Vehicle Crew Thompsons, an overlooked ability?

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  Though, when you get a chance to use those thompsons they kick absolute ass. Seriously, most people are used to vehicle crews fighting as well as RETs more or less. With thompsons, they perform almost as well as sturmpios. I like to get them on my stuart crew. I find they can come in handy in a few ways:
  
  If you can close with an under or unsupported AT gun you can mow it down in 2 seconds. I've even pulled this off under light AI fire, you can afford to lose one crew member. This can be a massive swing in a fight. Remember - cap or kill the AT gun. No freebies for the enemy to re-crew.
  
  When I'm trying to escape a shrek squad sometimes I bail out if they only have 2-3 men. This causes the shrek to shoot at the crew not the tank, sometimes saving it. With thompsons, I occasionally wipe the squad. I also use true sight by backing around a corner, bailing, then charging back forward.
  
  If you are good at preserving vehicle crew vet but not so much at preserving the vehicles themselves, you usually end up with a few spare vehicle crews. Thompsons make them effective close range support and they can assist with repairs.
  

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  Instant Bail - The 3-4 seconds to bail in combat gets many crews killed before they can escape, making thompsons unappealing. Upgraded crews should bail just like out of combat, instantly or at least much faster.
  
  Some Crew Survives Vehicle Kill - A guarentee that 1-2 crew members survive with low HP when the vehicle is killed.
  
  Scuttle Vehicle Kit - Essentially the reverse of repair critical. Spend ~10 muns to cause heavy engine damage or imobilization, plus damage equal to about 1/4 a shermans HP, to an abandoned vehicle. The idea here is that people don't want to bail and hand the enemy a tank. This way they can quickly destroy a weak tank or at least cripple it to slow down an enemy recovery effort and counter attack.
  

Jump back to quoted post5 Aug 2015, 16:01 PMAlexzandvar

I'm kind of hesistent here because while Crew Thompsons are wonky and over expensive Armor Company is currently the most powerful USF doctrine by a long shot due to M10 spam so buffing it further is kinda, uhm, problematic.

Jump back to quoted post5 Aug 2015, 18:45 PMMittens

It wouldn't be so problematic if it wasn't the only way to play USF right now

Jump back to quoted post5 Aug 2015, 19:12 PMAlexzandvar

Most efficient TD (dat crush yo) in the game + death crit artillery + late game AI call in tank + early game flamer + demo infantry = !!!FUN!!

But yeah no the doctrine is borderline OP with the amount of crazy stuff shoved in it; the fact that USF needs help doesn't change the fact M10 spam is hellish to play against and Armor Company is just call in cancer for the new meta.

Mobile Defense is the same way, ever since they pushed mediums so far back the very last call in meta doctrines have now been brought to the front of the current meta.

Jump back to quoted post5 Aug 2015, 19:26 PMAlexzandvar

Obviously CAS was balanced back when Ostheer was shit right

Jump back to quoted post5 Aug 2015, 15:21 PMClassyDavid

I would like to see it be given to REs. Make them a cheaper but worse Assault Engineer squad that can do respectable damage at close range but worst at mid range compared to Assault Engineers. They'd be useful as a cheap flanking unit and it would extend their usefulness behind the early game in terms of Infantry combat power.