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Battle of Geonosis

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this battle, in which the forces of the Old Republic and the Jedi Knights made a stand against Count Dooku and his droid armies, signaled the onset of the Clone Wars. Some 200 Jedi Masters and Knights were dispatched to Geonosis, after Obi-Wan Kenobi was captured and held prisoner there by Dooku. This small number was all that could be spared, since most other Jedi were scattered across the galaxy fighting the various disputes which sprang up because of the Separatist crisis. The Jedi were unprepared for the droid armies produced on the planet, and found themselves surrounding by a million battle droids, 100,000 super battle droids, and 3,000 droidekas. The Separatist forces, which now included armies from the Commerce Guild, the InterGalactic Banking Clan, the Techno Union, and the Corporate Alliance, were also supported by 15,000 dwarf spider droids, 4,100 hailfire droids, and 7,500 homing spider droids. The timely appearance of the Army of the Republic, recently commissioned by Chancellor Palpatine and created from clones that had been produced on Kamino, augmented the Jedi forces and proved to be too strong for the droids. 192,000 clone troopers arrived at Geonosis, along with 1,600 LAAT/I gunships, 400 LAAT/c carriers, 2,160 AT-TE walkers, and 100 SPHA-T walkers. The Geonosians fought well, and the droid armies proved efficient, but they were poor warriors compared to the clones. The droid factories on Geonosis were destroyed or shut down, but Count Dooku managed to escape, allowing him to continue the fight against the Republic and setting off the Clone Wars. Several thousand Geonosians also hid deep in their catacombs, causing all manner of trouble for the Republic's clean-up teams. Many Jedi historians looked back on the battle in the months which followed, and concluded that the Jedi failed to bring the battle to a swift end because they tried to act as peacekeepers, rather than generals. Leaders such as Mace Windu tried to negotiate a peaceful resolution, unaware that the Separatists had already committed themselves and their resources to war.