Strategic & Operational Operations

[Kodiak]

Hello,
I think that this is the right place to post this question, if not I’m sure one of the moderators will move the thread. I’ve lurked on the forum for awhile, and one question that has never been raised is the nature of operational or strategic space combat in the Star Trek universe, I’d like to run a military oriented campaign during the period of Cardassian tensions (2347-2367) with the players taking part in strategic operations and I’d like more of a frame work. Has anyone worked out any relevant details or given much thought to the nature of strategic/ operational (sector level) operations?
Thanks!
-Kodiak

[Cybrludite]

I think the Dominion War net-book has what you want.

[Greg Smith]

The Cardassian netbook has an overview of the events of the war.

[Kodiak]

Thank you, Cybrludite and Greg for your responses. I have looked at the Dominion War Sourcebook, and it has some useful information. I will prepare a list of formal questions after I reread the book.

Greg, could you point me in the right direction for the Cardassian Nebook?
Thanks!
-Kodiak

[Perrryyy]

Here ya go!

[Kodiak]

Thanks Perrryyy, I'm downloading it now.
With a little bit more thinking on my part, I would have searched the forums and saved you the trouble.
-Kodiak

[Perrryyy]

No trouble at all. I had subscribed to a referring thread

[Kodiak]

Hello,
After reading, thinking and some rereading I have the following questions:

1) Does anyone have a map of UFP/Cardassian/Klingon space with the core worlds marked and a scale? Knowing how far a Dominion strike force would have to go to attack a core world would make thinking about the times involved much more fruitful.
2) How long can starships conduct operations without having to resupply? According to Dominion Wars, the game, only the explorers had the range to probe deeply into Cardassian space, this doesn’t quite ring true, so I’m wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this and the usefulness of forward starbases, in the DS9 Core Rulebook it is stated that most strikes targeted supply starbases, knowing how far a ship can range is of critical importance (this will mirror the assumption in Federation & Empire, but it is a question of scale).
3) How much stuff needs to be shipped between planets to allow them to contribute to the war effort? One of the traditional objectives of navies has been to deny the ability of foreign commerce to transit, knowing how much commerce is going on will give some estimates to how much of an effect anti-commerce raiding will have on the belligerents.
4) Why are deep space battles fought? It as far as I can tell there is no reason why a deep space battle should be fought, the only time that a defender would want to fight a deep space battle is when they don’t want the enemy to get to a static target, but why wouldn’t the attacking fleet maintain warp speed and enter the system?
5) How long does ship construction take and what type of resources does it take to build a ship? One thought that I had after reading an essay on why the Klingons use swarm tactics (http://www.houseveska.org/KWA400.pdf) is that one of the reasons for using smaller ships would be so that fewer resources need to be concentrated into a small region to build the ships and that at least some consideration needs to be taken to what it takes to build and repair ships.
6) What paradigm does the Startrek environment subscribe to in terms of strategic and tactical operations? To me it looks a lot like the early Honor Harrington background, with ships able to engage each other and do some damage, but unless both sides really want to mix it up few ships will be destroyed (this also explains why torpedoes are not the primary weapon, they can do a lot of damage, but unless you use overwhelming numbers, you usually won’t be able to destroy a ship before it can retreat), but I’d really like other input, especially sense I have not seen the last few episodes of Deep Space Nine.
Thank you for any thoughts that you have on these or other questions.
-Kodiak