History Of Yesterday's Enterprise

[Capt.Hunter]

Well, the All our Yesterdays sourcebook has some ideas for this very scenario. Basically, the Feds are getting pasted, and even the advent of new ships like the Sovereign and the Defiant aren't helping too much. Predictions still say the Federation will fall until the Dominion make their appearance and the Klingons begin to consider allying with Starfleet against the threat.

A 20-year war might not be such a reach. Remember, the Federation Alliance weren't seen to be capturing many planets during the Dominion War - they went straight for the jugular at Cardassia Prime, and had cut the Dominion off from its primary supply line to the Gamma Quadrant. Given that the Klingons have all their resources in easy reach, the Feds in the alternate history were "complacent" having never been "kicked" by the Borg and the Romulans may have been covertly supporting the likely winner, I'd say a twenty-year war could happen. The Betreka Nebula incident lasted 18 years, after all...

[selek]

Faced with an overwhelming threat, whether it be rampaging Klingons or maruading Borg, Star Fleet WOULD develop better and more powerful weaponry and starship designs. The main reason the Federation was scrambling to deal with the Borg threat was that the long period of relative peace had left them complacent.
With a long-running conflict, that complacency would never have had a chance to develop.
Also, a protracted war with the Klingons would likely be a replay of the long anticipated (but gladly, never realized) war between NATO and the Soviet Union. IE, a small number of highly capable, expensive starships against a large number of smaller, less capable, mass-producable ships.
Twenty-to-one might be fair odds for the E-D, but 200-to-1 is just not fair! Faced with massive numbers of Klingon berserkers (look at their tactics in most of the DS9 episodes) Star Fleet is going to be looking for smaller, more purpose-built designs, just like the Allies in WWII and the Federation facing the Borg and Dominion.
Most of the battles Star Fleet would be fighting (especially early in the war) would consist of a relatively small number of powerful starships routing massive numbers of invaders (again, just like the Dominion War). As we saw throughout the Dominion War arc, such victories would be extremely bloody for both sides. Not unlike merchant vessels in World War Two, Star Fleet could afford only so many losses before the war effort could not be supported (hence Picard's comment that one ship or two would not make a difference).
If the Klingons got lucky in their initial raids, they could have overwhelmed the Federation defenses and either captured or destroyed crucial military industries (and made for a fairer fight).
Assuming that's the case, Star Fleet and Klingon planners would be looking at a bloody war of attrition (one which favors the Klingons), with the two sides fighting themselves to exhaustion, rebuilding madly, and then repeating the process. From that point on, it would simply be a matter of grinding down one side or the other.
Aother matter of interest is the fact that the E-D was operating ALONE along the Federation/Klingon border. The E-D was fitted out as a battleship. If Star Fleet feels threatened enough to make the Federation flagship a war-wagon, then they will definitely make smaller vessels to support her. The Allies learned the benefits of convoys and task groups TWICE. It would be unthinkable for the Iowa or New Jersey to sail in harm's way without an escort, so why the Enterprise?
Yes, the REAL reason was the cost of additional cast and special effects, but bear with me a moment.

If the Federation flagship is not operating with an escort in a battlezone in time of war, it's for one of three reasons: 1) she's being hung out to dry (ask the captain of the Indianapolis). 2) she's the only ship that can do it. or 3) there simply aren't enough ships to go around. Any of these three cases doesn't bode well for the Federation.
As to the Romulans and the Cardassians, it has been strongly implied that the Romulans had a number of problems of their own to deal with. That being the case, they are likely still tied up, unable to interfere with the Klingons and Federation. Once they ARE free ("WE are back...DO you understand, Captain?"), they will cheerfully make what gains they can while the picking is good. Both the Cardassians and the Romulan Empire are hostile, belligerent thugs held in check only by the military might of the Federation (let's not start that thread again). A weakened Federation will simply encourage them to go to war.
I seriously doubt they would ally either with each other or the Klingons, but like a jackal circling a lion's kill, they would definitely bite off what they could without inviting reprisal.

[NobAkimoto]

Eh I think the reason we saw so many solitary ships in TNG was simply that Starfleet had way too much ground to cover with too few ships.

Remember the quoted figures by writers close to Trek was something like a 8,000 ly Federation with only about 4,000-6,000 capital ships.

The main advantage I would think the Klingons have over the Federation is simply concentration of forces.(Rather than sheer size of forces.)

It seemed like the Klingons were more able to concentrate their forces than the Federation, with say "Way of the Warrior" being one example.

The Klingons sent a rather large force of ships to take DS9(dozens? the exact figure I'm not sure about.) and even if they did fail to take the station they were able to assemble such a fleet on rather short notice.

In comparasion to the same battle Starfleet was really only able to send a token force of the Venture escorted by 3-4 ships.(I believe the initial wave at least looked to be the Venture and 2 Excelsiors. But I haven't caught that episode in a while.)

Further episodes seem to suggest that Starfleet has trouble assembling forces on short notice. Everything from Wolf 359(I mean, only 40 ships, a force that not to mention included a freaking Oberth among other things.) to the Romulan Blockade(Half the ships in that fleet didn't work, and there were only 10 or so of them around anyway)

Obviously if in a wartime mood Starfleet can mobilize larger fleets of up to 1500 ships, but it doesn't take a whole lot of effort if you can sweep through several sectors equipped with say 50 ships each with your own fleet of maybe 500 ships.

It's one of the classic weaknesses of trying to envelope your opponent. When you split your forces you tend to leave them open to attack. If one had a sufficient mobility, you could attack each of the enveloping forces, and destroy them piece by piece.

Most likely the same probably happened to the Federation who had to spread too many ships around too big a location. It's then likely that the Feds lost too much too quickly to effectively be able to counter any gains made by the Klingons(which would be difficult unless the Romulans or someone took advantage of the situation.)

The autonomy given to each Fed ship is I suppose unsuprising though given that on average a Fed ship will mass somewhere from 5-15 times that of a standard Klingon ship in the same length.

[SIR SIG]

If memory serves; in Way of the Warrior there are around 20-40 capital Klingon ships. After all they cloaked and recloaked as a anti ship count tactic. Although this did include the top of the line Negh'var Flagship.

The Feds were able to send in about a dozen ships on short notice including 1 Galaxy.

The Klingons had more ships on the way but pulled out anyways.

Kinda tells you what a dozen Fed ships can do in a battle

[Capt.Hunter]

Also, remember that the Klingons already had a sizeable fleet operating in Cardassian space, a lot closer to DS9 than the Federation's main forces. Given Starfleet wasn't on a war footing, I doubt there were significant numbers of ships at Starbase 317 (Admiral Ross' base and the closest to DS9). And yeah, I was a bit puzzled when the Klingons seemed put off by just six Fed starships. Although backed up by DS9's weapons they'd have done a lot of damage.