General Empire vs Borg musings

[Captain Seafort]

The borg have never been able to resist MT level firepower (see 8472). The federation destroyed multiple cubes with MT level firepower.

Pre-adaptation, sure. Post-adaptation, there's good reason to believe they can withstand mid single-digit Mt/s sustained for tens of seconds with no evident strain - the E-D's deflector weapon.

[Shroom Man 777]

Borg Cubes are huge, I don't know about sub-cube vessels, but the Cubes themselves can probably eat a lot of turbolasers from sub-capital SW vessels and just do whatever... even if SW subcapital shield strength is really that above Cube weapons yield... tractor beams will restrain them and, if anything, the Cube can just ram the ship and have it get embedded within the Cube. Imagine that, a Borg Cube going all... Katamari on smaller lesser SW ships.



Imagine a Cube that's absorbed so many smaller SW ships that its entire outer surface is covered in SW ships... that are semi-functional, diverting their collective reactor power to shields and weapons while the Cube itself handles transportation... or all of their hyperdrives being technobabbled to work together and propel the Cube at like speeds equal to their combined speeds!

Yes that makes no sense at all but it'd be so preposterous. A Cube that absorbed 10 Corellian Falcon-type ships would be like... TEN TIMES AS FAST AS THE FALCON! Holy shit!

[Batman]

The borg have never been able to resist MT level firepower (see 8472). The federation destroyed multiple cubes with MT level firepower.

Pre-adaptation, sure. Post-adaptation, there's good reason to believe they can withstand mid single-digit Mt/s sustained for tens of seconds with no evident strain - the E-D's deflector weapon.

I don't think the firepower of the Deflector Dish Attack of Doom was actually stated onscreen, it's all based off secondary noncanon sources. Besides, even ignoring the ICS numbers, single figure MT is LTL level for Wars.

[The Romulan Republic]

Hey guys,

Whenever I see this topic, I keep on seeing Trekkies use no limits fallacies. For example, here on this page alone, they are trying to say the Borg can assimilate the Force.

Old news.

Now, it should be entirely possible to assimilate a Force user, and it might be possible to design a drone that could use the Force (if not very well) since its apparently tied to midichlorian count.

But Borg have both the wrong mindset to use the Force (Light Side or Dark- and no, I've never bought that Light Side means no emotions), and the wrong physical composition (being part-machine) to use it optimally.

As to assimilating the Force itself, if that's what they're suggesting... that's ludicrous. Its a fundamental force (no pun intended) of the cosmos. Its like saying they could assimilate gravity, or assimilate God and the Devil, depending on weather one subscribes consciousness to the Force.

Apparently referring to S8472 is out of context and their weapons would have been adapted to if they weren't biological in nature.

Regarding Species 8472, to be fair, I think (its been a long time since I watched the episodes in question) that the show did at least imply, if not state outright, that their biotech. was immune to assimilation.

What are the best examples from the show that actually show limits to this assimilation/adaptation wank?

Species 8472 obviously comes to mind, as does the persistent vulnerability of the Borg to physical objects/projectiles.

Personally, I see the Borg as one of the most overrated sci-fi races of all time. They can't even beat the Federation, or deal with a bumbling Worf.

They're effective when well-written. Unfortunately, they were often written as imbeciles (or is that by imbeciles?).

One idea I always liked was the Queen's plot to use a nano-probe-dispersing bomb in "Dark Frontier". That's the sort of clever use of Borg technology that, if shown more often, might have made them seem less pathetic at times.

[Lord Revan]

The Borg seem to have taken groupthink into its (il)logical extreme and the Collective seems to have little to no non-forced innovation, they can innovate to a degree if faced with threat they cannot deal with but the effectiveness of borg adaption is shall we say overstated heavily and typical borg tactics and strategies seem quite inflexible.

And there's races that while not outright stated to be so are implied to be safe from borg assimilation like the Voth (corridorless Transwarp would be useful for the Borg) and others that were destroyed outright rather then their tech being assimilated like the species with the slipstream drive (again the tech seems too good to not be used if it was avaible).

[The Romulan Republic]

Eh, don't the Borg canonically have comparable FTL tech. (the transwarp that Voyager uses to get back to Earth in the finale)?

[Lord Revan]

Eh, don't the Borg canonically have comparable FTL tech. (the transwarp that Voyager uses to get back to Earth in the finale)?

Yes and no. Speedwise the the borg Transwarp seems to be as least as good as those 2 but the borg transwarp has some very clear tactical and strategic limitations most notebly being tied to a handful of hubs that if destroyed could cripple the network.

The Borg transwarp is like a railway network with few hubs thru which all rails go thru with no other connecting rails in between, while the Voth transwarp seems just like regular warp only faster and the slipstream seems essentially the same as long the ship using it was designed for it.

[The Romulan Republic]

Isn't even standard cube FTL better than Federation warp drives? If not as good as the hub-based transwarp network?

[Lord Revan]

Isn't even standard cube FTL better than Federation warp drives? If not as good as the hub-based transwarp network?

Better then GCS warp at least as the Cube kept up with Ent-D even when damaged, but the thing is that slipstream tech seems to be about as good as hub-based Transwarp and the ship designed to use it didn't have instability problems yet borg chose to destroy that race rather the assimilate the tech suggesting they couldn't. There's also the fact that Borg couldn't simply assimilate Data and get codes for Ent-E that way in First Contact suggesting again that there's limits to what Borg can assimilate even if the tech is something they're reasonbly familiar with (Data is based on federation tech after all).

[DarthPooky]

Pre-adaptation, sure. Post-adaptation, there's good reason to believe they can withstand mid single-digit Mt/s sustained for tens of seconds with no evident strain - the E-D's deflector weapon.

Isn't the general consensus on the forum that the Borg couldn't optimize there shields completely to Wars weapons. Because so called Borg adaptation realise of matching there shields frequency with that of the enemy's and since Wars weapons don't operate on a specific frequency they couldn't adapt completely?

[Captain Seafort]

Better then GCS warp at least as the Cube kept up with Ent-D even when damaged

They're also twice as fast in sustained warp - the E-D would have taken a bit over two years seven months to get back from J25. The cube, assuming it was the same one, attacked Jouret IV less than a year and three months later.

slipstream tech seems to be about as good as hub-based Transwarp and the ship designed to use it didn't have instability problems yet borg chose to destroy that race rather the assimilate the tech suggesting they couldn't.

As I recall, the only explanation of what happened to that species came from one of its survivors. I doubt he was particularly minded to distinguish between dead and assimilated when he said they were destroyed - the end result is the same.

I don't think the firepower of the Deflector Dish Attack of Doom was actually stated onscreen, it's all based off secondary noncanon sources.

It's based entirely on canon numbers, with the assumption that using the deflector allowed them to channel full reactor power, just as they did in Deja Q. I'm therefore using Mike Wong's numbers from that episode for the dish weapon, combined with beam duration of 25 seconds.

This lines up quite nicely with known firepower for their standard weapons. The E-D's phasers caused a 2% drop in the Borg ship's power output, and the crew believed that the deflector dish weapon would destroy it, ergo it's reasonable to believe that said deflector weapon is at least 50 times as powerful as the phasers. 100kT/s phasers would be less powerful, but comparable to, 1Mt-ish torpedoes (calc'd from Pegasus and Rise), which roughly matches how we see them treated tactically.

Besides, even ignoring the ICS numbers, single figure MT is LTL level for Wars.

Indeed - I'd put the dish as about the same time-averaged power as a couple of LTLs, but my point is to demonstrate that you'd need proper capital ship weapons (either MTLs or large numbers of LTLs - one or two won't cut it) to take on a cube once it's adapted. Freighter and fighter weapons are unlikely to be sufficient.

[The Romulan Republic]

Its a rather large assumption that it was the same cube. Its certainly unverified.

[Lord Revan]

slipstream tech seems to be about as good as hub-based Transwarp and the ship designed to use it didn't have instability problems yet borg chose to destroy that race rather the assimilate the tech suggesting they couldn't.

As I recall, the only explanation of what happened to that species came from one of its survivors. I doubt he was particularly minded to distinguish between dead and assimilated when he said they were destroyed - the end result is the same.

not for the point of view of having the tech which was my point, whether the Borg assimilated all of the other members of that species, assimilated some and killed others or killed them all is irrelevant. The Borg Collective doesn't seem to have access to slipstream drive technology suggesting they're not capable of assimilating that technology, so assuming Borg can assimilate SW tech also isn't a given fact, the Borg might be able to do it or they might not be. My point was basically to show that Undine were not an outlier and there's examples of the Borg not being able to assimilate "normal" tech as well.

[Patroklos]

Pre-adaptation, sure. Post-adaptation, there's good reason to believe they can withstand mid single-digit Mt/s sustained for tens of seconds with no evident strain - the E-D's deflector weapon.

Isn't the general consensus on the forum that the Borg couldn't optimize there shields completely to Wars weapons. Because so called Borg adaptation realise of matching there shields frequency with that of the enemy's and since Wars weapons don't operate on a specific frequency they couldn't adapt completely?

This would have been true until a particularly shitty scene in TFA. Now at the very least volumetric SW versions such at planetary shields have frequencies. And since any random space hobo can just luck his way through them I have no doubt the Borg could handle it.

Also the fact that all SW ships shoot through their shields means frequency may be a feature of all shields. Luckily TFA didn't ruin that for us, but there are few good reasons why they wouldn't be similar.

[Imperial528]

Pre-adaptation, sure. Post-adaptation, there's good reason to believe they can withstand mid single-digit Mt/s sustained for tens of seconds with no evident strain - the E-D's deflector weapon.

Isn't the general consensus on the forum that the Borg couldn't optimize there shields completely to Wars weapons. Because so called Borg adaptation realise of matching there shields frequency with that of the enemy's and since Wars weapons don't operate on a specific frequency they couldn't adapt completely?

This would have been true until a particularly shitty scene in TFA. Now at the very least volumetric SW versions such at planetary shields have frequencies. And since any random space hobo can just luck his way through them I have no doubt the Borg could handle it.

To be fair to TFA, that may have been specific to Starkiller Base's shield, especially given the power requirements of the main weapon, they may have opted instead for a cycling shield instead of a constant shield to stay in line with power draw requirements. Han also states that anything traveling slower than lightspeed won't get through, which leaves phasers/beams as the only weapons the Borg could try to synchronize with it.

If Han's trick worked for any planetary shield, there's no reason why it wasn't tried in Rogue One by the Rebel fleet over Scarif. Or the Rebel Fleet that attacked the second Death Star, for that matter.

[Lord Revan]

Isn't the general consensus on the forum that the Borg couldn't optimize there shields completely to Wars weapons. Because so called Borg adaptation realise of matching there shields frequency with that of the enemy's and since Wars weapons don't operate on a specific frequency they couldn't adapt completely?

This would have been true until a particularly shitty scene in TFA. Now at the very least volumetric SW versions such at planetary shields have frequencies. And since any random space hobo can just luck his way through them I have no doubt the Borg could handle it.

To be fair to TFA, that may have been specific to Starkiller Base's shield, especially given the power requirements of the main weapon, they may have opted instead for a cycling shield instead of a constant shield to stay in line with power draw requirements. Han also states that anything traveling slower than lightspeed won't get through, which leaves phasers/beams as the only weapons the Borg could try to synchronize with it.

If Han's trick worked for any planetary shield, there's no reason why it wasn't tried in Rogue One by the Rebel fleet over Scarif. Or the Rebel Fleet that attacked the second Death Star, for that matter.

also Han's plan was considered outright suicidal in a "it'll never work" way. Basically it's like if you had a fort with massive walls that would need a massive siege to pierce but there was
ventillation shaft that if you timed it just right you could get past the fans but if you timing was even a second off you'd get caught in the fan and crushed to death.

So the fact that the Falcon didn't crash into the shield barrier or the ground (well in a way that would only left crater with remains of ship spread of kilometers around the impact site) should be seen as sign that luck (or the Force which ever you prefer) was with Han, so while technically it's a weakness in the SW shields it's not a weakness that's so easy to exploit. TL:DR people are greatly understating how dangerous and difficult the stunt Han pulled actually was.

[Crazedwraith]

Yeah but difficult to fly a whole ship through the shields is not the same ball park of difficulty as matching the phaser/beaming frequency and ignoring them which is a known ST trick.

While It's not really 'realistic' in a vs sense of being an actual borg tactic or plausible I do love the idea of the borg going low profile and slowly snatching up the odd techie and civilian ship and slowly incorporating SW tech in to a super-cube as a story idea. Very nifty.

[Lord Revan]

Yeah but difficult to fly a whole ship through the shields is not the same ball park of difficulty as matching the phaser/beaming frequency and ignoring them which is a known ST trick.

While It's not really 'realistic' in a vs sense of being an actual borg tactic or plausible I do love the idea of the borg going low profile and slowly snatching up the odd techie and civilian ship and slowly incorporating SW tech in to a super-cube as a story idea. Very nifty.

yeah if done right it's a really good idea (aka it's done to make the Borg a viable threat without giving them an effortless victory), however if done badly (aka it's done to clearly to allowed the Trek side to be the victor at expense of character consistency) it'll suck badly as not only did you allow you personal feelings about the vs. debate get in way of the story but you also broke character to do so. In essense the idea has potential but it must handled correctly or it'll bite you in the arse big time.

IMHO a good crossover story doesn't give one side or the other clear superiority in story importance. Note that story importance isn't same thing as military power or technology, one side can be inferior in military power, technology or both as long as their role in the story isn't just to display the superiorty of the other side. For example a STvsSW story could have it so that Trek crew tries to get peace without winning to imperial fleet simply as imperial fleet is too strong for them to beat head-on, the Trek side still has signifigant story importance even though they're inferior in direct combat.

[Q99]

not for the point of view of having the tech which was my point, whether the Borg assimilated all of the other members of that species, assimilated some and killed others or killed them all is irrelevant. The Borg Collective doesn't seem to have access to slipstream drive technology suggesting they're not capable of assimilating that technology, so assuming Borg can assimilate SW tech also isn't a given fact, the Borg might be able to do it or they might not be. My point was basically to show that Undine were not an outlier and there's examples of the Borg not being able to assimilate "normal" tech as well.

That's quite an assumption that they 'can't' assimilate slipstream.

Their Transwarp already allows interquadrent travel, and slipstream works best with specific designs in ships and it's pretty touchy (slight variances knock one out of slipstream), especially on larger ships (Delta Flyer handled it better than Voyager, even with feeding Voyager advanced info), so there's notable reasons to chose one over the other, especially when your main ships are 3km x 3km multipurpose cubes (and they're apparently closely related technologies to boot, so it wouldn't surprise me if they simply used the tech to tweek and improve their transwarp some rather than switching over).

The Borg could design a ship for Slipstream if needed perhaps, but I'd imagine only on probes/scoutships, it's not the best drive for larger ships.

Voth drive tech would likely be more appealing, but they only assimilated the slipstream users, not the Voth anyway (Voth being one of the few species powerful enough that I think it fair to guess they're still at a point where they can fend off or escape a fairly determined Borg attack, plus they weren't as near Borg space).

If you have people who know how to build something, and you have the capability/resources to build the parts in question, you can build a tech. That's how *everyone* builds technology. A successful assimilation means the Borg literally has everything the original makes have. Now not all technology can necessarily be integrated with their other technology in an advantageous manner (there could be a cool weapon that'd require a different power setup and be judged not-worth-it, for example, or slipstream as above), but there's no point when "has the same resources and knowledge of other people who built it, up to and including actual people who built it," doesn't let you build something.

Toss in that Star Wars technology is actually pretty easy to make with limited resources- the Rebels manage to build stuff on the sly and in hidden facilities pretty well, and garage-building small ships is actually a thing, as are worlds in isolated star clusters and such building their own big ships- and there's really not much reason to believe this is the straw that breaks the camel's back and is the unassimilateable tech even with actual SW engineers in their possession.

Now I'll add that available resources is a thing, if something requires specific materials and such the Borg are likely to still need that (I.e. Even if they got plans and knowledge for a super laser, they still need to obtain the giant focusing crystal), which is a limit in some cases (cloaks also come to mind), but not in the normal stuff.

Isn't the general consensus on the forum that the Borg couldn't optimize there shields completely to Wars weapons. Because so called Borg adaptation realise of matching there shields frequency with that of the enemy's and since Wars weapons don't operate on a specific frequency they couldn't adapt completely?

I find that a shaky assumption. Consider- Torpedoes are just an antimatter explosion, and the Borg can adapt to them just fine. An antimatter explosion isn't a specific frequency, it's a broader spectrum, well, explosion.

Phasers probably hone in on a specific frequency to maximize effectiveness in normal circumstances, but not all trek weapons do- and the plasma phasers and pulse phasers may be a response to just this problem, and Borg could still adapt to them though, as we saw, with a bit more leak through. Though I think narrow-band but unadapted is actually the most effective tool for damage, so there's a reason to still use frequencies...

In Dark Frontier, Seven also countered incoming fire (of phaser pulses that modulated to be able to penetrate their shields) by altering shield geometry rather than frequency.

Frequency matching is one factor in, but not the end-all and be-all of adaptation.

Of course there's probably no such thing as adapting 'completely,' anything is still going to have some effect, and some things it's going to be easier to reduce effect than others, but not being frequency specific doesn't mean an attack can't be softened considerably.

I mentioned upthread that I got the impression they were adapting to 8472 beams by trial and error, but only were at the part where they were achieving 'there are larger chunks of Cube remaining'.

[Q99]

The borg have never been able to resist MT level firepower (see 8472). The federation destroyed multiple cubes with MT level firepower.

8472's rather beyond megaton level! Eight working together popped planets. Even a fully charged single bioship beam was quite impressive.

Also, sure, the Federation destroyed the FC cube with MT level firepower, but in a running battle that lasted for a sustained period with tons of ships, and weapons designed to be anti-borg. It wasn't easy.

Regarding Species 8472, to be fair, I think (its been a long time since I watched the episodes in question) that the show did at least imply, if not state outright, that their biotech. was immune to assimilation.

Incredibly resistant, and we know why- it has an active immune system (one of the most killy immune systems in fiction, seriously it's better than Tyranid immune systems, a tiny bit in a scratch on a human will spread and kill the human and was very hard for even Federation medicine to stop) that kills any nanites that made contact. Basically it was nanotech vs nanotech with their nanotech being superior on defense, that said defensive nanotech was biological isn't the factor to focus on.

It was also shown that it could be bypassed if one could spoof the immune system (only used to make a method to kill in-show, but shows it's no perfect defense).


Putting aside the whole biological vs not thing, 8472 was a notably more advanced species than most Milky Way trek powers. They had stronger weapons by a wide margin, very tough ships that self healed (though not as fast as Borg self-repair, it's still a noteworthy feature), better immune system/nanotech, and able to do biological disguises that fools Federation tech.

Species 8472 obviously comes to mind, as does the persistent vulnerability of the Borg to physical objects/projectiles.

The physical thing is something I think is also not entirely well founded, at least not to the extent assumed. For the most part, Borg don't have that much to fear from physical attacks/it ends up in their favor, in FC only Data and Worf were doing well in HtH, everyone else was being overwhelmed (physically fit starfleet officer rams one in the chest with a rifle butt, doink, bounces off to no effect. You could also see how scared they were at the prospect of facing them in HtH), so they'd already adapted in the 'casualties rates are well in the Borg favor' sense. And they did even overwhelm Data.

Heck, in the holodeck with the tommygun? That wasn't projectiles, that was holographic force-field attacks being fired by the holodeck's emitters and not the tommygun at all. Nor did we see it used for as much time as drones normally take to adapt to a new weapon- killing three drones with something isn't much sign of immunity, use something persistently and then you see adaptation.

We saw a Tactical Cube with visible thick armor.

Dunno if we'd count torpedoes/explosions as physical but they defended against those just fine.

Finally, Borg can self-repair from a lot, so it may be using physical projectiles just has them heal up the drone anyway, no real loss unless there's a lot of them (the Tommygun may be a bit much, but I'd doubt a few hits would do).

So, yea, we've kinda seen physical attacks been effective, but we've also never seen anyone even try and use them as a main offense and normally it's a few tossed in, and Drones assimilate in melee so one could even argue that's a bit of a honey pot tactic. "Oh noz, whatever you do don't bring your flesh in the range of my nanotubes and hack up my helpless drones!". *That's how they got Data*, the most valuable member of the Ent-E from their POV.

They're effective when well-written. Unfortunately, they were often written as imbeciles (or is that by imbeciles?).

One idea I always liked was the Queen's plot to use a nano-probe-dispersing bomb in "Dark Frontier". That's the sort of clever use of Borg technology that, if shown more often, might have made them seem less pathetic at times.

Personally that's why I like the 'they use the Federation as a tactics testbed,' hypothesis. If a lot of the time when we see them, they're more focused on improving themselves than winning the conflict in question, that explains a fair amount.

[Q99]

(Sorry for multi-posting)

It is also with SW manufacturing tech.

The problem is you are using the old no limits fallacy. AKA "Borg magically assimilate everything and thus can magically reverse engineer".

So you got a few mining plants. Great. Now what?

You say 'magically' when the 'how' and the requirements are described repeatedly. I don't think you're arguing in good faith, and are basing it more on preconceived notions of which one you think is on a higher 'level' than thinking about how machine tools work, which doesn't even imply a no-limits fallacy. Repeating the same assumptions and metaphor in response to explanation isn't a solid argument.

No. Not at all. An ancient Roman forge could not build a modern shipyard.

A not remotely comparable situation. Replicators are precision industrial tools that can make designer items on the microscopic levels, and similarly Borg nanites construct large scale gear on the fly using nano construction. Star Wars tools are for the most part, tools, either hand tools or machines similar to those we see in modern factories but more advanced (we have see a factory live, in Geonosis, and other facilities). A replicator should have no problem with, and you've presented no evidence why the Borg are proverbial roman forge here rather than an advanced industrial power with precision tools that need to be used to make other precision tooling- ones that we see can be constructed with less precise tools on occasion.

A precision 3d printer capable of working in an array of materials could be used to replicate the tools to make any modern industrial machine. Now if you don't know how to make the machine in question, that's pretty useless even with the printer (having a machine that lets you make parts to make a microchip etching machine doesn't help you if you don't have a design for a microchip etching machine), but once you have people who know how to make the machines in question, there you go.

Additionally, it doesn't even need to be done in one step. I'm fairly confident it can be, but, "Ah, you need a n-spanner to build that, which requires a microforge, which requires a superpressure lathe," means the Borg replicators only need to be able to make the parts to make a superpressure lathe in order to end up with the final product in the end as long as they have the knowledge, which they will have. I don't know of any Star Wars technology which is even implied to require such high requirements, but that's the situation. Once you have the chain, it's merely a matter of following it (entering at the highest level that Replicators + Nanites can take them, which is quite possibly quite high indeed since, well, pretty much any physical shape can be replicated and parts can even be created already-interlocking in complex ways with precision fitting).

Repeating, "But, roman," is poor arguing, and there's a rougher argument for saying SW tech could build Borg tech than the reverse (since, well, human hands can definitely make Wars ships, but there's a lot more nanotech and matter-energy conversion involved on the other). Wars has more power but there's other factors involved.

[Shroom Man 777]

Rebels don't really "build." They are either supplied or they scavenge. We never see them have manufacturing capabilities. Nomadic guerrillas don't do that sorta stuff.

You're conflating easily-available super-durable advanced stuff with = can make anywhere. That's like saying just because RPGs and ATGMs are everywhere and Javelin missiles can last for long periods of time and troops can now use them against infantry and walls because they're near their expiry date... doesn't mean they can be built from scratch. We see people in Aleppo and the Damascus suburbs and even in the Kurd resistance groups jerry-rigging random shit - even making catapults and ballista for makeshift propane gas-tank explosives - due to lack of supply routes...

[seanrobertson]

I'm severely limited on time, but I find myself siding strongly with most of Q99's points.

Please forgive my lack of a proper reply -- my primary access to the Net these days is through a tablet -- but I do think the Borg are somewhat underestimated and, if not a direct threat to the Empire, represent something that could be a far greater enemy than the Rebel fleet in the sense of a big space battle, which is of course a small part of the greater picture of warfare.

More to come when my PC is accessible again. Repeated apologies for my lack of specifics

[The Romulan Republic]

The Borg, I think, could be a big threat if their resources/assets were wielded by competent commanders capable of adapting to more than changing frequencies and other technobabble, but capable of adapting to changing circumstances and taking the initiative.

As I said, the nano-probe bomb idea is a good one. Fire transwarp missiles, and have them detonate in planetary atmospheres to infect the populace. Should work on any unshielded world, and possibly even shielded ones (since the shields presumably are not constantly up even in peace time), especially if the missiles are cloaked.

Hell, if the Dominion, Feds, and possibly Romulans can figure out tech. to blow up stars, the Borg probably can do it too. For that matter, wasn't it an El Aurian scientist who had that capability in Generations? You know, the people the Borg assimilated?

But their usual tactics of "Fly up with cube, broadcast pretentious speech, beam infantry aboard and slowly advance to melee range, ignore borders on our own ship"... no. Not a prayer.

[Lord Revan]

Yeah the Borg's greatest asset is also their greatest weakness, while in theory the Borg have nearly unbeatble advantage in Command and control due to their hivemind it's this same hivemind that makes the Collective have next to no strategic or tactical flexibility, if the Borg used the benefits from the hivemind to their full potential the line "Resistance is futile" wouldn't be an idle boast as it is now most of the time.