Hypothetical Starfleet ship roles

[Reliant121]

Superiority is Superiority, regardless of how it is. How do you combat an enemy more advanced? Increase your firepower to compensate for the deficit.

[m52nickerson]

More firepower does not help if you can't find, or have a hard time finding your opponent. It also does not help if your opponent can adapt and render your firepower useless.

[Deepcrush]

It does if you have more shots to put out in order to find them. As to adapting, if you can blow up the enemy before they adapt then again firepower comes in handy.

[kostmayer]

The size of the Borg ship plays a pretty big part in its durability. Its size, coupled with its decentralization means you not only have to inflict heavy damage, but you have to inflict it on the majority of the ship - decimate say engineering, or the Bridge on a Starship, and the ships pretty buggered. Destroy the equivalent proportion of a Borg cube (say 10% to be generous), and the cube wouldn't even slow down.

[Deepcrush]

Another reason in which firepower is needed.

[Reliant121]

The more firepower you deliver in the preliminary shots, the more damage you cause. That could possibly cause enough damage to make the shields falter. And did the cube in FC adapt?

[Deepcrush]

I don't think it had time to. E-E wasn't really nice like it was with the remans. E-E engaged attack pattern Curbstomp right off the bat.

[m52nickerson]

Better scanner may be able to accomplish the same thing. The main problem was not so much the E not being able to locate the Scimitar and score a few hits with the phasers, but it was not able to sustain that fire or hit with its torpedoes. When the E finally did locate the Scimitar anf hit it with phasers and torpedoes the Scimitar felt it. All the while the Scimitar was hitting the E at will and E absorbed a lot of punishment.

Yes it would be great if the Federation could make a weapon, or ship powerful enough to destroy a cube outright. So far that is beyond their reach. That does not mean the most powerful offensive ship in the fleet can't be considared a battleship.

[Deepcrush]

Its not beyond their reach. Their phasers were eating apart the Borg Cube the first time they met. The NavDeflector can channel even more power. They showed they could use it as a weapon. So, make a damn weapon out of it.

[Captain Seafort]

I don't think it had time to. E-E wasn't really nice like it was with the remans. E-E engaged attack pattern Curbstomp right off the bat.

It had had as long as the battle had been going on to adapt to Fed weapons, and it was being slowly overwhelmed by the combined fire of the Fed fleet. Torpedoes and phasers were knocking lumps off it. The problem was that they weren't doing so quickly enough. Picard came in, ordered concentrated fire, and the cube was promptly ripped apart.

[Sionnach Glic]

Hell, even in FC, where the Borg had had ample time to adapt, phasers and torps were still blowing holes in the Cube.

I've always been of the opinion that adaption is seriously exagerated.

[Captain Seafort]

I've always been of the opinion that adaption is seriously exagerated.

Of course it is - it's frequently described as though it makes the Borg utterly immune to a given weapon, whereas FC shows that it merely improves the effectiveness of the defences. As with anything, if you throw enough firepower at a cube you will destroy it, it's simply a matter of what constitutes "enough".

[m52nickerson]

I've always been of the opinion that adaption is seriously exagerated.

Of course it is - it's frequently described as though it makes the Borg utterly immune to a given weapon, whereas FC shows that it merely improves the effectiveness of the defences. As with anything, if you throw enough firepower at a cube you will destroy it, it's simply a matter of what constitutes "enough".

Exactly. If the Federation could make a weapon with "enough" firepower to blow a cube away they would have no problem with anyone else. The problem is they most likely can't produce a weapon or ship that can generate that much firepower.

[Sionnach Glic]

I'd be interested in seeing how a phaser lance would match up to a Cube. I can imagine it blowing chunks out of the Borg vessel.

Hm, in that case the Paladin might work as a good Borg-buster ship....

[Captain Seafort]

Exactly. If the Federation could make a weapon with "enough" firepower to blow a cube away they would have no problem with anyone else. The problem is they most likely can't produce a weapon or ship that can generate that much firepower.

Who says it has to come from one ship? The fact is that the Feds can produce ships with exceptional mass-power ratios when they put their minds to it. Look at the Defiant - a fraction of the mass of a GCS, but matching it in firepower. Scale that up, using multiple warp cores if necessary, and while they may not be able to go one-to-one with a cube, they'd contribute significantly to any fleet sent against one, and would be able to concentrate their fire better than a fleet.