The tulip should remain as is, unless addressing the extreme low RoF of the Firefly, and the potency of German super heavy TD's, which require a Firefly alpha strike in order to even allow the Firefly a chance to kill them.
This is one option, which I completely agree with.
The moment that heavy TDs hit the field (Elefant/Jagtiger -- even the JP4), USF & Soviet TDs immediately become a liability:
- The Jackson is way too fragile and will go down in almost one shot
- The SU-85 has no turret, and can't play the chicken-game with the other TDs
If the Firefly cannot dish out burst damage vs these TDs, then it becomes yet another tank destroyer that has to sit in the back and do nothing.
This is because it's only the first shot that matters, and you are firing against a 400-500 armour target. The risk you are taking with each shot is that you run into a cloaked Raketen/JP4 and/or some stray schrecks.
Thus, the Firefly will have to sit uncomfortably next to the Churchill, the Jackson, the SU85, the m8, the SU76 and all other tanks that are hardcountered by the super-heavy TDs. That is, until some other units manage to do the job (which?).
However, I also like Miragefla's idea:
I'd prefer if Tulips become massive AT snares than their current all or nothing 240 rockets of death or misstruction while the gun got better.
My ideas implemented in my mod:
-Reload from 10 seconds to 8.
-Tulip Rockets now deal 120 damage from 240.
-Tulips now cause a blind critical on penetration and stuns the tank for 2.5 seconds. (Vehicle LOS reduced to 0 for 8 seconds)
-Tulip Rocket ability cost from 100 to 80.
-Tulip Recharge time from 120 to 80.
This would give the Firefly a lease of life to help countering the super-heavy TDs / aura-stacking command tanks, without immediately making all T3 armour irrelevant (the Brits have the Comet for that).
It will also make bumrush tactics against Fireflies a bit less rewarding.
However, if I want to be a nitpick, the Firefly also happens to be the only non-doctrinal solution that Brits have vs campy Pak43 placement (remember: no indirect fire, lacklustre assault infantry). Would it be possible to make the Tulips continue the pose a threat to the Pak43 -- or are you thinking of another option to deal with this blindsight?