Profile of LoopDloop

A few ability swap thoughts.

USF ARMOR COMPANY

• Mark Target (replacing Elite Crews)
  
  • Elite Crews is a difficult ability to salvage and Mark Target is a proven ability with a strong synergy with the Armor theme of the commander.

USF MECHANIZED COMPANY

• Assault Engineers (Replacing Raid Tactics)
  • The WC51 and M3 are usually going to have infantry in them anyway. Personally I think being able to get Assault Engineers earlier so you can stick them in the WC51 is both more valuable and more interesting.
    
    Alternatively an AEC-style Treadbreaker shot would have synergy with the Sturmtiger.

I still think making it so 2 members of the vehicle crew bail out if their vehicle is destroyed and they have the elite vehicle crew upgrade would go a long ways to salvaging it. Mark target is good too though, and it’d really help the M10s out.

Raid tactics has always struck me as a bit useless and not worth the munitions. Either it’s early game and you need whatever small amount of muni you have for getting more BARs/throwing more grenades or it’s late game and light vehicles die if the opposing army sneezes in their general direction. That and the fact that half the light vehicles you’ll likely have already will have infantry in them, as you pointed out.

While the synergy would be cool, I think the only reason the treadbreaker on the AEC isn’t kind of OP is because of how janky it is sometimes coupled with the fact that the AEC is squishy and has to be very exposed while using the ability (you can’t really use it at max range or they’ll just drive out before one or both of the shots fire). An AT Hetzer would be much more protected with its armor and range than the AEC could ever hope to be while using that ability.

On a different note, AEC smoke seems to not really work unless you go like straight back, might it be too “thin” as a shotblocker to be properly working sometimes? It seems like any lateral movement exposes it as a target again. I’m aware that attack ground is a thing, but my AEC will start shooting back too so I know it’s not that. Maybe I’m just bad though.

Well I know what I’m doing this weekend.

Edit: After just a look at the patch notes:

USF elite vehicle crews still seems like a total waste of munitions in a faction that really needs to spend as much as possible on getting lots of double BARs because the fundamental problem of vehicle crews with Thompsons is that their target size is too big and their squad is too small to properly utilize SMGs in like 99% of situations (made worse by the fact that they are on the more expensive side to reinforce and only get one combat related vet bonus of RA reduction IIRC) and adding repair and veterancy gain bonuses isn’t really a great incentive to use them since usf tanks are usually too squishy to be sure of being kept alive. I would propose making it so that when usf tanks are lost, a couple of the men in the squad are guaranteed to bail out if they have the upgrade, as that would make the upgrade much more worth it, but it would still pretty easy to wipe the squad on retreat (especially taking into account their larger RA), offering a bit of counterplay on the axis side as well.

The British recovery engineers could probably use a cp decrease so you don’t have to be lacking enough engineers at earlier points in the game just so you can make marginally better engineers. Valentine also comes kind of late, maybe reduce to 4-5 cp instead of 6? That way it can come out before mediums but a little after other light vehicles (which tend to come around 2-3 cp in my experience anyway).

The sector-by-sector basis of timing for the reworked British perimeter overwatch might make performance vary a lot on different maps or even different areas of maps depending on the secor size, as some have stupidly large sectors (steppes) and some sectors are kinda tiny in other maps, meaning a lot more or a lot less shells would be fired depending on where the enemy is, which seems kind of inconsistent. I really like the direction of the change though.

Vehicle crew repair in the okw elite armored doctrine still seems sort of expensive when compared to its Brit counterpart, which repairs a pretty sizable portion of health as opposed to a measly 200. I’d argue that it could use even further decreasing the cost to like 25-30 with that taken into account (I mean, 200 hp is like 1 tank shot and half a panzerfaust, or a single penetrating volley from 2 paratrooper super bazookas).

Also, OKW LefH with direct fire with vet XD
Made me think of a budget b4.

If we were getting Royal Armoured Regiment, I wanna see a Churchill Black Prince in there XD

I'd love to see how Axis players like being on the receiving end of a super-heavy for once

Also I'd like to see Discarding Sabot rounds as an ability for fireflies and comets as well to function like Heat shells in OKW elite armour.

(The Black prince never saw combat I know, but considering we see Jagdtigers and Sturmtigers in every match when they were rarer than Unicorns, I reckon it's passable.)

I really like the idea of DS rounds as a commander ability. Why not let the Cromwell use it too? IIRC all okw tanks can use HEAT shells from elite armored.

Black prince would be cool, but sadly not really an option since there’s never gonna be any new models for this game.

.72 RA. Kind of an odd number, but not unwarranted either. Shocks get armor, and rangers/paras get insane DPS, so commandos get good base RA and camo.

If you don't mind, I'm curious about what you specifically like about them or what you like about their style. Is it the camo (sniper camo as opposed to falls/gren-upgrade stationary camo)? Gammon from camo? Ambush from camo (they don't get ambush bonuses until vet 2 IIRC)? Do you think them being 5 man now really helped in their role? What is it that you find satisfying about them, and whats the main thing that makes you want to use them.

Obviously having a strong, offensive, and mobile cqc unit as brits is amazing in and of itself, but all the things you listed about camo are great and act as serious force multipliers, especially in combination. The fact that they have sniper-type camo allows you to use them way more offensively than falls, stormtroopers, or paths and you can really come in from unexpected angles with it. Gammon from camo is some pretty cheesy bs that’s almost guaranteed to wipe support weapons and can easily wipe squads your opponent isn’t paying attention to (especially in 1v1s when most of the fighting is currently going on in other areas and you know he’s microing there). I think I played against Luciano once (who is much higher rank than me, blame matchmaking I guess) and got totally slaughtered, but I did manage to wipe a decent amount of grenadiers with sneaky gammons. I believe they still get accuracy bonuses at vet0 from camo but the speed boost requires vet2. Both are extremely useful and can allow your stens to wipe squads almost as fast as gammons and let you to win fights against far larger forces, even without other support sometimes. They can be really good in conjunction with other troops, too. Having a vickers suppress a giant blob (in teamgames usually) and then popping commandos out of camo with a gammon bomb usually results in an immediate retreat or massive casualties/wipes for them, and they do a great job of low-risk sneaky spotting for your vickers. They also work great as supporting elements in large attacks in the mid/late game and can really throw a wrench in the enemy’s defense by popping out behind their lines and wiping support weapons or retreating infantry. Being able to throw smoke is also very useful for escaping mgs and helping you attack as brits since smoke is really limited until you get tanks or a mortar pit (the latter of which usually isn’t a great idea IMO), and since they can heal out of combat and hardly lose models if used right, they are able to stay on the field for a lot longer than most infantry, especially if you have gliders to reinforce them (they usually get blown up since they’re so big though) and tend to inflict a lot more casualties than they receive.

Honestly, aside from their efficiency and power, one of the most appealing things to me is just the style and finesse they offer and how satisfying it is to pull off some crazy moves with them. I like pumas and the aec for the same reason. There’s my entire essay on commandos lol.

@Lago Having infiltration commandos be five men with demos is really nice though. I used to hesitate to use mobile assault because they just didn’t have the same killing power and durability as five men commandos, and demos are still great for quickly killing bunkers and okw bases and setting traps for buildings.

Commandos actually have EXTREMELY good RA. I'm pretty sure the only infantry that has a better base RA than them is obers, and theyre 4 men. Commandos do have really bad RA bonuses with vet, but with how good their base RA is, they still hold up pretty well compared to other max vet infantry.

Right, I meant their bonuses. Don’t they have like a .8 something base RA? Then they only get like 10% less with vet or something like that but that’s still not bad as long as you use camo and everything. My point was (or was and should have been more clearly articulated) that they can be kind of manpower draining if you use them like standard cqc units since they’re fairly expensive and don’t get the greatest max level RA (not that you were arguing otherwise though).

It’s a waste not to be taking advantage of that great ambush bonus they get too XD Favorite infantry unit hands down.