Romulan Fleet Doctrine (23rd century) 

Romulan 23rd century fleet( disregarding Strange New Worlds) is a cruiser submarine fleet.

Romulan Tripadvisor, 10/10 would orbital bombard again.

The Klingon alliance also shows in the designs of the ships of the next decade, leading up to the Nova. The Bright One, Whitewind, and Winged Defender all show a more avian hull than the previous classes. I also can't help but notice how much the original Romulan Symbol was used by the designers to create the Klingon trefoil.

Quite fascinating. A lot of history here in regard to the Romulans; showing just how vital cloaks are to Romulan doctrine and bringing up the undermentioned tactic of orbital bombardment in Trek. Yet every time the Romulans think they got their doctrine in the bag; Starfleet finds another loophole and the Romulans go to square 1. Also, what are those blue starships at the 12:00 mark?

The Romulans don't wish to fight Starfleet straight up so they project power in a more subtle form. It's kind of like in the Godfather, where instead of waking up to a horse head in your bed, it would be most unfortunate if one of their fleets were to show up to your planet one afternoon for tea, now wouldn't it? There's an elegance to that.

I certainly liked your explanation of the 'precloak cloaking tech' the Romulans must have been using in ENTERPRISE. Sensor scattering, EM Absorption, Light Bending; each very useful in their day. Romulan vessels being about being the delivery systems of the 'Big Hurt' on planets and strategic objectives; not grand space battles or certainly not dogfighting, considering that they even LOOK a lot like stealth planes, that seems rather appropriate. Obtaining Stormbird Klingon designs for a sudden need for ship to ship combat makes sense here too. They had to make up for some serious tactical weaknesses in their fleet in a big hurry, but it spares the Romulans from being quite the client state of the Klingons that the IDW comics have them being.

They also see the weaknesses involved. The short range craft had massive energy issues - it could barely charge it's plasma torpedo and run other systems at the same time. Someone's story/theory/fanon was the Romulan/Klingon Alliance gave the Romulans access to Klingon ships which had much better power generation so could handle this much better.

Strategic strike: So the Romulans tried playing artillary only in real life.

I truly believe that these ships can fit with strange new worlds easily we get 2 different ships there. The Praetor's Flagship and another Cruiser. This Cruiser can simply be their answer for ship fighting near their territory as another shorter range ship interceptor. Especially because besides the warbird and flagship no one else had plasma torpedoes.

The Earthers had an infuriating habit of adapting relatively quickly to their "war winning" strategies and turning the tables. I'm sure it was quite vexing to Romulan high command.

Thank you for giving a good reason for the Romulan/Klingon tech exchange. I had heard about it from SFDebris's reviews, and he thought the Romulans had got the raw end of the deal in that exchange. But this explanation makes lots of sense.

It’s interesting as you see a shift back to this doctrine with the Reman’s and the Scimitar a century later.

love the 23rd century D'deridex! way cool

The goal should have been a first strike of federation shipyards, after the federations logistics are crippled you can use anti-ship craft to target federation ships one by one.

Romulan doctrine reminds me of a bully. Punch people when they’re down and intimidate them, but have no real desire to go toe to toe with a peer foe.

Grat information

is that a lyran? wow, a bit of star fleet battles in there. well played

I love your work,especially the detailed serious about starlets various wars.could you do a recap of the romulan war and the 1st klingon war again.

Quality instead of quantity very logical of the Romulans good video 🖖

I see Hydrains. HellBorers and Fusion beams for the win.

Amazing video! Interesting how this doctrine is pretty much a Romulan version of the jeune ecole concept, and that it has the main issues that other versions of that strategy have. Though if any power in Star Trek would attempt a jeune ecole-style fleet doctrine it would very much be the Romulans.

Do you plan to do a video on the Gallant Wing? Seems like the largest ship the Romulans had at the time. I have the Star Trek Ship Combat Simulator board game where that ship came from. The Gallant Wing looks fun to play with.

Cheers. I enjoy doctrine videos. Small criticism of a previous video or a question perhaps. ( battle of tyra ) ( listening again) i noticed. The seventh fleet ambush is different. In ds9 they used an advanced long range sensor ) thing ) and saw them coming fron weeks ( or 3 sectors away) and was a reason for a lot of allied defeats. Vs intelligence intercept in the video. ( been rewatching ds9 ) im sure you remember. Or chioce change for a reason. ( both could have been the cause i suppose) an array couldn't tell what the fleet would do in battle

The Romulan ship at 1:21 looked like a Firefly-class transport. I wonder if captain Mal was flying it?

Well I like the Washington dills or romulan chips I just got to figure out how to convert them into Starfleet battles tabletop games any suggestions

By favouring planetary bombardment, the Romulans forced Starfleet onto a defensive footing. If the Romulans can prove that they can hit anywhere at any time, then Starfleet has to place valuable ships on garrison duty possibly systems behind the lines. If the bulk of Starfleet's fighting strength is tied down doing nothing in some far off system, then it means that they'll have less reserves to go on the offensive. That can also work in the favour of Starfleet; by Starfleet garrisoning everything with people on it, it means that they're actually defending in depth, which can slow down the Romulans down in large offensives by guerrilla fighting and allow for a larger response force to be thrown together. Their strategy stretched Starfleet thin and let them get a lot of early victories before Starfleet could gather its strength. By also fighting that style of war, it let them hit above their quadrant weight class. Starfleet and the other powers were probably a lot closer to Romulan tech than they probably realised, and the Romulans didn't have a massive fleet or industrial power. By fighting a war against an enemy stretched thin, it makes you appear stronger than you really are and ingrains that idea in the minds of the other powers. The Romulans probably could have put a good dent into Starfleet with their 23rd century fleet, if they employed it properly. If the Romulans focused on destroying orbital instillations, then a fleet is eventually going to run out of steam and fall apart of its own accord. You can also help speed that up by raiding, never mass your fleets to large and punish your enemy when they do. Don't meet an offensive head on but use mines to break up its formation and pick off any stragglers. Its Starfleet, focus your fire on the weaker ones the rest will close ranks to protect it and make themselves an more lucrative target and get themselves bogged down at impulse while they repair or evacuate a damaged ship. The Romulans had the: means, the tech, and the strategy to destroy Starfleet, but I doubt they had the nerve and ability enough to absorb losses to pull it off.

Evening

Nice artwork. Archer class ( i think)

I loved it. Fasa's designs don't get enough love. Non-Canon my ass. Thank you for covering this! I hope we get to the Romulan Condor Dreadnought.

I kind of like the idea that the reason why the romulan ships in TOS look similar to federation ships is because the Romulans might base their designs off whoever they deem to be their rival at the time, mostly as a bit of trolling or psychological warfare. They're supposed to be subversive, stand-off-ish, and unpredictable from my (admittedly limited) understanding of ST, so having their ship design reflect that could be an interesting bit of worldbuilding.

A blitzkrieg type of warfare

I love the video and the Romulans doctrine leading up to and into the mid-23rd century (TOS era). Looking forward to how it evolves with the times into the TMP/TWOK-era. The Romulans were major players in galactic politics during that era, even though we only saw a couple of ambassadors, and were learning about their adversaries. In regard to ships and fleet doctrine it would have to evolve. After all, the original Constitution and the refit are similar, but ultimately two different ships in the heavy cruiser mold. Starfleet fleet doctrine would also be different in the pre-TOS, TOS, and TMP/TWOK eras. My thinking would be they studied Starfleet tactics during the Four Years War and found a way to beat it or get around it. But, Starfleet tactics shifted as the era progressed. Romulans then adapt their tactics, but the TMP/TWOK-era rolls around and the game changes again. The Klingon Cold War forcing Starfleet to keep changing things up as the Klingons were the main adversary of the Federation as depicted in the media. I wonder if the reason the Romulans established an embassy on Earth was to help keep up with the ever-changing tactics and configuration of Starfleet to try to ultimately beat them. We did see a Romulan Ambassador act in an advisory role during the events of The Undiscovered Country.

I would enjoy a video on the romulan phoenix class from the snes starfleet academy game. I always thought it was a decent looking ship, even if it was bad 16bit gfx..

I would dare say this is but one failure in the strategic strike doctrine focus, It works up to till a certain threshold, If you keep doing it in response your opponent might also start performing it onto your worlds. And well they have more manpower and so likely the ability to just batter ram your defences and strike your worlds while your fleet is powerless to stop them due to the sheer focus of force pushed on your worlds. Or your fleets are out of position to guard due to them attacking the enemies worlds. It becomes a game of who can strike more and harder, and well Starfleet likely is going to beat you in this game if you force them down that road. They can take the hits more than you can. The strategy does work but it has to be wielded with a fine hand and carefully and not push the enemy to much that they just throw their hands up and just decide to copy you.

What's that larger warbird in the thumbnail? It looks like a D'Deridex but made in the 23rd Century.

There is still hope to end the scourge of Humanity: "The Klingons."

It must burn the romulans to see the klingons take to the cloaking device without any effort.

Well done as usual. But I have two points of contention: 1. This assumes that space is 2D. The probability of a Romulan ship passing directly between two scanning ships is low to say the least. So the detection strategy you showed just wouldn't work. 2. What is this "four years war" you keep referencing? Is this an ST: Discovery thing? I go by what TNG said about first contact with the Klingons: decades of war. And by implication, no first contact until after the Romulan War.

Romulan fest? Yes please

Romulans getting in sight of Earth in Earth-Romulan war is like the Germans getting in sight of Moscow in ww2

Damn, I don´t have time to watch but that´s a video I wanted to suggest after last episode of SNW. The Romulans seemed so "hardened" and "harsh", even more so than the Klingons. Was this a very strong time for the Romulans that they were so confident? No paper tigers for sure - decades long war against the Federation without a winner and they even started it. Just blunt and in your face, I somehow like it but it´s a bit uncharacteristic. Edit: After watching the video and Strange New Worlds I have to disagree (not really bc we all know that on screen behaviour doesn´t always make sense and your portrayal of the Romulan doctrine is coherent and logical - please watch SNW and give your opinion on that :). Romulans, as portrayed in canon in the 23rd century, don´t value their own manpower. They sacrifice their personell and officers like no other faction. They don´t fear ship to ship combat either as their Bird of Prey is at least as maneouverable as Federation ships and is superior in close combat. It even seems like the Romulans have had built enough ships by the time of the 23rd century that they didn´t even fear an open war with the Federation. They surely had enough ships to overwhelm the Federation with numbers and they have the confidence to declare open war.

LOL how often is a Hydran force going to run across the romulans

Strange New Worlds did done a major disrespect to The Balance of Terror is by far the best episode ever made in TOS and is inspired by War Movies like Enemy Below and Das Boot.

'Rom-con"

Jolan tru.

Lol . All bollox gets you every time. . I remember a friend on finishing his philosophy degree. ( its all fucking bollox )

Warfare is politics by other means.

I just ignore Enterprise. And ANYTHING after that.

I read in a domion war sourse book and video. The romulan fleet at the beginning of the dominion war was 6 thousand 400 vessels. ( majority not capital ships) but by the end had been doelwn to 2 thousand ish . ( they lost a lot of ships to the breen especially. As well as invasion of dominion worlds. ( chintoka and other campaigns) actually the fleet figures for both side are interesting. Klingons federation, cardassion, jemhadar are listed . ( not Breen) but ypu can speculate . I think the federation had the largest fleet at the end but lost more personal than the Klingons. ( bird of prey vs a cruser ) over 4 thousand federation ships lost . ( the numbers dont cover how many ships produced during the war )

Why not augment their population with cloning

The cloak is way way way OP. The federation is basically Iraq and the warbirds are F 117s. These nets and tethers and everything, bah humbug. Space is big and 3 dimenional. They'd go around. Only with the plot's reduction of scale can this even be a possibility. The only time we really see the true unstoppable nature of a Romulan fleet is when they savagely take out the Cardasians like they're nothing. But they'd do the same thing to the Federation. Just like we did to Iraq in Desert Storm. And the Federation didn't adopt the super OP phased cloak because of a treaty? Are you kidding me? That would so never happen. Yeah right, Starfleet which looks the other way on all the Prime Directive sins thinks breaking a treaty with a species known to be conniving is over the line? What the heck ever. How many billions died in the Dominion War. You'd think that with invincible cloaked superships, starfleet could have widdled that number down a bit. Cloaks are even more hard to suspend disbelief than teleporters. But one tries. Great video per usual.

Romufest

Im sorry Venom but i have come to mention Shatner alpha strike on Kurtzman trek telling them, It's dead Jim! Again love your content but omg that made my year!!!