Moving it to Rifle Company does solve the problem by diluting it into another commander that is less prone to spam the unit that can get it.
In Urban Assault you can forego Riflemen completely and spam REs with rifle grenades, get your officers to fill in the gaps and then get Rangers. You wouldn’t have the Rangers in Rifle Company, so this strategy would be less effective.
HOWEVER! I think what you said about reworking the ability is valid.
I think the easiest way to rework the ability it to make it identical to Grenadier rifle grenades. REs gain the ability to shoot rifle grenades just like Grenadiers. No upgrade, just a passive new ability. It would be a substantial nerf in raw power, considering how much worse REs are compared to Grenadiers, but you’d also get the element of surprise when a RE squad suddenly pops off a rifle grenade in what you thought was going to be an easy fight.
The clone concept is good enough IMO. But if RE rifle nades can become an original feature, then thats 2 birds with 1 stone.
IMO rifle nades could be moved to rifle company and pair it with flares. But also rework rifle nades as Lago suggested.
For some reason moving nades to riflemen makes it less spammable and gives them an extra degree of freedom of utiliy. BAR+Rifle nade sounds very interesting for a midgame situation and on top of that smokes to effectively dislodge axis HMGs.
The only downside i find of making flares more reliable and consistent (not being dogdge able) is the consequent adjust/nerf to compensate. Wether it be a prohibitive cost or a lower damage output. I want to see them ingame, not as a meme but as a viable option. A longer cd sounds feasable, since with a good kiting you could fire a nade and retreat to a safer spot. Repeat this again and the enemy will abandon or loose its units.
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