Since lately there is so much talk about the Fall Balance Patch I would like to present one of the main reasons why focusing only on unit stats is the wrong way to go about balancing. Most people think that changing stats around unit dmg, armor, accuracy etc. is the only thing that can actually impact the game but I believe there are far more important issues that are not being addressed that influence balance more severely than stats. Those key factors are first of all how micro heavy each faction is meaning how much effort and focus does a player have to put in to utilise a factions units and abilites. Second factor is how much fuel does each faction need to obtain each type of unit which determines how accesible certain types of units are, the pace of the game and factions overall momentum.
To analyze these factors I prepared a simple analysis for each of them. First one called micro score is divided into types of units, abilites and faction elements. Each element is scored on a scale from 1 to 3, where 1 means 'low micro' and 3 'high micro'.
Micro score
For example:
Nades upg (upgrade) category: Every allied faction needs an upgrade to acquire the capability of using a grenade, on the other hand none of the axis factions require such upgrade. Although seemingly being a trival matter it impacts the game in a profound way. Lets say there is a three on three rifleman vs volks fight and during that fight OKW gains access to incediary nades which tips the balance of the fight on their side. The important thing here is that this upgrade is a part of OKWs normal path of teching which means that a player doesnt have to go out of his way to get nades. He isnt put into the situation where he has to make the "micro decision" of whether incediary grenades are worth their price during the set of circumstances he has been faced with. In short it makes his gameplay easier and more smoother with less decisions along the way. He will never be put in a situation where he forgot about the upgrade which would slow his momentum. This factor is especially important in early game oriented factions where you need to get the upper hand as fast as possible to either close out the game early or benefit from your early game gains during late game. OKW in that manner is both early and late game factions with a much smoother gameplay than usf for instance.
Scores are:
SOV: 2,15 (the most micro heavy)
USF: 1,91
OST: 1,73
UKF: 1,65
OKW: 1,46 (the least micro heavy)
Above scores tell us that Soviets are the most micro heavy faction while OKW requires the least effort and focus to play. Average micro score is 1,78, which means that both ukf and okw are too easy and usf and soviets are harder to play than average. This is by far one of the most omitted issue in the game. This score does not represent factions overall strength but how easy it is to use its potential consistently.
Second factor we are going to look at is how much fuel does each faction need to access each type of unit.
Fuel needed to rush a unit
Scores represent fuel needed by each faction indexed to average fuel needed by all the factions in each category. The more fuel a faction needs to progress makes that faction slower and on contrary the less fuel a faction needs makes that faction faster.
Scores:
OST: 1,13 (the slowest)
UKF: 1,11
USF: 1,05
OKW: 0,88
SOV: 0,83 (the fastest)
Scores above 1 represent factions that need more fuel on average when compared to other factions to rush a certain type of unit. Few reasons are the cause of such disparity. Either a certain unit is too expensive or too cheap, either a tier is too expensive to too cheap or a unit is placed in a wrong tier overall.
To visualise these findings Ive prepared a chart that will help to understand how some factions are way too unbalanced at this stage.
micro score to fuel needed to rush a unit chart
The higher a faction is the harder it is to play, the lower a faction is the easier it is to play. The more to the right a faction is the more fuel it needs to progress (slower), the more to the left a faction is the less fuel it needs to progress (faster).
In conclusion, one of the fastest and the easiest faction to play is OKW with no faction even coming in close.
Solutions:
First of all make factions a little bit closer in terms of how easy they are and how fast they progress during a game. Second make easy factions slower and harder factions faster.
I hope this will help to bring some important and long awaited changes to the game.