OK, here's the scoop... from one of us Birdies no less (and I'll take a King Vulture over anything else in that BPV range).
Those lizards staged several raids during the closing years of our 4th Gorn War. During these raids, they destroyed one of a pair of thechnological breakthroughs that we had perpared to introduce into the fleet- tactical warp capibilities. This would allow our ships to fight at warp speeds without turning into pretty balls of fire in space, which can ruin your whole fvadt day. These cursed lizards were so successful, that they distroyed the whole station and all the research that that particular House had never bothered to share with anyone else (so that their tactical warp ships could escort THEIR candidate for rhiyrh (emperor) to ch'Rihan.
As a result ofthis, we were left with only one of the technologies that our scientests had developed to help us conquer Thhaei (Vulcan), the cloaking device. This allowed us to hold our own, but only barely.
Prehaps that will help you understand why we were so long in attaining tactical warp.