La Foudre
Also called: 疾电 Beta- Anchor a flank at 14-17 km with bow toward the closest threat, then use the speed advantage at 30 kn to rotate to the cap that needs a second battleship rather than the one your team already has
- Avoid: Using the 30-kn speed to push rather than to rotate
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La Foudre Community Stats
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La Foudre Community Stats
Record History
Playstyle
Overview
La Foudre is a Tier VII French fast battleship at 30 kn with Engine Boost on the consumable slot. Mobility lets her rotate flanks battleship-fast and pick fights where her guns get the first salvo. Standout traits: best secondary sigma in T7 BBs (1.2) and top-decile sharp rudder in T7 BBs (12.7 s).
Positioning
Anchor a flank at 14-17 km with bow toward the closest threat, then use the speed advantage at 30 kn to rotate to the cap that needs a second battleship rather than the one your team already has. Mobility means you can pick which fight you are in; do not waste it by holding center the whole match. The helm answers quickly (12.7 s), so she can break an incoming salvo that slower hulls have to eat.
Potato Avoidance
Using the 30-kn speed to push rather than to rotate
The mobility advantage is about picking which cap fight you arrive at, not about leading the brawl line; a fast BB that overextends loses HP that the kit cannot trade back.
Signature Traits
+8% speed (about +2.4 kt), 180 s duration. Engine Boost consumable gives a small speed nudge - useful for closing a gap or steadying a torpedo run, not for running anything down. Uncommon in T7 BBs.
- Sharp secondaries
- Burny secondaries · 12%
12.7 s rudder shift, top decile of T7 BBs. Snappy weave.
Flat trajectory and high velocity retention. Easy aim at range, hard for targets to dodge.
- Short gun range · 16.5 km
- Pattern widens fast with range
How to get La Foudre
La Foudre is a Premium ship and not available to unlock in the Tech Tree. Acquisition path: Containers. Container chances are shown as the listed odds of receiving this exact ship, dividing grouped ship-pool odds across the resolved ships and including nested container paths when a crate can drop another crate.
Best listed chance for this ship
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Treasure Chest '23
2%
Pirate Ship
Archived · Treasure Chest '23 · 1 of 2 ships
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Treasure Chest '24
0.75%
Pirate Ship
Archived · Treasure Chest '24 · 1 of 4 ships
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Pirate Chest '26
0.4%
One of the pirate ships
Event · Pirate Chest '26 · 1 of 5 ships
Show all 4 containers (1 more)
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Explorer's Chest
0.115385%
One of these ships
New · Explorer's Chest · 1 of 26 ships
Official WG availability sources
- Official WoWS Legends container odds Containers Official container drop rows linked below include direct and nested effective ship odds.
Show direct source rows
- Explorer's Chest 0.115385% · One of these ships
- Pirate Chest '26 0.4% · One of the pirate ships
- Treasure Chest '23 2% · Pirate Ship
- Treasure Chest '24 0.75% · Pirate Ship
Want the full picture? Each container page charts the odds as you open more crates - including pity guaranteed-reward timers and, for GD Supporters, pack math personalized to your port.
Builds
Pair with a commander whose unique skill complements her main armament; check the build tool for current recommendations.
Have a build you swear by? Open it in the Build Tool and hit Save build to share it here.
Cohort position
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Where La Foudre sits among Tier VII BBs (48 ships). Notable standouts are shown first; the rest of the cohort-ranked stats are in the expand below. Acquisition variants (Black Friday, Founders Edition) are counted once with their base ship, not as separate peers.
See 34 mid-pack stats
Not standouts for La Foudre -- here's where she sits on every other ranked stat in the cohort. Stats tagged NORM are tied across more than half the cohort, so the value is the cohort default rather than a standout.
Peers in this cohort
Compare Tier VII BattleshipsShow all 48 peers
Stats & specs
Customize in the Build Tool →ƒ
How far each mount can train, in degrees to either side of the mount's own facing, read from in-game data. A rear turret with ±150° leaves a 60° blind wedge over the bow; one-sided arcs are wing mounts that cover a single side. The data does not say which way each mount faces, so the arcs are listed per mount without bow/stern angles.ƒ
How far off the bow (or stern) the ship must angle before every main turret can fire: the widest blind wedge among the rear-facing (or forward-facing) mounts, from each mount's trainable arc. Mount facing is inferred from turret stations and verified against known layouts, including Izumo's aft-facing forward turret.ƒ
Horizontal dispersion ellipse width at max range, from the verified WoWS dispersion model:ƒ
Vertical dispersion ellipse height at max range:ƒ
50%-hit horizontal radius:ƒ
50%-hit vertical radius:ƒ
180 degrees / 5 deg/s traverse speed = 36 s.ƒ
Zero upgrades: 8 broadside guns x 60 / 27 s base reload = 17.8. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 8 broadside guns x 60 / 24.3 s all-upgrades reload = 19.8.HE shells
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63 mm ≈ 380 mm caliber / 6 (standard HE penetration ratio).ƒ
5,400 HE damage x 8 broadside guns = 43,200.ƒ
Zero upgrades: 43,200 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 27 s base reload = 96,000. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 43,200 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 24.3 s all-upgrades reload = 106,667.ƒ
Zero upgrades: 17.8 shells/min x 36% fire chance = 6.4. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 19.8 shells/min x 36% fire chance = 7.11.AP shells
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floor(380 mm caliber / 14.3) = 26 mm (AP auto-penetrates plating this thick or less).ƒ
Canonical community AP formula (jcw780/wows_shell), evaluated at muzzle velocity: . Matches the in-game spec card.ƒ
Same formula at the ship's max firing range (16.5 km), where the shell has slowed to 590.6 m/s: .ƒ
11,900 AP damage x 8 broadside guns = 95,200.ƒ
Zero upgrades: 95,200 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 27 s base reload = 211,556. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 95,200 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 24.3 s all-upgrades reload = 235,062.ƒ
AP shell over-penetration splash radius; scales with shell mass. Wickes 102mm = 3, standard 152mm CL ~ 20, Iowa 406mm ~ 270, Yamato 460mm = 400, Incomparable 650mm = 550 (max). Larger value = bigger splash damage area when AP over-pens.ƒ
Longest-reaching family on the in-game AA card. Base AirDefense aura max range is 4.5 km; dual-purpose mount auras extend it.ƒ
Dual-purpose: your secondaries doing double duty against aircraft. The same mounts appear on the Secondary Battery card - shared guns, not extra hardware.ƒ
Dual-purpose: your secondaries doing double duty against aircraft. The same mounts appear on the Secondary Battery card - shared guns, not extra hardware.ƒ
Effective DPS in in-game units (raw aura damage × 3.5 × hit probability, summed per contributing aura) - matches the Close-range AA DPS headline's currency. Includes 168 from dual-purpose secondaries firing as AA in this range band.ƒ
Effective DPS: 161 raw aura damage × 3.5 × 0.75 hit probability = 423 - the same in-game units as the Close-range AA DPS headline.ƒ
Far 168 + Medium 423 = 591ƒ
Each ~2 s wave fires 2 quick salvos of 4 clouds ahead of the attacking squadron, plus 2 stray clouds farther out that appear off-beat between waves - up to 10 clouds per wave × 210 damage each. Planes that fly into a cloud take its damage; clouds dissipate before the next wave lands. Defensive AA Fire, where fitted, multiplies the salvo repeats within each wave.ƒ
Damage a plane takes for flying into one flak cloud, before any reductions.ƒ
Each cloud in the pattern rolls this chance to spawn, so waves average fewer clouds than the maximum. Often called flak 'hit chance', but spawned clouds always damage planes that fly into them - the roll is on spawning.ƒ
A flak wave spawns roughly every 2 s - timed frame-by-frame from gameplay footage and consistent across ships.ƒ
Flak keeps firing while at least one secondary battery mount is operational - even losing every other AA mount does not stop it.ƒ
The activation band: flak fires while attacking planes are inside it. Clouds are placed ahead of the planes' path, so bursts can land short of 2.5 km or past 5 km - once planes get inside the band, new waves stop. AA range bonuses push the outer edge out; the 2.5 km inner edge does not move.ƒ
Max dispersion = range (km) × 57 + 30. Each dispersion type sets its own slope; this is not a percentage applied to a standard baseline.ƒ
6.66 km × 57 + 30 = 409.6 m.ƒ
Dual-purpose: the same mounts also fire at aircraft, so they appear on the AA Defense card too - shared guns, not extra hardware.Show 1 more gun family
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Dual-purpose: the same mounts also fire at aircraft, so they appear on the AA Defense card too - shared guns, not extra hardware.ƒ
top speed / 4 + 4.9 = 30 / 4 + 4.9 = 12.4 kt. The community reverse-speed model from the WoWs ShipBuilder project, the same source as the acceleration model on this card. Base value; speed modifiers scale it. Not shown on the in-game card.ƒ
Seconds from top speed to a dead stop after ordering full reverse: reverse power winds in over the reverse spool-up while water drag does most of the braking. Same community-model simulation as the acceleration times, using the ship's own reverse-power ratio from in-game data. The full curve is on the acceleration chart.ƒ
Speed below which the engine's built-in power boost applies in reverse. Matches the in-game maneuverability card's reverse threshold (Vampire II reads 10.5 here and the card shows 11; the card rounds half up).ƒ
Time to reach 90% of top speed (27.0 kt of 30 kt), from our in-house acceleration model.ƒ
Time to reach 99% of top speed (29.7 kt of 30 kt). 99% rather than 100% because true top speed is asymptotic (thrust meets drag), so the last fraction of a knot is never quite gained.ƒ
How many degrees the turret can swing for each degree the hull turns. Turn rate , so . Below 5 the turrets drag in a turning fight; 25+ keeps up with any rudder.ƒ
Equal to the ship's main battery range (never below base detectability): firing makes you visible to everyone you can reach. Matches the in-game 'Detect Firing Sea' value on all 8 unmodified captures, and range-modified captures track the modified range.ƒ
Air detectability plus the gun-firing bloom (7.6 km, which tracks main-battery caliber x 0.020). Matches the in-game 'Detect Firing Air' value on every captured ship.ƒ
Base sea detectability + 2.0 km while burning; matches the in-game 'Detect Fire Sea' value on every captured ship.ƒ
Base air detectability + 3.0 km while burning; matches the in-game 'Detect Fire Air' value on every captured ship.
Damage Control Party∞ charges · 80 s reload · 15 s active
Repair Party3 charges · 80 s reload · 28 s active · 9,660 HP (14% of max HP) total heal (per charge) ƒ
Heal per second (0.5%) x effective active time (28 s) = up to 14% of max HP restored per charge.ƒ
14% per charge x 3 charges = up to 42% of max HP if the whole Repair Party loadout is used.ƒ
0.5% of max HP (69,000 HP) per second = 345 HP/s. WoWS heals a flat percent of MAX HP each second, so this rate holds at any health level.
Main Battery Reload Booster2 charges · 180 s reload · 15 s active · +50% reload boost
Engine Boost2 charges · 180 s reload · 180 s active · +8% speed bonus
Secondary Battery Booster3 charges · 160 s reload · 30 s active · +100% grouping · -50% dispersion
See all derived stats
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All values are ship base stats with modifications and upgrade changes denoted inline.
Numbers the spec table cannot show directly: alpha-strike math, DPM, dispersion, AP penetration. Click the formula chip on any row to reveal how it is calculated.
Main battery formulas
Horizontal dispersion ellipse width at max range, from the verified WoWS dispersion model: Horizontal scatter at a fixed 5 km, from the same verified dispersion model as the rows below - a knife-fight-range anchor comparable across ships.How wide your shells scatter at 10 km, from the same dispersion model as the max-range figure above. Picking a fixed range makes this number directly comparable from ship to ship: max-range dispersion makes a longer-range gun look worse even when it's tighter at any common range. The interactive Dispersion tab on the Charts card plots the full curve from 0 to max range.Horizontal scatter at a fixed 15 km, from the same verified dispersion model - the long-range anchor. Only shown when the ship's guns reach 15 km.Vertical dispersion ellipse height at max range: How tall the same scatter ellipse is at 10 km. Comparable from ship to ship for the same reason as the width value above. The height/width ratio is a piecewise-linear curve through three points from the ship's own dispersion data: at 0 m, at m, and at 16482 m. Above the kink: , so .50%-hit horizontal radius: 50%-hit vertical radius: Canonical community AP formula (jcw780/wows_shell), evaluated at muzzle velocity: . Matches the in-game spec card.Same formula at the ship's max firing range (16.5 km), where the shell has slowed to 590.6 m/s: .AP penetration at a fixed 5 km, read off the same PC-validated ballistic curve as AP Pen Close/Far: the shell's impact velocity at that range fed through the canonical community AP formula . Fixed anchors make ships directly comparable at the same fighting distance; the Charts card plots the full curve.AP penetration at a fixed 10 km, read off the same PC-validated ballistic curve as AP Pen Close/Far: the shell's impact velocity at that range fed through the canonical community AP formula . Fixed anchors make ships directly comparable at the same fighting distance; the Charts card plots the full curve.AP penetration at a fixed 15 km, read off the same PC-validated ballistic curve as AP Pen Close/Far: the shell's impact velocity at that range fed through the canonical community AP formula . Fixed anchors make ships directly comparable at the same fighting distance; the Charts card plots the full curve.How long an HE shell takes to reach a target at a fixed 10 km, from the same numerically integrated trajectory the Charts card plots. The shell slows under quadratic air drag, , where is air density from a standard-atmosphere profile and bundles the shell's drag coefficient, caliber and mass: . That runs from a 830 m/s muzzle velocity in 0.02 s steps under gravity 9.8 m/s² until the shell lands, then divides by 2.77: the game clock runs faster than real time, and that factor was measured against stopwatch runs in the Training Room. Lower is better, since a faster shell is harder to dodge and needs less lead.How long an AP shell takes to reach a target at a fixed 10 km, from the same numerically integrated trajectory the Charts card plots. The shell slows under quadratic air drag, , where is air density from a standard-atmosphere profile and bundles the shell's drag coefficient, caliber and mass: . That runs from a 830 m/s muzzle velocity in 0.02 s steps under gravity 9.8 m/s² until the shell lands, then divides by 2.77: the game clock runs faster than real time, and that factor was measured against stopwatch runs in the Training Room. Lower is better, since a faster shell is harder to dodge and needs less lead.63 mm ≈ 380 mm caliber / 6 (standard HE penetration ratio).floor(380 mm caliber / 14.3) = 26 mm (AP auto-penetrates plating this thick or less).AP shell over-penetration splash radius; scales with shell mass. Wickes 102mm = 3, standard 152mm CL ~ 20, Iowa 406mm ~ 270, Yamato 460mm = 400, Incomparable 650mm = 550 (max). Larger value = bigger splash damage area when AP over-pens.All 8 barrels bear on the broadside.180 degrees / 5 deg/s traverse speed = 36 s.5,400 HE damage x 8 broadside guns = 43,200.11,900 AP damage x 8 broadside guns = 95,200.Zero upgrades: 43,200 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 27 s base reload = 96,000. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 43,200 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 24.3 s all-upgrades reload = 106,667.Zero upgrades: 95,200 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 27 s base reload = 211,556. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 95,200 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 24.3 s all-upgrades reload = 235,062.Zero upgrades: 8 broadside guns x 60 / 27 s base reload = 17.8. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 8 broadside guns x 60 / 24.3 s all-upgrades reload = 19.8.Zero upgrades: 17.8 shells/min x 36% fire chance = 6.4. All upgrades (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10% reload): 19.8 shells/min x 36% fire chance = 7.11.AA defense
Only families that reach 5 km contribute at the outer edge of the AA bubble. In-game families: 57mm 60 2 25 1951 14x2 -> 423 DPS @ 4.5 km; 2 100 55 Mle 1945 12x2 -> 134 DPS @ 5 km; 152 55 Mle 1936 3x3 -> 34 DPS @ 5 km.Longest-reaching family on the in-game AA card. Base AirDefense aura max range is 4.5 km; dual-purpose mount auras extend it.Cumulative AA DPS at each family range threshold. Inner ranges stack the outer families, so a target closing the distance hits stronger AA bubbles as it crosses each band.Sum of every family's average DPS, achievable only inside the closest-range family (4.5 km).SUM over AA auras of (aura DPS x aura range km). A plane crossing the AA bubble is exposed to each aura for a time proportional to that aura's range, so long-reach DPS is worth more than the same DPS in a short bubble. Units: DPS*km; used to rank overall AA threat across the cohort.Secondary battery dispersion
Max dispersion = range (km) × 57 + 30. Each dispersion type sets its own slope; this is not a percentage applied to a standard baseline.6.66 km × 57 + 30 = 409.6 m.Same per-type line evaluated at a fixed 5 km: 5 km × 57 + 30 = 315 m.Secondary battery firepower
Sum across all secondary families of (per-side barrels × 60 / reload_s × alpha), where per-side barrels = mounts × barrels-per-mount / 2 (the guns that bear on one broadside target). Per-family: 12×2 100 mm (12/side) × 60/3 × 1550 = 372,000 + 3×3 152 mm (4.5/side) × 60/12 × 2350 = 52,875. Assumes every shell hits (real hit rate is lower; the Brawl matchup tool on the Compare page folds in dispersion + target armor).Maximum HE damage per shell across secondary HE families. Best on this ship: 2350 from the 152 mm family.Maximum per-shell fire chance across secondary HE families (before target fire resistance is applied). Best on this ship: 12% from the 152 mm family.Maximum HE armor penetration across secondary HE families (caliber × 1/6 for most nations; 1/4 for German/UK BBs). Shells whose pen falls under a plate's armor thickness shatter for 0 hull damage though fire chance still applies. Best on this ship: 25 mm from the 152 mm family.Ship Charts
Balance History
Balance updates affecting La Foudre. Cards are condensed; use each source link for full context.
Ministry of Balance: New Horizons, Greater Heights
- Extended the barbette armor plates to the casemate, making these areas more resistant to accidental hits.
Skins & permanent camouflages
Every custom exterior La Foudre can equip, from in-game data.
DefaultThe ship’s standard exterior- DecorativeJb PirateDecorative
Primary official WG sources
Filtered to official World of Warships: Legends pages where this ship is a focus, reward, line member, or high-context variant mention.
