This is the unit I personally feel needs rebalancing the most:
1.- Almost impossible to kill unlike other mobile arty like Stukas or katushas cause...well..its a TANK.
2.- Therefore heavily promotes defensive camping playstyle where u just bleed out your opponents manpower by constant barraging.
3.- Very low popcap for this unit makes it quite spammable.
4.- Does massive damage per rocket.
5.- Shoot a massive amount of rockets.
6.- Kills units/squads on retreat like flies. Defensive bonuses when on retreat seem almost completely negated. It's really not uncommon for me to lose 2 squads instantly to a barrage when I'm just a fraction of a second too late with my retreat, very much unlike other arty barrages in the game.
All in all in it's current form I personally find this unit to be nothing but OP cheese. It promotes a playstyle that I heavily dislike (campy, non mobile, non flanking).
A bit of a disclaimer here is that my experience mostly comes from a lot of 2v2's. Not really sure how this unit works out in 1v1, but in 2v2 I think it's as close to broken as they get personally.
From now on I propose a namechange for this unit to: CalliOP. ![:P :P](/images/Smileys/tongue.gif)
1. this is a problem. 640hp with that range is weird. because the range is long enough that calliope does not require extra tanki-ness to survive while barraging.
so it works like katyusha in terms of how players move up and back when barraging. and obviously it does not promote good flanks from anybody versing it.
i rather make it 320hp or give like 800 or 960 hp and shorten its range so it can barrage maybe about 40 range? a bit like sturmtiger.
this argument of 'oh its 140 fuel so it deserves 640hp' is a cop out. when your sov teammate can get katyusha or you (US) can get a calliope, do you choose calliope because it has extra health? no, you choose calliope (when affordable) because it wipes much better.
2. just because calliope is tankier than its counterparts, that does not mean it makes defensive play more effective. i agree having unit wiping units help defensive plays but even if calliope had 320hp, it will promote same kind of defensive plays.
3,4&6. 140fuel is not spammable at all. seeing how as USF, you need at least one jackson plus other AT to effectively stay AT competitive.
same damage i am pretty sure.
defensive bonuses when retreating is reduced received accuracy which has no effect with any explosives.
5. this is also a problem. I do not want to derail your thread, but this is a part of a much bigger problems, all squad wiping explosives that are almost impossible to dodge.
the nerf of 22 rockets to 18 rockets? did almost nothing because calliope still fires 10 rockets in its first salvo which can handily wipe squads on its own.
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calliope is expensive and not uncrewable which are big things. but no matter the cost, the wipe-ability of calliope's scale is inexcusable. dont blob dont count because it can wipe one squad by itself consistently as well. not as consistently as ST or demo or goliath but still.