Lovely surprise to see my artwork used in your thumbnail. Created it 12 years ago but glad to see it popping up here and there still :)

We are the Federation. De-power your weapons and send us your ambassadors. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will be incorporated among ours. Diplomacy is inevitable.

"Don't push the Pink-skins to the thin ice" - An Andorian saying.

There was a big point someone told me about the Federation in a discord server I follow: Although the Federation has the smallest number of dedicated warships compared to the other factions of the Star Trek universe, the Federation is also the only faction known to over-arm non-military vessels. Who else but humans would put proton torpedo tubes on a diplomatic/humanitarian vessel?

“Always remember that expansion is achieved by diplomacy, not by the military. Starfleet’s mission is to preserve the peace. Our ships aren’t meant to start wars, but to end them. We attack only as a last resort.” Note how “end them” can be interpreted several ways: ships can ferry diplomats, and they can pound the enemy until the threat is eliminated.

It's nice to see a video where Starfleet's various positive aspects are actually acknowledged. Usually those kinds of videos overemphasize Starfleet's lackluster military prowess, complaining about how underpowered the federation's weapons are. But this video does an excellent job outlining why Starfleet's other assets well more than overcome that shortfall, leading it to be a powerhouse in its own right!

I quote (Mostly) from Prelude to Axanar: Karn the Unforgettable: The first rule of Warfare is to know your enemy. But with the federation you never knew who you are fighting. each ship was crewed by different species and captains, each with thier own favourite tactics. Fighting the federation was... frustrating. I think Thrawn would find this true as well. Especially with the unified designs of Starfleet ships making it impossible to tell at a glance who is in that ship.

I love that you got footage from a early nineties video game. I believe it’s either Star Trek Klingon, or Starfleet academy.

The Excelsior class has also been serving for over a hundred years, after a battle with the Dominion you often see Federation ships tugging away the damaged Excelsior classes to repair them

4:43 Defiant Class ships actually have one phaser array that can shoot in 3D on top of the hull in addition to the phase cannons. You can see it when it is attacking the Negh'var or the Lakota. In a heated battle though the Defiant uses its agility to attack with the phase cannons and quantum torpedos rather than array. A ship is willing to trade a phase emitter (a part of a phaser array) for a gravity stabilizer for the Defiant in "Faith, Treachery and the River."

Ferengi 1: Rule of acquisition number 34, war is good for business! Ferengi 2: But I thought peace was good for business! Ferengi 1: No, that is rule of acquisition number 35!

One thing you didn't mention is that Starfleet tends to try to avoid collatoral damage. They will do what they have to do, if there is no other way, but if there is a more difficult way that allows to avoid collatoral damage they will rather take that route. This could be a huge downside as it opens them up for failure, but it could also lead to them finding new friends or allies which could also be an upside.

Impressive. You dodged the big problems of analyzing Starfleet by looking bigger. Starfleet is tactically versitile, operationally fluid almost to the point of formlessness, and strategically reserved to the point of hesitation (which grants costs and benefits). Starfleet is like Sun Tzu's description of water as the element of war: Formless yet it seeks the natural path downhill, giving way to force and fire yet always reforming as a flood or a storm to swallow its opponents.

4:51 - "not heavily armored", he says. Meanwhile, the ship is clearly tanking multiple antimatter weapons to the bare hull, staying in one piece. 6:21 - The _Constitution Class_ from 100 years before the Galaxy Class could extend it's shields. We see this in "Mudd's Women".

I’d follow Chang to the to the farthest reaches! One of the best Klingon characters ever created and portrayed brilliantly by Mr Plummer!

Holy shit, I've never seen that Chang scene before. Fantastic.

The Federation has multiple species within it, which means many, many, many great works of art. I'm going to need a bigger boat--- ---I mean ship. Yes... a bigger ship.

Liked and Subbed once that Klingon Academy clip started playing. Chang’s writing in that game is amazing. The Founders tried the same in DS9. If Admiral Layton succeeded in declaring a Starfleet coup of the Federation, it would’ve been civil war, with the “brittle unity” shattered.

one side note: apparently the klingons could also link their shields into a array (star trek novel: Kobayashi Maru see also Montgomery Scott's Edinburgh solution). It just allowed ships flying in a tight formation (the classic line of 3) to essentially make one big shield and spread the load of an attack. but this limited the maneuverability of the individual ships.

The most terrifying thing about StarFleet is their Science, because even when the laws of physics give the probability of next to nothing? Starfleet engineers will figure out how to reliably tap that phenomina to do Scary Shit.

Just an update folks! This video did well and I would like to do one about the Dominion, Cardassians, and ofcourse the star wars Imperial Navy and Rebel Fleet, I'll be doing some Eve Online stuff (I hope those will do as well as this one) - my hope there is that even if you don't play Eve those videos will be interesting. Thank you all for the views, likes, and comments!

In the Board game Star Fleet Battles (that is Beta Cannon), Starfleet used a tactic call alpha strike, almost every weapon a Starfleet ship had faced foreword and their torpedoes could be over loaded to do a massive amount of damage so with their weapons fully charged Starfleet ships would direct power to their foreword shields, ECM/ECCM (electronic countermeasures/ electronic counter-countermeasures)Systems and Engines move in quickly hit their target with with everything they have as their reinforced front shields take brunt of the blow, then they would direct as much power as they could to their engines and move away and recharge and reload their weapons then move in on what should be crippled enemy ship. In a mass fleet battle alpha strikes were used by the heavier ships like the Constitution class or other types of heavy cruisers to take out the lead ships and their support ships would then protect the flank and rear

I know the point at the end about innovation and adaptation was intended as ‘Starfleet inevitably outthinks their threats’, but I couldn’t help feel like there was a comparison to the Borg there... adapt and overcome. Add to that the Federation as a whole being an assembly of dozens of different races bringing their unique qualities to bear, and... yeah. It’s an interesting parallel!

Though not canon, I would’ve loved to see a reference to Axanar, especially that part where they say “In the early days, most crews were made up of a single species; you didn’t know if you were going to fight Tellurite, Andorian, Human or Vulcan!”

5:08 I would have to disagree here. Given everything that we know, I would say that there simply is no material powerful enough to shield fully against the effects of 24th century weaponry.* Even the Defiant relies on “ablative” abilities rather than “resistive” ones. If Enterprise is canon, then every shot by the NCC-1701 and onward can shatter mountains. Suddenly, the Enterprise surviving a shot by the Reliant is a lot more impressive, isn’t it? (A bit of a side-note, but since the NCC-1701-D supposedly has the means to blow up an iron-based moon ... how do you think that it can achieve this?) *Which the Federation can produce. (See neutronium.)

Starfleet briefing- "The Galactic Empire is a police state whose vessels are designed to intimidate civilian populations, not wage a true war. Unlike their Venator class cruisers from their Republic era, note how very few Starfighters are carried, compared to a mobile base that can be deployed for police actions on an Imperial Star Destroyer and relatively few fighters, that have no shields and can be easily dealt with by standard phaser spreads and torpedo bursts. These vessels are designed to cow and punish civilian populations, not hold ground - these Imperials are not soldiers, but *police*. By showing that the Galactic Empire can not be in all places at once, and by using superior moral values, training, innovation and initiative, the Galactic Empire will be shown for what it is - a brittle, hollow shell constructed from this galaxy's Galactic Republic. By working wih our Rebel friends, treating them with respect, and understanding that the typical Imperial captain is a political appointee who is terrified of his superiors, we will make this sham of a government buckle, snap, crack and break. Unlike the Klingon Empire or our prior adversaries, these Imperials are craven cowards who are attempting to govern a restless population. Simply put, gentlemen, they are cowards. They only have one Grand Admiral Thrawn. We have a legion of heroes - you. Our tradition of courage, bravery and compassion will break this Empire's back, like it did the Dominion's. Deep down, fascists and racists are cowards. For the sake of the dead of Alderaan and several other worlds, let's show them what truly brave people can do. However, don't take our opponents for granted. They are as much a threat as the Dominion and the Borg were." Jean Luc Picard's briefing to the assembled Starfleet Admirals on the Galactic Empire.

A mishmash of races and cultures, come together through diplomacy and cooperation with the common goal of peace to avoid the highly destructive wars of the past... With goals of freedom and humane living conditions for all, and advancement of technology and culture, believing we can be more, not just as a nation, but greater as individuals through learning and dedication. EU, I love you.

Wasn’t their a joke about Ferengi battle tactics being something like ‘when in doubt, RUN AWAY!’

What you said about the inventiveness and adaptability of Starfleet would make a difficult adversary for the Imperial Navy. I really should do a video on what I call the Three Tiers of Energy Production for Starships in SciFi and explain how the differences between each tier is not incremental but substantial across all aspects or principals of the Three Tier Model.

Starfleet has this "I love you to give me an excuse to kick your treacherous ass." approach to violence while having phasers locked at a warp core.

5:00 ablative armour dealt with that problem from 2374 going on

I have to stop and say how much I enjoy your videos, your analysis and thoughtfulness about the whole thing. I know this is a youtube comment so I should be pissed about some minutiae, but whenever my partner says something to tease me about watching star trek lore stuff, I go "hey, which one of us is a space friend, and which isn't?" so u know, thanks for that.

The crazy part is...for its entirety the Federation has basically pulled its punches....they were able to hold off the Klingons, Romulans, and the Kardashians...then the Borg and the Dominion come along and they take off the gloves and put on brass knuckles...a perfect example is when the Doctor from Voyager get transmitted to the Prometheus and Starfleet basically send a Wolfpack consisting of an Akira and 2 Defiant class ships to either bring it back or take it out

"....Grand Admiral Thrawn would have a field day with this." Thrawn: *Tries To Fight Federation Starships With Star Destroyers And Other Hopelessly Outmatched Vessels*

Star Fleet favors agility and adaptability over raw firepower. They rarely ever win through a straight up slugfest, rather preferring to outmaneuver and out think their enemies. This reflects in their warships that Star Fleet is actually willing to call warships. They rarely build big, bulky battleships, and even the Sovereign, the closest thing Star Fleet has to a battleship is very lean in comparison to other cruisers and has a degree of agility that makes it more fly and fight like an oversized destroyer.

One important point is that the four main homeworlds of the Freds are all there in the center and surrounded by a vast bubble of minor colony worlds. The Klinks or Roms would attack these low-value border regions then get stomped by the basically intact but rather annoyed Freds. The Borg invasion was a shock because they had that turncoat Picard to lead them directly to Earth in a cosmic blitzkrieg.

Klingon Academy was the best ST game ever made because of this guy.

Chang and Thrawn would really hit it off over the Federation.

Back in the days of Master Of Orion I and II, i used to play games with a similar mindset as Star Fleet. It wasn't the easiest or the most efficient way to design and build your ships, but it sure was fun and challenging having most of your capital ships being self sufficient all rounders. Refraining from weapons of mass destruction and extremely large platforms (like titans and doom starts) as well.

A tv series on the general war from starfleet battles timeline would be a welcome change

Excellent, very good tactical summary and analysis!

I love your videos, you always do your research when making your videos it is much appreciated

Babylon 5 Doctrines please

I feel it important to point out that the Federation’s main strategy is to avoid fighting the war in the first place. They do this through a multi-faceted diplomatic approach that utilizes Starfleet in an exploration role; that exploration may be the single largest thing that helps the Federation avoid conflicts. To give an example: let’s say you’re the leader of a unified planetary government somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant in the 24th century. Your planet just achieved the creation of a warp engine, and are prepared to begin exploration of your local cluster. Suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, a ship appears in your system going speeds you didn’t think possible, almost as if the ship was operating on a different warp scale as your own fastest vessel; your scanners can barely register what they’re reading, but you’re fairly sure this ship has highly advanced defenses and weapons that could destroy continents. The captain of the ship contacts you, introducing themselves as representatives of the United Federation of Planets, and insisting that they come in peace. This is a jarring realization for most species that make first contact with the Federation in the 24th century. At this point, the Federation is a hyperpower, with technology so far surpassing anything a non-aligned planet could muster. The Federation’s exploration mission for Starfleet is designed to give off this kind of impression; it’s a show-the-flag operation meant to convince non-aligned powers of the benefits of joining the Federation (defense, technology sharing, trade); it also is a latent reminder to near-peer powers of the Federation’s reach, and ultimately of its untapped potential for war making. These non-aligned planets are then indirectly presented with a series of choices. The Federation is a frightening power, but there are other powers in the quadrant these planets will eventually have to deal with as well. Is it better for the planet to align with the Federation now or later? If a planet waits too long, they may find themselves under the sway of less benevolent powers: the Klingons, a warrior culture that conquers those they deem as lessers; the Romulans, a similar warrior culture that imperializes every planet that falls under their sway, stripping it of resources; or maybe the Cardassians, a highly xenophobic dictatorship that has prosecuted brutal campaigns of enslavement and genocide on multiple species. If everything a government does is diplomacy in one way or another, then the Federation’s use of Starfleet is a massively important source of soft power that influences dozens of systems to join the Federation, in turn making the Federation that much stronger in the long run.

IDC what anyone says Undiscovered country was my favorite trek movie

Amazing video my friend, your channel is quickly becoming a favorite of mine.

Don't forget the Ablative armor! :D Starfleet FINALLY starting development of good ole fashioned armor plating during the Dominion War. I hope the Defiant wasn't the only ship with it. Lol

A technique to defeat the standard Shield Phalanx is another of the oldest tactics in the book, first recorded used by Alexander of Macedonia. It's called Defeat in Detail and it's when, in this instance, 2 or 3 Dominion fighters engage the point ship in the Federation formation which have the focused shields of the other ships. The Dominion formation then falls back, drawing in the Federation vessels and possibly breaking their formation. The Attacking Dominion fighters maintain contact with the Nebula. This is not to destroy the point Nebula, but to simply keep it engaged and weaken the shields of its flanking vessels. The remaining Dominion ships converge on one of the remaining vessels to disable or destroy the rest of the fleet one by one.

Great video. Thanks

Great episode. Good to see someone treating the Federation as a military power in a thoughtful, balanced way and not just saying 'They don't make heavy warships, heavy weapons, invasion armies, or planetkilling/bioterror weapons, they're toast.' Wondering why you didn't use the quip that the Vorta (Weyun?) gives to the presiding founder when the Dominion fleet assaults DS9; "I warned you not to underestimate the Federation's technical skill." Fear of Copyright strike, maybe? (It's an absurd yet real possibility, even for a 5-second excerpt, simply because it aired on primetime and is now available as streaming content).

The way I see it the Federation war doctrine keep Starfleet contained to only fight within their territory. Basically Starfleet would be only limited to fighting and repelling invading enemy fleets; they'll never be sent on military campaigns outside of Federation territory. This is because the Federation does not conqueror plus fighting only a defensive war leaves the door open to peace talks once an enemy exhausts their fleet of ships trying to conquer them. It wasn't until the arrival of the Dominion into the alpha quadrant that the Federation had to start going on offensives outside of their territory.

I find it funny be criticize Federation Doctrine when it basically a modernized version if the early US Militia Doctrine mixed with one of the best R&D systems ever seen.

That point about Cruisers being heavily armed for exploration vessels reminds me of a comment from the _Culture series,_ questioning the Culture's pacifism, since their GCUs [explorers] are actually more heavily armed than most alien _Dedicated Warships_ they might encounter, the first time we read of one it is tearing apart a militaristic society's Cruiser [Warship] like a breakfast snack

Nice analysis!

Two words are very important to remember. Ingenuity and Initiative

Great video!

Federation/Starfleet = Jack of All Trades. That pretty much sums them up.

Thanks for explaining how photon torpedoes are for destruction only whereas phasers can be fine-tuned to be utilized as weapons or tools.

As soon as he mentioned the shield projectors i thought of Eve online That tactic in eve can be incredibly annoying and if you dont deal with it correctly, you may not even destroy a single enemy ship

great video! cheers

The Defiant? You mean Benjamin Sisko's Pimp Hand? (WE also need a video about a Borg invasion of New Eden...)

Great video i enjoyed it very much

Wow that was really good.

The shield enhancement tactic mentioned @6:49 is a standard tactic by a race encountered by Voyager. They're called the Hazari, a race who specializes in "bounty hunting" were hired and seen in an episode named after their employers called Think Tank.

This is why I don't think the Galactic Empire could ever really take on the Federation. While they have hyperdrive, which is highly limited because areas need to be mapped in advanced, Starfleet is just too highly versatile. And while they are very diverse, they tend to prefer to stay together almost to the point of an extreme addiction to one another. While each individual planet tends to have its own objectives, as a whole, they are highly unified to a T. Ships aren't necessarily built for combat, but they were designed to explore and deal with some powerful natural events, which means they can put up with a lot in combat with little to often no modification. When you don't know what your ships are going to put up with, you tend to make them to put up with everything. Their tactics tend to be the same, and they can change tactics on the fly, often multiple times if necessary. They also keep thinking, even when the battles get bad, they are always thinking. The Empire doesn't do this. They form their strategies in advanced, but do not modify them when situation changes. This is evident in both A New Hope and Jedi. Crews are afraid to voice concern, they stick with strategies till they are dead, and apparently they are willing to stab one another in the back at the turn of a hat. Their ships are also designed specifically for combat, which means they are designed to deal with weapons they know about, not what they don't know about. They aren't adaptable in combat and this has shown repeatedly (the battle of Sharif for example). It should be noted that Starfleet's tactics and though process tends to be very similar to that of the Rebellion. They tend to have smaller vessels, but they are fast, maneuverable but the crews know how to handle them and aren't afraid to take risk. They are willing to take greater risk and can change tactics on the fly when necessary. That's why I don't believe that the Empire could ever take on the Federation. Its actually well funded. The Federation has even shown the ability to take Hyperdrive like technologies and use them on the fly, without needing detailed maps of space (even though they can produce those on the fly too). Its my assumption that by the time of the Picard series, trans warp and or Quantum Slip stream should be in use by the Federation.

Starfleet's adaption to Star Destroyes: Attack them from below or behind.

Something ol' general Chang does not seem to realize: few things unify better than a common enemy.

the azari in voyager the think tank episode, the azari use shield projection tactics to reinforce the attacking lead ship’s shields, but i thought i heard a nod to that episode cause u said “star fleet is a think tank of innovative solutions” lol

Every good federation captain has learned to mask their signature by anything in space. In big engagements against equals their strength is pure guile.

Early Starfleet weakness that took them a long time to overcome - limited fleet experience. Most ships acted as individuals and came together only in emergencies. The other major powers appeared to operate in pairs or trios quite often. Starfleet got away with this for as long as they did because qualitatively they're better than the Klingons or Cardassians. Since they're never looking to conquer, they don't fight in groups and pile on. Cardassia was in economic ruin after what the Federation called a "border war." It's almost insulting to think of the advantages Starfleet had and chose not to use.

Thank you.

I liked the voice actor they had for Thrawn in Empire at War: Forces of Corruption.

innovate and adapt to win the day. No wonder we like StarFleet Vs The Borg.

I was so taken by the video "Prelude to Axanar" That I took it upon myself to write a spin off novel "Axanar: The Destroyers". When the Starfleet technical manual came out in the 70's, it featured a smaller single nacelle Starship as a Destroyer. Even after serving in the US Navy, I prefer smaller ships with small, tightly knit crews over large capital ships. It was great to see a Single Nacelle Destroyer featured but was disappointed to see that all it could do was "Die well". And so, I took it upon myself to write a novel about how this class of ship needed to find a place in this war. Some concepts addressed in my novel: 1) The main character opens the history books and re learns how to use Destroyers. 2) With the D-6 Battle Cruiser making short work of even the Heaviest capital ships, the hero "Up guns" Some of the ships in his squadron with Andorian . He was able to pull this off by "Testing" Andorian phasers for the then secret Ares warship program. This is how the Andorians convinces Starfleet that their phasers are every bit as good as the ones the Vulcans refuse to provide. 3) He adopts the "Triad formation" Of the Klingons. In order to compensate for the Destroyers low shield power, he opens the history books and dusts off another 20th century fighting tactic, The Thatch Weave where the ships maneuver in scissor pattern. As the lead ships takes a hit, it falls to the rear of the formation to re charge its shields. Another advantage is that while weaving and crossing paths, the Klingons cannot get a weapons lock on any single ship. 4) With the Ares Class entering full scale production, the supply of Andorian phasers slows to a trickle. While the 20th century US Navy's cancelled MCLWG project (A lightweight 8" gun for Destroyers) Inspired his up gunning program, the WW2 M-4 "EZ-8" , an up gunned Sherman Tank inspired him how to use his up gunned ships. One up gunned ship per triad. 5) As the Ares Class assumes the duty of engaging enemy ships, the Destroyers find themselves transitioning from holding the line against the D-6 to assuming traditional Destroyer duties. Once again the lessons of history repeat themselves. In WW2, the up gunned EZ-8 Sherman's were needed to counter the enemy's heavy tanks but were lacking in traditional infantry support where the conventional Sherman's were superior. Likewise, the up gunned Destroyers were useful for keeping the D4,5, and 6's at bay but the regular Destroyers proved better at supporting Marines on the surface and guarding against the smaller Bird of Prey and Raptors.

1:10 Didnt Eddington basically say that to Sisko of the Federation: you know what the difference is between the Borg and the Federation? None both try and assimilate you it is just that the Borg tell you first.

Awesome video. Do The Dominion next.

First time I've seen your content. 👍 I'll check out your channel.

You know, it almost sounds like you're talking about the Borg! Great video

I love the nebula class

Thank you for applying Eve Online to Star Trek. I am an Eve player as well.

I bet whats next Dominion combat doctrine I can't wait

Good to see Klingon Academy included.

Would love to see videos on Dominion and Cardassian strategies. Your videos are very interesting and informative. Unsure if Delta Quadrant factions would make for a good strategy video. Borg seem pretty simplistic, "send in one giant ship to trash an entire fleet".

Zentradi fleet tactics from SDF Macross. Lets see how Thrawn deals with Bretai.

The new Norway-class was at the Battle of Sector 001 too. Shame it got its mesh destroyed during the fight so it couldn’t join in during the Dominion War though...

I don't think I've ever seen anyone going really in-depth with phaser strips, it seems to be a uniquely Federation design.

I think Thrawn might just be stumped with the Federation. He can study the different species all he wants but they all use each other's tactics. So he thinks he's facing an Andorian but is really a Vulcan.

Ain't it standard that every ship dies quickly in Star Trek once the shields are down? To me this is no unique weakness of Fed's ships.

Awesome stuff. Spot on. The Federation's flaws actually turn out to be a trap. While it's dispersed wealth and massive size make it a tempting target, it is these very weaknesses that give the Federation time to employ their strengths. The Russian theater in WW2 is a prime example. Scorched Earth policy, long distance, harsh weather, and mud played just as important a role as the armies that did the fighting. And just like the Federation, information warfare often turned the tide in conflict. The Federation's biggest flaw is it's political system. This is compensated for by strong leadership in Starfleet. Admirals and more importantly captains can tell authorities what they can do with themselves if they find a decision unacceptable and are willing to risk their own careers for the sake of the greater good. Without this somewhat questionable relationship, poor decision making could be passed down from the upper levels and quickly doom the Federation. I really wish I could discuss the Dominion, because they really were a prime contender to take the Federation out, arguably more so than the Borg, but there's no Dominion fleet doctrine vid yet :( Being familiar with Thrawn's tactics, I would say his resourcefulness would be his greatest strength against the Federation. If he was up against 24th century Federation, he could probably find a way to divide their union. Against the 22nd, he probably focus on cultures and tactics of the founding worlds and pick them apart.

Subscribed!

I would love to see your take on the Carsassian Central command’s ships.

Giving you a thumbs up for showing Klingon Academy.

Starfleet's and the Federation's philosophy can be boiled down to a very old saying: "Walk softly, but carry a large stick."

“What would Thrawn think of the Federation?” You have my attention 🤓

only thing i would say you got wrong is that the defiant also had complete phaser coverage and is primarily focused forward

What song plays at the end of this video? I have tried finding it but it seems my searching skills are not up to par.

Please do a video on the Romulan Wars like how you did the FASA Four Years War?

The Constitution class ships could extend their ships shields around another ship as well I think it was used in Mudd's women

So in other words, the Federation is a friendlier Borg collective that allows other species to go on their way if they decline being assimilated, but otherwise do the same thing.

Unexpected surprise for Thrawn's appearance in this video,but welcomed nonetheless.