Le Fantasque

[Rina_Pon]

I recently took up the high tier French DD line with Tier VIII Le Fantasque.

I find them a challenging change of pace, even compared to the outwardly similar smokeless Oland and Ostergotland. Where the Euro ships are up for occasional gunboating, the French DDs are gunboats, par excellence, long range speedboats taking after the Russian line of Tashkent and Khabarovsk.

These French DDs are not easy to play, and as a result the people who do play them tend to be unusually good.

Most people play them in the same style as the Russian DDs Tashkent and Khaba: harassing from long range, always detected but impossible to hit. Assassinating the enemy CV is a favorite option.

What I've experienced personally with Le Fantasque is that while it is easy to do well playing like this, it is also very easy lose the game too. Letting the enemy DD have free range to do DD things like cap and spot and kill enemy ships while you are just farming damage puts your team at a handicap, doubly so if there are no other DDs on your team.

I actually prefer to play Le Fantasque as a DD hunter. If I focus on killing the enemy DD(s),  the game tends to end in a win. Concealment isn't great, but it isn't terrible either. Only once the DD threat is removed can I go and use the speed to ambush larger ships. Blind rushing isolated BBs works a treat, thanks to 50 knot speed and excellent torp firing arcs. The other option is the run-and-gun from a distance, which is preferable against cruisers and secondary-heavy BBs. It's when the AP kicks in that it all starts to click.

Short story on Fantasque: not easy, not for beginners, but fun and interesting if you put in the effort.

[EULA_violator]

that would be the case in a non-cv match, but french DDs are so much free food for CVs that every bit of ambush play goes out the window the moment you load into a match with one of them

[GoodMorning_MFs]

Nearly finished my Fantasque grind and she is truly different from other DDs, 50+ knots is just a godsend to a player that knows how to position well. 

31 minutes ago, Rina_Pon said:

The Euro DDs are torpedo boards with excellent AA and decent gunpower (but low staying power)

The Bofors cannon are not bad during cap contesting fights, it has rather good DPM but really poor DPH, making prolonged fights extremely uncomfortable for them as EU DDs are slow, has high gun arcs and no smoke, if the enemy kites away and maneuvers 7 or more km away they will suffer. 

The French however has poor DPM when not boosted but has top tier DPH, couple that with the magic baguette hull they usually came out on top during 1V1 fights. IMO the torps are good from T8 and above (especially during non CV matches), as they are literally F3 torps with a bit less damage but faster reload.

DD hunter playstyles are fun and usually can get more xp as you kill DDs more and get caps, compare to the boring long range dakka. But sometimes when messed up I will be back to port in less than 10 minutes, really unforgiving. Adding the fact that T8 CVs are a norm nowadays makes playing this style extra hard.

The gun handling is ok from T8 onwards, T7 and below feels like NC's guns as they have short barrels. But single mounts sometimes have weird dispersions during CQCs, same goes to other single mount DDs. So I really hope dual mounts on Mogador are more reliable. 

Currently I am a bit hesitant to go for Mogador as she will certainly met more and more CVs, 3.5km air detection on Fantasque already make things really hard, 3.7km on Mogador might be even worse. May air detection reduction come soon

[S0und_Theif]

Some ship parameters / information. May or may not help. I hope it does.

EU DD main armament (120 mm Bofors) can do AA work, while the MN DD (139 mm) can not. Be careful.
MN 139 mm can hurt cruisers if they show you their broadside. Coupled with MBRB, you can spam at them if the opportunity arises.

EU DD has 8% speed boost, while MN DD has 20% speed boost. And they accelerate fast too.

MN DD has a different damage saturation mechanic. I can't remember the numbers. Sorry.

[Rina_Pon]

2 hours ago, S0und_Theif said:

MN DD has a different damage saturation mechanic. I can't remember the numbers. Sorry.

iifc the midsection of the ship has this gimmick that reduces the HE damage after a certain damage threshold. It means you can look almost dead and suck up more hits than then enemy expects before actually sinking. In practice its a small survivability boost, which considering the DDs already have plenty of health means you have definite edge in DD v DD fights.

I recently learned by way of a flamu vid that the saturation gimmick doesn't work against AP shells.

 

[S0und_Theif]

32 minutes ago, Rina_Pon said:

iifc the midsection of the ship has this gimmick that reduces the HE damage after a certain damage threshold. It means you can look almost dead and suck up more hits than then enemy expects before actually sinking. In practice its a small survivability boost, which considering the DDs already have plenty of health means you have definite edge in DD v DD fights.

I recently learned by way of a flamu vid that the saturation gimmick doesn't work against AP shells.

 

Yes that's the one.

[Thyaliad]

1 hour ago, Rina_Pon said:

I recently learned by way of a flamu vid that the saturation gimmick doesn't work against AP shells. 

Actually it does. You can easily test this in the training room by shooting at a BB's bow or stern repeatedly. It doesn't work against AP overpens though.

[Rina_Pon]

1 hour ago, Thyaliad said:

Actually it does. You can easily test this in the training room by shooting at a BB's bow or stern repeatedly. It doesn't work against AP overpens though.

Right, but for the French DDs it effectively doesn't since AP overpens are the only AP damage you'll ever take.

[Thyaliad]

7 minutes ago, Rina_Pon said:

Right, but for the French DDs it effectively doesn't since AP overpens are the only AP damage you'll ever take.

Yeah I just wanted to point that out, because the way it was worded earlier made it sound like you were referring to the damage saturation mechanic in general.

[Moggytwo]

23 hours ago, Rina_Pon said:

I actually prefer to play Le Fantasque as a DD hunter. If I focus on killing the enemy DD(s),  the game tends to end in a win. Concealment isn't great, but it isn't terrible either. Only once the DD threat is removed can I go and use the speed to ambush larger ships. Blind rushing isolated BBs works a treat, thanks to 50 knot speed and excellent torp firing arcs. The other option is the run-and-gun from a distance, which is preferable against cruisers and secondary-heavy BBs. It's when the AP kicks in that it all starts to click.

This is how she is designed to play, and is definitely the best way to play her.  As has been mentioned elsewhere though, you do need particularly good CV awareness and techniques to be effective in this role for this ship.

I've had a lot of success in Fantasque, but I haven't really played her much (or any French DD for that matter) since the IFHE rework.  That really nerfed the line massively, and her previously excellent ability to counter cruisers while still being able to burn BB's down has been completely neutered.  Now I just get sad whenever I take out a French DD.