Hands on Western Fronts Armies

Excited about this release

Hey so US will be 6-man squad and OKW will be 4-man squad?

Rifles are 5 men, airborne is 6. Can't talk about OKW infantry because it's not on the list.

Interested to hear how the Sturmtiger manual reload mechanics work.

When you catch a Sturmtiger on reload, can it still move? How long is the reload duration? If you kill its crew while they're reloading, is the tank considered abandoned / recrewable?

Can you choose when to reload the Sturmtiger?

you can choose when to reload and fire and there is a cool animation with a crane and crew members loading a new rocket in.

The disadvantage of the sturmtiger is that if you are caught reloading by pretty much anything then the crew will be killed. This makes it very easy for your enemies to steal it if you are careless or can't protect it.

How do riflemen upgrades work? Do they switch out weapons at the base, are they global upgrades that can be grabbed anytime at the base?

West Germans have Fallschirmyaegers, Americans have paratroopers, if the Soviet Union with the release of DLC will not add paratroopers it would not be fair.

This thread is a pain in the ass to read, because many things to forbidden to say thanks to stupid NDA.

I heard American tank crews can exit and enter their tanks at will, but I haven't read that in any of the articles. Is it true? What purpose does that serve? (File this question under "Sherman" so it's NDA safe!)

I heard American tank crews can exit and enter their tanks at will, but I haven't read that in any of the articles. Is it true? What purpose does that serve? (File this question under "Sherman" so it's NDA safe!)

I did find this in the articles, and the purpose is that the tank crews can cap, but i wonder if i can just give tanks to my ally so he has an army of shermans, and i am not resource starved as a result and can spam infantry...

I heard American tank crews can exit and enter their tanks at will, but I haven't read that in any of the articles. Is it true? What purpose does that serve? (File this question under "Sherman" so it's NDA safe!)

I really hope that I don't accidentally cross a line, but I believe this one is covered by the faction vision statements so I'll just post that:

US Forces

This army should have a definite character, one defined by the experience of the US/AEF army during the middle part of the European campaign and later.

· An Army that bent, but didn’t break. While they had occasional tactical losses, they were flexible and we able to blunt most attacks.

Like most of the Western militaries opposing the Germans, it used the strategy of applying the maximum firepower and the minimum infantry. However, their infantry were versatile and armed with good rifles that gave the individual soldier excellent firepower.
The US Forces were not ‘advantaged’ with heavy tanks. There is absolutely no equivalent to Tigers, King Tigers, Jagdtigers. This is an intended asymmetrical element that matches history.

· Their forces can create a feeling of ad hoc defense – -redacted- troops called into combat can help with defenses and manning captured weapons.
· The entire Force is intended to be flexible and mobile.

Army Features

Crew Disembark
USF Vehicles can disembark their vehicles to repair, capture, and carry around Veterancy from one vehicle to another.

Weapon Racks
All US Forces Infantry can equip powerful new weapons by interacting with the weapon racks at the base. BAR LMGs, bazookas, and other weapons can be picked up creating versatile squad loadouts.

New Paradrop System
USF have access to Paratroopers and Paradropped weapons via Commander selection. Players can Paradrop into the Fog of War now, but with an increased and added risk of drifting and possibly landing on trees and buildings. Paratroopers are a high risk, high reward element.

I'm not going to post the OKW because their faction vision statment conflicts with what I can talk about. I'm not going to risk it.

Would you be allowed to tell me what happens if a Tank Crew leaves their vehicle and it is destroyed? And does their vehicle count as Abandoned while unoccupied (able to be re-crewed by any infantry, or stolen by the enemy)?

Seems like a really interesting concept, Americans truly are the most versatile.

Para can be dropped anywhere, but they can't reinforce anywhere like the first game. They need someone to plant a beacon for the plane act as Para's reinforcing point.
Good thing about that, Para reinforcing cost would no longer insane high. They can also reinforce from HQ and other HT thingy.
And no RR for them.

Rifles: Best basic infantry (again)

All US vehicle can be dismount and given to anyone capture it, you may give them to the Commies creating crazy combo or troll your teammate giving Sherman to the Germans.
The crew themselves can fight, cap, repair their own wheel.

Infrared Halftracks = Maphack Halftrack

KT = Fat Tiger, period

Would you be allowed to tell me what happens if a Tank Crew leaves their vehicle and it is destroyed? And does their vehicle count as Abandoned while unoccupied (able to be re-crewed by any infantry, or stolen by the enemy)?

Seems like a really interesting concept, Americans truly are the most versatile.

Yeah it basically acts as like an abandoned vehicle. The crew itself is a unit of it's own and it holds the vet it obtains from the vehicle. You can take them out and put them in any other vehicle and they will have the same experience, even captured enemy vehicles like a panther or P4. Any squad can drive a vehicle though, but the crew is good because they can repair. They can't reenter the vehicle under combat though so catching them repairing can reward you with some free tanks.

Spy Network Half-Tracks, haha. I like what I hear though, it all sounds really interesting. It's really neat that US Crews can exit their tanks to repair, I can't wait 'till I get a chance to Battlefield them, that is to say run up and jump in while they're standing outside fixing it

Spy Network Half-Tracks, haha. I like what I hear though, it all sounds really interesting. It's really neat that US Crews can exit their tanks to repair, I can't wait 'till I get a chance to Battlefield them, that is to say run up and jump in while they're standing outside fixing it

Oh no, much better then spy network. You can actually see them as the light passes over. The enemy can tell that he is being seen too, they kind of flash red or white when spotted.

Americans are EXTREMELY versatile. I hope it stays that way long enough for me to play it. What are the restrictions on paratroopers, can i just drop them anywhere, on nuetral and enemy territory as well? Say i lost a skirmish and the last thing i see is a sturmtiger hiding in the corner - can i simply just drop paratroopers on them and steal it *snap* like that? Paratroopers will be the bane of both german factions then. Or lets say a jagdtiger is stopping for repairs and only needs one shot to be destroyed. Cant i simply paradrop an AT gun behind it and simply beat it the easy way? I am going to have a lot of fun abusing Americans... OKW sounds like the soviets can easily crush them. Soviet tier 2 AT guns will dominate their mobile trucks.

Americans are EXTREMELY versatile. I hope it stays that way long enough for me to play it. What are the restrictions on paratroopers, can i just drop them anywhere, on nuetral and enemy territory as well? Say i lost a skirmish and the last thing i see is a sturmtiger hiding in the corner - can i simply just drop paratroopers on them and steal it *snap* like that? Paratroopers will be the bane of both german factions then. Or lets say a jagdtiger is stopping for repairs and only needs one shot to be destroyed. Cant i simply paradrop an AT gun behind it and simply beat it the easy way? I am going to have a lot of fun abusing Americans... OKW sounds like the soviets can easily crush them. Soviet tier 2 AT guns will dominate their mobile trucks.

I can't talk about the other paradroped stuff, but I can talk about the paratroopers themsleves:

-Can drop anywhere on the map, but the drop zone is large and they will die if they land on trees or buildings, not to mention enemy AA. Beacons lower the area of the drop zones letting them drop more safely.
-Can use cooked grenades and a timed demolition charge
-Can be upgraded with either thompsons or 2 browning LMGs anywhere on the map. Thompsons allow them to sacrifice durability for attack power for a short amount of time. LMGs allow them to suppress infantry.
- They can reinforce if near a beacon.There is another unit within the doctrine that sets them.
-they aren't cheap.

Also Americans are very versatile, but just like the other factions they can't afford everything. So there are shore to be holes somewhere you can exploit.