France Bluewater Early Access Discussion

[Madwolf 10,222]

So what's everyone thinking so far?

 

Tier 1 Destroyers:

 

Bourrasque Class and Jaguar Class Variants (Leapard and Charcal):

 

For the most part these are all the same basic destroyer. The the Jaguar Class's biggest differences game play wise are the Charcal getting an extra turret, bumping it up .3 BR, and the Leopard gains an AA suit that's frankly not too shabby for a Tier 1 3.7 BR destroyer, but in return it loses a torpedo tubes and doesn't gain the extra turret it's sister, the Charcal, has.

 

I'm just going to get the good out of the way with this trio. The torpedoes are second only to the IJN at this level. They're fast, long range (even before the range upgrade), and they back a punch at just over 300kg of explosive filler. At this Tier, they'll absolutely get the job done.

 

Now let's get down to the bad, which frankly is most of it. If you've played the Italian DDs, you already have a pretty good idea of everything wrong with the fire power on these French destroyers. I actually might even argue that they're worse. Before even getting into how the guns operate, the turrets are poorly protected, they rotate slowly, and have awful firing angles. Unless you're willing to expose a nearly full broadside, and can navigationally do so, you're going to spend most of your time firing only 2 guns. 

 

The reward for the poor angles, poor traverse, and protection are slow firing guns that lack a punch. You simply don't have the ability to really "pour it on" like in other ships at Tier 1, and shells just don't feel all that great. The E will strike you as anemic as your grind out the SAP shells, and while the SAP shells will finally give you the ability to reach into the engines, and shell rooms of opposing DDs, it's still not the best when it feels like everyone reloads fast than you.

 

The ships themselves handle decently. No major complaints there, but because the ships feel so lacking nearly every where else, it's a bit disappointing that they don't stand out here either.

 

I could go into how the Leopard is a pretty good AA platform, but frankly it's just not all that appealing of a role at Tier 1, where you're not really going to see much benefit to your team in protecting other Tier 1 bluewater ships. It also isn't worth losing the extra set of torpedoes since, functionally 99% of your worth at this level is going to come from ship vs ship combat. I guess that's why it's still 3.7.

 

Hoping to get some time into Tier 2 and Tier 3 this weekend, but I'm going to be really busy so we'll see how it goes. I haven't hated my limited time with the Agile class, which comprises the Tier 2 offerings, so hopefully it's a bit better of a time.

[Arcadia_Nyx 811]

I haven't touched rank 1 (I have Aigle so I didn't have to) but the two rank 2 Aigle-class ships are quite wonderful.

Milan in particular deserves a special mention, as I found her to be a very usable ship, with enhanced anti-air, speed, and maximum torpedo capacity from the Aigle.

It is also possible that the Aigle-Class is now more robust than in previous updates. Previously the Aigle was a glass-like ship, but now it seems to have the armor of a comparable level destroyer.
 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Alpine_Lynx