Intelligence Report: Romulan Star Empire

Relevant History

On the Remans: what do you think those lovely, democratic Romulans would do with the Remans after the Shinzon conflict? Do you believe they will write the Remans an admonishment and that’s that? In the Fleet Operations Universe, the Romulans executed all Remans who held leading positions within the Empire and increased the brutality of Reman slavery on Remus. No Reman will ever see a starship again. The Remans (and the Scimitar) will be on some maps, but not buildable or part of the Romulans, and so will become an NPC faction and part of the campaign. For the fun part of the mod there will be a map object Scimitar that rips your base apart someday, just because we'd like to equip that vessel with some nice bad-ass weapons.

Although during the events of Star Trek Nemesis there were some hints at greater cooperation between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire, the Romulans will never be a real ally to the Federation in the future. The Romulans are a very prideful and xenophobic culture. As a result, they see every other race as inferior. Consequently, they only accept that the Federation might possibly have equal superiority. After the Orion pirates slaughtered and enslaved their species, the Romulans fought to maintain their freedom. Even Ferengi vessels are not allowed to enter Romulan space and will be outright destroyed if they do so.

Although the Dominion War and the Shinzon Affair halted Romulan isolationism for the present, the Empire maintained the wall around itself and continued to research and expand in the Delta Quadrant. This part of the Algeron Treaty grants them superiority to the rest of the Alpha Quadrant, as the Romulans are allowed to use cloaking devices which the Federation isn't even allowed to build or make. As long as there is no superior threat (such as the Dominion - the Borg proved themselves to be pretty harmless to the Romulans) the Empire will continue to expand and advance their military forces. Indeed, this strategy continued up until the Romulans met the Ciadan…

In the Fleet Operations timeline, the Ciadan have since allied with the Romulans. Consequently the Alpha Quadrant has become a bit destabilized since the Ciadan arrived. The Iconians don't help very much in stabilizing it as you might imagine. As you might imagine, not all Romulans were pleased with an alliance with a truly alien race. In fact, you can be sure that there are many of the "old guard" just lurking around.

On Admiral Sela: the Romulans have a lot of problems with aliens in their ranks. The developers doubt Sela would ever get into a real fleet command. In times of war (like the Dominion War) such anti-alien sentiments usually even rise. Therefore Sela does not play an important role in the Fleet Operations timeline. Mijural is the Romulan Kirk nowadays.

Incidentally, the Praetor is a civil leader and some kind of "president" for the Romulans, with real commanding power (unlike the Federation President, who is more of an “organizer” to arrange the wishes and needs of all the member planets). The Romulan fleet ("Starfleet") is called the Galae, commanded by an admiralty of several admirals, being issued their orders by the Praetor or a Senator (the rank "Admiral Sela" points that this individual was actually part of this faction). The Tal'Shiar is not just the Romulan secret service, but some kind of parallel structure, dealing with stuff the Empire does not officially want to - such as assassinating somebody. Tal'Shiar operatives are granted a lot of special authorizations, and a Galae captain is usually not very happy having a Tal'Shiar member on board as we saw on TNG. The Tal'Shiar did never command complete fleets - just single, dedicated vessels - until the Dominion War.

Important Figures

General Mijural: Tal'Shiar High Command

Specializing in massive firepower, this is the general who initiated the Tavara project. A lively heroine, commander Selena i-Mijural t'Jarok celebrated with her people on becoming the captain of the flagship, Tavara. Some historians believe that she and her crew are the Romulan counterpart to James T. Kirk and his own crew.

The facts are that General Mijural is the most important voice of the Tal'Shiar. It was this general who brought the Omega Core back to Romulan space (given by the Ciadan in fact), and it is now this core which is the source of energy for the Tavara class. Likewise, it was she who succeeded in creating a stable and effective alliance with the Ciadan Tecra. For the next few decades, Romulan history will definitely be influenced by General Mijural’s chosen path…

General Helev: Tal'Shiar Inner Security

Although both Romulan generals come from the Tal’Shiar, General Helev is the head of many Romulan intelligence operations. General Helev was the head of the secret operations behind most of the Tal'Shiar during the last hundred years. He is one of the most experienced and most intelligent Tal'Shiar generals in all of Romulan history. His Tavara and Generix projects were both glowing successes.

Even if Mijural remains “the” heroine to the public, Helev represents nothing less than the Commander of the Romulan defense fleet and a personal adjutant of the Praetor himself. His spies and agents will definitively play an important role in defeating every future danger the Romulan Star Empire may face in the Alpha Quadrant. The general will definitely remain an important figure in Alpha Quadrant power plays.

Unique Romulan Weaponry

Pulse Disruptor

Pulse Disruptors are very old, yet effective weapons, developed in the 21th century. Many modern weapons have followed them since, but they are still the most-used weaponry in the Galaxy.

Disruptor

Similar to phasers, these weapons are used by almost all space travelling species at some point in their history. Their good trade-off of firepower, range, reload time and energy usage makes them an excellent weaponry against both small and large vessels. Some Romulan engineers managed to improve the damage output of disruptors at the price of increasing their reload times.

Plasma Torpedo

Romulan Plasma Torpedoes are very similar to Photon Torpedoes, but they carry plasma instead of anti-matter. As plasma can be generated on most starships, and the torpedo hulls may be replicated, ammunition is not a problem. Plasma Torpedoes are usually less effective, but are available in large numbers.

Projectile Weapon

Unlike most modern weapons, there are still some weapons around that utilize enriched duranium as a bullet-type weapon system. Romulans have been seen to equip deep-space vessels with them, as the complete ammunition may be replicated or mined.

Quadcobalt Torpedo

Tricobalt weapons were very effective in the Dominion war. As a consequence, the Tal'Shiar took over the blueprints and advanced the design using a new cobalt isotope, called Quadcobalt. The results are impressive.

Warbirds

The Shrike

The Shrike Class is a very fast Romulan destroyer which was designed for all kinds of espionage and stealth tasks. Its cloaking device has perfectly been adjusted to its energy signature, allowing a Shrike Class to pass through every enemy fleet without being seen. Of course Tachyon Scans will still detect its cloak signature.

The Shrike Class can be produced at the Staryard if you have chosen Mijural as your avatar. It has quite impressive shielding and armor for a vessel of its size. The Dual Rapid Fire Pulse Disruptors installed in Shrike Class vessels can beat up most destroyers easily, but a good Shrike Commander will avoid direct conflict and try to continue its mission stealthy. The Tal'Shiar Agent special ability will allow you to send an intelligence operative onboard an enemy vessel or station to grant you complete line of view of the targeted unit.

The Cehlaer

The Cehlaer was a sister project of the Norexan Class warbird which is known for its technological advanced computer system design, a new type of hull plating and weapon power. The Cehlaer has all advantages the Norexan design has except that it's impulse engine and warp drive capabilites have been reduced to deliver a powerful arsenal of weapons for the Romulan Star Empire. General Mijural of the Tal'Shiar has had great influence in the development of the project and later also placed the Cehlaer Class into the Romulan defense fleet. Although quite a few years newer, the Cehlaer is somewhat of a counterpart to the Federation's Galaxy Class in reputation and role.

The reduction of speed relying on the lesser powerful engines makes the Cehlaer a powerful siege vessel. Its massive disruptor array can bring an impressive degree of destruction to the enemy. A commander of a Cehlaer type warbird said after a weapons test that the caehlar class is powerful enough to take on a borg cube. A good starship captain should always avoid to let one of these giant flying disruptors in the shape of warbird come into weapon range.

The Eresis

The Eresis Warbird is some kind of counterpart to the mighty Cehlaer Type Warbird. While the Cehlaer is equipped with massive weaponry and armor, but has low speed, the Eresis Warbird is the fastest battleship in the Romulan fleet. To complement the role of a deadly strike-and-retreat battlecruiser the Eresis Class can access a new weapon system: The Radiation Array. The Cehlaer and the Eresis were both produced in the same yard complex, hence their design similarities.

The Saeihr

The Saeihr Class is the "Star Class", a prototype of a deep space escort or scout vessel, equipped with weapons using replicable or mineable ammunition (projectile based weapons) instead of plasma or antimatter based weapons. The Saeihr is one of the very few heavy cruiser chassis of the Romulan empire and is equipped with a small disruptor and two very powerful particle weapons. Intense crew training and advanced computer systems allow this specialist to strike over long range. The particle weapons in the Saeihr are also quite a unique thing. Their energy systems can be exchanged with a special Concave Plasma Conduit system that will greatly increase the energy flow in the particle cannons and therefore generate much higher damage. Sadly, the conduits will burn out in a short time and need to be replaced after every usage. That is  symbolized by two supply costs in addition to the normal special energy costs. Live long and ... stealthily.

Mogai Class

The new Mogai class was part of a program to increase the infrastructure of the Romulan Star Empire. These vessels are used to maintain the complex sensor network and are able to construct advanced starbases in a short amount of time.

Fakairu Class

Fakairu class vessels were in service for more than 300 hundred years to solve all logistical missions for the Empire. The newest versions of these advanced civil vessels can even mine resources from asteroids and other planetoids.

Talon Class

The Talon class is one of the most common Tal'shiar designs in the past 50 years. It has been refitted several times to serve in both science and espionage tasks. As a Romulan warship, it is equipped with a Cloaking Device.

Talon Class Refit

This modified refit of the Talon Class provides advanced sensor and anti-stealth technology which allows it to detect all cloaked vessels within its sensor range, even while it itself is cloaked. This ability makes the Talon Class Refit a very important asset to every Romulan Fleet or scout mission.

Rhienn Class

Rhienn class vessels are a new design of the Romulan Star Empire, built in answer to the Federation's Defiant class, after the vessel's overwhelming performance in the Dominion War battles - they couldn't let the Federation get all the glory without a proper answer, just in case there should ever be Romulan-Federation conflicts. If they only knew...

These fast and deadly vessels have been designed to destroy smaller enemy destroyers, like Klingon Bird of Prey and fulfill several stealth and sabotage missions. Rhienn class vessels can also be upgraded to carry additional weaponry and have stronger shield and hull integrity.

Rhienn Class Disruptor Refit

To provide a stable backbone of the Romulan fleet, Rhienn class vessels can be upgraded to this refit which installs an additional disruptor bank. This is a very common modification among Romulan fleets.

Rhienn Class Torpedo Refit

This Rhienn class refit was designed to complement the heavily armed Warbirds by installing plasma torpedo launchers on these lightly armored vessels, which allows them to deal impressive damage for a vessel of this size.

Griffin Class

The Griffin is involved in a bit of sordid history sadly. The prototype for this warship was involved in a rather nasty internal Tal’Shiar affair as in fact it was stolen. Of course, it was stolen by a fellow Romulan, as aliens are lucky if they even get to visit Romulus - they wouldn’t ever get access to an Imperial building, not to mention Tal'Shiar experimental facilities! As a result, the Griffin class was almost scrapped, due to security reasons, but General Helev pushed the project forward. As a consequence, the Griffin can be acquired while commanding his fleet. Other than this, the vessel is a good backbone vessel, introduced to complement the D'deridex, which is far too slow with its warp seven cruising speed.

Leahval Class

The Leahval class is the Romulan answer to the Federation Defiant class, which rendered itself very efficient in the Dominion War. Leahval Class vessels are equipped with a new and very powerful disruptor weapon, which can modulate its phase frequency, allowing it to deal massive damage by phasing through the enemy shielding.

Serkas Class

The Serkas class is a long range support vessel. After the Romulan Empire initiated several research programs with the Omega particle, a similar element was found which is an isotopic modification of Tricobalt (used in Tricobalt Torpedos of Starfleet). These quad cobalt torpedoes cause a field of energy radiation which has a destructive influence on all nearby structures.

Generix Class

The Generix class is a multi mission Starship designed by the Tal'shiar to fulfill any kind of mission. Therefore it can be equipped with different kinds of modules to specify its mission parameters. The basic version of the Generix Class, without any modules installed, is a cheap and powerful cruiser.

Generix Class Frigate Refit

This Generix variant is a very efficient way to get rid of smaller vessels like destroyers or cruisers. The Cruiser variant of the Generix class is a powerful all-round cruiser which can be assigned to every offensive military task. You can most often find Generix class cruisers in patrol or escort missions.

Generix Class Support Refit

The is a very special variant of the Generix Class, which is designed to support large vessels like Norexan or D'deridex Class Warbirds. Its dynamic energy structure allows the Generix Class (Support) to transfer shield energy directly into the shield emitter of an allied vessel.

Generix Class Spectre Refit

The dreadnought version of the Generix class is a heavily armed and armored assault vessel, which can even become a threat to battleships. It is equipped with the first version of a serially produced cloaking device that allows shields to be maintained while cloaked.

D’deridex Class

The D'deridex class Warbird is one of the most powerful vessels in the whole Alpha Quadrant. Its giant size and deadly weaponry makes it the fear of every starship captain. Equipped with an advanced cloaking device, it is the backbone of the Romulan Fleet. More than 60 percent of all Romulan vessels are D'deridex class Warbirds. In TNG the Warbird was a fearsome vessel: better armed and armored then a Galaxy class and quite huge, but capped at warp 6. The DS9 Warbird is probably a refitted version or a version with a different layout altogether, as their front part is slightly different for example. In the Fleet Operations universe, the D'deridex is a slow, but still modern giant vessel that dominated the Romulan Fleet for a long time (roughly 60 years) and still is a very important vessel which composes around half of the Romulan Fleet. More modern vessels like the Generix (which will get a new model one day) or the Norexan, were built after the Dominion War.

Norexan Class

The Norexan class is the newest starship of the Romulan Star Empire. It is meant as an alternative to the still used D'deridex class and is equipped with the most advanced technology the Empire has.

Tavara Class

The Tavara, the first vessel of this type, is the flagship of the Romulan Star Empire. These vessels use a new type of energy source, based on research with the classified Omega Particle. The shielding of a Tavara type vessel is strong enough to sustain heavy fire and its weapons can even be a threat to a Borg Cube. Some Senators planned to send the Tavara to the front during the Dominion War to test its firepower in the field, but the Praetor decided to keep this giant vessel a secret. One thing will be for sure: if there will ever be a conflict in the Alpha Quadrant, the Tavara will be a key element of it.

The Rei'karansu are an elite CQ combat regiment deployed by the Star Empire to capture vessels, starbases or even planets. Some stealth units are even trained in assassination. The marines serve under direct control of Galae operatives or the Praetor himself, something often proclaimed by the Tal'Shiar to be a risk for the security of the Empire. The Senate says the same about the Tal'Shiar.

Plans

Admiral Sela may or may not become a Romulan avatar in a future version.

As both Romulan avatars are of the Tal'shiar at the moment, it’s not that easy to identify vessels as "theirs", like Risner’s Phalanx for instance. Consequently, the Developers for the most part have just chosen vessels that fit in the balancing scheme and had to do with or were used by those people in the first place. The next Romulan avatar will not be a member of the Tal’Shiar. What will this unnamed avatar be you may ask? “Cool, of course”.

The Raptor is planned for a point in the future.

The Support Generix will become a dedicated minelayer in an upcoming patch and the Shield Recharge ability will vanish into the ether.