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Well, it might not be what everyone is expecting. I wanted to come back with a carrier thread, but I have spent a small fortune on my computer and I do not think that the system as it is right now could even come close to being able to handle the bile and hatred which I will spew when the time comes. Until then however, I thought I would start off my return from my break with something a little less consequential. Many would consider this thread largely irrelevant as we already know what the French destroyer's 'thing' is, and that is their speed. Admittedly the ability to traverse the map at incredible speeds and to contest caps far more often than their enemies would be far more beneficial than high speeds on a cruiser that, whilst useful, does not define a ship. Speed alone doesn't make a ship however. This might be because I've always been a bit of a rubbish destroyer player, but to me there are effectively only about 3 destroyer lines in the game: the gunboat, torpedo boat, and the hybrid. Where cruiser lines are defined by their gimmicks, destroyers are defined by their primary weapon in combination of whether or not they want to play the spotter. Even for destroyers with effective torpedoes and effective guns, they can really only do one at a time. A perfect theoretical destroyer can't both play a gunboat and a torpedo boat at the same time. A torpedo boat has to remain unseen, being most effective when the enemy doesn't even think about them until it's much too late. A gunboat will inevitably be seen, even if they're not detected, as every single captain who is not a bot understands what a long line of low damage shells heading towards them from a smoke screen or behind an island. This presents an issue. WG is known for wanting to preserve the flavor of a ship within the line and the French cruisers are heavily defined by their high explosive shells but whilst their torpedoes have relatively minor usefulness in their high tiered cruisers, the French 9 km torpedoes are actually very good torpedoes for a destroyer and French destroyers carries moderately heavy torpedo armaments in configurations that are incredibly effective with World of Warships mechanics with very fast reloads (2x2 + 2x3 Mogador, 3x3 Le Fantasque, 1x3 + 2x2 Vaquelin, 2x3 Aigle) compared to their contemporaries. They are also built as gunboats and destroyer hunters, and that is where the issue is. In a vacuum, this isn't an issue. The French destroyers, with high speed and fast loading torpedoes, will work as good torpedo boats. That said, they can't perform the torpedo and gunboat role at once, meaning that they could both be balanced as a gunboat and balanced as a torpedo boat. The problem is that there are other destroyers in the game, and only the Russian subline and arguably the Akizuki can really be considered hybrids to any large degree. The Americans, formally hybrids, no longer have the use of stealth fire to keep themselves alive outside of smoke screens and, like the Germans, simply don't have the shell performance to merit a gun heavy build outside of cutting down enemy destroyers in gunfights. This means that it is easy to make the French destroyers incredibly powerful and appealing ships, they could very easily become overpowered compared to their contemporaries. What we have with the French destroyers with the French speed boost and good torpedoes: the Kiev or Udaloi with few of their weaknesses. French destroyers need to be handled extremely carefully if they are not to become entirely overpowered when compared to their peers. We have the Americans with excellent torpedo armaments and guns that are good for short ranged engagements but little else. We have the Russians that generally perform as long ranged annoyances, the Japanese that used to be the torpedo line and are now just bad, and the Germans that work as cap contestants and good torpedo boats. The French destroyer's place in all this is difficult, as it would be easy to create French destroyers such that they would be so powerful they would effectively replace the existing destroyer lines in almost all roles except ones restricted to the truest of the true destroyers. Support Objective Anti-battleship Anti-destroyer Area control Speed alone is not enough to make a destroyer line. Whilst possessing destroyers that are the fastest in the world like the Fantasque at 45 knots, the French line also has ships like the Mogador with a good but unexceptional 39 knots and a poor performance with ships like the Aigle that are barely faster than the Japanese midtier destroyers that are some of the most sluggish destroyers in the entire game. The French destroyers are also mostly built, so simply forcing them into a role of fragile but powerful speedsters really can't be done as these ships exists with real life performance and characteristics. Despite this, the French destroyer line could be made very interesting as long as they are balanced correctly. The over performance of the Khabarovsk could potentially be seen as the under performance of the destroyer class in general. Where one draws the line of what makes a balanced destroyer is largely a matter of perspective. Miniature cruisers Gunboat destroyers True Speedsters In general, I don't think that the French destroyers even have the chance of being as disastrous as the first incarnations of the French cruisers. The thing that I fear most when it comes to these ships isn't their weakness, but rather their mediocrity. It is very easy to basically replicate the Russian destroyer formula with slightly floatier guns, better alpha, poorer RoF, and slightly better speed boost. The French destroyers have the potential of being something really special however, much like how the French designed them in concept. A destroyer which is truly a miniature cruiser instead of a slightly bigger gun boat, a weapon system with the strengths of the cruisers diminished, but not really sharing any of the weaknesses could create a truly enjoyable and interesting line to grind and play. This post is a little short on images and comments compared to my usual work, but I have been quite distracted as of late. I'm putting this out so at least I'm putting out some content instead of just siting back and never posting anything I write.

If I was asked to point out national bias in this game, I would have pointed straight to the British ships. Belfast, Conqueror, Orion, Fiji, Leander, Lion. Some of the most if not the most powerful ships of their tier.

I very much doubt that the Surcouf would be part of the line, thanks to how slow she is and the fact that her armaments are nothing like those of the destroyers that proceeded her. She's more an American destroyer than anything. Also, I am very doubtful that they could make the Mogador fit at tier 9, much less the FANTASQUE at tier 8. A 45 knots base destroyer with 5 light cruiser guns at tier 8 would just be too much.

Well, I have to believe (for the sake of my sanity if nothing else) that War Gaming doesn't actually loathe their game but are instead just incredibly incompetent. I think they want their game to be better, they just act in ways that completely trash their game balance thanks to their misunderstanding of the game and not some deep seated hatred of the players.

Well, it could just be my impression but when I hit the midsection, armor belt, or any rather thick area of battleships, I get less fires than I do when I hit the superstructure, bow, or stern. It could be just that those areas aren't active fire zones, in which case I think that incendiary HE could also get more active fire zones.

We shouldn't forget the HE alpha and fire chance of the British battleship, a 1/2 HE penetration rule, 1:1 AP overmatch ratio instead of 14.something, and a consumable that launches GZ torpedo bombers in the hundreds instead of a catapult fighter.

Yes, CLEARLY the Hindenburg is underpowered. She should get 40 mm of all round protection including her bow and stern, the stealth of a Zao, 42 knots of unmodified speed, and the heal consumable of British cruisers. For balance.

The Hindenburg. Useless without radar. THE HINDENBURG.

The Americans already exist. If you want a spammy torpedo boat, go with the Germans. If you want something a bit more balanced, the Grozhevoi at tier X isn't terrible either. The Japanese are, at the higher tiers, subpar torpedo boats with close to zero self defense ability.

IFHE on Des Moines.

F*clking amazing.

The Imperator should probably be nerfed as well though.

I had an Essex game last night, nuked a Conqueror from basically full health. The Conqueror was rather upset that it faced one of the only things effective against it I think, considering the expletives he typed in chat immediately after. Not saying that it's balanced, but it does give me an idea of what could be potentially done about it. If the Conqueror was given a gigantic citadel hitbox along with significantly decreased range then I think that the insane fire chance and HE alpha could be balanced, basically making her a bigger cruiser.

Well, it could just be an aesthetic stereotype thing. Like how the Japanese have a reputation for tentacles this side of the internet, they may very well have a reputation for animal eared girls in China. Seeing as how most cultures are interested in things that are different from their own and Chinese folklore and media generally doesn't have animal eared girls, it might just be what the authors of the game considers most distinctively "Japanese" like how they reverted to the cowboy aesthetics with Hornet.

What the hell are you on about? No she isn't. She has a ridiculous strike weight, balanced by the fact that she can't even hope to contest airspace against even an average Shokaku. That is terrible balance because if the Shokaku chooses to ignore the Graf or simply lacks the skill to protect their fleet then the Graf would be completely overpowered whereas if the Shokaku DOES contest the Graf then she'll have empty hangars by the ten minute mark. This is terrible balance. No ship should have that high of a performance gap depending on the actions of only one enemy ship. If you're going to be a cretin, then please kindly find somewhere else to do it. I suggested cutting the completely ridiculous potential strike weight of the Graf from 15 to 10 and compensate with better air power so she can fight as equals against her tier counterparts and you somehow managed to construe that I just want a pay to win premium? And you confirm that you are a cretin and that I would gain nothing discussing anything with you. If you can't even be bothered to listen to me, then I can't be arsed to listen to you, especially when I'm in this mood.

I still don't understand why they can't give the Graf Zeppelin a 2/2/0 with 5 torpedo bombers per squad that drops in a straight line and better fighters. That way, she can contest the Shokaku on equal ground in the air whilst having superior torpedo strike weight but lacking the fire DoT that the Shokaku offers. Better in some respects, worse in others, and balanced as carriers. Plus, fewer planes in the air at once means that she'll have better stamina than the Shokaku and Lexington. That would have been fine but noooooooo. She just had to be special didn't she?

AS Lexington?

The Yamato really doesn't need nerfing. I don't know about the Conq personally, but I consider her the weakest out of the original 3 tier X battleships. The only thing the Yamato does which I think she shouldn't be allowed to do is overmatch the midsection of most tier X cruisers, but that could be handled by thickening the side and deck plating in the ship midsection of those ships to 33 mm.

Yes. It's a good thing, I think. If I meet competent Essex and Taiho captains nearly as often as I meet them, I suspect I'd like playing ships like the Hindenburg or Yamato much less.

Speaking from personal experience, you probably don't want to be darting back and forth like a kiting cruiser. As a carrier, you should try to be as close to a big landmass that you can use to block enemy fire whilst staying close to the front line. You'll generally want at least 3-4 ships between you and the bulk of the enemy fleet at all times, regardless of your carrier that will be the place where you can do your best work. Managing whilst commanding planes, beyond general commands for the carrier to escape a high intensity area, is usually too distracting which is why you should use the downtime during plane resupply to find a safe spot to park your carrier between each plane wave you send. By the time you are launching planes again, your carrier should either be in a safe spot or heading towards one. None of this matters currently of course. At the lower tiers, you can get along moderately fine if you just run in circles. As a new carrier, you'll be struggling with managing and commanding the aircraft to do what you want to do more than strategic placement. I generally find that by the time you are overrun, you'll most likely be out of planes anyways. Focus on managing your planes, commanding your carrier to optimum positions will come with experience.

Has anyone else seen the latest Chinese bootleg Kancolle? Azur Lane has some really nice girls. Souryuu Asuka Langley Admiral Hipper Soryuu, Hiryuu

The 1/4 rule also has to go. The lol-heal is fine, but the nonexistent citadel is not. The Conq is a battleship, not a destroyer.

Atago for me, I have good damage per game but awful win rate. I also have issues with every Russian cruiser after the Schors and before the Moskva.

I've citadelled a FDG with my Hipper. Shortly before torpedoing her to death making the citadel largely superfluous.

What does this have to do with anything? You really think that the Missouri doesn't face carriers that can shred literally every single AA suite on her with a single hit? Lexingtons and above drop bombs that can cut through the 90 mm deck of a high tiered Japanese carrier and cause damage in the tens of thousands. No AA suite survives against those.