[Winter Balance Update] UKF Feedback

Brits are not good in 1vs1 but aren't remarkably better in the big teamgames either because they are contributing less to the long lategame in 3vs3 and 4vs4 than Soviet and USF. They have a midgame powerspike with 5 man double Bren IS. Thats about all they contribute. Once they carried allied teams in lategame with strong emplacements and very strong Comet/Churchill. That times are gone.

Really, if I look into the roster of which units I want to combine in late game at an allied team its always USF and Soviet:

Rocket artillery: Katiusha, Calliope
Onmap artillery ML-20, Priest, M8A1
Offmap: Soviet has the best allied ones
TD: Jackson
Medium Tanks: SU-34/85 / Sherman with HE (+ maybe other AT Sherman variants)
Heavy Tanks: IS-2, ISU, Pershing, KW-2 (Crocodile can't keep up with these four)
Elite infantry: Shock Troops, Guards, Ranger, Falls or Reserve Falls... and maybe Commandos (finally...)

Brits need a fixed early game (-> IS), a stock rocket artillery piece and a strong Comet/Churchill with a limit of 1 per time on the battlefield. I do think that would help a lot already.

Brits also have a very big issue with pop cap. 4 IS, a sapper and 2 tanks and you're basically out of pop. One of the reasons I went back to US recently in team games.

I don't know how to help the Brits as a whole immediately. They have severe problems across the board in both directions when it comes to power levels, units, teching, etc so any Brit fix is going to take multiple iterations to establish since every small ecosystem change has a cascade of other balance issues it would cause.

I think the first step to fixing the brits is nerfing and buffing them to a baseline level thus making them a little more bland, and fundamentally adapting them from there to create strengths and weaknesses so that they can function as both a unique, yet non-cheesy faction since their current implementation just leads to weird scaling issues, and useless units to account for Tommies being too strong.

This would be incredibly complicated and are probably a slap in the face to the balance team's Relic overseer so the odds of this actually occurring are essentially none, but the concept intrigues me enough to post a snippet of my idea. In the interest of not writing a novel (because I would) I'll keep it to just Tommies for now. As for other units mentioned in here (The AEC and the Bofors would also be adjusted to account for these changes)

4 Man Tommies would need to be buffed/nerfed to not be terrible/unkillable in their own right as they are your early game expected mainline infantry now rather than the rush for 5 man Tommies. They should adhere to function at a baseline similar level as other mainline infantry early on apart from minor things such as engagement distance preference and #fielded, etc, and the 5 Man Tommy upgrade (Which presumably is unremovable at this point) would need to operate differently. I would say that once Platoon Command Post is tech'd (This would also presumably come later with the changes to fuel expenditure and unit performance), your current tech tree splits into Bofors vs AEC.

Instead of that rename them to "Hunker Down" and "Bolster Forces" which would not be mutually exclusive (only in practicality early in the game) would respectively provide Bofors + Scoped Enfield/Artillery Flare upgrades (packaged together, 1 weapon slot, locks out medics, rebalanced weapon stats as necessary.) which would give your Tommies 2 long ranged scoped enfields and the ability to throw an artillery flare. and AEC + Bolster Infantry Squads, the latter which would change to an upgradable ability on each of your Tommies and Sappers that allows you to requisition a 5th man. (1 Weapon Slot, replace the 5th man's weapon as necessary to balance him vs Bren and Scoped Enfield).

The idea with this is to tie together all of the loose upgrades the Brits have lying around into their tech structure to provide a better UI (Mainly for new players), and provide some sort of baseline scaling for Brit infantry that doesn't require them to immediately go 5 men or lose. Additionally, since most of the problems of the Brit faction come from the forced balance around Tommies, if you can create a functional baseline mainline infantry for the Brits that doesn't break the faction, balancing everything around them in terms of team weapons and vehicles would be significantly easier.

A small QoL suggestion:

Add an ability to the British HQ to re-orient the Base artillery.

Base Artillery responds too slowly currently, and requires un-suppressed troops close to the target.

A small QoL suggestion:

Add an ability to the British HQ to re-orient the Base artillery.

Base Artillery responds too slowly currently, and requires un-suppressed troops close to the target.

It does? I thought it was a fire-and-forget ability once the smoke grenade leaves the infantry's hands? It doesn't stop firing if there aren't nearby infantry, does it?

It does? I thought it was a fire-and-forget ability once the smoke grenade leaves the infantry's hands? It doesn't stop firing if there aren't nearby infantry, does it?

Getting the smoke out in the first place requires un-suppressed troops.

Miragefla fixed an inconsistency last patch where tommies ignored suppression when throwing if they started before the suppression kicked in. UKF now needs a team of IS's to smoke MGs, but that same team can just.... shoot them instead.

Brit Smoke is terrible.

Even if you get the flare off, by the time the Smoke arrives the squad is usually pinned.

Like I said in the other thread, the throw distance of a Smoke Grenade, but the delay of a Mortar Barrage. Its the worst of both worlds.

The uc cost fuel now to may be is is possible to giver it a smoke discharge ability like that of the valentine, available after platoon cp and get disabled if upgraded with mg or flame.. It will be more responsive than the infantry smoke. Event make it a cheap upgrade exclusive with other 2 will work.

Tweak for sapper. As many already know and agree that sapper with vicker K have a terrible weapon combination so the ideal may be that heavy sapper upgrade change their weapons to rifest or get rid of the vicker k and lower the price to become a simple repair improvement.
Meanwhile, the gammon bomb unlock in hammer can be change to "demolition sapper" upgrade which give the gammon bombs to them together with a thompson (a single one) and/or better sten.

Tweak for sapper. As many already know and agree that sapper with vicker K have a terrible weapon combination so the ideal may be that heavy sapper upgrade change their weapons to rifest or get rid of the vicker k and lower the price to become a simple repair improvement.
Meanwhile, the gammon bomb unlock in hammer can be change to "demolition sapper" upgrade which give the gammon bombs to them together with a thompson (a single one) and/or better sten.

Heavy sappers intention was to sit in garrisoned emplacements and defend/maintain them, they can have up to 3 LMGs, they will still be bad, but not useless.

Heavy sappers intention was to sit in garrisoned emplacements and defend/maintain them, they can have up to 3 LMGs, they will still be bad, but not useless.

Im not saying them is bad, i use them quite alot and just think they can be improved.

Im not saying them is bad, i use them quite alot and just think they can be improved.

I know what you mean, I'm just saying you don't get them for their firepower or combat capabilities.

I know what you mean, I'm just saying you don't get them for their firepower or combat capabilities.

Yeah, i just think they can use any improvement they can get, tho.

Yeah, i just think they can use any improvement they can get, tho.

Not having in-combat movement penalty seems like quite a big improvement to me.

Not having in-combat movement penalty seems like quite a big improvement to me.

Yes, i very welcome that change.

The uc cost fuel now to may be is is possible to giver it a smoke discharge ability like that of the valentine, available after platoon cp and get disabled if upgraded with mg or flame.. It will be more responsive than the infantry smoke. Event make it a cheap upgrade exclusive with other 2 will work.

It's a shame there's no model for an UC with a two-inch mortar. The UC having a Mortar upgrade would really help alleviate one of UKF's weaknesses in quite an unique manner.

It's a shame there's no model for an UC with a two-inch mortar. The UC having a Mortar upgrade would really help alleviate one of UKF's weaknesses in quite an unique manner.

With what we have now, i will be happy with just the smoke. Aside from having no real animation, i can mod the ability out with proper voice line quite easily. The carrier will face the target and rounds will fly out from between the driver abd the gunner.

It is not the most elegant thing for sure but after seeing they add the gunner on top of the Churchill so grenades fly out of his stomach, i think the quality standard has gone low enough for something like uc smoke.

We can all dream of responsive, cost effective smoke for UKF... dont even tempt me with effective accessible indirect fire.

Suggestion for the vicker''s vet 1 ability. In current form in the preview, the requirement of being in garrison very restrict its use, especially later on as indirect become ore available and building gett destroyed.

So i think it can be change to not require garrion anymore. What im coming up with is an toggle ability that increase range by 25% and without the pen increase, at the same time reduce arc of fire to bellows that of maxim, suppression can also be reduce if needed. It will be more usable and unique.

Suggestion for the vicker''s vet 1 ability. In current form in the preview, the requirement of being in garrison very restrict its use, especially later on as indirect become ore available and building gett destroyed.

So i think it can be change to not require garrion anymore. What im coming up with is an toggle ability that increase range by 25% and without the pen increase, at the same time reduce arc of fire to bellows that of maxim, suppression can also be reduce if needed. It will be more usable and unique.

The ability does work outside garrison and the extra range is actually a very bad idea.