Making Escorts Useful?

[Easy E]

In many Naval-themed wargames I have played, I have found escorts to be nothing more than points sinks, ablative armor for bigger ships, or a simple distraction.  Now, of course an escort should not go toe-to-toe with the healthy big boy, or even eclipse them on the battlefield.  However, I don't want an all battlewagon force to be a no-brainer either. 

Therefore, my question as a designer of Naval-esque wargames is; how do you make escort class vessels useful and not just a throw away unit?*



*= Now, I also realize that many "Admirals" criminally misuse escort ships, but that is a different topic.

[Landlubber]

Great discussion topic!

For me, they have to bring something to the fight to make them worth the points, and they need to be easy to manage on the battlefield.

Dystopian Wars and Halo Fleet Battles do this pretty well, I think. In Dystopian Wars, you can attach escorts to capital-class ships (I *think* they have to be either large or massive--no escorts for cruisers) and they would link their fire in with ship they were escorting. In my early games of DW, I used them almost every time I faced a Japanese fleet, as they Japanese had a LOT of rockets in the earlier versions of the game (it was their "signature weapon", so to speak); so I would run escorts with my flagship for a boost in anti-aircraft fire, which could be used to knock down incoming rockets. The escort ships cost just less than a frigate, so not too expensive, but certainly not so cheap that you could throw them in without regard to the point total. Unfortunately the American (FSA) escorts had no primary or secondary weapons; all they did was boost AA and concussion charge fire to ward off air attacks, rockets, and torpedos. Some other nations, like the Prussians, had at least secondary weapons on their escorts which could link in with the larger ship to throw more dice.

Also, the French faction had a support cruiser that you could pair with large or massive-class ships. Same concept, just more expensive--but it did add more attack dice!

In Halo Fleet Battles, I think all ships at cruiser-class and higher have the ability to run as a standalone element or an escorted/defended element. Ships are deployed as "elements" in HFB, meaning you have one base with one or more ships stuck to it. So for instance, the UNSC could run a Marathon-class cruiser element with just the cruiser, or add up to three Paris-class frigates to the element (all on the same base as the Marathon) for more firepower and survivability. Some ships, like the UNSC Valiant-class superheavy cruiser, have options to run Paris frigates OR Halberd-class destroyers in the element, again giving boosts to firepower and survivability. Obviously you have to pay the difference in points. One of the biggest advantages, in my opinion, is that it is a clean solution--all the ships are on one base, so they all move at the same time (as opposed to Dystopian Wars, where you technically have to make measurements and move the escort ships separately).

Firestorm Armada has similar escort rules to Dystopian Wars (as it is essentially the space variant of that game), and some factions have the ability to pair cruisers with larger ships in the same squadron for increased offensive and defensive capabilities.

I think we could probably do a whole podcast segment on your question, though...

[Covertwalrus]

 Agree with you here, Landlubber. Must point out in DW there are escorts that can attach to Mediums ( The Black Wolf spring to mind ), but generally that's the way things work and it makes sense from gameplay and "historical" precedent. Destroyers with specialised weapons like torpedoes, frigate "flak wagons" and so forth are the most obvious useful escorts and they are very good for making tactical choices.

 Full Thrust does the opposite; Escorts are often there to "make up the numbers" but they canbe potentially useful, even if only to distract ordinance ( Certain weapons have to "lock on" to the closest target, hence the development of 'Banzai Jammers' ). They tend however, to simply be back up or even ablative armor for cruisers and heavier vessels and teh rules allow that more than any other tactic.

 I'd like to see rules where a fleet of ships with escorts are as felxible as a cruiser formation or such like just from a playability standard.

[Easy E]

If you think of an escorts historical job was recon, screening, patrol, ASW , AA, and threatening the flanks/damaged vessels what are some ways to model these roles on a 6x4 table in a tactical game? 

[RuleBritannia]

Maybe its about the pre game scouting bonuses rather than battlefield use.  Rerolls on flanking or reserve forces, moving terrain before the battle starts?

[Fracas]

If you think of an escorts historical job was recon, screening, patrol, ASW , AA, and threatening the flanks/damaged vessels what are some ways to model these roles on a 6x4 table in a tactical game?

In the system I am working on
These functions (recon, point defense, etc) provide specific bonuses to the squadron allowing capital ships to fight better, making these “escorts” targets in themselves
While capital ships can take these modules doing so would cost them the ability to take offensive modules, and there are scale efficiency to offensive modules.

[Easy E]

If historically Escorts faced escorts and Big Ships faced Big Ships, why do we not see these dynamics on the tabletop?  What player or design choices drive players to NOT follow historical precedent? 

[Landlubber]

@RuleBrittania that's an interesting idea. If you tried it in Dystopian Wars you'd have to make a house rule that escorts could operate on their own, or maybe require them to form up with corvettes.

@Fracas I like that idea. You can take escorts for assistance but you're giving up something in return, beyond just the points cost for the escort vessels. Looking forward to hearing more about that.

@Easy E I think that depends on the game system and how attack dice are allocated. Again using the Dystopian Wars example, I find that it's easier for battleships to damage cruisers, and cruisers to damage destroyers/frigates. The smaller ships, if they can survive long enough, can actually maul larger ships, especially at close range. But I think it also depends on the mission...for example, Field Orders in Dystopian Wars will sometimes have you trying to sink all of your opponent's medium-sized ships. So in that case it might not even be worthwhile to take on the big ships, depending on how the board is laid out.

[RuleBritannia]

@RuleBritannia that's an interesting idea. If you tried it in Dystopian Wars you'd have to make a house rule that escorts could operate on their own, or maybe require them to form up with corvettes.

I would keep them as attachments, since they aren't doing too much in the current rules considering WC's offensive ruleset.  Think of them like the 40K commander attachments for the Imperial Guard with modular tops to represent speciality.  Wireless top for recon bonus, patrol ship with observation deck to limit enemy flanking etc. 

[Easy E]

Thanks for the discussion guys, here is what I have decided to try with my Naval-esque "Not-Aeronef" rules for escorts based on discussion here and elsewhere. 

Escorts class vessels (Armor 6 or less) can not be targeted by Heavy Batteries. 

This has the following effects:
1. Makes escorts more survivable
2. Makes Light and Medium batteries useful
3. Provides incentive for an Admiral to send Escorts against other Escorts

I all ready have a rule that helps Escort survive ability with an Ammo roll.  If you fire your weapons and get no hits, you make an Ammo test for a target number.  If failed, the battery is out of commission until a repair roll can be made.  Therefore, ships are less likely to make low percentage of success pop-shots at range to try and get a lucky hit.  Instead, the players have tended to "keep their powder dry" and wait for a "sure shot" instead of risking damaging themselves with a poor chance shot.  This helped escorts stay alive as they can rapidly close the distance from long range to "Danger Range" an avoid getting targeted.

Lastly, I might add a few small tweaks such as:
1. A Ship with Armor 7+ can pool their Point Defense dice with an Escort dice within "Point Blank Radius" to defend against ordinance attacks
2. Vessels with a speed 10+ can be held in reserve.  On a successful reserves roll they can enter the table on any board edge the player wishes per normal reserve rules. 
3. Ships equipped with mines can also act as Minesweepers to remove mines

What do you think?  With these combinations of rules, would it be useful to have escorts in your fleet?