Fleet of Escorts Viable

[Lord General Armstrong]

I was just wondering if anybody has ever tried an entire army of escorts. This also raises a few questions for you all, is it effective? Is it fun?

Reason I ask is I am thinking of trying a fleet of just Imperial Falchion Class Escorts or Imperial Sword Class Frigates. If for nothing other than S#@#$ and giggles. But then I should add I wouldn't just want my platter handed to me every time and I want to win at least one so what would be some viable tactics.

[Cer0nn]

The main problem with escort fleets is attack craft, not only are assault boats especially nasty against escorts, you also have no fighters to counter with. This becomes more of a problem in games over 750 points as carriers are usually too expensive to spam in smaller games, so I wouldn't try playing anything larger than a raid. The other problem is that if both a cruiser and an escort squadron take 2 hits, the cruiser takes no damage, but you lose an escort, making them bad for battles of attrition. Again, small games offset this as there is usually an objective to quickly accomplish and then the attacker can disengage.

Although I can't give you IN specific help, I have played escort lists for Tyranids and Dark Eldar with decent results (and I assume eldar would work as well). The Dark Eldar can pull it off since they are fast, have a 2+ save vs assault boats and can take slaves for quick victory points. This can be a reasonably effective list (especially if you use mimic engines and disengage before the enemy even has a chance to shoot) although this isn't fun for anyone.

The tyranids can take 12 large sqaudrons of pyro-acid kraken, which always count as braced (giving you the 4+ save against assault boats, without diminishing your ability to strike back) and can get up to a whopping 72 firepower. This usually allows you to obliterate whole squadrons or cruisers in a single shot, meaning that the opponent has no chance to disengage after being crippled (granting only 25% points) earning you 100% of the points. After a couple of rounds of shooting you should have more than enough points to disengage and win.

IN will probably be less viable than Nids or DE since they have no shadowfield/free brace against AB, and can't take slaves or utilize insane battery strength for quick points, but some IN players out there can probably provide an advanced tactica that works.

If you are looking for lists that are both fun AND effective, escorts will usually lose out to balanced, or all cruiser, lists, but by all means play a few games for the novelty factor.

[fracas]

IMO escorts die too easily (eldar excepted) and need durable fire magnets in term of cruisers to be truly effective

[andrewchristlieb]

There was a BR in white dwarf several years back IN vs Eldar and the IN player took an Overlord and the rest of his fleet in Swords :P I think he won too but its been a while. That aside Fracas is correct escorts are too fragile really, all tho if you can manage a first strike with enough of them you might have a chance. I would probably take several wings of cobras or vipers with aaf/ torp shotguns that could work, especially in a smaller game (<500 pts) of course all of the raids in the BBB are pretty escort geared too.

[Mikial]

An alternative to pure escorts is a fast raiding fleet of escorts and light cruisers. If you have a regular group of players who will allow new ship classes, you can build a Halifax light assault/escort carrier based on a Dauntless light cruiser. I really like light cruisers and I built one to use as an escort carrier for fast raids and it works like a champ. As I said, this will only fly if you have a regular group who like to let each other be innovative, but you can always play test with them and insure new ship classes are balanced. Here is the link to the Halifax data sheet.

http://www.inisfail.com/bfg/bfg-imp-halifax.html

[horizon]

Torpedo based escorts are best for this. An IN mix of Cobra's and Swords can be lethal and certainly a surprise for the opponent the first time.

In scenarios escorts thrive better as well, opposed to big clashes.

Escorts are good anyway, they are just more difficult to use.