I think a good rule for balance suggestions is this:
"If you can't personally mod it in and you haven't met anyone who has, don't suggest it."
The opening post is a great idea but it isn't a balance suggestion. It would require Relic to spend significant time and effort on something that is unlikely to materially affect their sales, especially when emplacements have traditionally been more popular among less-skilled and new players.
To make the game enjoyable again:
- 35 ammo per brace.
- 60 ammo for the counter-battery of the emplacement commander. Lasts a minute and targets only one artillery piece at once. After that: 1 minute cooldown.
- Mortar pit costs +15 fuel.
- 17 pounder goes down to 10 pop cap.
See how that works out. They can still hold out but at least the Axis player can be assured to make them bleed resources for it.
The problem with not understanding how to mod something in is that you don't necessarily know how the game works. All of your suggestions are fairly easy to implement (regardless of their actual balance) but Counter Battery can only target one unit at a time already.
Brits just need(ed) a cheap engineer type unit instead of or in addition to IS.
The emplacements should've been cheap, had zero pop cap, and be easy to build with low manpower costs, and only work at all when garrisoned, ideally with said cheap engineer type unit.
Think REs in fighting pits. Each alone don't do much, but the REs get rifle nades when inside. That, IMO, was not a bad foundation for any kind of emplacements for British.
This might actually be possible if you made emplacements decrewable like USF vehicles. The UKF does have a vehicle squad in the files and I have tried but I haven't been able to get it to work yet.
A comparison of brace vs retreat:
Retreat pulls your unit back to your base and it is your choice when and where do you return. Unit recieves damage during the process. Enemy is rewarded for this, because he gains a decent amount of time.
During brace, you receive only a little bit of damage, but the brace is time limited. This is either OP, in case the enemy has just performed a complicated action to get close and you simply gain invincibility for 30 secs, until your reinforcements arrive, or it is only 30 secs longer time to prepare for the rape, in case the enemy goes artillery against you.
With the proposed rework, the enemy would destroy your 50/100MP emplacement, but you could easily save your unit.
Retreat prevents your unit from attacking or being controlled and provides it with both a damage reduction and a speed buff to help it survive until it can be reinforced. The exact duration of Retreat can be adjusted with forward retreat points.
Brace prevents your unit from attacking or being controlled and provides it with both a damage reduction and a slight armour bonus to help it survive until it can be reinforced by other units. The duration of Brace is a set thirty seconds.
While the exact balance of Brace and emplacements can be debated, Brace itself fits with the design of the game.