What about French Cruisers?

[DaBung]

I rarely see the or hear them mentioned, what are they like? I did get up to the T6 but I hadn’t remotely worked out how they were supposed to be played. The TX seems to have the biggest guns of the TT cruisers? A few streamers have talked about the Napoli having “Henri pin” as of that’s a good thing, is the AP good on the French CL line?

 

The speed and reload booster kinda makes me thing maybe ambush play style? 
 

Bare in mind I am a bad cruiser player, outside maybe Germans on a (very) good day.

[GarrusBrutus]

French cruisers have relatively big guns, hence the "penetration" comment from that streamer. 

Ambushing anything with these cruisers is hard due to the bad concealment. Instead you power farm enemy bbs with your reload booster. Pop it right after their DCP ends and voila, double perma fire. You also use your speed to get on the flank before the enemies do, so you can kite them. 

[Yedwy]

Imo the T8-10 are the only ones kinda worth it these days with only Henry being really reliable with damage output, however the proliferation of 18” BBs and the acceleration nerf really f-ed the fun in her as well…

 

I recently reground the line and I like to keep the henry around but the rest is sold off…

[chazwozza]

All cruisers without smoke either kite or camp behind islands to do anything else is a death sentence 

[lafeel]

At the Saint Louis. 

 

So far there hasn't really been any real stinker in the line but I haven't kept any since La Gallasionaire either.

 

Also note that Henri is about to lose it's title, what with the Golden Lion coming next patch with her 283mm guns.

[Captain_82]

24 minutes ago, lafeel said:

So far there hasn't really been any real stinker in the line but I haven't kept any since La Gallasionaire either.

 

I found the french cruisers really a challenge to play properly (maneuverability, clumsiness, dispersion) - thats why I haven`t played them much. Still I have reached the Saint-Louis as well.

Rebought the La Galissonnière recently and played operations. Not that bad as before.

[SodaBubbles]

Algerie is ridiculously awful, clunky, lousy guns. Good fire chance, only strong point.

But Martel is a blast, especially with double rudder. 

St Louis is a complete waste of time, sadly. No advantages over any other cruiser in her tier. Good fire chance only strong point.

[invicta2012]

2 minutes ago, SodaBubbles said:

Algerie is ridiculously awful, clunky, lousy guns. Good fire chance, only strong point.

A great XP/credit grinder in Narai, though. In Randoms... rather like Myoko in that her design characteristics (capable of taking on any 8" gun cruiser in the world) do not suit WoWs mechanics one little bit, and giving a hint of broadside to any BB is a death sentence. Not enough armour to keep the shells out, just enough to arm any passing AP which makes contact. 

 

Shame really, as I think she'd make a great premium. 

 

 

[Arrive_Alive]

T9 Saint Louis might be the best of the line. T8 and T10 are pretty decent too. The AP is trash until T10, don't even try it.

[ollonborre]

2 minutes ago, Arrive_Alive said:

T9 Saint Louis might be the best of the line. T8 and T10 are pretty decent too. The AP is trash until T10, don't even try it.

AP pen is not brilliant, but with the reload booster and considering that against tier 8 cruisers a ~30 mm pen difference is not going to matter all that much when you are trying to blap same tier ships the AP works fine.

 

But honestly I think one of the real stars of the line for me is the Charles Martel. Great range, comfortable ballistics, speed boost, reload booster, decent concealment, some torps and trolly armour. Easily one of the more enjoyable cruisers at tier 8 that can also punch above its weight in uptiers thanks to previously mentioned stats.

[lafeel]

55 minutes ago, Arrive_Alive said:

The AP is trash until T10, don't even try it.

All I am going to say is "you'd be surprised"

[tocqueville8]

6) La Galissonnière is more of an island camper, imho. She doesn't have the ballistics to compete at range.

 

7) Algerie is fine: the range is excellent for a T7, and with that fire chance you can give T9 BBs a headache. Still, not as fun as the Myoko with all those torps...

 

8) The CM is a nice improvement, as her turret arrangement allows her to duel better with enemy cruisers.

 

9) Saint Louis is a direct upgrade, with more DPM and a heal.

 

10) The Henri IV gets to overmatch 16 mm, which is the extremities of British CLs as well as the Colbert and such.

 

Personally, I think they're all fine.

They get good utility and they're arguably the least gimmicky cruiser line in the game: the speed and reload boosts are very nice to have and make them better at a few things, like repositioning and speed juking or island camping, but they don't *define* their role the way radar or smoke do, imho.

[Yedwy]

As I said before, IMHO the 8” guns of T7-9 are nowadys to lacklustre to be reliable damage dealers and if one wants to play towards fires IJN is a better choice, if one wants direct HE Splash damage KM line and Drake in T9 are better and DeWitt might be as well (dont know as I didn’t play her) ok MN are fast and relatively nimble for their tier and class but that does little to help against “overmatch me everywhere” BB shells… 

[Jvd2000]

French cruisers have limited team play capability ( no radar, smoke cannot scout). They are more akin to jpn cruisers aka in the back spammers especially more in the earlier part of a game with both sides having full rosters. They have rather good shellspeed and have better then JPN maneuverability to dodge the return fire but lack the JPN HE.  With the reload they do get a chance to punish mistakes. 
 

They need time to get valuable for their team to make the dpm count. They more influence the game in time then direct, they are not the kind of ships that decide the game in the first 5 mins.

[totally_potato]

16 hours ago, DaBung said:

I rarely see the or hear them mentioned, what are they like? I did get up to the T6 but I hadn’t remotely worked out how they were supposed to be played. The TX seems to have the biggest guns of the TT cruisers? A few streamers have talked about the Napoli having “Henri pin” as of that’s a good thing, is the AP good on the French CL line?

 

The speed and reload booster kinda makes me thing maybe ambush play style? 
 

Bare in mind I am a bad cruiser player, outside maybe Germans on a (very) good day.

French cruisers are speedy damage farmers primarily

There are 2 eras of cruisers as of Update 10.7

Light cruisers (T1 -- T6) and Heavy cruisers (T7 -- T10), both of which are fast but less armored and they have relatively few, mid range and decent speedy torps.

 

The Emile Bertin gets the first 3x3 gun setup and also gets hydro and 9km torps, which remains throughout the line. The La Gallisonere is a good CL with decent RoF and is the first French cruiser in the line with French speed boost and MBRB. The heavy cruisers start from Algerie at T7 which gets the same consumables as the tier before but it gets the option of DFAA or hydro and also gets Fighter in a separate slot. Charles Martel - Henri IV get the very good French 203mm and at T10 240mm guns. The T9 is an odd duck in consumables, as it gets speed boost, fighter and spotter (only cruiser in line to get it) in one slot.

 

As for their concept, they are high speed, heavy hitting damage farmers which have high burst potential, which allows them to fulfill a few roles. They are quite good damage farmers, flankers, attention grabbers, destroyer hunters and cruiser killers. However their conceal isn't good, especially on T10. They do lack utility outside hydro. And their armor is trash. So positioning and maneuvering, knowing when to utilize that burst DPM is key to playing these ships.

 

So damage farm at the start, and then do other roles at the end where you can utilize the speed and your remaining HP, and a spare or two reload boosters to quickly finish off targets

French ships tend to have good penetration for their calibers on AP. So utilize AP whenever you get the chance, otherwise stick to HE. Its like firing Japanese HE and Russian AP tbh and with MBRB it feels really nice.

[OldschoolGaming_YouTube]

16 hours ago, DaBung said:

I rarely see the or hear them mentioned, what are they like? I did get up to the T6 but I hadn’t remotely worked out how they were supposed to be played. The TX seems to have the biggest guns of the TT cruisers? A few streamers have talked about the Napoli having “Henri pin” as of that’s a good thing, is the AP good on the French CL line?

 

The speed and reload booster kinda makes me thing maybe ambush play style? 
 

Bare in mind I am a bad cruiser player, outside maybe Germans on a (very) good day.

TX Henri IV was pretty OP before but has been nerfed a bit (no hammer) and powercrept also a bit. Seen many way people play this ship but I found success in long range fire spam 19-20 km away with insane backwards gun angels and great accuracy paired with speed boost for dodge and MBRB for insane damage.

 

 

 

 

 

Haven't followed every back and forth in the nerf process but know they nerfed the engine so you couldn't use the boost to dodge with same success as before. But I guess my playstyle would still be viable. Same as everyone else a bit vulnerable to CV´s and high accuracy big shell ships like Stalingrad, Petro, Shikishima etc?

 

Its a bit of a selfish line since you mostly play in the back like a Thunderer. You set a sheiit ton of fires and farm damage. Set 2 fires on a BB, wait for him to use damage con, then use MBRB to set 2-3 perma fires and rinse and repeat. Not really a brawler but great torp angles and devastating AP if someone show broadside.

[The_Chiv]

17 hours ago, DaBung said:

I rarely see the or hear them mentioned, what are they like? I did get up to the T6 but I hadn’t remotely worked out how they were supposed to be played. The TX seems to have the biggest guns of the TT cruisers? A few streamers have talked about the Napoli having “Henri pin” as of that’s a good thing, is the AP good on the French CL line?

 

The speed and reload booster kinda makes me thing maybe ambush play style? 
 

Bare in mind I am a bad cruiser player, outside maybe Germans on a (very) good day.

First CL means light cruiser. Henri is a Heavy cruiser, almost a Super cruiser.

 

Henri can play a few different ways very nicely. The speed boost allows it to open water fight to some degree while throtlle juking, this also lends it self to kiting. When you and your team secure a flank Henri can quickly wrap around and create cross fires on the other flank and or mid which plays very nicely to that reload booster and its larger ap shells. 

 

However like most cruisers it does suffer from BB shells. THEY HURT. So many Henri players start the match playing a more range approach and then transition to a more aggressive cross firing ambusher, many people will say they are campers or like the above says "Selfish". This is not true. one of the ways to make a cruiser effective is to NOT DIE in the first 5 minutes. The longer a cruiser can stay in the game the more chances they will have to cause damage, and once the field has been thinned out a the Henri can then start using that reload booster to a much greater effect and catch most bbs and cruiser players of guard. 

 

While Henri is a decent ship there are others that do the same core game play with a bit better consistency. That said if you enjoy throttle juking incoming shells and burning everything you touch it is not a bad ship.

 

[Asatori]

The tier 9 is imo a stinker. Terrible armor and a rudder that gets taken out as soon as anyone looks in your general direction. Don't have the Henri yet. But up to T9 the AP isn't any good. 

 

The T6 and T8 are pretty ok. But overall the line is decidedly meh. 

[Spartan_Renegade]

Henri IV  can be quite a nuisance for BBs,  it can light you on fire faster than you can douse it plus its agility allows it to quickly turn away from incoming salvos so lack of armor wouldn't be a concern for those who understand her playstyle.

[totally_potato]

5 hours ago, OldschoolGaming_YouTube said:

Haven't followed every back and forth in the nerf process but know they nerfed the engine so you couldn't use the boost to dodge with same success as before. But I guess my playstyle would still be viable. Same as everyone else a bit vulnerable to CV´s and high accuracy big shell ships like Stalingrad, Petro, Shikishima etc?

 

Its a bit of a selfish line since you mostly play in the back like a Thunderer. You set a sheiit ton of fires and farm damage. Set 2 fires on a BB, wait for him to use damage con, then use MBRB to set 2-3 perma fires and rinse and repeat. Not really a brawler but great torp angles and devastating AP if someone show broadside.

ayo

were you ever a CC

Just asking

[Bindolaf_Werebane]

I love the french cruisers. The only "stinker" is Algerie, in my opinion, and even that one is passable.

 

Duguay Trouin (however it is spelled) is downright overpowered. So is Emile Bertin. La Gal is an amazing ship. Fragile, but agile. Algerie I found sluggish, couldn't kite as well. And then, of course, we have Charles Martel. One of the best (the best?) tier 8 cruiser.

 

I play the line as insane open water kiters and it's crazy fun. Merci!

[Latouche_Treville]

As DaBung i'm a below average player.

On french cruisers, do you think using the double rudder module instead of the dissimulation one is a good trade?  You loose "only" 1,5 km of dissimulation; and if i understand correctly what is written above, the purpose is not to get close in the beginning of the game (and sink like a beer drunken seal whining about the others).

[Yedwy]

I dont use double rudder but rather engine + rudder esp on henry

[lafeel]

52 minutes ago, Latouche_Treville said:

As DaBung i'm a below average player.

On french cruisers, do you think using the double rudder module instead of the dissimulation one is a good trade?  You loose "only" 1,5 km of dissimulation; and if i understand correctly what is written above, the purpose is not to get close in the beginning of the game (and sink like a beer drunken seal whining about the others).

There can certainly be made a case for it.

 

Also last stand is a MUST for all ships I have played in this line to date.

[Latouche_Treville]

Yes, there is enough choice to take this one, it will be the next.

Here is my actual build :

https://wowsft.com/ship?index=PFSC109&modules=12121&upgrades=124233&commander=PFW102&skills=5309457&consumables=11111&pos=0