Tanks of France
French tanks vary wildly between the tiers. At lower tiers, they are generally slow with great armour but armed with poor guns. While at higher tiers, they are very fast with almost paper thin armour and armed with great guns. Some mid to high tier French tanks have an autoloader with a drum magazine, which allow for several shots in a short period of time. Almost all French tanks suffer from having few crew members which makes for less variety when choosing crew skills or perks, lack of sufficient hull and turret armour past the first few tiers, and their guns almost always have long aim times.
French light tanks are slow and have thick armour at lower tiers, but they trade their armour for speed at higher tiers. They gain the ability to use autoloaders much earlier than the other French lines. Combined with their high speed and small size, they become deadly hit-and-run vehicles.
French medium tanks are few, and there's a big gap between the tanks that lead to the French Heavies and those that come from the French Lights. The lowest-tier French medium tank, the D1, plays the same way as other low-tier French tanks with thick armour, but poor mobility and an inadequate gun. At T9 and T10 they trade their armour for extremely high speed and agility; combined with their automatic loaders, they become great support vehicles that are particularly good for finishing off damaged tanks late in a match. Their paper thin armour makes them very vulnerable to SPG damage however, so keeping on the move is essential.
French heavy tanks start in the mid tiers with a good mix of armour and mobility, although the very first tank down the line has a poor gun As the tiers rise, the guns get better while they continually trade armour for this agility. They use large calibre guns with automatic loaders, which make them very destructive. With their paper thin armour, it is essential to keep moving.
French tank destroyers have relatively weak armour at lower tiers, but have good guns. Later in the line, they gain tough frontal armour along with increased speed. Their guns have great penetration values and good accuracy, so they are not to be taken lightly. However, their side armour is rather weak and their front armor is covered in rather obvious weak spots. Due to their size, the later designs have poor camouflage values.
French self propelled guns have good accuracy, quick aim times and high fire rates, but suffer from low gun arcs, slow-moving projectiles, and lower damage and penetration than their rivals. They are the fastest SPG's in the game and can outrun many of the tanks in the game. They also sport relatively great camouflage values thanks to their smaller sizes. This trend, aside from camo, remains throughout the line. The T9 and T10 artillery pieces are very fast indeed, able to relocate to newly freed locations on the map and continue to support their allies from unexpected firing angles and get closer to the battle to compensate for their low-velocity shells. They are also some of the best artillery at defending themselves and make good emergency TDs. At T20 the French get a unique SPG with a turret (the T9 SPG also has a turret) and a 4-shot autoloader. It boasts the second best accuracy of the bunch, and some very nasty burst damage, able to track and retrack tanks to keep the beating on and to give allies something to shoot at. However the splash and damage are as expected, underwhelming. The load time is also horribly long, at a whopping 70sec, so aim well.
