CARRIER GROUPS
QUESTION: I sent a carrier with two escorts on a pursuit, and my opponent insists that since pursuit is by "so many ships" he can use directed damage on the carrier, ignoring the escorts.
ANSWER: Wrong. It's a carrier group like any other.
QUESTION: I don't understand the sequence of attacking a carrier group. Can I attack the carrier by directed damage after crippling the escorts, or do I have to destroy them?
ANSWER: You have to cripple the escorts to be allowed to cripple the carrier. You have to destroy the escorts to be allowed to destroy the carrier. You can, of course, use directed damage to flip over (cripple) or destroy the entire group as a unit.
QUESTION: We are confused about how to build carrier groups during retreat from a major battle, when every group we have includes crippled escorts. In one case, we had twelve crippled ships and ten healthy ones spread across five groups.
ANSWER: First, use rule (308.122) to swap around ships, creating groups (if possible) with all healthy ships and all crippled ships. The healthy groups can then get away, and the crippled groups can stay for the heroic last stand. Your "battle force" then includes all of the crippled ships, three uncrippled ships, and (only if the command limit allows) additional uncrippled ships. The force must include all groups including a cripple, but is still under the limit of uncrippled ships. In this case, use rule (515.15) which allows such a mixed group to drop its crippled escorts (which are then no longer in a group, but just loose ships) and have the healthy ships escape. Every situation is different, but generally speaking you want to get carriers out of this mess if you can, which means making sure the healthy ones leave, making sure the crippled ones are in groups, and being very careful in deciding which three uncrippled ships to leave behind. It might be a good idea to make these carriers (with crippled escorts) since groups are tough to attack, but that might risk the carriers (which could be crippled by directed damage since the escorts are already crippled).
