Could the Zerg Swarm defeat the Galactic Empire?

The objective of StarCraft vs Star Wars is super unique, there are billions of planets that need to be destroyed, each is guarded by a progressively stronger group of enemies.

I’m disappointed that you didn’t point out how Vader would feel about the Zerg seeing as they’re coarse, rough, and they get everywhere.

There is an X-factor missed that I think pushes this in favor of the Swarm, and that is the Leviathan's ability to infest other spacecraft directly, turning a foe's own firepower against them. While this is devastating enough when it's a Battlecruiser or Carrier, Star Destroyers in the hands of the Zerg become a nightmare for the Empire

I think the fact that all Zerg are living weapons essentially being born fully armed and armored as well as being able to eat pretty much anything can be a significant factor as wars are often won by logistics.

Looking forward to "can you beat the galactic empire with zerglings only" run

It really never occurred to me to imagine how not-out-of-place Kerrigan would be in the Star Wars universe; there's all kinds of exotic and strange aliens living together in the main galaxy, it would not be weird to see someone like her just hanging out.

I think the one thing seriously missing here is that the DS is vulnerable, not to a direct attack, but to infiltration, something the Zerg are known to do. It is vast with lots of places for an infected individual to get a foot hold and once they do, the inner defenses are pretty bad against the zerg. Even if protected by Vader or the Emperor, both could be exhausted and overwhelmed by shear numbers. So, it could easily fall. Since we're talking directly after the battle of Yavin, the DS II would at best be still in early construction and likewise vulnerable, especially given where it was built. And, if we follow your scenario, realistically there will be no more in the line as the empire simply won't have the resources to allocate to a third. I would also argue the zerg are likely to start adapting their space forces to the circumstances far quicker than the empire would adapt to them. That said, the empire does have one thing they could leverage which is the potential for battle droids which should be immune to infestation and can be mass produced and I could see them going that way once they realize their human forces just won't cut it and are actually a liability. Given the balance, the empire I think more times than not would lose the conflict. They'd put up a good fight, but ultimately would have to have a flawless defense on many key targets which they just haven't shown. Sooner or later something will slip through and they're likely to lose big assets that they just can't afford to lose to hold the stalemate. However, they do have the potential for victory as well, I just think on average they'd be on the losing side.

Also, don't forget that some species are immune to the force in one way or another (invisibility vs precognition, immunity to mind tricks, so on). The Zerg would pick up on that quickly.

Can you imagine Abathur getting a hold of the remains of a Zillo Beast? Brutalisks would be child's play compared to that.

Why do I find thinking about stuff like this so fascinating? I love it! Lol I noticed 2 things that were missed that might be worth mentioning. 1) I understand the empire has planetary shields over the core worlds. Aren't those worlds the big city planets? So, which worlds make the FOOD for those big city worlds? Are there planetary shields over them? I can totally imagine the Zerg managing to overtake any "backwater planet" that produce major sources of food for the empire and basically starving the people to death. 2) From what I've seen in Star Wars, even when the empire is in full power, there's a lot of people/worlds that might follow the rules, but don't really like or support the empire. However, with a massive Zerg invasion of the galaxy, I'd imagine that any fence sitters (and even people who hate the empire) would suddenly throw all of their support to the empire for defending the galaxy. They might not be the kindest protectors in the galaxy, but the Empire would be the only hope the galaxy has of surviving. The people would recognize that and become more active than ever before in the support of the empire. The galaxy would finally become united in order to fight against the Zerg. (No, I don't imagine many would willingly join the Zerg.) What would a fully united Star Wars galaxy manage to accomplish I wonder?

My money is on the Swarm. Their adaptability and scale, combined with the abundance of terrifying predatory creatures in the SW galaxy for Abathur to play with would overwhelm the bulk of the Imperial forces. Sidious and Vader would undoubtedly present a challenge, but that challenge is significantly reduced when cut off from their powers. Thrawn was known to carry a creature with such an ability as a pet. It came from an area not explored by the Empire. Thinking about the force, Kerrigan's abilities already look extremely similar to several dark side powers. She's fueled by rage, projects lightning, crushes and strikes with telekinesis, levitates, and one of her primal abilities even taps into the light side by healing herself and her party. The only basic force powers she lacks are the short and long-term precognition. Given the overlap, it's questionable if Abathur could find a way to use the force to further augment the Swarm. However, infestation of gifted force sensitives would allow Kerrigan to add additional hero units to her ranks. I tend to think that none of these force sensitives would be on her level because she literally redefined the psionics scale, twice, in her home universe. If a trained force user like an Inquisitor, surviving Jedi, or the Bendu were captured and infested, then things could get interesting. Kerrigan's raw power, tempered by the focus of a force user would be a powerful combination.

Funnily enough, the Empire's saving grace could end up being the clone troopers' old rival, the battle droid. While not terribly impressive on an individual level, they can be mass-produced on a frankly obscene scale (as the Empire knows all too well from the Clone Wars), new technological advancements can be incorporated and rolled out relatively swiftly, alternate versions and even entire new classes can be designed to counter specific threats, and they are 100% biologically inert meaning the Swarm can't infest, poison, or even eat them like they could storm troopers. Basically, an Uno Reverse Card to the Zerg.

I think something that Grant didn't talk about was supply lines. The Republic and Empire both relied on a massive amout of supplies from the mid rim and outer rim. As such losing the outer rim and a large chunk of the mid rim would cause the Empire to buckle under attrition.

Okay, okay, hear me out. Kerrigan IS a powerful force user. She was born with a certain, more or less unexplained power, she uses it to shock people with Force Lightning, choke everyone in area, crush them with implosion, and uses it to enhance her speed and ability to jump. Heck, the whole Zerg chain of command can be seen as a kind of 'Jedi mind trick' as well. The only thing she's missing is a lightsaber, but that was stolen by miss Covert Ops.

There is something really interesting that wasn’t considered here. Because you specifically chose the Zerg before their battle on Korhal, we are working with a “good” Kerrigan. This Kerrigan isn’t corrupted by outside powers and is capable and willing to work with others. I could see the Zerg making allies and sparing people, this could cause traitors to appear in the empire. On a side note. Kerrigan is the Anakin Skywalker of StarCraft. A beyond powerful psychic (force user) told in prophecy to destroy evil and bring balance to the galaxy/universe.

I think the zerg would immediatly try to take over the Deathstar once it blasted one foot hold Not to mention that the zerg once before rather easily cnoquered a "citadel" a absurdly hard defended Planet namely Tarsonis and as you said they where about to attack Korhal while simultaneously laying siege on the entire Dominion so Corruscant or any other Citadel world wouldnt be much of an issue and taking over the Deathstar would effectively be a dwath sentence to the Empire

The funny thing about StarCraft is that for how OP its factions look at times. . . Everything that ever happened in StarCraft happened in the Koprullu sector. The UED lost its expeditionary fleet but Earth was untouched. Who knows what other Xel'Naga creations are Lurking out there. Did the rest of the Galaxy even had an idea of Amon's attacks?

I immediately thought of enemy within and how this infestation would crush the empire. If a farm boy can sneak into the Death Star, could a queen larva do the same and take down all the empires greatest weapons.

This is an incredibly clean and fun analysis, but I think it's important to remember that the Empire's technology is either on-par with or outright weaker than Protoss tech, and the protoss with the Golden Armada spent half a decade building up before even trying to retake Auir, which was only occupied by a moderate force of enthralled zerg, nowhere near the might of the unified swarm. Protoss have spent centuries perfecting the exact weapons needed to combat zerg, and still struggle to succeed outside of orbital bombardment. Their primary tactic is total planetary annihilation, and all that leaves the empire with is a growing pile of dead rocks. Lore Zerg have been stated to be pretty much immune to any type of chemical or radiation attack. In the abscence of psionic capability, their literal only vulnerability is being too physically mangled to keep fighting, whether by plasma, fire, blade, or bullets. The empire's weapons are almost universally plasma-based guns (that they call lasers).

"Executor has firepower the zerg can't match" Scourge: "Am I a joke to you?"