I was glad to see that the new HCDB includes more Coast Guard ships (and, in general, we've seen a lot of patrol boats added to the HCDB). But now I'm wondering how to use them in scenarios.

 

They are, of course, for guarding the coast. So you send them after naughty fishing boats who violate our fisheries (although unless they have escorts, this isn't much of a challenge). Or you stop smugglers of one kind or another.

 

By the way, I figured out one way to do a "rescue" mission. You can use a neutral Green vessel, without a programmed course, to represent the vessel that you have to save. You won't know where it is at first so you actually have to search for it. To "effect the rescue," you have to be on station (a very small square, maybe only 10 miles x 10 miles, right around the Green vessel) for a certain amount of time.

 

If a Red ship stays on station near the neutral vessel before you do, it obviously got there first, searched the ship, arrested or killed the crew, etc. (The Red ship gets a course that will take it there, so it will get there after a certain amount of time, and that means you're racing against the clock to get their first.)

 

Of course, you can also use a Blue vessel...you know where it is and Red is going to try to sink it if they can find it. You have to get their first. Another kind of "race against the clock."

 

Side note...we should probably add two new "ship" types to the database...Downed Pilot and Lifeboat. A downed pilot would probably only have 1 damage point. And I guess the lifeboat would have 2 points?

 

But what else would Coast Guard ships do? Do they ever leave American waters to assist the Navy? If so, what kinds of missions are they involved in?

 

Thanks.

 

Mark

Aren't they involved in Middle-East operations?

 

Didn't they get deployed in Desert Storm / Shield?

I realize that it was the Navy today, but pirates/drug running comes to mind.

The traditional search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, aids-to-navigation, and counter drug missions continue, of course, but the profile of the US Coast Guard in the "homeland security" mission has really expanded in recent times, especially with the Deepwater modernization program.

 

(Just Google "Deepwater" and the "Coast Guard", and you'll quickly see this).

 

If we had a Caribbean map for HCCE, then USCG oriented scenarios could be better exploited, but the northeast coast remains good territory for homeland security scenarios too.