Profile of Mazianni

u completely and conveniently forgot reload speed, panzer shreck have 50% more reload time than zook and piat
and the bad accuracy they have

Reload 5.75 vs 7.75. Two second longer reload for a massive damage and penetration advantage simply isn't a big tradeoff, especially since, as has been stated already, the initial damage is guaranteed to be enough to push off or kill nearly any vehicle in the first volley.

As for accuracy; the Panzershrek has superior accuracy at close range and mid range, with only slightly inferior accuracy at max range, so I don't know what you were going for there.

Bazooka 0.063 / 0.048 / 0.034 (Note elite bazookas have exactly the same accuracy profile)
Panzershreck 0.069 / 0.052 / 0.028

The 40% accuracy bonus Pfusiliers gets at Vet 2 negates that disadvantage completely as well. Compare Riflemen 30% at Vet 3, Rear Echelons 20% at Vet 1. Just for fun, Sturmpios get a 40% accuracy buff as well, at Vet 4, with Panzergrenadiers getting a wierd 16.7% at Vet 2 and then 20% at Vet 3, for a total of 36.7%.

For fun, a post-vet comparison with the absolute highest accuracy bonuses available for faction

Bazooka 0.0819 / 0.0624 / 0.0442 (Riflemen Vet 3)
Panzershreck 0.0966 / 0.0728 / 0.0392 (Panzerfusiliers Vet 2)
Panzershreck 0.094323 / 0.071084 / 0.038276 (Panzergrens Vet 3)

I dont get the hate for the two basic officers. Yeah lieutenant is a slightly worse rifleman but I can tell you that Soviets wish they got a free slightly weaker penal when they techhed up.

Captain is highly underrated if nothing else but for "on me". Even though it's not an aoe anymore it's a free +20% accuracy and +20% durability that gives suppression immunity and sprint. Spam this ability whenever its off cooldown. Who needs smoke when you can just charge the mg and ignore suppression.

Can confirm, captain is by and far the best officer squad for USF, and probably the smartest tech direction as well (AAHT, AT gun, Pack howi). People don't realize it anymore, but it also vets up faster than the LT, and if you put zooks on the captain, the reload veterancy will let him fire the bazooka faster than any other USF squad (20%). So most of the time, especially now that captain can upgrade with BAR without the rack, captain is the better utility (supervise and "on me!") and dps choice (techless BAR, reload vet for zooks) out of the two officer squads, despite being the same exact price.

Really, the only officer squad I don't like right now is the LT, who has the highest vet requirements out of all the other USF infantry, more than even rangers or paratroopers, probably dating back to when he used to come with a free BAR, and besides having a tommy gun and getting slightly better RA vet, really isn't any different from a rifle squad. It'd be really cool if this squad had some sort of utility like the Major and Captain. I mean, it's cool that he managed to keep smoke and the frag at the same time, something rifles lost, but he otherwise handles exactly like a rifle squad. Maybe giving him something like a toned down version of the Ostheer Artillery Officer "Concentrated Fire" ability, except applied to a single allied squad, or something like that.

I'm not sure how there's this many replies to another CODGUY thread, btw. The only USF unit that I feel is prohibitively expensive at all is the M2HB, and that's only because the squad has so many stupid behind the scenes downsides (like only 0.5 retreat RA) that I hardly feel like it's worth the price most of the time.

The only change I could see working that doesn't remove the pack howitzer from gameplay completely is a price nerf. This thing is less a mortar and more a mobile howitzer (hence the name).

Remove auto-fire? Useless versus infantry clumps and no longer at all cost-efficient compared to the mortar. Would need completely reworked veterancy and much better barrages to be anywhere near useable. Every static howitzer has at least double the damage and better aoe, besides not having the weird slow-sailing projectiles.

Reduce range (further)? The pack howitzer is already extremely vulnerable. They would need to reduce the crew RA (125% currently) at the very least, probably improve projectile speed or spread as well.

Reduce damage? Again, this just reduces the pack howitzer to a mortar. It's not a mortar. It's a non-doctrinal mobile howitzer, less deadly and far easier to kill than the static buildable ones, with a shorter range and less damage, but better scatter. It is in fact incapable of killing an infantry unit in a single hit (80*0.85 = 68) unlike the lefh or m-30, and its projectiles are all slow and visible enough to be practically dodgeable. Further reduction of damage shouldn't be done unless projectiles are either faster or more accurate so as to improve probability of impact, which I doubt anyone complaining about the pack howitzer would want.

Way I see it, add a further fuel cost to the pack howitzer, something minor, maybe 25, and see if that pushes their deployment time back any. Maybe some sort of teardown/setup nerf could also make them more killable via off-map artillery (which is the primary method of destroying non-mobile howitzers).

And as for the pack howitzer being uncounterable on some maps, this is essentially true for all howitzers, and all I can say to it is that I very much wish I could be able to kill a lefh as easily, much less steal them from the enemy.

Paratroopers?

Aren't elite infantry in my book since they take 100% recieved accuracy until vet 3 and thusly have little field presence (mitigated somewhat by beacons) and tons of bleed.

Not to toot my own horn, but has anyone tried the test mod yet? I figured that the best way to see if the idea of early Paras held up would be to actually try it, but there hasn't been any feedback on it.

I had already changed to cp1 in my own personal mod, but generally speaking playing against AI doesnt really prove much imo.

The squad itself is generally much better AI-wise without upgrades than Riflemen are, albeit even less spammy and without snare, but the issue always comes to the fact youll be able to add thompsons/lmgs to them eventually so their dps shoots up further. AT paras (from weapon rack) are fun and more credible an investment the earlier they are. Vetting up earlier helps all iterations and I generally feel that you can run two squads of paras into your build with the changes without bleeding to death. Its just a question of acceptable balance still, I think.

What were your findings, if any.