Best Imperial Escort Ships

[Ashantai]

New to the game, never played the 1st one. Starting off the Imperial campaign.

I understand that the main role of escorts is to scout and chase, but I'm unsure which are the best Imperial escort ships.
Is it worth taking the Cobra for the torpedoes, or am I better going with the Sword which has more guns? How about lances on the Firestorm which keeps them out of harms away a bit more?

Any advice would be great.

[Subtle Butt ( >ω<)っ ♡]

Get novas, 400 HP, 280 speed, good weapons, good armor.

[HeathenSW]

Originally posted by Rushing Rasputin:

Get novas, 400 HP, 280 speed, good weapons, good armor.

Novas are godly, but they are only for AdMec. For Imps I prefer just swords and maybe one widowmaker for spotting - firestorm lance has the same range as a macro turret, so it's not really being kept out of danger and it doesn't even excel in crit department, like novas with lock on.
Torps on escorts are weird for me - they are too easy to be shot down by enemy turrets/strike craft and escorts are not that resilient to come closer to increase the to-hit chances with them.

[Harukage]

Cobra Widowmakers are natural scouts but have little value above that. Normal Cobra destroyers are a bit better at combat but worse at scouting. Hunter is basicaly better Cobra destroyers that can use boarding torpedos and Honoour the Chapter, so they can be used both for scouting and sneaky boarding.
Firestorms/Novas frigates tend to live longer and hence deal more damage/get more veterancy. Just put them in silent runing, wait for capital ships to engage and then order your escorts to focus something. They would not move around while atacking and enemy will have hard time spoting them.
Sword and Gladius frigates are focused on macro weaponry and have better direct dps but take more micro in combat.
And finaly Falchion is basicaly a frigate version of Cobra, slower tougher vessel that has good a mix of macro firepower and torpedo launchers. Though you should proly field squadrons of them and properly micro for them to be truly effective.

[Warspite]

I'm partial to the Sword-class frigate. A fair amount of health and shielding, that'll keep it alive if the AI lobs a volley or two at them, and a couple of duel macro-cannons for general harassing fire, especially if you give them lock-on, gives them a bit more range and accuracy so they can sit even further back and hit more often.

The Firestorm I've found to be a bit meh, the lance is a nice touch but you really only need them to strip shields, and unfortunately because it only has one it takes a while to do that. Plus, lock-on doesn't really affect lances (since they're 100% accurate) and nor does reload, so half of your stances only affect half your weapons.

The Cobra is... interesting, since you get torpedo's on an escort, but you only get three volleys and only 2 torpedo's per volley, meaning you've got to either micro-manage the hell out of one to land a hit, or accept that your torpedo's will either miss or just be shot down. I'd generally avoid them, unless you want to play around with them.

The Widowmaker is unique, since it's the only escort for the Imperial Navy that gets 13,500 detection range, and the only Imperial Navy ship that gets such a high detection range until the battleships. So, you can use it to scout ahead and spot enemy ships before they detect the Widowmaker, but that's about it. Again, you've only got 3 salvos of 2 torpedo's, and now you don't even get the duel macro-cannons. Can be a fun ship to experiment with, but the role of scouting is easier done with auger probes, if you've got an admiral with that skill.

[Daliena]

I'm fond of the Falchion myself. Only slightly less firepower than the Sword (3 single turrets VS 2 doubles) but it can chuck out torpedoes (and with the IN one, meltas) which fired in volleys from a few Falchions can cause some mayhem.

[Ysthrall]

I prefer the Sword. Cheap, effective, takes little micro, does the job.

[Ashantai]

Some great ideas and tips here, thank you!

Starting out in the campaign should I get some of the novas for the AdMec fleet to support my Imperial fleet?

[CHINOOOK]

Nova is the best but it's most expensive. The main thing you want to look for in an escort is number of turrets. It's not a bad idea to pick the cheapest ship with the most turrets.

[JamFalcon]

I am fond of firestorms in silent running. Like stated above they sit back till my line ships engage then just open up on enemy escorts and weakened capitals to finish them. While in stealth they draw minimal attention. Because the lance is 100% and does not fire faster you do not worry about not putting them in reload or lock-on. Just leave them in silent running directing targets every now and then. Minimal attention required allowing me to focus on my Dominators and their tasty tasty nova cannons and macro braodsides