Profile of easierwithaturret

If you choose to use this option, you enter the realm of risk/reward mechanic. Except the risk is relatively small, and the rewards immense.

I was going to write something regarding this but then you've already covered it. The concept behind the OKW trucks is alright (even if I'm not a fan personally), it's just that at the moment the risk-reward relationship isn't quite right. The Schwerer HQ doesn't need a big nerf, a reduction in penetration and either its suppression or anti-air capabilities is all that is needed.

I feel like this thread is going in circles...

I think the MG42 could use a buff, but only a slight one. It seems like some people just want the MG42 from CoH1 and I can understand why because that thing was a beast, but this is a different game and overzealous buffing/nerfing causes as many problems as it solves. If it was up to me I'd increase its traverse a tiny bit and decrease the time it takes to acquire targets by a larger but still small amount. Right now it's a bit easy to flank head but it shouldn't get to the point where crossing the cone of fire, even for a split second, causes suppression. I'd also increase the cost of USF smoke grenades by 5 munitions, that might not sound like much but USF are already very munitions-intensive as it is and grenades delay both teching and weapon upgrades. Changing the 'Oorah' ability so it's not available straight away might also help things.

Another good option that has been suggested many times on here would be to decrease the range of thrown & launched grenades of suppressed units. Not only would this make the MG42 more survivable, it would increase the viability of other factions' MGs and decrease blobbing generally.

Ostheer have problems at the moment but there is no way Grens need this buff. They are cheap, versatile, have good vet bonuses (as well as vetting up quickly), and have extremely useful abilities/upgrades which don't take much to unlock and are non-doctrinal. Some people seem to think their versatility means that they should be able to take on any unit type and do all the heavy lifting for OH but that is not their purpose; they are meant to be support the faction's other units and with their panzerfausts they do this better than any other infantry.

As others have already mentioned the problems with OH lie elsewhere. I believe all buffing grens would do is increase the incentive to spam them, push under-performing units further into obscurity, and make skipping teching and waiting for call-ins even more prevalent. On the one hand if stats of each model stayed the same it would require a cost increase which would further compound the problems OH has getting units out in the early game. On the other hand if stats were decreased to keep overall squad health & DPS the same that could be a positive change but it wouldn't go very far towards giving OH more options or improving their viability 1v1.

I agree that squad-wiping feels too frequent and random at the moment and the smaller squad sizes of Grens means they are more vulnerable to it than other infantry. However the squad wiping issue is due to squad bunching in combination with the lack of effective allied options for combating infantry blobs, which forces them to rely on indirect fire and armour with squad-wiping capabilities. Without squad wiping AoE weapons allies (especially Soviets) are totally outmatched axis infantry in the late game, and for that reason squad wiping does have its place in the current meta.

Increasing squad size is a band-aid fix which would might improve the viability of OH but would force players to rely more on their basic infantry, an idea which goes against the philosophy of the faction (not to mention make is less enjoyable to play as and against). It would be much better addressed by increasing the usefulness of other underperforming OH units or fixing those factors which contribute to the current AoE/squad-wiping meta.