Supertest: French Tier II Destroyer Enseigne Gabolde
5 min readWe can finally start to have a look at the French destroyers that recently entered testing. We will look at them by going through the line and the last one that we will cover will be the premium Siroco.
Let’s now start with the tier II Enseigne Gabolde. For the people not speaking French, you can roughly pronounce that “Ensign Ga (like the “Ga” is gas) bold”. Don’t worry, overall, that’s the most troublesome one to pronounce I think.
So… the Enseigne Gabolde is the 3rd ship of the Enseigne Roux class of French destroyers. The ship’s construction was suspended in 1914 and will only resume is 1921. Because of this, the ship will receive substantial modifications compared to the initial design with, among everything else, an additional 100 mm gun at the front.
The ship would serve from 1923 to 1938 before being struck.
The French destroyers line is, of course, coming with its own load of gimmicks (including one that I am REALLY not a fan of…) as explained here:
First of all, the French are artillery destroyers with Engine Boost, giving + 20% to the speed and Main Battery Reload consumable, accelerating the reload of the main caliber guns by 50%. When fighting in them, it is necessary to properly use the advantage in speed and the ability over a short period of time to significantly increase firepower. They have good armor-piercing shells, which at high tiers can cause damage directly to the citadel of light cruisers from a distance of 8–10 km and heavy cruisers from a distance of 6–7 km. An inconsiderate cruiser, presenting broadside, can become an easy target!
A nice addition will be torpedoes with an average range of 8 km, but an impressive speed of 75 knots.
The main difference is the lack of the seemingly standard and basic consumable for destroyers, Smoke Generator. But, given the fact that the destroyer at tier X can achieve speeds of up to 55 knots, this deficiency can be partly compensated for with skillful maneuvering and speed changes. In addition, the hit points of the French destroyers are allocated in the same manner as the test destroyer L’effronté (Le Terrible). This system allows destroyers to live longer under intense enemy fire.
To sum up, we can say that this new concept of destroyers is more suited to those who prefer speed and an artillery heavy style of play, and for the successful implementation of all their strengths, commanders will need to develop two skills: competent positioning and a “Hit and Run” style of combat.
Hull | Engine | Gun Fire Control System | Main battery | Torpedoes |
En. Gabolde (A) |
Propulsion: 20 000 hp |
PCA n° 2 Mle 1 |
100 mm/45 Mle 1921 |
550 mm 19D |
En. Gabolde (B) |
PCA n° 2 Mle 2 |
| Tier | II |
| Health | 7 000 HP |
| Main Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 8.900 km |
| 100 mm/45 Mle 1921 | 3 x 1 100 mm |
| Torpedo Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 6.000 km |
| 550 mm tube lance-torpilles | 2 x 2 550 mm |
| Maximum speed | 31 kt |
| Turning Circle Radius | 450 m |
| Rudder Shift Time | 2.8 s |
| Surface Detectability | 5.94 km |
| Air Detectability | 2.04 km |
| Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke | 1.8 km |
| 3 x 1 100 mm/45 Mle 1921 | |
| Reloading Time | 6.0 s |
| 180 Degree Turn Time | 9.0 s |
| Optimal front firing angle | 40° |
| Optimal rear firing angle | 51° |
| Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
| Maximum Dispersion | 88 m |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | HE |
| Alpha Damage | 1 450 HP |
| Damage | 250 HP |
| HE penetration | 16 mm |
| Explosion Size | 0.27 |
| Chance to Cause Fire | 4 % |
| Projectile Speed | 740 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.577 (WAIT WHAT????) |
| Projectile Mass | 14 |
| Projectile Krupp | 1 |
| Type of Projectile | AP |
| Alpha Damage | 1 600 HP |
| Chance to Cause Fire | -0.5 % |
| Projectile Speed | 740 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.577 |
| Projectile Mass | 14 |
| Projectile Krupp | 2 100 |
| Projectile Detonator | 0.025 s |
| 2 x 2 550 mm tube lance-torpilles | |
| Reloading Time | 56 s |
| Maximum Distance | 6.0 km |
| Optimal front firing angle | 39° |
| Optimal rear firing angle | 38° |
| Damage | 12 233 |
| Speed | 57 kt |
| Surface Detectability | 1.2 km |
Slot 1 | Slot 2 |
 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s |  Number of charges: 2 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 180 s Boost: +20% maximum speed |
 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 40 s |  Number of charges: 3 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Boost: +20% maximum speed |
| Tier | II |
| Health | 7 600 HP |
| Main Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 9.790 km |
| 100 mm/45 Mle 1921 | 3 x 1 100 mm |
| Torpedo Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 6.000 km |
| 550 mm tube lance-torpilles | 2 x 2 550 mm |
| Maximum speed | 31 kt |
| Turning Circle Radius | 450 m |
| Rudder Shift Time | 2.0 s |
| Surface Detectability | 5.94 km |
| Air Detectability | 2.04 km |
| Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke | 1.8 km |
| 3 x 1 100 mm/45 Mle 1921 | |
| Reloading Time | 6.0 s |
| 180 Degree Turn Time | 9.0 s |
| Optimal front firing angle | 40° |
| Optimal rear firing angle | 51° |
| Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
| Maximum Dispersion | 88 m |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | HE |
| Alpha Damage | 1 450 HP |
| Damage | 250 HP |
| HE penetration | 16 mm |
| Explosion Size | 0.27 |
| Chance to Cause Fire | 4 % |
| Projectile Speed | 740 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.577 (WAIT WHAT????) |
| Projectile Mass | 14 |
| Projectile Krupp | 1 |
| Type of Projectile | AP |
| Alpha Damage | 1 600 HP |
| Chance to Cause Fire | -0.5 % |
| Projectile Speed | 740 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.577 |
| Projectile Mass | 14 |
| Projectile Krupp | 2 100 |
| Projectile Detonator | 0.025 s |
| 2 x 2 550 mm tube lance-torpilles | |
| Reloading Time | 56 s |
| Maximum Distance | 6.0 km |
| Optimal front firing angle | 39° |
| Optimal rear firing angle | 38° |
| Damage | 12 233 |
| Speed | 57 kt |
| Surface Detectability | 1.2 km |
Slot 1 | Slot 2 |
Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s | Number of charges: 2 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 180 s Boost: +20% maximum speed |
Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 40 s | Number of charges: 3 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Boost: +20% maximum speed |
The armor
The Enseigne Gabolde is protected by 9 mm of armor for her middle section and for a part of the bow and stern (in orange) and by 6 mm for her superstructure, bow and stern.
The gun mounts are “protected” by 3 mm of armor.
Personal opinion on the ship
Right now, it’s a big “yikes”. The ship when fully upgraded has the lowest HP pool of all tier II fully upgraded destroyers, the shells have the highest air drag of the game (and I seriously hope that it’s a typo because, from the top of my head, the second worse is around 0.415.) and you only have 3 guns.
Even for the speed which is supposed to be the main strength of the French destroyers, the ship is below average and it’s only with engine boost active and flag that she comes first (and even then, the Longjiang with engine boost and flag is faster….).
Finally, as the cherry on the top, she doesn’t have a smoke generator so for evasive actions, all you can do is run and dodge…
Sooooo… yeah, right now, that’s a bit of free XP that I will need to spend.
Additional note: the ship has one interesting feature and it is the incredibly high damage of her torpedoes for this tier. 12k damage for just one hit is by far the highest at tier II.
About Author
Personally I think the hardest to pronounce is the Vauq… Vaqa… the Tier 7. But that’s just me.