Profile of Strummingbird

You weren't blobbing and an ability that hits a single point killed 3 of your squads in their entirety. You weren't blobbing though.

I think this ability is a little over the top and needs toning down slightly. I played a game last night where it one shot three of my full health grenadier squads, all on separate occasions. (not in a blob)

It's a pretty stupid ability, since being on retreat or in any sort of cover doesn't protect the target in any way (in fact being in cover makes the squad members bunch even further, increasing one shot chances. on the other hand, it's the only thing the greyhound has going for it...

I stand by the decision to change the broken mess that the light mine was in the release version. Adding them to rear echelons probably wasn't smart though, their addition changes early game dynamics too much. I just don't think it's good design for one single faction to be limited to a 340MP/20 fuel vehicle as the only source of mines in the late game. 4 out of 6 commanders already had access to the broken mines so it's not like USF didn't have access to infantry mines, they just didn't work so nobody bothered with them.

Question is, where do I put them so they're accessible eventually for everyone including the two commanders that don't get them (Airborne and Rifle Company)?

On RE, unlocked after Major or Lieut+Capt?

I'll assume you tried testing it with cheatmod. It's spawning the wrong version of stug e, already let Janne know about that. Try with the actual commander unit. You probably won't be able to tell the difference between the release version, the performance difference is that small.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up.

imo it is quite short-sighted to give the usf engine-crit mines. paired with the ability to repair any vehicle anywhere on the map at any given time, this makes it close to impossible to chase down damaged usf vehicles. i would like the usf to have some sort of AP mines, yes, but this is too much i guess. jacksons will dominate any armor, because no tank will be able to chase them down or flank them

unfortunately is was only able to play 3 games so far and my friend isnt the best usf player, but i can imagine, that in the hands of a very capable player, this change will be the most rage inducing. time will tell

I had a similar opinion, but I withheld that judgment due to not playing sufficient games as USF where mines would've had a significant impact. Jacksons, yes, and also Scotts. those little buggers will be impossible to chase.

Mines + 50cal penetration means you can counter the entire wehrmacht T2 vehicle roster with nothing but smart mining + a 50 cal or two.

Another thing- the fact that you force the wehr player to get a minesweeper early instead of the all-important flamer is a big shift in power, in a part of the game where balance is already very delicate.

Out of all the changes, this addition of antivehicle mines to a faction that has been designed to function with none/expensive, tier-dependant mines is the one I'm most doubtful about.

A couple more observations from couple games played:

1. 50cal kills a 222 in 2 and a quarter bursts on the front armor, and one and a half bursts from the rear- pretty much the speed at which incendiary MG42s kill allied vehicles, except free of charge and not as an activated ability. it also happens to kill kubels in one burst. (about 1-2 seconds of fire) You might want to consider halving the initial penetration buff and give it back at vet 1 or 2.

2. If you haven't tested the stug E change, you should consider doing that. because it's worse than it was in its initial incarnation. I spawned one in front of a shock troop squad, on open, flat terrain, 20M away, and it took 1 minute 30 seconds to snipe 2 men. it got another two 30 seconds later, before the squad retreated. multiple tests were pretty much repeats of the same scenario. Compare to the new SU76, which does about the same in approx 15 seconds (5 shots fired, 3 men sniped).

3. RE mines still use the small size they had when they were meant to be stacked. fairly minor, the real concern is the fact that the US faction has cheap guaranteed engine damage mines, which is certain to be a huge balance factor. I think people haven't been testing the mod, and in particular this feature enough- it does seem to be a very, very big deal, and I don't think even one person has commented thus far on this (I may be mistaken, in which case I apologize).


edit- What seems to be going on here is a lot of very significant changes in a very short period of time, and it seems as if it isn't actually been tested ingame much- the changes themselves on the surface are all very nice (everyone hates callins, the ISU, soviet expensive tech, etc etc) and units over and underperforming are pretty obvious (see the stug E, for example). On the other hand though, lots of cumulative changes made now will make it a hell of a lot harder to balance than adjusting one or two factors, testing and altering, then moving on to the next one or two issues. Just my two cents.

Looks like only three doctrines were planned for initially, like coh1... or maybe 'armies' and commanders were separate entities which stacked? Who knows.

There's a lot of some interesting coh2 concept art available online, namely here:
http://davidchambersconcepts.blogspot.sg/2013/06/company-of-heroes-2-concept-art.html

of note is this soviet truck base concept, which got resurrected for the OKW: