Why uber ships fail

[Graham Kennedy]

They didn't really talk about it much, but the implication was that they were warning shots, to show that the Warbirds were willing to make a fight of it if they needed to, but not full power hits.

[Granitehewer]

erm in ''the defector'' picard expressively stated that they were taps on the shoulder because ''if the romulans had wanted to, we wouldn't be here now'' ie the enterprise would have been destroyed

[kostmayer]

Two of them fired on the E-D in The Defector as well, before the BoPs decloaked. IIRC Picard noted that they were just "taps on the shoulder".

I believe he theorized that they were weakened blasts to try and scare E-D off, although I cant remember to be sure.

Yeah, Picard explicitly stated that they wouldn't be there discussing it if the Romulans weren't holding back. The only time I can remember seeing Warbirds in a full on battle was in "The Die is Cast". They didn't do overly well, but they were heavily outnumbered, and didn't have any chance.

[Tsukiyumi]

The only time I can remember seeing Warbirds in a full on battle was in "The Die is Cast". They didn't do overly well, but they were heavily outnumbered, and didn't have any chance.

Replace the ships in TDiC with 20 varied Federation or Klingon ships, and they'd still have been clobbered by 150 Attack Ships. Even a Borg Cube might have some difficulty in that situation.

[Deepcrush]

Still, with as powerful as the D'D weapons are they should have been able to pop off a good number of attack ships.

[Granitehewer]

which they may have done we didn't see every ship at every stage in the battle, 150 vs 20, doesn't necessarily mean 7.5 vs 1, as the old soviet addage implies depending on maskirovka and how the threat forces were deployed and maneuvered it could in some points of the line have been much higher ratios, and if a dozen of more jem hadar fighters hit a warbird, unless you're Q, you're f**ked

[Deepcrush]

With as powerful as Romulan Weapons are, every shot from a D'D should have taken out a Bug.

[Granitehewer]

are you trying to bring in common sense to star trek? lol
Also maybe the founders had sabotaged the warbirds, or gained enough data to attune their fighters shields to render them less vulnerable to romulan disruptors until after the romulans later coined on and changed their disruptor frequencies e.g. in later encounters? ..........oh yeah am grasping at straws and not entirely serious

[Deepcrush]

Seeing how that Dominion force wasn't able to give chase to the Defiant. It could be a fair guess that the Dominion fleet was having to stay focused on the RSE/CU task force. Where I doubt the Keldons were a big deal, those D'Ds would have been a huge pain in the ass.

[Granitehewer]

agreed but when have Double D's been a pain in the ass, true they might hurt your back if you're on your feet all day......oh you meant warbirds not cupsizes

[Deepcrush]

I take it you really did have anything to come back with then huh...

[Granitehewer]

well perhaps the whole getting the romulan disruptor frequency or sabotaging the warbirds is a valid argument? Apart from that am stuffed

[Deepcrush]

am stuffed

That explains your trouble with double Ds.

[Granitehewer]

lol, speaking of DD's, i associate that more with Leeta the daboo girl than spaceships, thats how crap my recent life is lol.
Not all uber-ships fail, the dominion bad boys seemed almost impervious, am curious as to what happened to the negh'var, as in later epi's, gowron was seen on a vor'cha, so wonder if the NV got clobbered....and yes OU men, i am speaking IU

[Graham Kennedy]

Bearing in mind that the Dominion knew the entire plan in advance since they engineered the whole thing, you have to assume that their 150 was chosen to be an overwhelming force that the Rom/Cardie fleet had no chance of winning against.

But not necessarily so big that it would be a "wiped them out with minimal losses in return" fleet, though. The Founders don't really care much if Jem'Hadar get killed after all, so I can see them pitching the fleet size as just big enough to guarantee victory, and no bigger.