TW 2.2 - British Isles Escorts Mod

[Der Teddy Bar]

The NYGM British Isles Escort Mod v1 has NO scripted escorts anywhere around the English Isles. That’s right, none, all escorts are continually generated and are deleted at the end of the plotted course. Eventually we will replace the escorts at Gibraltar, in the Med and along the American East Coast etc.

To presume that the NYGM British Isles Escort Mod will make it harder is only partially correct. The NYGM British Isles Escort Mod v1 is more than just removing the ‘canned’ escorts which made traversing the English Channel in 1945 a walk in the park. As always, NYGM are aiming to replicate the historical conditions, and in some cases, particularly early war this may result in certain areas having less escorts.

What is so exciting about the NYGM British Isles Escort Mod is the randomness. Escorts now have random patterns with unlimited way points ranging from 5 up to 300 kilometres on radius and at each way point there is a random chance of a course change.

The randomness of the escort’s course will create a very dynamic environment. The dynamic numbers are achieved through course variations that result in escorts sometimes staying longer or even leaving early. For example, in the Dover straights I have seen instances where there were 10 escorts making it suicidal to try and pass, yet at other times there were only 2 escorts making passage through the Dover straights a breeze. For a more specific example, on September 10, 1939 you may not be able to pass through the Dover straights, however on September 12, 1939 the passage is possible due to fewer escorts or the escort’s location/s.

Escorts will also more often than not, now travel in groups of 2+. While there will be singular escorts, for the majority, there will be either 2 or 3 escorts in a group, including Elco’s. In the extreme but rare instances, where the random chance has played its part, there may be up to 5 destroyers is a group!

The escorts groups will also be spread out over a large area, sometimes up to 2000 metres. This will for the most part make attacking an escort group a very poor choice and a very risky proposition.

The escort groups start and finish essentially in port. I have done this for several reasons, firstly, that is where they should start and finish at! It gives a sense of realism seeing the escorts coming and going from a ‘port’ to other areas and in addition it reduces the need for port specific escorts, especially at the start of the war.

For example, the escorts going and returning from Southend to Dover or Lowestoft are creating enough escort traffic to not warrant any dedicated escort for the Southend-on-sea area. The same goes for the Northern Channel where the escorts travelling from the Firth of the Clyde to the Northern Approaches and to the Irish Sea negate the need for channel specific escort/s.

This is not to say that port specific escorts, conforming to the British Isles Escort Mod principles are not required or should not be added. Even with the large amount of traffic starting from and returning to the Firth of Forth it has been necessary to add a dedicated escort route.

These are some examples (not a complete list) showing the port the escorts start and finish at and the destination:
Firth of Forth travel to Hartlepool, Hull, Inverness & Lowescroft.
Firth of the Clyde travel to the Northern Approaches & the Irish Sea.
Bristol travel to the Bristol Channel & the Celtic Sea.
Portsmouth travel to the Southern Approaches and the English Channel
Southend travel to Dover & Lowestoft
Loch Ewe travel to Loch Ewe and Hebrides
Scapa Flow travel to the Faeroes & Shetlands

The waypoints have been laid out to best cover the specific area and no two courses, even if in the same area, are the same in layout or waypoint variation. You will have great difficulties in learning an escort’s path, I would go so far as to say, it will be near impossible. You will need to pay particular attention as there is always a chance of the escort/s that you saw leave will come back, either directly through the default course or through a course variation.

For example, you see an escort in grid AM92, or for this escort, waypoint 10. The escort passes by and you are not detected.. There is a chance that the escort may double back either indirectly or directly.

Indirectly in that the next waypoints 13, 14 & 15 in grid AM68 may have the escort passing back through AM92 again.
Indirectly where waypoint 12 might have a % chance that the escort will loop back to waypoint 8 and then onto waypoint 9, 10 etc.
Directly in that the next waypoint, 11 may be have a % chance of the escort returning to waypoint 10.

Not all waypoints double back, some do skip forward. However you should never assume that an escort will not return within a very short space of time.

Escorts now cover a much larger patrol area. For example, escorts in the Irish Sea will take in these grids, AM67, 68, 91, 92, 94, 94, 97 & 98.

With escorts now covering a larger patrol area the chances of an escort responding to a merchant ship sighting you also increases. So there will be few places where you can leisurely attack a merchant ship without concern of an escort responding.

Remember that while the NYGM British Isles Escort Mod looks very busy, the escorts are randomly generated and after completing the designated route exit from the game. In 1939 it is possible for example, to travel from St Georges Channel through to the beginning of the North Passage without encountering a single escort, of course other times you may encounter several. That is the beauty of this mod.