FR Swordship

The FR Swordship, as seen in-game.

* Base

"Future French trimaran concept. A pair of high-powered electric propulsion engines and the stealth shape of the ship allow for quick and unexpected strikes, and the armament allows to respond to all threats." - In-game description

## Overview

FR Swordship is a French tier 3 destroyer only available during the November battle pass of 2022.

## Background History

SWS 005 was a 2006 concept ship by DCNS that proposed a class of stealth frigates (Though they are closer to destroyers in actual capability) that would have capabilities far outstripping any contemporary frigates at the time, possessing advanced features such as all electric propulsion, combined bridge/CIC where all the crew would be operating from, and a high degree of automation along with the ability to carry special forces units onboard and deploy them on RHIBs. Ultimately, the design was shelved due to the technological limitations at the time but can still be brought back at a later date.

## Tactics

### Playing as Swordship

The Swordship is one of the fastest ships available at tier 3, making it excel at hit and run tactics and scouting with its loadout leaning heavily towards overwhelming enemy CIWS through sheer numbers of projectiles you can launch in a short period of time. It is also especially versatile due to the unique armaments setup it was given in game.

Firstly, you have grenade launchers that can lock on targets, in effect making them a sort of de facto cluster DF-17 that can easily overwhelm a enemy ship's defenses and also is a pretty nice way to scare them into dumping their flares, allowing your main missiles to home in for the kill unimpeded. However, this weapon shines when it comes to killing submarines. They are in effect, harder hitting swarmers that can quickly delete the HP of any submarine who things they are safe by camping underwater.

Next up is the triple barrel railguns. They are unique in that they are the only railguns with no firing delay AND they can lock on air targets, making them especially effective against bombers who are trying to slow down and dump their payloads. Use them liberally to dispatch drones and bombers. Your team will appreciate it.

As for your torpedoes, they are what they are, and serve as nice damage bonuses and an additional layer of submarine killing utilities you have on hand.

For all this firepower and speed however, you pay a price. A really high one at that. Your health pool is not exactly the greatest, nor is your air defense. This can be mitigated somewhat with your railguns but it is highly recommended to ditch your stock AA for more effective options such as Pantsir-ME, Garpun, or S-400's, as aircraft will be your bane if a carrier decides to focus you down. The type 2030's in particular makes you an extremely efficient bomber and strike fighter killer in conjunction with your railguns, with the former 2 options being better equipped to deal with missiles. Laser CIWS is not recommended due to the lack of slots necessary for their benefits to really shine.

### Playing alongside Swordship

When you have a swordship in your team, try and escort it. Its speed and firepower can easily allow it to single handedly lock down an entire corridor all by itself, preventing access by the enemy team. Fellow destroyers or fast cruisers are recommended to follow as to make up for its lack of AA defense against missiles while the swordship can help defend you against aircraft, a win-win situation. Carriers can provide support by manually loitering fighter aircraft over it, providing it protection from enemy bombers hell bent on sinking the flyswatter.

Submarines can provide support by harassing other submarines in conjunction with the Swordship, whose MLRS can readily decimate any submarine who thought they can camp safely under the water.

### Playing against Swordship

The Swordship is generally not capable of defending itself from missiles due to it's especially bad number of AA slots, which means ships with many missile slots or carriers can readily start to overwhelm it with a heavy outpouring of fire that will quickly saturate its air defenses, leaving it vulnerable to the likes of ships such as JS Ashigara and DDG(X). However, its defense against single aircraft such as bombers and drones is extremely high courtesy of its railgun being able to lock on to them and the fact that it could mount dedicated anti-bomber defenses such as Type 2030's or RIM-7's. As such, bombers are advised to avoid getting too close to the ship where it can fully leverage its anti aircraft weapons to its maximum.

Another weakness of the Swordship is the inability to destroy incoming torpedoes with its grenade launcher. This means that while it's speed and agility will cause many torpedo salvoes to miss, spammer builds like YU-7's will eventually overwhelm the ship and sink it.

And finally, the Swordship due to its low HP pool is extremely susceptible to high damage cannons. A competent player can routinely snipe a Swordship from beyond detection range and quickly carve chunks off its meager HP pool within minutes of detection.

## Suggested Armaments Setup

### Missiles:

* P-700 Granits (Maximum Damage)
* DF-17 (Hypersonic Missiles)
* YJ-21 (Top attack, meaning even if a ship flares there is a high chance of the missile dealing damage anyway due to its flight path)
* Scalp Naval (Spammy with decent damage)
* Zircon (If accessible)

### Torpedoes:

* UGST Physic (High Damage, can tear off a 5th of a ships health in a single hit)
* F21 Artemis (Better version of UGST with faster reload)
* YU-7 (Spammer)

### Air Defense:

* Kashtan-M (For those below level 20)
* Pantsir-ME (Better Kashtan and can double as autocannon)
* Garpun (Even better Pantsir)
* Type-2030 (Bomber and Drone killer)

### Helicopter:

* WZ 19 (All round choice)
* MUH 1 Marineon (Anti ship focus)
* Scorpion

## Advantages and Disadvantages

### Advantages:

* High speed and extremely maneuverable.
* Lock on grenade launcher.
* Anti-Air capable main gun.
* Is relatively easy to obtain compared to other battlepass ships, due to the November battlepass being relatively generous in rewarding BP points.

### Disadvantages:

* Low HP pool.
* lack of proper missile defenses forces you to be liberal with your limited flare supply.
* Players who see it spamming the MLRS at them will immediately target it as priority.
* Carriers will focus you down ASAP in an effort to protect their bombers.
* Grenade launcher cannot destroy torpedoes.

## Trivia

* Is classified as a Frigate in real life but many ships classified as "Frigates" under the french or italian navies are often considered destroyers under the NATO definition, the prime in game example being Caio Dulio.
* In the original ship concept the SWS cannon is actually just triple barreled 155mm artillery mounted on a ship. In game it is miniaturized railguns.