Had a quick FT game last night, with the original aim of trying a
fighter-heavy fleet against a PDS- and pulse-heavy one. My opponent
chose NAC: Ark Royal, Majestic, Vandenburg/T, Huron, Ticonderoga,
Tacoma/T. I wanted to try pulse torpedoes, grepped my ship list, and
ended up with John's NR designs: a St George carrier, a St Theodore the
Recruit HKDN, two Cimbalongus/E DDEs and a Thessalonika CL (the latter
being the only relatively conventional design of that group).
Two things worked surprisingly well with that NR fleet, which is why I'm
writing this message of congratulations to John.
(1) Having 8 pulse torpedoes pointed at you has a wonderful psychological
effect. Having 8 pulse torpedoes fired at you can take out
a Vandenburg/T, Ticoderoga or Tacoma/T in one volley (all of which
happened). Small ships should not play with the big boys.
(2) Having the pair of Cimbalongus/Es in close formation with the St
Theodore the Recruit made it practically invulnerable to SM and fighter
attack.
As a general tactics question, how do people usually use light escort ships?
I've found that, when fleets start far apart, they generally get
taken out by long-range beam fire before they can get around the enemy
for stern shots; the only reason the Cimbalongus/Es survived this time
was that St Theodore the Recruit became a priority target (and took a long
time to whittle down to the first threshold point... at which it lost one torp
tube, which was immediately repaired).
If escort ships are kept close to the things they're escorting, then they
don't need such big drives; but I haven't seen designs for
low-thrust small ships.
So how do other people deploy them?
> Roger Burton West wrote:
There is no reason for a screen of escorts to deploy on the front line of a
fleet, unless they are banzai jammer craft. It's too easy for the concentrated
long range weapons to score a threshold or kill against them.
Escorts are better utilized as area defense craft with ADFC or as pursuit
craft. Tactics will dictate their design. ADFC craft can reduce the size of
the main drive to match the high value ship. Pursuit craft will need fast
drives. In either case, they can survive best if they are behind the ships of
the line.
I tend to use DD or DHs as the smallest battle line unit. FF or smaller can be
a waste of points, time, and paper.
It's funny though. In the US fleet, the CVNs are the fastest ships in the
battle group. They can leave the escorts in their wake.
> > If escort ships are kept close to the things they're escorting,
ash Shaulah strike craft, Mass 8, main drive 6, 1 hull, 1 FCS, 4 mass
of weapons. The "four mass" part was carefully chosen--it could be 2
needles, 1 SMR, 2 MTM, 4 submunitions, or a B3.
You have three approaches: distractions, bombers and snipers. A distraction is
in business mainly to keep the enemy from shooting at
your other ships--put needle beams are effective for getting his
attention, although I've had submunitions at 3" work quite effectively as
well. Bombers carry missiles, run in, unload their freight, and run out.
Snipers hang around out of the enemies arc, and chip away with B3.
The key to using any of these is to have the room and the time to line up your
shot. If you get behind him, you're okay. If you're impatient and cut in too
soon, your squadron evaporates in a
> Jon Davis wrote:
> It's funny though. In the US fleet, the CVNs are the fastest ships
They may have the fastest hull speed, but they have low thrust/unit
mass. Any race with a standing start and a total run of less than twenty
miles, will reveal the CVN for the sluggard that it is, especially if the
escort
does not need to go 3000nm between fill-ups. One of the awkward
problems of creating wet naval rules from FT is the concept that long ships
need less power per unit mass to reach their higher hullspeed. Two ships of
comparable
> --- Roger Burton West <roger@firedrake.org> wrote:
> ended up with John's NR designs: a St George
Nice choices, IMU. Pretty balanced squadron.
> Two things worked surprisingly well with that NR
Thank you! I'm pretty happy with these designs and it's really good to have
independant confirmation.
> (1) Having 8 pulse torpedoes pointed at you has a
Yeah. It's designed to pop K'V cruisers.
> (2) Having the pair of Cimbalongus/Es in close
That's what they are there for. I went for heavy PDS defenses and lots of
escort ships after some spats with IFed missle boats flown by Laserlight.
> As a general tactics question, how do people usually
I generally use them independantly for fights not big enough to bring a
capital ship too. Anything with ADFC sticks to the capital ships like glue.
Cruisers are big enough to stand in line of battle, but DDs and
FF/FFHs I generally deploy on the flanks and slightly
forward. I know they are going to die fairly quickly, but they are a
distractor. If the enemy is going to be obliging enough to focus on those,
then more power to them. Gives my cruisers and capitals an effectively longer
life.
> On 26-Jan-02 at 05:01, Roger Burton West (roger@firedrake.org) wrote:
> If escort ships are kept close to the things they're escorting, then
I tend to place mine 3"-6" _behind_ the ships they are escorting.