Profile of Applejack

It might be helpful to note that LT and Captain has a Thompson SMG model so they are slightly better at close range than your standard Rifleman squad.

Captain gets a single 60 muni BAR without weapon rack upgrade requirement so usually you can just rush Captain then rush the upgrade for a good early game boost. The only problem is the Captain takes a while to unlock so you're weak until then. When you have grenade unlocked, the Captain can smoke MGs and push them by themselves fairly easily. "On me" is also a very useful ability at vet 1. The combo is you send in another rifleman squad first to take the first MG burst, Captain squad sends out smoke grenade and then uses "On me" on the suppressed Rifleman squad who then goes to throw a grenade into the smoke. Alternately you can use a rifleman squad to scout ahead with the Captain squad behind. If they get suppressed or pin, just use "On me" to pull them back and out of danger. Its very good.

LT/Captain tends to fall off near mid game but they are still very powerful support units. LT at vet 3 become a very fast AT squad with 2 zooks. It can zip around the map to give you infantry based AT where its needed especially on a pre-snared tank. Same with vet 3 Captain and Major although I wouldn't put more than 1 weapon on the Major.

Is For the Fatherland going to retain its cost at 50 muni or will it be adjusted?

It seems pretty powerful for a 50 muni ability that is going to last 45 seconds.

I play brits a lot and the way I deal with them is a bren carrier mixed with infantry sections with grenades. In the very early game, a bren carrier rush can catch an MG42 (since 90% of Ostheer players build MG42 as their first unit) before it sets up and do a decent amount of damage before supporting grens arrive, and then flanking with tommies and throwing a grenade also works really well. I agree UKF is at a disadvantage to MG spam, but there are solutions not involving the mortar pit, and they are more effective on some maps than others. Steppes for example I find it very easy to make the bren carrier into a very lethal tool. I never get the WASP but I get the Vickers and it just shreds MGs until they get vet 1 and can counter with AP incendiary.

I just always build a bren first, and immediately send it to the fuel or wherever the Ostheer player will be attacking to catch them off-guard, and then let my tommies back cap.

I think the Bren carrier is the most important thing honestly for brits, until a 222 comes out it hard counters everything Wehr can throw at you. Just have to watch out for an OKW teammate getting an early raketen.

Thanks for the tip, I've always viewed the UC as a slightly better DPS clown car. I'm interested in trying to use it like a clown car to counter MGs. Still, its a risky option and devastating if lost early especially to a faust snare.

About why axis have higher win rate in 4vs4! :
1.in random vs random axis are most of the time better. But in premade vs premade allies are stronger. Allies random don't know how to counter a mg or killing a tank.

2. Matchmaking is fail atm. When you search axis you get top 100 mates but only facing 1k to 6k allies. So ofc axis wins. Just look last streams from duffman. Shows the same. And when duffman played random allies, he got friendly snipes.
So yes atm something is wrong in 4vs4. But imo its not the unit balance self. Something in the matchmaker is not working. It wasn't so worse in past. Ofc there were days where you faced as top 100 1k-6k but it happend on axis and allies sind. Now its only on allies side.
So ofc axis has higher winrate.
As said look duffmann stream, or rosebone thread, or ask aerafield. He tried in the last week to play random allies and no chance at all from matchmaking.

3. As allies random: Ban redball, port of hamburg. Snow maps are not that bad. Lower your settings or get better pc if you have still problems.

Offtopic you guys saw the wins from allies in 1vs1? 3 time 52 % allies faction. poor wehrmacht 44 % lol.
Brits with the highest. But on the other side you don't see brits in 1vs1 Cups, because people know how to counter it.

I don't think this is the right mindset to approach balancing the game. Instead of saying randoms can't counter MGs. Maybe ask yourself why that is. I believe its because they aren't given enough tools to counter MG spam. Especially UKF.

I've been playing UKF lately and I can see very clearly the weaknesses of this faction. The only early game option to counter MG is mortar pit smoke. Pyrotechnic smoke is slow and risks the squad throwing the smoke to the MG as the range is not far enough. Both suffer from the same fault, only counters 1 MG. There is no other alternative. AEC smoke comes near mid-game and is a risky but usable option. Cromwell smoke is nice but is a late game option only.

While mortar pit is has a good range on the smoke, it still suffers from being a static emplacement and it can only counter 1 MG. So typically what happens in 4v4 games is each Axis player would get their own MG making a total of 4 (2 possible in each lane) while you would only have 1 mortar pit to counter 1 MG. Again, pyrotechnic kit suffers from the same fault as it can only counter 1 MG and it does not come fast enough (T1) to make a difference in the early game. This is not including more than 1 MG made by any player or bunker emplacements with MGs.

That aside, Mortar pits are easily countered by IGs/Stuka and other indirect such as mortars. When the mortar pit is trying to counter barrage other IGs, it is not getting value by attacking infantry or smoking. Smoking leaves it vulnerable to indirect. The popular counter to IGs (pack howi) was previously a good counter but with the nerfs, it no longer is a good counter. Counters aside, if an IG is stopped by killing it. It can simply be recrewed. However a mortar pit has no such option. Mortar pit cannot be recrewed.

Moving on, pushing into MGs as a UKF player is deadly because should the push fail then you have to retreat a long distance. Forward retreating point doesn't come until a T2 upgrade costing 115 fuel then 450MP. The UKF player most likely won't get 115 fuel fast if they don't succeed in the first MG push. In addition, the grenade upgrade for infantry sections is pulling MP away from building a mortar pit and a forward retreat point. This doesn't include tech upgrade, bolster upgrade and weapon rack upgrade which all pull MP away from building emplacements. Lets not forget the super expensive 320MP anti-tank gun. Combine this with a static mortar pit that can't retreat, should the UKF player fail at pushing an MG, a mass retreat often leaves the mortar pit vulnerable which means that can lose 250MP. Another 250MP that must be invested to counter MGs.

UKF unfortunately has so many MP sinks that they can't power-up effectively in the early game and counter MGs.

All this aside, there is a key difference between allies random matchmaking and axis random matchmaking. There are 3 allied factions in the game, each with their diverse arsenal while there are 2 Axis factions in the game which both rely heavily on MGs. Do all allied factions have enough non-doctrinal tools to counter MGs? USF have RE/Officer smoke and Mortar smoke. Soviets get oorah charge, mortar smoke and light vehicles to flank. UKF get mortar pit smoke and pyrotechnics...?

What happens is: I'm a Allied random player queuing for 4s. I get stuck in a team with 3 UKF players. 3 UKF players which have only 2 poor option to counter MGs, which is easily countered unless they take doctrinal choices to counter them. I think there-in lies the issue. UKF simply does not have enough tools to counter MGs.

Perhaps UKF MP costs need to be adjusted.

Perhaps pyrotechnics should come down as a off-map green flare (like decoy flares) instead of a physical flare being thrown by the infantry section. It should also have increased range.

Perhaps a new mortar pit building is required, one that is cheaper and can fire only smoke.

Perhaps more doctrinal abilities should be added that include off-map smoke.

Perhaps there needs to be more counters to IG/Stuka so the mortar pit isn't as vulnerable.

Perhaps Forward retreat point needs to come earlier and be cheaper on MP.

Perhaps grenade upgrade need to be cheaper and provide pyrotechnic off-map smoke to all sections.

Perhaps losing an emplacement should refund the MP cost as UKF have too many MP sinks in the game compared to other factions.

It's quite perplexing how brits have such low winrates. Of course, the pick rate is low. You could sooner expect to get hit in the ballsack with a flail, swung from a headless chicken, then to see a brit in game... but still, low winrates

I've been playing a lot of UKF in 4s lately and I can answer this one.

UKF lack a lot of tools that are basically required in 4s. Rocket artillery and a mobile mortar for smoke for one. They are completely shut down when going against an MG. Smoke from the mortar pit helps as its fast to land and has a fast cooldown but emplacements in general are easily countered in 4s. Especially by the new buff from stuka napalm. I do enjoy the Cromwell smoke round to counter MGs but that doesn't come early enough for it to be effective. Perhaps adding it to the AEC might help.

They also lack a solid anti-blob rocket arty. Land matress is doctrinal, slow to setup and turn compared to rocket arty vehicles. There's a new buff on the way and it can't come soon enough.

The firefly is easily supported yes but it shoots slow, moves slow, turns slow, turret turns slow, and overall is SUPER slow. Its not ideal for the fast engagements that tend to happen most of the times. Also not to mention that Panther has fairly high HP and good armour in the front so it can shrug off a single firefly fairly easily. The alternative is a 320MP ATG which is great at what it does but is vastly more expensive to say, the USF atg which is comfortably at 270MP and has an muni ability to boost pen values. Brits are already fairly MP starved because of the expendable nature of emplacements.

Comet is comparable to the Panther. The frontal armour is the same and it has better AI properties but that doesn't mean much against heavy armour that Axis are packing late game. Both late game UKF tanks fail to pen most frontal heavy armour making them mostly sidelined in the late game role while Axis heavy armour remain dominant. They don't trade well in a front-to-front engagement which tends to happen the most.

You use a comet the same way you would use an Ostwind or Brumbar. It really isn't that great for its cost and it can't trade with the similarly priced Panther which sucks. Churchill can only soak damage too which really sucks for its cost. Compared to Panther which is the generalist medium tank god of the battlefield and only continues to receive (indirect) buffs.