None of these truly help the USF major issues, it would end up being just a crutch, similar to a few patches ago where Ostheer had to just sit and hold and wait for Tigers and Stug Es and hope it would do something when they had all these other issues. And in smaller games the Pershing won't have that many units to support as that's where all the fuel would be going and it'd come late like the other heavy tanks where you'd have either multiple mediums trying to roll over your army unless you invested in your own vehicles that would delay a possible call-in further.
And as I said, Pershing won't be game-changing given that Axis can already deal with IS-2s with their own arsenal of things such as Jagdpanzers, Stugs, multiple ATGs, and their AT in general.
Things USF Needs for its Core
-Riflemen Veterancy:
-Make the accuracy bonus to their weapons that they receive the same as the other faction: 40%. Possibly split it between vet 2-3.
-Received Accuracy bonus to 27-28% from 23%. Possibly split between vet 2-3 if accuracy bonus was also split.
-Bazooka:
-Decrease price to 50 munitions to allow it to be more available as a soft counter/deterant to vehicles.
-increase its accuracy at range to make it more reliable at chipping health.
-Maybe make its penetration flat so not drop-off at range to make it more consistent.
-.50cal: -Increase .50cal penetration from 3.0/2.0/1.0 to 4.5/3.0/2.5, would allow the USF LT tier to have a soft counter to light armour when supported with rifle AT grenades.
-Fix issues/bugs with .50cal such as the overpriced crew, gun health/armour and its vet 2 weapon not having the same bonuses that all MGs got in the June/July patch which Cruzz has stated. Removed received accuracy penalty on the crew.
-Maybe drop cost to 260.
Ambulance: Lowers is population cap from 4 to 2. Yes it can reinforce, but the moment it steps out of the base it's at risk of being on shotted by everything.
-Give it a slow passive healing ability when in the base sector and stationary.
Pack Howitzer: Increase the number of shells on all barrages to make these better at area denial. -Standard HE and WP is 6 rounds, no longer losses standard HE from vet.
-HEAT fires 4 rounds.
-Remove cost on WP to give more incentive on using it over the regular barrage.
57mm ATG:
-Increase its base penetration to 165/150/135 to make it more reliable vs mediums.
-Possibly move to T1 and require any officer.
Major: Major model population from 3 to 1. Makes the whole squad only 3 pop cap.
-Revamp his barrage ability and fix the timer on the drop-time between shells that is currently inversed. Make it have a long cooldown and shorter range a tad, but make it much cheaper/free. Not effective, but it would give more incentive to push him forth and be the heavy indirect-fire unit the USF lacks to force weapon teams to move without mass smoke and be an interesting take on artillery.
Tank .50cals: Cost dropped to 50-60 munitions form the hefty 70.
Add a Mortar:
-Fast rate of fire, good accuracy, access to smoke, lower OHK radius compared to other mortars and less range that is meant to operate right behind the rifles and give them the fire support they need and force weapon teams to move if not from damage, then from sheer ROF.
-Found in T0
Lieutenant: Change to a long-range combat support unit (Modified M1 Garand profile similar to Pathfinder rather than a BAR) with various abilities rather than Riflemen 1.25 like possible auras similar to the artillery officer. Would help him later in the game in toughening nearby USF units while making him not this shock unit that would be followed up by various light armour.
-Starts at four man to emphasize support role. Goes back to five at vet 2-3.
M20:
-Manpower from 340 to 260/280 to reduce that hefty MP price.
AA HT:
-Similar to M20, lower its MP cost to 300 from 360(?). It already pays by having a high fuel cost.
The USF current tank/Major(except the Major himself) tier is actually fine I would say. They all do their jobs as intended, but don't have exactly the strongest core backing them up and in the end. Pershing and Calliope would just be fun toys USF could play with, but are not necessary to win. Ostheer doesn't need Tiger or Panthers to win, Soviets don't need IS-2s and OKW doesn't need KTs so USF shouldn't need a Pershing to rely entirely upon. It's the main core units that should be holding them up.
i understand you wish another part of the faction to be fixed,and i agree but none of those proposed changes you said to anything really(you suggested 2 other units to be added that wont help you much later on in the game) few examples.
"Bazookas"
no point being accurate if you dont have good penetration and damage,something the bazooka doesnt have,and i doubt that 10 munition reduction will save the faction in the long run,let alone late game.
"Pack Howitzer"
still what you suggested wont really help at all,its problem is its accuracy(or what ever it causes the shell to miss)if you fix that then the thing will be a nightmare to face(and might fix some problems lategame namely blobs)but extra inaccurate shells wont help it
".50cal M2HB"
the .50cal M2HB has a major problem and that is durability,even in green cover a blob can still kill it,also sometimes the thing doesnt supress,i doubt it would be made effective if it could fight light vechiles,make it more durable and more capable to supress huge blobs will solve some issues but still not the late game.
"57mm AT gun"
well the unit needs a huge penetration increace to fight heavy tanks not panzer 4s,it deals with panzer 4s very well(never seen it fail to penetrate P4s)the problem this thing is its durability and low penetration to damage panthers and other durable tanks(aka heavys)if it could have the same penetration with default shells as the ZIS-3 and then the PAK40s penetration with AP shells with a price increace to 300mp it would also solve a few problems(if not all)in late game.
"Add a mortar"
ahhhh the mortar demand,oh boy, if there is one thing i know about mortars is the fact that they dont pose a threat unless you have multiple ones firing,by adding this mortar you may solve the issue but dont be fooled,in the long run the mortar wont help you into late game,again no matter how good a faction is,it will go to late game regardless of what you do(1vs1s americans are mostly ok cause late game there doesnt exist most of the time),better buff the Pack Howitzer and you wont need a mortar.
but after all this i still dont see a way to keep tigers and panthers at bay(jacksons wont help without a wall protecting them),i still dont see a way to flank the enemy tanks by using a barrage behind them in order to protect your tanks from enemy at,i still see tanks that do nothing late game and are nothing more but meat sheilds(and very bad ones)that pose no threat to panthers nor allow USF tanks to flank by providing indirect fire support.
i also dont see any change what would also help the USF early game troubles(like having Grenades for free would be a good start)(early AT for kubels or light vechiles for snipers)you still get a bad faction.
and i agree many people would pick the pershing commander just because it has a heavy tanks but still you cant blame them,almost eveything the USF has does nothing into late game and the performance of the USF tanks doesnt help either,all in all pershing is needed,unless you buff their tanks to scale better late game or by default to be better,i dont see a reason as to why the pershing shouldnt be added.
(Heavy tanks on both sides is always a good idea,otherwise you see artillery,i mostly see heavys around and you should remember that Werhmacht and Oberkommando West have in their tech a Panther tank)