OKW have really no flame damage weapons so you can't rely on flame damage. As much as people don't like it when people say this, see COH1. Emplacements could be over-repaired which is a far better mechanic than brace since it slowly wears down a little and gave them a HP increase temporarily but not a get out of jail free card like brace.
To put it simply, emplacements are a boring facet of gameplay and generally draws in the noob players who like to just build up a giant sim city and then throw arty at each other. I'd rather see them a little on the weak side than the strong side for competition sake. Anyone who played COH1 with Royal Engineer doc know what I'm talking about, and this is far worse with brace.
The idea of wanting Brits to just sit there and wait to be attacked sounds absolutely boring. This is the last thing I want to see.
Pretty much my thought. I fear that brit becomes the Bane of Coh2 if Relic doesn't change this aspect of the faction.
There is nothing worst than a game becoming a giant static small/medium/large arty fest. And the game is taking this path as far as I see it.
Now since the topic talk about redesign. I would redesign emplacement to become mobile but require to be setup to fire. To be more precise, taking the mobility concept of Brit trucks in Coh1, they can be deploy and redeploy.
-I imagine them enough resilient to survive an arty barrage but not two. So you better move them regularly to keep them alive.
- Much more weaker than they are today vs direct fire, I consider small arms fire must deal damage to emplacement.
-Strong when deployed but weak and slow when unsetup. Setup time would require some balance analysis.
-Remove brace ability and add over-repair
-Add two features:
1- decrew (USF feature) so you can save your experienced crew
2- Auto-destruction (OKW featurer) so if you are about to lose it, decrew it and destroy it. (could add a recharge 1/3 or 1/2 of the mp/fuel investment)