Bourrasque

Machinery of War Discussion Navy
1

I just got through with the last tester star, and started the French naval CBT. I have to say that the Bourrasqe is an absolute beast. It is by far the best reserve ship in the game.
First game it was spaded.
It’s got slow firing weapons, but they pack a good punch. The secondaries are just there for an occasional shot an a ship or plane, and the light MGs don’t do much except to very low flying aircraft.

The torpedoes are on swivel mounts so you can launch all 6 to one side if you want. They have good speed and decent range stock. They don’t hit hard, but will still sink ships with a couple of them or a well-placed hit to the magazine.

It’s very fast and maneuverable even stock, so use that to your advantage. You should almost never be hit by torpedoes even from close-in PT boats. You will be one-shotting them anyway. The target system is somewhat fast getting an initial solution, but the updates are as fast as the HMS Tiger. You can really give fast moving ships something to think about.

The armor is non-existent, but it still seems pretty survivable. The crew is decent size, and the ammo racks are below the water line. It will get its turrets knocked out frequently as they are almost unarmored and open.

If you get a chance, give it a try. It’s the most fun I’ve had in a reserve in a long time.

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2

Me too, earlier this afternoon. Had time for 3 games in Bourrasque (and Leopard once it was researched), before having to leave WT for a few days. A pretty solid reserve DD for sure and Leopard gives a variation on the same theme also at 3.7. That can be a fun and interesting BR, so I’m sure I will return to Bourrasque once the Rank II DDs have been researched.

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3

The tier II and tier III destroyers are not bad. They are nowhere near as good as the Bourrasque at their BR, but they have decent guns that do good damage. The problem is that they get knocked out by a stiff breeze. It seems to happen more often than on the Bourrasque simply because they are not as maneuverable and a larger target.

They do at least get some AA protection. The Marceau is obviously the German Z31, so it fights exactly like the Z32 in the German tree which, in my opinion, is good.

From what I’ve heard, the 5.3 light cruisers are the real gems, so I’m going to work on them next and see how I do with them.

4

“Gems” is being a bit kind I think - they are OK

See my summary at
Will the real French cruisers please stand up!

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5

I would consider enclosed turrets a massive upgrade at this point. That’s my biggest issue so far with surviving fire at this point. Being maneuverable and firing a lot of torpedoes has helped get damage. They seems to be playing a lot like the Japanese destroyers at the moment.

6

Jeanne d’Arc has been my problem solver so far. Somewhat fragile, as is everything else, you won’t get out unscathed from a 1 on 1 with any other not French ship of similar BR if it were played with a minimum of competence. But as long as you manage to not get caught by the few questionnably balanced 5.3 and 5.7s, you’ll get a good run. At least armoured ammoracks mean that you don’t blow up when someone farts in your general direction.

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7

I think all the “hate” from people complaining about the French line is mostly because inexperienced players or players that are used to a certain playstyle are using them. I think it takes a lot of experience to do well with them, and they are very much not “noob” friendly.

With the American line, the Russian line, and some of the Germans you can pretty much face roll on the keyboard and have a decent match. The French (and I suspect the Italians who I haven’t played yet) require a lot more attention, maneuvering, and planning.

8

IMO it blows up far too often to be useful - I’ve dropped it entirely.

See my assessment at
https://forum.warthunder.com/t/french-cruiser-jeanne-darc-a-real-fire-cracker-but-not-in-a-good-way/

9

Nah, it’s not a lack of experience. I seen a WT naval youtuber bash Duguay-Trouin like it’s the worst ship in the BR, meanwhile I have higher K:D ratio in it than almost anything else at BR 4.7, lmao

As they say: Haters gonna hate.

10

Hm let me guess, NapalmRatte? Lol.

11

Hm let me guess, NapalmRatte? Lol.

I’m sure it was him. His point was that it was way overpriced for its performance. I don’t think it’s a bad ship at all. I also think that an experienced naval player will have a much better time than someone who is just starting out and thinks a French premium will help them.

The French ships, in my opinion, require several different playstyles. Some of them play like the Germans (i.e. the actual German destroyer), some play like American light cruisers, and some play more like Japanese destroyers. If you aren’t familiar with how those nations differ, and try to play them all the same way, you will have a very bad time. If you are familiar with their differences in playstyle and play to their strengths, you can do really well with them.

12

When I looked through the WT wiki pages, following release of the French TT, that was what I thought would be the best of the current ships, though I take the point that ‘gems’ might overstate it. The DDs looked interesting enough, the early cruisers didn’t look special at all (although Jeanne d’Arc at just 4.7 looked tempting… although there has to be a reason a 6” cruiser sits at a mid-DD BR, doesn’t there? And I’ve seen the comments!), but the 5.3 cruisers looked fair for the BR.

Hope to get a few days of solid play now, so I should soon find out for myself. I’m expecting to find:

  • DDs decent enough; perhaps Bourrasque best for its BR.
  • Early cruisers, meh, nothing to see here.
  • Colbert / Emil Bertin, pretty decent and an acceptable line up to research the BBs.
  • BBs… don’t mind that it’ll take a while to research these, coz I don’t see much worth holding my breath for. Might be wrong, as Dante Alighieri is proving fun to play at 6.3.
13

So, back to the Bourrasque itself: the French reserve DD. How does it compare to the other reserve DDs, in particular the 3.7 reserves? No surprise that it beats the USN, RU, IJN reserves which sit at 3.3; not so sure v the IT Turbine, also 3.3, but a rather handy 3.3, IMO. Just not had any Turbine v Bourrasque encounters yet, but the weight of fire from Bourrasque must give it the edge.

The other 3.7 reserve DDs are the quite similar German Leopard and the rather different British Vega. So how do they compare? Bourrasque makes 33 kts, while the others both make 34 kts: close enough to no difference.

Bourrasque is armed with 4 x 130 mm guns, 6 TT and a couple 37 mm single-shot guns; Leopard carries 3 x 128 mm guns, 6 TT and a couple 20 mm cannon; Vega has 2 twin 4” (102 mm) guns, no TT and 4 20 mm cannon. Starting with the secondaries, we see Vega is quite powerful (for a reserve) against aircraft and patrol craft; Leopard has some defence; Bourrasque is clearly the loser here.

For battles at 3.7 v DDs the German torpedoes have the edge - a bit faster and more TNT equivalent. The extra range on the French torpedo is not likely to be useful very often at this BR. Not much in it really and both superior to Vega in this respect.

The reload on Bourrasque varies from 10.4 s down to 8.0 s when aced - that’s quite a long reload at this level. Leopard is 4.29 s - 3.3 s and Vega manages from 3.9 s - 3.0 s. How much TNT- equivalent can an aced crew pump down range from each ship in kg/s with full broadsides? With HE shells:

  • Vega - 2.07
  • Bourrasque - 1.98
  • Leopard - 1.91

With SAP (Bourrasque, Vega) or base-fused HE (Leopard):

  • Leopard - 1.27
  • Bourrasque - 0.99
  • Vega - 0.8

Bourrasque carries no additional ammo types, while Leopard has access to HE-TF, which increases its anti-air advantage, and Vega gets HE-VT (as well as TF), which confirms Vega’s anti aircraft superiority.

Bourrasque displaces 2000 T and carries 162 crew, making it the largest of the 3 by quite a margin: Vega displaces 1523 T, but has the largest crew, 170; Leopard is smallest at 1320 T and 120 crew.

In short, Bourrasque can smash other DDs with powerful broadsides and, despite the poor reload, can also compete for ‘DPS’ thanks to some big shells. The downside is vulnerability to aircraft and MTBs.

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14

I think that’s a fair summary - I gave them 1 line in my summary in the old forum:

Rank 1 - M1919 130mm guns with slow rate of fire, Leopard trades 3 TT for half-decent AA, the other 2 have essentially no AA at all. But they are all very cheap to spade - no need for Talismans