So I’m unlocked all the French Navy, figured I better get it done while they’re still cheaper in RP and SL than everyone else. Here’s my thoughts on the ships overall:
Premium wise the Duguay is your bread and butter, it’s woefully underarmed and meh. Aigle is an OK DD, both earn well and if you can get on target you make good SL/RP. The Panthere is meh and stops gaining beyond rank 2.
As for the tree DDs only ones that truly matter are: La Marlin and Marceau, of the two go with Marceau it at least has anti air shells.
CLs…buy the premium and save yourself the hassle they are all abysmal.
CAs: Despite the spotlight Emil Bertin is a floating coffin, it is the easiest thing to ammo rack and offers no plus sides to it. You want the Colbert, if you have seen a Pink or Camo’ed Colbert in Franz Joseph sitting outside C it was probably me and it’s decent for a CA. It’s no Prinz Eugen but not bad, you can easily make the top 3 every match with it.
BBs: whew…hate to say it but they suck. Paris has the WW1 crap shells so obvious skip. Lorraine for all her guns and WW2 era shells is very inaccurate and is easily ammo racked by a 203mm and up. Painfully slow painfully slow turning and can’t even tank a torpedo. That could be update woes but all in all the BBs are not worth it.
I’m having decent success with the French navy, but I’m playing them more like the Japanese. Spam torpedoes, change range and bearing constantly, and be hyper aware of your surroundings, they are definitely not easy ships to play, and I can see especially inexperienced players having a very rough time with them. Air attacks are a real problem, and if you let the AI gunners handle things, you will die quickly. Even taking over manual control is still an iffy prospect.
I’ve just got the Paris - had 3 games - ammo-racked 4 times (backups) - 2 x Japanese 14", 1 x Russian 12", 1 x American 8" - continues the trait of being a fire-cracker but not in a good way!
The ship’s guns are fine IMO - get plenty of kills on cruisers with a decent number of ammo-racks using AP. (and this was mostly with a non-starred crew - only got silver star at the end of the 3rd game)