Fairmile C (312)

Fairmile C (312)

HMCS Brantford

Fairmile H LCS(L)(2)

Fairmile C (312)

HMCS Brantford

Fairmile H LCS(L)(2)

Britain

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
2.3	2.3	2.3

Class:

Motor gun boat

Boat

Research:26 000

Purchase:76 000

Show in game

Description

The Fairmile C (312) is a rank III British motor gun boat with a battle rating of 2.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.83 "Masters of the Sea" as part of the British fleet closed beta test.

General info

Survivability and armour

The Fairmile C has a hull of 28 mm wood and a superstructure of 15 mm wood, meaning that you can be hull-broken by large rounds, the likes of which tend to be mounted on destroyers, those ships which you will start to see after bringing this onto your roster. There is only one piece of armour: a 12.7 mm steel plate on the front cannon, which is insufficient to protect the gun from damage. With such low armour, a mere 16 crew members, and a long, thin profile, you are an easy target for enemy ships, enemy planes, enemy tanks, enemy infantry, enemy stray fire, and enemy gusts of wind. Fires are a minor hazard in this ship, as anything which can start a fire on board will probably destroy the ship before the fire alarm goes off. Same with magazine explosions.

Mobility

Mobility Characteristics
Game Mode	Upgrade Status	Maximum Speed (km/h)		Turn Time (s)	Turn Radius (m)
		Forward	Reverse
AB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	65	24
RB/SB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	48	18

The Fairmile C's speed is simply insufficient. The rudders are similarly mediocre in the movement department. You will not be the first to the fight, but you will have enough speed to reach contested seas before the game is over... barely.

Armament

Primary armament

The Fairmile C's main armaments are a set of 40 mm semi-automatic cannons, similar to the one on the Dark class (FPB 1102) that comes before. One is mounted in the front and one in the rear, creating a substantial area for broadside. While twice the gun should mean twice the fun, both of them come with a caveat. The forward gun has a magazine size of 56, and then an 8-second reload. While its low depression means that it can't always hit nearby targets, the rear gun is worse. It has the familiar 4-large magazine, and a reload time of merely two seconds. The killer is that both guns have nine spare magazines, despite the rear gun going through each one nearly ten times as fast. It will not be long before your two guns are reduced to one gun. Finally, the reload times mean that, when the two guns are used at once, there will be uneven firing periods, with some points having no shots firing and some having many.

In practice, this is a downgrade from the Dark 1102. The ability to put two cannons on target will be extremely conditional, relying on such things as angle, but also on ammo storage and reload times. Compared to the reload time being only slightly slower than the normal cycle rate, this requires much more thought and forethought while not producing a lot of extra damage on target.

Secondary armament

Some ships are fitted with weapons of various calibres. Secondary armaments are defined as weapons chosen with the control Select secondary weapon. Evaluate the secondary armaments and give advice on how to use them. Describe the ammunition available for the secondary armament. Provide recommendations on how to use them and which ammunition to choose. Remember that any anti-air armament, even heavy calibre weapons, belong in the next section. If there is no secondary armament, remove this section.

Anti-aircraft armament

Coming in two BRs too late is the Fairmile C's anti-aircraft armament of 2 x twin 7.7 mm MGs and 2 x twin 12.7 mm MGs. While this does give it a fairly significant anti-aircraft capability for its rank, what this thing needs is more anti-ship capability to defend against enemy craft running circles around you.

Special armament

The Fairmile C can be equipped with depth charges. These are not useful except in close range, as there are no submarines in the game besides the poor sods who showed up in Fairmile C's. In close-quarters, they can be used as melee weapons, but in close quarters you are already within lethal (read: sneezing) range of any and all enemy craft.

Usage in battles

The Fairmile C (312) is an unusual ship, but the best way to play it is to use a simple acronym:

J - Hold J for three seconds to go back to the spawn menu and get a different ship.

This is, of course, a joke. It is significantly slower than the Dark class (FPB 1102), and it doesn't drive around or turn as quickly, either. While being a bigger target and having no other survivability-enhancing measures. It has a main armament that is theoretically more useful but in practice is far harder to use, and at minimal benefit. The only non-objective downgrade is the switch from torpedoes to AA. This is a fortuitous choice, as your slow speed and large size makes you a convenient target for planes, and high-end small boats never ever fight destroyers, ever. If they ever did fight destroyers, they would wish they had torpedoes instead, as the guns are merely okay at small-ship vs small-ship combat and are borderline useless for damaging such large vessels.

Modules

Tier	Seakeeping	Unsinkability		Firepower
I	Dry-Docking	Tool Set		40 mm HE	12.7 mm I	Anti-Air Armament Targeting
II	Rudder Replacement	Fire Protection System	Smokescreen	40 mm AP	12.7 mm API	Auxiliary Armament Targeting
III	Propeller Replacement			Improved Rangefinder	Depth Charges	Primary Armament Targeting
IV	Engine Maintenance	New Pumps		Artillery Support

Pros and cons

Pros:

• The AA suite is effective for the planes it will often be going up against

Cons:

• Easily destroyed
• The anti-ship weapons are subpar compared to what else is on the table
• High research costs mean that modifications will come slowly

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the ship;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the ship;
• other literature.