After first operating as a carrier escort for Lexington & Enterprise, Drayton was redeployed to the Solomons campaign and fought at the battle of Tassafaronga. Among the destroyers leading the US fleet in the opening exchanges and later picking up survivors of the sunken Northampton. She remained in the south pacific for the rest of the war and was nicknamed the "Blue Beetle" for uniquely sporting a blue overall color scheme. USS Drayton earned 11 battle stars for her service.
This second one has the content of the second last sentence switched around. Might read better?
After first operating as a carrier escort for Lexington & Enterprise, Drayton was redeployed to the Solomons campaign and fought at the battle of Tassafaronga. Among the destroyers leading the US fleet in the opening exchanges and later picking up survivors of the sunken Northampton. She was nicknamed the "Blue Beetle" for uniquely sporting a blue overall color scheme and remained in the south pacific for the rest of the war. USS Drayton earned 11 battle stars for her service.
CARRIER ESCORT: The sector this unit is in can contain one friendly Ship above the stacking limit, if one of those Ships is a Carrier.
Air Rescue -The first time a friendly aircraft is destroyed. Score 3 victory points at the end of the turn. You can only use Air Rescue once per game.
After operating as a carrier escort for Lexington & Enterprise, Drayton was redeployed to the Solomons campaign and fought at the battle of Tassafaronga. Among the destroyers leading the US fleet in the opening exchanges and later picking up survivors of the sunken Northampton. She was nicknamed the "Blue Beetle" for uniquely sporting a blue overall color scheme and remained in the south pacific for the rest of the war. USS Drayton earned 11 battle stars for her service.
Hey guys, after going through the thread I realize you correctly modeled this after USS Smith. However, USS Smith was a very borderline "8" vs "7". The 2/6/2 hull is a pretty significant handicap. Smith has two arguably very good SAs while Drayton only has one so-so good SA. Carrier Escort is a very situational SA. I know the French fleet fans absolutely hate that SA. I think it would be very safe to give this one a cost of 7. And I probably still wouldn't use it because the US has so many better AA options for carrier escorts.
From what I can tell the Drayton participated in a lot of patrol and escort missions during the Solomons, Cape Gloucester, and the Philippines campaigns including covering multiple amphibious landings. She only escorted Enterprise once very early in the war.
How about giving it Destroyer Division instead of Carrier Escort? That makes it a partner with USS Buchanan from the last deck.
Destroyer Division - If you control any other Destroyers with Destroyer Division, this unit rolls one extra attack die when making Main Gunnery attacks. Air Rescue is fine since it is a 0 cost SA anyway.
And wouldn't Rescue Operations be more appropriate?
RESCUE OPERATIONS - Once per game, instead your Surface attack step, this unit can perform a rescue mission if it's in a sector where a friendly ship was destroyed. Score 3 vps at the end of the turn
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I know I did some serious "re-casting" of this card, but I hated to see it be too niche like its sister Smith. Also, while looking up the proper wording for the Rescue Operations SA on the HMCS St. Laurent card it became obvious Drayton should be an 8. Drayton has much better AA, better torps, and arguably a better primary SA. So how does this strike you?
Oh, and the big thing! Since the ship was called the "blue beetle" and the USN took a nice (and rare) color photograph of her I thought we should "do the exception that makes the rule" and use the color photo. If you don't like it there are numerous b & w photos we can use.
That image is that one that keeps popping up in books, although it must be zoomed in a little, as I've never seen that wing tip in the shot. Presume it was rare as most were still shot in B&W at that point.
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That image is that one that keeps popping up in books, although it must be zoomed in a little, as I've never seen that wing tip in the shot. Presume it was rare as most were still shot in B&W at that point.
Pretty rare. I agree the photo has probably been cropped in most cases. But I liked the bright yellow "pre-war" wing color. I think it adds interest and contrast to the photo rather than just a lot of blue.
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The photo is too small here for you to really see it, but one interesting thing about the photo is that the color transition on the foremast goes from blue to white almost exactly on the horizon. Just like it was supposed to do! I don't know how much that really gains, but it is interesting.
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