Brawl

A Brawl was a term given to a naval battle tactic whose employment was made inevitable when one or both sides were in disarray. During a Brawl, each individual captain had authority—rather than an admiral or Fleet Commander—and sought to do as much damage to the opposition as possible for as long as possible. Charging in, guns blazing, tended to be a last, desperate act.

However, a Brawl could be misconstrued for a Fake, a tactic that saw fleet groups charged the enemy in apparent disarray. At a precise point of time and, if successful, the fleet would suddenly pull around hard to present unified broadsides to the enemy. They could proceed to Cap the "T" if possible and even finish by swinging around to flank the last ships in the enemy battle line.

One the most notable fleet Brawls in naval history was at the Battle of Coruscant during the final year of the Clone Wars. The Separatist fleet that made a surprise attack on the Galactic Republic capital of Coruscant destroyed many Star Destroyers. In response, the Republic's commanders rallied together and employed a Brawl, which exposed the weaknesses of the slow-to-react droid captains, resulting in a Republic victory.

Text and facts from the “Brawl” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.