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Deepcrush wrote:True, better to avoid Starbases. I'd bet good money that both the Klingons and Dominion wish they could have just avoided DS9.

I was talking about the Sol system, not Bajor. Sometimes you have take down a fort to get where you want to go.

I always figured that if the Dominion just allowed the Federation to mine the wormhole, and just concentrate on building the ships in the Alpha Quadrant, the war could have started later with a stronger Dominion fleet. unless there was some off screen evidence that the Dominion needed those convoys other than reinforcing the fleet.

The UFP/KDF fleet was already in place and moving in for the attack. The mining of the wormhole was just the start of everything. If the Dominion held the wormhole they would have had 2,000 more ships for the war. The allies would have been crushed or at least would have spent then next few years on the defensive.

I have to rewatch that episode. I thought it was the Dominion threatning to do something about the mining of the wormhole for the allies to do something.

Just skimmed through the episode :-

The Dominion was bringing convoy after convoy in. The Federation was worried that the Dominion and Cardasisia would soon have so many ships they could never be stopped. After the Romulans signed a non agression pact was decided that they should mine the wormhole before the Dominion gained too big a hold in the Alpha Quadrant, and if it started a war so be it.

Quick thought - with the wormhole mined, how important was DS9?

Sisko seemed to think it was important enough to retake even before they learned that the minefield was about to be bought down - good thing too, as it meant they'd at least started to prepare a fleet to retake the station. I gather they were infact planning on taking it not long after they abandoned it, but were repelled. And didn't Odo mess up the efforts to sabotage the Dominion bringing down of the minefield, which inturn forced Sisko to retake the station earlier with a weakened fleet? How many people died because of that?

Or did the destruction of both the Dominion fleets in the Alpha Quadrant and the fleet coming through the wormhole mean things worked out better in the end for the Federation.

Were they acually bringing that many ships through, its been awhile but I seem to remember that the wormhole was opening and closing with out anything going through it as a redherring.

Teaos wrote:Were they acually bringing that many ships through, its been awhile but I seem to remember that the wormhole was opening and closing with out anything going through it as a redherring.

You're thing of Homefront/Paradise Lost, when one of Leyton's people used the GQ relay to make the wormhole do just that. In the lead-up to the war the Dominion were sending through big weekly convoys to reinforce their bridgehead, and that's what the minefield was established to put a stop to.

As for retaking DS9, would you gamble the entire Alpha Quadrant on the hope that the Dominion would never be able to bring down the minefield?

Agreed. A strategic defensive point is a strategic defensive point, regardless of whether there are other defensive structures in the same location.

More is better.

DS9 was important because it gave you a base to watch over the minefield. With the Dominion/Cardassians in control of the station/system, they could sit there and try to figure out how to bring it down at their leisure.

That's one of a number of reasons, not least of which the fact that relying on a minefield - when an extant, potent manned position was available - is dumb.

Did the Federation make the right decision in abandoning DS9 so readily? Was it worth temporarily sacrificing the Station in order to take out the Dominion shipyards?

kostmayer wrote:Did the Federation make the right decision in abandoning DS9 so readily? Was it worth temporarily sacrificing the Station in order to take out the Dominion shipyards?

Absolutely. The wormhole, as important as it was, was only a single strategic point, and one that was deprived of it greatest value, at least temporarily, by the minefield. The destruction of the shipyard, on the other hand, deprived the Dominion of a vital asset, and weakened their long-term position in the quadrant.

DS9 was a calculated loss. In one move they blocked the Dominion fleet from any GQ help, destroyed 50 Dominion warships, and destroyed a major shipyard at the same time as leaving DS9 mostly useless to the enemy.

Aye, well worth losing the station for.

Deepcrush wrote:DS9 was a calculated loss. In one move they blocked the Dominion fleet from any GQ help, destroyed 50 Dominion warships, and destroyed a major shipyard at the same time as leaving DS9 mostly useless to the enemy.

I agree. Though we never truly knew how big an impact that shipyard was in the ship production. I was assumed that it took out a lagre chunk of the Dominion war effort at least early on. For all we know, by destroying that shipyard, it may prevented the Allies from losing the war in the long run.

Besides the minefield was up and it would take time to bring back down. So all the Dominion got was a heavily armed station... and that's about it.