Shantou
Gunboat
GUIDE > RTS > WGRD > UNIT
by
Pijove
Posted on September 11, 2020
Introduction
Entering service from 1955 through 1960, these vessels (Fig.) were completely removed from naval service by the mid-1990s, and were transferred to civilian law enforcement agencies. However, just like the Beihai, Huangpu, and Yulin class gunboats which had been transferred to law enforcement agencies, these obsolete and aging boats were not satisfactory in their new civilian roles, due largely to their low maximum speed (10 knots), which was not sufficient enough to catch the smugglers’ high speed motorboats. As a result, these boats were subsequently transferred again, this time to the reserves; or subordinated to naval militias in various Military Maritime Districts in China as training boats, or harbor patrol boats. Like the aforementioned gunboats before it, the Swatow class, arriving for its new role(s) will likewise see increased conversions, some mothballing, and then eventually being scrapped. -https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Shantou-class_gunboat
Stats
Armoury Stats of Shantou (Fig.)
- Price: 30, Cheap but mid ranged
- Availability: Max 12 per card, This is great
- Armour: 2/2/2/0, good for a boat
- Strength: 40, Standard for riverboat, but still really strong.
- Speed: 19 kt (35km/h), Slow
- Autonomy: Unlimited, amazing
- Optics: Very Good, recon quality without being in the recon tab.
Shantou Weapon Stats (Fig.), Three types of Weapons systems,
- 1x Recoilless gun, 12 AP [HEAT] is low, but at least it can harm armour.
- 2x Dual Type 61, good range all round, ‘2’ Suppression is a joke.
- 2x KPVT, this is hidden from the stats card. Even the armoury tool is a bit odd, normally KPVT does have HE as well as AP. I tested it against helicopter and infantry with weapons turned off and it still works. So it isn’t an AP only variation. HE just isn’t described in the tool. Maybe 6 is the max in the dropdown list, but their are 8 entries?
Armoury tool stat descriptions:
- Turret 0: Recoilless gun: AP 12 {Range: [1950,-,-], ACC:30%, STAB:15%, SUP:90, RoF:10}
- Turret 1: Recoilless gun: HE 3 { Range: [1950,-,-], ACC:10%, STAB:5%, SUP:92, RoF:7.5}
- Turret 2: Dual Type 61: HE 1 { Range: [2100,2450,2800], ACC:10%, STAB:5%, SUP:2, RoF:30}
- Turret 2: Dual Type 61: HE 1 { Range: [2100,2450,2800], ACC:10%, STAB:5%, SUP:2, RoF:30}
- Turret 3: KPVT: AP 1 { Range: [1400,1400,-], ACC:10%, STAB:5%, SUP:110, RoF:51.43}
- Turret 4: KPVT: AP 1 { Range: [1400,1400,-], ACC:10%, STAB:5%, SUP:110, RoF:51.43}
Naval Units
Naval Meta
Anecdotal account on the naval meta.
- Redfor ASM ‘ship’ > Blufor ASM ‘ship’, SOV+Udaloy firing missiles simultaneously will ruin fleets, and is very hard to overwhelm their CIWS with missiles.
- Redfor ASM Planes < Blufor ASM Planes (More variety), & Blufor gets benefit of more Tomcats(interceptors) to spot planes, this suppresses Redfor ASM strike attempts.
- ASM ‘Arty’ is similar. A BAL (x2) or Seabuster (x3) ambush, firing missiles simultaneously will destroy a Ship.
- I don’t use ASM helicopters often, but a Swarm is devastating for a ship.
- Naval warfare usually becomes Ship blob vs ASM Plane Train.
- Smaller games, if someone invests heavily on naval early in the game, they hinder their own team significantly.
I generally don’t add big ships to my naval tab, as they are a big investment to work and requires focus to keep the fleet alive. Exception is the Le Fayette as it’s Stealth value & Accurate AA missiles are OP Troll tier, but that’s a different topic. My main counter to ship is ASM Plane as the can strike quickly and resupply for free.
ASM
‘A strange game, the only winning move is not to play’-WarGames.
River boats can’t be targeted by ASM missiles, so if the enemy has ASM assets, they are useless against you since there is nothing for them to target.
River boat comparison
Unfortunately, there is little choice here (Fig.). The other two redfor river boats are MRLS launchers and are not for the same role. Blufor Zippo is a similar comparison, The Zippo has better optics and a flamethrower while Shantou is faster, has an AP launcher and equipped better to attack helicopters. STRB 90 H is a beast as it’s equipped with exceptional optics and Hellfire missiles that inflicts serious damage. If too close to STRB the grenade launcher can stun lock. Also STRB is a lot faster than the Shantou.
Usage
Recon
“It is equipped with very good optics in order to detect land targets”-WGRD Description. For single card: 12x VG.Optics is great (Fig.). The only unit similar is reserve recon infantry to both get that quality of optics & quantity per card. By having optics at sea, this takes pressure off your own recon tab to focus elsewhere.
Island Hopping / Naval Landings
When Island Hopping (Fig.), most common enemy is infantry or helicopters. Occasionally you will find tanks. Supporting Land crafting help them disembark safer and hopefully by sustaining less morale damage, they can fight back more effectively. I personally like doing small landings with few units, on islands as it is safer than trying to plan an epic D-day landing at a coastal hot spot to get mauled be by an array of enemies.
Air Bait
It is possible to lure the enemy into a trap. When an enemy sees a boat, their reptile brain may switch on and they attack it quickly as a reaction. This is usually via ATGM helicopter or AT Plane. You will counter their attack with an ASF Plane. Just make sure your boats isn’t too close to the enemy so your plane doesn’t fly over enemy AA.
Defence
Defending ‘base’ regions against infiltration it’s good will highly likely be a transport helicopter with recon infantry, or a recon vehicle taking an obscure path. Using it on a river watching a forest or town it will most likely fight infantry & transports, be aware tanks can appear. Big boats will ruin the Shantou, retreat or hide to survive.
Offence
As this boat can traverse rivers, make the most of it (Fig.). However, take caution as the Shantou is not invincible and should be used with other units. Spamming a train of boats isn’t the formula for success. Infantry, certain helicopters and lightly armoured units are great targets. Dueling a tank 1v1 is not advisable, if you do decide to take on a tank you may want to out number it 2:1 or 3:1, as one Shantou will be taking hits while the other should be calm and can return fire accurately. ATGM helicopters are fast enough to ‘kite’ around so you cannot get within range to strike, ATGM missiles cause significant damage. Trying to attack a proper ship is suicidal, don’t do it.
Ingame
Been using the Shantou in games (Fig.). Deng & Peng, were the boats seen in previous figures, that map they were on is good at showcasing riverboat capabilities. The kill list from both units, is a typical range of units the Shantou can target. ‘He’ is not in any of the figures, he was fortunate to be in an ambush position, so it was getting side shots, maybe even a rear shot which explains the Challenger tank destructions which is uncommon for a Shantou to do.
Unfortunately one reason Shantou may have a bad reputation is from players who spam it mindlessly to attack a well defended area. Even if the Shantou isn’t attacking units, it is able to provide recon, this is an attribute I rate highly. The weapons equipped are suited for it’s role. For 30pts it is very cheap.
Conclusion
A cheap versatile unit worth it’s price as it can provide ‘very good’ recon, be spammed for a coastal recon network, can defend against helicopter and light vehicle infiltration attempts, assist in naval landings, and can exploit lightly defended coastal regions. Effective against infantry and light armour, in special circumstances may take out heavy armour. Shouldn’t target other ships, only riverboat it should target is the zippo. A bit slow though.
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