The Earth - Romulan War (non-canon)

[Rahul]

Based on the discussion in the "controversial opinions" thread, it seems it is time again for our annual thread on the Earth Romulan war
Now of course with updated information from DIS, PIC & SNW.

I’ve always wondered if there’s any significance to the fact it’s called the “Earth-Romulan War.”

In the real world, it’s an artifact that “Balance of Terror” was produced for TOS before the Federation or Starfleet had even been given names and created as concepts for the show.

But in-universe, I wonder that since the name is not “Coalition-Romulan War” that it signifies the Romulans were able to divide the Coalition we see in Enterprise (maybe at least in the beginning), and Earth may have stood alone initially? It’s interesting that Enterprise shows a lot of delegates for the coalition, but only the Vulcans, Tellarites and Andorians join with us to become the founders of the Federation.

Sisko has a line in DS9 that’s always intrigued me. He warns the Federation president that if the Dominion are able to land Jem’Hadar troops on Earth, the planet will see the sort of conflict it hasn’t experienced “since the founding of the Federation.” I’ve always wondered if that implies the Romulans were able to attack Earth in some sort of massive way during the war. And the reason it’s called the Earth-Romulan War is that we took the brunt of the fighting.

That's always pretty much what I figured; Archer's "we'll go it alone" speech almost writes itself.



I've never thought about that fully, but it makes sense. Reman shock troops trying to land on Earth perhaps? There are similar lines regarding the Breen attack and Earth having not seen a direct attack like that for some time, though I cannot remember the specific line. Martok does note that not even the Klingons dared attack Earth directly, which is interesting juxtaposed with your idea.

Controversial Opinion/Personal Headcanon: The Battle of Cheron (which in canon is supposed to be the pivotal battle of the Earth-Romulan War) and occurs in some fictional star system (that may be the home to the half-white, half-black people from "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"), should be retconned to be the "Battle of Charon" and occur around Pluto's moon, Charon.

I think that makes more sense given the fact that in TNG's "The Defector" it's referred to as a "humiliating" defeat that still bothers the Romulans two centuries later. Think about a huge Romulan fleet on the edge of our solar system, having already got some of their ships through in attacking Earth, poised to achieve a stunning victory against humanity, only to be turned back in the end at a pivotal battle near Pluto.

It's all my personal headcanon, but for me the Romulan War goes something like this:

• Romulans see Earth is successfully building a coalition, and attacks before the defense alliance is formalized
• The Romulans use drone ships, the fighting takes place almost exclusively in Earth space, kind of a reverse Afghanistan, the Romulans spread terror, but even when shot down their drones self destruct, so the humans learn very little, not even what Romulans look like
• Earth's allies don't want to get involved directly - war is unpopular - but they support with a lot of resources. Once they realise humans actually stand a chance, they even hand over their superior technology
• Earth manages to fastly build up a large fleet - NX ships, build with Andorian steel and weapons, Vulcan sensors and engines, Tellarite shields, and human crews
• Earth gets a critical win - it manages to bring the war into Romulan space (battle of Charon).
• The Romulan public and senate changes their mind - they don't want dead Romulans, they don't want war on their home turf.
• The Romulans sign a peace treaty with the humans. Weaponized drone ships become outlawed (that's why we never see them in TOS or TNG) A neutral zone gets established
• Earth suddenly has the biggest & most technologically advanced standing fleet of the allies. The Federation is formally founded. Starfleet with it's human-designed ship becomes the de-facto main military power (like America is in NATO), but politically & socially all members are equal. Archer holds a speech. He mentions a gazelle

What do you think?

 

[BillJ]

I take SNW didn't change anything of matter, like who won. So, not sure what it adds to the discussion.

 

[Rahul]

Time travelling Romulan assassins

(Also SNW seems to generally stick with the "not knowing how Romulans look like"-schtick outside of time-travel stories)

 

[Nyotarules]

Based on the discussion in the "controversial opinions" thread, it seems it is time again for our annual thread on the Earth Romulan war
Now of course with updated information from DIS, PIC & SNW.







It's all my personal headcanon, but for me the Romulan War goes something like this:

• Romulans see Earth is successfully building a coalition, and attacks before the defense alliance is formalized
• The Romulans use drone ships, the fighting takes place almost exclusively in Earth space, kind of a reverse Afghanistan, the Romulans spread terror, but even when shot down their drones self destruct, so the humans learn very little, not even what Romulans look like
• Earth's allies don't want to get involved directly - war is unpopular - but they support with a lot of resources. Once they realise humans actually stand a chance, they even hand over their superior technology
• Earth manages to fastly build up a large fleet - NX ships, build with Andorian steel and weapons, Vulcan sensors and engines, Tellarite shields, and human crews
• Earth gets a critical win - it manages to bring the war into Romulan space (battle of Charon).
• The Romulan public and senate changes their mind - they don't want dead Romulans, they don't want war on their home turf.
• The Romulans sign a peace treaty with the humans. Weaponized drone ships become outlawed (that's why we never see them in TOS or TNG) A neutral zone gets established
• Earth suddenly has the biggest & most technologically advanced standing fleet of the allies. The Federation is formally founded. Starfleet with it's human-designed ship becomes the de-facto main military power (like America is in NATO), but politically & socially all members are equal. Archer holds a speech. He mentions a gazelle

What do you think?

Works for me, now go write a novel....

 

[C.E. Evans]

There was the old idea that no Romulan was ever taken as a prisoner during the war as it was their practice to blow up their own ships rather than surrender. That added to the no one knew what a Romulan looked like thing. All communications with Romulans were audio-only, and even the postwar cease-fire and negotiations to establish the Neutral Zone were conducted that way, IIRC.

 

[HotRod]

Earth manages to fastly build up a large fleet - NX ships, build with Andorian steel and weapons, Vulcan sensors and engines, Tellarite shields, and human crews

I like everything except this.

The NX Class was shown to be time consuming to build. I'd rather picture Earth building a fleet out of far simpler designs that could be cranked out en masse. Similar to how the allies built Liberty and Victory ships during World War 2.

We know that Daedalus class was around during this era, as well as the Freedom Class. I'd rather ships such as these make up the bulk of the fleet, while more complicated ships like the NX Class be held in reserved for special operations.

 

[F. King Daniel]

While these are fun mental exercises, we all know that if they ever do the Romulan war on screen they will just do whatever they think is good at the time and bulldoze the existing lore. I can 100% see them doing massive fleet battles with hundreds of ships on each side, and everyone promising to keep the Romulans' Vulcan heritage secret at the end because continuity.

 

[Saul]

The NX Class was shown to be time consuming to build. I'd rather picture Earth building a fleet out of far simpler designs that could be cranked out en masse. Similar to how the allies built Liberty and Victory ships during World War 2.

Yeah. Any potential show or movie isn't going to make NX a hero or main ship in this. It will be something new and suitable to the time. I see NX as the Galaxy class of it's era. They need to show the other side of Starfleet, the ones with the not so fancy ship, no view screen, transporter etc.

 

[somebuddyX]

I keep changing my mind on it every decade. Nowadays I think it was a war fought between the four powers and Romulans, and it took place over about eighteen months to two years but with buildup and then a post-war period. I'd love for it to include all different references from canon and non-canon stuff, like there were Daedalus class ships alongside NX class, or Balthazar Edison fought with Tiberius Chase. There was long distance drone fighting like in Enterprise or closeup ship battles with Birds of Prey or the ugly Romulan ships from the Chronology. There was ground battles with Remans or just armoured Romulans like in "Space Above and Beyond." There was some behind the scenes politicking where some people knew what the Romulans looked like but hid it for either positive or negative reactions. I'd love if there was some interservice conflict between say Starfleet, MACO, UESPA and maybe even UESN, who I'd make just the equivalent of the space airforce. That way you could try a bunch of different stories in different styles in different theatres with different characters.

 

[drt]

The NX Class was shown to be time consuming to build. I'd rather picture Earth building a fleet out of far simpler designs that could be cranked out en masse.

USS Franklin from Star Trek Beyond seems like a tough little ship that was easier to build & cheaper than either of its NX or Intrepid class contemporaries. So I favor those as the principal fighting ship of the Romulan War - it also helps that it’s about the size of a Warbird.

 

[HotRod]

USS Franklin from Star Trek Beyond

That would be a Freedom Class (apparently it was seen on a monitor). I genuinely love the look of these ships and could easily see them operating in small attack groups of 3 or 4. If the NX class is a Heavy Cruiser, the Freedom Class would be a Frigate.

 

[Rahul]

That's a good one! Yeah, she even looks kind of rusty, mass produced.
(Of course should they ever make content set during that era we will get a new ship design - but until then, that's the war workhorse in my headcanon).

 

[evilchumlee]

I like the put the Daedalus-Class as THE Romulan War ship, with a sort of link to "old" canon... rather than being a super-high tech, bleeding edge vessel it's kind of old tech that can be massed produced quickly. The NX-Class is a great ship, but expensive and hard to manufacture. So... when confronted with a true interstellar war, Earth slaps together a quick and easy vessel and rather than trying to get fancy things like phase cannons, photonic torpedoes, etc., they just slap a ton of nuclear warheads and some lasers onto it. Side note, in my version, Franklin is a bit of an older design and a competitor to the NX Project. We know even by early ENT, national militaries still exist... I have a whole story about how Franklin was the American alternative to United Earth's NX Project. NASA is largely defunct by the this point, but the US Space Force absorbs most of the US' space infrastrure. NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab becomes the USPF Warp Propulsion Lab and comes up with the drive for the Franklin, but it ends up being fundamentally flawed and while it beat NX to Warp 4, it was also basically it's top theoretical speed (the USPF then attempted to reverse engineer Vulcan-style warp with XCV-330 Enterprise, also largely to failure and would end up being the final design before the old Earth militaries were rolled into direct United Earth service... although I flip flop on whether XCV-330 should be an earlier attempt prior to Franklin.)

My conjecture for how it goes down is that the Romulans had been poking around for some time, and we already actively at war the the Tellarites before the "formal" start of the war. After the plot to destabilize everyone fails, they go to plan b and go "hot war". Earth happens to be the furthest away and most of the real damage ends up going to Tellar, Andor and Vulcan.

Earth emerges with a massive fleet, relatively unscathed infrastructure, and is now among the most powerful in the region... leading to the human dominated Federation.

I see the actual fighting of the war as something more akin to "space trench warfare", with two "lines" that keep trying to poke holes into each others with not a ton of movement, with Earth pumping out cheap Deadalus-Class ships. My little reference I put in was to mirror the NX-Class, and how "NX" gets adopted by the Federation as an experimental vessel... the original name for the Daedalus-Class is "NCC-Class", which stands for "Nuclear Combat Cruiser". NCC-100 Daedalus is the first of her class, and once the Federation is adopted, the now-ubiquitous NCC-Class is renamed "Daedalus-Class", and in honor of "the ship that won the Romulan War", Starfleet registries begin with "NCC".

My idea for the end of the war is that the Coalition never had a great idea of where anything was in Romulan space, but finally broke through and discovered Charon... which appeared to be a major shipbuilding/manufacturing world. The Coalition wins a space battle and controls the space around it. The Romulans doctrine has been to just orbitally bombard into submission... but not everyone in the Coalition feels comfortable with that. They decide to go with a massive planetary invasion, the likes of which had never been seen. As they gear up to land forces on the planet, having under siege and cut off from the rest of the Romulans... a subspace radio message comes through to discuss a ceasefire.

 

[valkyrie013]

I always like the Comet class from Starfleet museum as the "Work Horse" that was latter refined into the Daedalus class after the war.
https://www.starfleet-museum.org/fireball.htm
Which is basically a "Liberty" ship style of just cranking out dozens a month to fill up the fleet ranks. A large engine, weapons, few creature comforts. Some of my writings have them pushed out as fast as possible, and that the interior isn't fitted out yet. Everything works, but is quite spartan, no doors, etc. and the crew, during there time between battles, has to outfit the ship with said doors, and other comforts. Saves time and kind of shows how long a particular ship has lasted in service.

Latter after the war, with the technology sharing, the comet is refined into the Daedalus class with all the latest offerings. There still pushed out, but they are complete.

 

[evilchumlee]

Latter after the war, with the technology sharing, the comet is refined into the Daedalus class with all the latest offerings. There still pushed out, but they are complete.

That was what I just pegged the Daedalus as, given that we DO know of it... it wasn't in service as of 2154, but was retired by 2196... that's a pretty short lifespan for a Trek ship.

I see the Daedalus as a mass produced, bare bones ship that Earth was able to spam... and then after the war, Earth had this massive fleet of ships, even if they weren't exactly of the highest caliber. They were quickly rendered largely irrelevant once the Federation started produced ships, and just a few decades later were entirely retired.

In my version here, I have the Daedalus and Franklin as related... Franklin being an older US Space Force design with the Warp 4 drive, Daedalus actually began its design as a successor to Franklin. Franklin was small and designed more as a ballsy move by the Americans to show-up the NX Project that was using single man craft... the US was going to make their home grown warp testbed a fully manned starship. Daedalus would have been the "production" model to have the drive fitted, but the project died out and Daedalus along with it. The specs were brought back when the Romulan War fired up and Starfleet needed ships quickly.

Like most everything else on the NX-Class, the NX-Drive was pricey, difficult to build and required a ton of maintenance. The USSF drive, while limited to just a fraction over Warp 4 was a fairly bulletproof design that was much easier to produce. So with a few modifications, they just went ahead and used the old design. It was slow, spartan, and relatively low tech compared to most ships out there but... they worked, especially against the Romulans... who were largely using a bunch of downright ancient vessels that may have dated as far back as the exodus from Vulcan. The Daedalus was no match for something like a T'Varo, but they were few and far between.

Post-war, the ships were suitable for the fairly herculean effort of the humanitarian mission to rebuild Tellar, Andor and to a lesser extent, Vulcan. Much of the weapons payload was repurposed to cargo and the ships were instrumental in ferrying supplies from the newly awakened industrial giant of Earth. Once the Federation came to be and the founding members had recovered, the limitations of the Daedalus became much more apparent. They were slow, uncomfortable, and just all around outdated... with many of their systems being original spec of the 2130's.

The once mighty Daedalus quickly fell from grace, being relegated mostly to cargo duty or frontier patrols. By the time they were officially retired in 2196, most were already out long since out of service. However, although retired from official Starfleet use in 2196, the Daedalus-Class didn't disappear, largely entering into civilian use, some even still existing well in the 24th century.

 

[valkyrie013]

@evilchumlee
Thats where you enter the "Blocks"
Daedalus class wasn't just 1 blueprint, and copy and pasted for say 20 years of production.
Block 10 were the "Liberty Ships" of the war, pushed out in a hurry, barely able to meet demands, sheer numbers tin can destroyers.

Block 20 were late war versions with lessons learned on production, and integration of better technology, like say shields, tractor beams, faster drives, but still spam in a can in luxuries.

Block 30 were post war versions, some more time taken to integrate all the new technology, and fitting out for explorations, some Block 20's were refit to 30's equipment. still loaded with weapons just incase the romulans come back.

Block 40, were the last block, 5 years after the end of the war, less weapons, more science and exploration oriented, fitted out with more luxuries, warp 7 engines etc.

Most of the earlier blocks were phased out, given to border patrol, planet and colony fleets for protection of ECS ships etc. By 2171, were discontinued for better ships as the design wasn't flexible enough to incorporate the latest and greats, and that were being pushed out but they served for 25 more years. Not a bad run, remembering that early Jet aircraft were not in service for long, with technology passing it by.

 

[evilchumlee]

@evilchumlee
Thats where you enter the "Blocks"
*snip*

That works too. There could definitely be some refinement along the way. I also had an idea that the ships could end up being something of a "Frankenstein" fleet...

Earth isn't necessarily producing these ships as like, a single piece. With United Earth in full war production, the likes of which the planet had never seen before, damn near every available manufactory was producing something for the Daedalus. It didn't always end up that these factories were producing just exactly enough for the ordered ships... they were just building whatever they could, as fast as they could. Also given that it was an older design anyway, Earth shared the schematics with the other Coalition forces, who found the design to be fairly versatile and adaptable to what industrial capacity they had left.

Alot of them were build in Sol, some were produced in Vega, and quite a few were also built elsewhere utilizing whatever was at hand... the platform proved to be exceptionally adaptable. It wouldn't be terrible uncommon to see a ship was basically an Earth-built Deadalus, that ended up with a Vulcan shield generator and Andorian tractor beam installed. The tech in the ship was almost SO primitive that it could handle things being... colloquially... "duct taped" together to work. I have a story in my head that the Kumari is destroyed, but lives on as a Daedalus "ugly", having had useable components salvaged from the wreckage.

I do like the idea that as the fleet grew, refinements to the design could have been made. I'm not sure I love the idea of them still being produced post-war. I see them as very much a wartime design that got churned out en masse, and then as soon as able newer designs were coming out.

I'm not sure I like the idea of formal "Blocks" for the ships... for some reason I envision their construction to be fairly manic and haphazard

 

[HotRod]

I've made up an image of what I think a fleet would consist of during the Romulan War. This is assuming that Earth is going at it alone, without the aid of Vulcan, Andor, etc.

This would be a joint operation between Starfleet, the United Earth Military and the Earth Cargo Service.

The Flagship of the Fleet would be an NX Class (Heavy Cruiser). In my mind, they managed to expedite the time if took to build them, and by the time the war really heated up, they had managed to field 6 in total. They would act as Command and Control ships for the entire Fleet.

The Fleet would also include an Intrepid type (Light Cruiser). In my own head canon, I figure that by the time the war heated up, they were able to equip every ship in the Fleet with at least a Warp 4 engine. Ships like the Intrepid would also have been outfitted with NX Class upgrades, such as Photonic Torpedos, and Pulsed Phase Cannons.

Traveling with the Fleet would be conscripted ECS Freighters acting as support ships for the Fleet. They would carry food, fuel, munitions, spare parts, etc.

I've included a Sarajevo type ship in the Fleet. In my mind this is a United Earth Military ship that has been converted into a mobile communications / electronic warfare platform. I've made up in my head that the ship uses the Quantum beacon technology acquired by the NX-01 to render the Romulans 22nd century cloaking technology essentially useless.

Sticking close to the core of the Fleet would be a number of the Delta type ships we saw in Enterprise. These would act as escort ships for the primary capital ships. They are not equipped with torpedos, but they would have a good number of Pulsed Phase Cannon ports, aiding in their ability to shoot down incoming Romulan ordinance.

Getting further out would be a large number of Daedalus Class ships. These would be the true workhorses of the Fleet. Bare boned and mass produced, they would act Destroyers and be heavily armed for their size with Phase Cannons and Photonic Torpedos. In larger numbers, they are a force to be reckoned with.

At the furthest reaches of the Fleet would be a number of Freedom Class ships acting as Frigates. These would be far enough from the core of the Fleet that they would act as an early warning system/first line of defense. We know from Beyond that they are armed with Pulsed Phase Cannons and Spatial Torpedos. I like to think these were Earth Military ships, attempting to beat Starfleet to Warp 5, but stalled at warp 4. When the war broke out, Starfleet started pumping out Daedalus Class ships, while Earth's Military pumped out the Freedom Class.

The bulk of Earth's wartime fleet would be made up of 6 Battle groups such as this. One for each NX Class they managed to build. Giving us a total Fleet Size of a little over 100, which I find to be a reasonable number, considering what we know of Earth in the mid 22nd century.

 

[Tuskin38]

I like everything except this.

The NX Class was shown to be time consuming to build. I'd rather picture Earth building a fleet out of far simpler designs that could be cranked out en masse. Similar to how the allies built Liberty and Victory ships during World War 2.

We know that Daedalus class was around during this era, as well as the Freedom Class. I'd rather ships such as these make up the bulk of the fleet, while more complicated ships like the NX Class be held in reserved for special operations.

That’s how it was in the Enterprise Romulan War novels IIRC minus the freedom class since it didn’t exist yet.

The Daedalus class was mass produced while the NX Classes were slowly built up.

 

[evilchumlee]

I've made up an image of what I think a fleet would consist of during the Romulan War. This is assuming that Earth is going at it alone, without the aid of Vulcan, Andor, etc.

I think the Coalition powers would be involved, although in my version of events I somewhat skirt the issue by having them take incredibly heavy losses very early in the war, before Earth could really do much of anything. Like by 2156, Earth has... 3 or 4 NX-Class ships that could even get to the battlefield. So by the time Earth can actually commit any reasonable amount of forces, the Vulcan, Andorian and Tellarite forces are in shambles.

The Flagship of the Fleet would be an NX Class (Heavy Cruiser). In my mind, they managed to expedite the time if took to build them, and by the time the war really heated up, they had managed to field 6 in total. They would act as Command and Control ships for the entire Fleet.

That sounds like a good number. IIRC there were like 10 planned. Getting out another 4 by the war seems reasonable.

The Fleet would also include an Intrepid type (Light Cruiser). In my own head canon, I figure that by the time the war heated up, they were able to equip every ship in the Fleet with at least a Warp 4 engine. Ships like the Intrepid would also have been outfitted with NX Class upgrades, such as Photonic Torpedos, and Pulsed Phase Cannons.

I hadn't considered those vessels getting a warp upgrade. I don't think they would be super relevant in the war, only because there are likely only a small number of them anyway. Even if they did get warp upgrades, I can only see a handful of them existing.

Traveling with the Fleet would be conscripted ECS Freighters acting as support ships for the Fleet. They would carry food, fuel, munitions, spare parts, etc.

I like this, something else I hadn't really considered. Although those freighters are slow as molasses, not sure how much help they would be. I had them pegged less for doing anything towards the front lines, more so ferrying cargo around the Coalition... which would still be incredibly long journeys.

I've included a Sarajevo type ship in the Fleet. In my mind this is a United Earth Military ship that has been converted into a mobile communications / electronic warfare platform. I've made up in my head that the ship uses the Quantum beacon technology acquired by the NX-01 to render the Romulans 22nd century cloaking technology essentially useless.

I like addressing the cloaking situation.

Back when ENT was airing, I had compared the Romulan cloaks to the Suliban cloaks, which we saw utilized some form of radiation to achieve the cloak (how it "stuck" to Trip's arm and cloaked it.) So I figured 22nd century cloaks were more of a... passive cloak, not actively bending light like in the 23rd century. Once they were able to study the Suliban cloak and understood the radiation, they were able to fairly easily counter it and render it useless.

Getting further out would be a large number of Daedalus Class ships. These would be the true workhorses of the Fleet. Bare boned and mass produced, they would act Destroyers and be heavily armed for their size with Phase Cannons and Photonic Torpedos. In larger numbers, they are a force to be reckoned with.

I understand the thinking of giving them Phase Cannons and Photonic Torps like the NX, but I feel like it would make them just as complex/expensive as NX's at that point.

I try to reconcile canon wherever possible, so I ran with the idea that the war was fought with "primitive nuclear weapons"... given the fact that the Daedalus is essentially a long tube, it felt natural for me that the "engineering hull" area was initially designed as a massive nuclear missile bay. They just loaded the things up with old style nukes, since the heavier hitting Photonic Torps were complicated and expensive... and the nukes proved effective against the fairly simplistic Romulan ships anyway.

I like to put Lasers on the Daedalus, at the least the earliest ones, somewhat sticking with "old" canon, although I could see a case for them having the plasma weapons NX-01 originally had.

My argument for Lasers is in keeping with the theme of the Daedalus being cheap. All you need for a Laser is power. Plasma weapons would need... well... plasma to operate, which must some sort of finite resource. Slap a powerful reactor in a ship and you can get... unlimited lasers!

At the furthest reaches of the Fleet would be a number of Freedom Class ships acting as Frigates. We know from Beyond that they are armed with Pulsed Phase Cannons and Spatial Torpedos.

Take into account we are seeing an early Federation configuration of the Freedom Class. It may have received upgrades at some point.

I like to think these were Earth Military ships, attempting to beat Starfleet to Warp 5, but stalled at warp 4. When the war broke out, Starfleet started pumping out Daedalus Class ships, while Earth's Military pumped out the Freedom Class.

We align like halfway on that. Same thing with being an attempt to create an alternative warp drive to the NX Project, although I generally have Starfleet taking over the reigns of the "space navy" so to speak prior to the war. The Earth Military in my version handles ground troops and terrestrial aviation.

I don't really love the idea of having too many Freedom Class around. I see them as similar to the NX, but actually older. Whereas the NX-Class is basically top the line late-2140's, Freedom-Class is more top of the line late-2130's/early-2140's. I like to think they are largely irrelevant and there's only a handful of them at best. I honestly only ever factored in just the one.

Giving us a total Fleet Size of a little over 100, which I find to be a reasonable number, considering what we know of Earth in the mid 22nd century.

It is certainly a reasonable number.

I tend to go a bit more ham on it, with almost the entire fleet being Daedalus-Class and by wars end, having produced in the area of 250. My caveat to that is that while we get a stated crew compliment of 229, I write that off as something of a maximum potential and only really seen post-war. During the war I have it almost opposite... the Daedalus could be effectively crewed with an absolute skeleton of crew of around a dozen.

I have the idea of Earth and its bigger colonies just pumping these out, and without the more exotic tech of the more advanced ships, they can be truly mass produced. The real limiting factor is crew.

In my version it's crucial for there to be a ton of these produced because Earth having a massive fleet is absolutely critical for the formation of the Federation and the handoff of Starfleet... it's a bit of a tangent, but in my version of the war/early Federation, as i've noted Tellar, Andor and Vulcan were decimated. Earth rides in as the cavalry, wins the war and Earth Starfleet immediately begins a massive humanitarian / reconstruction effort, repurposing the massive Daedalus fleet for the task.

While appreciative of the help, some of the Coalition are concerned that Earth... who most still consider to be young and inexperienced, not to mention rogueish and hotheaded, are holding a massive fleet over them. Worse yet, Starfleet, not necessarily Earth, are administrating the whole recovery effort. Some are worried that it's Earth's military going for a power grab that the other powers would be powerless to stop, evidenced by even the Earth government itself not stepping in to take over... it's quite literally Starfleet just taking it upon itself. Starfleet Command argued they were just trying to help and they were in a position to act quickly.

While some talk of closer ties had been discussed within the Coalition previously, the topic of "the Federation" came up again, fueled partially by a newly unified group who suffered through the war, but also has a way to regulate the massive fleet and coordinate the recovery effort.

By around early 2160, The Federation is essentially agreed upon and entering planning phases, although there was one topic left... the military. The elephant in the room nobody wanted to address. Starfleet truly just wanted to help, and was in a position to be able to not be bogged down by government bureaucracy... which was also what made some of the members uncomfortable. The Federation almost fell apart of it, Andor and Tellar were going to back out.

Earth wanted the Federation to happen, and in an outright unprecedent move, outright offered Starfleet... nearly in it's entirety... to transfer under Federation control. An agreement was reached that was satisfactory to most, Starfleet became a body under direct Federation control while retaining much of its general autonomy it enjoyed under Earth command, and would slightly reorganize to add Federation members into the command structure at every level.