Observations on Advanced Emplacements Regiment.

The first ability is ok, the 2nd one, Improved Fortifications adds negligible armor and HP to emplacements as I have noticed they still get wiped by Arty barrages even when braced, IMO it's pretty useless for 75 munitions.

My suggestion is either buff it or replace it with Royal Engineer tank traps, just an idea, since the most defensive faction in the game is lacking tank traps to all other Armies who have it either by doctrine or by default (that being the USF).

Advanced Assembly repair sappers repair emplacements during combat, I believe this is a bug, I also wouldn't mind some medics popping up but that's just me I suppose, might become a bit OP, but all in all you're basically paying for a 450 repair station that can also repair emplacements as well as vehicles, which should be universal but that's another question.

Counter Battery is useless in anything bigger than 2v2 maps, for example I played a game on Sittard and the guns never fired at the enemy, not even once.

Precision Barrage is, to me, the weakest barrage out of all of them, for 200 munitions you're basically getting a few 25 pounder rounds to the target area, but at least I've noticed they shock tanks quite well. I would have preferred sector artillery or an Overwatch ability but yeah... that's just me again I suppose.

All in all the commander is fun to play with until end game where you can basically just make Garages with the Forward Assemblies upgraded with the repair sappers and just drive the tanks back for instant repair instead of making Sappers, which basically really makes the Sappers useless here, I got Infantry Sections to cover building and emplacement repairs, as well as building emplacements, repair sappers for mine and my teammates' tanks and emplacements/buildings and... well, that's basically it, to me 2 out of it's 5 abilities are fun, the rest... not so much since they're mostly useless, not to mention it's a pain destroying an upgraded emplacement when the fighting is far from it and you need the population cap and space.

Das ist all, have a nice day.

My only issue with the Forward HQ upgrade is that the sappers consume Population

Defensive Operations (IS squads can build emplacements like REs) is reasonable- you cannot build the emplacements until you reach the tier or reserached Bofors, so it's not like some cheat. Their repair icon is unique, which is fine, but I prefer if it was the classic one, as it tends to imply it's something special when it isn't.

I have to agree with the Advanced Fortifications upgrade; despite costing 75 munitions, it seems to make no difference against attacks. If anything I'd say it performs worse when subject to artillery barrages....that or the enemy was consistently lucky. But then again the text only indicates a small amount of extra health; the real boon apparently is immunity to small arms...which is hardly the biggest concern for the vat majority of emplacements in this game (USF's pitifully weak Fighting Position excluded- if there's a buff needed, it's for that).

Advanced Assembly's doesn't seem very useful: I can imagine it's of some use once vehicles come in, but then the enemy can quite easily just target the Advanced Assembly. At least when fighting Soviet's version through their Industry Tactics unlock, that building only costs 75 munitions, no manpower required. Doubly unfavourable if the sappers spawned also consume population.
And like someone says, the sappers will repair things that are fighting...including said Forward Assembly that is taking damage from attack.
Personally I would rename the ability to "Repair Assembly" to more clearly indicate it's purpose.

Counter Barrage only works against artillery units found and firing at your men, and there is no indication of a range limit; if there is, then this clearly makes the ability useful in small maps but useless in large ones. The ability also disables build/ research capabilities when toggled (with a 110 second cooldown when untoggled). It will even pause anything currently building. If I have to make a suggestion for improvement it's that the build times are doubled rather than disabled. You cannot build new units after that, so you have to commit the resources first if you want to queue units up, and the build time penalty still gives risk reward. As for the range, that introduces limitations that the 25-pounders never originally had. I was actually thinking it was something you can toggle onto a target location, like in CoH1. That way, you can still utilize the IS's coordinated strike ability, and need to maintain constant LOS to be useful.

Precision Barrage looks powerful, but more often whenever used, it only eats away at vehicles' armour; their main use is instant offmap engine critical and stun. I even fired it onto an ally's ambulance (AI ally, don't get your knickers in a twist) and it just took a smidge of health. There's hoenstly nothing precision or even artillery about this ability; if Relic wants these sort of reslts, then they simply need to rename and edit the text to indicate it's true benefits. As-is, the ability just disables vehicles caught in the barrage. The barrage itself looks impressive, I would mistake it for I&R Pathfinders' artillery barrage. But in other factions we have more powerful, more generalist artillery abilities that do more damage that comes earlier and at a cheaper cost.

Overall commander isn't really bad, its just clearly rushed out for teh profits. Did we have some alpha or beta on it?

Just tested the armoured mortar pit and units garrisoned inside die just as quickly as unfortified ones.

I'm guessing this is a bug rather than intentional.

Just tested the armoured mortar pit and units garrisoned inside die just as quickly as unfortified ones.

I'm guessing this is a bug rather than intentional.

It isn't meant to protect garrisoned units. I don't know where you got the assumption that it did.

Lol of course it should.

Armoured against small arms for the crew = armoured against small arms for the garrison.

Defensive Operations (IS squads can build emplacements like REs) is reasonable- you cannot build the emplacements until you reach the tier or reserached Bofors, so it's not like some cheat. Their repair icon is unique, which is fine, but I prefer if it was the classic one, as it tends to imply it's something special when it isn't.

I have to agree with the Advanced Fortifications upgrade; despite costing 75 munitions, it seems to make no difference against attacks. If anything I'd say it performs worse when subject to artillery barrages....that or the enemy was consistently lucky. But then again the text only indicates a small amount of extra health; the real boon apparently is immunity to small arms...which is hardly the biggest concern for the vat majority of emplacements in this game (USF's pitifully weak Fighting Position excluded- if there's a buff needed, it's for that).

Advanced Assembly's doesn't seem very useful: I can imagine it's of some use once vehicles come in, but then the enemy can quite easily just target the Advanced Assembly. At least when fighting Soviet's version through their Industry Tactics unlock, that building only costs 75 munitions, no manpower required. Doubly unfavourable if the sappers spawned also consume population.
And like someone says, the sappers will repair things that are fighting...including said Forward Assembly that is taking damage from attack.
Personally I would rename the ability to "Repair Assembly" to more clearly indicate it's purpose.

Counter Barrage only works against artillery units found and firing at your men, and there is no indication of a range limit; if there is, then this clearly makes the ability useful in small maps but useless in large ones. The ability also disables build/ research capabilities when toggled (with a 110 second cooldown when untoggled). It will even pause anything currently building. If I have to make a suggestion for improvement it's that the build times are doubled rather than disabled. You cannot build new units after that, so you have to commit the resources first if you want to queue units up, and the build time penalty still gives risk reward. As for the range, that introduces limitations that the 25-pounders never originally had. I was actually thinking it was something you can toggle onto a target location, like in CoH1. That way, you can still utilize the IS's coordinated strike ability, and need to maintain constant LOS to be useful.

Precision Barrage looks powerful, but more often whenever used, it only eats away at vehicles' armour; their main use is instant offmap engine critical and stun. I even fired it onto an ally's ambulance (AI ally, don't get your knickers in a twist) and it just took a smidge of health. There's hoenstly nothing precision or even artillery about this ability; if Relic wants these sort of reslts, then they simply need to rename and edit the text to indicate it's true benefits. As-is, the ability just disables vehicles caught in the barrage. The barrage itself looks impressive, I would mistake it for I&R Pathfinders' artillery barrage. But in other factions we have more powerful, more generalist artillery abilities that do more damage that comes earlier and at a cheaper cost.

Overall commander isn't really bad, its just clearly rushed out for teh profits. Did we have some alpha or beta on it?

I said it was ok, I really have no problems with it, I mean, that's where this commander shines after all, and you can't really expect by-passing the requirements and just build a 17 pounder right from the get go lol, so I really don't understand why the need for you to explain what it does.

The Fortified upgrade... yeah, even if it makes them immune to rifle fire... you can't really expect the enemy to just sit around and shoot at your emplacement all day, they'll be losing in for a grenade toss or something for sure so it's pretty useless to me. A buff to what it does, a nerf to it's price at the very least or a replacement of it by my suggested Tank Traps for the Sappers is a bit better if you ask me.

I said that it repaired during combat in the OP, I guess you didn't understand or read that part or something. But yeah, like I said it just feels like a 450 man power repair station at the moment. Repair Assembly sounds a bit better, since when I first heard "Advanced Assembly" I also thought medics would pop out as well so it can truly become a forward base of sorts, I mean, yeah, you got the medic and flare upgrade on the infantry sections but what if you decide to go all out Sappers or something? A Medic hanging around by the forward base will always be handy, especially for the price you're paying right now, add 10 more man power and I can get a 4 man (5 if upgraded) Sapper squad to basically do the same job, it costing munitions would of been a bit better if you ask me.

I know what counter-barrage means and does, and yes, I cannot see it's range but as I already stated, it's basically useless on anything bigger than 2v2 maps, which makes it basically useless, and if it does have a cool-down what's the problem for it not having a range limit? Just make sure your arty peices fire and move, at least this is a nice counter to the pesky German arty peices that make minse meat out of British emplacements and of course, it's a risk reward system, you can bait me to active it on my base and then just pop out a Panther and attack me while I'll not be able to counter you since my base is on cooldown, which is a valid tactic if you ask me, doesn't make it OP or anything. Or yeah, what you suggested, units just build twice as long.

Precision Barrage sounds more like Disable barrage to me but yeah... like I said, can't really expect anything at 10 CP and 200 munitions.

Yeah, probably, they'll come back to it after a couple of months once they nerf and bug fix it probably since the community will be crying that most of the abilities are useless.

The Fortified upgrade... yeah, even if it makes them immune to rifle fire... you can't really expect the enemy to just sit around and shoot at your emplacement all day, they'll be losing in for a grenade toss or something for sure so it's pretty useless to me. A buff to what it does, a nerf to it's price at the very least or a replacement of it by my suggested Tank Traps for the Sappers is a bit better if you ask me.

Indeed, out of all the ideas for a commander themed around advanced fortifications, the lack of tank traps seems odd. They can easily just add it into Defensive Operations and limit it to Sappers. But I suppose the thinking was that a faction with the best emplacements and tank traps would be overpowered. Understandable from that standpoint, though I would think some adjustments like taking longer time to construct them (plus the ability for all sides to simply target tank traps to destroy them) would alleviate that concern.

Hell, even just improving barbed wire to the likes of OKW's barricade would be a suitable touch.

Ultimately this upgrade is pretty much useless since it buffs what the emplacement doesn't need an improvement on: unupgraded emplacements take forever for small arms to whittle down, and any smart enemy will use things like grenades, panzerschrecks or tanks to take them out...which the upgrade doesn't do anything against. Kind of like giving your everyday soldier pistols alongside their rifles and call it a solution.

I said that it repaired during combat in the OP, I guess you didn't understand or read that part or something. But yeah, like I said it just feels like a 450 man power repair station at the moment. Repair Assembly sounds a bit better, since when I first heard "Advanced Assembly" I also thought medics would pop out as well so it can truly become a forward base of sorts, I mean, yeah, you got the medic and flare upgrade on the infantry sections but what if you decide to go all out Sappers or something? A Medic hanging around by the forward base will always be handy, especially for the price you're paying right now, add 10 more man power and I can get a 4 man (5 if upgraded) Sapper squad to basically do the same job, it costing munitions would of been a bit better if you ask me.

To be more accurate, 250 manpower+ 75 munitions repair station, though in many a case you would want the additional 200 manpower for forward retreat anyways.
Medics would prove redundant given the non-doctrinal upgrade, if anything Sappers should have it as well, or at least make the damn aura bigger.
If UKF went back to drawing board though I'd agree that forward assembly just deploy medics via upgrade, or even do the CoH1 method, where the heal ability is done by the building rather than unit.

I know what counter-barrage means and does, and yes, I cannot see it's range but as I already stated, it's basically useless on anything bigger than 2v2 maps, which makes it basically useless, and if it does have a cool-down what's the problem for it not having a range limit? Just make sure your arty peices fire and move, at least this is a nice counter to the pesky German arty peices that make minse meat out of British emplacements and of course, it's a risk reward system, you can bait me to active it on my base and then just pop out a Panther and attack me while I'll not be able to counter you since my base is on cooldown, which is a valid tactic if you ask me, doesn't make it OP or anything. Or yeah, what you suggested, units just build twice as long.

Cool down for toggling, not cooldown for firing. Obviously there to prevent quickly swapping between building stuff and shooting, but the tidbit was for general FYI.
To alleviate the range limit is simple: either the player can target a specific area so rather than a gigantic short range aura, you merely pinpoint the general location it overwatches. Being a single howitzer with slow firing rate it's not going to saturate anything unless it stops moving. If it's artillery then it's a true counter; if it's anything else it's a deterrent/ area denial of sorts.

Indeed, out of all the ideas for a commander themed around advanced fortifications, the lack of tank traps seems odd. They can easily just add it into Defensive Operations and limit it to Sappers. But I suppose the thinking was that a faction with the best emplacements and tank traps would be overpowered. Understandable from that standpoint, though I would think some adjustments like taking longer time to construct them (plus the ability for all sides to simply target tank traps to destroy them) would alleviate that concern.


To be more accurate, 250 manpower+ 75 munitions repair station, though in many a case you would want the additional 200 manpower for forward retreat anyways.
Medics would prove redundant given the non-doctrinal upgrade, if anything Sappers should have it as well, or at least make the damn aura bigger.
If UKF went back to drawing board though I'd agree that forward assembly just deploy medics via upgrade, or even do the CoH1 method, where the heal ability is done by the building rather than unit.


Cool down for toggling, not cooldown for firing. Obviously there to prevent quickly swapping between building stuff and shooting, but the tidbit was for general FYI.
To alleviate the range limit is simple: either the player can target a specific area so rather than a gigantic short range aura, you merely pinpoint the general location it overwatches. Being a single howitzer with slow firing rate it's not going to saturate anything unless it stops moving. If it's artillery then it's a true counter; if it's anything else it's a deterrent/ area denial of sorts.

The OKW Fortifications doctrine gives the Oberkommando PaK 43s, Trenches, 2cm flaks and tank traps, I see nothing wrong with giving Brits the same options, when you come to think about it, the OKW are the most defensive Army right now if you go Fortifications.

It's 450 to me since I just use them as repair stations and nothing else, I almost never do the useless upgrade since it's useless as we already said and I only do the forward retreat on one of my FAs, maybe 2 or 3, at the most, but not more. So yeah, making 450mp repair stations in a small area to make a quick repair garage is fun but the problem is you need to defend that same area and you need to drive your tanks all the way back but eh, I suppose it's kinda worth it.

I still think Overwatch or Sector Artillery would of been better choices but that's just me, for now I only want a buff to it's range, nothing else.