If Churchill is getting any sort of buff, it needs to have the Grenade ability removed. It's such a stupid ability that allows the Churchill to consistently one shot Raketens and to a lesser extent Paks, which are supposed to be counters to the unit.
1. As other people mentioned in the post, the Nuke grenade has left the building. Now both the Comet nade and the Churchill nade have met in the middle (Rifleman-nade-ish level but with 25% more AoE radius). It's not godly-level but not bad either.
2. Every other sponge tank has some decent gun to deal with infantry (i.e., AoE). The Churchill mostly relies on grenades to threaten infantry. Its gun is Cromwell-like (which is to say it's decent but not THAT good), and its Vet1 ability gets worse as enemy infantry attains Rec Accuracy Veterancy.
320 armor with 1280 hp.
The proposed change (320 armor 1280 hp) is actually a pretty significant buff from the most part. I'm assuming that if relic increased the price of the Churchill recently, it means that it should be performing around where it currently is.
320 armor and 1280 would change Churchill's survivability as follows:
- 20% more hits from enemies with penetration 240 or below
- No change vs enemies with penetration 292
- Survivability decreases by 8.5% vs enemies with penetration 320 and above
- Everything else in-between should be linear (I think -- hadn't had coffee, yet)
- Qualitatively, Churchill's survivability will become more RNG-dependent
However, the thing with the Churchill is that it's one of the slowest damage-sponge tanks. Which means it can be flanked quite easily, and also make it a prime-target for high-penetration heavy TD's. This means that taking a high-armor lower-HP approach with the Churchill might make it a bit less desirable than it currently is (unless the HP * armor factor is a significant straight buff -- as is the one you proposed).
and remove the speed penalty on the smoke ability.
This is not a bad idea. The penalty could stay, but it could get reduced. Or the duration of the smoke ability could be decreased (currently it's at 10 seconds and it's not possible to cancel it). However, the smoke ability should not be buffed to a point where it becomes vein-popping to finish off a Churchill.
The Churchill gets outshined by the Comet by a lot when it comes to utility (long-range smoke + WP shells). Churchill is supposed to provide that utility with the grenades and the Smoke ability. However, the Smoke ability doesn't really work, currently:
- Part of the reason why the smoke ability doesn't work is the speed debuff.
- The most important reason why the smoke ability doesn't work is the way AoE suppression works (that's a bug).
If you use smoke to cover an infantry advance, enemy MGs will immediately target the Churchill. Since the Churchill does not benefit from cover/has an enormous target size, it will accumulate a huge amount of suppression. The same amount of suppression will transfer to all nearby infantry and pin them in 2-3 bursts, even when they are behind green cover.
At least with the awarded-veterancy buff, the Churchill can be used a bit more aggressively to smoke out entrenched positions.
+1.
The reduced vet solution isn't a bad idea but it would mean creating specialized game rules for one specific unit that aren't in any way clear to the average player. I'd much rather see the churchill just brought in line with the survivability of every other heavy tank.
I'm not an expert on this, but I'm 99% sure this can be achieved easily. Previously, the British Tank Commander upgrade (which now confers bonuses to accuracy and received veterancy), was actually affecting awarded veterancy to enemies.
Thus, it *should* be simple to work it out.
+1 But I wouldn't mind getting greedy and asking for a slight cost decrease too 
The cost is not that bad. I'm not going to create a balance threat if the cost level is within 10-20%-ish percent of where it should be
0
Romeo
Mr Smith
Luciano
Mr Smith
Relic Entertainment
