Federation and Conflict with Small Powers

[Workiwork]

I had a nerdy discussion with friends (like you do) about the realism of Trek. The conclusion, as always, was to not think about it too hard. but one point came to mind that could be interesting in the Game.

In Lore the Federation has a long history of wars and conflicts against powers they could easily destroy if they wanted to, heck they would have wrecked Cardassia if they wanted to in the first conflict (the o'brian hero arc war long before the dominion war).

Will there be conflicts on that scale? War with a small power and the federation unable to do anything because they are so much more powerful that they are simpley not allowed to destroy the enemy? There were "Wars" in Lore that would be better shown as Events than anything else.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

Cardassian is no more a “small power” today, than it was during the conflict in which O’Brien played a role. The Cardassians are one of the Alpha Quadrants Great Powers, supremely worthy of being the fourth faction in STI.

Perhaps a better way of looking at it is, that unlike the Klingon Empire, or the Cardassian Union prior to Civilian-control, which can transition effectively and efficiently to a Total War footing, the Federation by its very nature is reluctant and even adverse to Military Domination and “easily destroying” any coexisting civilization.

 

[Workiwork]

nono, i said the federation could beat cardassians, so even smaller powers would be easily beaten if needed to be.

so the smaller powers i meant were the even smaller ones. sorry for the confusion.

(and there is the difference between military dominance and inviting aliens to massacre your citizens because you are unwilling to show strength. but that are the nerdy discussions i meant before ^^ )

*edit*
But I grant that we do not really have enough information to be sure of the power levels of the big powers. So let's ignore big power comparisons.

 

[CaptainNEXUS]

The Federation was struggling to beat the Cardassians, in part because they dind't really engage their military industry until the first Borg scare, but also because they were still in a cold war with the romulans and couldn't just remove all ships from the neutral zone frontier.
They may have the capacity to beat the Cardassians if fully committed, but truth is the Federation is a bit overextended for their own good and complacent in their pacifism.

As for war with lesser powers and how this plays into the game, the federation out of principle is not allowed to initiate wars of agression and their goal is seldom conquest.

 

[Koopatin]

what about lesser powers attacking bigger ones? suicidal as it might be. in stellaris vannila AI would see that the chance of winning is 0% and do nothing. But from a lore perspective, some powers thought.. well.. let's try.

I am thinking of something like:

Federation-Tzenkethi War

The Federation-Tzenkethi War was a conflict between the Federation and the Tzenkethi in the 24th century. Benjamin Sisko fought in the Federation-Tzenkethi War aboard the USS Okinawa, as Captain Leyton's executive officer. The Tzenkethi used raiders during the conflict. (DS9: "The Adversary"...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

(Of course, I assume the word war is a stretch here, but something like events and situations in stellaris would fit maybe. Stellaris has events that need for example 1 troop transporter, 2 science ships or a fleet. Maybe a border conflict with small powers would spawn an event that needs at least x ships but no more than y ships to start a conflict event chain, but that drifts very much into suggestion territory)

 

[CaptainNEXUS]

There are reasons why a minor power could attack a major power, especially if they have allies

 

[Cassilda]

I agree with what written in the previous posts, Cardassia was far more militarized than the Federation as a society, so that's why it was performing better on the field compared to the Federation for its industrial base, population and resources. I think also, game wise, sometimes the empires might just "blob" beyond what happened in the canon, so the strategic situation might change as it very often happens in most Paradox games compared to history.

Having to consider also the public commitment to a conflict should be a great game mechanic for a democratic and pluralist society like the Federation, if included, at least in my opinion.