Picture this: A ship with dual 25mm guns, capable of firing APDS or HEI-T with a self-destruct range of 2km, 16mm of hull armor and modest speed of 55 km/h. There are a lot of ships with similar statistics somewhere in the 2.7-3.3 range. So what BR is this Coast Guard cutter at? 3.7.
The guns do not deal much damage. Outside of directly hitting ammo (which stops mattering on later ships like Russian frigates with semi-protected ammunition storage) you will not kill most things that have steel hulls. Killing wooden PT boats is enough of a challenge when your guns overheat as rapidly as they do and fire so slowly.
I know what you are thinking, but Cyclone is a very good boat at 3.7 in my opinion. However, I must first state that Stock Cyclone is hopelessly painful.
The universal belt on the Cyclone is HEI-T/APDS, which sucks.
HEI-T and APDS have different bullet velocities, and the universal belt takes the deviation for HEI-T. In Stock, APDS will not hit unless at close range.
So in Cyclone you have to ignore everything and still get the APDS belt first. But that’s it, Cyclone with APDS in hand is definitely worth the 3.7 ))
Also, be aware of modules when you are on Cyclone. By concentrating on the bridges, turrets, and by focusing on them, the Cyclone can fight more efficiently
You are correct about the stock belts. But even after grinding APDS, you’re frequently fighting vehicles you have no hope against unless the other guy is lobotomized. Even 3.3 destroyers can be a major threat to you.
I used to think its terrible and is about 2.7 material. But after playing it a bit i think its pretty gud but to make it fair it should be 3.0-3.3. Another 3.7 that got much worse over the years is LCS that has the small boat damage model due to lack of plating making it very easy to kill.
I really enjoyed apds for what it is and its tanky ok due to good plating. sadly you have to really work hard to be any use against team full of dds. by playing very positionally and using arty a lot. Also I did Ge the Belts on 50% sale lmao. Stock belt is literally unusable due to diffirence in APDS and HEI drag
versus 4.3-4.7 dds you kinda blow up sadly but that just br compression. against some shit ones you can deal massive damage to modules. And long range 3-5km you can sit in cap and farm dds for an hour till they finally die. But theres just a lot more options around 3.7 that can deal with dds reliably with torps or higher caliber guns. I would even say in a lot of situations Candid is much better and its 3.3.
you can do some very good results in downtiers but in uptiers you can only hope to get a cap and pick of some bots.
M802 is pretty bad to face since even focusing the ammo rack in front doesnt kill it Its one of the worst enemy to face since it gets closer spawn as well.
Running low ammo helps Cyclone get no above water rack too.
HEI-T in the universal belt does get the apds muzzle velocity due to how game works but sadly drag coefficients are much worse and it fucks aiming very hard.
As they are to all small boats - a single 102mm/4" hit can ruin your entire day very quickly.
And if you don’t have TT then there’s usually sweet f-a you can do in return.
But the point then is to not fight DD’s with gunboats - check the makeup of both sides before spawning, when killed respawn in something appropriate ot the enemy you are facing, etc.
The upside of gunboats is that they tend to destroy PT boats even faster than 3.3 DD’s - so you should be hunting those opponents, not DD’s!
I know what you are arguing - it is that the Cyclone is bad because it isn’t much use against DD’s.
But pretty much all equipment is not good against everything, and cherry picking a type of opponent to justify a over-arching assessment of a vessel is not valid.
The Cyclone is bad vs DD’s, but death on wheels vs PT boats - you don’t get one without the other, and you don’t get to claim it is bad/good just selecting which of those supports your particular point either.
I play 3,3 soviet coastal as one of my “go to” lineups - it has no DD’s.
I see all BR’s from 2.3 to 4.3 - and I know which of my boats to bring and which to not bring at all the BR’s.
Even at 4.3 there are always 20-30% Pt boats and equivalents, and at 3.3 the number of DD’s is in that order - 2-5 in a lineup including the bot players.
Your lack of skill at building lineup and selecting which equipment to use is not a reason to change the BR of the boat.
Why say something so confidently when you’re wrong?
3.3 DDs include the USS Litchfield, Barker, Welborn C Wood. German Leopard and T22, Luchs. USSRN Frunze and Kerch. All Royal Navy Rank 1 premiums. IJN Momi and Satsuki, 3/4 of the Italian navy rank 1 destroyers.
In short, 3.3 BR is MOST of the rank 1 destroyers we have in-game with a bunch more at 3.7 and 4.0.
With the exception of some maps such as North port, the game is already decided because if you operate the Cyclone correctly, you will have 2 Cap by the time the DD reaches the Coastal Zone.
If you are looking for a win, not a kill, the Cyclone is the best ship in 3.7 that combines toughness, CAP battle, and boat hunting.
Pretty much I played it for spading purposes so I care about win bonus, maybe skill bonus and just time played rp so playing it rather safe and using back ups to get the most rp and I achieved 72% win rate around before stoping to wait for new vehicle to use spading bonus rp on. But even for those role I say the Bussard, Le Orla, Peacock, etc are just better and require less pain they don’t sacrifice any tankiness for that firepower punch of a proper gun that can deal with dds.
