[Odradek]

Originally Posted by Commodore

And following their defeat at Cheron, the Romulan forces were probably in even worse shape than Earth's.

In the century that followed, the Romulans could have been rebuilding their forces and developing new technologies that could put them on par with the new Earth-led United Federation of Planets.

on par?
they are vastly superior to us, they master the sciences of invisibility and square drinking vessels

[Roysten]

They developed the plasma torpedo which appeared very powerful, shame we didn't see more of them in TOS, never got a true look at their real military prowess.

By TNG they were very powerful, I tend to think that a D'deridex warbird just outclassed a galaxy class in terms of firepower, though to keep the balance I reckon the Federation had more in numbers to keep them in check (add in there the Klingons being uneasy allies as well).

[Odradek]

Originally Posted by Roysten

They developed the plasma torpedo which appeared very powerful, shame we didn't see more of them in TOS, never got a true look at their real military prowess.

As I understood The Romulans were modeled after the Germans a little bit, weren't they?
Would have been great if they had used Curd Jürgens for an episode.

[Commodore]

Originally Posted by Odradek

on par?
they are vastly superior to us, they master the sciences of invisibility and square drinking vessels

Superior in some technologies, yes. But vastly superior? I don't think so. The development of the Warp 5 engine alone had placed Humans in the same ballpark with the majority of starfaring races in the 22nd-Century. By the end of ENT, Humans already had developed weapon systems such as phase cannons and photonic torpedoes that were comparable to disruptors and photon torpedoes. The polarized hull plating system was basically just a forerunner to deflector shields, and it's plausible that by the time the Romulan Wars started, Earth ships were equipped with deflector shields then.

That being said, it's unlikely that Earth won the Romulan Wars by itself though. Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, etc. also probably contributed to the war effort but Earth was the Coalition world that had assumed the leadership position.

Originally Posted by Roystein

By TNG they were very powerful, I tend to think that a D'deridex warbird just outclassed a galaxy class in terms of firepower, though to keep the balance I reckon the Federation had more in numbers to keep them in check (add in there the Klingons being uneasy allies as well).

Onscreen--in both TNG and DS9--D'deridex-class warbirds seemed to be equal to a Galaxy-class starship in the way of firepower, although they are considerably larger in size. It's possible that the Romulans had more of them in numbers to keep the Federation in check.

[horatio]

The very fact that the Romulans did wait about a hundred years until they dared to attack again speaks for itself. I guess that the Federation was the dominant force until Romulans and Klingons created their alliance.

[Roysten]

Onscreen--in both TNG and DS9--D'deridex-class warbirds seemed to be equal to a Galaxy-class starship in the way of firepower, although they are considerably larger in size. It's possible that the Romulans had more of them in numbers to keep the Federation in check.

The very fact that the Romulans did wait about a hundred years until they dared to attack again speaks for itself. I guess that the Federation was the dominant force until Romulans and Klingons created their alliance.

The general power of the three powers is always only vaguely established in all the series really. In TOS the Federation and Klingon empire clash and appear evenly matched, the Romulans we find very little about, the same goes throughout the TOS movies.

We know that after the Tomed incident the Romulans go back into their isolation and aren't heard of till The Neutral Zone, where they reappear as a major player with powerful ships of similar ability to the Federations fleet.

The Klingons seem unperturbed by Praxis exploding (fair enough as that film was after most of TNG) and are a formidable force all through Trek, and apparently almost defeat the Federation if a conflict arises like in Yesterdays Enterprise.

The Federation itself goes through a period of expansion early 24th causing the conflicts with the Cardassians etc. I wonder if that's mainly due to the Romulans going into isolation and the Klingons recovering from Praxis or whether they were just stronger than the other two powers.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Roysten

The general power of the three powers is always only vaguely established in all the series really. In TOS the Federation and Klingon empire clash and appear evenly matched, the Romulans we find very little about, the same goes throughout the TOS movies.

We know that after the Tomed incident the Romulans go back into their isolation and aren't heard of till The Neutral Zone, where they reappear as a major player with powerful ships of similar ability to the Federations fleet.

The Klingons seem unperturbed by Praxis exploding (fair enough as that film was after most of TNG) and are a formidable force all through Trek, and apparently almost defeat the Federation if a conflict arises like in Yesterdays Enterprise.

The Federation itself goes through a period of expansion early 24th causing the conflicts with the Cardassians etc. I wonder if that's mainly due to the Romulans going into isolation and the Klingons recovering from Praxis or whether they were just stronger than the other two powers.

It's true that the exact strength of the three is never quite defined (nor will it likely ever be) but, as Horatio has pointed out a few times and which makes sense is that they may at best be roughly equal to each other, thus creating a state where one cannot overpower the other without help from a third (or other race altogether).

It seems that Praxis is their civilian energy production source and that their military forces form the bulk of their expenditure (as dialogued in TUC) which meant they were unable to respond quickly to it's loss.

Bearing in mind by TNG the relocation of the Homeworld should have been long complete if it was carried out.

Which correct me anyone - it was never actually confirmed if Q'onoS in TNG was the 'new' or 'original' Homeworld, was it?

The expansion of the Federation could have been made possible because the Romulans took themselves out the equation and that allowed the Federation to move about a bit and form alliances etc without overt Romulan interference.

[Howlin' Wolf]

Originally Posted by kevin

Which correct me anyone - it was never actually confirmed if Q'onoS in TNG was the 'new' or 'original' Homeworld, was it?

I don't remember them ever touching on the subject again after TUC. But I'm not a Trek guru so................

[kevin]

I don't think they did.

[horatio]

Neither do I, the name Q'onoS was a TNG invention. The Klingons might have found another planet or the Federation might have helped them to alleviate the effect of the explosion.