So basically a year ago I would've agreed with this for the most part. This is probably an accurate explanation of why people hate brits. However if you think about it it really doesn't make sense at least in theory. You talk about stripping away "tools" and instead of giving them "op options". So these "op options" are not tools? Wehrmacht is somehow considered the gold standard of what a faction should have? Why? Any attempt by relic to create asymmetrical balance has basically been homogenized at this point.
1. Eh you just described tommies. Rifles also don't rely on doctrines. Neither do cons since 7men is a thing.
2. Could you elaborate? I've mentioned that there's certain blind spots in the faction design like the lack of anti building and indirect fire. But it's not like indirect fire options make a faction popular. USF indirect fire spam with Pack Howies and Scotts is universally hated almost like brits.
3. I get that point. All those "combined" abilities doing several things that aren't really intuitive. Then again there's a similar amount but different kind of obnoxiousness in other factions commanders. Also since you say "initially": May I remind you that OKW used to have an arty strike that would literally end the game immediately if put on base? OKW is worse than brits design wise in many regards but for some reason it reveives way less hate.
0- Those OP tools end up been removed or nerfed. Example:
For the lack of normal snares, UKF had a sniper who could engine damage, a TD which could 1 shot combo destroy any medium, an AT gun with was basically a pak40 with accuracy bonus and the most broken handheld AT infantry in game with cheaper reinforce (only that u needed to micro attack ground with them).
Relic's attempt of assymetrical balance was:
-Soviets getting few options regarding units access but getting carried by those units. People don't like facing maxim spam, penals whenever they are viable, double man squad sprinting snipers, OG Shocks/Guards or cost effective call in vehicles which compensate for the lack of performance of non doc vehicles.
I could go on with any of the other 4 factions.
1- The problem is the difference between where they start at min 0 of the game and how they can end up being. You don't have this problem with any of the other main line infantry. Rifles were tuned down on purpose to allow other units to be viable while UKF generally doesn't have those options to branch out.
2- Indeed u mention it.
Tech problems is basically current OKW. Soviets doesn't have it cause they mostly don't need T1 atm and not counting 1v1 T2 is relatively cheap. And USF whole rework was basically making different officers more accessible.
What i'm saying is that from conception, UKF didn't had any tech design problems. It had other problems.
3- I know about OKW i win button, but that required like +500 muni and only worked against USF on 1v1. It also didn't last too long before nerf. In comparison, UKF abilities took quite a while to resolve and there had been several metas around those abilities.
OKW receives less hate depending on how weak/strong they are. People have a hate boner for UKF since CoH1. Many people complain about Simcity but a lot of them are hypocrites cause those same people "defended" OKW when it release and it was basically UKF simcity in the way it played.