Blitz ability too good?

I like the idea of only benifiting forward motion

Although I think blitzkrieg is only too strong when compared to abilities such as capture mode and "infantry tracking"(no vision bonus anymore)....on a tank destroyer

Typically if you want to kill a tank you get behind it and block pathing or you at nade it, blitzkrieg won't help in either of these situations especially since most Allied weapons bounce from the front anyways

Finally the speed bonus is only 1.3 now they reverted it from 1.5 shortly after they changed it back

Let's not get snarky, please?

Emoticons exist to help you indicate humour. Irony in itself does not work well on the web (as any foule knowes..... )

That is the infamous D variant, with issues the A and G variants (the ones produced in more significant numbers and those who we see in-game) didn´t face.

Believe it or not: Tigers were actually reasonably reliable when maintained correctly. As the war went on however that became more difficult.

The best "tank" of the war is actually the StuG. It was the backbone of the German armored force and despite a conventional design its gun and small silhouette as well as the production cost made it perform exceptionally well before the German army collapsed totally and they were used as tank-substitutes.

Here is some more:
http://fprado.com/armorsite/tigers-02.htm

"Schwere Panzer Abteilung (Funklenk) 301 - sPzAbt (FKL) 301

Panzer Abteilung 301 returned from the Eastern Front to rest and refit with Tigers to use as control vehicles for the BIV Sprengladungsträger and was organized with a headquarters and three companies each with 10 Tigers. A total of 21 more Tigers were shipped from the ordnance depot between 25 August and 15 September 1944 and an additional ten were taken over from the s.SS.PzAbt.103.

The 301st was first reported on the Western Front by the LXXXI Armee Korps on November 1944 as having 31 Tigers (27 operational) and 66 BIV (61 operational). Four Tigers were lost before the 301st was engaged in the Ardennes Offensive and at the beginning of the attack on 16 December 1944, the 301st reported 27 Tigers available of which 12 were operational. It still had 27 Tigers of which 21 were operational on the Western Front on 30 December 1944. The 301st remained on the Western Front until the end of the War."

So 4 (of 31? of 27?) were lost before the Battle of the Bulge started. Further, on Dec. 16 (first day of the battle) 12 were operational while on Dec. 30th 21 were, implying they were in and out of operation.


Here is another:

"Schwere Panzer Abteilung (Funklenk) 316 - sPzKp (FKL) 316

sPzKp (FKL) 316 was issued 10 Tiger Is in September 1943 and five Tiger IIs in March 1944, which they did not use in combat. Attached to Panzer Lehr Division and engaged in Normandy, the 316th had six out of eight Tigers undergoing repair on 1 July 1944. By 1 August 1944, the 316th was no longer with the Panzer Lehr Division."


And here is a different drawback.. the weight meant the Tiger could not cross most bridges of the time (and Europe is criss crossed by rivers):

Schwere Panzer Abteilung 509 - sPzAbt 509
Tiger I, sPzAbt.509, Russia, 1943.
Tiger I, sPzAbt.509, Russia, late 1943.

"...It must have been an impressive sight as 45 King Tigers started the mission (WILBECK, Christopher W., op cit).

The battalion successfully penetrated the first echelons of the Soviet defenses during this day's operations. There was no intact bridge capable of holding the Pz.Kpfw.Tiger Ausf.B, however, so the German attack continued without sPzAbt.509 for the next few days. During the attack on 18 January 1945, the battalion lost seven King Tigers and destroyed at least 20 Soviet tanks and numerous other antitank guns.

After that, the battalion was engaged in a number of battles in Hungary, supporting the third German offensive toward Budapest and then went to Austria. sPzAbt 509 surrendered to American troops on May 9, 1945, near Linz. The battalion had no tanks - its motorized component was one Schwimmwagen, one radio car, and one truck."

I left out the first Tiger unit in Italy that lost 60% of the Tigers transitting from the railhead to the battlezone. Those were the earliest model Tigers. The accounts given are from various other units.

Much of the aura around the Tiger today is from accounts of the "Tiger Aces", many of which were probably inflated for propoganda purposes, after all, the Germans had no way from behind their lines to atually confirm the "confirmed" kills and it is also likely that real kills were assigned from less famous crews to further inflate the heroes.

I also see that I should have included the account of the Tigers lost in Italy as by 1943 the Tiger was already a year old.

There is no doubt they were dangerous. And very feared by the opposition. This is quite normal for any sane person in combat who comes up against a capable, and more-than-capable goe. But the allied forces at the front only saw the Tigers that made it to the battlefield, not the ones that didn't. (The Germans also feared the Fireflies, with orders to kill them first.)

The Tiger had drawbacks, none of which are modeled in COH (most importantly their numbers and availability). To add the fantasy and magical Blitz only adds insult to injury.

These are my two favorite suggestions from the last blitz thread, I'll just copy them here:

- Blitz can only be activated while out of combat.
- The tank is slowed for a few seconds when the ability ends.

I've also added a card to the issue tracker for this ability. Go Vote!

So +1

And its only 30 muni!?!? Wow... it can totally swing a battle towards your side

Welcome to the other factions.

Not usable in combat seems the best change to me. It should be used as an aggressive movement, to charge past an AT gun line or flank enemy positions. Not a get out of jail free card. Reduce its cost to compensate a bit.

how would you determine if the tank is "in battle" or not?

how would you determine if the tank is "in battle" or not?

All units have an indicator on their icon in the top right to show if it is in battle or not. This icon is used for many other abilities, such as ambulance cannot heal in combat, many medical box don't work, etc. The icon show as a blinking red crosshair.

Let's not get snarky, please?

Emoticons exist to help you indicate humour. Irony in itself does not work well on the web (as any foule knowes..... )

My apologies. m(_ _)m

but wouldnt that mean that small arms fire from an engineer squad could prevent a blitz?

but wouldnt that mean that small arms fire from an engineer squad could prevent a blitz?

Yea? The idea seems fine - if you're in combat (even if you're in a tank and you have infantry shooting at you), you're still in combat. The out-of-combat Blitzkrieg could work, although it might become too situational.

i dont like that concept mainly because engineers dont even register as existing to a tank. With ambulences, theyre atleast going to take damage.

Something more interesting (if we were to go only use out of combat) might be that once the tank takes damage (eg on armor penetration), blitz is instantly deactivated.

Fox, I think your idea is even worse than out/in combat suggestion. Just imagine situations when you try to reverse out of combat or rush into combat and a single penetrating hit stops blitz, there will be tons of tears.

Not usable while in-combat is imo the one suggestion that makes most sense, soviet crew repair cannot be activated while in-combat. Remember that starting combat with blitz activated does not deactivate it.

Blitzkrieg needs to go. At the bare minimum it makes no sense on the Panther and the Tiger because these are tanks who had speed governors installed on the engines specifically because high speeds would cause the engines to fail prematurely. Never mind that the Panther's intended role was defensive in nature, and the Tiger was a break through tank, not a tank intended for encircling and flanking.


It is complete nonsense that the most durable tanks in the game are also quite fast, get a movement booster at vet 1 (while IS-2's get secure territory. woooo) and with the right commanders can deploy smoke canisters.


And this is the best smoke ability in the game, mind you. It triggers instantly, there's no real delay on the effect and it is inexpensive enough that you can reliably use it every engagement provided you're not completely cut off.


What I want to know is who decided that virtually every unit in the game needed a unique ability from vet bonuses, and that they mostly needed to be vet 1.

Blitzkrieg needs to go. At the bare minimum it makes no sense on the Panther and the Tiger because these are tanks who had speed governors installed on the engines specifically because high speeds would cause the engines to fail prematurely. Never mind that the Panther's intended role was defensive in nature, and the Tiger was a break through tank, not a tank intended for encircling and flanking.


It is complete nonsense that the most durable tanks in the game are also quite fast, get a movement booster at vet 1 (while IS-2's get secure territory. woooo) and with the right commanders can deploy smoke canisters.


And this is the best smoke ability in the game, mind you. It triggers instantly, there's no real delay on the effect and it is inexpensive enough that you can reliably use it every engagement provided you're not completely cut off.


What I want to know is who decided that virtually every unit in the game needed a unique ability from vet bonuses, and that they mostly needed to be vet 1.

Tigers and Panthers should only really be able to use the smoke but not Blitzkrieg. Needs to be replaced on these 2 tanks with something else.

- Blitz can only be activated while out of combat.

I like this idea a lot. As soon as the 'get out of jail' aspect is removed there's much less reason to do stat nerfs on the ability.

I watched a KT blitz backwards up the road on Semoisky, lol. It outran my jackson. Really dumb.

Tigers and Panthers should only really be able to use the smoke but not Blitzkrieg. Needs to be replaced on these 2 tanks with something else.

Why? Why does every Ostheer unit need an ability at vet 1?


And I still don't agree with this sentiment- the most durable tanks in the game have no business having a button they can press which immediately makes all enemy units stop targeting it, and any unit you manually told to target them to start charging their last known position.


Either that or its cost needs to be drastically increased.

That last part is what bugs me, it really messes up tank destroyers.