Profile of JimboSlyce

Feedback for USF Commanders (Patch v1.3)

Armor Company

I'm a lot happier with this doctrine now than I was prior. I'm still not sure I would add this to my current lineup. I liked some of the suggestions that others had about swapping up which USF commanders have access to the various doctrinal tanks. I think the Pershing in place of the M10 or even 105mm would really do a lot to make this commander attractive. The lower price of the M10 would be a lot more attractive if I had something to spend the extra fuel on (Pershing).

Assault Engineers: This is a solid unit now. Would like clarification on whether the unit is intended to cost 280mp or 300mp.

Elite Vehicle Crews: Still kind of dislike this ability. It feels weird to call in a unit and have to immediately decrew the vehicle to upgrade it to get the best value from this ability. I assume that because the crew gets a 15% veterancy bonus that the vehicle will vet up faster. Is this how it works? I suppose it represents a good value for the faster veterancy and repairs. Perhaps the ability just doesn't appeal to me personally.

M10: I still hate the M10. Again, this may just be personal preference but I wouldn't choose the weaker more micro intensive option just because it comes at a discount price. It would have to be available earlier in the game to make it a more attractive option to me, or I would need something a little more compelling than the 105mm Sherman to save my fuel for.

105mm Sherman: I have grown fond of the 105mm Sherman since the last changes in v1.2. I don't think any further changes are necessary for this unit.

Mechanized Company

Overall, I like this doctrine. I like the idea behind granting access to a wide variety of light vehicles. I don't always use all of them, but it's nice to have all of the options. Opens up an equally wide variety of play styles and strategies. The only other suggestion I have would be to consider replacing the withdraw ability with the artillery barrage that currently resides on the WC-51. I think that would really round out the commander without really adding anything else to it since it already has a ton of stuff packed in.

Withdraw and Refuel: Still dislike this ability.

76mm Sherman: I still have concerns about the consistency and potency of this unit in certain situations. With a little bit of veterancy, other armored/infantry units around, and Combined Arms, it's a 76mm machine gun. Otherwise it's only a modest improvement over the standard Sherman, granted it's only slightly more expensive.

I still need to test the Wehrmacht commanders more, but I get the feeling that there is another iteration right around the corner that will quite possibly invalidate everything I've just written lol.

Imagine my surprise upon reading that Cavalry Riflemen are a thing now. Can't wait to try them out! The other faction's changes are looking pretty good too. Will report back with my feedback.

And none forces to refit you M-3 on the other hand an M-3 is difficult to use in late where there are allot of AT while an M-21 is easier to useful in the late game.

The idea behind the commander is that one can invest heavily on light vehicles and then replace them vehicles as the game progress and all that is possible with "refit and refuel". I personally find the idea interesting but the current implementation problematic.

I agree with you. The idea is a cool one, and would make for a good commander if the implementation was spot on. However, I think making the idea work within the scope of this patch is likely impossible. That's why I am advocating for different abilities entirely. Would be a lot easier to just swap something out than completely rework multiple units and abilities.

I've had an opportunity to play a few more matches with the Mechanized Company and come up with some feedback for that commander. Overall it feels like it has more of a theme and a purpose than the Armor Company commander, and in its current state, I definitely prefer it.

Mechanized Company

Mortar Halftrack - Removed: I like the mortar halftrack. I don't know how well it fits with this commander because 1-2 mortar halftracks plus a regular M3 halftrack may be too much to invest in light vehicles. Especially considering their life expectancy. However light vehicle options seem to be the theme for this commander, so perhaps it should stay.

WC-51: This is another unit that I really like, but it feels a little weird in it's current form. One of the things I struggle with the most as the Americans in the current patch is MG spam. Especially on maps with lots of choke points. I had limited success using the WC-51 to flank MG's and in general level the playing field in the first 2-3 minutes of the game.

However, I'm not completely satisfied with it's performance. In order for it to be useful for anything prior to being able to upgrade the MG, you need to put a squad in it. I suppose RE could be used, but you have to sit and wait so long for them to do any amount of damage that you risk losing the truck. Putting a rifle squad in it is also an option, but now you've got 480mp devoted to a single unit right out of the gate. One micro mistake could easily spell disaster.

I think this unit could use some additional tuning.

Refit and Refuel: I never liked this ability to begin with, and I like it even less now. It is entirely counter-intuitive to the nature of the game. The idea is to preserve your units as long as possible, that's the whole point of providing veterancy and useful abilities to even the most basic units. I understand the idea behind the ability, but in practice it's not very good. The idea seems to be to get a partial refund for vehicles that have outlasted their usefulness. The only vehicle that I can think of this being applicable to would be the WC-51, but even it has been granted abilities that are extremely useful later in the game. Even if you do withdraw it, you get a refund of 150mp. Hardly worth an entire commander ability.

The M3 halftrack allows you to reinforce your units once it's no longer useful as the bazooka bus. It could also be used to back cap with a squad in it.

I would recommend this commander ability be replaced with something else entirely.

Combined Arms: I think this makes a nice addition to the commander. It's one of the only global abilities that I actually enjoy using. With that said, I think there are unintended consequences of combining this with the current iteration of the Sherman 76mm.

76mm Sherman: I like this unit. I also like the regular Sherman. The ability to upgrade the regular Sherman that is attached to this ability is confusing. Without knowing exactly what stats a bulldozer actually changes for the regular Sherman, I'm not sure why I would want to build a regular Sherman and upgrade it instead of just building a 76mm.

Maybe this could be moved to the Armor Company commander and then that commander could be renamed Bulldozer Company

Seriously though, the elephant in the room is that this unit is quite possibly broken. As soon as people figure out that this thing is a 76mm machine gun, I can see it being abused. With even just 1 rank of veterancy and a halftrack with an infantry unit inside of it nearby, things can get wild really fast with combined arms running.

Because of this, I think this unit needs additional tuning or to be replaced, unfortunately. I hesitate to recommend that because I do like the unit otherwise. Dropping the Easy 8 in here would be the quick fix.

Raid Tactics: I do not like this ability for the USF. As others have pointed out, you will very likely have a squad of infantry inside one of your light vehicles. Especially with this commander. There are very few exceptions to this, and not enough to make this worth an ability slot on a commander.

M3 Halftrack: This is another unit that I really like that has a bizarre quirk. I would actually prefer a regular vehicle crew and an empty halftrack instead of Assault Engineers for one simple reason. When you disembark the vehicle with Assault Engineers, they do not start automatically repairing the vehicle. How is it even possible to use the Assault Engineers unless you swap them with RE? The same RE that you will have very likely given bazookas at this point. I think either put a regular vehicle crew back in and leave the ability otherwise unchanged, or put a regular vehicle crew in and add Assault Engineers to the back of the vehicle. I think that's how it used to work anyways.

Final thoughts

I really like the idea of allowing the M3 and WC-51 to be built in the barracks after this commander has been selected. As someone else pointed out, the WC-51 kind of jams up the production queue, but it's not the end of the world.

I'd like to see Raid and Withdraw replaced with other abilities. Possibly by bringing back the Mortar Halftrack or the 155mm artillery barrage. I think the 76mm Sherman needs some kind of adjustment to prevent abuse. I'm confused by the bizarre quirks of the M3 and the standard Sherman in this commander.

This post may seem a little bit redundant, definitely long winded. However, I wanted to really get in depth about how I make a decision to choose a commander in order to demonstrate and make a strong case for why I still would not choose either of the two updated USF commanders in the most recent Commander Revamp Patch.

I've had the opportunity to try out 4 of the updated commanders so far in 2v2 vs. AI. I tested both of the USF commanders, the NKVD commander, and the German Infantry commander. I typically play the USF and Wehrmacht factions in 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 automatch vs. players.

When I choose a commander for any faction in a game, I typically do it for one or two reasons. The first reason is that I've already formulated a plan or strategy on the loading screen that me or my team want to execute based upon the opposing factions, map, commanders the opposing team have selected, etc. An example would be selecting the Infantry Company USF commander preemptively because we're playing against 2-4 OKW players so that I can barrage any forward bases.

The second reason, which seems much more common for me, is selecting a commander in reaction to the other team's strategy or army composition. An example would be selecting USF Heavy Cavalry commander for the off map smoke barrage in response to multiple HMG's, with the added benefit of Rangers to flank and destroy them while the smoke is active.

The issue that I have with the Armor Company and Mechanized Company is that they don't offer many compelling abilities that solve a problem that the standard USF units don't already cover. I'll go through each ability below.

Armor Company

Assault Engineers: This unit is possibly the only compelling reason to choose this doctrine. This is primarily due to their ability to equip a flamethrower which is really helpful for clearing structures since this is something that standard USF units do poorly. The 5 man squad is a welcome buff, but possibly comes too late. I would personally exchange offensive ability for durability while retaining the ability to clear structures with a flamethrower. I would consider choosing this doctrine specifically for this unit, however I would choose Rifle Company first for flamethrowers because the other abilities included in that doctrine are more useful and attractive than the ones included in Armor Company.

Elite Vehicle Crews: I would define this ability as beyond redemption. I was surprised that it wasn't outright replaced based upon the criteria of the initial revamp announcement where it specifically mentioned that some commanders and abilities are likely beyond redemption. Without entirely changing what the ability was intended for from the start, I don't think this will ever be compelling. Adding repair speed and veterancy bonus to it is like applying lipstick to a pig, and it starts us down the road to completely overhauling this ability which is outside of the original scope of this patch.

I would stop any further development on this ability and outright replace it with a different ability that has already been tested and proven to be popular. I have seen "Mark Target" suggested previously, which would make sense and be desirable. Another suggestion would be something as simple and basic as unlocking Bazookas for free at 0-1 CP's instead of the Elite Vehicle Crews. I would never choose this doctrine specifically for Elite Vehicle Crews.

M10 Tank Destroyer: This is another ability/unit that I would consider to be redundant and currently pretty bad. It's all about timing with this one. The current fix only serves to modestly improve the unit while also making it more difficult and micro intensive to use. In order to make it attractive enough for me to want to use it, it would need to come out around the same time or just a touch later than a Puma for example. Other than that, it's pretty much always worth it to wait for the Jackson. I would never choose this doctrine specifically for this ability.

Sherman 105mm Dozer: Similar story as the M10. This unit doesn't currently offer anything special enough for me to want to choose it over the regular Sherman. It's more durable, but I can't think of a specific situation where a regular Sherman just wouldn't do the job, but a 105mm would. In the case of both this and the M10, I would rather see a different unit or ability in it's place, or a compelling reason to choose either one over a Jackson or standard Sherman. Currently the revamp isn't compelling enough. I would never choose this doctrine specifically for this ability.

240mm Artillery Barrage: The level of area denial this provides isn't worth the exorbitant munitions cost, full stop. Zeroing Artillery is the most comparable ability to this one. People fear Zeroing, the 240mm is a minor annoyance in comparison in my opinion. I would never choose this doctrine specifically for this ability.

You'll notice a recurring theme. A bunch of abilities that I would never choose the doctrine for specifically. The real issue then is when you put all of those abilities in one commander, does the sum of all of the abilities make it worth choosing? In this case, absolutely not in my opinion.

I think this post has gone on long enough, so I will separate my feedback on the other commanders into another post.

Also, I have had a tough time finding anyone to test the new patch with. If you'd like to join me for some custom games, add me on steam. I think my steam ID is attached to my profile here.