[Winter Balance Update] UKF Feedback

After playing several patch games I have 2 suggestions about brits (they aren't new, just not mentioned in this patch):
1) can we make "crew repair" for uc not aviable when in combat, just like any other crew repairs abilities?
2) I think AEC's tread shot full stun is too much, maybe nerf it a bit to slow down enemy vehicle by 90-95% (just like pak40 ability, which was nerfed in a similar way).

+1

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.

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.

It filled the gap in fighting fortified positions and thinning out blobs with its long range autoattack, but it never helped at fighting artillery behind enemy frontlines. That was always a blank spot in the UKF nondoctrinal roster.

I agree there would have been other ways to hinder sim city builds which wouldn't have dismantled UKF mortar play.

2) I think AEC's tread shot full stun is too much, maybe nerf it a bit to slow down enemy vehicle by 90-95% (just like pak40 ability, which was nerfed in a similar way).

PAK40 ability is easy to use. Isn't AEC's tread shot incredible unreliable and fiddly to pull off? Was this really fixed somehow?

AEC tread shot is not incedibly unreliable at all. It's way too rewarding for low amount of effort it requires to be used. One way to make it not OP is to just short the range to pointblank or something like that.

I noticed that the UKF Lend Lease M5 HT wasn't mentioned among the halftracks that gain healing ability, intentional?

Edit: same for M3 supply HT.

Edit2: checked, they can heal too, great news!

QoL request: would it be possible that when selecting a regular and recovery sapper squad more abilities would be available? Such as heat grenades, building defenses, deconstructing emplacements and perhaps the recovery sapper's smoke nade and salvaging.

For example if you select an ostheer grenadier and the jaeger command squad, then you can select the faust, riflenade and even smoke nade and flare, despite only the JCS having them.

QoL request: would it be possible that when selecting a regular and recovery sapper squad more abilities would be available? Such as heat grenades, building defenses, deconstructing emplacements and perhaps the recovery sapper's smoke nade and salvaging.

Yes, for Recovery and regular Sappers this is planned to be included at some point. I think we can do the same for the Command and regular Panther. Not sure if there are other units.

Can we look at how trenches hard counter the OKW stuka zu fuss? The fact that units entrenched at full HP won't even drop a model to a direct stuka hit is pretty dumb when a medkit section can just heal at the press of a button. It needs to drop some models at least....

While I really like the idea of Heavy Mortar Barrage giving Brits non-doc late game arty I feel like the Stuka changes will render emplacements completely useless in team games where all you need is Vet 1 Napalm rockets and some munitions and any emplacement is toast with minimal follow-up even with brace. I feel like fire damage versus emplacements needs looked at, increased scatter when firing into FoW, or maybe reducing the max range of the napalm rockets so that it's less easy to nuke defensively placed mortar pits or add some risk to using the rockets.

Additionally it might be cool if Hammer/Anvil added different bonuses to Mortar pits like slightly longer Brace, slightly longer auto fire range, ability to fire flares, etc.

Can we look at how trenches hard counter the OKW stuka zu fuss?

There's the vet 1 incendiary barrage now.

There's the vet 1 incendiary barrage now.

Ok. So you incindiary barrage for muni cost, then get the same result as the squad could just walk out and heal if they don't drop a model. That all depends how much damage it does and the scatter and AoE of the rockets. This is all vet 1 as well. And since we all know vet 1 in inachieveable as we can see from the t34 ram backlash, it just seems a little to easy to just avoid and heal and then entrench again.

I just think the regular barrage should do something to the model count or destroy the trench or something.

Units shouldnt require vet to do their job. A 100 fuel rocket arty that's only good vs static targets shouldn't be rendered inert via a free skill on core infantry and certainly shouldn't require munitions for a chance at hopefully maybe inflicting manpower bleed.

The Stuka already gets a big buff against emplacements. It annihilates static team weapons and squads. The new incendiary barrage has a good chance to annihilate a Vickers in a trench before it can even pack up and get out. It will kill at least 2-3 models in seconds. It's only 40 munitions atm. There are plenty of options to counter trenches, especially now that AT weapons will work against them, so there is no reason to make the Stuka better against them and let it counter half the faction with the stock barrage.

New update. British changes are in the spoilers below.

https://community.companyofheroes.com/discussion/comment/288466#Comment_288466

Show Spoiler

33% capping bonus + free sprint on mainline inf + buff to infantry section (no one uses brens) makes me seriously doubt the balance teams sanity

I mean WTF

33% capping bonus + free sprint on mainline inf + buff to infantry section (no one uses brens) makes me seriously doubt the balance teams sanity

I mean WTF

It's not really a dps upgrade tho. It just changes the DPS profile even more towards a long range unit and apparently straight up decreases their moving dps.

Edit: I agree on the movement speed tho, although 15% speed isn't that much. I'd give them a sprint ability instead for 5-10 ammo.

It's not really a dps upgrade tho. It just changes the DPS profile even more towards a long range unit and apparently straight up decreases their moving dps.

Nice 1 rifle is changed, therefore they get passive cover bonus and can snipe all infantry at long range in a blob while sprinting around the map instantly capping evrything

Am i the only one who sees how insane this is?

Nice 1 rifle is changed, therefore they get passive cover bonus and can snipe all infantry at long range in a blob while sprinting around the map instantly capping evrything

Am i the only one who sees how insane this is?

Then we need some 1v1 test matches to show if its broken or not. Right now brits would be completely dead in 1v1.

And teamgames are wayyy less about capping around the map and more about winning your engagements. And Im not sure if lowering your healing capabilities, butchering sandbag build time and lowering your mid/short range as well as moving dps (the scoped rifle cannot be used on the move) would rly help you do that.

Honestly I kinda agree with that. I mean it need more testing, but it really sounds a bit broken, considering that in OKW vs UKF match up is already very hard for OKW, because there is no way to approach IS in cover.

Removing cover penalties aswell as adding cap\de-cap bonus will just promote blobing and fast bolster, at least right now IS somewhat capped by the fact they need to stay in cover, so their power is somewhat manageable + on top of that all sandbags were nerfed, meaning again IS would lose nothing.

And this is considering they are out of cover, if they are in cover they will be even stronger then they are right now.

This loss of 1 weapon slot is that important considering how good you can snowball with new upgrade.

Honestly if one want to give brits cap\decap bonuses they rather should be tied pyrotechnics supplies, making in a proper chose over no-brainer medical supplies, not give them another upgrade which makes strong inf even stronger.

Even on paper it makes much more sence, considering for cap\de-cap they have smoke, so there is one synergy. And speed boost to get faster to the possition to drop arty.