Profile of Pip

So just reading through the notes for the balance on commanders and I saw this absolute gem of a quote

'Rear Echelon Rifle Grenades
The Rifle Grenade launcher is being adjusted to force user input from the player rather than being an auto-fire weapon that the opponent must constantly dodge.

Auto-fire changed to a targeted ability with no munitions cost. 15 second recharge.
No longer takes a weapon slot'

What if this is how ALL handheld AT is used?? This would literally change little to nothing in 1 v 1 Pro tournament games, and fix everything wrong with Allied and Axis A blob AT late game? The guy with 4 Penzer grens with 8 Shrek's now has to individually fire each one! whats more fair than that trade off?

Getting to the original post however, not sure the rear echelon rifle grenade (compared to mr brain dead 4v4 4 man shrek blob) needed this, but the idea is simply amazing!

The RE grenade isnt AT, and it was an issue before. It was a no-micro ability that forced your opponent to constantly micro his infantry, due to the grenade being accurate, and doing a significant amount of damage. It being an active ability was a good change, though it is still free.

Shreck/zook blobs really aren't the same sort of thing as the RE grenadier.

Balance wise Brits have to do this anyway with PIATS...??? just saying!

No they don't, PIATs are just as effective as any other handheld AT is during autofire now. That was an old piece of design that hasn't been the case for quite a long time now.

They bolt action rifles and PPsh combo is not very good they should get 6 PPsh and adjust DPS.

The upgrade should also take a weapon slot.

This would be a nerf, though. It seems as though they get three (now four) PPSH because they are expected to lose models on approach, and their DPS being concentrated in three(four) models rather than all six means that these first two model drops do not significantly impact their DPS once they do get into range. Giving all of the squad members (presumably worse) PPSH would just be a straight nerf in basically any scenario.

I would recommend that if you rebalanced PPSH cons to have six PPSH, they should indeed retain their weapon slot (as little as that really matters) but they should also still be able to upgrade with "Mobilise reserves". I think Mobilise and conscript doctrinal weapon upgrades shouldn't be exclusive... though this would make squads a VERY munitions-heavy squad to upgrade.

Honestly what I'd say instead is that the PPSH upgrade be replaced with a "Frontovik" squad, with the same six men, but with more tailored veterancy and abilities. This squad would otherwise benefit from the same techs as Conscripts. It would also give an excuse to use the "Alternate conscript" model that seems to be in the files, someone showed it in a screenshot a week or two back.


Whether it's worth even bothering with all this is another question though, if the new PPSH con upgrade is shown to be OK after a few weeks of testing, I think messing about with it further would be a waste of resources that could be used on more important changes.

Volksgrenadiers easily have nearly twice the DPS of Osttruppen.

This is correct, though my point is that being an ostruppen-like unit is what Volksgrenadiers /should/ be, it synergises better with OKW's other infantry selections than the current design.

Imo obers timing should be bufded as i said before same with rec acc for volks possibly with stg going to doctrines.

I agree, Ober timing should be buffed to around the first truck deployment (Though when fielded at this point they must be weaker than their current strength). The reasoning being simply that it allows the OKW player to fit them into their infantry builds more easily, and gives them more time to gain veterancy.

Ober performance is already fantastic, I really think the only issue with that unit is how difficult it can be to fit them into infantry builds.

Would replacing the 2x gren G43 with 1x JLI G43 (perhaps a weaker version with a lower critical treshold %) be overkill? The idea is that these G43 grenadiers would be most effective if used together with an other, lmg grenadier squad while on their own they would be worse than an lmg squad. Similar to how pathfinders and lmg paratroopers can work together for the highest efficiency.

It might be too strong. OSTheer already have a sniper, and them getting JLI for 240MP is probably a recipe for disaster.

Snip

The two things I can immediately reccomend are to;

A: Keep checking the top right of your screen for your unit cards, any that are flashing the "in combat" symbol should have your attention.

B: Don't try to micromanage engagements as much, if your squads are fighting out of grenade range, you don't need to keep staring at them. Keep flicking between all your fighting infantry constantly, you only need to micromanage a squad when there's a legitimate existential threat to them (Such as a squad closing in to throw a grenade)

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