Missing ships in the fleet.

[Baconnaise]

I have to agree that I it would have added more to the war if we had mercenaries even fighting the dominion. There is plnety of documentation where mercenaries are employed (hannibal etc) throughout history and the show even has episodes that basically prove that mercenaries are a viable business regardless. It would have been foolish to not tap that market.

 

[Ra'min]

Well, World war two did have a lot of minor power playing a complex, sometimes changing roles. there were not just the three axis powers on one side, the three allied on the other.

The king of thailand had allied himeslf temporarly with japan, in order to "free" french-colonized laos.
The Shah of Persia, while officially neutral, had a agreement with Hitler and finally got invaded by the british.
Franco's spain was pro-german, but franco was (rightly) unsure of axis's victory and conscious that his own devasted country wouldn't make a difference, so he wisely stayed out.
Sweden remained neutral but strenghened his army and was ready to make a stand against germany.
Finland was invaded by the soviet, and thus became (without really wanting in) an ally of germany.
the king of Iraq (Fayçal) didn't like hitler but saw the war as a chance to get rid of the british.

and so on.

 

[USS KG5]

i was more concerned about the swarms of galaxy-class ships. tng stated a couple of years earlier that there were only four of them in the whole star fleet, and we watched the loss of three onscreen.

TNG said no such thing, an off-the-cuff comment Roddenberry made once got into the tech manual and sort of became "semi-canon".

DS9 made starfleet look a lot bigger than the earlier shows, and therefore we saw a lot more galaxy class ships. As the premier class of a 15,000 strong fleet I'd expect them to have a hundred or so.

 

[BenRoethig]

Weren't the Intrepid class ships intended to replace the Excelsior class starships which had been in service for more then a century?

James

No. The Ambassadors and the Galaxies were. Notice how similiar they are to Escelsiors....

Actually the Nebulas took the place of the Excelsiors. The Galaxies replaced the Ambassadors.

As for the other missing ships:
Intrepid: I really have nothing. You saw the Bellerophon in one episode and that was the only Intrepid class ship ever shown that wasn't Voyager.

Sovereign: Very new and very large. The Enterprise was just barely a year old when the war started and she was the second of her class. There just weren't that many of them around.

Oberth/Nova: Small with minimal weaponry. These were more or less dedicated science vessels. Add to that the Oberth was obsolete. Wouldn't last very long in combat.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Intrepid: One of the fastest designs in the fleet, if not the fastest. They'd probably be used for either scouting or hit and fade.

Nova: Despite opinions to the contrary, the Nova is extremely well armed for a mere survey ship. The fact that it has full phaser armaments, two torpedo tubes (I think w/ torpedo spam ships like the Sovereign and Akira, we tend to forget that the torpedo is a badass weapon) and is supposed to be based on the original Defiant design tells me its at least competent in battle. Hell, it survived in the Delta Quad without support. Its speed is apparently limited, but its extra shiny sensor arrays means it could probably see anything coming. My guess is that they were either escort ships or were "lookout" ships for convoys. To not use them at all would be a waste of perfectly capable ships.

 

[Arpy]

I loathe mercenaries. But they should have been in there too. The Ferengi would definitely use them, and the Allies would be desperate enough. Nausicaans, Chalnoth, Corvallens, etc - they'd all be for the hire, I think.

More than that, they could have just thrown in a bunch of ship models they already had into the battle scenes for these smaller powers that would have very likely taken sides even if they didn't get much screen time in the board-meeting scenes.

Ships on both sides, that is. Maybe the Sheliak, Yiridians, Dopterians, or Miradorn would have signed on with the Dominion.

Other cultures also were missing. The Cardassians used the Xepolite and Kressari to run supplies for them...maybe something about the Allies targeting such Cardassian supply lines.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Why was Voyager carrying Tri-Cobalt Torpedoes?

What were they gonna do w/those in the Badlands, blowup the Badlands?

THAT is a plot hole the size of Beluga whale.

The entire VOY series was a plothole the size of a Beluga whale.

 

[BolianAuthor]

I loathe mercenaries. But they should have been in there too. The Ferengi would definitely use them, and the Allies would be desperate enough. Nausicaans, Chalnoth, Corvallens, etc - they'd all be for the hire, I think.

More than that, they could have just thrown in a bunch of ship models they already had into the battle scenes for these smaller powers that would have very likely taken sides even if they didn't get much screen time in the board-meeting scenes.

Ships on both sides, that is. Maybe the Sheliak, Yiridians, Dopterians, or Miradorn would have signed on with the Dominion.

Other cultures also were missing. The Cardassians used the Xepolite and Kressari to run supplies for them...maybe something about the Allies targeting such Cardassian supply lines.

I agree fully with this. When I wrote "Star Trek: Entomalians", I had the Sheliak sign a non-aggression pact with the Dominion, but once they saw the way things were truly shaping up, they decided to turn on the Dominion, and other small groups like the Chalnoth or Naussicaans (I can never spell those right) also joined the fight against the Dominion, though never by way of actually joining with the major allied powers.

 

[nx1701g]

For some reason I would see the Sheliak staying out of it. They'd probably still be debating the Season Five nonaggression pact with the Dominion three months AFTER the war ended.