Can we plz "fix" the CalliOPe?

CalliOP should absolutely be nerfed in terms of rate of fire, but let's not kid ourselves the CalliOP is the only thing holding USF kinda relevant in teamgames.

Jacksons and Zook'ed Rangers, even AT guns (with its active ability).
I wouldn't risk losing my super expensive Panther over your Calliope like that since it has a slow ROF and bad accuracy on the move.
Meanwhile you can just suicide dive with some Shermans or T-34s and can take out all of our rocket artillery, since they die in 1 shot anyway and those mediums are cheap to replace.

"cheap sherman" lol... dude you dont dive a sherman against axis, who all have snares to maybe kill enemy arty - maybe if they are braindead and leave them close by.

Fact is, if you ever played 4v4 as USF, Caliope is the only unit that keeps you alive.

Then you win every time with that cancerous unit unless your teammates are dumb enough to let the enemy team rush you with massed Panthers.
As long as Calliope exists, there is no late game infantry for Axis.

No, axis still can counter caliope, but not as easy as everything else

FireflyAT.
must confess i struggle alot against Urban thingamjig doctrine, while playing OST.
say USF has 3x Rangers+zooks and 3x calliopes, how would you deal with the calliopes as OST?

Leave it or nerf it and replace it with Scott

FireflyAT.
USF has 3x Rangers+zooks and 3x calliopes, how would you deal with the calliopes as OST?

You can do the same werfers and panzergeranadiers are cheaper and non doc.

SupremeStefan.
I appreciate your input but:
since urban assault has the smoke thing that makes infantry move faster, hitting 3x rangerzooks with werfer that already has a notable delay between firing and impact, makes it EASY to dodge/spread infantry out.

plus pzgrens shreks get slaughtered by calliopes with barely a second warning before impact.

other useful tips would be welcome

FireflyAT.
must confess i struggle alot against Urban thingamjig doctrine, while playing OST.
say USF has 3x Rangers+zooks and 3x calliopes, how would you deal with the calliopes as OST?

Well 3 Calliopes are sooo much fuel, well if you have Panzerwerfer, Brumbär and a Panther, as soon as the Ranger retreat you can try to push in a bit, but generaly Brumbär is the most important tank as ost, with vet1 he gets longrange bombardment that outranges AT guns. . Also Panzerwerfer ofter wipes multiple squads like the Caliope.

imho the only other lategame USF you can pick is IR Pathfinder, they can wreck Superheavys so your jacksons are not completly useless.

SupremeStefan.
I appreciate your input but:
since urban assault has the smoke thing that makes infantry move faster, hitting 3x rangerzooks with werfer that already has a notable delay between firing and impact, makes it EASY to dodge/spread infantry out.

plus pzgrens shreks get slaughtered by calliopes with barely a second warning before impact.

other useful tips would be welcome

Also try playing with Elefant commander + Spotting scope, it helps alot to see them coming and after the 2nd brumbär shot infantry has to retreat

Ost AT loiter has entered the chat.

You can do the same werfers and panzergeranadiers are cheaper and non doc.

They're just a lot worse. PGrens are a 4-man squad while werfer rockets take forever to reach and are easily dodged even by those with 56k connections. Worse still, Werfer has only 1 salvo so there isn't even an area-denial/pushing opportunity. With continuous bombardment rocket artillery, you can actually use that to support a tank push.

Calliope is so good I actually use the doctrine in 1 v 1, since it saves the trouble/cost of teching Captain + unlock for pack howie. The Calliope is almost impossible to dive and can even survive double PAK. Even as a 1 v 1 main it's a ridiculous unit. I can imagine it being hell for team game players.

They're just a lot worse. PGrens are a 4-man squad while werfer rockets take forever to reach and are easily dodged even by those with 56k connections. Worse still, Werfer has only 1 salvo so there isn't even an area-denial/pushing opportunity. With continuous bombardment rocket artillery, you can actually use that to support a tank push.

Calliope is so good I actually use the doctrine in 1 v 1, since it saves the trouble/cost of teching Captain + unlock for pack howie. The Calliope is almost impossible to dive and can even survive double PAK. Even as a 1 v 1 main it's a ridiculous unit. I can imagine it being hell for team game players.

While I agree, from my experience, I usually lost team games where my mates went for callope. On one hand, it is good in area denial, but 90% of the time, people will just fall back a bit and wait it out, especially since later on there are elephants with spotting scopes and LeFH, so falling back a bit won't net you a loss. I honestly think that @Achpawel's proposal to reduce speed/rotation after using the barrage would be the best way. If you decrease ROF of rockets... that can go both ways. On one hand, less shit/second, on other, longer area denial (assuming same amount of rockets). If you decrease survivability, it becomes meh, since it's not as lethal as other rocket arty. But if you decrease mobility, you decrease the possibility to do shotgun salvos (which callope needs to do to be effective) without risking death. And definitely Calliope should get 100% penetrated at all ranges by P4.

It all depends on what you are after. Werfer takes some time to land and produces a distinct sound, but when it lands it kills infantry. It's most definitely the best are denier, fast but 100% that infantry will retreat (or a lot and lot of bleed).
Stuka has the wiping potential, easy to predict where the rockets will land and when they land, cars, light vehicles, infantry and team weapons usually go bye-bye or will need repairs. On team maps like Port of hamburg, stuka and werfer potential is amplified ten fold because of the lane-y maps and usual forward positions. A lot of impassable terrain makes for great werfer and stuka plays.

Still I would say that the biggest danger is the scatter. If you have super precise barrages, the enemy will know where they can/cannot go. Example. Werfer barrage. Not until 1 second in do you know whether you are on the margin of the AOE or dead-center. Stuka you really need to side pedal a lot or risk dying (side pedal because 90% of players aim for retreat paths).

I like thedarkarmadillo's idea.
Make Calliop a passive upgrade that allow a normal Sherman to upgrade into Calliop. Just like Sherman Bulldozer in Mechanize & FF Tulip.

Then every barage requires more ammo.

But then it may lead to 25pop cap (2 Sherman with Cali upgrade) and can do both arty & frontline at the same time.

I don't think munu for Calliope barrages is a good idea for USF. They burn through muni more than everyone else already

Making their rocket arty require doctrine and muni seems like too much of punishment

You can cripple any unit by any amount. Axis wheraboos and Ally fanboys will find something to complain about. Callope is fine in the firepower sense, it only needs to be toned down on the armour department so that medium tanks will always penetrate it. That with/or a speed/velocity reduction so it's less mobile.

yeah lets nerf a unit that is holding the faction together in team games.
other aspects of the faction needs to be looked at before nerfing it.

its locked behind a doctrine.
lets rather fix the stuka. a unit that has always over peformed from day one.

also its a medium tank. it cant be a one shot kill like the wefer, besides the werfer is a cardboard box on wheels

Just make it like coh1, high fire rate wide as fk spread, more rockets, low to medium damage to infantry that supress and high armor penetration, high spread even at short range

I don't see how anyone can think tanky rocket-launcher are okay. It completely removes the burden of protecting them.

I don't see how anyone can think tanky rocket-launcher are okay. It completely removes the burden of protecting them.

From small arms infantry.
Go ahead, give it 10-12 seconds alone time with shrecks or puma and see what happens.

From small arms infantry.
Go ahead, give it 10-12 seconds alone time with shrecks or puma and see what happens.

too long ..compared with other rocket launcher where schrecks or puma needs 1/4sec