Switching USF CMD Abilities

Ello gents, this idea came to me after mulling over the usefulness of Thompson Vehicle Crews and Mechanized Half Track callin. Basically switch the Vehicle Crew Thompsons with the Half Track of Mechanized. I'll go over the reasoning of why the change and how it would make more sense for these two abilities to be switched around in commanders. Let us first go over Thompson Vehicle Crews than the Half Track call in.

Currently Thompson Vehicle Crews aren't a good option at all considering Assault Engineers have more utility through building FP, caches, defenses, and more importantly the anti-garrison flamethrower. They also come in earlier and do higher dps with their grease guns considering Vehicle Crew only get two Thompsons for some strange reason considering the price. Another factor is that Assault Engineer have better veterancy for combat oriented duties, getting increased accuracy and lower weapon cool down. Compared to Vehicle Crews getting the same recieved accuracy bonus at Vet 3 and 6% higher repair speed (at Vet 2) than Assault Engineers who get 50% repair speed at Vet 1. I just have never found some reason to get Vehicle Crew Thompson considering the cost and the fact they do less damage and have less utility.

For the Mechanized Half Track it is simply too expensive in MP cost for USF to afford and being a hefty investment. By giving it to Armor Company and removing the Assault Engineer squad in it this would make it cheaper of around 240 MP (from 520). If you want to add in Assault Engineer squad you can simply call one in. This would give much more flexibility and usefulness to the half track even it is more fragile than the German Sd.Kfz. 251.

The main benefit of this change however would be Mechanized Company and the whole theme of being rewarded for keeping vehicles, withdrawing them, and getting resources. This would could be used for vehicles that would be more appropriate for the task at hand. But how does this go to Thompson Vehicle Crews? Easy, veterancy. By giving that early WC.51 Vehicle Crew Thompsons suddenly they can keep earning veterancy even at Vet 3 leading to them crewing up vehicles with high veterancy leading to Vet 2 or 3 Shermans or Jacksons. So you can keep withdrawing those vehicles while keeping the crew and turning them into a combat effective squad through Thompsons and they wouldn't have overlap or be outdone by Assault Engineers. This would be a very interesting change for Mechanized as those Vehicle Crews would really become Elite as they change from vehicle to vehicle and in between those refitting you have a highly vetted squad. There be even situations of biting the bullet and hopping out of surely destroyed tanks and keeping that veteran combat squad who'd still be useful while waiting for another tank.

Hope you find this change useful/interesting and if not I hope you enjoyed the post!

I agree OP.

Keep Mechanized Half-Track where it is, but replace it with the AA Campaign version. A solid M3 Half-Track (normal health and armour, not the paper version we have now) with Cavalry Riflemen.

Keep Mechanized Half-Track where it is, but replace it with the AA Campaign version. A solid M3 Half-Track (normal health and armour, not the paper version we have now) with Cavalry Riflemen.

+1

But thompsons would still be useless

Thompsons are good, platform is bad.

I think it would be better if the M1919 weapon rack was simply changed to a doctrinal weapon rack, and Armor Company let you pick up Thompsons.

Thompson Vehicle Crews aren't that bad in my experience. They perform admirably when not competing with Assault Engineers due to the main reason of critical repair which have saved a plenty of vehicles for myself. Not having to get out, critical repair, and hop back in shaves those seconds between a burning wreck or a battered tank limping back. They do quite well with supporting Vehicles by simply staying close by and warding off hand held anti-tank teams and paks. Only if they reduced the price and gave the entire crew Thompsons they would be a great unit.

One suggestion I threw around a while ago was giving Thompsons to RE as it would make them a cheap flanking unit that could force off support weapon teams and even threaten weaken enemies. On a side note giving a Thompson rack would have little benefit due to the fact you can get BAR(s) that perform better at all ranges besides being somewhat less effective at close range.

Thompsons make a lot more sense, but I feel like the M3 should stay in mech company. Just trade Thompsons for the recon pass.

One suggestion I threw around a while ago was giving Thompsons to RE as it would make them a cheap flanking unit that could force off support weapon teams and even threaten weaken enemies. On a side note giving a Thompson rack would have little benefit due to the fact you can get BAR(s) that perform better at all ranges besides being somewhat less effective at close range.

Thompsons would be cheap, perform better on the move than BARs, and would make Volley Fire pretty good due to its fire rate. No tech Thompson racks would also go great with usage of smoke.

dunno why thompson isnt in the rack program.

Hmm, definitely an interesting change.

It's not like either commanders would dearly miss what they gave up...I don't know if that'd entirely fix Elite Vehicle Crews, but it damn well couldn't hurt to try this.

Definitely agree with everyone else also saying "USF HT is made of brittle glass and should not be" as well, of course.

They get 4 thompsons,but agree

Must be a bug as was watching a replay with them receiving only two Thompsons with the rest being Grease Guns. I personally have never looked but I always heard grease guns when they had Thompsons which I thought was odd but I put it under sound bug till this replay.

(The two far right in the back are carrying Thompsons. The other two, one in front on the right and the left crew member, are clearly carrying grease guns. Even had the same sound so I wouldn't rule it as a texture bug or something along those lines but can't say for sure myself.)

No. Thompsons are the only thing worth getting from that commander. Kappa