Profile of Kothre

Can't help but notice that AoE IV is a no-show at E3 this year. Is this game ever coming out? Geez.

There is no fixing it unless you do something draconian like hard-limit arty pieces, which should not happen. The game is fine, just leave it be.

People are now complaining about British sandbags needing "fixing." Jesus, every time I come back to the forum people are suggesting ridiculous changes to a 5 year old game. The British have already been nerfed to hell; they don't need their damn sandbags nerfed too. Holy god.

The FRP change was completely unnecessary in my opinion. They're basically worthless and should never be used now. If they were going to be nerfed, then making them come out later was all that was needed.

I am really happy to see this commander getting revamped, but I feel it still has a lot of work to do. Here's my take.

Assault Packages

I like the idea of this, but I would like some clarification. How good are the MP40s? Are they better than STG44s in close range? If not, I don't see myself ever upgrading my volks with this. I have a hunch the MP40 upgrade is total garbage.

I never liked volks having an incendiary grenade instead of a standard Stielhandgranate. I'd like to see the incendiaries get moved to the assault package, and the Stielhandgranate moved to the default volks arsenal. I know people will tell me this is a massive change whose scope is beyond the commander, but remember that this was actually the original design for volks when OKW first came out. The incendiary grenades didn't come till later balance patches.

Incendiary Munitions

I like this. It will help a lot against British emplacement spamming. I haven't used it much yet so I can't speak to the damage, but the concept is good.

Opel Blitz Truck

I really do not like this ability, for several reasons. First off, it has no weapon so it's just a redundant medic truck. Second, it costs 25 fuel just for a mobile reinforcement point. That's the roughly same cost as a medic HQ (minus the truck deployment) for almost the same role, but with a pretty much guaranteed death since light vehicles almost never survive till late game (at least in team games). Even an ambulance only costs 10 fuel, and that can actually heal, even if you can't always be moving it around. Third, it's boring and it just turns makes OKW even more like other factions.

The most important reason this is unfitting is because it doesn't synergize with incendiary munitions. In order to make use of both this truck and incendiary munitions, you have to go medic HQ first, which means you're already going to have a forward reinforce point, making Opel Blitz redundant. If you go mechanized HQ first, then incendiary munitions aren't nearly as useful. Commanders shouldn't have an internal tradeoff like this.

A flame halftrack would be far more fitting in this slot because 1) it would allow you to comfortably go medic HQ and still have mechanized pushing power and 2) it fits the theme of aggressive, fire-based play, and 3) it doesn't risk OKW turning into an even blobber, A-move faction that it already can be sometimes.

Flame Hetzer

You guys really need to keep all the patches notes in one place. I looked through the December Balance Preview Thread and only saw that you were changing the Hetzer by nerfing its cost and moving it to the HQ. There's no other mention of it. It was only halfway through writing this post that I came across this YouTube video with the full Feuersturm changes. I was about to rip you a new one for not changing its awful stats.

I'm going to trying using the Flame Hetzer more before I comment on its new stats.

Rocket Barrage

Again, no mention of this in the balance preview thread. I only saw this in the video that you're increasing the number of rockets from 4 to 6. That's good, because before it was completely inferior to Scavenge Doctrine's 105mm howitzer barrage, yet cost more. Whether or not it still is is debatable, but I'm glad to see it getting a buff.