Profile of GI John 412

Mainly because Volks were "Militia" or the Peoples grenadiers meaning civilians irl and they were of course inferior to any other soldiers available within the german army.

Sorry for what is about to be a “long winded history essay”, but I feel inclined to correct this.

The Volkssturm was the German militia and consisted of the stereotypical young boys and old men. These are not in the game.

The term Volksgrenadier came about in late 1944 and continued to be used throughout the rest of the war as a term for the new German infantry units. These Volksgrenadier Battalions were a reorganization of Grenadier Battalions. Not all Grenadier Battalions got reorganized though.

There were numerous organizational changes from 1939-1945 that included renaming units from Infantrie Battalions, to Grenadier Battalions to Volksgrenadier Battalions. Most of the early changes were in name only, but the significant changes from Grenadier to Volksgrenadier Battalion included removing horses and adding bicycles where possible to recon units and reorganizing the composition of the infantry companies in the battalion. These new companies had one regular platoon and two “Machine Pistol” platoons. The Machine Pistol platoons each had one regular squad with an LMG42 but the other two squads had more men, no LMG and were supposed to all be armed with machine pistols. The MP40 or StG44 we’re both considered machine pistols for this purpose but not enough were available so the actual composition looked a lot like what we see in game with a mix of StG44s and Kar98ks in the hands of Volksgrenadiers.


Further reading is linked below. Cheers!

https://web.archive.org/web/20091228172755/http://www.bayonetstrength.150m.com/German/Infanterie/volks_grenadier_battalion%201944%20to%201945.htm

At some point Relic decide to use weapon profiles which translates the each weapon type should behave in specific manner. Adding yet another version of ST44 that uses a carbine profile for "esthetic" reason is step in the wrong direction imo.

(one could possibly get away with it if the weapon was a St44 at semi auto mode and maybe added an ability to switch to full auto for MU).

(From balance point of view I would make the G43 give 4+1 g43 increase squad size to 5 and re-balance the weapon accordingly, while removing either the g43 or the tiger from lighting war but that is just me ).

You don’t need a new version of the StG44 since the Volksgrenadier version and the Panzergrenadier version both have very similar damage curves to the Grenadier G43.

The Volks StG44 would be a slight nerf at all ranges and the Panzergrenadier StG44 would be a decent buff at all ranges except max range (about range 32 and beyond) when compared to the G43.

Either way, when you factor in the cool down buff that VSL Grens get, a VSL squad with 4 Grenadier K98s and one Volks StG, one PanzerGren StG or one Gren G43 will have better DPS than all other types of Grenadiers at all ranges except LMG42 Grens at max range (starting at about 32 range).

5 men grenadiers are still a long range unit. With a St44 the unit would be inferior to LMG grenadier long range but allot better MID range.

Current 5 men upgrade combines the strength of G43 Grenadiers and LMG Grenadiers, but makes them bleed a bit more.

I think the current design works and if I want STG's, I just get some Panzergrenadiers with it.

The suggesting isn’t really about changing stats or role of the unit, it’s really about making VSL Grenadiers more different ascetically from G43 Grenadiers.

The problem isn’t performance, it’s display. The G43 Grenadiers and VSL Grenadiers look, sound and feel the same when they really aren’t.

This is a discussion of art, not of science. It’s not about changing the performance in any meaningful way, it’s about making the game look, sound and feel better and more professional by not using the same icon and rifle on the same unit for two different upgrades.

Think about a team game with two Wehrmacht players, one picks lightning war and gets G43s on his Grenadiers and the other goes German Infantry and gets VSL Grenadiers. To the opponent (or other teammates in a 3v3 or 4v4) the units look, sound and feel very similar since they have the same icon and same sound when firing and to the player who picked the VSL Grenadiers his Grenadiers don’t feel very cool or unique compared to his teammate who has G43s.

“Well you might’ve gotten G43s on your squad but look at MY Grenadiers. MINE have a Veteran Squad Leader and HE has an StG44, isn't that cool!”

We with „design“ team tried to make this upgrade easier to recognise, that‘s why it got unique shieldsymbol. But idea with StG seems cool (iirc squad leader in vCoH also was equiped with StG 44, but used it as with small bursts)

The new icon is a great improvement. I love it.

The G43 upgrade icon makes it look very similar to the regular G43 icon even with the added chevron symbol though.

That’s one of the reasons I think changing it to an StG would be even better! The different “white gun outline” of an StG44 would further add to that distinction.

And the vCoH tie in is neat too.

They infiltrate anywhere at 2 cp with a full squad. I don't remember how much of a discount Soviet T2 got to make if "viable" or whatever, but no amount of discount makes it viable when OKW can just parachute in behind a maxim with much better infantry than the Cons you would have with T2.

That’s more of a problem with Soviets than it is a problem with Fallschirmjagers.

Falls are still pretty darn expensive though and are costly to reinforce when they take losses. I just think that they should lose their snare ability so you can counter them with light vehicles since countering them with infantry is hard. Yeah, Falls are strong vs Cons, but a T-70 will eat them alive if the don’t have a Faust.