The France Problem; Spookston Inspired Post to help new players learn about why France is rare.

[xxIRONHEAD787xx@live 65]

I've been playing a bit of rank I and saw people who were day I playing France. I'm bypassing 5 nations to explain why people don't see France that much in Rank I.

 

The simple explanation is that its tanks are awful at Rank I, requiring aggressive CQC combat to get kills. (Ironically, all of my Talisman tanks in France are Rank I, all earned from those boxes)

 

In real life, French tank tactics had fallen behind, mainly because of the Maginot defensive line, which was thought to be the best defensive line in history. One general and one forest had a lot to say about this. Despite how good the armor is, the guns lack pen over distance. My best advice, and advice from several youtubers/streamers, would be to buy a rank II or III premium for France and use it to grind for Rank II. I would recommend the M4A1 (FL10), since it has an auto loader with 12 rounds in it, allowing for quick follow up shots, and helps you get used to the upcoming French trees, where they rely heavily on auto loaders.

 

If you're more interested in a cheaper investment, get the Char B1 Ter, because its an overall improvement to the B1 Bis. It has upgraded side armor, and its hull mounted 75mm gets better horizontal guidance over the Bis.

 

Over time, the French tree gets better, offering players many gremlin vehicles*. 

 

But, I won't say the French Tree is balanced, its vehicles are at weird and odd BR placements, like the new Char 2C. The 2C has only 55mm of armor pen at 10 meters and unsloped armor, after that, the chance for penetration falls drastically, and its armor will barely protect you from long range, so don't count on armor at all. Overall, I'd say the French tree is pretty fun, but it takes a lot of skill to play it right, and more skill to master it.

 

I hope this sheds a bit of light on what I deem the France Problem, and why France is a rarely seen nation, especially in the lower ranks.

 

Word meanings:

 

Words that may not be familiar with some players will appear with a * next to them

 

Gremlin vehicles are those that are small, fast, and mount insanely powerful guns. A few examples are the M56, ELC bis, AML 90,Begleitpanzer 57.

[cam64viper 8]

Until Finland subtree came along, the Swedish tech tree was a mess of vehicles with BR's all over the place, and included almost exclusively armorless sniper tanks until you got to high/top tier. With the addition of Finland, many more generalized vehicles helped balance out the playstyle and made it more fun. This doesn't seem like a very useful "fix" for France though, they seem to be in a tough to balance spot, but take that statement with a grain of salt because I haven't played them and therefor don't know.

 

Definitely a good thing to help players through the struggle of tier 1 France, their vehicles look strugglesome, I applaud the initiative Ironhead! According to some buddies, it's tough until you get export vehicles (i.e. Shermans) and the autoloader lineups afterwards are incredibly worth it. Any input on this? Would you update for what players should do past Rank I?

[xxIRONHEAD787xx@live 65]

On 16/05/2023 at 14:29, cam64viper said:

Until Finland subtree came along, the Swedish tech tree was a mess of vehicles with BR's all over the place, and included almost exclusively armorless sniper tanks until you got to high/top tier. With the addition of Finland, many more generalized vehicles helped balance out the playstyle and made it more fun. This doesn't seem like a very useful "fix" for France though, they seem to be in a tough to balance spot, but take that statement with a grain of salt because I haven't played them and therefor don't know.

 

Definitely a good thing to help players through the struggle of tier 1 France, their vehicles look strugglesome, I applaud the initiative Ironhead! According to some buddies, it's tough until you get export vehicles (i.e. Shermans) and the autoloader lineups afterwards are incredibly worth it. Any input on this? Would you update for what players should do past Rank I?

My apologies for the late reply, I recently graduated!

 

I bought the B1 Ter and used that to grind, though going back, the vehicles are god awful, even the older tanks that are no longer obtainable, ALTHOUGH, there are a few notable vehicles for the first rank, like the AMD.35. The P.7.TAA is also good, along with the AMR.35 ZT3.

 

For after rank I, the tanks grow better, you get the same guns, BUT, you get good armor.

 

The Shermans are the same you'll find in every tech tree, so nothing too new. But, there is one vehicle I love in rank III that's premium. The M4A1 FL10, its an autoloaded sherman with the same gun on the M4A4 SA50. 

 

I've got no vehicles at Rank IV, besides 1, and that's the AMX-50 (TO90/930). If you can pick it up on the marketplace, get it. 

 

As for the tech tree vehicles, the light tank line is extremely fun, especially when you get the EBR 1951. The medium line is quite powerful too, grind it for the SA50. Its heavy line is a bit unique, like the ARL-44 ACL-1 or 2C.

 

Overall, the French tech tree is not beginner friendly at all, and, as skDoger puts it, it gets better as you progress. For example, you'll see the AMD.35 and think "hmm, this is an armored car with a 25mm cannon, nothing more." The truth is, that France is a nation that relies on flanking, where their guns can pen enemy armor. 

 

I'll be posting another post like this, talking about Japan, Italy, and Israel, if you're interested in those nations, or I can do one that you'd like ^^

[Bellator138 109]

First of all I think the M4FL and SA50 have different guns and rounds. SA50 has 202mm pen and M4FL has 182mm pen with worse angles. M4FL has the E.B.R 1954 turret configuration along with same gun auto loader and so forth. Other than that its good to know there are other french tech tree fans out there ?

[xxIRONHEAD787xx@live 65]

9 hours ago, Bellator138 said:

First of all I think the M4FL and SA50 have different guns and rounds. SA50 has 202mm pen and M4FL has 182mm pen with worse angles. M4FL has the E.B.R 1954 turret configuration along with same gun auto loader and so forth. Other than that its good to know there are other french tech tree fans out there ?

The M4FL and SA50 have the same gun, but the SA50 has a better round