I have an Armageddon fleet list, which means i cant get Dauntlesses, but i do have access to Space Marine ships. As said before, i plan on getting two strike cruisers to fill the role of light cruisers in my fleet, and i also want some more escorts. The imperial escorts are good, i agree, but have you seen the Space marine escorts? They are faster, yet retain the same weapons. and the Nova, which is the equivilant of a firstorm, has one lance at the front which can fire in the port starboard and front arc, not just the front arc which is what the firestorm is restricted too. and, yes i agree, when i was thinking of a fleet to buy, my main aim was for a gun heavy cap-ship fleet. But then i had a battle with someone, using his SECOND fleet (omfg) using 6 imperial cruisers (2x gothics, 2 x lunars, a dictator and a dominator) and i was torn to shreds. He used his chaos fleet, which out-ranged my fleet, and out manuvered my fleet. my ships werent fast enough to get into a good firing arc, nor were they fast enough to avoid fire. i couldnt fire safely from a range, because most of my ships were limited to 30cm riring range, bar the nova cannons, and he had sufficient AC to fend off my torpedo attacks. it lasted 2 and a half hours, and at no point was i winning. in the end, i gave up and disengaged my last (abiet crippled) dictator.
At the end of it, i vowed never again would i be beaten because of lack of speed+manuvers, which is why i chose the Armageddon fleet list. Space marine ships are fast. i vowed that for every cruiser i owned, i would have a squadron to go with it. so now you see me with 4 cruisers, and 4 squadrons of escorts. i have yet to have a battle, but i am planning on a huge engagement with someone during the school holidays, using all 2000 points worth of ships. now your wondering where i am going to get my firepower from; This is where my Prætorian Steps in.
Now your wondering how im going to last, escorts cant soak up much damage now can they? Well if you work it out, im not actually losing anything in terms of the amount of damage i can take. take this example.
My Prætorian (which is exceptionally strong for a battleship, and so is why im using it as an example)at 385 points, has 12 hits, a stg 15 WB broadside, and a stg 4 lance broadside, 15cm speed, 5+ armour , 4 shields and 4 turrets.
Now, for the same points, i can get 12 Sword class frigates, which have a total of 12 hits, stg 48 WB broadside, 25cm speed each, 5+ armour, 12 sheilds (added up)and 24 turrets. Now tell me that isnt awesome.
Not only all this, but you get the added benefit of having multiple targets. Ie. the battleship would be a lumbering target, which the enemy could focus their firpower on. The escorts would be all spread out, and the enemy cannot target all of them at once, and so it is a slow and painful task of killing them one by one.
Now you think, wait, the battleship has more range. Well this is made up for by the speed of the escorts, they can charge towards the enemy to make up for the range.
One last thing, the Prætorian has 15cm speed. it MUST move 15cm before it can turn. if it is shot at, and a blast marker is placed on its base, its speed is reduced by 5cm. See where im getting at here? That means if an enemy is clever, he will continuously shoot at your battleship, not to kill, but to prevent it from turning. It will NEVER be able to turn untill it leaves teh blast marker, and until then, its a giant target, which cant turn. So off goes your battleship, off the board. its now disengaged. bugger. 385 points down teh drain.
OMG i typed more than i intended, sorry for clogging up your thread hehe. just explaining the importance of escorts, i LURRRRVVV escorts hehe. im not angry or anything, im not arguing, just saying some facts. dont be offened in anyway please
EDIT: why dont you like tyrants? i have one with the upgrade ( i only just found out u can give the upgrade to any tyrant, not just one named the same as the one in the rulebook) and it now has stg 10 WB at 45cm range. it also has torps. i like
