Re: Escort class vessels in line of battle

G'day David,

 >In the few games I've played escorts (destroyers,
 >cruisers, etc.) die quickly and seem to have little
 >real role in the battle other than to make pretty
 >explosions.
 >
 >What I'd like to know, do your small ships participate
 >in big battles, and if so, in what role?

They can die quickly, but they have their role too. We don't have very
many 
large ships (maybe a SDN and or CVH for each fleet) so most of our games

have a fair few cruisers and escorts in them. Off the top of my head,
some 
of the roles we've used them for:

1) Strike wing (these do really fast fly by or nip at the edges while
the 
big plodders get in)
2) Rear guard (catch anything that skip over the big guys and try to get

behind them)
3) Missile decoys/absorbers
4) "Shield wall"
5) Many parts of a larger fighter delivery force
6) Mass of SMR platforms (Derek and I were mucking around one day and he

proposed a "Killer ship" for me to knock off so I turned up with 300 
scouts/corvettes....)

Lastly though, you can also try "destroyer or below" games etc. They're 
lots of fun too.

Cheers

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax 03 6232 5053 International +61 3 6232 5053

email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au