According to A Brief History of the General War, the Romulans were faced with three options in the run-up to the Day of the Eagle: to join the Coalition against the Federation (as they chose to do historically); to stay at home and do nothing (other than perhaps continuing to launch "privateer raids" against the Federation); or to launch a separate war of conquest against the Confederation of the Gorns. According to (R4.40), one of the factors which led the Romulans towards war with the Federation was the timely arrival of Ambassador Extraordinaire Thad Vak Kaleen on Romulus in Y172, who (among other things) provided the means by which the Romulans were able to deploy the KC9R Behemoth.

But what if the Romulans had chosen the Gorn option instead? Such is the premise behind this "Day of the Condor" proposal.

I suggest that, in this alternate scenario, the Ambassador never made it to Romulus: his ship was intercepted by the Federation (or Orions or Andromedans, or perhaps by some random space monster) and was obliged to bring him back to Klinshai. While this may have not necessarily been a deal-breaker in and of itself, it may have been one of a series of factors which led the "anti-Gorn faction" in the Senate to carry the day. Thus, Spring Y173 sees the Romulans attack Gorn space, spurring the Federation to declare a state of Limited War and to send aid into Confederation space. Or, at least, what little it may be able to spare in the face of the ongoing Klingon and Lyran invasion of the UFP itself.


The bare outlines of what such an invasion of Gorn space would look like is in (603.6): the Romulans may send the Home Fleet, the Fleet of the North, and the Tholian Border Patrol Detachment across the Gorn border, while the Fleet of the West stays put along the Federation border (barring any continued "privateer raids"). The Gorns, for their part, would get their pre-war construction as listed here through to Turn #9, though it might need to be clarified what their wartime production would have been in Turns #10 and #11.

Another note to consider is the fate of the KC9R Behemoth. Historically, as detailed here, the Romulans pay 13 EPs to the Klingons on Turn #6 for delivery of the base hull, and a further 5 EPs (not to the Klingons) on Turn#8 to activate it. Elsewhere on the BBS, I recently proposed that the Romulans might have struggled to work with a "foreign" dreadnought hull by themselves; that it would have been deployed as a "KC6R" had the Ambassador not provided the means to upgrade the hull to "full" KC9R status. For the purposes of this scenario, I would either have the Romulans never acquire the base hull at all, in which case the Romulans keep the EPs and the Klingons add (and pay for) another C8 to their order of battle on Turn #6; or the Romulans still get (and pay for) the base hull on Turn #6, yet have to finish it (albeit at a lower EP cost) as a KC6R instead - and, given the logistical issues involved, may be obliged to deploy it to the Fleet of the West in any event, thus keeping it out of the war with the Gorns.

Actually, I wouldn't mind if the Romulans spent that money towards building a sample DemonHawk instead. But either way, they'd have to rely more heavily on their Condors as fleet flagships - hence, the "Day of the Condor".

Also, it might be worth clarifying the details in (603.641): do the Feds go to Full War if the Romulans enter any of the three Gorn capital hexes; or attack any one of the there Gorn home worlds; or only if they attack the "shipyard capital" system; or perhaps only if the Grey Scale home world itself is attacked?

Plus, there's the question of Romulan-Coalition co-belligerency. In this scenario, the Romulans would not join the Coalition proper, at least not right away; whether that would trigger something akin to the "uneasy coalition" (6HW.23) rules used for the playtest Carnivon scenario in Captain's Log #51, or require some other set of limitations instead, might need to be worked out somehow.


In the long-term, it might be interesting to see what would happen in Y186, were the Romulans to succeed in conquering the Gorns. Would the ISC be deterred from launching the Pacification campaign outright; would it involve a "liberation" of Gorn space, in order to drive the Romulans back to the pre-war borders; or might the Romulans themselves be the ones to launch an invasion of ISC space, only for the Andromedans to show up and crash the party?

And does any of this sound like it might be worth considering?


On a side note, are there any rules in place to represent the historical Romulan "privateer raids" into Federation space; and, if so, are there many players who use this option in their General War campaigns?

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Sunday, October 06, 2019 - 03:42 pm: Edit

I imagine that the Feds would go to limited war to support the Gorns. Keep that in mind.

If not, the greater economy and build schedule of the Romulans should easily result in the conquest of the Gorns, unless the scenario contains some _plausible_ reason otherwise.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, October 06, 2019 - 04:09 pm: Edit

According to (603.62), the Feds may send a force under Limited War status equal to the original strength of the Fifth Fleet, plus any new production, into Gorn territory. As noted in (602.2), the current (as of turn #10) strength of the Fifth Fleet is minus those units assembled as what GURPS Federation notes as the Ninth Fleet and sent "west" when the Klingons invaded back on Turn #7 - which, going by the Federation OOB, doesn't leave a lot in the cupboard to work with right away.

On the other hand, according to (603.64), Full War status is triggered after three full turns of war between the Romulans and Gorns, and/or once the Gorn capital is attacked (though as noted in the post above, exactly what this refers to may need to be further clarified at some point).

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Sunday, October 06, 2019 - 06:04 pm: Edit

New production is pretty significant in that time frame, like 30ish ships a turn.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, October 06, 2019 - 08:14 pm: Edit

I was also thinking that, in the event that Full War is triggered by the Federation against the Romulans, the Klingons could then try once again to formally draw the Romulans into the Coalition. (So long as the Feds are at Limited War, the Romulans would just as well keep their separate war separate for as long as they can. But if/when the Feds go to Full War against them anyway, that becomes something of a moot point.)

So perhaps the Klingons can once again attempt to send the Ambassador to Romulus aboard a diplomatic ship, but only on the Coalition turn after a state of Full War has been declared between the Romulans and the Federation. Which might make it more difficult for a D7N to actually make it over to Romulus, depending on what moves the Federation make in order to block such access.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, March 04, 2021 - 08:27 am: Edit

This would be a great scenario to do sometime but not before Civil Wars and Tactical Operations are completely finished and shipped to customers. Until then, the staff needs to be gazelle intense and laser focused on getting the scenarios for CW and TO and nothing else.