Rifle grenade madness after last big patch

Everyone appreciates the new responsiveness on units as well as infantry now utilizing cover properly. But grenades and fuse times were balanced at a time when unit responsiveness was bad and individual models stood further apart

With the last big patch riflenades received a huge indirect buff and overperform now compared to all other grenades.

The new cover mechanic forces models of a unit closer together. A rifle grenade now typically kills 3 to 6 squad members, making a squad wipe not an exceptional occurrence. Even full health squads easily wipe against those.

This is in stark contrast to all other grenades: With the new patch units got so much more responsive. Evading grenades is such an easy feat now. The game being more responsive is obviously a good thing. If you are observing the battlefield and catch the grenade in flight you will be able to avoid most (if not all) damage. Especially grenades with the longer fuse time (everything that is on non-elite units, i think) has gotten ridiculously easy to evade. Only those troops that plaster an area with multiple nades will typically do damage. Grenades with a fuse time will only do damage on immobile weapon squads or when the player does not pay attention and does not evade.

This is obviously not true for rifle grenades. When the riflenade is flying the targeted squad is dead or forced to retreat.

Against mobile infantry, the damage potential of riflenades is literally closer to the Greyhound's canister shot than to other grenades. The canister shot is 50 ammo and on a vehicle, it will typically wipe a squad. But it has to be really close range for that ability. The riflenade is long range and on a cheap unit. It wipes less often. But it sure has the potential to do so. You will literally never wipe a mobile infantry squad with a fused 30 ammo grenade if the player is paying attention to the battlefield.

Normal grenades are just no longer worth it unless facing immobile infantry. If you are playing on a level where people evade grenades the only use fused grenades have are to flush infantry out of green cover or to use it against weapon squads. For 30 munition that is too expensive. While riflenades are far too cheap for their damage.

I propose a shorter fuse time on all grenades as well as a larger area of effect. For Axis as well as Allies. And a damage decrease to riflenades. In the end both abilities should be in line.

Rifle grenades one shot most of the time.... it is.. pretty horrible, how they can let something like this into the game is beyond me, + the M8 shotgun thing, did we ever see such things in CoH1? I don't think so.

+ISU152 one shots too much, they still haven't fixed that.

And Wehr players still whine about the lack of an effective Maxim counter.

Vetted sniper.. mortar, XD

This is not only a problem for Allies.
Sure, Allies suffer under the riflenade spam that is going on now, but it is also a problem that fused grenades are so easily avoided now. And that is also true for Axis grenades. Any fused grenade is pretty useless now (unless thrown by elite infantry).

Infiltration grenades are also annoying as pudding right now.

I don't have a problem with grenades of any type or lolotovs.
Don't like the taste of a grenade? Well don't stand there to swallow it. I got my squads whiped by grenades also, but this is not occuring so often as people say, and it's pretty normal. Much more annoying is loosing a 75% full squad on retreat, because there it's not your fault.

Are rifle grenades that dangerous now? I haven't got my riflemen squad wiped by a rifle grenade since the new cover mechanic was implemented.


Pro-Tip: Don't throw the grenade on the enemy directly. Throw it behind them. Especially good against those responsive players.

In addition, a part of my grenades untill now, killed like 1-2 squad members even if they landed where they supposed to land. So....

Yep, today I lost a full hp Rear Echelon Troops unit from 1 rifle granade.

Are rifle grenades that dangerous now? I haven't got my riflemen squad wiped by a rifle grenade since the new cover mechanic was implemented.

I think they got pretty bad. It depends on how you utilize cover. But if you use it, your models will stand closer together, there is just no way around it. This is one change of the last big patch.
This forces all kinds of AOE to be more effective. This is true for all factions: it's also a buff to mortars and arty, but here the buff is symmetrical to all factions.

For riflenades, it produces an imbalance.They are on only one faction. And they were for sure not that lethal before the cover changes. At the same time, fused grenades got nerfed big time. Evading them got a lot easier with the last patch.

How is improved unit responsiveness from the last patch favoring rifle grenades? It means you have now more reaction time to escape. Units clumping up more affects all AoE weapons, why do Rifle grenades get singled out of this? It is those weapons that you cannot dodge at all that profit most from the last patch, namely stuff like tank shells.

I think they got pretty bad. It depends on how you utilize cover. But if you use it, your models will stand closer together, there is just no way around it. This is one change of the last big patch.
This forces all kinds of AOE to be more effective. This is true for all factions: it's also a buff to mortars and arty, but here the buff is symmetrical to all factions.

For riflenades, it produces an imbalance.They are on only one faction. And they were for sure not that lethal before the cover changes. At the same time, fused grenades got nerfed big time. Evading them got a lot easier with the last patch.

I know, but I feel that rifle grenade is easier to avoid now. The AoE of the rifle grenade is slightly smaller than the regular grenades and the animation also lasts quite a while before the guy actually fires the rifle grenade. If he fires at long range then he risks wasting the grenade since they take a while to reach the target but if he goes close range then you know something is up since grenadiers are kinda lame at close range unless they have g43.

Currently, the grenades that I like the most are hand-thrown grenades because they just perform better for me than the rifle grenade.

How is improved unit responsiveness from the last patch favoring rifle grenades? It means you have now more reaction time to escape. Units clumping up more affects all AoE weapons, why do Rifle grenades get singled out of this? It is those weapons that you cannot dodge at all that profit most from the last patch, namely stuff like tank shells.

Range, accesibility, animation.

It's not a problem with the RN per se rather than units hugging more now.

Edit:
PD: i wouldn't use a RN as a normal nade. The surprise factor is key here, so i wouldn't use it mid combat against another unit cause my opponent is pretty sure to be paying attention.

Not only allied units get wiped right and left due to the new "cover behaviour", axis units too. From what I experenced (having played all armies, especially soviets) since the change I'd say axis units even more, as 4 men are wiped more easily than 5 or 6 man squads.

...well make up your mind people ... last time it was squads need to spread out to avoid getting grenade/mortar wiped ... then squads need to fit in cover ... now it's back the other way. Deal with it.

A nerf to the reiflegrenades would be like taking the teeth from a snake. You could just chase it, and it could do nothing.

Are rifle grenades that dangerous now? I haven't got my riflemen squad wiped by a rifle grenade since the new cover mechanic was implemented.


Pro-Tip: Don't throw the grenade on the enemy directly. Throw it behind them. Especially good against those responsive players.

No they are not that good I think OP just cant micro his units.

What's next ? "Oh pls Relic nerf Pioneers ! Nerf MG42 !"

They are indeed pretty ridiciluos as they make the 0.50 cal and to a lesser extent the maxim extremelly easy to wipe as 2 riflegrenades will reliable wipe the maxim and 0.50 cal.