“Vive la France”

admin: Mighty armored vehicles of the USSR, Germany and the USA are well known among our players. But the project still keeps developing. In the nearest future our players will have the opportunity to get acquainted with more unusual and little-known armored vehicles. So, the French Tank Tree is coming!
Andrew Medvedev, Wargamming.net Historical Consultant, and Sergey Burkatovskiy, World of Tanks Lead Game Designer, shared information about characteristics and features of French vehicles and what players should expect of them.
- Armored vehicles of the Great Tank Powers – the USSR, Germany and the USA - are already represented in World of Tanks. Why did you choose the French as the next nation to be introduced in World of Tanks?
Andrew Medvedev: Certainly, the British are the pioneers in the tank building sphere, but it were French who started building of their own vehicles after British. By the end of the World War I, French army had the largest park of armored vehicles in the world. And it was the French tank Reno FT-17 who was the “trend setter” in the tank fashion sphere for the entire period between WWI and WWII.

Andrew Medvedev, Wargamming.net Historical Consultant
France was defeated in 1940, but the reason for this defeat was neither lack of tanks to supply French tank troops, nor those tanks were of poor quality. French tank troops used ineffective tactics. Moreover, moral was low (first of all, among government and army leadership members). Nevertheless, French tank troops showed many examples of bravery and professionalism and their vehicles was a dangerous weapon, if was skillfully used. One can recall the successful conduct of hostilities by 4th armored division under Colonel De Gaulle command (later he will lead the Resistance). Thus, development and release of the French Tank Tree can be regarded as a tribute to the French soldiers.
Sergey Burkatovskiy: We first met French tanks in the German Tank Tree, as captured by Germans. And they are used as training tanks. French armored vehicles were added because no one has done it before. They are poorly represented in games, though they deserve it.
- Will French armored vehicles be represented comprehensively? Which vehicles will be available to players? What awaits us as a premium?
Andrew Medvedev: Yes, French armoured vehicles will be represented comprehensively: light tanks, medium tanks, heavy tanks, tank destroyers of various types and SPGs – mainly experimental units, prototypes and German remakes of the French vehicles. In general, there will be a lot of experimental vehicles and German remakes.
I believe the presence of the superheavy multiturret tank FCM as the premium tank will be really interesting for players. It started to be developed during World War I, and we will try to retain its archaism. The tank will be less powered as a combat vehicle than Soviet and German vehicles of the same class.
Sergey Burkatovskiy: Renault FT-17 will be the first vehicle of a player. One can call it “grandfather of the modern tank building” - the first tank in the world of the classic configuration. It may be comparable with the 1st level tanks of other Tank Trees; so, we can’t say that it will be either more or less complicated than its analogs.

Sergey Burkatovskiy, World of Tanks Lead Game Designer
As for the premium vehicles, it is worth mention that in addition to FCM one will have the vehicles, manufactured by the German on the basis of the French chassis, available. These are real military vehicles which, in fact, took part in military action. Moreover, Italian tanks will be represented in the game for the 1st time as trophy ones. An American “Sherman” is likely to be available as a premium vehicle. But such decision is rather predictable and not that interesting, therefore, it’s not among our top priorities.
- In 1940, when France was defeated and occupied by the Germany, the development of the French tank building stopped for a certain period. How did you cope with this problem? Did you manage to conserve the game balance?
Andrew Medvedev: The French tank tree has a peculiar feature: there are plenty of experimental and prototype vehicles represented in it (about 50 percent of the total number). Besides, one will see German remakes of French vehicles that appeared during the war. Moreover, we decided to introduce some French vehicles that were manufactured in the post-war period (including the vehicles that were somehow inspired by the German tank building).
The French Tech Tree will give a player an opportunity to use really amazing vehicles. As for high level tanks and SPGs, they will be of great combat power.
Sergey Burkatovskiy: When occupied by the Germans in 1940-1944, the French didn’t have an opportunity to develop their own military vehicles. Therefore, French vehicles in the game may be somehow subdivided into two groups - generations: the ones that were manufactured before 1940 and those that appear in the post-war period. Tanks of both generations are very interesting and extraordinary. The USSR, Germany and the USA stick to mass production, while the France – to experiments. Each vehicle had certain unexpected innovation. For example, the middle tank AMX-40 looked like a racing car. As for the post-war vehicles, the French introduced cutting-edge technologies there. They were the first who used automatic loading device for the serial vehicles. One will see it in the game.
During the WWII the troops of  “Free French Forces”, in fact, widely used British and American tanks but we don’t think it is worth introducing them into the tank tree. We’re game designers – not historians. So, the French will have French tanks.
- What are the pecs of the French Tank Tree as compared with German, Soviet and American tanks? Will the game designers manage to represent the French vehicles construction peculiarities to the full extent?
Andrew Medvedev: In the 30's French tanks were bilt with one-man turret. This particular feature will be represented in the game as it will influence visibility, firing rate and firepower. Besides one will have fully articulated suspension, that will provide smoother movement at low speeds but will affect ride characteristics at high speeds. The player will have multiturret tanks (super-heavy FCM), tanks with the turret and hull guns (heavy B1). We will try to implement such characteristics as the armour plating of the chassis.
The French Tank Tree will have its own specific features. In the middle of the leveling it may require from the player to change the game style completely. First tanks are well protected, have lower speed characteristics and insufficient gunpower, while the post-war models have high firepower (thanks to automatic loading device) and high speed characteristics, but weak armor.
Sergey Burkatovskiy: When using French multiturret and multigun tanks the player won’t have an opportunity to use all the guns simultaneously – only switch from one to another. Free turret or gun will be reloaded and will continue autoaiming.
The pre-war vehicles will have stronger armor, which is the advantage as compared with the vehicles of the same class. Unfortunately, it will be the expense of speed characteristics. The main peculiarity of the top level tanks will be their high fire rate: player will be able to use automatic loading device (it will use revolver-type cylinder with 6 shells, which should be reloaded after emptying). These vehicles will have higher speed characteristics but less armored.
I think, light tank of tier VII AMX-13 and top SPG (155-mm rapid-fire gun in the tower with a circular firing) will be popular among the players. I guess, many people will try to get them.
- In general, French armored vehicles of the 30-40's are less known than the Soviet, German and American ones. Did it make your work while developing the Tank Tree and models more complicated?
Andrew Medvedev: Yes, it really did. Though, we have plenty of materials available. Our specialist, Piotr Bitsukov, responsible for gathering the information for the Tank Tree development scrabbed through huge amount of various materials. Nevertheless, sometimes while modeling we have only a couple of drawings and some poor quality photos at our disposal. For instance, to improve the model of AMX-40 prtotype tank we had to spend hours studying its inner sections.
Sergey Burkatovskiy: Sure there were some difficulties, but we have always been co-operating with armor vehicles amateurs and tank museums that provide us with the necessary information. For instance, recently we've got details of one of the top level tanks which we sent to the model makers. We have already gathered 4 Gb dof data (14000 files) for the french tank tree.
- French tanks have never been represented in games before. Do you feel like a kind of pioneers in this sphere?
Andrew Medvedev: It’s gonna be a Schwarzenieger-style answer (just as in his “Commando”) – Yes!
Sergey Burkatovskiy: I very proud of my work and this particular project as well. We have a very strong team, so, the French tank tree wasn’t that challenging for us.
WoT Developers Team sound quite optimistic, so, we may be sure that new tank tree will be a success.