Profile of comm_ash

Sturmtiger and AVRE need to pick a role. They should either:

1) Be slow, heavily armored and high HP assault tanks that frontally smash defenses

2) Be more mobile, with less armor and HP so enemies can punish them if they stick around near the frontlines.

Currently, the Sturmtiger especially is both highly maneuverable and hard to kill for its price, and can reload very quickly when it feels like it since it can reload on the move.

I would like to see:
-A price nerf. The ST and AVRE are heavy tanks, and should be priced like it for their resilience and firepower.
-A maneuverability nerf. The AVRE and ST especially are too hard to follow and kill, and arrive on target too fast to deal with in a reliable manner.
-Range nerf (Glad to see this at least coming)

In my opinion, the M1919 is a bad bet. You are essentially going from an upgrade that plays to the strength of your squad and the weakness of your enemy, to one that has you compete with Axis long range squads, which are typically better or at least more efficient at that role.

The only real advantage to me is that you do not need tech to access the M1919.

On the one hand, I get the want to not have units too far removed from what fought in Italy for the campaign. On that point, go ahead and remove the Black Prince (BP) from SP, and replace with something that fits the timeframe and historical accuracy better (I would do this across the board, so no Chaffee in SP campaigns before late war, etc.)

That said, I see no reason the BP should not be in multiplayer. COH multiplayer has always not just used "fantasy" weapons that are more thematic than realistic, but also done the same to actual unit statlines. Don't believe me?:

1) Why does the P4 have more armor than the T34 and Sherman in COH2? Both of these tanks historically had better armor than even the late war 80mm frontal plate P4, but in game it serves to be the most well armored medium tank available to stock armies. This is to thematically convey that German tanks have high armor, in the context of the game. It was for balance reasons as well that the P4J does not have the unusably slow turret rotation it had at launch.

2) V-1, IR STG, lava-nade, fucking infra-red halftrack. None of these units were utilized tactically in anywhere near the numbers you see them in game, and in fact some of these just straight don't exist. They exist to convey the thematic design of the Germans as a high tech, "space magic" faction (particularly OKW). Hell, the KT being a stock unit should tell you all you need to know about the "historicity" of the faction. Personally, I would argue that a game that cared about realism enough to not have a unit just out of the war like the BP, should also refrain from using what were essentially field-tested prototypes like the above, for the sake of authenticity.
(Also, it kind of makes less sense when you realize the reason Germany had to rush so many of these half-tested weapons and kit to the front was because of their sheer desperation. If the allies had started running out of troops and equipment you bet your ass they would have fast tracked their prototypes.)

There are other examples, but I think I made my point. In a multiplayer setting I do not see the Black Prince as sufficiently out of reality to not fit in. One of COH's strengths has always been to bring the more interesting elements of a nation's army, and build a thematic representation of them as a faction.

Americans are mobile, Soviets are versatile. In the case of the British, the BP fits perfectly as a late game lumbering behemoth to represent the cautious but steady advance of the British Army in popular mythos.

Oh my god it's happening.

Better be Brits vs. Nazis to start, though I will accept Italy as the other axis faction. I will die if it ends up being USA.

I am not a huge fan of the new ability for the e8. It makes the tank still not as good out the box, and gates it's effectiveness upgrade behind a vet 1 ability that removes the main differentiator between the e8 and the normal sherman, it's mobility.

I would keep the e8 as it is in the pre-patch game, and instead give it abilities to emphasize its suspension (since that is what the easy 8 designation actually refers to).

IE: At vet 1, the tank no longer takes any firing on the move penalty. This will make the tank unique again (I'm honestly not sure why it was removed, as it never seemed to make the tank particularly crazy for it's price.) The base tank itself could use some mobility buffs so it can be more mobile than the panther at least.

Or, one final idea, make it an infantry support tank as would fit in a doctrine like "Rifle Company." Give it the white phosphorus shell the comet has, in a nod to the film "Fury" and as a more aggressive smoke screen dispenser.

Increase the tank's cost if these changes are too much (but I don't think they will be comparing it to what it has to fight).