Profile of Esxile

We had different era of modding team, Cruzz and MrSmith had a different approach than Sander and SturmPanther. Then the bias isn't about Axis vs Allied but making their preferred factions dominating over the other.

Ostheer and Soviet + OKW on teamgame leaving USF and UKF behind because they didn't give a fuck about them.

Globally in their way to mod the game they forget factions should have PRO and CONS, they always worked to make the CONS relative to their preferred factions the less impactful possible when they couldn't simply eliminated them. 7 Cons upgrade and Vet3.OberGrenadiers being imo the pic of this vision alongside with the multiplication of giving extensive vision through commanders for OKW.

The game under Cruzz and MrSmith direction was much more balanced and I remember that even if I didn't agree with all what they were doing they had a balanced vision of what they wanted to implement meaning they thought of how the opposing faction would be doing.
Once they left, the balance went down to focusing on Sov, Ostheer and OKW to reduce/remove their weaknesses with little consideration for the overall balance of the game.

Smoke & blob. Smoke & blob. Use that T0 mortar. Enemy MGs are your main problem. Vet I Major is your friend for his 50 sight range, smoke, arty and recon abilities. If you're feeling lucky, can even try the double BARs Major. Jackson should be able to handle most armour threats.

For once I'll agree with Lady, make an early mortar and smoke the lane.

VS Ostheer, I build a mortar after my second riflemem/path but some people do it after their first to secure the fuel.

VS OKW I'll build it after the first officer.

I once got my opponent mad because of smoke, the guy insulted me because he couldn't abuse with his HMGs and sniper. It was a weird moment.

Yes, do the right click. You might be able to max it a bit if you attack ground exactly the middle of the squad, but I highly doubt it is worth the additional micro.

Hi here, I'm going to do a bit of necro posting to reply to this post. But since the topic of interesting for everyone I guess its fine.

So I have been testing it a lot, I mean every time I built a tank in my last 50-100 games and obviously I can't sort out stats but share some feeling about it.

- Yes to do the right click works with tanks. I always do the right click now, not that I put the tank on hold fire but I'll always supervise myself the shot when I'm on it with better result than let it shot itself.

- Since i've got more experience with the sherman what I'll say may be not true for all tanks. For some reason I don't understand the sherman almost always overshot and almost never undershot (undershot are usually the result of ground colision). I don't know if it is particular to the sherman but I tend to think, from observation, that it is the same for all tanks.

- So in term of microing the sherman, I do supervise the shot with a right-click but also always undershot, I never click on the targeted squad center, always closer. And even more with a vet0 sherman, once the tank reach vet2 I'll target the closest model's feet.

And as I say I don't have stats, but from observation I tend to get twice kills as if I let the sherman doing the shot alone. This is evidently more true while the tank is unvetted, once vet2 usually I can start microing it less.

Now maybe I'm wrong, my sherman having more kills could also be the result of overmicroing it thus better avoiding losing it in battle. And that's true that I manage to keep my shermans much longer but I'm also getting it veted much faster.

So here it is, my recommendation at least when using a sherman is to always undershot by some meters to compensate its habit to overshot. Since I do that I usually get around 30/40 kills per game with it.

Is to tell that both OKW\Ostheer use abilities which gives increased vision, exemplifying that main reason why people use Paths is vision, because other factions also prefer vision abilities.

In a way yes it is an excuse to continue to abuse path but I also personally came to the bore state with Path every game, I haven't touch path for a couple of weeks now but the meta is completely wrecked by to extended vision that are so accessible. Path, JLI, Pfuss, they should all get addition CP requirement so they can be the base of your army so easily

I'll put this into a spoiler. Although the state of Rifles is quite important for Pathfinders, this is getting admittedly slightly offtopic.
Show Spoiler

Tech and side tech cost went down over the patches to match with other factions changes. USF side tech and tech were expensive because you weren't supposed to get all of them, the HMG T1 and Atgun T2 concept. At that time Stuart was T2 and AAHT T1 with the M20 and HMG. Keep in mind that the design was somewhat inspired from COH1 where or you tech BAR or M20 first and if you get the two of them you'll be behind for the medium timing. That a choice the play had to take.

Now we are in a design that impose the USF player to get those upgrades, they aren't anymore optional in term of gameplay. You can't keep your riflemen unupgunned, you can't only rely on your LVs to maintain the pressure, you need those BARs, grenades and LV altogether to stay relevant thus making USF tech more expensive.

And here, to come back to Path, USF tech is more expensive but you're not gaining anything from it, there isn't a momentum provided, the M20 has an extremely short windows of opportunity and even if you want to rush it, you must sacrifice map presence with one RM less and BAR come way after LMG upgrades because you must pay additional fuel to get them.

As opposed Path give you momentum with their camo and vision letting you decide when to engage.