Okay so the romulans supported the federation and Klingons in Inferno's light and not all cardassians were pro dominion(Enabran Tain). What if a Federation-Klingon-Romulan-Cardassian alliance had been forged from the outset of the dominion war? With the dominion having to use other powers as proxies/allies-such as the Breen, Tzenkethi, Tholians, etc... Assuming no prophet intervention can the dominion take the full AQ on(or at least the major powers)?
If the Prophets didn't block the wormhole and the Dominion could send fleets from the Gamma Quadrant as much as they wanted? No hope.
What they fought in the series was a small Dominion force, abruptly and unexpectedly cut off from the large fleets that were to follow, and even so, the Dominion was winning aginst the Federation and Klingons. The Cardassians were weak following the Klingon war, they wouldn't have been much help to the Federation/Klingon alliance. So you're asking if a larger Domion force came through the wormhole would they have been stronger than the Romulans alone? Yes, they certainly would have been.
I suppose you could always station hundreds of ship at the wormhole entrance and attack the Dominion ships as they exit the wormhole in that instance.
If the Federation mined the wormhole and the Dominion did not have automatic access to the industrial capacity of a major AQ power, I think that the best the Dominion could hope for would be a protracted, but ultimately futile, war.
If the Federation had surrendered DS9 to the Klingons, we know the war would have been won. If the Dominion did not have an alliance with a major AQ power they would have no pretext for sending huge fleets through the wormhole, and thus probably would have had fewer ships on that side when the Federation mined the wormhole and wouldn't have been able to take the station.
Have to agree that if the Dominion had full use of the wormhole then the AQ had little chance, unless all the major powers (UFP, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Ferengi, Tholians, Tzenkethi, Gorn, etc) banded together and kept a fleet of at least 10,000 ships posted around DS9 at all times--even then it would take heavy losses with each incursion. The Dominion would counter with sending even more Changelings through to undermine and counter their combined efforts through subterfuge sowing discontent with the alliance ranks, or utilise cloaking technology taken from the Obsidian-Tal Shiar fleet--many ships would still be lost but enough would get through for them to establish a foothold and begin to build the own forces within the AQ.
If the Dominion could send ships through the wormhole at will, obviously the Dominion wins. But if the Federation mines the wormhole and the Dominion doesn't have a foothold? No way they get DS9 back and no way they ever take down the minefield. They'd run into a white shortage almost immediately. That's probably why in The Visitor the future was okay except with the Federation and Klingons not friends. The Klingons found a more effective way to make sure no Dominion ships could ever cross.
In this game, the Romulans and the Cardassians are apparently significant only in terms of the real estate they hold. Cardassian space is key to controlling the wormhole vicinity (they are next-door neighbors), and Romulan space is key to backstabbing the Federation (they are next-door neighbors). The related space fleets probably aren't much of a factor - Cardassians without Dominion help are primitive and weak, Romulans like to stand back perhaps because they only have a Potemkin fleet of a few big ships for show. Romulan participation would mainly matter late in the game, then, with the Dominion already making far-reaching moves against the UFP. Cardassian participation would be crucial in the beginning. But if Romulus, rather than Cardassia, granted early sanctuary to the Dominion expeditionary force, how would that play out? The Dominion force would be cut off from the wormhole by more than a minefield (obviously not their preference), but OTOH they would have access to the industrial base of a more advanced star empire, with centuries of practice in fortifying its borders against the Feds and the Klingons... Timo Saloniemi
Mining the entrance to the wormhole only held the Dominion back for about a year. Stationing ships near the entrance would also only work for a little while. I think the AQ's only hope would be collapsing the wormhole altogether -- ironically, what Dukat did for them.
Then again, the Founders probably would crush Alpha by conventional means (sending an armada at regular warp speeds, complete with Jem'Hadar breeding factories, resources for shipbuilding at least equal to what they had on Cardassia and hopefully better, and hopefully also some sort of control superior to "We are condifent that the Vorta will represent us") no matter what. Indeed, they probably still will, around 2450 or so - the armada no doubt is already underway, indeed has been underway ever since "Sacrifice of Angels" at least, and there's no reason why it should receive recall orders. The best Alpha hope against that would be counterstrikes through the wormhole. So total collapsing would backfire - they need a channel through which to launch bioweapons, insert secret agents, cunningly redirect Borg invasions, whatever. Timo Saloniemi
The minefield held until it was directly deactivated. That took one week. The Dominion would still have to go through the process of capturing and holding the space around the wormhole as well as control the station and converting it so tht it could deactivate it. (presumably the equipment on Dominion starships was insufficient to the task).
I agree, the Dominion in the Gamma Quadrant probably sent a fleet promptly after Sacrifice of Angels. Best case, Female Shapeshifter agreed to no invasion of the AQ as part of the peace treaty, and the GQ Dominion considers themselves bound by that treaty.
Yes, it would take a while, however they would eventually get the minefield taken down. Even if it took several years, their overwhelming numbers from the GQ would eventually prevail.
That's very debatable. I know they don't talk about supply lines in the show, but no, they would definitely need supply lines even with a superior force. We know the Dominion has enough ships to defeat the alpha quadrant powers, but enough that they would detach such a large force from defending their own realm, for 100 years, with no way to manufacture white? For that hypothetical fleet to be able to conquer the AQ, they'd have to conquer a series of softer targets along the way, and establish infrastructure. And oh yes, the AQ has 100 years to improve weapons technology and the gem'hadar won't. They were dealing with white shortages in season 6 and needed to trick the Federation into giving them worlds with the ingredients, and that was after less than a year, how do you expect them to keep the white supply moving for eighty years in transit?
But the force marooned at Cardassia had no supply lines, and nevertheless nearly overwhelmed the Alpha Axis and won the war. The expeditionary detachment at Cardassia was always getting its shipyards blown up by sneaky Starfleet or Klingon attacks. It nevertheless outproduced the Alpha Axis! If a stranded expedition can do that, then it would be ridiculous to think the Dominion Homeland would have any difficulty producing, say, fifty thousand ships for their armada, or suffering any sort of shortage if launching those ships away from Homeland. The Jem'Hadar need not defend their own realm - there has béen no military challenge to the Dominion for the past 2,000 or 10,000 years, take your pick from their propaganda. And the Jem'Hadar rule their realm with an iron fist whose main attribute is that it cannot be seen. If the Jem'Hadar ceased to exist, the Dominion wouldn't even notice for the first thousand years or so. (And they would pay even less attention to the Founders disappearing, since they don't even truly believe in 'em things!) Why would the expedition lack the means to produce ketracel white? The Dominion can produce the substance. The expedition stranded at Cardassia could produce the substance without contact with the Dominion. The armada could no doubt produce its own white as well, then. And its own Jem'Hadar, as something like five to seven generations (to use the word liberally) at the very minimum would be born and die without seeing their destination. The expeditionary force established war-winning infrastructure in a matter of months between the first convoy (of nothing but warships from the looks of it) in "By Inferno's Light" and the last in "Call to Arms". They did that on a besieged third-rate world that itself had loudly complained about suffering from a lack of resources. I don't see major hurdles for the armada here, either. Indeed. But the Dominion doesn't believe in development or adaptation - it apparently has faced none in its history. So this would not hinder the launching of the armada. Would it hinder the military success of the armada? Perhaps, perhaps not. We haven't seen that much advancement in Starfleet between ENT and TNG. Sheer numbers might still hand the victory to the armada, even if Starfleet ships sheltered beneath "Endgame" armor and fired phase-cloaked quadro-cobalt torpedoes or whatnot. The armada would not be facing constant attacks aimed at denying it from shipyards, white ingredients, Jem'Hadar breeding fluids and whatnot. Oh, it might be facing constant attacks by random passersby or peoples steamrollered by its advance, but those attackers would not know to target the logistical weaknesses. On the other hand, as mentioned, remaining invisible is a major Dominion speciality: they do it at the level of an individual infantryman and the entire government alike. So avoiding attacks until the H-Hour of the D-Day should be a breeze. Timo Saloniemi