Profile of Hannibal

Infantry - Snares always engine crit
Light Vehicles - Puma reliably pens the M36

The Puma is not an OST unit.

Also I don't think that the infantry crit would help that much. It would help at the only occasion that you get into snare range on an undamaged unit that usually stays at range 60 and therefore behind enemy lines. If there was any fight beforehand so that infantry could close in during the chaos, the Jackson has probably already received damage and would be snarable anyway.

I mean it is a buff, but nothing that really helps OST.

Is the Puma being a counter to the Jackson that bad an idea though?

The Jackson is the only tank destroyer in a faction who's AT is otherwise all geared towards killing lights (low pen ATG, low pen bazookas, pathetic pen Stuart).

If the Jackson needs a vehicular counter, what better vehicle than the one USF is best equipped to deal with without a Jackson?

Yes I actually do think that this is probably a bad idea.
I mean it's hard to tell how much a small armor change will effect a real game. For the time being we have to keep theorizing about it.

I think it's bad because
1. The Puma already has a role and is a very efficient unit on the battlefield. If OKW absolutely needs to counter the Jackson it can get a JPIV.
2. The cost difference is about double the cost of a Puma. It just seems very high considering the stun shot and smoke that could be cheesed to hell and back. I mean Jackson/Tiger have a similar cost disparity, but the Jackson can't be cheesed as much. On the other hand high skill should be rewarded of course. Again it's hard tp draw a final conclusion on this without seeing it implemented.

The Puma is just already worth it's price, I don't think it needs any indirect buffs that would on top of that marginalize a unit that was partially designed for that purpose even further.

It might the slight nerf that the Jackson could take without interfering with the rest of the balance.
Decent idea. 5-10 armor nerf might actually be enough so that a P4 would hit very reliably. The only thing to watch out for is indeed the Puma since it could be a very easy and sacrifice to get a Jackson that might have already been hit. Especially with the smoke it could really cheese a Jackson kill if it penetrates too reliably.

As the title says I just had a 'wild idea'. Note ahead: I assume this change is too far fetched to implement it, but I still would like to know what people think of it.

Make OST T3 and T4 mutually exclusive.
Then lower the tech cost of T4 by a bit of fuel. Maybe also T3.

These two buildings have a huge overlap and basically offer both an AI, an AT specialist and a wild card vehicle. But the faction would not lack too much apart from maybe some AA if it goes T4.

T3 will be the more aggressive playstyle trading a short midgame bonus for less power in the late game. t4 is basically the other way around. Delay your vehicle for a more powerful late game unit.

Can't talk too much about 1v1, but in team games I sometimes played T4 only. You don't necessarily need a medium tank, AA can be done by the classic 'lul I shoot doen planes 222' (although it's quite whacky) and getting a Panther or Brummbär ealier is quite an advantage.

I'm not saying that this change is better than a slight T4 tech buff, that I fully support it or whatever. I just want to throw it out there into a 'what if' scenario. What if Relic had designed OST in that way, would we maybe be better off.

Please take this to your PMs.

@Zero: Only mods can lock it...


... which is hereby done. Please open up a Brummbär thread if necessary but take care that it does not turn into the dumpster fire that the last one was after a handful of posts.