Profile of Lago

This is not going to be popular, but I'd like to see Heavies trade health for front armour (and a subsequent nerf to repair rate to prevent faster repairs) in order to make flanking much more viable and lethal.

The problem there is unless you start getting to insane armour values, all you achieve is cementing tank destroyers as the only counter.

I don't know if this is even within the capabilities of the mod tools, but what if instead of more frontal armour, they had frontal damage reduction?

Say, they've got 720 HP like a premium medium, but 50% DR on the front, meaning attacking one head on gives it 1440 effective hit points (the same as a Churchill?).

That'd make them more effective at the spearheads they're designed for, but also much more rewarding to flank.

You've just made a unit limited to 1 a complete waste of space and encouraged everyone to get TDs in pairs while pretty much nothing happened for meds as their primary threats are ATGs and AT infs.

The Pershing's even squishier and it's one of the best tanks in the game.

Tank destroyers only need to be in their current state because they need to counter heavy tanks.

If we toned down all the heavies (Panther included), we could tone down the tank destroyers too.

Heavy tanks have something of an identity crisis. They're in the game because they existed, but they don't cleanly fit into the game's design.

The majority of units have a clear role. You've got dedicated infantry killing vehicles, you've got dedicated tank killing vehicles, and you've got generalist vehicles that do both but not as efficiently as specialists.

At the moment, the defining trait of heavies is being nigh uncounterable without a dedicated tank destroyer or another heavy. If the opponent has the silver bullet to kill your werewolf with, they're just not worth it.

As the result, their strategic role has become 'surprise unit': rush one out and roll over an opponent without their silver bullets handy. The current balance direction is reinforcing this design, making them hit the field earlier without changing their performance.

I think this approach is wrong: it's just reinforcing the tank destroyer meta without solving any of the problems with heavy tanks' lategame viability. The answer I've been given is heavies are being taken in this direction because there isn't any other possible role for them.

So here's my question: what do you think heavy tanks should be for?

• What sort of enemy army composition should they be good against?
  
• What should they be able to counter?
  
• What should counter them?
  
• When should they be available?
  
• Where do you think they should fit into the game?

I struggle to believe there's no option other than as shock units.

The basic Paratroopers being CP2 probably wouldn't hurt, especially at their current price.

You might need to keep the weapon upgrades gated behind CP3 (or Racks) though.