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3-4 Shrek shots are enough to take down a Jackson. The problem is that the games I play are a blob shitshow from both sides. Enemy brings armor, I respond with Jacksons, he then brings AT equipped squads and I fall back while holding him with my infantry. Still not enough to stop them sometimes.
Schrecks do 120 damage, meaning it takes 6 Schrecks (or 5 plus snare) to take down a Jackson. This means 3 Panzergren squads fully equipped with Panzerschrecks and all need to hit. Usually you can drive away before they reload. But as I said, if a unit that should be used at range 60 will get overrun by a blob of slower units that have range ~30, you made a mistake. You left an important flank unguarded so they sneaked their units through and took you by surprise or you did not micro well enough and retreated your unit too late. This does not mean that the unit is bad, just that it does not fit your play style or skill level (don't get me wrong, I don't want to shit talk you, but some situations require heavier micro and obviously only frequent players can mitigate damage).
Yeah, the Jackson is fast, but if you have 1-2 and the enemy rushes you with 2-3 P4s and is focused on taking them down, he won't back down until he destroys the Jacksons. Plus, if you find it difficult to destroy a Jackson with a P4, you have alternatives. And if you don't, then use P4s and go up close and personal. If you can't take it down from far away, get close. Jackson is nothing more than a sniper. Good from afar, mediocre if you get close. This is how I see it.
To be honest I really think you have a problem with tank positioning or flank guarding. Jacksons get the first salvo and should make at least one tank snarable to take him out of the fight. With good micro and a bit of good RNG you can snare two vehicles early in the scenario described above. There should be Riflemen in front of your Jacksons to scout and snare if something like this happens. As every TD, the Jackson is indeed a sniper, but it should win a 1v1 if another unit provides the sight range for a long range shot. If you see you get rushed, you should immediately pull back your Jacksons and get Riflemen close for snaring.
And a solution would be to make the M10 Wolverine non doctrinal. Seriously, I wouldn't mind having it as a stock unit instead of the Jackson. It costs nothing, you can spam it and it's seriously perfect in every aspect. You don't even have to change it. Spam it, roll over the enemy, replace casualties. What's 80 fuel lost?
But then USF would have nothing to defend against heavy tanks. The M10 does not pen reliably. I don't have the pen values atm, but I think it even has some trouble against an OKW P4 (this is just gut feeling from the very few times I've used it, if someone can provide the numbers that would be great).