Methods for Early Generation ASW Escorts

[HalfLifeExpert]

This subject came to my mind recently when I was playing the Command: Fail Safe scenario "The Good Shepard".

This scenario features a Convoy Escort mission to complete, and the escorts start off being 'detached' from the Surface Group that actually contains the merchants of the convoy itself. Therefore, it is very much up to the player on how they want to organize/manage the ASW escorts.

Nominally, "escorts" form part of the inner/outer screens of a surface group (both combat group & convoy), and as such are usually organized in Command under the same "Group" as the ships they are protecting.

This works fine for ASW capable ships built from the mid/late 1960s onward, when Shipboard Sonars gained massive increases in range.

However, for older vessels, which have older models of sonars, and in many cases only have mounted ASW weapons in the form of Depth Charges and/or ASW Mortars, this often presents the issue where the escorts, in a normal steaming formation, can't be realistically expected to decently over all possible bearings that submerged subs can come from, leaving large gaps for subs to slip through.

This got me thinking about how to have these older-generation escorts can more effectively "cover" a Convoy within Command.

I wanted to start a larger discussion about this.

For those of you who have played around with older-dated scenarios (Early CWDB), how do you approach this problem?

One method I've experimented with is:
1) Have the escorts be detached units from the main convoy group

2) Make a either a support mission or Repeating loop ASW Patrol Mission, in an RP box on either side of the convoy, and set the RPs to be locked onto the central convoy.

This wouldn't apply to escorts in the FRONT of the Convoy, only ones on the flanks. One can use Sprint & Drift for this, though I think it would still require some more close control of the escorts rather than leaving their behavior automated, especially if you use a Support mission to do this.


These questions would also be very important to consider IF Command ever formally goes backward a couple decades to cover WW2/Interwar content.

[tylerblakebrandon]

My typical set up in this area are to create various ASW patrol missions covering sectors. The patrol station is usually set on 2 RPs linked to the convoy and the escort moving at a speed where they do not reach the end RP under normal steaming. The escort can move to investigate and engage contacts within its sector which i can expand as needed (I don't normally connect the sectors with the same RPs so I can adjust to create overlap for multiple prosecuting units. If I have them I can set a more distant screen.

[tylerblakebrandon]

My typical set up in this area are to create various ASW patrol missions covering sectors. The patrol station is usually set on 2 RPs linked to the convoy and the escort moving at a speed where they do not reach the end RP under normal steaming. The escort can move to investigate and engage contacts within its sector which i can expand as needed (I don't normally connect the sectors with the same RPs so I can adjust to create overlap for multiple prosecuting units. If I have them I can set a more distant screen.