Convoys

Multiple trade routes in a convoy

from GalCiv2 Forums
In case it has not been mentioned before, I'd like to add an idea to be considered.
In times of war, merchant shipping often finds itself in the gunsights. In GalCiv2, I have tried to build the galactic privateer project as often as possible. Even then my shipping has been attacked. To me it would make sense to be able to send convoys of escorted freighters instead of one lone freighter at a time. I envision gathering a fleet of ships and sending them to the intended trade destination. Once they arrive, the convoy will establish a detachment or block of trade routes; one "route" for each freighter in the convoy. The escorts would from then onward be tied to the convoy until it is destroyed or the detachment is canceled.

whaddya think?
ideas
7,656 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Galactic privateer stops the trade route from being destroyed, not the ships. Originally they couldn't attack, so the AI stalked you around the map constantly, which was annoying as hell.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It would be nice to be able to group some escorts with the minifreighters in the routes and then they'd just follow the freighter around as part of its fleet. At any rate, that would make sniping enemy freighters more interesting.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Maybe what could be implemented is to have an option for a selected ship or fleet to follow the ship you select. Kind of like Follow unit command in RTS games.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I haven't done it myself, yet, but why not build an armed freighter? I'm not sure that it work, maybe some else knows for sure. Pick a medium hull type for some hit points, throw on a cheap weapon or 2 and some armor. Be the same thing as the Combat Transport except you put on the trade module instead. The mini carries everything the original had. It's not going to stop a fleet, but then neither would one escort. Seems to me that an armed freighter would give the AI something to think about.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have used the armed merchant (Q-Ship) concept on occasion with varying results. The only time I build them is when I have no more military yard capacity to spare. Having to either build the warships or divert existing units to babysit shipping sometimes is not possible. Having DD's, FR's, and/or CL's to patrol the shipping lanes is the ideal solution, but not always feasable. In those times I will use non military shipyards to construct or quick-buy Q-Ships. Non-military as in not enough production capacity to churn out naval vessels in reasonable time. I make the Q-Ships cheaper and quicker to build than any warship (that's the point, right?). They often enough do just enough damage to cause the enemy to withdraw after a couple of them have been tangled with. Attriting the enemy's warships for a fraction of the cost of a real warship is nice, but the real trick is to make it cost effective. Sure, I could over-engineer a nightmare of a Q-Ship that could rival any Dreadnought in all but hitpoints, but the maintenance alone on such a monstrosity would negate the value of the trade route to a large extent, or even completely in some cases.

The real way to protect shipping is not by band-aid solutions forced upon our forefathers by the exigencies of war, rather it is by providing safety in numbers with properly escorted convoys. A submarine may succeed in sinking a freighter or two out of a convoy before being either destroyed or chased away by the escorts, but lone freighters steaming away on a predictable course one after another will result in defeat in detail. A screw up by the numbers, per se.