Ambulance speed

Ambulance - 5.4 and 1.3 no battle purpose.
Halftrak - 7.2 and 2.1 can be use in battle.
M5 - 7 and 2 same as above.

Asymetrical balance

The healing thing has a pretty long timer on it. Every faction but the soviets has a way to heal in the field (doctrinal forward hq doesn't count). Ost has multiple ways, too. All this still includes field reinforcement, at faster speeds, with more health and armor, useful combat upgrades, transportation, etc. So I don't see how a faster acceleration on the ambulance is going to break anything that isn't already broken between okw and ost, considering they do it better.

A fast ambulance is also another thing to micro for the already busy US player, and I would think it very risky to have it move across the map all the time (but proportionately rewarding). The aura heal is also much slower than when the medics jump out and if you have to manage them too, while taking the combat unit out of combat for a short time, I think this is enough to balance it on its own.
As well as its difference to the halftracks—weaker, can't really transport, and no offensive capability. If you are worried about capping, make the medics weaker in combat and then capping will risk the enemy capturing your vehicle.

I agree, it needs a siren and flashy lights upgrade.

Top speed is fine I guess, but the acceleration is just godawful.

It is the associated risk and I think it is best that it stays. Having both healing/reinforcing is a huge benefit right on the frontlines and if done correctly (even without a Major) you place so much pressure on your opponent that they can't help but forefit map control.

If you misplace your medic you should be punished for it.

You realize a 222 can kill it WAY faster then an M20 or Greyhound can kill an Ost halftrack let alone the OKW medic truck.

Benefits:
It comes early
It can heal
Has a Medic inside that can be removed
Sometimes it can even reinforce! See below.
Low Fuel cost.


So lets go over its drawbacks:

Cannot Garrison multiple squads
Slower Acceleration then a King Tiger
Slower top speed than all other HTs
Cannot Reinforce in non captured territory
Cannot Reinforce if territory is cut of from HQ
Low Armor and HPs the only way to reliably escape a SturmPio is to literally retreat the Ambulance BEFORE it sees the Sturmpio

But yes it comes early is cheap on fuel (but the Manpower cost is still high enough I dont want to be constantly replacing this thing)

I think the only way to make this thing easier to kill would be to make it immobile. I mean a single squad can easily kill it from full health before it can escape in most cases and that is just wrong. This is why most people leave it at HQ.

Manpower cost is enough and the Micro demand is so high its not worth the Squeeze unless of course you are the StephenJF, Cataclaw, VonIvans of the world. If I am fighting a battle and dodging potentially squad whiping Rnades all damn day I generally have a hard time sparing tasks for the Ambulance thats going to surely die in a few hits.

You realize a 222 can kill it WAY faster then an M20 or Greyhound can kill an Ost halftrack let alone the OKW medic truck.

Yeah I know.

Benefits/Drawbacks list.

I feel these advantages cancel out the disadvantages. It serves a different role the medic truck compared to the HT.

• HT option to be used offensively or defensively in intense fighting. You do have to eventually hard retreat to heal though. Yes, you can build your medic bunker further up as well, however that often has even more risk than the medic truck and your hard retreated infantry must always come to this bunker (may be longer route).
  
• Medic best used in intense defensive fighting (behind building/hedge). Alternatively, it can be used in controlled offensive (you know you can easily soft retreat).
  

But yes it comes early is cheap on fuel (but the Manpower cost is still high enough I dont want to be constantly replacing this thing)

Yeah it is my kill priority when I see it. Killing it actually rewards you somewhere in the order of 400-500MP. Not only does it cost a lot but the lack of healing in the next few engagements costs manpower.
If you get it early you lose a squad on the map, however you also get a lot more map sustain so clever building usage, cover and flanks can overcome.

I think the only way to make this thing easier to kill would be to make it immobile. I mean a single squad can easily kill it from full health before it can escape in most cases and that is just wrong. This is why most people leave it at HQ.

I often bring it forward but bring it back later to HQ because I hard retreat more than soft retreating as my opponent gets more hard hitting units. If I know I am going to lose an engagement to LMG gren or ober, P2 or 222. I rather get out immediately via hard retreating as it saves more manpower. I will not bring the medic back up until I get the Major.

Manpower cost is enough and the Micro demand is so high its not worth the Squeeze unless of course you are the StephenJF, Cataclaw, VonIvans of the world. If I am fighting a battle and dodging potentially squad whiping Rnades all damn day I generally have a hard time sparing tasks for the Ambulance thats going to surely die in a few hits.

Micromanagement speed is irrelevant sorry. This falls into map awareness and vision control, not micromanagement. Positioning your rifles/RE in the right positions on the map prior to fights even commencing make it safe for your medic indirectly. If you can spare time to listen in the FoW it is extra points. The key to the medic truck is safe and smart unit positioning and that shouldn't be lost.

Low Armor and HPs. The only way to reliably escape a SturmPio is to literally retreat the Ambulance BEFORE it sees the Sturmpio.

I love my medics. I typically get them earlier than other players. Trust me though, if there is no risk in having them on the field (aka everyone does it) and they can quickly speed off it could be really tricky to deal with USF on urban maps. It already is pretty hard when USF get good building control.

Catching the medic with its pants down as Axis due to negating the USF players vision control is a early/mid game tactical maneouvre that should be rewarded strongly.

At most I would bump the Medic truck acceleration by the smallest of margins (0.2-0.3). Do not touch its top speed. I rather see no change though to be honest. It is a good risk vs. reward variable and at the moment it is probably one of the easiest risk elements to predict. There is a lot worse risk RNG elements that throw me off than a predictable truck placement.

Let's put it in another way, it's a FHQ that can move to safety and costs 1/4 of a FHQ, it's also non-doctrinal and can magically heal all the units in the radius of the ability without needing the medics to move from model to model.

Sounds OP now doesn't it?


Seriously, it's fine as it is, having a super fast,t0,low cost reinfoce and healing point would be absurd.

The healing thing has a pretty long timer on it. Every faction but the soviets has a way to heal in the field (doctrinal forward hq doesn't count). Ost has multiple ways, too. All this still includes field reinforcement, at faster speeds, with more health and armor, useful combat upgrades, transportation, etc. So I don't see how a faster acceleration on the ambulance is going to break anything that isn't already broken between okw and ost, considering they do it better.

OKW and Wehr also PAY to heal their troops.

Ambulance is free AoE heal. It is exponentially more powerful.

They also PAY more for their in field reinforcement.

Ambulance is vulnerable because it's cheap and very effective when used properly.

Just to compare forward reinforce/heal costs for the factions:
Ostheer: 300MP 120Muni for two immobile bunkers that have to be built onsite.
Soviet: 500+MP 150F for forward reinforce, no forward healing. If you count the forward HQ doctrine, it's 300MP 60F.
OKW: Tech structure, vulnerable to destruction while setting up, expensive to replace, decides your unit roster for opening of the game.

It would be pretty annoying to have rifle blob + ambulance move straight to cutoff at the 3 minute mark as wehrmacht, sit there and reinforce/heal in green cover. Then the moment the ambulance is remotely threatened it zips back to base (or some location slightly further back).

If it gets hit by a faust or shreck it's pretty much guaranteed dead. Giving it more mobility than a king tiger isn't going to change that.

I think it's fine, no need to change anything.

Good thing axis tanks when poorly positioned can just pop smoke and blitz away, but damm those medics, if that american bastard just slightly puts his ambulance out of position it must DIE! No escape for medics!

Good thing axis tanks when poorly positioned can just pop smoke and blitz away, but damm those medics, if that american bastard just slightly puts his ambulance out of position it must DIE! No escape for medics!

I normally disapprove of this type of sarcastic argument but this time I laughed because it's so true.

Just to compare forward reinforce/heal costs for the factions:
Ostheer: 300MP 120Muni for two immobile bunkers that have to be built onsite.
Soviet: 500+MP 150F for forward reinforce, no forward healing. If you count the forward HQ doctrine, it's 300MP 60F.
OKW: Tech structure, vulnerable to destruction while setting up, expensive to replace, decides your unit roster for opening of the game.

It would be pretty annoying to have rifle blob + ambulance move straight to cutoff at the 3 minute mark as wehrmacht, sit there and reinforce/heal in green cover. Then the moment the ambulance is remotely threatened it zips back to base (or some location slightly further back).

Which is why it can't reinforce an any unconnected territory. It's not as good as a real half track for that reason.

Immobile bunkers that take explosives or tanks to destroy. And why reinforce from the bunker. The half track can reinforce with no muni expense. None of these things can be easily killed by a single non at infantry squad in mere seconds with little to no chance to escape. I see the ambulance as all risk and little reward. The medic unit inside I prefer over the actual vehicle because he can actually get from point a to n faster and is actually harder to kill......

A real half track would be welcome. I guess the USF gave all the m5s to the soviets......

I hate US ambulance with passion. And not because its slow.

First of all it forces you to blob infantry because cooldown between heals is too damn long, so you always waiting for more squads to retreat before start healing. Second: its super vurnerable against early Puma, if you have no AT gun, no m20 mines, no bazookas (lol), Puma will come to your base and kill it. Third: yes, you can save medics and even replace them with RE squad, but these medics are complete retards, you actually need to micro them to heal your troops. MICRO MEDICS TO HEAL YOUR TROOPS. Relic please.

First of all it forces you to blob infantry because cooldown between heals is too damn long, so you always waiting for more squads to retreat before start healing.

You could uncrew the medics to heal individual squads...

OKW and Wehr also PAY to heal their troops.

Ambulance is free AoE heal. It is exponentially more powerful.

They also PAY more for their in field reinforcement.

Ambulance is vulnerable because it's cheap and very effective when used properly.

I see that you have capitalized "pay". Last I checked, I had to pay for an ambulance. The ambulance is not more powerful than other medics. You can't even really quantify the medic cost for OKW, because they get it as a package deal. It's not mobile, but can be put in a good position, no delay on healing, a huge amount of armor and hp, and it's a shot blocker. It's a different cost for a different level of utility.

So ambulance is op, because it can heal more than 3 squads at a time? It doesn't even stay active long enough to fully heal badly damaged troops. The ambulance can only do 1 thing and has limits placed on it's operation, so having a decent amount of acceleration proportional to a real ambulance is not something that will make balance worse. 250/10 is not exactly cheap for something that is going to take up your pop cap and not fight. It's actually pretty close to the cost of half-tracks without the teching cost.

Does the ambulance also not reinforce when moving? It has to completely stop to do so, and if you have other vehicles around then it's always going to budge to account for pathfinding, which disrupts reinforcement.
Reinforcing when moving, moving faster, or faster acceleration each in themselves already makes the USF Ambulance worth using.

I would like to point out that the Wehrmacht squads can heal another squad in the field as a Vet ability for a muni cost 20/30 muni iirc? Lets face it vet 1 is not a hard milestone to achieve at all.

Sturmpioneers can drop health crates, three of them. This is also at the cost of muni, so if the player was in a tight spot but did not want to retreat back to his medic field truck he could pop one of them.

Volksgrenadiers, OKW's baseline infantry gain the ability to heal out of combat as a passive ability at vet 3/4 iirc as well? Once a shreck has been purchased, gaining 3/4 levels of vet is not exactly difficult.

The soviets have no way of healing in the field at all. other than the field HQ which is in a mediocre gimmicky faction. The building can either be razed to the ground with fire or crushed with tanks. Or in the OKW's case pummeled with stuka rockets.

Someone on the forums suggested the following before and I would like to reiterate it. The US medics should have an ability similar to the major, which ties the medics to a point of your choice. They should heal any soldiers that are out of combat in the region but then RETURN to the 'healing point' once they have finished or the receiving unit has walked out of the aura/area. This would stop your medics from romping half way across the map to then be shouted at by you the player, or gunned down