Profile of Strummingbird

forward reinforce with OKW is pretty brutal. i'd suggest pushing it to 3CP and seeing how it develops from there

MP40 volks are very average, don't see myself using them much since theyre a downgrade from stgs and cost more. probably only worthwhile as a grenade squad, might need to play with them more to see

Greyhound could use a CP increase, okw med truck needs work as well

played a couple games-

-command pgren squad uses arty officer icon on command bar + named jaeger light inf
-reinforce at 37 is a bit of a hidden knife. not sure if it's too high, it does bleed a lot.
-but they can turn into a 5 man sprinting, stealth double shreck squad, which is also quite nuts. have yet to try this ingame though.

-osttruppen LMGs don't seem as weak as the 50% penalty would imply (ingame they were ripping through vetted USF inf)
-suspect that the 50% acc penalty doesn't translate to 50% lower dps, probably something along the lines of base acc with vet being high enough at some ranges
-tier locking upgrades for them is a nice concept
-concern regarding osttruppen balance not within osttruppen commander but from lightning war- reserve army spamming (though there is quite a lot of opportunity cost unless muni control is substantial - mass upgrading LMGs + nonstop reserve army precludes the use of stuka CAS). need closer games to see if this is an issue.
-opinion -try out different weapon packages rather than lmg42. lmg42 osttruppen are more or less grenadier v0.75 and fill the same niche. (6x?) mp40s would be far more interesting, less problematic balance-wise, and round out the ostheer complement more. If it doesn't clutter gameplay too much, mp40s could be unlocked at BP2 and LMG42 (or something else) at BP3.

-field defenses
-grenadier, osttruppen sandbags are really nice. +1 here

-tank hunter conscripts are pretty fun to use
-loss of molotovs is pretty major, since they basically can't fight anything once upgraded now. i understand the logic (not good to mass upgrade, just grab one or two as specialized squads) but it's a little annoying
-loss of regular AT nades is strange since the AT volley is not a straight upgrade
-AT volley is very strong with cloak though.
-would be nice to give ptrs penals with that doctrine something so they aren't eclipsed entirely- maybe the same cloak, or maybe even moving cloak (!)

-hulldown cloaking tanks
-the bushes are visible by enemy through FOW, which is probably unintentional but something i think should stay
-don't think the +20% damage should stay- it just makes the first shot very RNG (two t34s can burst almost 400 damage, or bounce and do nothing which they still do a lot even with the +20% pen). i suggest either deflection dmg for shot out of cloak (if possible) or more pen instead to make it more consistent
-time to cloak after firing seems a bit janky. sometimes it cloaks really fast, sometimes it seems to take forever. Possibly linked to firing as it enters hulldown.

-manpower + fuel emplacements
-manpower being the more valuable resource, this is a pretty big buff
-ML20 was OP as hell with the new costing in FBP. suspect same here in DBP with the buff-nerf to more shells / better mid AOE

-arty officer changes are nice
-probably doesn't need to be at 2CP though, since it's limited to 1

-ISU
-reliable now, maybe too reliable? needs more testing probably
-consistent 120 dmg deflect on HE shots is a very big buff

-guards
-i'm not sure how useful hit the dirt is- same issue as cons hit the dirt, you just eat rifle nades / flame nades. real utility here seems to grab a few extra shots with the ptrs using the bonus range to secure light vehicle kills

ML20

I'd think trialling a small buff to the LEFH together with a small blindfire nerf for both howitzers would be preferable to nerfing the ML20. Counterbarrage has always been pretty underwhelming, and if it's within scope giving the LEFH a small stat buff (ala ML20 extra shells at vet 1) to accompany counterbarrage at vet 1 would be interesting.

Larger scatter into FOW would be the most direct counter to blindfiring into bases, and further incentivize shooting units on the field in concert with other attacks. I wouldn't go overboard with a nerf in this aspect though.

Mortar pit

I understand the problem with allowing base pits. It's not a problem I have an answer for; I wouldn't restore the ability for base emplacements.

I'm not sure why the new iteration of the mortar pit is so resistant to antitank fire. It feels to me quite counterintuitive [pit is now immune to lategame vehicle dives IF vehicle has no machinegun eg JP4.] I see why target size is that small (to reduce vulnerability to AT guns) but perhaps this could be moderated in a way that allows vehicles up close to reliably hit it while reducing the effectiveness of 60-range snipes.

It's about having alternatives. It's also about having an early tool you can use to take down high received-accuracy infantry on maps where you can't or don't want to rely on the sniper. And it's also about having a vehicle that can move that can do that.

It's an alternative, but speaking from ingame experience in 2v2 and especially 1v1 it's an alternative that simply needs to be more attractive in some way to be useful and competitive. 1.0 showed that a performance increase was problematic, live game shows that the Ostwind is rarely used for various reasons. Hence, my suggestion to try a third tweak i.e. cost reduction and / or improvement against light tanks.

Either way, it's not an early tool to counterharrass- it's a solid mid-late game vehicle built after other T3 vehicles establish a comfortable safety margin, since it's never built first from T3 unless the game is pretty much won already. A cost reduction would allow it to fit more comfortably into this role, and increasing penetration would make it a solid first-build choice against heavy light tank play.

Other observations from further games:
LeIG barrage is very reliable at hitting crewed weapons and infantry with the AOE changes. Not sure if it's a little too strong at the moment.
Pack howi performance is very good. With cost reduction I suspect that they snowball a winning game a bit too well, but at the same time they need to be good since USF has no proper arty lategame besides Major. Perhaps adding a small fuel cost (10-15 fuel?) would differentiate it from the mortar, would thematically be in line with how the full-size howitzers and Land Mattress have a fuel cost.

•  
  

  0

  VS

  Quicksilver

  AnAlternateWorld

  [FBP] Soviet T3+ Howitzers

  by: Strummingbird map: Faymonville Approach

  2

  -

A little reminiscent of motorpool + 105mm. Replay to show [excessive?] strength of the ML20s wiping just about everything in base. I think the soviet howitzer is particularly strong because T3 units are in a pinch very scalable, SU76 in particular capable of dealing with higher tier units, meaning there's less need to counter an enemy tech with your own T4.

Equivalent as OKW would be T1+T2 (or more likely T2+T2) into howitzers, though I don't see it quite being as effective.