Initial December Patch Balance Thoughts and Suggestions

Jump back to quoted post6 Dec 2015, 19:26 PMmiragefla

Alright since I've played the patch for awhile and good a better idea of how things are, here are my thoughts on the factions. Note that these are my opinions so you are free to argue so as long it's a reasonable argument and not single one-liners (probably too much to hope for with most but meh).

Focus is on non-doctrinal items as usual. I will refer back to a previous thread for most factions, but OKW as they were a focus in the previous suggestions I made.
General

Population Issues: Return population to what they were before. Make basic infantry and squads that have larger numbers have 1 pop per model. Make the rest of the population built into the squad itself like Guards currently are. Example below.

Current Guards Rifle Example which should be followed by other units:
Entity Population: 1
Squad Population: 2

Total Population when at full strength: 8

This ensures we don't break things by having .5 pop to some units for call-ins.

USF

Major Barrage: Make it more powerful, arrive sooner and lower its cost/make it cost nothing, but increase the cooldown time to howitzer levels if it does cost nothing. USF needs some sort of non-doctrinal artillery that is effective to help break up OKW's defensive truck line without the need for certain doctrines.

Rear Echelon
Even with the changes, I don't think RE deserve their current high cost per model and squad. They still have crappy accuracy and aren't durable enough to be on the field. They should still be viable, however.

-Reduce the cost from 200 manpower and 25 reinforce to 180 manpower and 22/23 reinforce.

or

-Significantly improve their accuracy

Note, with their vet changes with the support abilities coming in at vet 3, they can afford to be better combatants for their price.

Refer back to previous thread for other USF suggestions.

Soviets

Not much to say. Refer back to this thread for my thoughts on Soviets.

Ostheer
Refer back to this thread on my thoughts on Ostheer.

Brits

Population: Fix it please. Brits shouldn't be that expensive in terms of pop.

AEC: Needs a significant manpower reduction to light vehicle levels to help the manpower hungry brits.
-Price to 240-260 manpower and 50 fuel.
-Give it 0.75 moving accuracy to improve it capabilities when chasing other light units down which is its role.

This would help combat fast light vehicles which are more effective against Brits who have no snares unlike the other two Allied factions and have really only manpower hungry options to deal with something like a Luchs.

Tommies: When in cover, give them 0.8 received accuracy, 0.9 when in the open. They already got veterancy nerfs, they should be able to hold their ground in cover better due to their higher cost over other infantry.

25Pdrs, Sexton and Artillery Flares: Improve the AOE distances of the 25pdrs to be more effective against ground targets and allow 25pdrs to be preemptively faced rather than waiting for them to turn when called upon. Furthermore, increase the rate of fire for the 25pdrs. I think these guns should fire the quickest of the howitzer, but be the least deadly per shell.

The Sexton I'm adding here as well as it's a crappy 25pdrs on tracks, give it similar AOE changes and increased firing speed and probably increase the number of shells it fires. The Priest hits hard while the Sexton would fire a lot.

As for Tommy Flares, increase the range significantly so they can be tossed so it can be used on the attack or defense without being in the thick of it. All of these would help the British dislodge units without resorting to typical brute force which is more needed thanks to OKW's restored income.

For other British issues, please refer back to this thread.


OKW (The Other Big One)

King Tiger: Make it tied to CPs to prevent the KT from arriving too early as it no longer has a build-time.

Luchs: Not an issue, sorry. If it's too strong, it's an issue with the other factions.

Sturmpioneers: Thought I would put this in as it's been discussed in bugs, keep Sturmpioneers repair rate as it is now or make it 2 rather than switch it back to 3. Yes they're more expensive, but they do get the support package to help negate the time it takes to reach vet 3 for more repair speed. Given OKW no longer field only 1 vehicle per game, the Sturms don't need a return to their rapid repair speed as they have access to repair trucks. And they still can fulfill direct combat role unlike other engineers and are more survivable.

Tech Costs and the Truck Passives: Reduce the power of OKW holding the field while making it more expensive to bunker up on areas of the map, the deployed trucks should lose their passive traits when they are first built. This would help delay rapid teching and reduce OKW's turtle power without sacrificing something in return.

Example Costs

Battlegroup Medics: 80 munitions or 150mp 15-20 fuel
Schewer HQ Flak: 120-150 munitions or 200 manpower 30-45fuel (it halts all infantry attack, denies area and can harm light armour and chip tanks. If you want to produce tanks safely, keep it back at base.)
Mechanized Engineers: 80 munitions or 150mp 15-20 fuel

Obersoldaten:
-Make Vet 4 suppression an ability like paratroopers so they're less ridiculous at later levels.
-Make their LMG around 80-90 munitions as it's much more powerful than the standard LMGs for other factions. Without the penalty, it can afford to be more expensive.
-Reduce manpower cost to 360 to help offset the higher LMG cost which they generally auto-purchase.

Volks:

-Move population to 6-7 once the population issue is fixed. OKW should have more manpower upkeep given that they have full fuel and munitions.

If and only if OKW does not lose their truck passives:
-Schreks locked behind a 150 manpower and 15 fuel pay wall.
-Grenades locked behind a similar price tag.
-Would be available at the HQ.

Note this only goes through if OKW losses their truck's passive abilities which I think would be better.