THe term Escort Carrier came in WW2 when the Allies built small, slower carriers on merchant ship hulls.  These CVEs were used to escort convoys in the Atlantic and CVEs in the Pacific supported amphibious assults with their aircraft.  The Allies built over a hundred of them...

I viewed the forum Wednesday night & saw this kewl change Thursday morn ing.
Bravo!

Let it be recorded that I played a cruiser one time and it actually Survived The Battle... :!:   :?:   

We are playing Starmada again on Sunday Dec30 @ 1pm At Gaming Glenn's gaming store.
All are welcome.

Here is the latest design that I use in Jacksonville.  I made it on Dec 7.  I use it to represent any of the USA's 4-turret DNs from USS Nevada thru USS West Virginia.  Also can be any of the UK's QE or Revenge DNs. 8-)

FOUR-LARGE-TURRET-class Dreadnoughts (603)
49ARMOR (= 33 AblativeArmor)
49HULL (I think of it as c24.5 Reinforced Hull from the Starmada Compendium)
Thrust=6, no Shields, no ECM.
WEAPONS                                 ARCS                    RANGE          ATTACK DICE 
4× Plasma Cannon (Acr/Dx3) [FX4][FX4][AX4][AX4] 6-12-18;   4 3 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
12× Chain Guns (Acr/Dfs/Rpt) [TT]                          1-2-3;   12 8 6 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 0 0
4× Mass Drivers (Acr/Cts/Tls) [CD]                        5-10-15;    4 3 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0

This design has been very succesful in games I play in Jacksonville and down is South Florida.
In both places , we allow only 2 WTs per weapon, with Acr allowed & not counting as on of the two. 

:arrow: Also, for the games I am playing in South Florida, I make this change/addition:
I add Fire Control to all of my ships, becuse my nephew and dad like to put ECM1 on their ships.

My ships are based on WW2 & WW1 ships.  I use 1/2400 minis that I purchased from Panzershiffe.  I have mounted them on hex bases.  They look similiar to the IJN Yamato being converted to the Argo in StarBlazers.  My biggest ships are myfour-turred design that repersents the USA's Pennsylvanias, NewMexicos, Tennessees as well as the British Queen Elizabeths & R Class DNs.  The evolution of this ship can be found in the B-Basin.
These DNS & their escort DDs work well.
Cheers

I think that we have been successful in increasing the firepower of fighters to make them more worth their cost.
:idea: We gave the fighters twice the number of shots as they have in the Rulebook. Thus regular fighter-flights have six shots, strong fighter-flights have eight shots. We have them hit on either 3+. This made them cost effective, without having to change their CRs or SUs. This way there is no need to modify the DryDock or any of the ships in the supplements.
Having them hit on a 3+ can be justified by the manuverability of fighters; the much-bigger ships are easier for them to aim at and fire at.
But more important is that this worked; this increased firepower makes fighters much more formitable. 8-)
Cheers

We played another game of Starmada here in Jacksonville with my friend Jabba6z playing a swarm of fighters with his fleet.  We kept the costs & hit points of the fighter-flights the same as in the book and on the DryDock, but let them hit on a 3+.  Although the fighters did more damage, my fleet of 2 DNs and three DDs triumphed.  I lost one DN and had two DDs damaged, but all the fighters were shot down and the ships escorting them were destroyed.  Only the lightly armed & armored CV survived of the fleet Jabba6Z brought.  This CV wisely stayed far away and descretely warped out.
:idea: What we may try next is giving fighters twice the number of shots.  A regular fighter-flight gets 6 shots and a strong-fighter flight gets 8 shots.  This might make the fighters Cost Effective.
No one here in Jacksonville used ECM, Stealth, (or even shields) so these things are not a problem.  Perhaps a fighter-flight could half the ECM/Stealth rating, rounding down.  So an ECM/Stealth rating of one would be ignored, a rating of 2 or 3 would give fighter flights a -1, etc.  This would reflect the fighter pilots attacking at shorter range than ships do.
We will continue to find a way to make fighters cost effective without changing their cost, etc, but rather by adjusting their firepower.
Cheers

Hello everyone,
The ships I played in the game here in Jacksonville Thursday were fairly typical ships of mine; they had no shields, no ECM, and no stealth.  They did have good firepower tho.  If you look in the B-Basin, you can get an idea of what my DNs look like.
I am puzzled with how ineffective fighters are in S:NE.  In earlier editions, they were formitable, having good firepower.  Here are some simple ideas to bring them up to par:
One idea is to give fighters "Accuracy", they will now hit on 4+  at no added cost.  This will boost their firepower 50%, and will involve no changes to any ship designer programs. 
If this is not enough, perhaps fighters can hit on 3+ at no extra cost.  Again, I am trying to make them more cost-effective with as little trouble as possible. 
:idea: Maybe we can try these ideas here in Jacksonville...  What are other people's thoughts?

My biggest DNs have 46 Hull and 46 armor and their CRAT is 551.  My CL is 22 Hull & 22 Armor, Crat=380.  The DD has 16 Hull and 13 Armor, CRAT=200.  I also have a Frigate with 13 Hull & 10 Armor, CRAT=150.  Last, but ot least I have a gunboat with four hull and one armor & a CRAT=50.  My friends & I play twice a week here in Jacksonville. 
I have friends who have designed much larger ships...

I played a 1300 point game here in Jacksonville yesterday with two CR551 DNs and four CR150 DDs. 
The battle went well.  Both DNs were battered, and one DD was destroyed.  The entire enemy fleet was destroyed except for one c350 point ship that fled.  I find the combination of DNs & DDs works for me.  Very rarely do I play any cruiser. 
While I was down south in Ft Lauderdale, Gaming Glenn & I played several games against my Dad & Nephew, at Glenn's awesome store.  I actually brought a cruiser one of the games.  My nephew's fleet fired at it first & destroyed it. 
He was alarmed that his Uncle Steve actually took a cruiser... 

That is very clever, using seekers with slow to simulate fighters.  I may try that.  Whenever I take a ship with seekers, my friends  in Jacksonville shoot at it first and try to destroy it. 
Hmmm; let me see what I can come up with. :geek: