So, in my vision M-42 need:
1. Save 80 damage
2. Look on abilities, to help deal with light vechicles.
a) immobilize
b) Knock off turret
c) Faster movement (like british AT-gun)
d) AM variant
3. Bring in line with Pupchen. It should has option to retreat and garrison building.
4. Bring cost to its effectiveness.
5. Poor against infantry (for this T1 have Penals and Sniper).
6. Penetration should be enough to deal with Luchs, but not enough to deal with something heavier.
In the end it will be good enough AT-gun for early game, but after tanks go on the field it will usefull because of abilities.
I think its a bit incorrect to compare other factions call in infantry to soviet. SU is designed to have call in elite units, guards or shocks, look at the number of doctrines that have them. To get guards you don't have to lock into a specific doctrine and thus playstyle.
Watch the video. GGTheMashine has said "There is a lot of units, which share the same weapon, and yet nobody said they are overlaping..." and then he has given this examples to explain, that penals and guards not overlapping. I don't agree with that and explain why. That's all.
This poorly constructed poll and the subsequent responses inspired me to rant in defense of PTRS Penals for 35 minutes.
Thank you for explanation of your view on this change! But one opposing opinion still exits - M-42 in Tier 1. For me this is still the best way to go.
I want to talk about your opinion, that there exist units with same weapon and same usage:
1. Pioneers and Assault Grenadiers - Nope, they have the same weapon, but different role on the field.
2. Rangers and Airborne - Yeah, half agree. They separated by doctrines. You can't have both of them at the moment. I think rangers have bad design. In comparison with airborne they have less abilities, less number of soldiers in the squad, only one upgrade, and the same role and price (390 and 390 iirc).
I find better variant - Volks and Panzerfusiliers. Both have grenades, both have AT snare, both have AI upgrade. They are very close to each other in so many ways. No sarcasm
I think the problem with Guards and Penals is current version of Penals. It is AI and anti-garrison unit. All his abilitites and ROKS-3 upgrade works for this role. And this is realy unique infantry unit with his unique role. Only Riflemen with M2 have the same role as AI/Anti-garrison mainline infantry, before they lose this doctrine upgrade. PTRS Penals much closer to Guards role than ROKS-3 penals. This is why i have doubt about this change. But this is not mean, that i want to see penals unchanged. Keep experimenting with them!
As i remember, in vCoH every faction has non-doc explosive (Democharge for US, and UKF, Goliath for both Germans) to blow up buildings, bridges and fortifications.
IIRC, in CoH 2 only USSR has non-doc explosive. For all other factions (except Wehrmacht) access to explosive only with doctrines.
I´m currently working on a school assignment and chose for topic the tanks of WW2 and how they were used. I just wanted to ask if any of you know about good books/documentaries about the issue, that would provide a good overview for me.
I can recommend you to read book "Tank Power of the USSR" by Michail Svirin. This is my favorite book about soviet tanks. But i don't know, was this books translated in English or not.
Once upon a time, allocation around command poits dissapeared. Now command poits, required for commanders abilities merge with background. Also, it looks simply disgusting.