[Saquist]

STARBASE 1 DESTROYED BY ROMULAN WARSHIPS 2103

USS GARIBALDI, HORIZON CLASS
TONSUM HAN, COMMODORE

Commodre's Log:

Our relief fleet has arrived too late. Starbase 1 has been destroyed. There are no survivors. There is only an expanding ring of blasted debris where Starbase 1 used to be.

Who are these Romulans mentioned before their warp communications were jammed? Let me review the transmissions.
First:

Deployment Alert: Delta II reported under heavy attack by unknonw enemy force.. Dispatching Starbase Perimter Fleet at full warp capaticty to reinforce planet defenses. They're not going to get away with it this time.

Obviously a well though-out decoy to strip the Starbase's primary protection. With the destruction of Delta VII some years before, the enemy must have known a second attack there would be fully reponded to. Then the last, interrupted message:

Mayday! Mayday! Starbase 1 under attack by seven enemy starships. Unable to effectively counter in absense of Perimeter Fleet. We've been set up. The first assualt knocked out our starboard laser banks, and I'm expecting a second any moment. These alien ships look like some sort of bird of prey. There's no doubt in my mind thee are the Romulans who I've heard...TRANSMISSION JAMMED.

So we've lost one of our most strategic outpost to a calculatd ambush by a large military force. No space pirate has seven starships armed heavily enought to destroy an entire starbase. No, these mysterious Romulans are obviously an advanced and ruthless race. The appear to regard the Federation as an adversay to be vanquished mercilessly.

I strongly recommend a Mobilization Aler throughout the Federation and all facilities brought to combat readiness. These Romulans are not going to stop at a single starbase. like it or not, looks like war is inevitable.

The Space Flight Chronology depicts a sneak attack and the use of overwhelming force. While it doesn't give a direct provocation one may speculate that the Romulans were acting in response to a breech to there territory. The Warp 3.2 Starliner Enterprise (Declaration class) and the Warp 3.8 Destroyer known as the Marshall class were prominent ships and one appears in canon. At those speed trips as far as 60 lightyears (Romulus) would take some 400 days, a Year and month to travel.

It sounds about right If the War occured half way between Earth and Romulus around 30 lightyears it would take the better part of a year to actually class at certain locations.

Not to mention the bad blood between there distant brothers, the Romulans. According to book (non canon obviously) the war started with a fieces offensive 3 years laters.

I love how the book is so well planed. The mystery and the suddeness of the attack is what makes it most powerfull. I imagined a movie based on the events. I think it would be a great story to introduce a whole new set of Star Trek Characters, ones we wouldn't see in a series but in just a one time movie that expanded on the Romulan War...perhaps heros of the Romulan War. It would be an opportunity to enrich the current Star Trek story and engraven Star Fleet's quest in peaceful exploration.

[Livingston]

I have a question about the Earth/Romulan War. According to BOT no human and no Romulan have seen one another yet they fought an entire war. Now if so then all must be fought in space I'm assuming, which seems strange. Was there no ground war in this war.

I remember some other poster bringing up the question of why there are no tanks in Star Trek? It's a good question. Most combat is in space, very little do we see on the ground and this may be cause of the nature of the show, it's about peace and exploration, not war, yet the only time we've actually seen a long war is during the Dominion War. It's the only time when we seem to have all out Starfleet ground assault which I'm assuming would have to happen during any true 'war', so how could no Human and Romulan cross paths during the Earth/Romulan War? Could it have all really been fought in space? What'd you guys think?

[Chroniton]

Originally Posted by Livingston

I have a question about the Earth/Romulan War. According to BOT no human and no Romulan have seen one another yet they fought an entire war. Now if so then all must be fought in space I'm assuming, which seems strange. Was there no ground war in this war.

I remember some other poster bringing up the question of why there are no tanks in Star Trek? It's a good question. Most combat is in space, very little do we see on the ground and this may be cause of the nature of the show, it's about peace and exploration, not war, yet the only time we've actually seen a long war is during the Dominion War. It's the only time when we seem to have all out Starfleet ground assault which I'm assuming would have to happen during any true 'war', so how could no Human and Romulan cross paths during the Earth/Romulan War? Could it have all really been fought in space? What'd you guys think?

They never saw Romulans because the Romulans always self destructed their ships and never communicated with Earthfleet ships.

There are mentions of marines through out the Trek series, and ground forces in DS9, (mainly Klingons), and there are anti- grav tanks, and troop carrier's in the game Star Trek New Worlds.

[Livingston]

But in the war, I find it tough to believe there never would have been a ground conflict. If one side takes a planet it's going to have to put forces on the planet to secure it. If the Earth/Romulan War was totally over resources in space or just areas of space, sectors, then I could see how there wouldn't be a situation where a human army and Romulan army would clash. But if planets were taken in the war, then I would imagine there'd be ground conflict.

[Commodore]

The way that I saw how the war went down was that all the battles took place in deep space at various points between Earth and Romulus and that there weren't any ground battles at all. It was solely ship-to-ship combat fought over relatively long distances and that there was never enough left of destroyed Romulans ships to make a guess at what Romulans actually looked like.

I think the ultimate goal of the Romulans was to take Earth (and secure a permanant foothold in the Alpha Quadrant) while the Humans were simply fighting for survival. Earth probably would have lost the war if it hadn't established alliances with Vulcan, Andoria, etc. that proved crucial for the final victory at the Battle of Cheron...

[Akula2ssn]

Originally Posted by Livingston

But in the war, I find it tough to believe there never would have been a ground conflict. If one side takes a planet it's going to have to put forces on the planet to secure it. If the Earth/Romulan War was totally over resources in space or just areas of space, sectors, then I could see how there wouldn't be a situation where a human army and Romulan army would clash. But if planets were taken in the war, then I would imagine there'd be ground conflict.

I suspect that if we had access to the Romulan plans for the campaign, we'd find that there probably was to have been some ground combat during the war.

However, plans aside, the war probably ended up going the way of the Spanish Armada. The Romulans probably were never able to get superiority of the targeted area of space. This would have doomed any planned attempt to land any ground forces that they might have been carrying.

[admiralroot]

Originally Posted by Livingston

I have a question about the Earth/Romulan War. According to BOT no human and no Romulan have seen one another yet they fought an entire war. Now if so then all must be fought in space I'm assuming, which seems strange. Was there no ground war in this war.

I remember some other poster bringing up the question of why there are no tanks in Star Trek? It's a good question. Most combat is in space, very little do we see on the ground and this may be cause of the nature of the show, it's about peace and exploration, not war, yet the only time we've actually seen a long war is during the Dominion War. It's the only time when we seem to have all out Starfleet ground assault which I'm assuming would have to happen during any true 'war', so how could no Human and Romulan cross paths during the Earth/Romulan War? Could it have all really been fought in space? What'd you guys think?

I'm that poster that wants to know why there are no tanks. And I agree, any war of this scale should have involved at least one ground battle.

[Glacial]

Who knows what a war between insterstellar powers would be like? With slow warp drives and long travel times between Earth and Romulus, it might make better strategic sense to, after winning space superiority in a system, just nuke the hell out of your enemy's colonies with dirty fission bombs from orbit, thus making the planet uninhabitable, and therefore making your enemy travel a longer distance without resupply to get at you. That'd work and explain why nobody lives in the Neutral Zone.

As I understand, B&B had a treatment worked out for an 11th Star Trek movie that was to take place during the first Romulan attack on Earth, while the NX-01 is too far away from home to respond. Naturally, when Paramount pulled the plug on ENT, that movie idea went bye-bye.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/34635 <-- some details on the idea.

[SupremeLegate]

Ph look, its Enterprises lost potintial.

[miles3347]

Originally Posted by Livingston

But in the war, I find it tough to believe there never would have been a ground conflict. If one side takes a planet it's going to have to put forces on the planet to secure it. If the Earth/Romulan War was totally over resources in space or just areas of space, sectors, then I could see how there wouldn't be a situation where a human army and Romulan army would clash. But if planets were taken in the war, then I would imagine there'd be ground conflict.

If both sides have relatively primitive warp technology the war would be limited in it scale. Their would not be many ground engagements since none of their ships can accommodate large amounts of troops. Unlike the fed/dominion war were both sides have large high warp capable ships that can carry thousands of troops. large ground engagements were frequent.