My lastest game as the Feds has me in quite a pickle. So I'm going to post the information and let this forum "Make The Call". Feel free to post any idea, comments, or questions.

Details:
Major Race: Federation
Minor Races: Many
Difficutly: Impossible (“a little bit harder� would have been more appropriate)
Random Events: On
Galaxy Shape: Irregular
Galaxy Size: Large.
Starting Level: Feds - 2, all other Empires - 3
Mod: Dafedz’s ultimate mod 2.0.0 patch 1
Other: Ferengi have once again been set with very high ship and maintenance costs.

LINK:

Up Till Now
The Feds are in the SW corner of the map, completely blocked in by the Klingons, Ferengi, and the Romulans. All three of these empires are very friendly with each other and all of them hate the Federation (unprovoked though). There is natural empty space giving each empire buffer room from the others. For some reason they all want to pick on me. And somewhere .. out there ... the Cardassians are lurking.

Let's look closer at each Empire.

Klingons: The first empire to actually contact the Federation as both were after the Darius system (farthest Fed Starbase to the left). The Fed wanted ths system as a natural defensive point but for some reason the Klingons did also. After a few small battles with the Feds (which went poorly for the Klingons) the Klingons did build an outpost two sectors down fron Darius and had a huge fleet (over twenty ships) which was twice as big as the Federation fleet at the time. Unfortuantely, they chose to divide their forces and were wiped out in two seperate battles near Darius. They have currently retreated to rebuild their forces.

It's kinda surprising the Klingons haven't expanded since first contact. Perhaps they have bumped into the Cardies?

Ferengi: The second empire to meet the Fed's, I was shocked to find their empire so large considering how I've made their fleet so expensive to build and maintain. But they do have five minors (explaining why I've met so few) and I know that Kheifka is uninhabited eventhrough it's in their space.

They have made some threats towards the Feds but have only sent one Raider into Fed space which quickly retreated. They are currently not a military threat which may be helping them. They are a non-threating empire buffering all the empires from each other. They are very friendly with the Rommies and the Klingons though they hate the Feds.

Romulans: They are the last of the known empires to make official first contact with the Fed's eventhough the Feds knew where they were before they knew where the other were. To explain, the Feds made contact wit the Xindi early on but of course they hated the Feds. Before the Feds could explore north of the Xindi they received a report that the Xindi had delcared ware on the Romulans. Now knowing the Romulans were somewhere above their northern border the Feds setup outposts (now Star Bases) to form a defensive perimeter and explored elsewhere.

The Fed's were very hesitant to explore beyond this self-imposed border, wanting to put off first contact with the Romulans for as long as possible. In fact, the Feds were friendly with Andor for a long time as they expected the Romulans to soon capture them. Instead, after many turns the benefits of having Andor into the fold was greater than not. The Fed's brought them and Parada into the Federation, making first contact with the Romulans a few turns later near Andor. The Federation did make contact with Betazed before the Romulans but never entered into diplomatic negotiations for fear it would be a hot spot which could lead to war (sounds familiar?). Shortly after that the Romulans did in fact conquere Betazed.

The Romulans were initially friendly with the Federation but now hates them with a passion. The stats show them with the smallest fleet but they have used it well. They initally feinted an attack on Andor and then quietly moved their fleet to attack Major at the far end of the galaxy near Xindi. They brough a huge fleet and besieged the planet. Unfortunately for the Romulans, the Majorians fought bravely until a Federation fleet could arrive to relieve them. The Romulans fell pray to the same failed tactics as the Klingons. Though having the larger force they divided, allowing the Federation to wipe them out in two seperate battles.

Since then they have been rebuilding and continually probing the Federation scanners with incursions in and out of the Neutral Zone. It is now evident that the reason for the Romulans belated first contact was they were busing conquering what laid to the north of them. Now there is but a few systems to their west which may be open to them.

Current Situation
As you can see from the pics, the Feds are completely locked in, have three empires angry at them (though the Ferengi have been unable to back that up militarily), have little cash, and a negative cash flow. While the Feds are the 800 pound guerilla in terms of economy and military strength, they have been unable to distance themselves scientifically. The people are "Pleased", though.

My current fleet: 48 Galaxy's, 6 Constitutions, 3 Oberths, 2 Troops, and 3 colony ships.

Above I listed the various battle with the Klingons and Romulans. While I was able to wipe out their fleets, these attacks came within a 20 turn span with the Klingons attacking one edge of the Federation and the Romulans attacking the other far edge. It required pumping out lots of Galaxy's at the cost of research and intel. If things had gone differently it could have been the Federation's fleets who were destroyed. Fighting on two fronts (one huge front with the Romulans) is not a receipe for success.

I have just reached the level to build Star Bases. I no longer have the funds to continue popping out Galaxy class ships. In a few turns my science will increase to the point where I'll have Galaxy (Command II) ships and my Constitutions will morph into Ambassador's. Akira's will also shortly become available but the it'll be awhile before the next evolution of Fed ships will be available.

(Since I have just maxed out my fleet I'll be able to convert some of my Minor races to pure Research to decrease the time until the next group of ships are available.)

Now What To Do - YOU MAKE THE CALL
You now have all the information you need. What should the Federation do now?

1. Hold the lines. Many of the once uninhabited systems in the Federation are very large (400+ population). Hold of the enemy, build up your systems, and wait until the next level of ships. Wait and see if the Cardies can relieve some pressure but entrouching on the backsides of the other empires.

2. Stay mildly aggressive. Since the Ferengi are so weak, grab some of their systems. Expand at their expanse to bring more systems and resouces into the Federation allowing the Feds to add to their fleets. Meanwhile, simply hold off the Klingons and Romulans. Continue to seek diplomatic relations with them. You cannot continue to fight on so many borders.

3. Seek out battle with the Klingons and Romulans to keep their forces in check. Take the battle to them which will allow you to focus your fleet in one system and bring the enemies's fleet to the same system (instead of laying back and trying to maintain a long border). Grab some Ferengi systems while you are at it. Force the other empires to ask for peace.

4. Any other ideas?

I'd go with two-almost no military victory has come from one nation fighting a multi-frontal war. Don't rely on the Cardies to relieve pressure, they usually backstab the Feds and align with any other race (although i have seen many conflicts with the Romulans, perhaps use that as a slight advantage) If you can, try to pressure another race to aid you against the Ferengi, probably the Klingons, as they have the largest fleet (using multi-fronts against an enemy is key to victory), although the AI usually hunkers together it's races, so this may not be possible (but you can always hope)

also use each oberth as a pre-invasion scout ship, protected by 2 connies, then move in the bigger forces. The oberth-connie combo can also at times be used to move enemy forces to other systems, allowing an ambush (although rare, the AI isn't usually that stupid, but i've seen it)

after striking the ferengi, make a base and try to find and appease the cardies, even temporary help is help.

i would also suggest IMMEDIATE colonization of Makus, near Betazed

hope this can help at all

All this is well and good for a modded game. I do not play modded, so a lot of whats here is a bit futile. So far i am actually winning a game as the Federation. I'm level 5 all other races level 1. Going to work my way down to everyone at level 1, impossable mode, NO minors, no Mods. Then go for the throat. lol

As I can respect Federation players, how you all actually win a game without being modded or 4 levels higher is beyond my thinking. So far in my newest game. Me as feds at L5. I wiped out the Klingons, am about to finish off the Cardiassions. No site of the Ferengi just yet. Am at turn 189. Romulans requested a peace treaty at turn 76 for 100 turns and have respected it. So far. thy have 11 systems but have not grown past that. I have them surrounded when I finish mopping up tha Cardi's. If they leave me alone, I will go and hunt the Ferengi.