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In Treachery, Faith, and the Great River when the Weyon defects the Runabout takes several hits from Dominion vessels, the first few were under powered as warnings but then they stated they were going to stop them no matter what and made a few direct pull power hits from weapons that blew a GCS to pieces in a few shots.

I'm willing to concede on the first point, but certainly not on the second. A nation's ability to impose itself politically on a given region is predicated on its military strength. Right now, the dominant industrial power on the planet is China, and the key financial centre is London, but the superpower is the US, because of its vastly superior military strength. The changeover will only come if and when the US either accepts that it isn't the top dog any more, or it picks a fight with China and gets thumped.

I suppose I agree this when put like that.

If the Romualns were the ones to invade Cardassia, and didn't use DSN as a stopover... why do I imagine:

Sisko: "Good morning, Major. Anything to report?"

Kira: Two ships docked last night, three arrests for petty theft, the Cardassian union was invaded by the Romulans, we have a charity auction-"

Sisko: "Wait, what?!"

Kira: "It's some rather nice items from the First Republic."

Sisko: "Old Man, coffee. NOW."

In The Defector; Geordi analysed the assault by the D'Deridex on the Romulan scout and found that the scout was intentionally not destroyed- the assault was to give the impression of genuine combat but notched a gauge down to prevent the destruction of Jarok's vessel, this was to further test the resolve and loyalty of Jarok and to further the plan of bringing the Enterprise into The Neutral Zone later on.

''Back on the bridge, Picard, La Forge, Data and Dr. Crusher watch sensor recordings from the chase. La Forge reports that the warbird deliberately slowed down to avoid catching the scout ship. Data also reports that the Romulans have the same ability to direct the impact of their weapons as they do.'' http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Defector_(episode)

On the "superpower" issue. Its not just military force that matters but the ability to sustain it and apply it. Thats the advantage the US has over China or the UK. London is a good center for economics and PRC is good for making cheap stuff. But neither has the ability to project its power over distance. That's where power comes from, not what you are at home but what you are to everyone else.

This is important to remember when considering the relations between CU, UFP, KE and RSE. The CU was impressive in an industrial sense but small. The KE was impressive in an industrial sense and huge. The UFP was just weird but well funded. The RSE never showed the ability to out reach in the way the other three did. Its likely that on their home turf they are a hell of a force to face. However their power projection seems limited.

Not siding with anyone or jumping in the debate, just giving something for folks to remember.

I think that the RSE power projection is based on their racial character e.g. giving the Defiant a cloaking device etc in lieu of exploring the Gamma Quadrant themselves. I wonder if a regime change (according to Shinzon they are common enough) would ever make them less isolationist?

Big ships are an advantage on the defensive, easy to supply and upkeep and repair. Harder to destroy but with even harder punch. The problem in a big only fleet is that its hard to be everywhere. The KDF seems to have a good balance. A freakishly large number of smaller ships while not lacking on their bigger designs. The RSE is, for that reasoning I believe, to be so effective on the defensive against the Dominion. They used their power to strike out harshly against the CU but didn't seem to really push into their space. Just beat the shit out of anything within range of their space and then fall back.

Its not relevant but it is bugging me, in All Good Things when the Klingons conquered the Romulans wasn't that put down to a plague ravening across the Romulan Star Empire?

Its not relevant but it is bugging me, in All Good Things when the Klingons conquered the Romulans wasn't that put down to a plague ravening across the Romulan Star Empire?

Granitehewer wrote:Its not relevant but it is bugging me, in All Good Things when the Klingons conquered the Romulans wasn't that put down to a plague ravening across the Romulan Star Empire?

IIRC, the plague started up in the aftermath of the war because the Klingons didn't do anything to help the Romulans after having ruined their empire.

Such a good episode yet I can hardly remember any of it lol.

Because it flowed so well that you can get lost in it but not so great as to force you to remember it all.

I remember Terrellian Plague but that is it.

Deepcrush wrote:On the "superpower" issue. Its not just military force that matters but the ability to sustain it and apply it. Thats the advantage the US has over China or the UK. London is a good center for economics and PRC is good for making cheap stuff. But neither has the ability to project its power over distance. That's where power comes from, not what you are at home but what you are to everyone else.

I agree with you regarding the Chinese, although they're improving rapidly, but not regarding the UK. Man for man, until very recently we've been almost as capable at projecting our power as you are, and will be your equal once the new carriers are commissioned. The difference is scale - the UK, on its own, could probably deploy and support a reinforced brigade strength expeditionary force for a limited period. The US routinely maintains two (IIRC) such forces constantly forward deployed.

Teaos wrote:In Treachery, Faith, and the Great River when the Weyon defects the Runabout takes several hits from Dominion vessels, the first few were under powered as warnings but then they stated they were going to stop them no matter what and made a few direct pull power hits from weapons that blew a GCS to pieces in a few shots.

A bug is in no way, shape or form a capital ship - it's the equivalent of a BoP (or Romulan scout).

Granitehewer wrote:In The Defector; Geordi analysed the assault by the D'Deridex on the Romulan scout and found that the scout was intentionally not destroyed- the assault was to give the impression of genuine combat but notched a gauge down to prevent the destruction of Jarok's vessel, this was to further test the resolve and loyalty of Jarok and to further the plan of bringing the Enterprise into The Neutral Zone later on.

However it took detailed analysis to reveal this - if a scout was a glorified runabout then it would have been immediately obvious from the fact that it wasn't destroyed by the first shot that the warbird was pulling its punches.