Wargame Wednesday – Escorts and Screening in High Guard
February 13, 2013
Canonical material from Traveller defines a role for escorts, but the Classic Traveller High Guard combat system does not recognize or enable their use in a similar manner. The Battle Formation Step establishes two lines (Line of Battle and Reserve) and in the Combat Step, the ships are placed in order from largest to smallest and presented to combat in that order. The rules specify that “each battery on a ship may fire once in the turn, either offensively against another ship, or defensively against incoming fire (High Guard p. 40). My usual interpretation has been that each ship fires defensively against incoming fire only aimed against it. The result here is that smaller ships get lost in the larger battle.
I am experimenting with assigning screens for ships. In the Battle Formation Step, as each ship is placed in either the Line or Reserve, up to two other ships are declared as “escorts” for the ship by being placed underneath/behind the screened ship. In the Combat Step, when the screened ship is presented as a target the screened ships are presented at the same time. The attacker has a choice of attacking the screened ship OR an escort. If attacking the escort, all attacking USP is reduced by 1 (“sheltered by the larger ship”), but the “effective agility” of the escort is reduced by 1 also (“tied on”). If attacking the screened ship, the escorts can contribute defenses with a USP reduction of 1 (systems not optimized for defense of something other than itself). When the screened ship is the attacker, the escorts can also attack, but with a USP reduced by 2 (restricted in ability to maneuver).
