Does Anyone Use Escorts?

[Marty Ward]

I only use them for scouts and sensor ships. They build fast and don't cost much. Using them as sensor ships allows me to put an additional weapon/shield on my combat fleet. The sensor also helps keep enemies from slipping by through nebula systems. Even using them like this they would not be missed if they were removed, unless you were playing a pirate race.

[Suicide Junkie]

Does anybody use them for cheap weapon platforms?

Ie. CSM V on an ES, they just sit back, and loose missiles while your BCs & DNs fight it out with short range weapons?

[geoschmo]

I like escorts the way they are. It gives the game a realisitc feel. Real navies aren't totally composed of capital ships.

Great things about escorts...

They are small and cheap so you can crank them out at your low pop space yard worlds and at your space yards ships.

Ecsorts with direct fire weapons (ducs, beams) make great picket lines. a line of those between your dreadnougths and your enemy does a coupple of things. They have more fire power than a fighter, and they typically don't go poof when hit once like fighters do. This means even if the escort is disabled, the enemy has to use another shot on him next turn or spend movement points going around him to get to your larger ships.

Escorts with lower damage weapons a few spaces in front of your missle laden capitol ships may not even recieve fire from the enemy, as normally the ai will attack the strongest ships first.

A fleet of dreadnoughts goes into battle, afterwards most of the ships may still be alive but several will be crippled, causing them to be abandoned or slow the fleet down. With escorts taking some of that damge, you will lose more ships, but the ones left will be relativly unharmed, and moving at full speed.

Geo

[Baal]

It would be a good Idea to add movement points to smaller ship hulls. A sort of bonus so that there is an insentive to use the smaller hulls later in the game. And I never thought it made much sense that smaller ships go just as slow as a Dreadnought.

A movement bonus would be a good idea to balance out the game and give reasons to use smaller hulls later in the game.

[Emperor Zodd]

I agree,the escort should be fast like a PT boat.

[geoschmo]

Escorts are already faster than Dreadnaughts. In fact they are faster than anything larger than a Battle Cruiser becasue as they get larger than that they can't have as many engines.

I agree that is a silly way to limit the speed of larger ships, but that is how it is currently and it has the same effect as a speed bonus for smaller hulls.

Geo

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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Escorts are already faster than Dreadnaughts. In fact they are faster than anything larger than a Battle Cruiser becasue as they get larger than that they can't have as many engines

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That still means there are only two hull types slower than an ES: the DN & BS

I would prefer a mass-based movement system. So when you double your mass, you have to have twice the engine power to move at the same speed. Larger hulls would be able to get bigger, more efficient engines, but in general, the larger ships should spend more space on engines to move the same speed as a smaller ship.