- "What's out here is an enemy so advanced, so evil, it's a miracle we haven't been wiped out or enslaved yet. We've been very lucky so far. I think most people would have a hard time living with the threat of constant impending doom."
- ―Samantha Carter, to Alec Colson[src]
The war between the Tau'ri of Earth and the Goa'uld Empire was an nine-year galactic power struggle between the two factions.
The conflict ultimately saw the fall of the System Lords and the collapse of the Goa'uld Empire. It also resulted in the image of the Goa'uld as Gods being completely destroyed forever by the Tau'ri who later exposed the Goa'uld for what they really are: parasites.
The Tau'ri's victory ultimately helped the entire Milky Way galaxy and even the Rebel Jaffa gain freedom at long last from the Goa'uld while also bringing the Tau'ri to the forefront and making them a huge influence on the galaxy with other races coming to see them either as a big help or a grave danger.
History[]
Beginnings[]
The war started when Humans from Earth traveled to Abydos and had an encounter with the Supreme System Lord Ra. The team that traveled to that planet incited a rebellion and Ra was ultimately killed when Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson ringed a nuclear warhead enriched with Naquadah to Ra's ship, where it exploded. Ra's death ultimately created a power vacuum among the System Lords.[14]
Over a year later, the Goa'uld System Lord Apophis came to Earth looking for a host for his queen, Amaunet. His First Prime, Teal'c of Chulak was with him during the attack and they kidnapped Senior Airman Carol Weterings as a possible host after slaughtering the four other security guards before promptly escaping back through the Stargate which also prompted the previously vacant Stargate Command to be reopened and the Stargate Program to be brought online once again. Later Apophis and his soldiers fought another battle on Abydos, this time he captured two Abydonians as possible hosts; and one became host to Apophis's mate, Amaunet (Sha're), while the other (Skaara) became host to his son Klorel.[1]
In response, the newly formed SG-1 and SG-2 followed him to Chulak where they encountered Teal'c, the first prime of Apophis, who upon realizing that the Tau'ri were the only hope for freeing his people, the Jaffa, from the control of the Goa'uld. Upon being ordered to kill the survivors, Teal'c who had long since harbored doubts over Apophis and the Goa'uld themselves being Gods instantly defected, turning against his own men while freeing the prisoners.[1]
Now regarded as a traitor or a Shol'va, Teal'c fled back to Earth with the teams where he eventually joined the SGC's main flagship team that was made up of O'Neill, Jackson and Captain Samantha Carter, Teal'c as the team's new fourth and final member with the team being designated "SG-1".[1][47]
Apophis' attempted attack[]
Around a year later, after several skirmishes with SG-1 and Earth, Apophis launched an attack on Earth with two Ha'tak in an effort to destroy it once and for all. SG-1 managed to board his ship, thanks to the Stargate stowed aboard, and destroy both of them with C-4 and help from Bra'tac who subsequently defected from the Goa'uld and joined the Rebel Jaffa. Apophis and Klorel managed to escape through the Stargate and Apophis lost his army and much of his power. He later ended up on the run from Sokar and came to Earth asking for asylum hoping that Sokar would destroy it for him since he was there. He died on Earth and his body was sent through the Stargate back to Sokar, preventing Sokar's attack. (SG1: "Within the Serpent's Grasp", "The Serpent's Lair")
Meanwhile, the Tau'ri had started to find new allies in their effort to defeat the Goa'uld. Dr. Daniel Jackson and Captain Samantha Carter made preliminary contact with Thor of the Asgard, after Heru'ur (Apophis' arch rival after Ra's death) staged an attack on Cimmeria. Furthermore, the Tok'ra symbiote Jolinar of Malkshur temporarily blended with Carter, giving Earth clues to their existence. The two races began forging ties when the dying Major General Jacob Carter, Sam's father and a General with the United States Air Force as well as a man dying from cancer agreed to blend with Selmak.(SG1: "Thor's Chariot", "In the Line of Duty", "The Tok'ra, Part 1", "The Tok'ra, Part 2")
SG-1, except for Teal'c, were later captured by Hathor, who had been released from imprisonment on Earth a year earlier. She tried to trick them into believing that they were in the future in order to get information out of them, but they saw through her deception and escaped, although she recaptured them. Upon receiving intelligence from the Tok'ra as to SG-1's whereabouts, Major General George S. Hammond authorized a large rescue mission to rescue the team. Meanwhile, Teal'c and Bra'tac gathered a force of Jaffa to rescue them and Hammond eventually joined the rescue himself, co-piloting a Needle Threader in the rescue attempt. O'Neill killed Hathor and the rescue team eliminated further resistance. (SG1: "Out of Mind", "Into the Fire")
With the death of Hathor, the collective System Lords began to see the threat the Tau'ri posed and prepared to attack Earth with a much larger fleet than Apophis. However, the Asgard proposed negotiating to include Earth in the Protected Planets Treaty which would protect it from further attack by the System Lords. Yu, Cronus and Nirrti came to Earth to negotiate and despite Nirrti's attempts to sabotage the peace treaty by framing Teal'c as the one who had attacked Cronus, it was passed and the Earth was saved again while Nirrti was taken into Cronus's custody, resulting in her becoming Cronus's prisoner. (SG1: "Fair Game")
New Strategies[]
Because of the loss of two Ha'taks and most of his Serpent Guards, Apophis's standing among the System Lords was considerably weakened. Apophis attempted to take revenge on Teal'c by brainwashing his son Rya'c and using him to infect Earth with a deadly plague. Apophis captured Rya'c and by the time Teal'c returned to Chulak, Apophis had brainwashed him into publicly denouncing his father. From something he said, Teal'c thought his son was only playing along. SG-1 rescued him and brought him and Drey'auc back to Earth. Once there, however, they discovered Rya'c really was brainwashed and conditioned to kill himself and everyone on Earth by unleashing a deadly plague. Teal'c had to shoot him with the Zat'nik'tel to break the conditioning. After recovering, Rya'c went to live with his mother in the Land of Light after that. (SG1: "Family")
Apophis also impregnated Sha're, Dr. Daniel Jackson's wife and host to Amaunet, with a boy. Known as Shifu, he was a Harcesis, a human child of Goa'uld parents who possessed all Goa'uld knowledge, and was hunted for it. He fathered him with the hopes of using the child as a future host to himself. Oma Desala cared for Shifu after Sha're's death on the planet Kheb throughout his infant years. (SG1: "Secrets", "Maternal Instinct", "Absolute Power")
Within a year, Apophis' forces were nearly depleted, suffering losses to both Heru'ur and Sokar. Fleeing from Sokar's forces, Apophis demanded sanctuary among the Tau'ri, at the very least hoping to take the Tau'ri with him in the event of Sokar learning that Apophis had taken refuge with them. However, the Tau'ri, realizing the risks outweighed the rewards soon turned Apophis over to Sokar who sent him to Netu. Apophis managed to assume the guise of Na'onak, First Prime of Bynarr, Lord of Netu and awaited for a moment where he could rise to greatness again.
The Resurrection and Fall of Apophis[]
In 1999, Sokar, previously believed to have been dead, made his presence officially known again among the System Lords, by making Apophis a prisoner on Netu, as well as starting a war with Heru'ur. Within a year, however, he was prepared to launch a massive attack against the System Lords, which would have put him in sole control of the Goa'uld Empire.
Realizing how dangerous that would be, the Tok'ra planned to destroy Netu. SG-1 arrived attempting to rescue Jacob Carter from Netu and to destroy the planet. After a first failed attempt, Teal'c sent the Tel'tak to Vorash, where Aldwin sent a bomb to Netu. When the bomb was activated and sent to Netu, the core would overload and destroy the moon 12 minutes later.
Meanwhile, Apophis led a rebellion on Netu after killing his former master, Bynarr. He tortured SG-1, trying to learn information to make Sokar spare his life. While he greatly enjoyed torturing SG-1, all he learned was that the Tok'ra were based on Entac. Planning to kill Sokar once he was in his presence, Apophis ringed aboard Sokar's Ha'tak. However, Sokar had already conquered Entac, and there were no Tok'ra there. Sokar ordered Apophis to be killed, but soon Netu's core began to destabilize. Apophis killed Sokar's guards and ringed to Delmak, Sokar's homeworld. There, he claimed that he had killed Sokar, and took Sokar's forces for his own, while SG-1 and the Tok'ra were able to escape. Sokar's Ha'tak was destroyed in Netu's explosion, killing Sokar but effectively restoring Apophis to a position of great power. (SG1: "Serpent's Song", "Jolinar's Memories", "The Devil You Know")
Less than a year later, Stargate Command learned of Apophis' survival, after he launched an attack on Chulak, searching for the Harcesis, and later launched an attack on Kheb. He also built (or appropriated from Sokar) a new flagship, more powerful than the standard Ha'tak, and began to build a new type of mothership. The later was destroyed when SG-1 sabotaged the construction facility despite the fact that Jack, Sam and Daniel were all under the influence of Atanik armbands. (SG1: "Upgrades")
Apophis later came close to forging an alliance with his former enemy Heru'ur, but the Tok'ra and SG-1 were able to sabotage it, hoping to start a war between the two and decimating their power. However, Apophis had brought a cloaked fleet with him, and was able to destroy Heru'ur's Ha'tak, killing him. Absorbing Heru'ur's forces into his own, Apophis quickly and very easily became the most powerful System Lord within the Goa'uld Empire. (SG1: "Maternal Instinct", "The Serpent's Venom")
Soon after Heru'ur's death, Cronus took over the planet Juna and came into conflict with both the robotic SG-1 and the real SG-1. Working together, the two SG-1s defeated Cronus' forces and Robot Teal'c killed Cronus with a staff weapon though all of the robot duplicates were killed also. Killing Cronus brought down one of the most powerful System Lords in existence and allowed SG-1 to get their hands on a Ha'tak. (SG1: "Double Jeopardy")
With Apophis' fleet on the way to attack the Tok'ra base on Vorash, Major Samantha Carter and her father, Jacob Carter devised a bold trap: they intended to cause Vorash's sun to go supernova, hoping to destroy most of Apophis' fleet and hopefully even Apophis himself. The plan worked, but Apophis survived capturing Teal'c in the process. Apophis' mothership and Cronus' Ha'tak went into hyperspace in an attempt to escape, but their hyperspace windows got hit by the energy blast from the supernova and they were transported to another galaxy, one in which the Replicators were in.
The Replicators destroyed Apophis' mothership, though Apophis was able to escape along with a bodyguard and Teal'c, who had been brainwashed into believing he was his First Prime (very similarly to how he had brainwashed Rya'c earlier). Apophis and his forces were able to take over the Ha'tak, but a single Replicator had managed to sneak aboard. The Replicators took control of the Ha'tak, flying to Delmak at incredible speeds. Though SG-1 and Jacob were able to escape, taking Teal'c with them, Apophis was trapped in the Pel'tak. SG-1 was able to disable the sublight drives, causing an uncontrolled re-entry into Delmak with Apophis being killed in the crash. Teal'c was later freed from his brainwashing by the Rite of M'al Sharran. (SG1: "Exodus", "Enemies", "Threshold")
Apophis's death, following the death of Cronus a few days earlier, the recent death of Heru'ur as well as Nirrti's fall from grace, caused the System Lords to enter into a war that the Tok'ra hoped would last for years. Unfortunately, both Tanith and Zipacna, two Underlords to Apophis emerged to become formidable players in the "new order". Worse, it also accelerated events which resulted in the return of Anubis. (SG1: "Double Jeopardy", "Enemies", "Between Two Fires", "Summit", "Last Stand")
The Return of Anubis[]
With the three dominant System Lords dead, the remaining System Lords began a fierce war among themselves to dominate the others. However, they also began to experience a new threat among themselves, as one enemy attacked using only ships, and never with Jaffa. The System Lords eventually called the High Council to deal with the issue. The recently returned Osiris also arrived, revealing the identity of their enemy—Anubis. Osiris gave the others two options: restore Anubis to the state of System Lord, or place themselves at the "mercy" of Anubis. Despite the objections of Lord Yu, Anubis was eventually restored to his former status for promising to destroy Earth.
What they didn't know was that Anubis had achieved Ascension, only to be cast down by the Others, leaving him unable to use significant powers, but with a great deal of knowledge of Ancient technology. (SG1: "Summit", "Last Stand", "Revelations", "Full Circle")
At the same time, Anubis ordered Zipacna to launch an attack on Revanna, seeking the symbiote poison. This objective failed, but resulted in wiping out virtually all the Tok'ra on the base. (SG1: "Summit", "Last Stand")
After the deaths of Apophis and Cronus, Anubis began to make his presence felt among the Goa'uld again. He brought in many underlords to serve him, such as discredited Goa'ulds like Osiris and Thoth, and newer Goa'ulds such as Zipacna and Tanith. He used his advanced shield technology to force the Tollans into providing new Phase-shifting weapon for him so he could bomb Stargate Command, but the Tollan Narim destroyed them, causing Anubis to annihilate Tollana. Furthermore, he tried to make good on his promise by sending a Naquadah asteroid on a collision course with Earth, hoping to wipe out the planet in a "natural disaster", only to be stopped by SG1 who after discovering the truth about the asteroid managed to stop it from destroying Earth. (SG1: "Between Two Fires", "Fail Safe")
Finally, Anubis felt secure enough to challenge the Asgard themselves. His shields and modifications to Staff cannons allowed him to fight the Asgard in limited numbers. He captured the commander of the ship sent to stop him, Thor. Using a mind probe, Anubis became determined to find out all of the Asgard's secrets. But SG-1 rescued him and three arriving O'Neill-class ships forced him to retreat. But not before Anubis gained knowledge of Asgard transporter and hologram technology. Convinced he no longer needed to fear the Asgard, Anubis used a Stargate destroyer in an attempt to destroy Earth. He appeared to the SGC as a hologram, pronouncing their doom. But Colonel Jack O'Neill used the prototype X-302 hyperspace fighter to transport the Beta Gate into space and simultaneously, the attacking weapon was also destroyed by Rebel Jaffa. (SG1: "Revelations", "Redemption, Part 1", "Redemption, Part 2")
Fearing the reprisals of the System Lords, Anubis built a new mothership carrying a powerful superweapon. He traveled to Abydos to obtain the Eye of Ra, one of the remaining Eyes he had yet to collect. SG-1 found the artifact before he could claim it. An Ascended Daniel Jackson bargained with Anubis for the Eye in exchange for Abydos' safety, mainly because the System Lords had him cornered. But once the Goa'uld received his prize, his vessel single-handedly destroyed an entire fleet of System Lord Ha'taks with the combined powers of the Eyes. He then planned to annihilate Abydos, knowing that Jackson would try to stop him and Oma Desala would interfere, preventing Daniels actions. Without resistance, he destroyed the planet, but not before its population ascended, also with the help of Oma.
Months later, SG-1, with the help of a de-ascended Jackson, plotted to destroy Anubis' mothership. Jackson and Jonas Quinn located a critical weakness while O'Neill and Major Samantha Carter used an F-302 fighter-interceptor to bypass its shields and strike, allowing the System Lords to destroy the vessel. Unfortunately, only half of the plan was completed, for Yu, due to age-induced senility, called off the attack. Anubis, despite his loss, gained a new prize in the form of a captured Jonas. Probing his mind, Anubis learned the location of his homeworld Langara and its Naquadria deposits. With his ship appearing over the capital Kelownan city, Anubis took control of the planet and began to strip it for Naquadria to rebuild his planet destroyer. But his research proved insufficient, for Naquadria proved too unstable to compensate. His Jaffa managed to locate a Data Crystal containing research on the mineral that would have allowed him to use the Naquadria but it was retrieved by SG-1. Worse for him, the System Lords, under Ba'al's command, destroyed his ship, forcing him to flee. (SG1: "Full Circle", "Fallen", "Homecoming")
Sensing the threats of the Jaffa Rebellion, Anubis began researching a way to create a new footsoldier. Using the technology of the Ancient healing device and Jonas Quinn's memories of Egeria, Anubis engineered an army of nearly unstoppable Kull warriors. The Kull warriors were far superior to the Jaffa, and Anubis quickly regained much lost ground. (SG1: "Evolution, Part 1")
When he learned of an Ancient Repository of knowledge on P3X-439, Anubis sent a force to secure it. However, O'Neill managed to download the knowledge into his mind. Believing the Tau'ri possessed Ancient technology and the location of Atlantis, he attacked Earth. He communicated with the President Henry Hayes, demanding his surrender, with the latter promising a fight to the bitter end. Anubis later tried to trick SG-1 into thinking he got to Atlantis first, but O'Neill, with the Ancient knowledge, easily saw through the illusion. Anubis was apparently destroyed by the drone weapons that SG-1 found in the Antarctic outpost buried under the ice of Antarctica. However, his formless essence survived the explosion of his mothership. He hitched a ride on Russian Cosmonaut Anatole Konstantinov of the International Space Station, possessing his body and returning to Earth. Leaping from person to person he made his way Stargate Command, where he managed to escape through the Stargate in the body of the dying Russian Colonel Alexi Vaselov—but he found himself frozen near the gate on an ice-covered planet, trapped. (SG1: "Lost City, Part 1", "Lost City, Part 2", "Lockdown")
The end of the System Lords[]
Because of Anubis' supposed death, it would seem that the System Lords would go into all-out war with each other, but they agreed to equally divide up his territory. However, Ba'al located Tartarus and reprogrammed the Kull Warriors there to serve him. Soon, all of Anubis' empire was under his complete control and he unleashed an utter extermination of any System Lords who opposed his rule. However, Anubis returned, and became the power behind Ba'al's rise to power.
When the Replicators began their invasion of the Milky Way, any of the independent System Lords were killed by Replicator Carter, a Human-Form Replicator copy modeled on the original flesh and blood Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter when an emissary of Ba'al was offered surrender. Anubis then ordered his fleet to attack them head on, allowing the Replicators to acquire materials, systematically losing worlds and ships one by one..
When the Rebel Jaffa took Dakara, Anubis ordered Ba'al to take the fleet to reclaim the planet at all costs. Knowing that Anubis intended to use the superweapon on Dakara to destroy all life in the Milky Way galaxy, Ba'al worked with Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter and Jacob Carter to modify the weapon to destroy the Replicators, which were simultaneously reverted to their most basic components. Ba'al then attempted to retake Dakara only for his command ship to be swarmed by Free Jaffa Nation; he used transporters to quickly escape. This act brought all Jaffa around the galaxy to quickly denounce the Goa'uld as gods and shake off the chains of slavery. Undaunted, Anubis took the remaining Kull warriors in an attempt to carry out his plan.
He devised a trap to draw the fleet the newly Free Jaffa Nation that had assembled after the Battle of Dakara. Bra'tac and Teal'c proposed that they unify the Jaffa by attacking Tartarus, Anubis' stronghold and the planet where he was manufacturing the Kull warriors. However, Anubis had already abandoned the planet, and his army began an assault on Dakara.
When he entered a midpoint between ascension and human existence to mock Oma Desala, he found Dr. Daniel Jackson, also at the midway point. He took the persona of Jim, a patron in the Astral Diner, mocking Oma and subtly pointing Jackson in the direction of Oma as the cause of Anubis' ascension. When Jackson realized that Jim was Anubis, he attempted to attack the System Lord, but lacked the power to even touch him. By this point, the Kull warriors had secured control of Dakara, and Anubis was in place to destroy life in the Milky Way. However, he was stopped by Oma Desala.
Inspired by Daniel's actions, she engaged Anubis in eternal struggle. Neither one can win, which prevents Oma from helping others to ascend, but Anubis would be forced to concentrate on fighting her back, also preventing him from ever harming the galaxy again. With a cry of rage and fear, Oma ascends Anubis to the higher planes and attacks him (because Oma would have been prevented from attacking a lower being,) ending his reign of terror over the galaxy and leading to the fall of the Goa'uld Empire.
With Anubis gone, the Kull Warriors became disorganized and confused and the Jaffa were finally able to destroy them. (SG1: "Reckoning, Part 1", "Reckoning, Part 2", "Threads")
Aftermath[]
- Main article: Goa'uld insurgency
With the defeat at Dakara, the Goa'uld's image as gods was utterly destroyed. The Jaffa began rebelling en masse, heading to Dakara to pledge allegiance to the new Free Jaffa Nation.
Bereft of power, and a fugitive of the Free Jaffa Nation, Ba'al fled to Earth, and took control of the Trust. To throw off the Free Jaffa, Ba'al created a series of clones and allowed one of them to be captured and killed by Gerak to cover his tracks. Ba'al also attempted a new plan of conquest: by stealing Stargates and cutting them off from the rest of the network, he intended to activate the Dakara superweapon and destroy all life in the galaxy, causing the Ori, who had recently learned of human life in the Milky Way, to lose interest in the galaxy. SG-1 sabotaged his efforts. (SG1: "Ex Deus Machina", "Stronghold", "Off the Grid")
Eventually, Ba'al learned of the Sangraal. Desiring a weapon that could neutralize the Ancients and the Ori, Ba'al began searching for the Sangraal. He was forced to work with SG-1 and Adria, the leader of the Ori Army. However, the Ori found the planet they were on and took the Sangraal. SG-1 later sent it through to the Ori Home Galaxy. (SG1: "The Quest, Part 1", "The Shroud")
Hoping to end the Ori crusade, Ba'al captured Adria and took her as a host. He also killed his clones, hoping to cover his tracks. Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell killed Ba'al during the capture of Adria, and the symbiote placed in her was soon removed. (SG1: "Dominion")
Despite these deaths, both the real Ba'al and at least one clone survived. The clone was ultimately tracked down through its tracking device and the Tok'ra planned to remove the symbiote from the host to kill it. The symbiote was successfully extracted from the Ba'al clone and died, finally killing the last Ba'al. His host survived the extraction, however, and Vala Mal Doran offered to help him cope. Also the real Ba'al was killed by an alternate Mitchell in 1939 before he can change time, killing the last remaining System Lord and resulting in the Goa'uld threat ending once and for all. (SG1: "Continuum")
Alternate timelines[]
- In one alternate timeline where Earth had allied with the Aschen Confederation, the Goa'uld were defeated by the Tau'ri with the help of the Aschen. (SG1: "2010")
- In one alternate timeline, SG-1 vanishes on February 7, 2000 during a mission to P5X-104. As a result, Colonel Jack O'Neill is never able to complete his mission to expose the NID mole in the SGC and the Tollan, Tok'ra and Asgard end their alliances with Earth and remove the Tau'ri from the Protected Planets Treaty. Soon after, the Earth falls to a massive attack by a Goa'uld fleet led by Apophis and the planet is conquered and falls under Goa'uld rule before the Goa'uld are largely defeated when the Wraith invade forty years later. During the planet's initial fall, many people evacuate to the NID base on Arbella. In 2098, SG-1 arrives on the post-apocalyptic Earth where the Goa'uld, under the leadership of the System Lord Hecate, are still at war with the Wraith led by Queen Shadow. After learning that Hecate is responsible for this state of affairs, having arranged for SG-1 to be sent to the future, SG-1 manages to defeat both the Goa'uld and the Wraith with the help of a Wraith faction that wishes to return to the Pegasus galaxy, the Arbellans, the survivors on Earth and the Ancient city of Atlantis, liberating the planet. (SG1: "Apocalypse")
- Ba'al traveled back to 1939 and sends the Achilles the ship carrying the Stargate to America Ba'al wants to create his own empire were Cameron Mitchell doesn't exist, Samantha Carter was dead and the Stargates were never found but Carter, Mitchell and Dr. Daniel Jackson end up here due to being in transit in the Stargate at the time of the changes and are thus protected from them. Daniel loses his leg due to frostbite and the team are not allowed to travel through the Stargate and set things right and are forced to lead normal lives for a year. The gate in Antarctica was found, but was not figured out how to use it. Meanwhile the Russians find and take the Gate from the North Pole. Ba'al launched an attack with Teal'c as his First Prime and Vala Mal Doran (as Qetesh) as his queen. He commanded all of the System Lords and with their combined forces, comes after Earth believing to be unaware of the Goa'uld as he doesn't know SG-1 was there.
- He attempted to present an air of benevolence to the President Henry Hayes by calling him on a Satellite phone and setting up a time to meet face to face, but was killed by Qetesh before he could finish. He also had the Gate in Antarctica and the Antarctic outpost destroyed under Qetesh's forcing before his death leaving Earth with no real defenses. Qetesh planned to use the time travel device to gain power herself, but was thwarted by Daniel, Teal'c, Carter, Mitchell and two other Jaffa who got to Praxyon before she did through the Gate that the Russians found and use the time travel device to set things right, but as Teal'c dies, he killed her with a grenade. The timeline was erased when Mitchell, in 1939, sets an ambush and killed Ba'al and his soldiers before they can change time. (SG1: "Continuum")
Tactics and strategies[]
Both the Goa'uld and the Tau'ri used many different strategies to defeat their opponent during the war.
Goa'uld[]
The Goa'uld System Lords mostly relied on their superior technology, vast numbers of Jaffa warriors and almost unlimited resources. These advantages often made the Goa'uld dangerously arrogant and by assaulting their ego, many Goa'ulds would at times revealed their plans in order to appear superior. Teal'c once stated that he had seen many great battle plans fail because of a single Goa'uld attempting to make himself appear superior by stating his 'brilliant' tactics. (SG1: "In the Line of Duty")
The strategy of a Goa'uld is vastly different depending on whether it's a major or minor Goa'uld.
The minor Goa'uld would often employ tactics into the battles such as planting explosives in strategic positions or using stealth technologies. The powerful System Lords, however, with massive armies used the least effective tactic, a simple assault with all the Jaffa attacking the enemy at once in a big push. This would often be supported by Death Gliders and in some cases, Al'kesh bombers.
However, when force didn't work, trickery is the next weapon of choice. This can be by deploying deadly plagues or placing powerful explosives within children in order to destroy their enemies. One example of this can be seen when Klorel was on trial by the Tollan and Zipacna represented the Goa'uld in the matter; the proceedings were simply a delaying action until a weakness was sighted. Another typical example is when Apophis formed a secret camp of Jaffa who trained to behave like the Tau'ri in order to better infiltrate Earth (a plan that failed). (SG1: "Pretense", "Rules of Engagement")
The Goa'uld aren't afraid to use innocent life in order to defeat an enemy, as seen in the use of Cassandra Fraiser, who was implanted by Nirrti with a Scarab miniature naquadah bomb, or Rya'c, when he was brainwashed and a deadly poison was implanted by Apophis within him. (SG1: "Singularity", "Family")
When the opportunity arises, Goa'uld may place a symbiote in their enemies. The resulting Goa'uld possesses all of the knowledge of their host, both technological and personal. Infiltration in this way can result in the Goa'uld taking over governments or otherwise allow them to acquire the technology of their enemies. An example of this is Ba'al placing a symbiote in the Orici, Adria giving him command of the Ori army and the many powers of his host. (SG1: "Dominion")
Tau'ri[]
At the beginning of the war the Tau'ri, being greatly outnumbered and with inferior technology given how the Stargate Program and Stargate Command were both in the early stages, had to rely on tactical superiority and "hit-and-run" operations. In contrast to the Tok'ra, for the majority of the war, the Tau'ri would eliminate any System Lord or Goa'uld they could. The Tok'ra in contrast would try to keep one System Lord from gaining too much power and keep the System Lords fighting amongst themselves until they could eliminate them all at once. The Tau'ri's method of killing any Goa'uld they came across, as Jacob Carter would point out, caused more chaos than ever and allowed Goa'ulds like Apophis, Anubis and Ba'al to rise to positions of massive power. (SG1: "Exodus")
The Tau'ri took whatever advantage they could and often used very unorthodox methods. For example, in the Vorash system Jacob Carter and his daughter, Major Samantha Carter dialed P3W-451, and launched the Stargate into the sun, causing it to lose some of its hydrogen and to emerge as a supernova. The plan worked, destroying Apophis' whole fleet. (SG1: "Exodus")
The Tau'ri even destroyed Netu with a bomb with the help of the Tok'ra, killing Sokar. (SG1: "The Devil You Know")
Also, following the rise of Ba'al as a major power, the Tau'ri decided to shift their tactics to recruiting as many Jaffa as possible into the Rebel Jaffa and then having them rise up and eliminate their Goa'uld masters at once though it would still leave them Ba'al and the Kull Warriors to deal with. Despite this new tactic, the Tau'ri still killed Moloc and Ares due to necessity which ultimately ended up giving Ba'al even more power. (SG1: "Sacrifices", "It's Good to Be King")
Towards the end of the war, however, the Tau'ri surpassed the Goa'uld's level of technology and with their growing fleet of starships or rather, battlecruisers, the war eventually turned in favor of the Tau'ri who later emerged as the true victories of a war that had been raging in the galaxy for ten years with the Tau'ri eventually winning and successfully freeing the entire Milky Way Galaxy from the control of the Goa'uld.
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 (SG1: "Children of the Gods")
- ↑ (SG1: "Fair Game")
- ↑ (SG1: "Touchstone")
- ↑ (SG1: "The Other Side")
- ↑ (SG1: "The Warrior")
- ↑ (SG1: "Icon")
- ↑ (SGA: "Underground")
- ↑ (SGA: "Rising")
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 (SG1: "The Tok'ra, Part 1")
- ↑ (SG1: "Camelot")
- ↑ (SG1: "Company of Thieves")
- ↑ (SGA: "The Siege, Part 3")
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 (SG1: "Off the Grid")
- ↑ 14.00 14.01 14.02 14.03 14.04 14.05 14.06 14.07 14.08 14.09 14.10 Stargate
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 (SG1: "Threads")
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 (SG1: "Enemies")
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 (SG1: "Reckoning, Part 2")
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 (SG1: "Prometheus Unbound")
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 (SG1: "The Changeling")
- ↑ (SG1: "Hathor")
- ↑ (SG1: "Singularity")
- ↑ (SG1: "Within the Serpent's Grasp")
- ↑ (SG1: "Serpent's Song")
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 (SG1: "Into the Fire")
- ↑ (SG1: "Forever in a Day")
- ↑ (SG1: "Jolinar's Memories")
- ↑ (SG1: "Apocalypse")
- ↑ (SG1: "Divide and Conquer")
- ↑ (SG1: "The Serpent's Venom")
- ↑ (SG1: "Double Jeopardy")
- ↑ (SG1: "Exodus")
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 (SG1: "Summit")
- ↑ (SG1: "Revelations")
- ↑ (SG1: "Redemption, Part 1")
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 (SG1: "Full Circle")
- ↑ (SG1: "Fallen")
- ↑ (SG1: "Death Knell")
- ↑ (SG1: "Heroes, Part 1")
- ↑ 39.0 39.1 (SG1: "Lost City, Part 2")
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 (SG1: "Full Alert")
- ↑ (SG1: "Reckoning, Part 1")
- ↑ (SG1: "Moebius, Part 2")
- ↑ 43.0 43.1 (SG1: "Endgame")
- ↑ 44.0 44.1 (SG1: "Thor's Chariot")
- ↑ (SG1: "Birthright")
- ↑ (SG1: "Pretense")
- ↑ (SG1: "The Enemy Within")