Profile of Hambone

I think a major problem comes from the OPness of Axis hand-held AT, mainly shreks when used in blobs. And also explains why people like ISU (and to lesser extend IS-2) so much. They are the only Allied armor that can reliable scare away Shrek blobs.

This is a huge factor and one of the reasons I was disappointed by the USF faction. Before WFA was released I was very excited for bazookas as I was sure Relic was smart enough to make USF a complementary army to Soviets that would provide the scaling infantry and handheld AT that SU lacked. This would have eliminated the monopoly that shreks held in infantry presence with strong anti-tank firepower. Instead of making armies complementary Relic decides to give them the same army characteristics and weaknesses of SU: a mobile army of average, mid range infantry that uses early vehicles to compensate for the lack of late game non-doctrinal heavy armor. Not only that but Relic insisted on both OH and OKW playing similar: defensive factions relying on elite infantry and support weapons with late game superheavy armor. The ball-dropping and lost opportunity to diversify the team factions mystifies me to this day.

Sorry for the tangent, but as armatak mentioned a lot of game flow is based on shreks. OH PGrens are deadly but expensive and specialized enough to be balanced. The ubiquitous Volk shrek blob is neither expensive nor specialized, but still dangerous to armor and guaranteed to be on the field. This AT field presence allows Axis factions to lose tanks mid-game without fear of counterattack by Allied tanks. Conversely if Allies lost their first armor they can be largely routed from the map by a single P4. Of course all factions have access to AT guns, but the shrek blob is a potent, easy to use game mechanic that Allies have no equivalent.

I don't see shrek proliferation ever being reduced, but at the very least it would be nice if Volks didn't instantly get vet 5 after a couple shrek shots at vehicles.

With absolutely no AT power in Tier 1 or on the penals themselves I feel it justified for them to present a solid anti-infantry force.

Past mid game penals face a variety of long range anti-infantry forces such as Obers, Fusils, Falls, Jaegers, LMG Grens, and even PG's who project well throughout carbine ranges. All of those squads are deadly at SVT ranges, and most have receive accuracy to boot. I don't expect them to trade blows with Obers, but Penals were designed to move into mid range on Grenadiers and come out slightly ahead. Against these new kids on the block it is a massacre.

The plethora of long range anti-infantry killing power added by WFA is what is encouraging blobbing. Squads aren't just pushed off anymore, they're flat out wiped without an ideal retreat path.



That rambling out of the way. I think on the topic of weapon upgrades we need to consider the staying power of the squad in question.

One of the reasons weapon upgrades such as LMG grens overperform is that they retain their LMG until they're wiped out. As mentioned earlier, a full gren squad with LMG does 9.41 + 3*2.13 = 15.8 DPS. Since the LMG is passed around the squad only loses 2.13, or 7.5%, dps per causality. Eventually the one man Gren squad is still doing 60% dps of a full squad.

In comparison, a standard six man squad like penals lose a sixth, 16.7%, of their dps with each entity killed. Come mid battle when half of both forces having injured squads those with the weapon upgrades still retain much more dps. To be fair, other elite infantry on both sides such as Falls and PG's have similar DPS loss per model.

My meandering point is that weapon upgrades can be balanced, or unbalanced, based also upon their ability to provide long range staying power in the field that is resistant to DPS bleed - and I find this to be what soviets are lacking.

So why not, give everything a DP.

Keep in mind that the t2/3 OKW trucks aren't that expensive. 30 fuel.

Does it hurt to lose one? Yes, but you don't want to throw away your entire army trying to defend one. I hate seeing player lose armies or vehicles more expensive than the truck itself just because they feel they need to save it.

If your opponents want to coordinate 360 munitions to destroy your 30 fuel truck then let them have it. You can then see that the opponents are truck aggressive so just plop the new medic truck at your HQ. Then there you go, you have a secure base sector and won't even need to make it a forward HQ.

Not bad ideas Kyle, but lets keep changes as small as possible for this topic. A single unit swap may be easier to push than a faction overhaul.

I think everybody should keep in mind that the 30 fuel difference may not sound like much, but it is a critical amount of time for high end competitive 1v1. Not that my skills are near that level, but I think our elite players would agree it would ease the shock value.

This change would also ensure that somebody rushing a halftrack would receive a Captain instead of Lt. While the captain is good, it is a supporting unit. A free LT with teching combined with the quick M15AA is just too much additional anti inf for the faction with the best core infantry. All this and the M15AA can go toe to toe with other light vehicles with a high chance of success.

Again, a later M15AA would result in the unit being nerfed less while also diversifying the current Platoon roster with an AT gun.

Sturmtiger can fire out of sight range of many units. Try it with an IR halftrack. Or Spec Ops which gives access to radio silence and flares.