What is the real power of the Dominion?

[Inactive-Shapeshifter]

So, before season 6 the Defiant had several encounters with the dominion, and was able to so some damn good damage and destroy several ships.
In "Call to arms" Martok's ship destroyed one fighter with just few disruptions shoots.
Few moths later, in season 6, the federation AND the klingon empire are losing the war, the Dominion is damn powerful and it seems that 3 of the fighters could destroy the Centaur... 3 ships of the same kind that a old bird of prey just destroyed with a few shoots....

Am i missing something?

 

[Tosk]

That every situation is different?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Individual Dominion ships never come off as being that powerful. The Dominion is just able to produce them at a massive frequency.

 

[Inactive-Shapeshifter]

Individual Dominion ships never come off as being that powerful. The Dominion is just able to produce them at a massive frequency.

Yeah, but in that case they've had mined the wormhole... the only ships that the dominion had ware the ones that already passed on the wormhole, while the federation and the klingons had all the ships they've built.

 

[Inactive-Shapeshifter]

That every situation is different?

Yeah, sure... But we have to get some logic here, don't we?
Besides, i'm not only talking of one case, but one entire war...

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

It's the same thing that happens with EVERY race.
They're big and scary at first (Remember when the Vorta could shoot energy at an enemy from their necks? Then holy crap, Jem'hadar just walked RIGHT THROUGH the force field, force fields mean nothing to these guys!) then the writers realize they have to be a constant but beatable threat on a weekly basis then make then seriously weak, but then for the war ramp things back up again when the writing needs it.

 

[Enabran]

I felt that they handled the strength and power of the dominion pretty well. Cutting off the wormhole always seemed to have positive effects in the long run, and it makes sense that when a new race is encountered it will take a while to adapt to their technologies.

I found that the founders seemed so powerful that just a couple of them could have caused a lot more damage than they did (which was still quite a bit to be fair). I mean, they could have been infiltrating starfleet for a couple of years, and should have been able to get access to ship specs, weapon configuration, etc. and done this to the klingons and romans as well.

 

[bbjeg]

^That's the most viable answer. The Founders were masters at infiltration, at least until the Federation and other species started screening people. It's not a big jump to say the Dominion got all sorts of intel from their spy network.

I was going to mention their production capabilities but as Shapeshifter pointed out, post the retaking of DS9, all of the ships produced were not from the wormhole. Even if they swarmed the Alpha Quadrant in the beginning, by the time they retook DS9, they were falling back.

So, the real power had to be from tactics, not numbers.

 

[Inactive-Shapeshifter]

It makes sense that the Dominion could update their technology. I'm just saying the federation started to "lose the war" a bit too soon. It was a very hard change on the plot. One time we had the danger of a possible dominion invasion, on the other the federation AND the klingons TOGETHER are losing.
They weren't such a large treat in the beginning. I mean... if they really believed the Dominion could just defeat the federation that easy they would have mined the wormhole much earlier...

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

The Dominion have an ability to rebuild themselves at impressive speeds. They can make shipyard facilities, cloning facilities (for the Vorta), Birthing chambers (for the Jemhadar) and ketracel white factories all over the alpha quadrant and they'll be back in great numbers and with huge firepower, in no time.

 

[MacLeod]

The fortunes of war can ebb and flow, one side comes up with a new weapon the other side a new defense, and so on.

Initially the Dominion might simple have been over confident or even arrogant to a certain degree, it might have been centuries or millenia since they had last fought a war on that scale.

 

[bbjeg]

The Dominion have an ability to rebuild themselves at impressive speeds. They can make shipyard facilities, cloning facilities (for the Vorta), Birthing chambers (for the Jemhadar) and ketracel white factories all over the alpha quadrant and they'll be back in great numbers and with huge firepower, in no time.

The thing is where would they have gotten the materials? If they got it from the Cardassians, why didn't they just make more ships themselves?

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

The Dominion have an ability to rebuild themselves at impressive speeds. They can make shipyard facilities, cloning facilities (for the Vorta), Birthing chambers (for the Jemhadar) and ketracel white factories all over the alpha quadrant and they'll be back in great numbers and with huge firepower, in no time.

The thing is where would they have gotten the materials? If they got it from the Cardassians, why didn't they just make more ships themselves?

I am guessing that there are countless asteroid belts, uninhabited planets like our Mars, Jupiter etc... by the millions all over the quadrant, where they can built as many mining facilities as they need.

 

[Inactive-Shapeshifter]

The Dominion have an ability to rebuild themselves at impressive speeds. They can make shipyard facilities, cloning facilities (for the Vorta), Birthing chambers (for the Jemhadar) and ketracel white factories all over the alpha quadrant and they'll be back in great numbers and with huge firepower, in no time.

The thing is where would they have gotten the materials? If they got it from the Cardassians, why didn't they just make more ships themselves?

I am guessing that there are countless asteroid belts, uninhabited planets like our Mars, Jupiter etc... by the millions all over the quadrant, where they can built as many mining facilities as they need.

And the federation would just sit and wait the Dominion to get full resources for building up a entire fleet before doing anything about it? I don't know about you, but i think the Klingon wound't like that much...

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

The thing is where would they have gotten the materials? If they got it from the Cardassians, why didn't they just make more ships themselves?

I am guessing that there are countless asteroid belts, uninhabited planets like our Mars, Jupiter etc... by the millions all over the quadrant, where they can built as many mining facilities as they need.

And the federation would just sit and wait the Dominion to get full resources for building up a entire fleet before doing anything about it? I don't know about you, but i think the Klingon wound't like that much...

I believe it is said that for each inhabited system there are about forty thousand that have no life bearing planet on them whatsoever. It would take incalculable resources to guard them all with sufficient force.

 

[Inactive-Shapeshifter]

I am guessing that there are countless asteroid belts, uninhabited planets like our Mars, Jupiter etc... by the millions all over the quadrant, where they can built as many mining facilities as they need.

And the federation would just sit and wait the Dominion to get full resources for building up a entire fleet before doing anything about it? I don't know about you, but i think the Klingon wound't like that much...

I believe it is said that for each inhabited system there are about forty thousand that have no life bearing planet on them whatsoever. It would take incalculable resources to guard them all with sufficient force.

Perhaps, but they sure would try destroy the facilitys after learning of their existence. it's better fight the ships the Dominion had then than wait they transform all the resources on more ships...

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

And the federation would just sit and wait the Dominion to get full resources for building up a entire fleet before doing anything about it? I don't know about you, but i think the Klingon wound't like that much...

I believe it is said that for each inhabited system there are about forty thousand that have no life bearing planet on them whatsoever. It would take incalculable resources to guard them all with sufficient force.

Perhaps, but they sure would try destroy the facilitys after learning of their existence. it's better fight the ships the Dominion had then than wait they transform all the resources on more ships...

It's not easy to infiltrate the Dominion with spies. How do you pretend to be a Jemhadar or a Vorta? Therefore it must not be easy to learn of their secret plans.

On the other hand it is very easy for the founders to take the shape of any species they want to get information from.

 

[Jedi_Master]

So, before season 6 the Defiant had several encounters with the dominion, and was able to so some damn good damage and destroy several ships.
In "Call to arms" Martok's ship destroyed one fighter with just few disruptions shoots.
Few moths later, in season 6, the federation AND the klingon empire are losing the war, the Dominion is damn powerful and it seems that 3 of the fighters could destroy the Centaur... 3 ships of the same kind that a old bird of prey just destroyed with a few shoots....

Am i missing something?

TV shows are wildly inconsistent?

The "in-universe" answer is that the Dominion gets its power from its centralized command structure, massive resources, completely loyal administrators and soldiers, and its massive fleets.

As a bonus, the Founders are masters of infiltration and disguise, and have no qualms when it comes to disrupting civilizations they consider to be a threat.

 

[Timo]

3 of the fighters could destroy the Centaur.

Well, the Centaur looked much smaller than the Defiant.

That is, if you get a good look at the model, all its scale-establishing features are taken from the USS Reliant kit, and depict a vessel roughly shaped and sized like a Miranda but with a smaller saucer. And we know what the Miranda and the Defiant look like when docked to the rim of DS9: the latter is the larger one overall, even if the former is a tad longer due to the dangling engine nacelles.

Also, the plot is well served by a small Starfleet vessel that can chase one Jemmie battlebug but is scared off by three of them.

As for the Jem'Hadar being a threat to larger vessels, those small bugships don't seem to be all that scary. Sure, they did some damage against the Odyssey - but that ship didn't have shields, or perhaps had a Founder aboard sabotaging the shields or reading out frequencies. After that, large Starfleet vessels are only damaged or killed by their betters - the large Dominion cruisers.

Those, plus the orbital fortifications, but that's again a welcome piece of continuity in Trek. If fixed forts weren't superior to starships, how come there are wars at all, when we know a single unopposed starship can single-handedly destroy a planet? No doubt the Federation fortifications are equally deadly, and explain why the UFP hasn't been conquered a thousand times already.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[bbjeg]

The Dominion have an ability to rebuild themselves at impressive speeds. They can make shipyard facilities, cloning facilities (for the Vorta), Birthing chambers (for the Jemhadar) and ketracel white factories all over the alpha quadrant and they'll be back in great numbers and with huge firepower, in no time.

The thing is where would they have gotten the materials? If they got it from the Cardassians, why didn't they just make more ships themselves?

I am guessing that there are countless asteroid belts, uninhabited planets like our Mars, Jupiter etc... by the millions all over the quadrant, where they can built as many mining facilities as they need.

You'd think if that were true, the Cardassians wouldn't have occupied Bajor or the Klingons wouldn't have needed Starfleet's assistance back when the Kitomer Accords were signed. Perhaps resources like dilithium is more scarce than you think it is.