The Die Is Cast Question

[Mark]

I agree. But like I said you need a significant amount of firepower for the Feds/Klingons/Romulans/Cardassians to make sure no ships would survive. I am not talking about a huge fleet of 1,000 ships but more like 200 or more. I think we need to count how many ships come out of there per second.

EDIT: Let's assume that the mouth of the wormhole allows 10 ships per second to come through. Assuming that it takes let's say five seconds to destroy a single ship. Then it would take fifty ships to defend the wormhole at minimum. You would need more as insurance and backups, because those ships before they get destroyed could fire at least one or two shots.

I see your point, but I don't think your taking fully into account the rate of fire of these ships. Think about how many phaser volleys and torpedoes can be fired per second. You've got burst fire tubes, rapid fire tubes, and pulse fire tubes cranking our massive amounts of torps, and phaser emitters blasting away in fraction of seconds.

[McAvoy]

This is true. I'm just pointing out that you need a far larger fleet than a couple of dozen ships defending the wormhole. I mean look at the beginning of Call to Arms on how many and how fast those ships came out of the wormhole.

Sure their numbers won't count for much because a certain amount of ships can transit the through the wormhole. But from what we saw there were dozens of ships coming through that wormhole. Also as powerful as DS9 became she would only be able to fire certain amount of weapons at any given time because of firing arcs. So it would fall to a large amount of defending ships to take up the brunt of the action. I still think 200 ships would suffice with additional ships as backups.

[Deepcrush]

The return to DS9 was two years into aggression where everyone had time to gather their forces.

This early on, ships wouldn't be open in such numbers.

[Reliant121]

It does depend heavily on the type. If the Federation fields its more modern ships, Galaxy's, Nebulas, Akiras etc; Then you've got an almighty firestorm of pulse/rapid fire photon torpedo capable ships, most of them with some heavy phaser armament to back them up (the few instances we see a Galaxy open up with phasers, you know that she's got a hell of a punch. Nebulas have a similar armament). If the Cardassians bring in their characteristic wolfpacks of ships, each pack will have a pretty damn strong punch of phaser power cause the Galors, while hardly a front line warship, still punch a heck of a lot above their weight with the primary spiral wave cannon on the front.

[McAvoy]

i think this right around the time when the Federation would be pulling back ships in case of a Dominion invasion. So there should be ships maybe not on the scale of the war but enough to defend the wormhole.

On a side note, when Sisko was talking to the admiral about what would happen if the Romulan/Cardassian taskforce suceeded, didn't he say they are prepared for it? I'm not sure if that is correct.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Hum... however, do we know if AQ powers had found a way to adapt their shielding to the J'H poleron beam at the time? Or do you think they really managed to pull that one off after they captured the ship in.. err.. "The Ship".

[Captain Seafort]

Hum... however, do we know if AQ powers had found a way to adapt their shielding to the J'H poleron beam at the time? Or do you think they really managed to pull that one off after they captured the ship in.. err.. "The Ship".

Not even close - the Defiant engaged the Jam'Hadar in TDiC itself and "Starship Down", and the Klingons fought them in "Inferno's Light" and repeatedly between then and "Call to Arms". However, during that battle Weyoun expressed disbelief that the station's shields were holding, indicating that in all previous encounters Fed and Klingon shields had been ineffective against Dominion weapons.

[SolkaTruesilver]

So.. without working shielding, I don't think any fleet could bottleneck the Wormhole indefinetly. You just need a few strong shots to blow up a few of the bottlenecking fleet, and you punched a hole in their fireline.

Ain't saying it would be easy. It's just that such a bottlenecking wouldn't be as totally effective as some of you think it might be. With the exception of the Defiant, there aren't many ships equiped with Ablative Armor.

[Deepcrush]

If you focus the power of even 500 ships against the defensive ability of only a dozen or so at a time. The AQ ships don't have to much to worry about.

[SolkaTruesilver]

If you focus the power of even 500 ships against the defensive ability of only a dozen or so at a time. The AQ ships don't have to much to worry about.

Aye. But there wasn't 500 ships available to defend the Wormhole.

And even if that dozen of ship manage to let go 5-6 shots, that's still 5-6 damaged ships that can't fire at full capacity anymore. They won't be destroyed (hopefully), but they won't be as good as before.

[Deepcrush]

Thats if those attacking ships can even get through the debris field or the torp spam the UFP and RSE is likely to lay into the Wormhole.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Thats if those attacking ships can even get through the debris field or the torp spam the UFP and RSE is likely to lay into the Wormhole.

Doesn't it goes both ways? The defenders have some cover from the wreckage... maybe?

[Deepcrush]

Doesn't it goes both ways? The defenders have some cover from the wreckage... maybe?

The defenders don't really need cover as much as they need ammunition.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Doesn't it goes both ways? The defenders have some cover from the wreckage... maybe?

The defenders don't really need cover as much as they need ammunition.

Wait. Just so we are on the same page. I meant, defender = those who defend against the blockading fire, since we were talking about a blockading fleet shooting ships in the Wormhole.

[Deepcrush]

Defender = people defending a position.
Attacker = people attacking a position.