Profile of VonManteuffel

Good point! Miragefla once mentioned the idea to make Panther like Firefly.

I would definitely appreciate that change, cause at this time, there is no real use for Panther.

Right direction and good changes, but it needs some more. My suggestions:

AEC:

Sight range decrease and build time increase helps Wehrmacht a lot. Seems pretty well and vitalizes LV gameplay for axis factions. But I would go further: AEC as a LV should be more of a support vehicle than a spearhead. Its trackshot ablity is awesome and syngerzises very well with AT guns. But in late game, it looses some of its potency. I tie on Sanders proposal and would reduce its damage to 100, but give it +60 damage with Vet 3. In lategame this would give it a great flanking capability. And on top of that, cause Brits don't have that much reconnaissance, I would add the same observation abiliy like Valentine and T70 have. In conclusion, AEC would act more like a support unit, same as T70, Stuart or 222, but in lategame, it gets the chance to compete with Axis mediums and help to secure flanks.

Mortar Emplacement

Good change, ensures more flexibility and indirect fire support for Brits. But with its low starting cost and the ability to use 120mm mortar rounds with extra range, I would highly recommend to increase the upgrade price. Morat pit already is a strong fortification which needs high effort to destroy. On top of that, 350 MP in total is still way cheaper than every other faction double mortar (480 MP). So 250 for 1 Mortar early on is good, but upgrade should cost either 150/200 Mp or/and some ammo. Otherwise I fear we will see lots of Mortar Pits gettig built in midgame and then easily upgraded in lategame.

Bren Carrier:

This one hasn't been touched yet, but it really needs some adjustments. This thing acts like a light tank, has high armor and can repair itself. All of that for 0 fuel. I know this is intended to give Brits more diversity in early game and not to hinder T2 tech. But in comparrison with other LV, e.g. Soviet M3, this is too strong. UC can push Axis early on cause there is no AT on field. Therefore I would suggest reducing its armor from 5.8 to 3.8, same as Clown Car. But if upgraded, it gets back its 5.8 armor. This would still be stronger than Kubelwagen....

Infantry Section starting unit:

We all know Brits are very annoying right now due to Tommy spam/blob. But we also know, Brits don't have any alternatives in early/midgame to build. So what can we do? Many suggest to nerf Tommies. But this would cripple Brits in mid/lategame. So let me explain my idea and bear in mind new changes from this patch:

Replace starting Tommies with Engineers.
1. For that reason, Brits will have one Tommy section less on field and cannot blob that hard anymore.
2. On the one hand, they get a close combat unit early on which can compete with Wehr Pioneers, push Grenadiers and flank MGs. And on the other hand Sturmpioneers are no longer able to push Tommies CQ while having to face Engineers in front of them.
3. Bren carrier with lower armor can be easily repaired and ammo can be saved for upgrade.
4. When T2 is teched, Brits can build their new 250MP Mortar very quickly to get some needed indirect fire support.
5. With the one Engineer starting unit Brits finally get a close combat unit with snare (after T2 is built) directly on field. OKW 221 and Ostheer 222 can come very fast and surprise you while having no AT. But with the 1 Engineer starting unit, you can fend it off until AT gun or AEC arives. (remember, AEC will be delayed few seconds and come later this patch).

I think this would balance British faction by a lot. Less Tommies on field will help Volks and Grens to fight them, but the first Engineer for free will also help Brits in many many ways!

All in all solid changes! Good work.

My experience:

Sniper:

Whats the point of the Incendiary Shot? A very long aim time with high cost of 40 ammo for 1 kill and a ~3 second stun? I don't get it. Compared to Soviet flair and Bitish vehicle crit, this still sounds pretty worse.

Panzergrenadiers with Schrecks:

To put the guys with rockets in front of the squad feels very nice. But with 35 range they're still underpowered vs LVs. You always need a Pak gun anyway as Wehr or you will loose to LV rushs. And with low vehicle targetsize, Panzerschrecks tend to miss nearly always, especially at maxrange. Therefore Sander made the suggestion to reduce damage to 100 but increase accuracy. This would be a bit better, but bear in mind: PGs are very MP expensive, Schrecks cost a lot of ammo and the double schrecks cripple their AI. Because of this, I would reduce damge to 100 in order to decrease their threat vs vehicles and encounter schreck blobs. But on the other hand, increase accuracy AND the range to 40. PGs with schrecks would be still shredded by allied infantry due to their low AI.

Armored Car
This one hasn't been changed yet, but I would highly recommend to look at it. Its armor is way too thin vs small arms fire. Every allied infantry can damage it and you always need some pioneers behind it to quick repair. There is not even a need for AT guns, blobs can just shoot at it with BAR or Brens ect. Even the USF M20, which costs only 20 fuel, can be upgraded with armor skirts to withstand MG and rifle fire. This wouldn't be a big change but it would help Wehr to better stay at frontline and support the flanks vs blobs. In addition, rushing T2 is no longer possible cause of the fuel increase for the tech. Futhermore a slight build time increase would lower the power spike. Or, like the M20, make an upgrade for ammo in order to increase its armor. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to make an Ostheer Luchs. Its combat capabilities are fine. But at least same armor as Puma would be the least.

all axis buffs while trying to nerf the soviets (one of the weakest factions ingame)... nice bias you got there....

also the soviet mortar and zis need barrage/flare at vet 0 since without them these pieces are the worst teamweapons by raw stats...

Sorry for missundestanding but my 3 points are according to the balance suggestions made by Miragefla and Sander93. I only wanted to add my points on top of that. So there are enough Axis nerfs all in all.

And sorry, but I don' get your point.... Soviet Mortars are 6 men crews and could get their flair with Vet 1. Where's your problem?! Their raw stats are exactly the same, turbo Axis mortar has been nerfed years ago.

And Zis gun needs barrage? have you ever played 2vs2 the last months? Almost every Conscript spammer builds 1 Zis gun to counter every German HMG. No need for mortars. I don't get the point why an anti TANK gun needs to act as an indirect firing option while there is a mortar team buildable. This is just beeing abused a lot.

Soviets are not one of the weakest factions. I'm sorry to disappoint you. They are the most played allied faction and have pretty good winrates.

3 things that have to be changed additional to those proposals Miragefla and Sander 93 already made:

• Allied Vet 0 abilities.
  Why do so many allied units have strong abilities directly form Vet 0? E.g. Soviet Morat (flare), AEC (track shot), Zis gun (artiellery barrage) and a few more...
  
  For example, mortar flares can be really punishing for Wehrmacht weapon teams and give soviet cheap recon in early game. Is there any reason why soviets should need such an advantage? I don't see any.
  Or Zis gun artilley barrage. This one especially is awful... Soviets are able to counter every MG42 and also mortars from long range and that for only 35 ammo. I don't think, that an anti-TANK-gun should be able to act like a better mortar.
  
  => My point is, these abilities should not be totally removed. Every unit should have a strong special ability. But they must get it at Vet 1 and not directly from beginning at Vet 0. Axis have to take care for their vetted units, so should Allies.
  
  
• Wehrmacht light AT
  Sander93 already made a proposal to buff Panzerschrek long range accuracy and decrease its damage from 120 to 100. That sounds fair and well. But with a range of only 35 it gets outranged by ALL light vehicles.
  
  So ingame, you buy a 340mp elite unit and make a weapon upgrade for 100 ammo not having a chance to compete with vehicles at range 40. And on top of that its damage will be lowered, so if you finally get a chance to hit, it doesn't really help you and and an AT gun is still needed though. So what is the point of investing so much ressources?
  
  => Lower its damage to 100 and increase its accuracy BUT also increase range to 40. In this case Panzerschrecks will not be a threat to light vehicles but can compete and are able to act as a soft AT unit, which Wehrmacht really needs since there is no light AT vehicle like Puma, T70, AEC or Stuart.
  
  
• Axis penetration values
  StuG3 and Jagdpanzer IV have not enough penetration to fight with Heavies like Comet, Churchills, KV1, KV2, KV8, IS2 and ISU. Give them abilities like HEAT or pen buff with Veterancy.
  
  All allied factions have a strong tank hunter unit: Su85, Jackson and Firefly. They all have 60 range and enough penetration to fully penetrate frontal armour of King Tiger, Tiger, Jagdtiger and Elefant; Panther and Panzer IV anyway. To clear things up, I will show you some stats:
  
  Su85 has these pen values with Vet 0 at far range:
  Penetration far 220
  
  With Vet 2:
  Penetration far 286
  
  Tiger has front armor of 300.
  Chance to get penetrated with Vet 0 at long range: 73%. Chance to get penetrated with Vet 2 at long range: 95%
  
  Now we look at the Jagdpanzer IV (StuG3 has exactly the same stats):
  JP4 has these pen values with Vet 0 at far range:
  Penetration far 170
  
  It doesn't get any pen buffs with Vet (except first shot bonus from camouflage at Vet 5).
  
  Churchill has 290 front armor. Chance to get penetrated with any Vet at long range: 58%.
  
  As we can see, Axis tank destroyers are way worse than their allied counterparts and have less chance to penetrate allied Heavies. But some of you may cry out now: Axis have Panther!! That is correct, but look at the stats:
  
  Panther has only 50 range and gets no pen bonus with Vet. Its penetration values at far range:
  Penetration far 220
  
  Churchill has 290 front armor. Chance to get penetrated at long range: 75%.
  
  You can see, Panther has almost the same chance to penetrate the frontal armor of Churchills at 50(!) range like the SU85 has against Tiger at 60(!). But Su85 gets way better with Vet 2, Panther not.
  
  => In conclusion: Panther is in a good spot and feels well. Its a pretty strong premium medium. But Axis tank destroyers need some sort of penetration buffs. Maybe give StuG3 the real HEAT ability from OKW at Vet 1 and buff JP4 penetration by 20% at Vet 2. These changes would bring axis tank destroyers closer to allied ones and are also no overbuffs. StuG3 is damn cheap and has high ROF, but with Ostheer already beeing heavy ammo dependent, a timed ability for 45 ammo wouldn't be that unbalanced. Not to forget, StuG3 has only 50 range and less hitpoints. And JP4 costs almost the same as Su85 with better sight, mobility and camouflage at Vet 1. But with its lower basic penetration and the 20% pen buff at Vet 2 it would still be worse.
  
  Looking forward to your opnions!