First, there is a ship class there that isn't on your intel spreadsheet, @SynchronizedWritersBlock ; the Konen Whisperer-class frigate (or cruiser?), with observed stats of C4 L5 H4. Second, though nobody noticed it at the time, the two Silence-class Konen cruisers at 45 Gabriel actually have the stats of the Whisper-class capital ship! I'm thus choosing to count them that way.
Rather, it's more that there are two confusing details:
1) It's not clear whether Whisper and Whisperer are different classes or the same class, just with inconsistent naming. It was introduced as the Whisper-class battlecruiser, and then we typically see the "Whisperer" naming.
2) SWB mixed up the Whisper(er) and Silence as the capital ship (explorer in Starfleet parlance), because the latter was also described as the Silence-class battlecruiser upon first encounter. Only the combat logs revealed that the Whisper(er) was the cruiser and the Silence was the capital ship.
It's worth noting that except for Deva, Lora, and the battles as part of Nash's campaign, actions tended to be relatively tentative and the norm was that most ships escaped. This even holds true for Second of 24 Enio.
We probably are. The result of doing so is variable, but these Cardassian POWs were probably treated surprisingly well and several may have been turned by Starfleet Intelligence or the FDS. Yes, the FDS.
The Federation intends to deploy the dread power of lobbyists. They're very good at diplomancing and that's an excellent tool.
It also traded personnel 2 to 1 in the Federation's favour during the entire GBZ conflict. More like 5 to one if we tally the Pact and Sydraxian casualties and POWs.
All things told the GBZ conflict actually went considerably to the Federation's advantage.
Well, for starters the cafeteria at a UFP PoW camp is a rotating selection of fine restaurants by Cardassia standards. They have artificial food shortages and so certainly have very limited luxury dining options, we don't.
They also probably got better medical care at the camp then they would have back home just because Starfleet is very very good at what they do.
A 1mt ship is ridiculously huge and simply not comparable to any existing or past warship. The lightest actual ships in our fleets, the Oberths, are easily more than twice the tonnage of a supercarrier. The tonnage loss of a single ship in most cases will easily exceed any naval battle in history or exceed the highest single-tonnage month of either version of the Battle of the Atlantic!
Second, I'm not classifying ships types by any detailed type of schema; simply what they count out as in the rules and a rough weight class comparison. Capitals like Excelsiors and Lorgots are a special case; the Lorgot is practically a cruiserweight ship, and the Excelsior is more of a superheavy cruiser than having the crushing superiority of firepower implied by the terms battlecruiser or battleship (and as seen on ships like Ambassador or Khellian).
The Sydraxi lost a total of 4 Hasques and 4 Kalindrax cruisers plus an outpost. Most of it was at Lora, where they lost the station, all the Kalindrax, and a Hasque.
4 heavy frigates at 800kt each
4 heavy cruisers at 1.8mt each
1 light station of unknown weight Total: 7.2mt of shipping
The Cardassians lost 1 medium frigate (an Isamu), 5 heavy frigates (Combat Takaakis), 7 light cruisers (Jalduns), 2 medium cruisers (Kaldar IIs) and 1 heavy cruiser (Lorgot). To this must also be added the losses of the Konen, who lost 4 light or medium frigates (Banshees), 2 light cruisers (Whisper/er), and 1 heavy cruiser (Silence). To that must be added 2 outposts as light stations and 2 weapons platforms as ultralight stations. Only three of these ships were lost before Nash's campaign, and only six of them before 45 Gabriel itself.
1 medium frigate at 591kt
5 heavy frigates at 740kt each
7 light cruisers at 1.2mt each
2 medium cruisers at 1.5mt each
1 heavy cruiser at 1.9mt
2 light and 2 ultralight stations of unknown weight
4 light or medium frigates of unknown weight
2 light cruisers of unknown weight
1 heavy cruiser of unknown weight Total: 17.591mt of shipping that can be confirmed and probably an additional 3 or 4mt in Konen losses.
The Federation lost 1 superheavy cruiser (Excelsior), 3 light cruisers (Constitution-B and Renaissance), and 4 medium frigates (2 Miranda-As, 2 Stingers); all of these tie into Nash's campaign as either the cause of it, or combat losses during. The Federation traded at a little better than 1-to-2 ship and tonnage loss during the campaign, and in the skirmishing actions prior took no actual ship losses though plenty of go-back-to-the-yard-for-twelve-months damage cases.
2 medium frigates at 584kt each
2 medium frigates at 655kt each
3 light cruisers at 1mt each
1 superheavy cruiser at 2.4mt Total: 7.878mt of shipping
In terms of by-ship-type losses, the Sydraxi at Lora clearly suffered a disaster comparable to Cape Matapan, where the Regia Marina got mugged in a dark alley by the Royal Navy, or the Battle of Midway. It was nothing that necessarily would have stopped a great power...but unfortunately for them, they weren't a great power.
By contrast, 45 Gabriel is pretty much a British-vs-French action of the Age of Sail, in the same class as Quiberon Bay or The Nile, a complete disaster with the only mitigation being having taken a few Federation ships with them. It's worth noting that except for Deva, Lora, and the battles as part of Nash's campaign, actions tended to be relatively tentative and the norm was that most ships escaped. This even holds true for Second of 24 Enio.
The Konen contribute an additional 7.554mt of shipping.
Starbases are ~25mt, Outposts are ~5mt, Stations are ~1mt, however that is not using the same materials as a deep-space faring starship, and it is much easier to just sit there and uparmour something that isn't going anywhere. So they don't really belong on the same tally sheet.
Edit: Colonies, mining or otherwise, involve anywhere between 1 to 20mt of deliverables, depending on what you're building and what class of planet you are setting up on.
The Konen contribute an additional 7.554mt of shipping.
Starbases are ~25mt, Outposts are ~5mt, Stations are ~1mt, however that is not using the same materials as a deep-space faring starship, and it is much easier to just sit there and uparmour something that isn't going anywhere. So they don't really belong on the same tally sheet.
Edit: Colonies, mining or otherwise, involve anywhere between 1 to 20mt of deliverables, depending on what you're building and what class of planet you are setting up on.
A couple of good questions then; is the economic cost of non-starship grade materials negligible when building starships/colonies/stations? And how much do colonies economize on their materials costs by sourcing local materials? Because at the energy levels Trek runs on 'I melted the local rock to basalt blocks, welded them together into an airtight seal with phasers and tossed some insulation and paint over it so it looks nice' is an entirely possible method of construction for colony construction.
Of course, research colonies will have somewhat different requirements compared to mining colonies and the specific habitability of the local chunk of rock is important when it comes to how much you need to source locally. But 'locally' is also kinda a flexible term when you are dealing with starships that can basically ignore planetary distances. Sourcing substrate from a different continent and/or the moon to make construction materials out of is entirely possible when you've got shuttles.
And that's not even getting into the transmutational shenanigans you can get into when you can reconfigure atoms on the fly.
As I predicted the Cardassians have reoriented their strategy towards espionage on the SW flank of the Federation. Moving to counter our push on the Daiwar is only the beginning play, I expect further moves to be against the STO. After all the Badlands only work as a defense if you have to go through them. going around them, taking a good chunk of the federation in the process, and exposing the heartland of the Federations west flank is the best strategy they got left.
Well, that makes sense right? Through the GBZ, they've found out that we're not exactly weak at fighting. Diplomacy is their strength. That just leaves espionage as the only tactic that plays to their strengths and not necessarily ours.
Given it's a pacifist government in charge, Stesk probably signed off on Operation Handshake. Pacifist doesn't necessarily mean rule abiding, just look at Gandhi or MLK. I doubt he'd object to covert diplomacy of all things.
In terms of by-ship-type losses, the Sydraxi at Lora clearly suffered a disaster comparable to Cape Matapan, where the Regia Marina got mugged in a dark alley by the Royal Navy, or the Battle of Midway. It was nothing that necessarily would have stopped a great power...but unfortunately for them, they weren't a great power.
By contrast, 45 Gabriel is pretty much a British-vs-French action of the Age of Sail, in the same class as Quiberon Bay or The Nile, a complete disaster with the only mitigation being having taken a few Federation ships with them. It's worth noting that except for Deva, Lora, and the battles as part of Nash's campaign, actions tended to be relatively tentative and the norm was that most ships escaped. This even holds true for Second of 24 Enio.
Total of:
22 Defensive Hard-points (Starbase/Outpost)
13 Capital Ships
64 Cruisers
159 Frigates
240 Auxiliary Ships
EDIT: VERY ROUGH WEIGHT ESTIMATES
Don't have weights for Auxiliaries, or Klingon BoP2s (used 100kt as an estimate for them - BoP1s are only 30kt), rounded values off.
Romulans 51,500 kt mobile naval assets lost
Klingons 35,900kt mobile naval assets lost (they have lost a lot of frigates, but they are tiny things without much mass)
Total Losses:
148 Ships/Installations
396 Combat
30,100 People
The casualty figures don't factor in people who survived the destruction/capture of their ship but then it also doesn't factor in the people who died aboard ships that survived. I figure that about evens out.
Ball parking casualty figures on the assumption that frigates average 1.5 crewpoints on all crew types, cruisers average 3 and capital ships average 7 that would mean approximately 1300-1400 crew points worth of crew lost. This is not counting hardpoints and auxiliary ships.
Actual numbers will be lower due to lower average crew numbers for Klingon/Romulan ships and crew survival equipment.
And for those seeking a sense of scale about how much that is, both sides have, individually, trashed more than Starfleet's entire C count, including ships in repair and refit (as listed in Briefvoices spreadsheet) and about the same numbers of hulls as the Romulans (Klingon counts are higher due to high frigate usage) in the Klingon-Romulan War.
Two Starfleets worth of ships and people converted to plasma and shrapnel.
There is no good war, and there is no bad peace. There are necessary wars though, and that is a different beast all together.
Commodore Samhaya Mrr'Shan smiles as she shakes hands with the Horizonian Singer, "An impressive showing," she hisses through teeth bared into a wide smile as the lights focus in on the two, "A lot of effort just to lose."
"Sports isn't everything, Commodore!" Bubbles Intendant Karyn nas Azhlee with a wide, friendly grin for the cameras, as she gracefully moves a rogue lock of black hair back into place, "But if it's all you have…"
"Superficial bitch." The Starfleet officer hisses quietly.
"Meathead." The Horizionian whispers back.
-
Commander's Log, Task Force Beyond, Commodore Samhaya Mrr'shan
I feel like we've just wasted an entire season of effort. No gains, but on the other paw, no losses.
The last few months have been a major tournament season on Ikeigenoi, and Beyond has been fighting an escalating battle with our Harmony opposites that's brought in almost everyone under my command in an absurd parody of a military campaign .
The escalation began shortly after I began attempts to smooth over recent difficulties, as I was interrupted by the arrival of Choreographer class Harmony ship: HPSDV Playwright and one of her attendant corvettes. Aboard Playwright was perhaps the most senior Harmony officer that we have yet met in the field: Intendant Karyn nas Azhlee.
The Intendant is… she is quite the piece of work, quick witted and cruelly intelligent, with a grasp of interpersonal connections I can only describe as masterful: she can slip a verbal blade into your back with your own permission and you'll only notice the damage a week later.
We started by sponsoring opposing native teams, but the Intendant's grasp of Ikeigenite fashion was at another level compared to mine and we were forced to escalate to Captain Sorek entering a team in an upcoming Muuyo Fest to counter her popularity with Sorek's own.
The Intendant matched that with a team from her own command ship, but she brought in the Scientist class HSDV Kasha and a team led by her Moy commander, to much excitement from the commentariat.
I called in Cheron to enter a team and raise the stakes in our rivalry.
Azhlee responded with another pair of Scientists; HSDV Aeleanos vas Renais and HSDV Nalaar han Veralos. And I ended up bringing in Iprimazzi, Neptune and Burdina to match.
The fires of our rivalry had been fanned in the Muuzoi media to a fever pitch with the discussion of the Muuyo Fest on A Quiet Night In versus Poppin' Bottles being almost always focused on our teams (supporting A Quiet Night In) and those of the Harmony (Poppin' Bottles).
Intendant Azhlee and I made endless rounds of the talk show circuit and spent endless nights verbally fencing in the most prestigious shows and parties across the face of the planet in front of the most influential OSA politicians and executives. And occasionally, in the Beya-War arenas.
I felt that I had an excellent hand, our teams were clearly looking superior going into the tournament, especially the team jointly led by myself and Captain Sorek. That's when Azhlee played the last card in her hand: HSDV Theria nas Cheras and her commanding officer, Scholar Colom.
It was a masterstroke. Bringing Colom back reminded the Muuzoi populace of his own earlier exchange with Captain Kanil, If we won, it would put extra media attention on our people's behavior compared to our Harmony counterparts, who could play humble losers. But if we lost, the Horizon could claim a culture of better sportsmanship lead to better athletics.
In the end end our own teams won convincingly in league matches, barring a single setback when Cheron's team was defeated by the team led by han Veralos's commander, Scholar Kanidaak. Captain th'Gannoth found out first hand that Tseskiya are capable of flight.
However, Muuyo Fests are not decided on pure athletic skill alone. There's three categories: League matches, Solo matches, and pure Popularity. League matches are with more professional teams, who fight out their own mini-tournament. With so many Horizon and Federation ships showing up, and a public desire for it, this Muuyo Fest's League matches were entirely between Horizon and Federation teams. Amateur matches are members of the Muuyozoi population being put into random teams of their same side and splatting the opposition. After a League tournament the participants can join the Regular matches in the final hours of a Muuyo Fest and try to make the difference among the larger masses of players. And then there's pure popularity -- who joined which team in greater numbers?
Intendant Azhlee got the better of me in the popularity war. During the course of the tournament, as she realized she would not be able to beat us in one-on-one conflict, Azhlee had put in the bulk of her own effort on winning the media war while I was training my teams.
She won the popularity contest handily, 61%-39%. Starfleet Intelligence predicted the popularity split would be 51% - 49% in Poppin' Bottles favor, showing Azhlee's efforts likely added 10 points to her side.
With us tied 1-1, it was down to amateur teams in support of either side to carry it. They did for us, by 1% more matches won. It shows while we won the tournaments, Horizon has more pull with the regular Ikeigenite.
There's something odd about winning the war, but not the people. I'm not used to it. A learning experience I suppose.
[No Change]
Mission: Counteract Horizon diplomatic efforts in the Horizon Border Zone region.
CO: Samhaya Mrr'shan - +1P to Flagship, reroll first failed combat roll each year
FDS Diplomatic Team: Reroll first failed Diplomatic Roll each quarter
USS Salnas
USS Cheron
Iprimazzi
Harzzira
Fozarri
UES Neptune [Renaissance]
OUS Burdina
-
Commander's Log, Task Force Handshake, Commodore Min-Jee Lee
This quarter has been a...dramatic...one.
Following the near miss in the USS Odyssey's successful exfiltration of one of the SFI informants, something of a low-level crackdown on suspected Federation agitators throughout the Great Kingdom, particularly in the extrasolar colonies where Federation contact is more frequent and the pro-Cardassian political class more distant. Fortunately, this move was well anticipated, and the captains and crews of the USS Endurance, Charal, and T'Mir all put on a consummate performance at slipping the identified dissidents out of Dawiar space right under the Obsidian Order's nose. We've courted interests throughout Dawiar space, and now we've proved that we can protect them. Attached here are the relevant logs from Captain Taggart, who led the rescue operation.
Captain's Log, Stardate 23649.4, USS Endurance - Captain Abigail Taggart
I'll say, having a commodore on your ship is more than a little stressful. I have to wonder why she didn't pick Odyssey, but it might have to do with the fact you give Rebin missions like sneaking up on the Dawiar homeworld.
However, if there's anything I learned from Chad and Eaton, it's that having someone of the calibre of Min-Jee Lee onboard puts you under a magnifying glass, but also gives you an great opportunity for learning. Commodore Mrr'shan helped me learn a fair deal about tactics, and now I'm hoping to learn even more about diplomacy from Commodore Lee.
And we may well need it. A distress call has come out from a group of Dawiar dissidents on Oldan-Tar. They believe that the Obsidian Order is closing in on them, and they need us to extract them before they're dragged off to prison.
Captain's Log, Stardate 23651.6, USS Endurance - Captain Abigail Taggart
Well this is not going to be a simple countryside stroll. The CDF Ronagot and the Dawiar cruiser Zakzigid are running some… extensive patrols in the area. This does look like a confirmation that the Dawiar dissidents were correct that the Obsidian order is about to pounce. We saw similar patrols near Bajor.
Fortunately, these are not particularly capable ships, and they did fail to capture the provisional government when they hit Bajor. I have Charal backing me up as well. Let's see if we can't snake our way in there.
Captain's Log, Stardate 23653.9, USS Endurance - Captain Abigail Taggart
Charal's captain should get tested for Seyek ancestry, because they slithered right in and slithered right back out with no one the wiser.
We managed to establish contact with the dissidents, and explain the situation. Instead of a coded transmission, we had them broadcast a general distress call. Endurance slipped into the identity of the USS Odyssey and we made the sort of wild charge to sophonitarian aid that you'd expect from the Explorer Corps. Then, it was just a matter of patiently enduring a… very... long lecture from the captain of the Ronagot about borders and internal issues while the Charal slipped in behind them and made an extract.
The dissidents faked their death by 'ritualistically' diving a shuttle broadcasting their lifesigns into the sun. I'd give one of my horses to see the looks on the Obsidian Order's face when they reveal they survived in a year or so.
Unfortunately, I can't say any of that makes up for the capture of another of our underground agents by some kind of elite Ashalla Pact counterintelligence team on Hark-drius. Even worse, they were somehow able to spoof the informant's emergency extraction signal, and lured the RDS Hadabat into Dawiar space where the CDF Yrmak managed to ambush Hadabat, gaining an overwhelming positioning advantage as Hadabat attempted infiltration through a gas giant's radiation belt. The highest commendations are owed to Captain Duom, who from the sound of things was able to convince the Dawiar that his was a diplomatic mission, and played to their resentment of Section F of the treaty of Celos well enough that they in turn convinced the Cardassian Gul that boarding or destroying the Radabat would be a dangerous escalation. Had he been any slower to think or clumsier in his speech, I am sure the Dawiar and Cardassian ships would have opened fire. As it was, Hadabat was forced to eject its primary phaser coil, leaving it defenseless until it returned to port. It may have been a mistake for the Cardassians to send a ship of their own on this interception for the Dawiar to be played against.
We were expecting something like this to happen sooner or later, Admiral. I hoped to gain more of an advantage before the Cardassians caught on, but Phase Two of this task force's operation was inevitable. Fortunately, the Cardassians are now being put in a position where they need to keep convincing the Dawiar to cooperate with an unpopular restriction imposed on them, as merchant guilds and dissidents are pushing the government harder than ever... I think it also helps that we caught the Lecarre violating the treaty much more flagrantly this year, and the Dawiar have heard about it. Our remaining informants tell me that while this is a setback, we have still gained much more support throughout Dawiar society this quarter than we have lost.
What worries me is how much harder things will be going forward now that the Cardassians can oppose us openly, and the fate of our informant; he's being held prisoner on Kharhazad for now, but I'm sure the Cardassians will use any excuse they can to have him turned over to their tender mercies.
Great Kingdom of Kharhazad tag results:
[Ashalla Pact tag total revealed; Ashalla Pact: 113/300]
Mission: Conduct covert diplomacy with the Dawiar.
CO: Min-Jee Lee - +1 P on flagship
FDS Diplomatic Team: Reroll first failed Diplomatic Roll each quarter
USS Endurance
USS T'Mir
QSS Arqueniou Leb Nin
RDS Hadabat [Turtleship]
Charal [Centaur-A]
-
Commander's Log, Task Force Shield, Commodore T'Mina
Anacail's return to active duty has already seen them engaged in combat. My Gretarian Executive Officer, Captain Starlily, carefully studied the movement of Hishmeri forces and he accurately predicted they would attack in the sector where Anacail had resumed patrols.
Thanks to his foresight, we were able to send overwhelming assets in the form of TSS Pralim and CAS Koorlicail to assist Anacail. I sent Starlily along to help coordinate combat operations while the rest of my task force watched for flanking operations.
The task force easily turned back the Hishmeri raid. I am hoping they will soon see the illogic testing us.
[Raiding Federation Space] now 30/100
Task Force Shield
Mission: Dissuade Hishmeri raiding.
CO: T'Mina - Reroll the first failed intercept each quarter.
USS Emancipation
TSS Pralim
CAS Kundaia
CAS Ilotraia
CAS Koorlicail
CAS Anacail - A OKAY
I think the Horizon has figured out that we're dedicating a task force and has tasked their own forces to counter. We should reinforce Task Force Beyond the most out of the task forces, with Task Force Shield as a secondary.
heh, oh my god this is hilarious. this reads like both taskforces had a series of smashing successes, spent mostly canceling out the other guys successes. I kind of love how more and more horizon and federation ships kept showing up for the same thing. I think the real winners here are the Ikeigenoi, who are getting top notch entertainment by watching the federation and the harmony very politely try and eviscerate each other.
Choreographer class Harmony ship: HPSDV Playwright and one of her attendant corvettes
Scientist class HSDV Kasha
pair of Scientists; HSDV Aeleanos vas Renais and HSDV Nalaar han Veralos.
HSDV Theria nas Cheras
So 4 Scientist class Cruisers supporting a Choreographer class (Carrier? The intel sheets don't appear to list this class)
Scientists are estimated at P5, I assume their Carriers (even if it is an older model) are higher.
And surprisingly it's a Gretarian with an aptitude for tactics of all things. I mean, you'd expect that to be very rare, considering this is a people who thought arming our ships made us crazy warmongers at first contact. That sounds like an interesting story.
Commodore Samhaya Mrr'Shan smiles as she shakes hands with the Horizonian Singer, "An impressive showing," she hisses through teeth bared into a wide smile as the lights focus in on the two, "A lot of effort just to lose."
"Sports isn't everything, Commodore!" Bubbles Intendant Karyn nas Azhlee with a wide, friendly grin for the cameras, as she gracefully moves a rogue lock of black hair back into place, "But if it's all you have…"
"Superficial bitch." The Starfleet officer hisses quietly.
