So last time the Borg were vanquished once and for all, courtesy of some offscreen Janeway technobabble, and we discussed the Federation's path forward to final and ultimate victory: diplomacy. Our ambassadors will go out and scour the galaxy, convincing the minor powers of the Alpha and Beta quadrants to join the Federation, propelling us to a Triumph of Diplomacy victory once we've assimilated, that is
integrated twelve of them. With that in mind, let's take a look at the galaxy.
I'm currently in the middle of integrating the Bajorans (circled in green), with a few years left to complete. I'm improving relations with the Trill, Talarians, and Bolians (circled in yellow/light green), all of whom will be future targets for integration. The Trill and Bolians have nice civics that I want to grab, while the Talarians are a natural progression of outflank of the Cardassians. Speaking of whom, the Malcorian Republic (circled in brown) is currently a subject state of the Cardassians and might be the subject of a liberation war in the future. It depends on my mood and if I feel like the Cardassians need to be smacked down again. Down at the bottom of the map are the Nausicaan Skulltakers, aka the Pirates, who are definitely targeted for extermination. This won't bring me any closer to victory, but I hate them so it'll make me feel better to wipe them out. After the four integration targets above, I'll need three more to meet the victory condition. There's ample choice for that, with the most likely candidates being the Ktarians and Pelians, who are already tucked safely behind my borders in the bottom left segment of the map.
The fleets are all dispersed from the black hole warp node where we faced down the Borg and back to their home stations across the Federation. I do some economic housekeeping, which includes starting the terraforming process on half a dozen planets. My economy is healthy but I don't want to rest on my laurels. In particular, I'm looking to found a generator world that I can dedicate to energy production, which is currently the weakest area of my economy. It's not awful, mind you (+196), but I haven't come across a planet with a lot of energy slots in a bit (and I like to min-max my planets) so it's fallen behind food, minerals, and alloys which are all above 300. I can (and do) sell excess resources for energy credits when they hit the storage limit, but I figure it can't hurt to build in more capacity.
Not much of note happens for the rest of that game year. The Federation elects a new President to inaugurate our era of diplomatic outreach and integration.
Tellarites are well-known for their even-temper and diplomatic manner, so I'm sure he'll do great.
I'm ready to settle in to a long, boring period of peaceful expansion while I wait for the days to tick by until my inevitable victory, but the AI throws a curveball at me. The crisis might be dead and done, but the game hasn't given up the ghost just yet.
The Cardassians want to have another go. They've declared war on the Talarians, whose independence I've guaranteed to stymie Cardassian expansion, and now I'm being called on to back up my words with action. That's fine with me.
Intelligence reports that the Cardassians are no match for us whatsoever. Their economy is inferior relative to ours, while their military and technology are both pathetic. Of slight concern is the fact that the Cardassians seem to be cozying up to the Romulans despite their past enmity. I imagine this is due to my preeminence. As we could see in the last update, my score put me at 37.6% of the galactic power pie chart. At 33% certain bonuses kick in, incluidng diplomacy modifiers that make it more likely for the non-leading major powers to work together. This is presumably that effect in action. Not an immediate concern, since the Romulans aren't participating in this war, but if their relationship continues to improve from non-aggression and trade to a full defensive alliance it could get inconvenient for me.
This war should be a breeze, though. I send a fleet to cover Bajor and two more the raid the Cardassian border.
The Cardassians have built outposts in all the systems on their side of the border, but on their own they can't offer any meaningful resistance and the Cardassian fleet is, so far, nowhere to be found.
The pirates, on the other hand, can't keep away and choose this moment to raid one of my systems. Again. I send the Enterprise to kill them. Again. Man, I hate those guys.
You'll get yours, Nausicaans, just wait.
Six months into the war, the Cardassians finally make their move. Long range sensors detect ships moving towards Denobula so I redeploy the 1st Fleet from Bajor to defend the system, and I route the Enterprise from pirate extermination to cover the Bajorans.
A trio of Galors strafe the starbase over Denobula.
The Cardassians commit 17 ships to the attack on Denobula but, despite their numerical superiority, are clearly outmatched from the moment the battle is joined. When their warp cooldown has ended, they retreat before they can suffer more serious losses.
Note a familiar face leading the Cardassian fleet. Tell me, readers, how many lights do you see?
As expected, the war goes smoothly. The Cardassians are routed in the handful of engagements they dare to risk and my ships sweep through the border systems, flipping them to my control. I drop down a claim on one of the border systems that contains several inhabitable worlds, and then I sit back and wait for the Central Command to admit defeat. But while I'm waiting, I notice something very odd.
You can see at the top of the screen that the integration of Bajoran Republic is now about 90% complete and yet, somehow, the Bajorans have become a Romulan puppet state. Something is rotten in the planet of Bajor.
I'm not sure how this happened or when exactly - I don't remember seeing a notification for when Bajor changed from my ally to Romulan serf - but I'm left suspecting the invisible hand of the Tal Shiar. What else could be responsible? Romulan antipathy towards the Federation must be greater than I thought. They're not just cooperating with the Cardassians, they're trying to subvert prospective member worlds before they can join the Federation and get them out of my sphere of influence. Clearly, something is going to have to be done, but what should my response be?
