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Tactica: Gothica Imperialis - Escorts | |
| The escort is the lightest class of Imperial ship, with a few common features. They are faster and more manoeuverable than the larger cruisers, moving a minimum of 25cm and being able to turn ninety degrees. They have lighter armour than the cruisers (typically a 5+), but generally have the same number of turrets (bar the Cobra). They do have less shields, only carrying one each, so your escorts are quite fragile individually. Fortunately, they come in large groups, and as you can allocate their hits across all their shields before you start losing them, you can get them to survive for quite some time. Each escort carries a limited selection of weaponry, generally carrying one main weapon system and some lightweight weapons batteries to back it up. A quick word on mixed squadrons - while it can be tempting to mix in a Firestorm in your Sword squadron, or Cobras with Firestorms, I'd say not to do it. Each escort class is designed for a specific function, and mixing them blurs their specification as such. A squadron which is purely of one class is likely to be much more effective than one where you have mixed and matched the escorts. Sword class Frigate - The Sword class frigate is, in my opinion, the most consistently useful of the Imperial escorts. With each ship carry a firepower 4 weapons battery, a full strength has the capability to put out a huge Firepower 24 salvo at its chosen enemy - easily able to destroy Eldar cruisers and fully capable of damaging the vessels of any other fleet in the game. Even the mighty Void Stalker is worried about that sort of firepower. The SWord is best used in large squadrons, at least four or five strong, when it can put out crushing salvos of fire. Smaller squadrons, two or three strong, can be useful in defeating enemy escorts, or guarding the flanks of your main fleet. Firestorm class Frigate - In contrast to the Sword, which it resembles in most of its stats, the Firestorm is my least favourite of all the Imperial escorts. In fact, the only reason I have a squadron in my fleet is because I listened to the advice of store staff to buy one blister of each escort, and see which I liked the most. A single prow lance and firepower 2 weapons batteries on a 40 point escort is not enough; in my estimation, the Firestorm is severely under-gunned. In a six ship squadron, I can begin to see how they'd be useful - six lances and firepower 12 is respectable. However, for the difference between that and a similar size squadron of Swords, I'm not interested - I'd save 30 points (enough for an extra Cobra) and have a much greater strength of batteries. I can see where Firestorms might have their uses - against Necrons, say, or Space Marines - but as a general thing I'd have to recommend you didn't take them. Cobra class Destroyer - The Cobra is the lightest of the Imperial escorts, with a mere 4+ armour value and only one turret. This generally means they die very quickly, but I have a firm belief that they are a vital part of any Imperial fleet. They are the fastest ships in the Imperial fleet, with a 30cm move, and carry prow torpedoes - only at strength two, but a large squadron can mean you are firing a strength ten or twelve torpedo salvo. I like the Cobra, and tend to use them in a tactic I've dubbed the Cobra Shotgun - running a group of six Cobras down each flank, then closing to 30cm of an enemy cruiser and unleashing all their torpedoes, before trying to evade out. If possible, I like to get the torpedo flight paths so that they'll hit one ship and be in the flight path of another when they have to move next turn. The Cobra Shotgun is quite a reliable method of doing damage to enemy cruisers, as turrets are only likely o shoot down one or two torpedoes, and you aren't giving enemy ordnance time to react to your shots. This tactic has been used against Chaos and Ork fleets quite reliably, though it doesn't work well against Eldar, due to their holofields. It would also suffer against Necrons, as its tricky to get too many 6's on your to-hit rolls with the torpedoes. Cmbining the Shotgun with the torpedoes from your ships of the line, it is easy to break up the enemies battlegroups, as ships try to avoid the many torpedo salvoes flying into their ranks. It also puts their carriers on the back foot, forcing them to concentrate of producing fighters to go on CAP, rather than bombers to attack your ships. THe downside to the Shotgun is that you will quite often lose the Cobras to return fire when you've used them, but at only 30pts each, a squadron of 6 only costs as much as an unupgraded Lunar class cruiser, and can be much more dangerous. |
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