Profile of Corp.Shephard

Nothing is immune to AT grenades but with 230-253 armor you'll bounce a lot of AT grenades as long as they're on your front.

Panzerfaust will penetrate an SU-85 anywhere between 93-100% of the time depending on the range though. SU-85 armor is just in a terrible place right now.

Strummingbird makes a series of good points though. The SU-85 is a glass cannon right now that scales a little better offensively with veterancy. The accuracy and fire-rate changes probably balance each other out unless you're targeting a very large enemy tank though.

It's not a... bad tank destroyer? Although... objectively I suppose it is probably the worst of the three.


Anyways;

Jagdpanzer IV: 400m/135f
SU-85: -------- 340m/120f

Very well. Let's look at the replay in detail.

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  VS

  Corp.Shephard Sepah

  Siu-King** Porygon

  Airborne Company Adaptation of "Knowing is Half the Battle"

  by: Corp.Shephard map: Rzhev Winter

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I'd estimate you guys held a fuel point for ~1 out of the first ten minutes of the game You lost a lot of strategic points when you successfully double teamed Sepah. The result is that I realized you were going to be very fuel starved and went for a strong early game into M8A1s which generally tear "catch up" units like Pak40 and Obersoldaten apart.

Around ten minutes in your team starts to consolidate map control that it lost in the early game. This regained momentum is largely wasted when your PZII 'Luchs' wanders into the fog of war which contains 5 bazookas it dies. This puts even more pressure on a tenuous fuel situation. You keep picking really stupid battles like charging M8A1s through ice and heavy snow with all-infantry forces. That's why I chose the M8A1: The map's campy and I know you don't have the fuel to deal with it cost-efficiently.

Finally you pick up a Puma at 17 minutes into the game against three M8A1s. It bravely suicides into Sepah's poorly guarded M8A1 and actually kills it straight up despite having no support. Naturally it doesn't escape against two additional M8A1s, a 57mm and a dual bazooka squad.

Had you not missed a shot with the Puma and used your smoke before you took engine damage you probably would have gotten a kill without losing anything.

In truth I could have done the same with Shermans given our advantage but it's Winter Rzhev so why would I risk using a unit that has to go on the ice or over easily mined locations on that map?

I'll be frank I wonder about the M8A1's strength as well. Blaming your loss on the M8A1 though in this case seems silly. The fact that I had a Major out at ~8 minutes was more indicative of the problem.

The Puma's chief weakness (among many strengths as Cruzz noted) is 25 frontal armor. The M8A1 has 40 penetration. The best counters to the M8A1 are hunters with actual armor.

That being said the Puma is exceptionally good at killing M8A1s due to its crazy DPS and smoke. M8A1's have a fairly long aim time (1.25 seconds vs 0.25 for Puma) so smoke forces them to "re-aim". In a fair fight the M8A1 loses to the Puma every time.

If you want to zone an M8A1 then you should get a Jagdpanzer IV: Same range as the M8A1, high armor means it's almost never in danger from the M8A1, and high damage output means only two-shots are needed to kill it. There's really no reason you can't afford one by the time M8A1s show up.

The Panther is the best M8A1 hunter but the lower tech units work fine.

Out of curiosity did this sudden rage come up from our game earlier? You guys were pretty handily on the back foot before any M8A1s arrived.

.50 Caliber HMG still pretty nice even after the bug fixes that nerfed it.

I find munitions have to be controlled using the M20 Utility Car usually. Mines mines mines mines mines. It's hard though because that thing is sort of fragile. They pay off so well though. No one ever expects mines from US forces. Even if they're the smart type that does because of the M20 then you place them more defensively and they will forget ~5 minutes after it is dead and hopefully make mistakes. Or have to sweep for mines under the watchful eye of your .50 Cal/Pack Howie.

BARs and Bazookas can be good too. Pick em' up after Captain Tech and you can use them to better through your Riflemen's weight around.

So let me get this straight. You wait an extra 4-5 seconds for a Maxim spam that from atm can at least be flanked to a tiny degree (If at all) to a point where it cannot be flanked at all because it can suppress multiple squads. This is already being abused and has broken the game. Oh yes and because doing this will not do any extra damange to german squads and force them to lose units and hence MP flow. Nice logic. Maxims need to be nerfed in its current state. Not buffed as this biased post shows.

I'm not sure you're even reading what I posted.

Lets try this again.

AoE Suppression. It is something that all HMGs except for the Maxim has. When firing on one squad nearby squads will be suppressed.

Okay. So it only works on units on the Maxim's small arc of fire. If they're spread out enough the buff wouldn't even work on those units! It is a bonus that nerfs blobbing. That's all it does.

How do you flank HMGs? You flank them by attacking them with multiple squads from multiple direcitons. You flank by keeping your units far away from each other so they can attack from different angles. If you're spread out then you're not in a blob. If you're not in a blob then the AoE suppression doesn't matter.

Maybe that clarifies it.

Making the Maxim more expensive does actually make it easier to flank. There are less units to support it! There are less Maxims in Maxim spam. The reinforcement cost goes up for Soviets. AoE suppression doesn't make the Maxim more lethal. So no the "MP damage to the germans" would not go up.

You seem pretty keen on attacking other's bias based on their playercard but you didn't even look at Cruzz's playercard. I wonder what bias your playercard would reveal?

That being said I dislike the idea of using playercards to fuel some sort of inquisition of "who can actually talk" or not. Balance is different at different levels of the game. Everyone deserves a voice.