Profile of EtherealDragon

This is my big concern with Obers they arrive to late and are usually up against vetted infantry, is shifting obers to T1 to much of a game breaker? Would the option of having a shrek or a lmg be agreeable?

At the very least would open T1 builds into the meta, good synergy with being able to heal your troops and have a decent mix of AT and AI infantry supported by crewed weapons. Or a less versatile infantry mix supported by light vehicles with a T2 build, meaning a high risk, high reward payoff with vehicle rushes.

I don't think so balance-wise. At this point its not much different than Penals, PZ Grens, or most Call-in Elites. Cost will always limit you from spamming them early so yeah... you could always allow Obers to be built but lock the MG34 behind T4 so they aren't *too* good early on. Though Mirage's method is a bit more conservative.

In case you didn't know what Miragefla does - he decreases price of T4 building and then requires a munitions upgrade for flak gun and an additional unlock for vehicle production - allowing you to unlock Obers faster without the cheese of fast flak lockdown.

I suppose another option would be to allow Obers to be built from HQ but require either T4 OR Med Truck + Mech - that way you don't miss out if you go T1 -> T2

Generally speaking

1. Realizing that you can't keep your squads still behind cover for long or else the precision shells of FREEDOM will ruin your day.

2. ISG will out range it - just spam barrage at his mortar, at the very least you'll force him to reposition. (I always give my isg a ctrl group so I can't quickly select it and maximize its fast barrage cooldown)

3. If the map/situation allows for it Fallshimjaegers popping out and using new nuke grenade on mortar and stealing it

Previously it was rather easy to go Battlegroup and rely on Shreks as your light vehicle counter but with the recent patch's removal of Volk Shreks and added side-tech costs for OKW I've found that OKW can fall into a mid-game hole of sorts when it comes to light vehicle play.

While the timing of OKW's own light vehicles is fine (Puma arrives at same time as Stuart generally) but the problem (in my experience) is that with OKW's healing being locked behind an additional 55 fuel you are often forced into a Sophie's choice of forgoing healing (often not a pretty option) or delaying your medium tanks. It's rough because all 3 allied factions can get healing AND tech for medium tanks at the same time: with OKW's more expensive tanks I've often found myself handicapped just because I needed healing.

The answer: in my estimation OKW needs a more valid path to go Mechanized -> T4 if you don't want to have to fend of light vehicles with only Rakens and (maybe) 1 or 2 StrumPio shreks. Thus my proposal: change StrumPioneer Medical Crates to work like Luftwaffe Supply crates that give a 1 time AoE healing.

This gives OKW a second healing option with obvious downsides (one time use, munitions sink). If needed the cost/# of crates can be changed if needed for balance.

To a lesser extent this could be applied to the Ostheer Vet1 ability as well as a way to give you some tactical flexibility to heal in the field for a one-time munitions cost (the Vet 1 ability is currently 100% forgotten and objectively needs some kind of buff/change)

Trucks still come within 10% of death vs most allied offmaps so if they're even partially damaged its gonna be a dead truck. What does braced emplacments take? Maybe 5% damage for 200+ munis lol.

Please Kati, please try and defend this as legit! I beg of you! Show me your allied force, strike me down with it!

To be fair Relic changed allied off-maps to prevent OKW truck one shots (Brit Air Sup. and Concentrated Barrage comes to mind) any of the other strikes like USF TOT Arty takes off maybe 70% from what I've seen depending on how shells land.

The difference is that if you force Brits to burn brace then most other generally cheaper off-maps will one shot emplacements. It's the same thing more or less

Soften up OKW Truck -> Off-Map finishes off
Force Brits to burn Brace -> Off-Map finishes off

As has been said before - brace needs to exist or else emplacements won't work at all. Don't use your off-map when you know Brace is available and you won't have that problem.

Yeah, this. Does anyone know why they switched it to the 81mm out of the blue?

Far as I know they just changed the skin to make it not a copy paste of the Wher mortar skin - not sure if they ever changed the stats of the official relic preview patch version and the release version.

IMO Miragefla got it right in his version - USF just needs a mortar with so-so damage to force support weapons to repositon and dispense smoke. You know, as opposed to one now that calls precision drone strikes onto squads.