General French BB Discussion Thread

[Monarchco]

With a primary emphesis on the Tier 10, "France"

What is everyone's thoughts?

You can find their list of ships here:
http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Ships_of_France

You can find the info on France here:
http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:France

You can find some videos of gameplay for France here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opaFRcXG6JQ (Not in English - in German)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB5PN6jM3Yg

And of course, here's Notser's video for the tier 7 Lyon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGG3VAxTsC8

Personally, I think the tier 7 looks awesome and fun, while France, the tier 10, looks underwelming, incapable of contributing to the team in any meaningful manner, and of course, stupidly squishy in ways that aren't so traditional.

What's everyone's thoughts?

[Ryuu]

I guess it just needs special treating like Charles Martel, you have to rely on speed.

But if Charles is somewhat usable in clan battles, i don't think the same about France, since we can only pick one BB.

[Monarchco]

Originally posted by Ryuu:

I guess it just needs special treating like Charles Martel, you have to rely on speed.

But if Charles is somewhat usable in clan battles, i don't think the same about France, since we can only pick one BB.

its an 8% speed boost and a giant target though. I can't see speed as anything other than a gimmick. and even then the entire thing is 32mm so as long as the enemy can hit the largest target BB in the game, they're going to do huge HE damage.

[Asfalots der Sittenwart]

101 Artillery ranking.
fml Wargaming these numbers never made sense and never will make sense.

On a sidenote, that dude from video number one is one of my favourite german youtubers.
Nice to see him getting some extra views from the new bb line.

[Ryuu]

But rating can't go over 100?

[Asfalots der Sittenwart]

Look into the video, it clearly shows a 101 at the right side. Heck, go to the testserver and see for yourself. I really recommend checking it out anyways, it gets some nice flags for the main account afaik.

[Monarchco]

Originally posted by Ryuu:

But rating can't go over 100?

Let be real these ratings don't mean a damn thing other than where a ship "generally" is. lol.

[Ryuu]

Originally posted by Monarchco:

Originally posted by Ryuu:

But rating can't go over 100?

Let be real these ratings don't mean a damn thing other than where a ship "generally" is. lol.

Yeap, true. It's like measuring long oblong things :B

[Monarchco]

So after looking into France more, and watching a lot of gameplay...

It's going to be useful for random battles. But imo that's not what tier 10s are really for....

Generally speaking it relies on other people making mistakes and going flat broadside to you to do any meaningful damage.

Which is common in pubs. But not so much in Clan Wars or other competitive play. At least at any significant level.

[Jackson]

Originally posted by Monarchco:

Originally posted by Ryuu:

I guess it just needs special treating like Charles Martel, you have to rely on speed.

But if Charles is somewhat usable in clan battles, i don't think the same about France, since we can only pick one BB.

its an 8% speed boost and a giant target though. I can't see speed as anything other than a gimmick. and even then the entire thing is 32mm so as long as the enemy can hit the largest target BB in the game, they're going to do huge HE damage.

There's been many times where, in a BB, I've decided that running was the better form of valor... And that speed boost will be awesome for that. I think it's a stupid stupid idea from a realism point of view... But it'll be quite useful no doubt. Except maybe to those perfect players who NEVER overextend and who can somehow rely on their team to never turn tail and leave them in a precarious position.... heh heh

Edit: Besides, it's French. Running away is what they do. Why not make them do it well?

[Monarchco]

Originally posted by Jack:

Originally posted by Monarchco:

its an 8% speed boost and a giant target though. I can't see speed as anything other than a gimmick. and even then the entire thing is 32mm so as long as the enemy can hit the largest target BB in the game, they're going to do huge HE damage.

There's been many times where, in a BB, I've decided that running was the better form of valor... And that speed boost will be awesome for that. I think it's a stupid stupid idea from a realism point of view... But it'll be quite useful no doubt. Except maybe to those perfect players who NEVER overextend and who can somehow rely on their team to never turn tail and leave them in a precarious position.... heh heh

The France will get deleted if you overextend. Generally speaking from what I've seen so far, if you're closer than 15km and not really supported, you're dead. No time to use speed boost.

You can't bow tank in it. And angling only works so well because the armor isn't all that good. On top of that you're a free meal for any cruiser that can hit you.

[Jackson]

We'll see. I don't see it getting deleted THAT fast. It has too much health. Just like every other T10 battleship. I fully expect that speed boost will get me out of some scrapes. And there'll be many it won't I'm sure too lol

[Asfalots der Sittenwart]

"I think it's a stupid stupid idea from a realism point of view..."


Auxillary engines that only have a limited time of use before needing a break are quite common. Even today most freighters use bow thrusters for additional Manouverabillity. And on our vessels for example they can usually run for 15-30mins before needing to pause. (really depending on the age, one was on a vessel from 1985 and it broke bow thruster one because the pilot used it for 10 mins in relatively rough sea.

So yes Auxillary engines to make the ship faster (or more manouverable) for a limited time before needing to catch a break are quite common and used to this day.
Not sure if the french ever used them though. Am not a historian.

[Ryuu]

Yeah, and other engines sometimes can operate in "overloaded" mode for some time, otherwise they might overheat or something.

When you're sailing French:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4y8ph3cH54

[Monarchco]

Originally posted by Ryuu:

Yeah, and other engines sometimes can operate in "overloaded" mode for some time, otherwise they might overheat or something.

When you're sailing French:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4y8ph3cH54

Oh god. Who brought in the "realism" argument.

If it was real, torpedoes would virtually never hit, DWT would never be a thing, destroyers wouldn't effectively be submarines, and every single ship would have smoke by running their engines dirty and literally creating smoke.

Furthermore, ♥♥♥♥ like DDs wouldn't be able to get within firing range of a BB without getting deleted themselves, because guess what? IRL secondaries aren't stupidly inaccurate.

[Ryuu]

What is DWT?
Well, people are discussing how that could work in reality. Most things in the game are plausible, though tuned for gameplay reasons. The only thing that feels fantastical is torpedo reload booster consumable, there's no way to reload torpedoes faster than usually i guess.