Battle pass vehicles: HMS Gay Archer

The British Gay Archer torpedo boat will appear in the game as one of the top prizes in the new season of the War Thunder Battle Pass, named “Tropical Storm”!

HMS Gay Archer: A Premium Torpedo Boat for Britain at Rank III!

Features:

  • 40mm Bofors Autocannon.
  • High Speed.
  • Torpedo equipped!
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Vehicle History

Built in the early 1950s, Gay-class patrol boats were intended to be a transitional type from WWII torpedo MTBs to the more modern Dark class diesel boats. Depending on the configuration, these boats could serve as both torpedo and gunnery boats. A dozen of the class were built and used in roles such as coastal patrol, special forces (SBS) activities and target towing. The lead boat of the series, Gay Archer, carried out a relatively quiet post-war service in the waters around the coast. In 1958, the boat was purchased privately for civilian use as a houseboat; in 2004, it was purchased again by a group of enthusiasts and by 2006 restored to a condition as close as possible to its original historical appearance. Today, Gay Archer is the only surviving representative of the series.

Meet HMS Gay Archer!

The Gay Archer premium torpedo boat will be one of the vehicle prizes in the new season of the upcoming War Thunder Battle Pass “Tropical Storm”! This boat features good combat qualities and, like all premium vehicles, speeds up the research of the British coastal fleet and receives an increased reward in Silver Lions! Let’s dive into the details!

Interesting: Typically in the naming convention of smaller British vessels (e.g. Dark and Brave), this particular class is prefixed as Gay. In addition to this, fighting specialties and roles are also included in the name prefix. For example, other boats in the series include HMS Gay Bombardier, HMS Gay Bruiser, HMS Gay Charger and a few others.

Download Wallpaper:

The Gay Archer is an excellent representative of War Thunder’s smaller coastal fleet. Three gasoline engines quickly accelerate the boat to 40 knots (about 74 km/h). In the bow station, this boat carries a 40mm Bofors assault gun, which can be equipped with clips of high-explosive fragmentation and armor-piercing shells. In addition to this, this boat can also be equipped with a pair of torpedoes

Did you know? Gay-class patrol boats were the last petrol-powered gunboats in the British Navy.

Playing the Gay Archer is fun and easy! In smaller battles, it is one of the breakout boats thanks to its 40mm cannon on the bow. In larger battles with Destroyers, it is an excellent choice for capturing points among rocks and islands due to its high speed and capability to deploy a smoke screen.

In your matches: Pro-tips when using the Gay Archer from Keith (Scarper) WT CM: “For this boat and others like it, grab the capture point quickly in smaller battles and use its speed and hard hitting gun in this case, to nip in and recapture any lost cap areas — remember your smoke! Don’t engage larger targets at range, instead, use the speed of the boat to get in behind larger targets, especially moored ones and drop a couple of torpedoes into its rear. If you're seen, steer erratically to confound the enemy and engage the weapons trying to focus on you and get below the elevation of the enemies' bigger guns. Spotting is your friend as some of your team will see the target and the position you are in and help out.”

The HMS Gay Archer will soon come to the game as part of the new Battle Pass “Tropical Storm”, starting in War Thunder on October 25th. We'll talk about the other prizes and full list of conditions soon, so keep an eye out for that. Until then, enjoy your matches and see you soon!

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The Gaijin offices today

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Couldn’t resist ;0

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Name is awesome

Should come with a rainbow decoration.

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gay

Need Gay Bowman at a TT version.

I remember this Blog

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I dont think this boat goes straight man.

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Cant imagine this boat hanging around the Straits of Gibraltar…

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On one hand we’ve the predecessor class to the Dark class yet the modern terminology of the word “gay” ruins the class a bit & any British cold war or earlier vessel with such word resulting in constant jokes that I doubt will ever leave now this vessel now that it is added.

It’s a surprise there isn’t a mention for for the difference in terminology to explain the old meaning to gamers (for all they do is make blind jokes due to the name), Even more surprised the comments weren’t locked.

Sidenote, As much as I’m pleased to see yet another vessel not featured in game it’s getting a bit stale not seeing anything over a 1000 tonnes as a ship reward of the BP, Hopefully this changes in the next BP for the last destroyer we had was from over a year now.

Ahh well it shall serve well alongside HMS Dark Aggressor & HMS Dark Adventurer (I gotta hope it’s the same BR).

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I’m a grown up and will not laugh at this.
I’m a grown up and will not laugh at this.
I’m a grown up and will not laugh at this.
I’m a grown up and will not laugh at this.
I’m a grown up and will not laugh at this.

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I hate to rain on this parade, but Gay Archer’s restoration is not exactly accurate to the historical look. I can’t imagine it was easy for the irl owners to get the weapons and such but this is a game, not real life. How would this even be bug-reported, as the model is technically 100% accurate to real life, but the real life itself isn’t 100% accurate.

For example, the Oerlikon lacks a gunshield, and the Bofors is a hand-cranked mount instead of the powered turrets that Britain was using at that point. It’s also missing the navigational radar and other minor model details.

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I might read these dev blogs when I cant fall asleep #navalmoment

You had both Gay Bruiser and Gay Cavalier as name options and you left them on the table in favor of “Archer”? Smh

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gay_archer_p1041_d
Wait are we really getting this modeled off the modern semi restoration which substitutes components the owner couldn’t find rather than the actual ship when it was in service?

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Finally some boats for real men

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Now thats a weird choice

Didn’t they do this with the HDML too?

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Im rather glad this is just another Torp boat. Would drive me nuts if they added something really good for a BP. I can never be bothered with them,