Profile of Lago

only change I made to your suggestions is that major also unlocks light vehicles.

That's included.

"M20 Utility Car, AAHT, Stuart -> requires Grenades, Racks, or two Officers to build"

Lieutenant and Major, Captain and Major or Lieutenant and Captain should all do it.

- lieu as 3rd unit isn't possible, even with perfect capping and fuel rush you'll float way more manpower than is acceptable early game until you have the fuel. So you'll go a third rifle regardless or a second RE. If you actually stall for lieu you'll suffer in engagements.

Then the fuel cost needs to come down further. Allowing LT as the third unit's the whole point.

The problem there is that using the weapon racks as a prerequisite doesn't work if the fuel cost is slashed below 15. It'd need a third Motor Pool sidetech.

That'd look something like this:

• Lieutenant: 200 MP 50 FU -> 280 MP 20 FU
  
• Captain: 200 MP 60 FU -> 280 MP 30 FU
  
• Major: 240 MP 120 FU -> 160 MP 120 FU
  
  
• Third sidetech in HQ: Motor Pool. Costs 30 FU.
  
• M20 Utility Car, AAHT, Stuart, Major: Requires the Motor Pool unlock to build.

I like the idea, however, the manpower cost of getting out an m20 (or any other vehicle) is significantly increased, over 210 more (nades 150, 60 lieutenant tech). I doubt that it would therefore upen up much since it also makes any unit out of the two tiers harder to get because of the manpower increase. Maybe reducing the manpower cost of nades and racks to 100 (or something more appropriate) would counteract some of the effect by only increasing the cost of getting out a vehicle by 160 manpower.

If I have some time on hand I'll try to create a small mod with the changes you proposed, maybe if we do some work and testing Relic will be more agreeable to take a look.

It shifts the order rather than the overall cost: you need to tech Racks or Grenades first, but you don't need to build another squad first. You effectively change Squad -> Vehicle -> Sidetech to Racks -> Vehicle -> Sidetech.

Another way to look at it is you're no longer penalised if you get Racks or Grenades early.

You'll need to reduce LV's price as well since you are increasing Tier cost by 60mp and fuel by 5. Being able to build Lieutenant faster doesn't mean you'll not need another squad after, even if it is not a rifle squad.

The tier cost goes down by 15 FU, and the light vehicles need a 15 FU upgrade to unlock. The fuel timing should be the same. Manpower timing is very dependent on upkeep and reinforcement. I reckon it's still doable to get the AAHT out on its fuel timing without a crippling sacrifice of field presence given you get the Lieutenant's power spike out that much earlier.

The purpose of shifting manpower from Major to the earlier tiers is to reduce the manpower spike you get from deploying an Officer. That's to offset that spike happening earlier and the increased viability of doing it twice (LT + CPT). If 60 MP is too much it could be 40 MP. It could even remain at 200 MP per officer, but that'd make for a hefty net buff to USF.

A buff like that might be a good thing, but I'm deliberately keeping the scope of this proposal as tight as possible. The idea here is to increase USF's options. Buffing the faction is a separate issue.

I've had an idea ticking over for a while for a way to tune up USF's teching that's both effective and simple enough to be considered for a balance patch.

The philosophy of the balance patches tends to be rebalance rather than redesign, so I settled on swapping the tech costs around.

• Lieutenant: 200 MP 50 FU -> 260 MP 35 FU
  
• Captain: 200 MP 60 FU -> 260 MP 45 FU
  
• Major: 240 MP 120 FU -> 180 MP 135 FU
  
  
• Grenade Unlock: 150 MP 25 FU -> 150 MP, 15 FU
  
• M20 Utility Car, AAHT, Stuart -> requires Grenades, Racks, or two Officers to build

This is essentially what was done with Ostheer in DBP: shift the teching costs around to make the tech fork less painful. The total fuel cost to unlock any vehicle is completely unchanged: it'll cost at least 170 fuel to unlock Major, 50 FU to unlock the Lieutenant vehicles and 60 FU to unlock the Stuart.

However, this opens up a lot of options for USF builds.


You don't have to build 3x Riflemen, opening up lots of other build options.
With Lieutenant costing 35 FU rather than 50, you're no longer forced into a three Riflemen build. Lieutenant costs more manpower, but it can be your third unit rather than your fourth. You get a powerful Thompson/BAR infantry squad that can help repel OKW rushes sooner.

With the Officer out as your third unit, you've suddenly got another tier to play with buildwise.

• You still have the option to build another Rifleman squad, but you could also build a .50 cal.
  
• After your first officer you've probably unlocked 1CP, so you could go Pathfinders or the new Cavalry Rifles instead. If you haven't unlocked 1CP by then, you can afford to wait: you've got lots of other useful things to build in the meantime now.
  
• You could hold out for elite infantry like Rangers and Paratroopers.
  
• Or you could just stick with a 3x mainline infantry build like most Ostheer builds, focusing on support weapons instead.
  

Double Teching is a more viable option.
Firstly, it's cheaper: it'll cost you 80 fuel rather than 110: a 30 FU discount. That may sound like a lot compared to Soviet double teching, but remember USF's manpower cost for teching is offset by the squad they get for it.

Secondly, it doesn't lumber you with a 5x mainline infantry build: remember with the faster Lieutenant you don't need to build 3x Riflemen. The Captain could easily be your fourth infantry squad.

Name 1, just 1 Ostheer unit that is inferior to its Allied counterpart and yet more expensive.

Besides, USF as a faction is a complete mess compared to OSTheer. This may have something to do with the fact they have inferior units that cost more.

USF's teching is cheaper. USF technically gains 100 MP when they tech.

As for units, the big one is their AT infantry squad: if Ostheer could double bazooka their 200 MP Pioneers I don't think anyone'd ever convert a PGren squad.

I won't deny that USF could use a little love right now, but one-to-one comparisons aren't the way to go about it.