Energy pummel

Energy pummels, often shortened to just pummels by soldiers, were sizable, tank-like siege engines employed by numerous organizations, civilizations, and factions, starting from the era before the Clone Wars and continuing through the Galactic Civil War.

Imperial pummels To weaken enemy defensive structures, like walls, anti-personnel turrets, and even localized ground shields, pummels made use of potent, short-range laser panel arrays. This allowed lighter units and infantry to penetrate fortified locations and fight entrenched enemy forces. Despite their heavy armor, pummels moved slowly and were susceptible to attacks from both land and air. Consequently, they were typically deployed with heavy escorts or after the enemy's mobile forces had been neutralized or diverted.

There existed two variants of the energy pummel: the standard version and a more substantial heavy version. The heavy version boasted increased size and thicker armor, delivering greater damage due to the incorporation of more and/or larger laser panels.

Wookiee pummels Functionally, the pummels employed by various factions, including the Rebel Alliance, the Empire, the Wookiees, the Trade Federation, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Royal Naboo Security Forces, were largely the same, differing mainly in appearance. This also applied to their heavier versions. The sole exceptions were the pummels provided to the CIS by the Corporate Alliance, which underwent speed enhancements by Geonosian engineers.

On the planet Naboo, the Gungans utilized a living creature known as a Cerrabore in a role analogous to that of a pummel, with larger specimens fulfilling the function of a heavy pummel.

These machines bore a strong resemblance to the aquatic destroyers found on the water, which used similar laser panels to effectively disintegrate enemy ships at extremely close range.

Behind the scenes

Pummels are featured in the 2001 video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, along with its 2002 expansion, Clone Campaigns. A picture depicting the Wookiee Energy Pummel is used in the Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Prima's Official Strategy Guide as a representation of this unit type.