Defeating an organisation that spans across multiple solar systems is never going to be
an easy task and the United Federation of Planets, for all its faults and declarations
of peaceful inclusion is no exception.
Hello, Ric here with another video on the United Federation of Planets.
Several times throughout its history it has been challenged by other powers and with stood
them all, but for the sake of things, let’s look at how to go about finally defeating
the Federation.
Okay so I’m not going to break down into individual battles and tactics here, as with
the rest of the Federation Series, this is more of a general overview.
Also, the Federation and Starfleet in particular are generally the “Good guys” so this
whole video kinda paints an opposing force as the opposite.
We’re going to look at the Federation of the 2370’s as opposed to earlier times as
the organisation was much smaller then but by the time of the Dominion War, Starfleet
and the Federation were a much bigger organisation spanning some 7000 plus affiliated planets.
However it was much more focused on exploration doubling down on the ideals of diplomacy and
cooperation and taken aback by the sudden and overwhelming opposition it faced.
If you want some in depth Dominion war analysis, check out Lore Reloaded’s series on the
matter as he covers various encounters in detail, but in many ways, the increasing threats
the Federation faced served weaken Starfleet in particular but tempered what was left into
a more militarised force.
Another big threat was the Borg Collective who were able to launch two attacks against
the Federation, the second making it all the way to sector 001 before it was stopped.
However, the Borg tactic involved time travel and simply preventing the Federation from
existing in the first place so…
I call that a cheat.
Anything could be beaten with time travel.
Except the chicken.
Cos it came first.
So that leaves the Dominion and the Klingons as the biggest threats to Starfleet and ultimately
the Federation.
Both these forces had one thing in common however and that was the sheer firepower of
their fleets in both numbers and size.
Much of Klingon society see themselves as warriors, therefore a huge percentage of their
spacefaring civilization is focused on warfare and the Dominion is a 2000 year old superpower
where troops and ships are manufactured and churned out at incredible speeds.
So there’s you first method, having the bigger stick doesn’t ensure victory but
it certainly helps.
Stay clear of Federation space, in fact the space of most other races.
Build this power in secret then hold on until the time is right.
In Star Trek Discovery, it’s mentioned that the Klingons became such a threat because
their tactics were highly aggressive and unpredictable, attacking whatever flew a Federation flag,
regardless of tactical advantage or losses to themselves.
I have my own issues with the Federation-Klingon War in Discovery but the war events still
happened.
Plus it’s a viable tactic, if a costly one that would prolong a conflict and incur massive
collateral damage.
Now the Klingon’s didn’t care about that, but the Dominion did.
The Dominion didn’t want to destroy Starfleet and raze the Federation to the space-ground,
it wanted to collapse the Federation and take its place in the alpha quadrant, after all
the goal of the Founders was to bring order to all within its Dominion and there’s no
point being a ruler, if all you’re going to rule is pile of smouldering ashes.
So the Dominion employed a greater variety of tactics to destabilise the Federation in
prelude to open warfare.
They began by infiltrating Starfleet, the Federation’s guard dog and used their position
to create chaos through misdirection and this methodology served them very well.
So inserting sleeper agents and the like has proved effective in the past, if only for
short term results.
They also encouraged the enemies of the Federation to act out, first turning the Klingon empire
against them through the same sort of manipulation and even organised crime operations became
the beneficiaries of Dominion plots that targeted the Federation.
So Starfleet has its blind spots, criminal syndicates and the affairs of foreign powers
and manipulating these is more likely to go unnoticed than a spy in the centre of Starfleet
HQ.
But let’s take this one step further too.
Why not start with those outlying Federation colonies?
Rather than destroy them, try to divide them, cut them off from the support of the UFP.
We’ve seen in the past that planets that view themselves as “expendable in the Federation’s
eyes” have rebelled, such as the Maquis.
If situations such as this can be engineered across other colonies, even if only 10% of
a hundred worlds affected rebel, that’s still another thorn in the side of the Federation.
Another way to force the Federation apart would be to induce squabbles among its member
races and peoples.
The often bureaucratic federation has to juggle the needs of many, many planets so some are
going to fall through the cracks, breading resentment.
The infiltrations and undercover harrying of Starfleet can compound this issue by simply
overloading the number of plates the UFP as to spin.
And more importantly, it serves to discredit them.
Look how many in Starfleet defected to the Maquis.
If you can offer a small colony world something better, safer than the Federation, well suddenly
it becomes a bit more difficult to stand by an organisation so far removed.
The Federation too has numerous enemies, some aren’t even a true threat, like the Sheliak
and the Talarian, but could become dangerous if properly supplied and motivated.
If you hadn’t seen it by now, the key to defeating the Federation lies in being as
diverse in tactics as they are and being surreptitious in your approach.
The Federation is viewed by many as a positive force and openly opposing it suddenly paints
you as the villain so discrediting its ideals is equally important, propaganda and informants
in the right places are key.
This, in my opinion, is one of the areas where the Dominion failed ultimately.
They ended up uniting the Alpha Quadrant against them because they were perceived from the
get go as a threat, believing themselves superior enough to outmanoeuvre the efforts of several
militaries.
Their strategy was Divide and Conquer but in such a blatant fashion that uniting against
them was the obvious answer.
Though Section 31 played a massive part of this by accelerating the Dominion’s plans
by inflicting the Founders with a virus, by the end of the War, they had no time for subtly.
Ultimately any attack on the Federation would need to have had years of ground work.
By this stage, the Federation will have lost worlds, been harried by enemies that were
no serious threat but served to disperse Starfleet and been painted in a more negative light
as its unity failed.
Discrediting them to this extreme hopefully prevents them from receiving aid from species
like the Klingons.
It’s at this stage that you strike.
As mentioned to begin with, you need the firepower to be able to stand against Starfleet vessels
but until now, holding back on the attack means that you should have been able to build
your offensive in secret and have presented false numbers until now.
A couple of smaller ideas that occurred for actual combat with the Federation.
Taking out their leadership is generally pointless.
Starfleet captains are trained to be autonomous for much of their career so simply taking
out a command ship won’t cut it, another officer will simply step up.
Same with the Federation itself.
There is a president of the Federation, but she/he answers to the governments of every
member planet and species, there’s just too many to remove at once.
This is why you attack their unity, by driving the members apart you can create conflicts
of interest.
Eliminating the head of the Federation governments simply makes it easier for a single unifying
voice to step up and rally the remaining, undoing much of your hard work.
Instead focus on cutting off trade routes, communications and adding to the chaos through
misdirection and subversion, add to the sense of division and isolation.
Another point to note.
It’s important that the conflict not be drawn out, the Federation adapts.
It has the experiences of all its members to draw on and the more time it takes to win,
the more strategies they will develop and countermeasures will be erected.
So your portfolio of abilities needs to be equally diverse and rotated quickly to avoid
repetition.
So a long war?
Not a good idea.
We see this with the Breen Dampening Weapon.
Originally devastating to Starfleet and in the short term an ace in the hole, but a defence
was soon discovered.
After all, even the most basic Starfleet vessels are equipped with numerous scientists, engineers
and access to massive archive of research so the longer a conflict, the more innovative
they’re going to get with their defences.
No, a short conflict with a sledgehammer approach would work best here, targeting communications
and aiming to disrupt the Federation before moving onto its homeworlds.
The only way to make that a successful victory however is to prepare beforehand by isolating
its components and souring its relations with other potential allies.
If you’re particularly dastardly, you can use morality against them as the UFP has shown
time and time again that it places saving lives over that of winning a conflict.
Hey I said this was how to defeat the Federation, not do it in a way to win friends.
Thanks for listening.
I think the Dominion came the closest to beating the Federation and if it wasn’t for some
questionable section 31 actions coupled with the Dominion’s overpowering “Evil” aura
unifying everything else against them, they may have actually succeeded.
Ultimately this is all just theory as the Federation is unlikely to fall to anything
except an overwhelmingly powerful entity and even then, they have the ultimate plot armour.
Plus Star Trek without the Federation?
Could you imagine what the ships would look like without Starfleet designing them?
Anyway, thanks again and of course, can you think of another way to remove the Federation?
Or perhaps even supplant it?
Let me know below.
Until next video, I’ve been Ric and I’ll be building my interstellar empire in secret
with pamphlets.
Goodbye!