French battleships unveiled!

**Keyan_TTK** · 10-02-2017, 06:58 AM

Originally Posted by M.A.Mitscher

@Keyan_TTK If WG is going to treat those 457s the same way they treated Conqueror's 457s, they can keep that shit on the drawing board. Curious to see what they do for strengths and weaknesses. USN, IJN, German, and now RN BBs all are spectacular, keeping pace with that will be fun.

380mm guns are a given. The French Admiralty wanted to arm the Alsaces with 406mm guns while invoking the escalator clause, but for the sake of expediency they opted for quad 380mm guns since the 406mm guns had to be designed and built. And that would have been a third shell calibre in three battleship classes (330, 380 and 406mm). And iirc the French navy had studies for 457mm guns in the '20s, so WG may pull a Henri IV/Conqueror paper design out of nowhere for T10.

As for strengths and weaknesses, I'd say speed and good firepower when bow on, but high visibility because of the high conning tower.

**Mobius** · 10-02-2017, 04:42 PM

Much better pictures of the ships:

La Royale intensifies

@M.A.Mitscher Strength should be good guns with decent velocity and good penetration values at T7 and up, good speed (Either Richelieu or Jean Bart reached 32knts on speed trial), excellent TDS in theory (Dunkerque's should be better than it currently is), better than average bow on firepower.
Weaknesses would be high detection range, weakness to HE spam due to big superstructures and above the waterline citadels.

AA will probably be pretty ship dependent.

@Keyan_TTK Actually it was 450mm, not 457mm:

**Keyan_TTK** · 10-02-2017, 05:43 PM

@Mobius
Thanks for checking. Expect this 450mm to be on the T10 BB (which I hope won't be named Napoleon or Villeneuve), like Henri IV has an unrealistic 240mm gun pulled out of early 1900 studies.
Also, given the French focus on good busters, I'm semi-expecting good fire chance on the BB shells... (Dunkerque has 35% fire chance on her 330s)

**Mobius** · 10-02-2017, 05:47 PM

@Keyan_TTK I'm hoping we will be able to chose between 3x3 450mm and 3x4 406mm for the T10, like Conker/Lion/GK/Fred can.

And I wouldn't be too sure about the fire chance, Gulio Cesare has the same fire chance as Dunkerque despite the fact that Italian HE was rather bad.

**DLRevan** · 10-03-2017, 05:17 PM

Where's my 16 x 381mm option. I want it. I want that feeling of 16 shells regardless of how effective it really is.

Especially now that half the player base is raving mad about HE firing RN BBs having "high average damage", it seems like caliber doesn't matter to them anymore.

**Keyan_TTK** · 10-03-2017, 05:55 PM

Well, high fire chance 380mm shells is a way to balance sixteen 380mm guns at T10.... Part of me kinda wants this to happen so that people wishing for it would be more careful....

**DLRevan** · 10-03-2017, 08:43 PM

Well I know I'm the only person who owns T10 BBs and actually wants such a thing I'm sure :| .....To be honest, HE wouldn't really work that well anyway. HE suffers saturation problems the more shells you fire at something, both in terms of damage and fire generation. RN BBs are at a good place because their HE perform well without having a huge number of guns.

I'd still rather have great AP performance over HE, even if its 381mm. I'm imagining high accuracy, flat trajectory shells, good for players who know how to position battleships in flanking or sniping positions where they naturally draw less fire even if spotted. To make use of the idea, one would have to be in effective broadside posture anyway. But good HE will be the easy way to make it work for the majority of players. Not that it would have to. Such a ship could have 4x4 381mm, with 4x3 option of a larger caliber.

I'd really like to see something new and interesting, this could be something.

**Mobius** · 11-04-2017, 05:47 PM

Apparently this has been posted then quickly deleted:

Lyon at T7 makes me sad.

- - - Updated - - -

I just noticed, Richelieu has a wing 152mm turret on the bottom picture. This was how she was supposed to be laid down until the French changed their mind in light of the poor AA performance of the 152mm and replaced them by 100mm DP guns.

Guess this is her stock hull then.

**Keyan_TTK** · 11-04-2017, 05:54 PM

@Mobius
The only thing Lyon would have at T7 is her massive firepower, with sixteen rifles in four quads being nothing to sneer at. The French General Staff discarded the design because of the awkward turret placement, antiquated armour disposition and inadequate propulsion.

As for Ritchie, I hope WG keeps her 1943 refit as top hull. The trench and cemetery are pretty much iconic.

**Mobius** · 11-04-2017, 06:04 PM

@Keyan_TTK The post US refit is pretty much guaranteed to be the top hull. Look at the pictures: The bottom one has the wing 152mm turret and the catapult while in the 4 sides view the catapult has been replaced by AA guns. Would make no sense for the prerefit hull to be the top hull.