Since when is a Frigate larger than a Destroyer?
I completely understand that anyone without a nautical background could easily confuse the ships and I am not faulting anyone for that.
I'm a Navy veteran and I simply want to bring this oversight to the attention of the developers. Keep in mind to determine the classification of a ship you need to account for tonnage and length of the ship.
A quick description of these two ships:
Frigate:
Designed and typically used for patrol or the picket (Guard) of larger ships such as destroyers, cruisers, Aircraft Carriers, etc...
Their most notable role in combat are anti submarine for the time frame allies would have used them. They also suffer from the moniker of "Torpedo Catcher" because they were often used as walls to prevent torpedoes from striking larger ships.
(A Smaller cheaper to produce ship that is capable of sailing across the ocean with the big boys.) But don't misunderstand the frigate is larger than what would be a corvette for the period as corvettes cannot leave the coastline and venture out into open waters.
Frigates of that time frame for the allies didn't have missiles but relied on crew served weapons, depth charges, small cannons, and the hedgehog.
These ships are slower and and lack the offensive capability destroyers have. These ships were built purely for convoy duties and were not intended to deploy with the fleet because of its limited range.
Destroyers:
Designed to be fast maneuverable long-endurance warships. While they do picket with frigates and missile cruisers from time to time they are typically lone wolfs and "jack of all trades" often maintaining large areas of control of the ocean.
Typically they are armed with anti submarine torpedoes with a safety mechanism to prevent surface ships from being accidentally targeted. Also they are armed with surface to air missiles or surface to surface missiles and are most notably known for their large cannon on the forecastle.
In combat for the allied period of time they would be filling the role of hunter killers tracking down enemy submarines and eliminating them.
As well guarding larger ships like the Red Alert cruiser.
They would be armed with a large cannon, torpedoes for submarines, depth charges, crew served weapons, anti aircraft guns, and forward launched anti submarine weaponry (the hedgehog).
And here is a quick list of ships in order of tonnage (Largest to smallest)
- -Aircraft Carrier
-Battleship
-Helicopter Carrier
-Battlecruiser (The RA Cruiser)
-Pocket Battleship
-Cruiser
-Destroyer
-Frigate
-Corvette
-Patrol Boat
-Fast Attack Craft (similar to a speed boat but larger)
As I am sure you can see the great difference in these classifications and how they appear in game. The allied "frigate" looks and acts like a missile cruiser when in truth it does not fit with their capability.
Granted this is a game and I understand that but what really got under my skin about this was the fact that the allied naval units are horrible against submarines when in truth they should be either just as powerful or stronger.