This guide will give you a quick overview on French Sailors and how to class them. It was made based on conclusions we made in ONF. ONF as a whole deserves more credit for this guide then myself. This will not cover how many supports you should level or if you should use AA or not, as that is something everyone has a different perspective on. However I will tell you the french AA is quite powerful, and most will agree it's worthwhile to level them. I will only approach aspects that are unique in the French line compared to the other nations, so things like Brige Operator, Planesman and Sonarman will not be discussed here, as they are the same for every nation.
- First things first:
So you probably already noticed that every French sailor gets a national bonus of +2 in restore and +2 in fighter ability. While there is no way of telling only by that bonus how the French fighters will perform, it's pretty clear that the +2 restore will help you reach the SD cap faster, which makes your life easier before BB4 level(and sometimes even at BB4 level) . You will also notice that the French sailor tree is very similar to the Kriegsmarine one, particullary how their gunners and torpers are classed.
Their Engineers and Repairers are quite modest when it comes to stats, their engies having only a slight advantage in growth over the IJN ones(the worst) and being behind USN in both Engineer and Repair growth, while their repairers are tied with KM for the worst. Their Restorers are quite nice though, being useful in a CV or lower level ships, or even subs.
- Gunners:
Very similar, if not indentical, to KM and IJN. Thus these should be a no-brainer. Class them on time and obviously avoid classing them as torpers if your objective is to have gunners.
- Torpedomen:
Similar to KM. If you want torpedomen, you will have to class them from arm. sailors to gunners at lvl 23 and then choose Heavy Torpedoman at level 43. Remember NOT to class them as Huge Gunners at level 65, as they will not be able to operate torpedoes.
- AA gunners:
And here comes the weird one. The Line that breaks off Arm. sailor and goes into 2nd Machine Gun and ends at Chief Machine gun is pretty much entirely useless. They are like the old IJN Machine Gunner(removed for a reason), as they were/are supposed to increase AAW when on a ship, but the effect was either null, or way too small to be noticed/worthwhile. What aggravates this even more is that the Machine Gunner sailors CANNOT use ANY french gun above level 23.
So what kind of gunners should you use for French AA? Normal Gunners. So you will end up having 2 sets of main gunners, pretty much like how most US players do when they choose to use AA, except you don't have to choose between reload and accuracy for French gunners.
- Medics:
It is said, but not entirely confirmed by SDE, that both nation's medics(KM & US) will work with the French. We were not able to test how medics work, so we cannot give you a concrete answer.
Well that's it. Other then that, the French sailors are classed just like every other nation, so there's not much more to approach in here. Please let me know if you find any mistakes!
Enjoy France!
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