The German 2.7 flak barges are insanely overpowered and should be moved to 3.0 AT LEAST

Game Discussion General Discussion
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The SF-40 light and heavy and the AF D1 are 3 german coastal vessels at 2.7, and they are ridiculously overpowered. They all have excellent weapons, the SF-40s have ok survivability, and the AF-D1 is a VERY tough nut to crack, and the only thing limiting them is their low speed.

So, lets start with the AF-D1, which is boasting 2 shielded 4x 20mm AA gun turrets, a 37mm autocannon, and 2 shielded 8.8cm flak guns, which compared to contemporaries, is a LOT of gun. It also has very good survivability with 57 crew, shielded weapons, 50mm armor plates around the midship, 25mm armor plates towards the front-middle part, and to top it off, a near indestructible bridge surrounded by 100mm of armor. Its basically a heavy cruiser at that BR.

To compare, the PR191, a soviet “armored” gun boat at that same BR gets 14 crew, armor that will get penned easily by a 50 cal at most ranges, and 2 2x 12.7mm machine gun turrets and a single 85mm gun (tbf the entire soviet coastal tree around this BR is a joke)

Now, on to the SF-40s. For starters, they both have decent survivability and are also slow as shit, but they have amazing armaments (all of which are shielded)

The SF-40 heavy has 2 37mm autocannons and 4 88mm flak guns, and 2-3 88s’ can be fired in one direction at once, which is a shitton of explosives at that tier and that should be able to take out most boats in 1-4 salvoes. The SF-40 light is the SF-40 heavy but with one 37mm autocannon and 4 4x 20mm autocannon turrets instead of flak guns, and this thing can easily create a no-fly zone and also a no-boat without a destroyer damage model zone due to the sheer amount of lead it can piss out.

the light has a insane DPS, and the heavy can easily cripple or destroy most boats with one salvo.

Sure, they are slow and destroyable by torps, but that doesnt matter when you can spray down torpedo boats and planes easily, and just camp in a cap point.

anyways, please move them to at least 3.0. A single one of these things can lock down a entire area and farm the server.

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Im gonna be real here, a ton of stuff at 2.7 in Coastal needs to be moved up!! Coastal is so unbalanced it’s not even funny. Naval needs a complete battle rating restart imo. Coastal needs more BRs to play in without Destroyers and other blue water ships.

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i think the AF-D1 and the SF-40s are the most egregiously unbalanced ones around that BR, mostly because theres 3 of the damn things in a single BR and you can make a entire lineup with them. only thing that can come close are the L9059 and flower class corvettes

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Much of my thoughts come from facing them & I would argue against that tbh for the Siebelfähre, the SF40 are quite easy to counter with the Schwere version the easiest to do so due to placement of shell lockers on the platform (those big wooden boxes are 8.8 cm shell storage), one 3" shell or a stream of autocannons sink those things. The Liechte version is a little more difficult with small weapons but a few 3" shells nuke them.

The marinefährprahm are no different with the AF D1 to the SF40 Schwere, it has above waterline magazines & with again a 3" gun or higher you make short work of them or any 40 mm equivalent autocannon shreds them as well.

Personal counters to the dilemma of no fly zones usually is to fly higher when using anti shipping aircraft, german 2 cm autocannons only reach out to around 2500 metres & with that knowledge I would suggest doing level bombing from 3000 metres up against the SF40 vessels, meanwhile the only thing they can do is use the 3.7 cm or the 8.8 cm cannons which can be hit or miss (well only the Siebelfähre since the Marinefährprahm has no HE-DF shells, while former does). Sniff, if only the AF D1 had its anti-aircraft mine launcher modelled still heh heh.

Alternative surface counters are artillery call ins & rockets from MLRS systems. surprise surprise, the soviets get such a mechanic on some of their barges. Examples for 1.0 - 3.0: MO-4, TKA-412, Ya-5M, Project 1124 MLRS, Project 1204 Late, Project 183R BM-21. Also 3.7 options thanks to rocket assisted depth charges Project 201 & Project 204

In my honest opinion, the soviet riverine gunboats while less armoured make up for it with better gun handling & with the buff last year to being now fully stabilisered means they don’t rock like crazy for counter fire when at a broadside, the soviet vessels also receive APHEBC shells which make short work of any armour the german vessels have.

I personally think they’re fine at 2.7 BR currently, but these things could either change with further BR decompression or a 0.7 BR MM.