Ever since the introduction of the ‘Main and aux calibre shoots at once’ feature in the [Danger Zone] update, coastal battles have become extremely fast-paced, with a Time to Kill (TTK) similar to the gameplay style of Call of Duty’s Gun Runner and Shipment. This is mainly due to the heavily armed gunboats from different nations, equipped with autocannons that are specialized for quickly eliminating bots and capturing zones.
British boats are ill-suited for the current meta, equipped with 57mm 6pdr naval cannons that deal considerable damage with HE shells but have lower DPM than autocannons.
Let’s not overlook talking about the HMAS Arrow! It’s one of the few Australian vehicles in the game that the British maintained control of. For example, it’s equipped with only a single 40mm Bofors L/60 at 2.7BR. It has subpar speed, considerable but still weak armour, and sways back and forth.
In the meantime, the Norwegian-made American PTF-7 remains at 1.7BR with additional autocannons and increased speed.
Still, HMS Gay Archer/Dark Aggressor, equipped with additional torpedoes and improved manoeuvrability, is rated at 2.3BR. There is no reason that HMAS Arrow stays 2.7BR compared to its counterparts.
It seems that many vehicles in coastal branches across all nations are being neglected without receiving attention from Gaijin. For instance, only the Soviets and Germans have torpedo boats with a BR higher than 4.0, and vice versa.
Playing branches outside of the Soviet and German ones in coastal battles feels nearly impossible. I pre-ordered the VLT-2, which grants access to the French coastal branch, but I think Gaijin needs to completely rework and adjust the BR of boats before the French coastal branch enters CBT.
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Yeah, its probably about time our coastal line recieves some TLC. Though Im hoping we might get a Type 22 Frigate (falklands era) sooner rather than later.
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I felt quite disappointed when the Soviets acquired a new Mukha-class hydrofoil, as it gave powerful branches an additional advantage. I’ve heard that the Soviet coastal strength has historical significance due to their concern about these boats.
However, War Thunder is not just a simulator but also a free-to-play online game that offers a simulator mode. right?
I was barely thinking about the HMAS Armidale of the Armidale class for a new British coastal boat. There is also the USS Cyclone, which has a 25mm Bushmaster as its main gun.
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Yeah, does feel like that after our coastal line was added, it was forgotten. You also have SKRs that are downright OP on the soviet coastal line as well. I fear fighting them in a Light cruiser (semi-hyperbole)
But yeah, loads of options to add I think (Coastal is an area im not quite as confident in, I know far more about bluewater additions)
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The thing about US PT boats is they’re solid wood and have almost no empty space. That 30mm of wood paneling is equivalent to 1.5mm of RHA. AP-I from rifle caliber guns will shred you, never mind HEF-I from a 20mm. HMAS Arrow is 8mm of structural steel on the hull, or 0.45x, so 3.6mm of armor, or enough to stop rifle caliber rounds and 20mm HEF. Oh, and the Bofors gun is rear-mounted, so in order to unmask it to fire you’re either running away and exposing your engine, or exposing your sides where both ammo and fuel are entirely above the waterline.
Those grip pads by the Bofors are your max firing angles. As you can see, you need to go broadside to fire. In an entirely wooden ship. That gets penetrated by 20mm HE. You are heavily dependent on those 20’s and that .50 for just about everything. You don’t get a frontal Bofors that doesn’t require you to expose your entire side until the PT-59 at 3.0. Which is still made entirely out of wood and vulnerable to literally everything.
EDIT: My bad, you do get a fore Bofors at 2.3 with the 110-foot subchaser SC-497, which is slower than the Arrow and has similar issues at the PT boats with no space and a wood hull.
A rear-mounted Bofors of American PT boats might be causing temper because as you say if you want to use them u need to expose the side hull
(yeah it sucks. PT-314 also isn’t a bad boat but having Bofors on the rear is an annoying feature)
But still, [PTF-7 Nasty] moves faster than [HMAS Arrow] which is an advantage in theatre. with significantly lower BR.
If I need to choose Nasty or HMAS Arrow(or nearly all of the useless Fairmile boats which use a 6pdr gun as the main gun) I rather go with PTF-7.
feels like PTF-7 is a slightly underrated little bit just like the soviet OD-200 does, but it feels still tight roping on [fine] level unless Gaijin decompress the BR of Coastal branch boats.
Oh, and I completely forgot about the SC-497 [Better Arrow but with Wooden Hull]! I liked my SC-497. same frontal-mounted Bofors with some extra Oerlikon autocannon firepower. with juicy slight little 0.4BR discount XD
My bigger beef is those nigh-useless 37mm guns Gaijin gives us instead of the factory-model navalized versions of the 37mm AA gun that came standard starting in 1943, simply because of the terrible ballistics that make it almost impossible to synch up your two “main” guns at range.
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I’m surprised you didn’t mention its rank, HOW THE HELL IS IT RANK IV???
Sidenote this might be better placed in the machinery of war section tbh.
There’s a few commonwealth ships that could be added to spice up the TT, from an Aussie standpoint the Armidale class PB comes to mind but even its namesake come to mind HMAS Armidale J240 Bathurst class AMS/ Corvette, An as designed Fremantle class PB could be nasty while an as built would be a Attack class 2.0 an for a later vessel an As designed Arafura class OPV.
Even larger there’s the ANZAC class/MEKO 200 ANZ which could be added (although that could be an update in its own for all nations like Project Starfighters was), RAN ones as a TT while RNZN ones as a premium/ event due to better AA.
But I’d honestly like to see a Black Swan class Sloop at one point to be added & much earlier a Type 21, 22 & 23 Frigates to spice up the later ships for the brits over the current Type 41 & early Type 12 (honestly where’s a Type 12 M or Type 12I already??)
An for a lower BR the Girl class gunboat would definitely work Una & Pamela with their 40 mm & lewis guns.
Also @SpardaSon21 , I would honestly take most 1.7 vessels over the Attack class even if you must unmasked the stern armament, Inadvertently OP has mentioned similar already heh…
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I can’t speak for the British coastal experience (yet) but yeah, like all things Naval, they keep adding vehicles to the game mode before fixing the fundamentals of said game mode. It always gives me dark amusement whenever a new Battle Pass rolls around with a coastal boat slapped in there to pad out the paid Battle Pass rewards. We know most paid BP players aren’t ever going to touch coastal so the reward is wasted on them (you can’t even sell it in the marketplace, right?), and it being a BP means it is another vehicle that won’t be showing up to fill the tech tree. It’s just…sad.
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