CoA Small Class Naval Unit Analysis and Tactics

So in my opinion this is definitely our weakest class with relatively difficult to use options. The main reason I say this is due to their limited range and firing arcs. I will try to keep this article up to date with my views and any rule changes.

Overall I think minimizing the number of small squadrons is a mistake. There are a few common reasons to take several squadrons such as:

• Increased number of activations per turn. This reduces the extent to which your opponent gets multiple activations after you have activated all of your Squadrons. Additionally this lets you make 'inconsequential' moves while waiting for your opponent to commit or come into range.
• Protection for larger ships from small/medium class models by obstructing line of sight

Compared to their cost other factions small ships generally do everything better than ours except for movement. Our movement is faster but this means that either you waste this advantage by holding back to provide support for slower larger vessels or you run up, do a suicide run and get blasted apart next turn.


Not all is lost though. By understanding their strengths and thinking about how to use them in way other than just squarely facing off against their equivalent you can get good use out of them.  

Analysis

Thales Class Corvette

The Good (comparatively):

• Dolphin Dipper
• Strongest Range Band 1 (RB 1) attacks (5AD)

The Average (again comparatively):

• AP, AA, CC
• Cost
• Squadron size
• DR/CR/HP
• Elusive target

  The Bad (you guessed it...comparatively):

• Fixed Channel weapon (All other factions have 270 degree turrets)
• Does not have the Fast Target Model Assigned Rule (MAR)

Loosing out on fast target is a big disadvantage. This means Capital Class ships hit on 5 and 6 (as opposed to only 6s) which greatly increases the chance of them scoring the one critical hit needed to take it out (6 or 7 AD should do it).

More importantly the fixed channel combined with the short range means that in order to hit a target you are usually going to be performing a suicide run by charging straight at it. This means that you cannot take full advantage of the high speed these models have by skirting around the enemy. For this same reason the only thing the dolphin dipper makes this good for is alpha striking which IMHO is not very effective in this game.

The only really viable tactics I can see working with these are:

• Rushing small ships. At RB1 7AD from a squad of 2 of these guys linking should take out an enemy small ship or damage something medium sized
• Getting in front of enemy ships forcing them to ram you to stop their movement. If your planning on doing this make sure they cant activate something else to shoot them out of the way before they activate the ships you are in front of. This works best on medium class ships because they then loose half their AD in shooting too.

I have read about some people suggesting using these against larger vessels. Generally I think you are better off sticking with hunting medium and small class at short range by coming around from the flank. You are unlikely to do more than put 1 HP of damage on any larger ships with a full squadron of these and you have likely given your opponent the opportunity to use some extra guns to kill you off.

One thing to mention is that the elusive target rule means that compared to our own other small class ships you are more likely to survive being shot at by other small ships. Against enemy small ships they are most effective zigzaging across the front of your battle line

Diogenes Class Frigate

The Good:

• ??? (Dolphin Dipper at a stretch)
• Broadsides

The Average:

• AP
• Cost
• Squadron Size
• Movement
• DR/CR/HP

The Bad:

• Low AA
• Fixed channel forward weapon
• Fore Torpedoes (as opposed to everyone else turrets)

This model suffers from the same problems as the Thales Class Corvette (as detailed above). In reality it is a slightly slower, slightly more durable Thales with broadsides. Having Fore Torpedoes gives the enemy the chance to use CC to negate hits. Additionally they have lower AA than other frigates making them more susceptible to Rockets and airborne attacks. Like all small CoA ships they have only short range firepower so they need to be in close.

Tactical ideas for using them:

• Surging forward amongst enemy squadrons (getting between their ships) and broadsiding them. Ideally do this with both broadsides and link against bigger targets. This should cause some big hurt on the squadron while at the same time if they haven't activated yet it will hopefully protect you from return fire. The cruisers will block or obscure line of sight to you and when they fire will only hit you on 6s with primaries or 5+ with secondaries, hopefully either of which will hurt a lot less after you have fired at them.

Ideal usage. Blue: Enemy cruisers Red: Diogenes Frigate

Compared to our other small class ships they have a good cost:damage ratio against small enemy ships. For use against small ships they are best surging straight through their midst.

Plutarch Class Destroyer

The Good:

• Best RB1 damage output of any small ship (any fleet)
• Weapon arcs
• Squadron size (5 as opposed to 4)
• Ability to link Fore gun and broadsides

The Average:

• Points
• AA, CC
• Move
• DR/CR/HP
• Pack hunter

The Bad

• Low AP

Realistically these are a higher damage version of the frigate. They can be used in the same way with the addition of being able to cause damage on larger ships due to pack hunter and their higher squad size cap of 5. While they have less AP than the frigate the AA of 2 means they are probably equally resilient to being boarded.

Despite arguably being the best small ship in the game, you wont currently find me fielding them. If you look at it 5 of them cost 175 points which is 10 points less than having another battleship on the board. Because of this I think it is silly to take them for their damage output. Given that they are 10 points per model more expensive than the frigate their damage:cost ratio against smaller ships is lower. For the extra frigate or corvette you could afford to get into a squadron you will get more AD if you link with the equivalent points worth of frigates or corvettes. Also with the increased cost over smaller ships they are less effective at providing the two core uses for smaller ships mentioned at the top (more squads on the board, protecting large and massive ships from medium and down attackers). So although they look good on their own there are better choices you can take to fulfill any role you might take these guys for.

For hunting bigger ships take bigger ships of your own.
For taking out smaller ships use frigates
For utility value (number of squadrons and protecting larger ships) use frigates or corvettes

If you really want to take the destroyers then the best use for them will be laying down some hurt on medium ship squadrons. Drive them in the midst of medium sized ships (like with the frigates above) and link fire on multiple targets and take advantage of broadsides on both sides. This increases your gains from pack hunter and means that you can lay down a lot of hurt on medium ships. If I feel my list is lacking in its ability to deal with medium sized ships then Ill consider these. Since this hasn't been an issue to date though...

Compared to our other small class ships they are expensive and have poor AD:cost output (you can afford extra frigates or corvettes for the cost of a squadron which output more AD and are faster and/or more resilient.

Galen Class Escort

Ill talk about the Galen Class escort in this article but since being an escort it serves a different role to other small class ships I will not compare it to its counterparts.
 
Being an escort the Galen does one thing better than any other small ship. Protect your large and massive models. As an escort it it attached to the squadron of large or massive class ships and combines fire with its AA. This is in addition to the other role, line of sight obstruction, that all small class ships are good for. The downside of being an escort compared to other small ships is the fact that they don't have a separate activation. 

For 25 points a piece being able to add 2 AA to your big ships is points well spent as far as im concerned. This extra AA is very valuable for overcoming one of the CoA's weaknesses...being boarded. As a nice addition it reduces the effectiveness of enemy small flyers and rockets. This is useful against all other factions.
All torpedoes suffer extra CC
British dive bombers are more likely to suffer an abort or be destroyed
Prussian boarders are more likely to be shot down
American and Japanese rockets are more likely to be shot down

Realistically this means that the other factions will have to dedicate firepower to downing your escorts to increase their effectiveness against your bigger ships. This can be hampered by hiding them behind the bigger ship that you are protecting.

As an added bonus the 90 degree front gun  on the escort packs a fair bit of punch at RB1 (and a bit at RB2) meaning that you can provide extra firepower against ships getting into close range (need to check but if escorts combine fire with each other and with guns, then that is some really big shooting).

Using small ships 

Defensive usage

a protective formation. Blue: Big ship, Red: Frigates or Corvettes, Green: Escorts. 

Notice that the red ships obscure LOS to the middle of the big ship while the big ship completly obscures LOS to the escorts from attacks coming from the front. You want to always reduce the number of dice the enemy is throwing at you. The 6's are what makes the difference between being damaged or taking a critical hit when being shot by small or medium models. reducing their to hit rolls to 5+ has less of an effect. With the red and green ships being small they will not in turn affect your big ships ability to fire over them (being 2 sizes bigger at least). This is my favorite defensive usage of small ships as it reduces the effectiveness of enemy small and medium ships against your big ships at the same time as increasing AA and CC.


Now imagine using this with an Aristotle Class Battleship that is submerged while you get into position :D


Another defensive option is this.

I will sometimes be inclined to switch to this from the previous formation in order to either:

• provide the escorts protection from flanking vessels
• bait the enemy into shooting escorts  (since the frigates wont block line of sight from their large ships)

Through clever angling of the leading small ship you can also prevent ramming actions. To do this have it a bit further ahead and slightly angled compared to your bigger ship. 

Repositioning to intercept potentially ramming vessel coming from the top left of the image.

When you get into this position (or even by placing the lead small ship perpendicular to the big ship) with a gap bigger than 2"  you give yourself protection from being rammed and can turn around the collided ships or potentially counter ram the opponents ship (assuming your lead frigate is killed when rammed). given the large move provided by your frigate or corvettes you can also use this formation to block potential boarding actions by forcing them to ram your small ship more than 8" away from your big vessel.

Its a pretty even choice in my mind as to if the small ships (the red ones) in this tactic are frigates or corvettes. The frigates will give better firepower output and are slightly harder to score a critical hit against. On the other hand the escorts are cheaper and harder to hit by small ships due to elusive target MAR while at the same time their extra speed is largely wasted. 


Offensive usage

as mentioned I think that the best offensive usage of the small ships is against other small ships (and as discussed with frigates potentially against medium class squadrons).

With the frigates to get the maximum effect you will want to plow straight into the gaps between their small/medium ships.

Blue rectangles: opponent small ships, Red rectangles: your frigates

The big red and blue bars represent your main battle line or the line behind which is the concentration of your strength. When your opponent extends their small ships ahead of this (usually to get into position to fire) drive the frigates right up amongst them. This gives you the use of both of your broadsides and you can link from either side of the enemy ship. If their set up allows it you might even be able to get your fore torpedoes off into something in their battle line. Note that you should be keeping your frigates close to your own battle line.

What you will often see is the following. This is where they have turned side on to maximize their firepower by bringing rear turrets or side channels/broadsides to bare.

They will usually be further away from you than in the earlier example. In this case you are making use of your extra speed. Any that you damage but don't kill will also be hampered by potentially running into you in their next activation (increasing your threat priority to their models yet to activate). 

Given their broadsides (as opposed to fixed channels I think the frigates better fufil the role of hunting small ships as they are much easier to use.

Using the corvettes you will want to flank the enemy. If you are targeting their models that have ranged ahead you want to zigzag across your front line (making use of that high movement). The fixed channel is best used against the side of ships to maximize your shots (since small ships are hard to get entirely in the channel head on given their small profile, whereas it is easier to get a larger object completely in the channel).

 
Your best bet for attacking larger prey with the corvettes is something like this.

The solid blue bar is the main enemy battle line in the current turn. The corvettes move down the flank at high speed (the first arrow) preferably using terrain or an enemy ship for cover from the rest of their fleet. In your opponents next turn they start advancing their battle line up to the blue line. You kick your corvettes around and flank their larger ships which should hopefully be easy to hit given their big side profile with your fixed channel attacks. Its as obvious as a punch to the gut but if you do it correctly there is not much they can do about it and it can be really distracting. To increase the effectiveness of this tactic do it towards the end of your turn as the enemy has less options to shoot them with.

Late game usage

Another completely different but equally effective tactic is to hide your small ships behind medium and large ones. When done right this provides them protection from long range firepower. Being vulnerable to 6's (that's what usually pops them) anything to block or obstruct LOS is going to extend their durability.

The idea is to shield them for the first turn or two until they can get into position. This is when they are most effective against larger ships. Try to get into either their weak firing point or to provide target saturation to one area that they cannot being all their guns to bare on you or use their own fleet as cover.

This tactic lets you damage any sized ship in their fleet and is non suicidal so I recommend it highly if you want to use your small ships effectively.

Summary

Overall I favor the defensive usage of small ships and use bigger ships for offensive roles. It is all to easy to look at their speed and short range firepower and be tempted to run forward to get into range...resist this urge and assess your options.

The take away messages are:

• Leave destroyers at home
• Use escorts to protect your big investments
• Frigates are the easiest way to take out small enemy ships (of your small ships)
• Small ships reduce the effectiveness of small and medium enemy ships against your big ships
• Don't run ahead to get into range as soon as possible with your small ships. Wait for your opportunity to strike. 
• Use clever positioning to limit what can shoot your small ships (enemy and friendly models)