Rear Echelons

So, I'm fairly certain we all know that the USF Rear Echelons are possibly the worst engineer unit out of all the factions. They lack any combat abilities, unlike both Axis engineers (who can handle combat fairly easily), lack anti-garrison without having to build a pit of death (unlike the vanilla armies' engineers, who can get flamethrowers), and lack any explosives whatsoever, unlike EVERY OTHER engineer in the game.

My suggestion, although feel free to object to it, is to arms all the Rear Echelons with M2 Carbines upon reaching Vet 2. It's effectively an automatic upgrade compared to the M1 Carbine they have right now. Gameplay-wise, they should become reasonable assault troops, better than all the other engineers (save Sturmpioneer) in combat duties. History-wise, troops were able to field-modify M1 Carbines to make them select-fire with a kit that was handed out. A few made it to Europe by the end of 1944, so that's covered.

Comments on this? I personally feel that this could make up for at least some of the shortcomings of the Rear Echelons.

They become somewhat good infantry squad if you have munitions to arm them with m1919s for example. Also they can build tank traps which provide green cover and hard to destroy. I don't think they underperforming.

They get FREE grenades from fighting pits and get a free fifth man at Vet 2. They are REAR echelon troops, they are not supposed to assault, but fortify and lock down areas behind the lines. They are also the cheapest infantry in the game I believe, they are fine.

They get FREE grenades from fighting pits and get a free fifth man at Vet 2. They are REAR echelon troops, they are not supposed to assault, but fortify and lock down areas behind the lines. They are also the cheapest infantry in the game I believe, they are fine.

ur joking right?

They do almost ZERO damage to anything. i only give them double zooks for my early game AT. cus i cant risk losing DPS on any of my rifles.

Except not very long ago there were people spamming these. When BARs didn't suck, equipping a rear echelon squad with these or 1919s made them the most cost effective infantry unit in the game. They are definitely fine as is.

They become somewhat good infantry squad if you have munitions to arm them with m1919s for example. Also they can build tank traps which provide green cover and hard to destroy. I don't think they underperforming.

Eh, I tend to stay away from Tank Traps - far as I can tell, Panthers and Brummbars still just crush them, making them worthless. M1919A6s also require a doctrine, so that's not always going to be the case, although if they do get M1919s, they do get fairly effective, but hey, so does anything else that picks it up. And I'm not about to put 120 munitions into a squad that's very liable to perish quickly.

They get FREE grenades from fighting pits and get a free fifth man at Vet 2. They are REAR echelon troops, they are not supposed to assault, but fortify and lock down areas behind the lines. They are also the cheapest infantry in the game I believe, they are fine.

Yes, free grenades that, first of all, requires them to be inside of a Fighting Position, and second of all, makes them EXTREMELY vulnerable to counter-rifle grenades from Grenadiers, which will literally wipe the squad 100% of the time unless they have more than 4 guys. The grenades also do 40 damage - half a soldier's health pool. It's a niche tool that can come in handy with accurate ranged support, but it needs positions that can be easily defended.

Cheapest infantry, yes, but also the most worthless infantry in the game. Taking into consideration the USF's Vehicle Crews, there's literally no reason to get them except to get Minesweepers - which in an of themselves makes them worth getting, but not for any other reason I know of.

Except not very long ago

Your comment is invalid

What a surprise, Ratchet wants to make his American unit more powerful despite already being good with weapon upgrades and being among the cheapest units in the game. When BARs get rebuffed I can see these being spammed again.

Yes, spend hundreds of munitions to deal with infantry that can counter them without the need of munitions themselves. Cheap engineer unit that i dont keep more than one of in my forces, mainly for repairs.

Spend 120 munitions or instead buy another rifleman squad. "Hard" decision.

OK you can spend some muni for them. and you can get more strong RE.

but other engineers don't need muni Remember sturm pios

What a surprise, Ratchet wants to make his American unit more powerful despite already being good with weapon upgrades and being among the cheapest units in the game. When BARs get rebuffed I can see these being spammed again.

because spamming 120 munitions is easy right and they wouldnt get focusfired to oblivion ? and why would you not equip the bars on the actual riflemen that you have already produced which would have made sense , if just one bar, was enough to make rets > grens thats a problem for bars not rets . what a surprise , axis fanboy has no clue

i wish theyd raise the muntions cost for volley fire up to 25, maybe even 30 (depending on testing) in exchange for increasing the speed at which volley fire takes effect. I've NEVER used it succesfully except to win out against another pioneer squad in a 1v1 firefight. In normal mid game firefights.. the combat tends to be over by the time volley fire takes effect.

i wish theyd raise the muntions cost for volley fire up to 25, maybe even 30 (depending on testing) in exchange for increasing the speed at which volley fire takes effect. I've NEVER used it succesfully except to win out against another pioneer squad in a 1v1 firefight. In normal mid game firefights.. the combat tends to be over by the time volley fire takes effect.

even with that pios will generally loose one model and then proceed to overpower your rets

ur joking right?

They do almost ZERO damage to anything. i only give them double zooks for my early game AT. cus i cant risk losing DPS on any of my rifles.

Just bump up their damage to a reasonable level. Never understood why they should not be able to kill anyone even if they shoot for a minute.

While we have obers that can beat enemies that outnumber them.....

because spamming 120 munitions is easy right and they wouldnt get focusfired to oblivion ? and why would you not equip the bars on the actual riflemen that you have already produced which would have made sense , if just one bar, was enough to make rets > grens thats a problem for bars not rets . what a surprise , axis fanboy has no clue

Buffing a unit with no serious thought of the ramifications that this will bring when BARs and zooks are brought up to an acceptable level just shows how shortsighted this community is. Clearly cheapest unit in the game means nothing to you. Least of all that given weapons, these squads perform way above their cost. High level players were spamming these not two patches ago for a reason. You want to buff RET fine, but they should not be allowed to pick up weapons. The problem is bars are an awful upgrade for rifles right now because they already have such high DPS. In order to make them worth it they must be a sizeable upgrade for rifles. And when they are that means that RET with these upgrades will be able to out DPS and win for cost against squads they shouldn't be beating.

The problem is bars are an awful upgrade for rifles right now because they already have such high DPS.

This comment shows ur complete ignorance towards this game

What are you talking about? I use them instead of Riflemen all the time and end up winning games. They are great at holding the line and I dont even spend mun on getting them BARs or anything, just save it for the fighting pits to protect the ground you have taken. I tend to use four with the LT and Capt and they do there job.

There fine, if you want to get more out of them, pry to the RNG god from the stupid warspoil system that you get the bulletin for them.

put them in the m20 and get a Shrek squad for 160mp. Very nice.
But beware: they do not auto repair once they exit the m20

This comment shows ur complete ignorance towards this game

i stoped reading his post exactly at this point too , yeah dem rifles thgey make even g43 grens jealous with their high dps Kappa

IMO they don't need any kind of buff. they are very cheap, and they are good support units. And people tend to forget "Volley Fire" which is very useful when used right. They are not supposed to fight, but I think some kind of garrison-clearing weapon (FT) could make them more useful. But again, IMO they are fine.
I think another reason is that in most situations (and in 1v1 and 2v2 of course) Rifles are pretty much superior (they can get to mid range which they excel at) and it would be too much DPS if your REs had extra firepower.