Profile of Spinflight

Talking of the Churchill, is the top mounted mg going to be keept, dispite how it messed up the animation and grenade ability?

I tested this and compared it to a panther, with a main gun crit. So just it's MGs.

Vet 1 Panther without cuppola gun wiped an IS directly in front of it ( both MGs bearing ) in 48 seconds. Vet 1 Churchill with pintle, hull and coax 54 seconds..

Anyone who says the Panther isn't good against inf is flat wrong.

With the Panther upgraded with the cuppola it was 20 seconds.

So I thought maybe the Churchill has the AI advantage, it is after all meant to be an AI focussed heavy compared to a generalist medium in the Panther, when several squads are surrouning it via it's crew defence guns on the sides. Panther still wiped three squads in half the time.

The Churchill's pintle is effectively another coax, it only fires where the turrent is facing. Also the side defence guns and the hull gun seem to have very narrow cones.

It seems if you get a main gun crit that none of the other weapons work on the Churchill... Not sure whether this has been introduced with the pintle or was a problem previously.

Churchill MGs in general, including the pintle, don't seem to do anything whatsoever to garrisons. Also crew grenades no longer appear to work at all. Stay unable to hit a crew weapon at close range, hence the grenades are required.

DPS even with the Vet 1 pintle seems to be below that of a PIV. Which seeing as it has nigh on identical main gun and armour just makes it an expensive and very very slow version of it.

Vickers vet 1 aimed fire ability is trash and will never be used. Takes ages to kick in as the crew has to reload first and then is very underwhelming for the cost. 2 of them using aimed fire on a mere Puma barely even tickled it. Seemed to screw up the facing too as I had an issue where after using aimed fire it then refused to face in that direction again. Leaving an re-entering the garrison sorted it but would make it useless in a game. Completely borked in my opinion.

Cromwell ability is deeply underwhelming. Only use I can foresee is as a map hack in heavily congested maps, where you wouldn't be using a Crom anyway. The range of it seems to represent a second or so's worth of merely driving. If chasing a PIV or Panther then is doesn't make much sense, it doesn't last long enough to get a bead on them, maybe get one round off whilst it is still active. If there was more DPS from the MG then I didn't really notice it. Firepower seems well sub PIV levels, armour paper in comparison and the tradeoff is that it is ever so slightly faster, though not to the extent you can actually get round the back of a diver. Still a waste of resources barring emergency use in my opinion and the wrong direction for it..

The pit... Is going to be a problem. The barrage is reasonably strong though I didn't detect much difference between 1 and 2 mortar barrage, which will encourage single pits a long way behind the front. First mortar is accurate and hits hard... Second just seems to spray it around randomly especially at max range. Also the new barrage adds to the existing one... So you have to use the lighter barrage at closer ranges and the heavier one at longer ranges. Which incentivises merely spamming them way back behind the front. With Advanced Emplacements this is going to cause some serious rage in teamgames especially.

Also no difference in the smoke barrage ability between 1 and 2 mortars. I'd have to be very flush on manpower ( no laughing there from UKF mains) to upgrade to double pits rather than just building another one.

IS Pyro now rather pointless given the sight range nerf. Medic upgrade seems the same but costs far more. Maybe situational, as in upgrade one if an opportunity for the base howis show's itself... Because the Brits are always so flush with munitions that they have to be drained of them at every opportunity.

Medics seem almost entirely pointless, very slow healing rate which doesn't seem to conform to the patch notes. Other than being locked in place outside of base I can't see a use for them... In which case they are precisely 20 manpower superior to building a 'forward' assembly there, but cost you 5 manpower per minute. Hence they are..... Of very minor use for exactly 4 minutes. Though even during that golden 4 minute period they also reduce you maximum army size by 3% so situationally they are actually useful for somewhat less than those 4 minutes.

Officer's recon was pretty damned amusing. Choose a tiny sliver of the map for a lot of munitions and then wait.... Don't bother thinking you can... fight, manage units or micro... You wait. Eventually, it might even be a randomly looooooong time, a very fast recon plane shows that tiny sliver of the map. Oh unless you blinked. Maybe those younger and quicker on reaction time might possibly once every 5th or 6th attempt be able to trigger an offmap with the sight given, though I'd definitely want a replay as proof if anyone manages this.

Meanwhile command vehicle seems to have lost this 'ability'? Probably a stealth nerf. Also no longer highlights it as a command vehicle. Using one the Bofors and all tanks seemed to show a slight improvement though not the 17 pdr or pit. Couldn't tell any difference on infantry.

Supposedly the sniper has been changed for a higher ROF? Not that I could tell. Though can now be spotted by light vehicles that you can't even see so... Equals dead sniper.

UC now costs fuel, which has been tried numerous times before and always resulted in no sod ever building one. I happily predict the same again.

Overall impression is a long list of nerfs with the buffs being either tiny or bugged and useless abilities. The only exceptions being the pit, which UKF will I think rely on utterly, sappers coming out earlier... Presumably to fix the UCs which noone will build and to die bravely to Sturms. Oh and the AEC / Bofors lockout. Which combined with the pit barrage will make Brits even campier, and Advanced Emplacements more popular. Yay the joy!

Though I'm rather suspicious of the pit. Haven't tested it against the changes to Axis indirect but we'll probably find they are just vet givers to such. The barrage has a long cool down and certainly isn't responsive enough to target stukas and the like even if you could spot them, also seems to do strangely little to OKW trucks. 3 barrages of a double pit on a Shwerer didn't quite kill it.

If I was playing Ostheer however I'd forget about any MG42s around the VPS ( they could be barraged from not far outside UKF base on many maps), and the Vickers aimed fire might well affect light vehicle play a lot. Barely tickles a Luchs but 222s and HTs would go down quickly. Pioneers versus bolstered RE's isn't going to be funny either.

We'll see...

UKF pretty much has more sight options than any other faction. Vet 1 for IS gives +10 sight range in cover, Pyrotechnics upgrade gives +7 sight, Assault Officer has a vet 1 recon plane, the AEC has 50 sight (at vet 2 after patch), they have a sniper (up to 54 sight), Tank Commander upgrade with +10 sight range on almost all tanks, a flare ability on the 17 Pounder, the Valentine Observation Mode with sight of up to 63 range, a ton of recon abilities in commanders, and Commandos to scout with from camouflage.

Almost all of which are on either infantry or light forces, which is as it should be.

Though as for recon into the fog of war... The recon plane is shot down making it a waste of munitions ( used to be a free ability on the commnd vehicle though generally lasted about 15 seconds). Flare from the 17 pdr only reaches it's perimeter... Lord knows who thought that piece of trash needed a nerf! Sniper's sight is being nerfed... Despite them supposedly being a light vehicle counter... That isn't going to work.

What is lacking is non doc recon into the fog of war, which is essential given static emplacements. Otherwise you can just park leigs, stukas etc and shell to your hearts content. The only possible counterplay is doctrinal.

Good spotting should be for infantry and light vehicles across all factions, not 50 tonne tanks or semi mobile pillboxes. Hence combined arms is required to use the heavy stuff.

Whilst we tend to focus on the AI or AT abilities of units watching some competitive 4v4s, and one in particular where the Axis sacrificed several units to take out a bofors behind the lines, made me realise that things like the Centaur and Bofors are, oddly, primarily AAA.

What though are the mechanics surrounding this? Does siting and range come into it and which is the more effective at AA work? Should add the lend lease quad mount too really. If you are potentially up against players using lots of off map callins such as Stuka bombing or air supply is there a critical mass at which you can shut this down with enough AAA or your own?