The Dominion's capture of DS9

[Captain Seafort]

It's strong, but any fixed instillation's value is defined by its strategic utility, not its tactical strength. DS9's strategic value was its position guarding the wormhole, and with the wormhole mined the station's value plumetted.

[Deepcrush]

I have to strongly disagree. Was England less useful once the US was in Italy in WW2? Just an example, we all know the answer.

DS9's location being by the wormhole added too its value but that wasn't all of it. Being so close to the border that a fleet could be in CU space in less then a day, able to knock out 50 enemy ships when by itself, and able to dock and repair a ship of almost any size. These are also points of value.

[KuvahMagh]

I think it comes down to logistics and Fleet Strength, the Dominion was sending a Fleet to capture DS9, SF sent a Task Force to destroy a ship yard, the ship yard likely wasn't that well protected, certainly not when compared with what the Dominion sent against DS9 so it is entirely likely that the Fleet would have had limited ability to hold onto DS9.

I figure they saw the writing on the walls, knew they were going to loose the Station, mined the wormhole to ensure the Dominion couldn't bring ships through, gathered up as many ships as possible and hit them where they could. It just happened to be a ship yard that they hit.

[Captain Seafort]

Was England less useful once the US was in Italy in WW2? Just an example, we all know the answer.

Do you mean the UK as a political entity, or simply as a landmass? I assume you mean that latter, in which case its importance was unaffected - there was no way the allies could have sustained a force the size of the 21st, 12th and 6th AGs from the Mediterranean.

DS9's location being by the wormhole added too its value but that wasn't all of it. Being so close to the border that a fleet could be in CU space in less then a day, able to knock out 50 enemy ships when by itself, and able to dock and repair a ship of almost any size. These are also points of value.

The point about the station as a staging post is a good one - it cetainly seemed the allies' main FOB for the duration of the post-Op RETURN war. At the point we're discussing though, the question was one of sending ships to the station, the shipyards, or both. DS9 was strong enough to look after itself for a short while - long enough to establish the minefield. Therefore all available ships should have been (and were) sent against the shipyards - taking them out was more important than holding onto the station.

[KuvahMagh]

Its ironic, had they of mentioned the possibility of destroying the shipyards but sent the ships to protect DS9 and then failed because the Dominion Force overwhelmed them anyways we would be sitting here talking about how they should have left DS9 to its fate and taken on the shipyard.

Back to the topic though, as Seafort and numerous others have pointed out once the wormhole was mined the Dominion could not bring reinforcements through thus they are left with only their production capability in the AQ/BQ. Even if the Feds had of been able to hold onto DS9 they likely would have had to mine the Wormhole anyways to prevent the Dominion from massing a Fleet on the other side and taking the station from that avenue. By also taking out the shipyard they not only reduce the Dominion's ability to build new ships but also presumably to repair damaged ones. So by taking the route they did they remove two major points of reinforcement for the Dominion while loosing a Station that while valuable would not have been able to secure the Wormhole on its own and would have required some sort of field anyways...

[Teaos]

While DS9 was strong its design is a little wasteful, those massive arms add to the shield area a lot, with out them, or with them shrunk it would be a lot more efficent.

[kostmayer]

They did do a good job or arming it to the teeth though.

I've always wanted to see one of those giant Federation Starbases in action.

[Tsukiyumi]

I've always wanted to see one of those giant Federation Starbases in action.

Agreed. First Contact would've been a great chance to show it, but hey...

[KuvahMagh]

Think of the budget though, I would love to see it but I would have settled for more of the Battle with ships than what we saw.

[Reliant121]

God that would have been awesome. The huge phaser arrays just carving the ship apart.

[Teaos]

Just because they are massive there is not real reason to assume they have any weapons at all on them. They could support a lot but I doubt they would.

[Deepcrush]

Why wouldn't they? During the DW, it would be a safe bet that any station before hand that didn't have weapons does now.

[Teaos]

Why would it?

Sure it will have some but nothing amazing.

It is in orbit of Earth and can only cover a tiny fraction of the defence of that planet, anyone attacking Earth would just avoid it making it a rather usless defence platform.

The smarter thing to do is to build purpose built defence platforms rather than slap weapons on a existing design.

[Deepcrush]

Because that starbase can also serve as a drydock for ships under repair. An attacking fleet would be forced to engage or avoid the starbase. If you have the starbase over head of SFHQ then you've done a fair job of protecting a high value target.

Also, why not do both?

[Teaos]

I do think it would have defences, but I hardly think it would be the uber defence platform of death that some people seem to think it is.