Federation Commander

I have a question. During the General War, did carrier groups consist of more than just the carrier and dedicated escort ships? For example, a carrier group in WWII might consist of the Carrier, and several destroyers to act as AA/anti-sub units, plus a couple of cruisers and possibly a BB to engage surface units that threatened the carrier directly. Did any of the empires do something like this, or did they only use escort ships to cover the carrier?

If I remember correctly, almost all of the escorts where dedicated/purpose built escorts designed just for carriers in SFB. Probably the main reason why most carrier stuff is just going to stay in BoM.

Most if not all Strike Carries were variants of the Command Cruisers and most Heavy Carriers were variants of Dreadnaughts. As such they could operate as the Flagship of a fleet including more ships than just thier dedicated escorts if you want them too. Just know that S8.0 Fleet rules can get complicated real fast if you are trying to use them.

Most Strike Carriers I believe can command a fleet of up to 10 ships including thier 2 or 3 dedicated Escorts they had to operate with.

A "carrier group" consists of just the carrier and its assigned escorts. However, that group is usually part of a larger force. Sometimes the carrier group would operate independently, but usually the group was part of a larger squadron or fleet.

Mjwest, I figured as much. Has there ever been anything stating what the composition of a typical squadon containing a carrier group was/is?

No, not really.

The composition of the carrier group itself (i.e. the carrier and its direct escorts) is fairly well proscribed. However, the larger force that contains the carrier group is wide open. There will almost never be two carrier groups in a single larger force, but, other than that, you could end up with just about any combination.

So, I could use this then (a battle group from the Fed 6th Fleet):

DNF
BCF
CVS
-CLE
-DWE
CS
CS
NCL
NCL
FFB
FFB
SC

Sure, that fleet works well. It is perfectly acceptable in Federation Commander and works OK in SFB, too.

Now, if you want to get really, really picky, one could complain a bit about the two CS and two FFB, as they were ships with very low numbers. Maybe swap one CS with another NCL, and swap one or both of the FFBs with DWs. Also, some others might complain about how "top heavy" it is and say that one or two of the cruisers should be replaced with destroyers.

But all of those issues are extremely minor. The fleet you listed works just dandy, especially in Federation Commander, where "rarity" of ships is irrelevant and fleets are expected to be top-heavy.