Escort Cruisers - Big or Small ?

[The Bushranger]

When I think of "escort cruiser", I think, not of a battleline escort, but of a convoy escort - like the ECs from ye olde WesWorld sim. 24 knots or less, under 8,000 tons, guns in the 8-to-12-inch range. (All per that world's version of the Washington Treaty). Not intended to, as I said, defend the battlewagons from such and sundry, but rather to make the enemy have to use his battleships to attack the convoy/port/whathaveyou the EC is defending, and, thusly, hopefully making the game not worth the candle (or at least buying time for the convoy to scatter before the EC joins Davy Jones' Navy).

[Jefgte]

By extension, they could be use for coastal defense...