[geoschmo]

I like escorts the way they are. It gives the game a realisitc feel. Real navies aren't totally composed of capital ships.

Great things about escorts...

They are small and cheap so you can crank them out at your low pop space yard worlds and at your space yards ships.

Ecsorts with direct fire weapons (ducs, beams) make great picket lines. a line of those between your dreadnougths and your enemy does a coupple of things. They have more fire power than a fighter, and they typically don't go poof when hit once like fighters do. This means even if the escort is disabled, the enemy has to use another shot on him next turn or spend movement points going around him to get to your larger ships.

Escorts with lower damage weapons a few spaces in front of your missle laden capitol ships may not even recieve fire from the enemy, as normally the ai will attack the strongest ships first.

A fleet of dreadnoughts goes into battle, afterwards most of the ships may still be alive but several will be crippled, causing them to be abandoned or slow the fleet down. With escorts taking some of that damge, you will lose more ships, but the ones left will be relativly unharmed, and moving at full speed.

Geo