considering Black Shadow was able to single-handedly kill over 3,000 Autobots in a single battle (and defeated both Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus during that same battle), I'd say losing a Phase Sixer is unlikely enough that it's an acceptable risk. And it's not like they're totally alone: the Decepticons already present would almost certainly would be on hand if needed, even if they're only observing from a nearby moon or from orbit.

Besides, you're unlikely to send a single warship to bombard a planet, because the risk of losing that to some sort of attack is much too high. Recall that when we encounter Deathsaurus' Warworld, a warship that's more than capable of glassing a planet from orbit, it was still accompanied by smaller ships (most likely to provide support). Again, in comparison, you could just send one Phase Sixer.

The other thing to bear in mind is that if you send a warship, if the Autobots show up with their own ships they can fight on fairly even terms. But a Phase Sixer could probably be devastating in a space battle as well. Remember how Overlord was pretty much unstoppable when he got loose on the Lost Light, and that was him with his weapons disabled. And also recall that Black Shadow was hunted down by the DJD because he single-handedly wrecked a fleet of Warworlds.

 

It was “on the brink,” and iirc the Phase Sixers are always sent in

Also, in the corner of this panel, it says that their job is to “sterilize,” which means they’re only supposed to kill living things, not raze the landscape:

Like Grun said, losing a Phase Sixer is incredibly unlikely. We’ve seen how ruthless Overlord is, Sixshot was also pretty dangerous, and Black Shadow has at least 3000003006 (adding up the ones from Rigel IV, the Wreckers fight, and the battle with the 113th Battalion). Let’s not forget that he’s bested Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus and Overlord fought the entire Lost Light crew, which includes Magnus, Rodimus, Cyclonus, and Whirl, and he’s also beaten Fort Max. And Sixshot survived being stepped on by Metroplex.

btw, here’s the page for the infiltration protocol - Infiltration protocol - Transformers Wiki

 

I know that this isn’t the “dumbest things IDW did” thread, but that factoid is IMO one of the stupidest pieces of the IDW fiction, and undermined pretty much the entirety of the war so badly Roberts had to later retcon parts of it.

1 - if Black Shadow was *that* powerful where on his own he can wipe out 3000 Autobots and leave Op and Ultra defeated, there’s pretty much no reason they wouldn’t have brought him around in every single battle with Optimus until Optimus was dead. Optimus is powerful but he’s not godlike. All they have to do is have Black Shadow fight Op one on one and he’s toast. If we’re to believe Overlord is remotely on that level none of *his* appearances make much sense, since he’s depicted as powerful but not “kill 3000 autobots and trash Op and UM” powerful. I’m supposed to believe this war went on for centuries/millennia when the Decepticons had a class of warrior that the Autobots literally couldn’t replicate, that was worth 1 to every 3000 of their people?

2 - the DJD, even hopped up on Nucleon or whatever the drug was, should’ve been totaled by Black Shadow based on his power description. Taking the comic at face value, if they were able to destroy Black Shadow so easily then the DJD should have been able to vaporize a weakened, confused Grimlock (not just punch him once or twice) in 10 seconds. Am I to believe a dazed and confused Grimlock is more powerful than Black Shadow?

Since Roberts indicated that the Nucleon stuff didn’t wear off until well after they found the duplicate overlord, it was clearly still in their systems when they fought him and the Scavengers. And in that battle they were able to…beat Flywheels. Okay.

I know, I know, it’s multiple authors and DBZ power creep but it still irks me, LOL