Khas wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 8:32 pm
So, in "Rising Malevolence", General Grievous' tactical display clearly shows a
Keldon-class starship:
Which got me thinking.... How WOULD the Clone Wars have progressed if the Cardassians (as of, say, 2370) got involved? Who would they side with? Would Palpatine's plot be exposed earlier? What else would change?
Well, it depends on a number of factors.
Primarily, the major issues for the Cardassians is projection power. A Galor or a Keldorn is not going to be quick enough to cover the larger galactic battle space. That said, if a hyperdrive can be relatively easily installed onto these ships in place of the warp drive (or in addition to), then that will solve a great deal of the logistics issues. The remaining logistical problems will be about replacing parts and repairs. The Cardassians can piggy-back off of most of the Republic's existing infrastructure, but there is clearly going to be some issues in supplying the staff and hardware needed over that distance, simply because the technology is very different. That said, it is a manageable problem and one that will get easier over time.
With that issue resolved, the Cardassians typically resort to using their phaser banks. And while those are effective weapons to use, a Galor and a Keldorn do not have enough banks to really make up for the sheer number of laser banks that the heavy capital ships carry in Star Wars. In a close range energy fight, the Galor is probably not going to match up too well against a Venator or a CIS Lucrehulk. Mitigating that issue is the fact that Galors and Keldorns do in fact carry photon torpedo launchers, but according to lower level lore, the Cardassians aren't as quick to produce them. That said, smaller ships like frigates are clearly outmatched by the Galor and the Keldorn. And even the Venator and Lucrehulk isn't going to be walking away from that engagement without a bloody nose.
So immediately the Cardassians are going to have to consider either having to adjust their tactical policy with their warships or they're going to have to avoid confrontation with larger ships without some sort of advantage. I expect the Cardassians to implement the former first and then slowly adjust for the latter as the war drags on.
The Cardassians could also provide effective special forces or shock troops. DS9 suggested that the 11th Order, which was a Reserve Order, had 500,000 troops. We are aware of 12 named order, suggesting that the number of available troops to the Union would be at around 6 million. While not particularly large, keep in mind that the Republic's initial army was 1.5 million and the Republic later ordered another 5 million troops. While that won't account for the entire fighting force (if indeed all of these are troops and not support personnel too), that would imply that the Cardassians hold a comparable ground force to the Republic. Of course, with the numbers from Ambush, the CIS army was at 150 million. But given that they generally lost in fights at about 10 to 1, that's not a bad deal.
Taking this into account, we again need to address the issue of logistics. Here the issue is not as severe, because there are plenty of large-scale Republic transports that could be converted to Cardassian use within short order to ease the initial logistics problem. And as I said before, it is a manageable problem that should get easier over time. The second issue is that of Cardassian gear. We're aware of course of small arms, as well as photon grenades, and artillery pieces. We also know about armored attack skimmers, as well as Cardassian fighters.
This brings us into the issue of combat doctrines. Star Wars tends to lean in towards the WWI and WWII style of combat. From the ship battles to the ground battles, it's clear where the inspiration is drawn from. That said, it does occasionally mix in some more modern warfare and even asymmetrical warfare. In fact, the Clones adjust more and more towards asymmetrical warfare under the Jedi leadership. That said, the primary form of combat is very similar to the two world wars, with the CIS preferring the early "march to our doom" style of assaults.
The Cardassians however, tend to approach with a more modern aspect. Groups broken down generally into squads or companies, holding onto territory and advancing. We've seen sensor integration via tricorders, ship sensors, satellites, probes, and even spying. We've seen combined arm fire in Nor Battle for the Strong, in which the Klingons used a combination of artillery and troop coordination to drive off Starfleet. Troop movement in the form of hoppers and skimmers, as well as attacks via fighters.
Whereas in the First or Second Battle of Geonosis, both sides more or send large waves of troops at each other, the Cardassians would use a different approach. If a capital ship is available, the Cardassians could launch a limited strike on the base from orbit. If not, then a handful of fighters would be more than capable of doing the job. Once the base is gone, assuming the robots can still fight, the Cardassians could use artillery to utterly destroy the advancing army. Miles away from their actual position.
If the Cardassians prefer to capture the base, they could lure the enemy out and use a limited strike to disable the defense systems. That would allow for a team to beam in for infiltration or even to launch an attack with skimmers, although the latter would risk attack from the local army or air defenses. In a more urban environment where the Cardassians may not want to destroy the city they're invading or defending, they can again resort to pinpoint attacks from orbit or fighter strafes. Or limited artillery strikes. If it comes down to direct combat, the Cardassians are going to be somewhat at a disadvantage, because they really don't use armor all that much.
That said, focused bombardment on armor positions and a few high energy cannons or a few phasers dialed up could handle the problem, so long as the army approaching them isn't too large. In which case though, the Cardassians can always use their transporters to fall back, while inflicting as much damage as they can.
Finally, the Cardassians could established defense platforms in Republic space. Given the utter devastation they inflicted upon the UFP-Romulan-Cardassian fleets during the Dominion War, I imagine they would be very effective in holding of CIS invasions.
As a counter-point, it should be noted that the Cardassians are not going to gel well with the Republic's Clone Army or with the Jedi Order. Or even with the Republic's Senate or the Chancellor himself. The Cardassians are very much in it to win it and they're not going to remain under the Chancellor's thumb if they can help it. And while the ability to use hyperdrive will revolutionize the Cardassian ability to expand and strengthen their economy, everyone else is going to immediately start copying them. The CIS will try and steal or buy what Cardassian tech they can.
That probably won't turn the tide of the war and it certainly won't allow the CIS to compete with the Cardassians on equal footing in the short-term or medium-term, but it is a long term problem and even closing the gap could have large repercussions for the Cardassians. ST technology allows them to have a large footprint with minimal personnel. That translates very well against more Industrial style warfare, but when your opponents modernize and retain their numerical superiority, that can be a problem. As I said, that is a long-term problem, as even a rapidly modernizing CIS would need to take into account that the cutting edge CIS tech on their new ships is probably 20-40 years old compared to Cardassian tech and is going to likely be 10x more expensive. So the CIS is going to need to focus in areas where they can maximize closing the gap or simply accept that they'll need to invest in a new fleet (or a renovated one) that is immensely more expensive to build and maintain.
That long-term problem could push the Cardassians to holding back in hopes that the CIS and the Republic exhaust themselves. Historically, that's what happened to Europe after WWII. In fact, the Cardassians could in theory lengthen the war by only committing their forces to battles or engagements that prolong the war or by selling or leaking Cardassian tech under the table to the CIS. Not enough to seriously threaten a Cardassian ship, but enough to shift the battles between the Republic and the CIS ships. They could lengthen the war by years with that before Palpatine is able to bring the war to a conclusion, but possibly not.
Overall, I think the Cardassian Union will try to have it both ways. They're going to try and expand their territory throughout the conflict by force of arms or treaty, working hard enough to make themselves useful, while at the same time encouraging the Republic and CIS locked in a war that will exhaust both. After the CIS inevitably loses, the Cardassians might have doubled the size of their territory and thanks to hyperdrive routes, vastly improved their own internal economy. Even with technology being leaked and sold to the CIS and Republic, the Cardassians should still have a leg up and be ready to fortify themselves. Expect a massive shift towards ship fleets and recruitment. Then the Cardassian Union effectively pushes to remain a mostly autonomous region under the Galactic Republic.
Doing so, the Cardassians could then engage in astro-economics; using replicator produced goods to effectively undercut their competition. Aggressively go after planets and resources; buying them outright. Colonizing worlds and using the Obsidian Order to support the Galactic Rebellion when they come around. Encourage fights between planets. And when the Republic-turned-Empire does eventually crack, the Cardassian Union can expand. First step would be to annex planets that are either dependent or aligned with you. Next step is to annex planets that have a Cardassian minority population or business resources or markets, using whatever paper-thin astro-political excuses they can manage.
Pretty soon, the Cardassians could be a strong competing power on the galactic stage, but they'd have to be careful not to overextend.