Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Thrawn was the last of The Emperor's Grand Admirals. He returned six years after the Battle of Endor. So, the Imperial Starfleet was routed, and various warlords tried to usurp the throne and claim themselves emperor. The fleet was in anarchy.
Basically, Thrawn had a sliver of the Imperial Starfleet and was on the brink of total victory. Only a last minute betrayal put an end to Thrawn. However, his genius was so feared by the galaxy, that the Republic was thrown into chaos by the mere RUMOR of his survival.
Revan had an unlimited fleet and resources. Thrawn had neither, and got just as close through sheer tactical brilliance.
Thrawn is the superior tactition. I'd go to say BY FAR.
Is that so? Do you even know what Revan faced?
He defeated the Mandelorians with a third of the Republic fleet when the fleet was on the brink of extinction. He managed to turn around a war that was already lost.
After that he used the survivors of the battle at Malachor, who he all managed to convince to join him in to become the enemy of what they fought for, and challenged the Republic. He booked a lot of successes with only a third of the Republic fleet against the better in tact 2/3 of the fleet. Only later did he begin to use the infinite fleet.
Revan is attributed to being the greatest general ever as well, does that mean anything? Not really often great generals are seen as incredible during their time. Debates like this are supposed to put there things in perspective. What other people think doesn't really matter.
However just keep in mind that the Republic had no clear leader of their military either.
Unlike the Imperial remnants the Republic did not have more powerful ships and did not have the means to fight a full scale war. Also just like Thrawn Revan fought against somebody who was winning when everybody thought they would die. And the Mandelorians used far worse tactics because they were military geniuses too.
With all of that said I don't know who is better because I simply do not know enough about Thrawn but still.
Well...
I think Thrawn is the greater tactician maybe just only because he is more addicted to tactics than Revan. Thrawn studied the artwork of species he fought (sculptures, pictures, poetry) to gain insight to their history, thought process and culture and after doing so he designed own tactics for each enemy he fought.
Because of his superior tactics the border patrol of his homeworld Csilla annihilated an entire squadron of Jedi starfighters (!) and after that Thrawn moved on to destroy the Outbound Flight Project the Jedi had started to explore deep space (that sended the starfighters to Csilla).
And (beside all his victories against the New Republic) you have to keep in mind that he reached the highest rang in the Imperial Navy despite the fact that the Empire had prejudices against non-human people.
Well the people that decide the promotions did not, but I am not saying Thrawn is not impressive. He is great and what he did from what I heard Revan faced more powerful opponents, or at least better strategists. Of course I can't be sure of this either and I don't know if it would really make one of them better.
Firstly, according to the Thrawn trilogy, the Republic and the Empire had about equal forces according to Han. Secondly, Revan did not have an ifinite fleet through most of his reign. Talk to anyone about him, GO-TO, Canderous, Zhar, Dorak, etc. They all say he was a brilliant tactician and the only reason that the Republic even won the Mandalorian war. He was brilliant, luring his army to Malachor V so they would obey only him and become a stronger militaristic empire, luring his less loyal followers to be the bait of the Mandalorians upon using the mass shadow generator.
He would use mass deceptions, feints, counter strikes, abandoning whole worlds so that others would be too fortified to strike. He could predict entire wars even and earned the respect of the Exchange, Mandalorians, and Echani. Mandalore himself was taken back by the ferocity of his attacks. He was given a third of the Republic army under his direct command. Even when Revan turned on the Republic with less than half of the Republic's army, he overwhelmed it and would've triumphed if it hadn't been for Bastila's battle meditation. By the time Malak became the dark lord, they had a larger army.
He used HK-47 to kill any direct threats, he had legions of followers trained to kill or turn Jedi to their cause.
Thrawn on the other hand, while good, also had Joruus and his battle meditation with him near the beginning of the Thrawn trilogy so all his accomplishments are not solely because of him.
All in all, I think it's kinda close but Revan takes this with only a little difficulty.
Well, let's see some figures on the table before we start calling shots. But in all actuality, you can't compare the two on level ground, just as you can't compare Patton and Rommel directly. Logistics are different, technology is different, situations are different... You can't quite compare them.... But what you can compare is the damage, I suppose.
Technology IS different. The Leviathan is like a fraction of the size of a Star Destroyer. There is no bacta in KOTOR era. Blaster bolts and turbolasers are generally smaller, with smaller ammo reserves. Force users are stronger in KOTOR era. There's a whole bunch of stuff, really.
Also, numerical evidence might help put things in perspective, if nothing else.
Yeah. Ya'd think there would be a lot more technological differences over a course of nearly 4,000 years. Then again, instead of decimating a planet's surface with dozens of capital ships, they now use a giant space station capable of destroying the entire planet and also capable of being destroyed by two proton torpedoes.