Are the Rom and Klingon fleets specs really that interesting/pressing? It just seems extremely unlikely that we will come into conflict with them in the near future or that their fleet developments will actually necessitate adaptions of our own. I think that this might be a good opportunity to look into some of the lesser races and their goals/developments.
(Pick One activity for the T'Mir)
[X][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian public sentiment and broadcasting
(Pick One Cardassian Tactical Report)
[X][CARD] Cardassian Shipbuilding Report
(Pick One Romlan Tactical Report)
[X][ROM] Romulan Shipbuilding Report
(Pick up to three General Intel Reports)
[X][REPORT] Gretarian Diplomatic Posture Report
[X][REPORT] Sotaw Diplomatic Posture Report
[X][REPORT] Lecarrens Diplomatic Posture Report
[X][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian public sentiment and broadcasting
[X][CARD] Cardassian Shipbuilding Report
[X][ROM] Romulan Shipbuilding Report
[x][REPORT] Syndicate strength and how much Impact do we need?
[X][REPORT] Sotaw Diplomatic Posture Report
[X][REPORT] Lecarrens Diplomatic Posture Report
...even at our worst opinion of you, that was never in doubt, Linderly. Letting out time shit get spied on would be grounds for firing you out of an airlock, not just from the head of intel chair like we thought about doing.
Forces like the Cardassians and Syndicate will have a far more difficult time attempting to pierce the protections around those areas where they could do legitimate damage to our interests.
Looking ahead, a great deal of Starfleet Intelligence's efforts are currently focused on next Quarter's ratification of Rigellian Membership. Our read on Sydraxian intentions is that they have no grievance with the Rigellians, and are unlikely to interfere. Thankfully, it is far enough from the traditional operating theatres of the Syndicate that I believe they will have a difficult time bringing influence to bear. However after the incident with the deep-cover Caitian asset, we cannot be too careful. We intend to carefully re-vet all crews and assets assigned to this ratification.
Could you please have Operations forward me the list of units to be assigned to the ratification?
Yeah, I think that thing with the Kadak-tor was just him being inexperienced. He's clearly learned to communicate his department's needs effectively.
[X][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian political in-fighting
[X][CARD] Cardassian Shipbuilding Report
[X][ROM] Romulan Daljerra Cruiser Report
[X][REPORT] The relationship between the Sydraxians and the Gretarians.
[X][REPORT] Syndicate strength and how much Impact do we need?
[X][REPORT] One report of Linderly's choice
I'm a bit curious what Linderly thinks we need to know. We're stuck with him unless we want to spend a chunk of pp on spite, so it'd be valuable to see how he thinks. And we might be missing something important to ask about.
Are the Rom and Klingon fleets specs really that interesting/pressing? It just seems extremely unlikely that we will come into conflict with them in the near future or that their fleet developments will actually necessitate adaptions of our own. I think that this might be a good opportunity to look into some of the lesser races and their goals/developments.
The trouble is that these last four or five intelligence reports have been the same "good opportunity". We have never gotten any kind of fleet strength report for either the Romulans or the Klingons through the entire span of the game. So yeah, I find that to be pretty interesting. Is it "pressing"? I don' know, are any of these reports pressing? They guide our decision-making.
Having a good idea what the fleet strength of our main rivals actually is would give that extra bit of guidance the next time we have to make a decision about them.
[X][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian political in-fighting
[X][CARD] Cardassian Shipbuilding Report
[X][ROM] Romulan Daljerra Cruiser Report
[X][REPORT] The relationship between the Sydraxians and the Gretarians.
[X][REPORT] Syndicate strength and how much Impact do we need?
[X][REPORT] One report of Linderly's choice
This is repeated twice in the update, yet the total impact/cost is 5/1 rather than 6/2. Was the Anti-Slavery Task Force Progress Report only supposed to have a single [+1 Impact, +1 Cost]?
[Cost negated by Commodore T'Lorel High Diplomacy]
Though at this rate, if the total population x corruption levels is related and a significant portion of the total anti-Syndicate impact that needs to be done, and it took half a year just to reduce corruption on two low population worlds, and there isn't some sort of compounding impact effect, we have a LONG way to go, at least a couple years, possibly a decade or more.
Upon the bridge of the Pollizazza there is a loud, persistent buzzing sound. Sitting in the captain's chair at the core of the hexagonal chamber is a queen, eyes glinting dangerously as her antennae twitch. Red locks flow down over her black and gold uniform, a common colouring on this bridge. Ozziras, the non-queen officers, are bustling to and fro, calling out details, but their captain-queen remains still, saying nothing, simply buzzing with anger. With her are three fellow queens. There are only three dozen queens aboard the whole vessel, riding herd on hundreds of workers and a smattering of drones. The Grizzi and Fozarri, two sleek and modern Stingers nestled in close to the Pollizazza with graviton tethers, have only Ozziras and enlisted Apiatans.
The senior-most Ozzira aboard, the Bridge-Captain in Apiatan terms, turns from the sensor console to approach the command chair. Her antenna rise high respectfully. "Admiral Clozzidra," she says. "Everything is in position. We await your signal."
Clozzidra raises a hand almost lazily towards the viewscreen. "Commence. Unleash the swarm."
Er, wrong setting and a totally different type of swarm...but close enough
A provocative move to be sure, but it's been a long time coming from the Apiatan perspective. We've been paying attention to UE freighter losses, but lost sight of the earlier damage done to the Apiata by the Cardassians.
And damn does it show the effectiveness of their fleet designs and doctrines. Those are two C4 S2 H1 L4 P2 D4 swarmers stingers, backed up with a C4 S4 H2 L7 P6 D7 queenship, and probably a S6 forager around that helped detect and plan this operation. Though the escorts getting caught with their shields probably down was likely a huge factor in how decisive the Battle of 23 Canard went. The weak science of Takaaki (non-science variant) and likely the Hasque was their downfall.
I have to wonder what the response is going to be like, from each of Federation, Cardassian, and Sydraxian.
Captain's Log, USS Cheron, Stardate 24388.4
While passing through on patrol, we have conducted a successful outreach to the Orion Union colony on Nor'Orion. We contacted the colony administration seeing if they were having any difficulties, and took advantage of the situation to provide free repair work to failed agricultural equipment.
Very nice. It may cost us ship assets, but these presence checks may end up being just as impactful, if not more, than the assets we're directly assigning to the anti-Syndicate task force.
Oh nice, I like how much more structured this intel report voting is. This has been one type of vote that has had struggled to avoid plan-level tactical voting that clobbers more nuanced voting.
A provocative move to be sure, but it's been a long time coming from the Apiatan perspective. We've been paying attention to UE freighter losses, but lost sight of the earlier damage done to the Apiata by the Cardassians.
And damn does it show the effectiveness of their fleet designs and doctrines. Those are two C4 S2 H1 L4 P2 D4 swarmers, backed up with a C4 S4 H2 L7 P6 D7 queenship, and probably a S6 forager around that helped detect and plan this operation. Though the escorts getting caught with their shields probably down was likely a huge factor in how decisive the Battle of 23 Canard went. The weak science of Takaaki (non-science variant) and likely the Hasque was their downfall.
I have to wonder what the response is going to be like, from each of Federation, Cardassian, and Sydraxian.
If minor powers have doctrine research/bonuses of their own, then I suspect the Apiata have some kind of advanced swarm offense doctrine that causes their escorts to take the brunt of enemy fire. It fits the description Oneiros wrote of the stingers getting in close while the queenship hung back and used longer ranged weapons, and its similar to the tactics we saw the Klingons and Dominion use in DS9.
I wouldn't be that impressed with the results, considering that they were up against a measly C6 or so and attacking with the element of surprise, but I suppose the speed with which they got them is commendable. What the Apiata might lack in raw firepower, they make up for in doctrinal efficiency.
As for response...Cardassians might get the message and stop harassing Apiata foragers, or they might decide to retaliate on a large scale and gamble on the Federation not being willing to commit its full power to an Apiata war. Sydraxians will let the Cardassians handle this if they're smart. Either way, those trade convoys are going to be guarded by Jalduns and Kalindraxes in the future, not Takaakis and Hasques.
Jesus I hadn't realized the Apatia had C4 L4 D4 escorts. Sure, shit hull, but that doesn't count for much with 4 shields and numerical superiority. If I had to guess, those swarmers aren't so much starships as tactical warp capable gunships. Bet they get that kind of performance by being basically incapable of independent operations.
If minor powers have doctrine research/bonuses of their own, then I suspect the Apiata have some kind of advanced swarm offense doctrine that causes their escorts to take the brunt of enemy fire. It fits the description Oneiros wrote of the stingers getting in close while the queenship hung back and used longer ranged weapons, and its similar to the tactics we saw the Klingons and Dominion use in DS9.
I wouldn't be that impressed with the results, considering that they were up against a measly C6 or so and attacking with the element of surprise, but I suppose the speed with which they got them is commendable. What the Apiata might lack in raw firepower, they make up for in doctrinal efficiency.
As for response...Cardassians might get the message and stop harassing Apiata foragers, or they might decide to retaliate on a large scale and gamble on the Federation not being willing to commit its full power to an Apiata war. Sydraxians will let the Cardassians handle this if they're smart. Either way, those trade convoys are going to be guarded by Jalduns and Kalindraxes in the future, not Takaakis and Hasques.
[X][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian Fleet Distribution
[X][CARD] Cardassian Tactics Report (Gain +5% combat vs Cardassian fleets for the next 12 months)
[X][ROM] Romulan Shipyard Report
[X][REPORT] Klingon Fleet Strength Report
[x][REPORT] Orion Syndicate Impact Endurance and Asset HP Estimates.
[x][REPORT] The Relationship between the Sydraxians and the Gretarians.
My personal guess on this is that the Apiata adopted a "leave only ion trails, take only prisoners and sensor logs" approach and have no intention of particularly publicizing their actions. There's no particular reason to do so; if they can force the Cardassians to adopt a defensive posture, then the attacks on their foragers stop anyways. If they give the Cardassians a target, they may escalate.
Jesus I hadn't realized the Apatia had C4 L4 D4 escorts. Sure, shit hull, but that doesn't count for much with 4 shields and numerical superiority. If I had to guess, those swarmers aren't so much starships as tactical warp capable gunships. Bet they get that kind of performance by being basically incapable of independent operations.
Edited in reply:
Forcing your enemy to commit heavy assets to convoy duty is a victory in and of itself.
If the Sydraxians also end up needing to commit more forces to guarding the tradelines, AND we cut off their tribute from the Gretarans, they might suddenly not be so willing to risk valuable ships in raids against the Federation. Doubly so if we opportunistically poach off a Kalindrax or two ourselves when we can.
The apiata are basically letting us use the Cardassians' own tactics of forcing your rivals to fight a multi-front war against them. This feels good, and we should give the apiata some hugs and nice things for it.
EDIT: the apiata stinger seems to be basically a Defiant Lite. All the way down to the dual pulse phasers. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Defiant was inspired by Apiata escort designs.
My personal guess on this is that the Apiata adopted a "leave only ion trails, take only prisoners and sensor logs" approach and have no intention of particularly publicizing their actions. There's no particular reason to do so; if they can force the Cardassians to adopt a defensive posture, then the attacks on their foragers stop anyways. If they give the Cardassians a target, they may escalate.
If so, that's not a particularly wise decision on their part. The Cardassian fleet is big enough that they can commit a few heavy warships to guarding their convoys and still have enough to go on the offensive. Such a strategy could work, but only if the Apiata can count on someone else to keep the Cardassians busy on other fronts as well, and they haven't communicated with us.
If so, that's not a particularly wise decision on their part. The Cardassian fleet is big enough that they can commit a few heavy warships to guarding their convoys and still have enough to go on the offensive. Such a strategy could work, but only if the Apiata can count on someone else to keep the Cardassians busy on other fronts as well, and they haven't communicated with us.
What outcome would lead this to be a wise decision on the part of the Apiata? What good thing is going to happen for them as a result of this action?
Because if they're 'sending a message' I can't imagine that the Cardassians and Sydraxians would respond in any way other than increasing their attacks on Bee ships. These are not species known for backing down.
What outcome would lead this to be a wise decision on the part of the Apiata? What good thing is going to happen for them as a result of this action?
Because if they're 'sending a message' I can't imagine that the Cardassians and Sydraxians would respond in any way other than increasing their attacks on Bee ships. These are not species known for backing down.
It could be a wise decision if the Federation is also making significant demands of the Cardassian fleet on other fronts, and making it impossible for them to retaliate without leaving themselves open. In such a case, the Cardassians might be forced to back down regardless of how they feel about it.
As I said though, this kind of strategy would require the Apiata to actually coordinate with us, so hopefully they have something else in mind.
[X][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian political in-fighting
[X][CARD] Cardassian Tactics Report (Gain +5% combat vs Cardassian fleets for the next 12 months)
[X][ROM] Romulan Shipyard Report
[X][REPORT] Klingon Fleet Strength
[X][REPORT] The relationship between the Sydraxians and the Gretarians.
[X][REPORT] Syndicate strength and how much Impact do we need?
Apiata seem to have phased out their old swarmers entirely, and have two distinct classes of Queenship, one of which is explorer sized. Reactionless whales are a new cosmozoan.
Kadeshi, Sydraxians, and Risans all got a facelift. I originally based the Kadeshi ships off of Kushan designs, but rereading the Biophage arc they're clearly supposed to look more like, well, Kadeshi, with the Pride being the obvious exception (also, the Pride's new nacelle configuration makes much more sense for its frame). As for the Risans, I missed a mention that @AKuz made of their warp engine design in an early omake, which they look much more compliant with now. My first draft of the Sydraxian ships just looked too much like Dominion ships.
[X][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian Fleet Distribution
[X][CARD] Cardassian Tactics Report (Gain +5% combat vs Cardassian fleets for the next 12 months)
[X][ROM] Romulan Shipyard Report
[X][REPORT] Klingon Fleet Strength Report
[x][REPORT] Orion Syndicate Impact Endurance and Asset HP Estimates.
[x][REPORT] The Relationship between the Sydraxians and the Gretarians.
[X][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian political in-fighting
[X][CARD] Cardassian Tactics Report (Gain +5% combat vs Cardassian fleets for the next 12 months)
[X][ROM] Romulan Fleet Strength Report
[X][REPORT] Syndicate strength and how much Impact do we need?
[X][REPORT] The relationship between the Sydraxians and the Gretarians.
[X][REPORT] Klingon Fleet Strength Report
[X][RIGEL] USS Courageous
Xenopsych:
Priorities: Bonus diplomacy rolls, diplomatic bonuses, academy intake
Spock: 2310s Diplomacy 2309-2314(100%)[skill-up 2313], 2320s Diplomacy 2315-2321(94.56%)/2322(5.44%)[skill-up 2321]
University of Betazed: 2310s Affiliate Research 2309-2316(100%)[skill-up 2313]
Minerals:
Priorities: +SR colonies, +SR colony production
Tellar Prime Instutute of Mineral Science: 2310s Special Resources 2309-2313(100%)[skill-up 2312], 2310s Special Resources 2314 - 2319(100%)[skill-up 2318]
Medicine:
Priorities +crew techs, survival
Starfleet Medical Command: 2310s Intensive Care 2310-2314(100%) [skill-up 2314], 2320s Preventative Care 2315-2317(100%), 2320s Multi-Species Care 2318-2325(100%)[skill-up 2320], 2310s Trauma Medicine 2326-2328(100%)[skill-up 2328]
Generic Team ?: 2330s Long-Term Care 2318-2327
Explorer:
Utopia Planitia: Explorer 2310s Explorer Combat 2310-2312(100%), Ambassador Project 2313 -
San Francisco Fleet Yards: 2310s Explorer Science 2310 - 2312 (100%) [skill-up 2311] -> Starship Construction
Generic Team 2: 2310s Explorer Engineering 2310-2312(100%) -> Shields/Weapons/Starship Construction?
Starbase Design:
Priorities: +1 to response rolls from Control
Taves Nar: ToC Starbase Design 2310-2313(100%) [skill-up 2312], 2310s Starbase Design - Control 2314-2317 (100%) [skill-up 2317]
Defensive Doctrine:
Admiral Lathriss: Fleet in Being /Forward Defence 2311-2314(100%)[skill-up 2312]
Foreign Analysis:
Games & Theory Divison: Cardassian Research (until replaced)
Generic Team 5: Klingon Research (tier 1) 2311-2315(28.125%)/2316(71.875%) -> Xenopsychology?
@JesseJ, the only problem with that idea is crew. Building four Oberths costs sixteen techs, and I don't think we really have sixteen spare techs kicking around. Canceling one Excelsior would only free up about five or six.
While I wouldn't support replacing any Excelsior builds with Oberths, we could definitely replace a Miranda refit and/or a Centaur-A with Oberths. We're pretty much out of our tech crew crunch, especially by 2315, because with the combination of the ships we'll be building then (Excelsior, Renaissance, possibly Centaur-A) and our high tech crew income means that we'll be getting a large tech crew surplus unless we start building more science ships.
The trouble is that these last four or five intelligence reports have been the same "good opportunity". We have never gotten any kind of fleet strength report for either the Romulans or the Klingons through the entire span of the game. So yeah, I find that to be pretty interesting.
Really? Huh, that is interesting. And it's not like our waste of an intel report last year on the upcoming Romulan-Klingon war would have been used on a fleet strength report, because we would've dedicate it to anti-Syndicate intel. (At least, I hope we would have, but the voters can be very reactionary and lose sight of priorities only a year ago.)
It's still not urgent, but we should spare a report on either Klingon or Romulan fleet strength this year, and the next year on the other. Probably Klingons this year, since we get an extra Romulan report every year, until about 3 years later once our research gets us another Klingon report.
The Apiata ships and doctrines actually make them the most effective wolf pack hunters we know of. They wouldn't be great at exploration like we are, or long endurance fleet battles like I'd imagine the Amarki and Cardassians are, but in a conflict that's still at the raiding level, they are definitely going to outplay the Sydraxians at their own game.
Kadeshi, Sydraxians, and Risans all got a facelift. I originally based the Kadeshi ships off of Kushan designs, but rereading the Biophage arc they're clearly supposed to look more like, well, Kadeshi, with the Pride being the obvious exception (also, the Pride's new nacelle configuration makes much more sense for its frame). As for the Risans, I missed a mention that @AKuz made of their warp engine design in an early omake, which they look much more compliant with now. My first draft of the Sydraxian ships just looked too much like Dominion ships.
I hope that Pride of Kadesh at least has shield emitters. That's one ship that they absolutely can't afford to lose, or lose engines or some other critical functionality early in a battle.
I wonder what the Pride of Kadesh's statline looks like. I suspect it's bad for it's size, but it's so big that "terrible for it's size" probably looks something like C15 S* H40 L20 P* D*.
Asterisks because a civilization ship isn't going to use normal rules for Presence or Defense. And because while I doubt it's sensors are much better than 10, the lab aspects of it's science rating should be off the charts given that it's probably got a built-in university or two.
Knowing the Kadeshi predilections, I suspect that Pride of Kadesh is more a carrier than a battleship. Hull is probably excellent, don't get me wrong, but combat power is going to be relatively low- while the ship has an exceptional ability to use those industrial replicators to turn out escort vessels.
Yeah, but we've had workers spontaneously become panicked to the brink of rioting in an attempt to demand that their queens be evacuated from an endangered colony ship- even if there is no immediate or direct danger.
"Save the queens!" is the Apiata equivalent of "women and children first!" I guess. But it also communicates how self-abnegating a 'normal' Apiata worker can be.
Are the Rom and Klingon fleets specs really that interesting/pressing? It just seems extremely unlikely that we will come into conflict with them in the near future or that their fleet developments will actually necessitate adaptions of our own. I think that this might be a good opportunity to look into some of the lesser races and their goals/developments.
Having a rough idea how many ships both sides have would be really important if we are to understand any wars they fight.
It's gotten to the point where we know more about the Cardassians- knew more, even before Grey October- than we know about the Klingons and the Romulans. And we've known about the Klingons and Romulans for a hundred years or more, whereas we just met the Cardassians about seven years ago!
It's ridiculous.
Also did you just pick those diplomatic posture reports at random? We know what we need to know about the posture of the Lecarre, and the Sotaw are in a position that makes it nearly impossible for us to interact with them. Look at the write-in options; we have much more important things to worry about.
Jesus I hadn't realized the Apatia had C4 L4 D4 escorts. Sure, shit hull, but that doesn't count for much with 4 shields and numerical superiority. If I had to guess, those swarmers aren't so much starships as tactical warp capable gunships. Bet they get that kind of performance by being basically incapable of independent operations.
The one-point hull is a serious disadvantage if the enemy has weapons with any chance of shield burnthrough, mind you, but it isn't inherently so bad. I do think that their queenships are insufficiently armored and rely too much on shielding; that might just not be possible from an engineering standpoint for the tiny swarmers, but it should be possible for the queenships, which are built to the same scale as heavy cruisers or explorers.
The Apiata ships and doctrines actually make them the most effective wolf pack hunters we know of. They wouldn't be great at exploration like we are, or long endurance fleet battles like I'd imagine the Amarki and Cardassians are, but in a conflict that's still at the raiding level, they are definitely going to outplay the Sydraxians at their own game.
...ish? They outclass the Sydraxians, but unlike the other powers you listed they don't have any ship with a Combat rating above 4, with the possible exception of their (unique?) grand queenship. For them to be the best wolf pack hunters we know of they'd need to have an awful lot of those stingers, and their current total escort count (including stingers, foragers, and possibly others) is just 19.
Any enemy with shield burnthrough tech is also going to give them a very hard time, but that's highly situational.
Nice. The faces are a great touch
I hope that Pride of Kadesh at least has shield emitters. That's one ship that they absolutely can't afford to lose, or lose engines or some other critical functionality early in a battle.
While Oneiros is certainly going to enlighten us on the specifics by year's end, I imagine the Kadeshi have spent the last few years refitting their ships with shield generators and replacing their ion cannons with phasers. The Pride is definitely going to integrate the best Federation and Romulan tech they can get their hands on.
