Building a French answer to the Tribal class

The French answer to the Tribal class starts with a narrow, shallow-draft destroyer-leader hull, 5.5-inch guns, and the largest torpedoes the simulation permits. Unnecessary gun armour and some protection are removed to keep the design within displacement. The result is a heavily armed small combatant that must still reserve room for crew, sensors, and anti-aircraft weapons. The exercise establishes the crowded design problem that shapes the later discussion of firing arcs and the destroyer duel. The real French contre-torpilleurs were already capable designs, so this experiment is not a dismissal of the historical type.