No, ISG eats mortar pit alive. Both ISG and Pack howi are far superior indirect fire options as a stock unit (and doctrinal Ostheer/USF mortar halftracks are superior too).
Every faction should have something in stock nondoc to counter:
- sniper play
- MG positions
- blobs
- early light vehicles/tanks
- heavy tanks
- artillery behind enemy frontline
Doctrinal stuff should be always optional to give you partly stronger methods or an alternate playstyle for achieving your goals but they shouldn't give you one of the aspects above exklusively.
Biggest UKF nondoctrinal problem:
- can't fight artillery behind enemy frontline
Runners-up for nondcotrinal UKF:
- has problems in latgame to fight fortified positions and blobs
There are quite a few UKF docs which doesn't fill this gaps.
the old pit COULD deliver everything the ukf needed but it was so damn easy it was OP. set and forget, no need to ever barrage. add in self healing aaaaaand its demo charged out of the game.
i wish they had experimented with the core emplacement design of garrison bonuses (which have actually basically been reduced/removed into nothingness) to make it a little less easy mode instead of ensuring it was never used again. bonus range when garrisoned or only 1 mortar unless garrisoned ect.
another thing that would have done wonders to make emplacements palpable would have been a hard cap... freedom for players to cheese the system by turning an RTS into tower defense is NOT better than guide lines that allow for balance. hard caps did wonders for heavy armour and i think it could really do good for all problem units frankly.