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Maallon -> RE: Clemson DD conversion t oDE (12/29/2021 7:53:47 AM)
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I also made the "mistake" in my current PBEM to convert a lot of my Clemsons into DEs. It is tempting because the Allies lack a powerful ASW escort boat at the beginning of the war and the Clemson DE has a nice ASW value and extended range that makes it handy to escort TFs.
I just took a look a the reinforcement list though and the thing is that the first actual purpose built DEs will only start coming at 3/43 and in regards of other escorts, you will not get all that many through 1942 that have a lot of range to boost. So you have to mostly make do with the ships that you have on the map at the start of the game for ASW escort duties until 3/43 arrives. Thus it may not actually be a mistake to convert them to DEs, but their usefulness will suffer as soon as 3/43 arrives.
On the other hand, the APD conversion has much more utility than the DE conversion. It has the same ASW value, but keeps the original range of the Clemsons, they can still be used for escorting TFs though. In addition they also have their own transport capabilities that can come in handy in multiple situations. In addition to the ones mentioned above I also tend to use them to supply islands that are very close to enemy lines and I don't have air superiority there. They can make a high speed run at night to the island, unload supply and then make it back to safety during the day without being spotted preferably. This already has saved me some islands that otherwise would have been lost or would need very risky supply runs near enemy air fields. The big plus here is that they will be useful in that role throughout the entire game and never become obsolete like the DE conversion will.
So in summary, the APD conversion can do everything the DE conversion can but it has more utility that makes it viable to keep around through the entire game. The DE conversions will get increasingly obsolete, but they have somewhat more range, that makes them very useful at the beginning when the Allies just lack a lot of viable long range ASW escorts.
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