The thing with the dominion strategical situation really seems to be to become very strong on a couple of useful tactics. Jem Hadar for fighting. Vorta for expertise. Themselves for command and spycraft. And . . . that's about it, really. They ostensibly control HUNDREDS of worlds in the Gamma Quadrant, and although we see a lot of Gamma Quadrant races early on, once the war starts we don't see ANY of them. The Founders don't, as a rule, employ other races for strategic use. Why should they? They already have Jem Hadar for fighting and Vorta for expertise and themselves for spycraft, and those three are perfect for their roles.Archanubis wrote:I do sometimes wonder if this type of "terror tactic" is one that has worked for the Dominion in the past, at least on their side of the galaxy. It only stopped working when they came in contact with the races and powers of the Alpha Quadrant, but they kept trying because it was the only way they knew. And as others have said, the insulated nature of the changelings probably didn't help, especially as their only regular contact with "solids" are a couple of genetically altered and engineered races that are bred to by sycophants (the Vorta overtly, the Jem'Hadar more by action than words).CrypticMirror wrote:The changelings really do not have a good grasp of how psychology or warfare works, do they? They could have almost won there war right there, but wasted their Breen advantage by first letting them use up perfectly good resources and trained people on a suicide run that while would have a limited shock value only provides to let the Alliance know what is going on, then when they have the battle hardened core of the Alliance forces at their mercy they let them go back with not only a fair degree of intelligence and data on what happened, but also now have a need for revenge. Again, while there might be limited shock value in that, it would be far more damaging to the Alliance cause to deprive them of trained personnel and the scientific data they carried away with them. The Breen advantage was wasted on big statement pieces rather than actual military advantage.
Except, that makes their military might incredibly inflexible. They did not INVENT anything new to fight the Federation alliance, not even tactics. With a different system set up they could have had hundreds of worlds worth of scientists and doctors in their own territory working on new weapons, techniques, and the cure, but they don't. Just the Vorta. Who also, on top of that,are bred to be such toadying yesmen they lack requisite imagination that Federation scientists and engineers have by the truckload.
Which is why the alliance with the Breen. This seems like such a boon for the Dominion--the Breen have weapons that the Federation just aren't prepared to handle. It'll be like the Federation meeting the Jem Hadar for the first time all over again.
Except they forget that NOW the Federation is already well into this war, and despite straining for resources, by far have not come close to depleting them. The Breen bombing Earth would work only if was close to the Federation's final stronghold. But as much damage as the Dominion did, as important as Earth was, there were still likely hundreds of worlds in Federation space they never even got around to touching. Why would they expect the Federation to surrender?
Likely because they never faced any foe with the resources of the Federation alliance, not for a very long time. They've never had to fight off of their home turf. And they've never had to adjust their very powerful but nevertheless limited tri-pronged strategy. Bringing in the Breen seems like a smart play, but in the end it's just a repeat of the same, and it introduces complications they've never had to face before because they've never RELIED UPON an alliance before. (Cardassians unhappy with the new arrangement? Well that makes them enemies, we squash rebellions in the Dominion, didn't you hear?)
