I'm going to blow your mind here so get a bucket or something. Alright? Ready for this? All the factions are designed to function differently! Wow neat eh? Notice how when a Soviet player goes for those 1min penals they give up any team weapons at all? No mgs or mortars or AT guns. Penals are good because of that CHOICE they make. Do I think they need toning down? Yea. But there is a choice there.
Brits Tommies ARE elite infantry because they lack it otherwise they pay 280mp for a static squad. Yes they are good and they PAY FOR IT.
Rifles, same bloody thigg they can sink fuel and muni into making rifles strong because THAT'S HOW THEY WERE DESIGNED. rifles are the core of the USF faction..
Do you mind if I step in? Yeah factions are different and give different tools, that is true.
Why dont you mention volks vs pgrens? Maybe cost effiency is the weakest point of the latter, but dont worry grens seems to have it even worse in the current meta.
About USF, Yeah sinking fuel sounds like you spended 100+ on riflemen but its actually 40 IIRC.
Pgrens are quite expensive too, maybe the PAY FOR IT logic failed there...
Poor Ost "only" has storms in 3 doctrines how many doctrines are commandos in? Paras? Rangers? Any non Soviet elite infanty for that matter? Far fewer. But that doesn't matter because Ost doesn't need them because they themselves have very potent infantry. Grens are some of the most accurate infantry around and can focus their DPS in the lmg. Pgrens are incredibly potent when they close but you have to utilize the combined arms design to do it well. Combine pgrens with a halftrack or mortar and they shine like nothing else
Somehow comparing factions that have been since the start of the game with others added with DLC patches sounds wrong, maybe its because OST and SU have far more commanders that USF UKF and OKM together? I dont see any sense about it. But dont worry commander balance is a far more complex topic than a simple Pgren being UP/OP.
And finally I never said I agreed with AE and his design I'm just disagreeing with you that pgrens need some major buff to make them OP in a state that you can make use of them. Don't charge them across neg cover and try to figure out what that little yellow and green shield icons need and you will be just fine.
Pgrens have great dps and can engage from mid range out depending on their target. If they were any better they would be broken.
There is no real proof about that last sentence. Pgren pack quite a punch on already bad positioned troops. They are also the ONLY tool OST has in terms of shock/cqc nondoc troops. Its true that some reckless buff to pgren will make them spammable and blobable, but as they are now they dont shine that much. Maybe Pgrens are OKish and all the other specialist AI are OP, starting from Oberst all the way to assengies. But its worth repeating, pgrens pack a punch on already bad positioned troops but they lack of performance against other shock troops. If that is a wanted feature or no, im not going to argue about it.
Their only tool to compete is the bundled grenade.
The way i see pgrens now is as a versatile option having the muni to invest into 2 srecks to have a more mobile AT platform to counter LVs. Thats somethin they do pretty well.
Thats why also im interested in seeing them more and with tank support passives buffs
Edit: I would like to add, if someone brings up pioneer as efficient cqc troops, i would anwer this way. Nerf pios damage, buff pgren in exange. Pios are meant to serve as scout/engi troops, just that.