I want to start of by saying that I am happy to see the BeNeLux make an apearance in a huge game like War Thunder. Belgium and the Netherlands have lots of very unique things to offer for the game and I cannot wait to see what the future will hold.
I wanted to say this first since the rest of this thread can be interpreted in a very negative way.
So thanks to the recent update trailer and the latest dev blog news, we now know the BeNeLux is being added in the next update to the French techtree.
I wanted to create a thread regarding this, and get some opinions rolling.
Having worked on the Dutch and BeNeLux fan made techtrees for years now, I feel like I should share my views on the matter and make this post as a discussion thread to see what others think.
My main point is to point out some of the things that bother me when looking at it.
So the vehicles shown to us are as follows:
Netherlands
- Fokker G.1 Mercury
- Firefly F.Mk.IV
- Hunter F.6
Belgium
- Gladiator Mk.I
- Spitfire FR Mk.XIVe
- Meteor Mk.8
- Mirage 5BA
- F-104G
- F-16A
- F-16AM
My first concern is the lack of unique vehicles. We have just one, the Fokker G.1 Mercury. All of the other aircraft shown are foreign models that are already present ingame.
The same has happend with Hungary that was added to Italy. Pretty much all of it has been “copy paste”. And personally I find this very dissapointing and looks rather lazy to me. We already have the Fokker D.21 model in the game (The Finnish variant). The Dutch used the D.21 a lot too, and the ingame D.21 model could have just been edited slightly to turn it into the Dutch variant. So why is the D.21 missing?
Another huge missed oppertunity is the various Belgian Renard fighters. These are very powerfull and cool aircraft, and yet not even a single one is present.
Renard R.36 Version 1
Renard R.36 Version 2
Renard R.37
Renard R.38
Renard R.40
The next point is the odd balance between Dutch and Belgian vehicles. There are three Dutch aircraft, and seven Belgian onces. If the focus is on Belgium, why bother adding the Dutch really? The Dutch aircraft could easily be replaced with Belgian counterparts.
To make it balanced all that has to be done is just have one of the F-16’s be a Dutch one, and also make the F-104G a Dutch one. Now you have a 5 to 5 balance without changing anything really.
Personally I don’t like the Dutch getting added to France at all. There is no historical connection between the Netherlands and France.
The only things I can think of is that the Dutch used the AMX-13-105 and AMX-VCI for some time. (Most crews disliked the AMX-13 because it was to small)
I’m not against adding Belgium to France. That makes sense and Belgian vehicles fit the French style. But the Dutch just don’t fit in. Add on top of that that the Dutch are only getting three aircraft added and Belgium gets seven. At this point just don’t include the Dutch.
The only reason I can think of to add the Dutch is for their Leopard 2 MBT’s for the ground forces, since Belgium has no MBT’s. But last I checked, French players wanted the Leclercs to be buffed, and to add more of them. Not get some copy paste Leopard 2’s.
My final conclusion of what has been shown up till now is that all of this looks very lazy to me. We got one unique aircraft in a techtree where it shouldn’t be, and the rest are all copy pastes.
I think that with only a very minimal ammount of extra work, this sub-tree could have been much better. Ofcourse I am excited what the future will hold for the BeNeLux, and I hope that future updates will focus entirely on unique vehicles.
Here are some polls so people can easily share their opinions on the matter.
- I see no problem.
- It shouldn’t be added to France.
- I see no problem.
- It shouldn’t be added to France.
- Yes.
- No.
- Yes, I think they will be good additions.
- No, France should get more of their own vehicles added.