Halftracks of 4 factions

Let's talk about the Halftracks.
Ost 251HT is really shit!! The tech-cost, and the updating(120 munitions).
Anyway, US AA HT is the best.

You want to talk about reinforcing transports or about AA, because these are two completely separate things.

Unless you talk soviets, in which case its one really underwhelming and useless thing.

Troop transport and reinforcing:

M5 is the best halftrack in game. Double flamer m5 is brutal, and meatgrinder machineguns offer a good suppression.

Sdkfz 251 Flamers come too late, nobody uses them anyway. People use this only usually only for reinforcing.

Sdkfz 250 This comes with LMG grens or Panzergrenadiers. Cant reinforce, no machine gun. I think this is still kinda decent with Panzergrenadiers.

M3 Comes with assault engineers and this thing is too weak and useless..

Well. Halftracks in general are pretty varied, but I do not in any way count the american AA halftrack as the same type of unit. No reinforcement, no transport; it's just a gun platform.

So let's split this into two:

Comparing the OKW flacktrack and USF AAtrack, both are pretty damn powerful against infantry and unarmored vehicles. Both have their uses, flacktrack seriously needs less environment exploding though (unless that got fixed already).

The reinforcement halftracks come in 3 flavors.

M5 has the usual flamerteam, quad mount AA and reinforcement options. It's power is offset heavily by requiring T3, so pumas can have been on field for a half dozen minutes by the time you get one. They're rarely, if ever, a game changing unit: heavy AT is available before they arrive. Great support, though, and indispensable for keeping Russian unit counts nice and high on the front. Also, their only AA choice, but frankly it's crap at that.

The M3 has no health and is generally worthless compared to any other halftrack at all. Avoid.

Sdkfz has very early arrival, allowing front line reinforcing for the Ost that can be devastating to try and withstand in the first few minutes after it arrives. The bigger the map, the more map control you can brute force with this thing, and it never stops being useful given Ost low model counts. Flamer upgrade comes pretty late, but it's seriously powerful. Sadly, you normally have more things to spend munitions on that will be on the front line. If you want something to clear garrisons or guard your back from infantry, it's hella good, though. Saved many an AT gun from a flanking squad.



The 250 is in a category of its own, and is kinda meh. Transporting squads is nice, though. Has uses.

I think the soviet halftrack is the weakest at the moment, considering you have to build T3 to get it. Being able to reinforce in the field is great, espessially on large maps. Soviet has the least/most expensive tools to enable this by non-doctrinal means. However this could be intended for all I know. They also have merge, which in my opinion is even better with field reinforcement since you can soft retreat the conscripts and make a "supply chain" between the HT and the rest of your forces.

The way soviet tech function makes it hard to balance the halftrack in a way that it does not come too early and neither too late. One solution to this would perhaps be to move it to either T0, T1 or T2 and then unlocking it by building both T1 and T2 and if needed adjust its price/combat power.

The ost halftrack has great utillity, but definately lacks combat potency, even with the very expensive uppgrade

Both the USF and OKW halftracks are great, espessially their suppression and damage. OKW and USF also have other ways to reinforce in the field, so this isnt really needed.

You want to talk about reinforcing transports or about AA, because these are two completely separate things.

Thnx

Unless you talk soviets, in which case its one really underwhelming and useless thing.

I must disagree with you - an SU halftrack on Stalingrad can be vital for reinforcing, I think. Ostheer needs its HT also, in order to keep its infanterie on the field, (IMO).

You want to talk about reinforcing transports or about AA, because these are two completely separate things.

The M15 better fits into the Anti-Infantry / Armoured Car role than the Anti-Aircraft role, which I have never ever seen anybody use.


The M5 Half-Track is the best in the game, as it should be considering how late it comes. It's the lightest vehicle available by any faction at that point, but is the second most durable behind the Puma. The AA Mount is worthless at AA but great against Ostheer Infantry. There's also the Barton Special, which is far superior to Ostheer's Flamethrower Half-Track.

Second best is the Sd.Kfz. 251 Half-Track, this vehicle comes earlier than the others and is lightly armoured, even less than OKW 251's. It's most often used to keep up field presence by reinforcing, but is sometimes loaded up with Infantry and used to flank.

Last and unfortunately the least, the M3 Half-Track. Despite being identical to the M5 save for less armour, this vehicle actually has the durability of a T1 Scout Car. It cannot be used for anything but reinforcing, but USF already has the Ambulance for this purpose.

I must disagree with you - an SU halftrack on Stalingrad can be vital for reinforcing, I think. Ostheer needs its HT also, in order to keep its infanterie on the field, (IMO).

You don't need a halftrack on Stalingrad to win. Playing on Stalingrad as Soviets is instant win anyway

I remember when the 250 just came out and the first thing Ost players did was stick a sniper in it to get even with the M3/Sniper combo...happy memories.

yeah, i'm not sure if that was ever changed on the OKH sniper or not...

I remember when the 250 just came out and the first thing Ost players did was stick a sniper in it to get even with the M3/Sniper combo...happy memories.

Yeah but with only 35 sight, it wasn't as good as the M3 Sniper combo.

The M15 better fits into the Anti-Infantry / Armoured Car role than the Anti-Aircraft role, which I have never ever seen anybody use.

there is probably three reasons for this.

1. it is a superb fighting unit

2. ppl forgetting to use vet 1 abilities

3. when using convert to aa mode, there is a transition time. now, this makes it hard to use the unit as both frontline support unit and anti air unit, because as soon as you see the smoke, you have to pull back, face the right direction, enable the aa mode, wait a couple seconds until it targets the airplane and shoot it down.

couple of times i faced gay ass close air support in 2v2, i tried really hard to use m15 as both frontline and aa unit. just does not work with the set up time and that. several times i manage to shoot it down, it was after the payloads have been fired. so your choice is to whether use 60 fuel as pure aa unit or in support of pushing and pushing back enemies.

on the same note, m15 in aa mode is the by far the best anti air in the game i believe. so i can see it counter non single pass strafes.

when using convert to aa mode, there is a transition time. now, this makes it hard to use the unit as both frontline support unit and anti air unit, because as soon as you see the smoke, you have to pull back, face the right direction, enable the aa mode, wait a couple seconds until it targets the airplane and shoot it down.

on the same note, m15 in aa mode is the by far the best anti air in the game i believe. so i can see it counter non single pass strafes.

You have to choose whether to use it in AI mode or AA mode. While it will shoot at aircraft with the 50 cals in AI mode, it won't shoot them down. In AA mode though, it's the best AA in the game, and will consistently kill overhead aircraft in the first burst every time. The catch is you need vision on the ground that the airplane is over, otherwise it won't "see" the airplane to target it.

it also covers a huge fucking area. seriously, it's like 1/4 of crossing in the woods...

Ostheer grenadier and pzgrenadier HT call-ins are pretty useless. Ostheer sdkfz is usefull. Ostheer mortar HT also verry usefull. They won games for me.
USF HT (AA) is good, but OKW HT is even better. USF mortar HT doesn't kill anything, ever.
Soviet M3 is usefull but verry thinn, the M5 is verry usefull. Pretty resistant, can be converted into an AA platform and ofers reinforcing.

Ostheer grenadier and pzgrenadier HT call-ins are pretty useless. Ostheer sdkfz is usefull. Ostheer mortar HT also verry usefull. They won games for me.
USF HT (AA) is good, but OKW HT is even better. USF mortar HT doesn't kill anything, ever.
Soviet M3 is usefull but verry thinn, the M5 is verry usefull. Pretty resistant, can be converted into an AA platform and ofers reinforcing.

I wouldn't call Osth Gren and PGS HT useless, use them to chase down on retreating squads or surprise flanks. The best thing you can do is use flame pios on the HT for some fun.