Dominion Battleship

[Captain Seafort]

Easilly - if the entire planet is completely demilitarised. It's possible that the transports were only carrying the first wave, and once a beachead had been established follow-up forces would be sent to the planet, but it's more likely that Vulcan has no defences. This would agree with what we see in Homefront and Paradise Lost, where the Lakota had to beam down here own crew to implement martial law on Earth, demonstrating that Earth has no standing army of its own.

[Teaos]

The Nazis had to fight their way across a continent. If the Dominion (or any race) have reached a planet its safe to say they own the space above. Thus they beam the troops to the points needed and take them. The ships in orbit then knock out any resistence to them.

[Thorin]

The Nazis had to fight their way across a continent. If the Dominion (or any race) have reached a planet its safe to say they own the space above.

This is my point. The Romulans didn't own the space ahead - they sneaked in pretending to be Vulcan transports!
Even if the planet didn't have any of it's own military (which is exceptionally retarded, by the way), how would it plan to stop all of Starfleet from coming in and taking it back? I mean Vulcan is in the heart of the Federation. It is one of Starfleet's biggest backers (after humans).

Okay, they've sneaked past with 3000 troops. They've managed to beam down to Vulcan. A starbase is probably in that system. A fleet of Federation ships comes to Vulcan; there are no Romulan ships. The Fed ships beam the Romulan force into space.

How could it possibly go any other way? The only possible thing the Romulan's could do to make this work, as has been said, is to bring in more (lots more) waves, with armed escort. But that's declaring war! How they expect to hold Vulcan, in the heart of Federation space, is beyond me.

[Teaos]

Hold the Government hostage and pretend all is well until they can do something more long term.

[Captain Seafort]

Okay, they've sneaked past with 3000 troops. They've managed to beam down to Vulcan. A starbase is probably in that system. A fleet of Federation ships comes to Vulcan; there are no Romulan ships. The Fed ships beam the Romulan force into space.

A starbase would probably be taken in the initial attack - these are meant to be diplomatic ships, with assurances from Spock that they're peaceful. Once they're in place, the Feds lack of a ground army would be their undoing - we've never seen Romulan troops in action, so it's possible that they've got a proper military. Transport would be blocked by transport inhibitors, jamming, and funny rocks. The basic strategy would be to seize the planet, and then bet on the Feds appalling lack of a proper military, anti-war rhetoric, and lack of stomach for the sort of bloody house-to-house fighting that would be required to retake Vulcan's cities, to prevent them from taking it back.

[Thorin]

Hold the Government hostage and pretend all is well until they can do something more long term.

Thats still my point. They have no plans; it just won't work. What can they possibly do more long term? They have just invaded one of the Federation's homeworld's planets. They have just declared war on the Federation, from within the heart of the Federation. They cannot possibly expect to hold Vulcan.
Even if they did take people hostage, as I said, send a ship to beam them into space.

[Thorin]

The basic strategy would be to seize the planet, and then bet on the Feds appalling lack of a proper military, anti-war rhetoric, and lack of stomach for the sort of bloody house-to-house fighting that would be required to retake Vulcan's cities, to prevent them from taking it back.

We both know its crummy writing, but it just wouldn't work. How can they take a starbase with transpor vessels? This is the 2nd planet of the Federation, the starbase will likely have several million people on board.

Even if they managed to get there and stay there, they are only 3000 against the entire population of Vulcan, there would be an uprising. Ships would beam down troops/land in shuttles [assuming there are transport inhibitors] (even though their tactics suck, eventually the Feds would just win by pouring in huge numbers).

It really is so dumb its unreal.

[Captain Seafort]

We both know its crummy writing, but it just wouldn't work. How can they take a starbase with transpor vessels? This is the 2nd planet of the Federation, the starbase will likely have several million people on board.

Any evidence of starbases having crews of millions? With the exception of Spacedock and its derivatives, most starbases aren't much bigger than a Galaxy. Beam people aboard to the bridge, engineering, etc - they're diplomatic ships, why would the Feds be worried?

Even if they managed to get there and stay there, they are only 3000 against the entire population of Vulcan, there would be an uprising. Ships would beam down troops/land in shuttles [assuming there are transport inhibitors] (even though their tactics suck, eventually the Feds would just win by pouring in huge numbers).

The Federation is a Marxist, collectivist state - not the sort of government that encourages the individual initiative to start a planet-wide rebellion. Besides which, this is Vulcan. When have we ever seen a Vulcan demonstrate the initiative or the agression to organise a rebellion. Once - Sybock, who hardly counts as a typical Vulcan.

You say the Feds would win through strength of numbers. This assumes that they have the political will to sustain the sort of casualties this strategy will inevitably produce. Even then, the Romulans have the inherent advantage of being on the defensive against an opponent with no artillery, no armoured vehicles, and no support weapons. If they've even got a few machine-guns the Feds are screwed. Even if they haven't, they may still be able to drive them off given TNG-era Fed weaponary.

[Thorin]

Well I'd have assumed that the starbase would be a spacedock style one. It's the 2nd planet of the Federation, if they're going to have more than one of these spacedocks we'd assume the other one would be at vulcan.
If it were this sort of starbase anyway, we'd expect there to be a few thousand starfleet officers onboard. And there would be plenty of starfleet ships around. If earth is anything to go by, (from Endgame at least), we'd expect an absolute minimum of 10 ships there - there were 18 and another 9 very nearby at earth.
If a Vulcan is been held hostage, it doesn't matter if you don't have any emotion. You don't want to be held hostage, and an uprising will occur. Not what we'd immediately think (lots of guys with torches and pitchforks), but something a lot more controlled.

Regarding my strength in numbers, I was saying it more in jest. But if the Federation can't take back a planet within it's own borders using any military might, it's even more inept than I normally give it gratitude for. Just sending one shuttle down there would do the job. The shuttles just shoot the romulans.

[Teaos]

The Feds aren't that pathetic. They would get it back adventually. They couldnt lt their 2nd main world fall.

[Captain Seafort]

Well I'd have assumed that the starbase would be a spacedock style one. It's the 2nd planet of the Federation, if they're going to have more than one of these spacedocks we'd assume the other one would be at vulcan.

Possibly, but we've never seen one in any of the visit to Vulcan. Do you have evidence for your assertion that these things have millions of people aboard?

If it were this sort of starbase anyway, we'd expect there to be a few thousand starfleet officers onboard. And there would be plenty of starfleet ships around. If earth is anything to go by, (from Endgame at least), we'd expect an absolute minimum of 10 ships there - there were 18 and another 9 very nearby at earth.

By Endgame they seem to have got their act together, at least partially, but prior to that we saw no ships in orbit in BoBW Pt2 (although they may have moved out to Wolf 359, and in Homefront/Paradise Lost the Lakota was the only ship present in Earth orbit.

If a Vulcan is been held hostage, it doesn't matter if you don't have any emotion. You don't want to be held hostage, and an uprising will occur. Not what we'd immediately think (lots of guys with torches and pitchforks), but something a lot more controlled.

I say again, based on what we've seen of Vulcans, what are the chances of them actually doing something other than sit on their arses. The only Vulcan we've seen with the sort of initiative and agression to organise a planetary rebellion is Sybock.

Regarding my strength in numbers, I was saying it more in jest. But if the Federation can't take back a planet within it's own borders using any military might, it's even more inept than I normally give it gratitude for. Just sending one shuttle down there would do the job. The shuttles just shoot the romulans.

Stafleet stupidity, based on their TNG+ antics, knows no bounds. Shuttles can only attack - they can't take and hold territory, and they can be damaged by phaser rifle fire (Lower Decks).

[Teaos]

Oh come on. No one is just gonna sit back and take being taken over.

You forget the Vulcans and Romulans had a rather prolonged war some time in the distant past and had put up with each other for a long time.

[Deepcrush]

Leave it to this, the vulcans don't have an army, but what they do have is weapons, phasers and those big things that kirk-spock battle showed us. The romulans were hoping for a quick way to get a foot hold in the federation. Its not a good plan, unless, that was the plan all along. Draw starfleet out of postition and catch them with their eyes on vulcan, romulan fleet races across the boarder to attack the feds when they aren't looking.

[Thorin]

Let's ask the question;

Can 3000 Romulans take the second most major planet of the Federation, with a population of 6 billion, within the heart of the Federation, and keep hold of it?

I think there is a definitive answer
People keep saying about bringing reinforcements, but whats the point of going in so secretively in the first place, if they're going to all out attack anyway! They've just declared war by invading the Federation, why make such a secret out of it? To take Vulcan for maybe a day or two before half of Starfleet reclaims it?

And Spacedocks must have millions of people on them. The saucer section of a Galaxy class starship can hold about 1000 people easily (very few live in the Stardrive). I don't even need to do any calculations and I can tell you that spacedock is well over a 1000 times larger than the saucer section - even just the main bulk of it at the top.
In BoBW they would definitely have moved off to Wolf 359 - they sent every ship in range. Not sure about the DS9 episodes, though.
You don't need agression to organise an uprising. It is 6 billion v 3000. That is two million to one.
Starfleet is stupid, but the Romulans are even more stupid if they think they can hold the Federation's second homeworld. Can you imagine 3 Federation transports (even disguised as Romulan ones) managing to single handedly, with 3000 troops, take over Romulus? There is very little difference.
Shuttles can attack, true, but why do they need to hold ground when theres plenty of Vulcans on the ground and they've killed all the Romulans? Lower Decks does only very little superficial damage. With shields up and all the systems (including SIF) online, a hand held phaser would do nothing against a shuttle that can fire phasers several orders of magnitude more powerful than hand held ones.

[Deepcrush]

Again i can only hope that it was a feint to draw starfleets attention.