Asymmetric balance...

Anyone think the Brits are strong in the late game any more?

Having to sit through and fend off whilst entirely on the back foot with no room to manoeuvre, or units that can really do it, waiting the the end game.

Which is then, meh. At best?

Heavy sappers were the one reliable unit even whilst Vet didn't work for UKF. Now they're utter garbage. The Churchill is just two very slow medium tanks bolted together ( which spends far more time being repaired than in combat) and the Comet gets hardcountered by TDs ( even the JP4) or Panthers.

The return for trading off early and mid game weakness was supposed to be a powerful end game. If you never even see the units because you can't afford them or you need to turn a VP deficit around I'm just not seeing how. If anything the mid game seems weaker now too. Cromwells seem much squishier, the Firefly is useful defensively but can't handle a dive and useless on the front foot. Centaurs are a joke. I see the AEC got an armour buff. Yay! Hmm... Hang on, what Axis AT weapons have a penetration lower than 55? Very slightly more durable against AP rounds from an MG42 maybe? That's really useful.

Play the Brits! Spend most of the game repairing and re-crewing stuff. eventually you'll fight back to find bare parity at best but still be outnumbered and in a massive VP hole.

To be asymmetrically balanced the Brits should have clear advantages in the late game. Could someone do me the favour of listing them?

Abilities. That's about it. Double Bren 5 man tommies are pretty good too. Fireflies are pretty good at attacking actually, but not diving ofc. As long as you keep them behind your main force they'll do some good work in relative safety. Comet is ok against giant blobs but I wouldn't bet on it hitting anything smaller now without using white phosphorus. Cromwell isn't squishier but the main gun had some scatter and moving acc nerfs.

Yeah that's how I use the FF, preferably following Soviet tanks around if in a team game. If I get dived hit reverse and run.

Not exactly my definition of a clear advantage...

Cromwell.... Seems to take more hits now. Never was durable but could use it's mobility. Now it seems to be a bullet magnet.

Abilities as in Commander abilities? Was a great fan or Artillery Cover, though seems to be toast. The callins are good, Croc, Mattress and AVRE. Can't immediately think of an ability other than the Commando bombing run that I'd want to take with me. Saying that Commandos just seem to be RE now only with grenades.

The artillery commander has a good one into the FoW as long as you go Anvil, though can't see any point in Anvil any more. Or the command vehicle. On a UC, excellent. On anything else it's a waste of armour.

Which leaves double brenned Tommies and the humble 6 pdr really, plus a very long wait for Comets. I saw Comets because one is a dive magnet. Can't fight a Panther and can't really get away from one ( usually more) either.

It's rather deeply underwhelming.

At least back in the day, when frankly the deck was even more stacked against you early, you had some joy to look forward to. Now it's parity at best, unless you go really cheesy with lots of mortar pits.

I suppose what I'm saying is there are no impact units other than the Croc. FF, as a TD merely counters the Axis heavies and keeps them at bay. It can't beat them unless they make a mistake. Comet can hold it's own. Hell, lets be positive and dream of unicorns. Maybe some game I might actually outnumber the Axis tanks with Comets rather than having to hope they dive and a sneaky 6pdr or two helps out. I'd only need a 185 fuel advantage....

Churchill rumbles up, pak gun crews point at it, have a brew and a fag, then get their free vet before it has to retreat to the ever embracing arms of 2 or three squads of engineers.

So far, in late game, I can count on my knob the number of times diving has gone well. Who knew that every Kraut citizen had a laser guided anti-engine missile hidden up their jacksy?

What to do if a supposedly humble Volks decides to advance on my supposedly heavy tank? Hah, I can take him. Why on earth is he pulling a huge dildo out of his butt? Ah not another weird germanic thing, tis a shreck. Against my frontal armour? No problems.

Hmmm... I have engine damage ( which is odd, I thought the engine was at the back) and a brace of Panthers is revving their engines. Time to watch them speed through my 6 pdrs, kill my Comet, slowly circle the 6pdrs and escape with more than half health.

Or... I don't have engine damage, hit reverse while they chase me to the far side of the map, picking their way back to their side in as leisurely a manner as possible.

It's, bullshit basically.

Commandos are actually really amazing but you have to use them with some sort of advantage. Whether it's camo + ambush (which is very easy to pull off if you're paying attention) or a gammon bomb or even vickers support or all 3 at once, they can take on much larger forces without many casualties as long as you use them really smart, even in teamgames. They also have demos.

In addition to commander abilities, you get a lot of really good unit abilities too, like white phosphorus comet rounds (much more effective against inf than the normal main gun), FF tulips, Brit sniper critical shot, coordinated fire (only good cuz its cheap and gets airburst rounds with anvil), aec treadshot (not very viable in teamgames, but still). Use em.

Combined arms is your best friend as brits. Having a varied army with brits more so than a lot of other factions really pays off IMO. And ofc, you need to use it lategame in teamgames anyway because they'll have panthers and kts and blobs and shit.

Yeah I'll have another look at the Commandos. Was rather put of by the Airlanding Hoccifer, whose entire squad seems to die if a Kraut sneezes at them. As three of em are Commandos I assumed they were all crap.

I do use the abilities, of course, but the potentially useful ones are in the wrong places. Need a snare in a teamgame? Try getting an AEC up to even Vet 1. Croms are difficult enough most of the time.

Christ the amount of abuse my poor Tank Hunters got shocked me. Soon as the Bosch saw em they'd have railway artillery and all sorts dumped on their heads. Same with the FF. Especially if there was merely one KT on the field.

I can see that the Land Mattress commander buffs the UKF early game, who knows maybe even makes it competitive? Trouble is the UKF late game has now been left almost utterly bereft of clout.

Yeah I'll have another look at the Commandos. Was rather put of by the Airlanding Hoccifer, whose entire squad seems to die if a Kraut sneezes at them. As three of em are Commandos I assumed they were all crap.

I do use the abilities, of course, but the potentially useful ones are in the wrong places. Need a snare in a teamgame? Try getting an AEC up to even Vet 1. Croms are difficult enough most of the time.

Christ the amount of abuse my poor Tank Hunters got shocked me. Soon as the Bosch saw em they'd have railway artillery and all sorts dumped on their heads. Same with the FF. Especially if there was merely one KT on the field.

I can see that the Land Mattress commander buffs the UKF early game, who knows maybe even makes it competitive? Trouble is the UKF late game has now been left almost utterly bereft of clout.

Ironically enough, if you use the airlanding officer's heroic charge(?) ability, then they can easily destroy any single infantry squad in the game. The only case where i see them possibly losing is if they have to cross red cover against vet 4+ obers with IR stgs.

Thought it only affected units around it? Lots of complaints about, -75% RA etc so the squishied it to allow focus fire on the Officer?

Might have to go back to Vanguard if not...

No, it affects all squads around the officer and the officer himself.

As for what jae said, it's true. They absolutely wreck in 1v1 as a capping squad if you're not trying some big push since they can just pop the ability and insta-win against lone capping squads.

And Allies too if memory serves.

Cheers chaps, will give it a whirl.