I dislike the stuka design but hey it is what it is. I would just lower the range so it has to get closer to the action and thus be in a more risky situation.
Or make the travel time greater for the rockets so its harder to hit move / retreating units.
Or tie it to tech 3. Makes it so its not unlocked before you get Schwerer Panzer HQ down.
The problem right now with stuka:
- too easy to use
- ignores fog
- comes way way too early
I think someone suggested making the stuka shoot like irl so the rockets would only hit in a straight line the way the stuka is facing. That would make it more of a skillshot and make it easier to dodge.
I disagree with the last two points ('comes too early / area only in the direction of Stuka)
It comes earlier than other rocket arty, but you heavily delay your medium tank, which means that you must rely on Raketenwerfer for AT. The Walking StuKa comes at approx 10 minutes, which gives you 2-3 shots when perfectly microed until the enemy tank comes out and you have to defend the StuKa for more than five minutes. Also it's OKWs obly possibility apart from back teching to counter British emplacements, and you often find the emplacements only after you decided to tech up already, so OKW would have next to no answer to a ofors, since Raketens range is a bit short.
The unit timing is fine since OKW has a real drawback (only Raketenwerfer as AT) for it.
The forced directionality of the impact would als make it next to useless, since you can alsways dodge left or right an the StuKa will be a miss.
So finally lets compare it to Panzerwerfer and Katyusha:
Katy: 4 salvo firing, generally lower whipe potential unless really close to the target. Last salvos can be dodged. Good against static units. Area denial tool.
Panzerwerfer: 1 salvo firing, generally low whipe potential when far away and very high potential up close. The one salvo mode forces to attack only high value targets. Impact area is therefpre very predictable, but it's harder to dodge if you react a bit too late.
StuKa: 1 salvo line firing. Also only attacks high value targets, but due to the line firing nobody knows if you will hit or not and how multiplexed the mind games are. Neither attacker nor defender can really do much to influence the damage compared to other rocket arty. Generally high whipe potential at all ranges.
The problem is the StuKa is too much rng and poker playing even for CoH. Unless the StuKa fires at two team weapons at one, there's no way to guess how the shots will land and how they will be dodged. It's just frustrating and random, since the unit can be next zo useless for more then 5 minutes or whipe 3 squads and win you the game