Profile of Bryan

Allot of worrying about a faction not released yet or played to any great extent. So I'll stick to commenting on the ost sniper vs soviets and Usf.

In general, he is too durable with the health buff and camo. I remember creating a balance thread on the sniper long before he was buffed, the general consensus was he needed a small HP boost back then.

Eventually he got more then double of his original HP, an extra 80 manpower and pios with better sight. I'd suggest bringing his HP down to the 60ish range. So a stiff wind won't kill him like the old days, but neither should he be so durable as he currently is.

I would not be totally opposed to bringing his HP back to 40, considering that the combined arms of ostheer play has received buffs since.

If you nerf his rof, I doubt you'd see him used much vs Usf and very rarely against soviets. Why would you flake around with him in that state when grens scale so well and are less risky. For a long time, the ostheer sniper was a very rare sight, even against Usf.

Regarding his vet ability, meh, 15 more munitions gets you an Lmg. The reason it gets attention now, is because ever since the cover change, infrantry clump even more, so the poor squad spacing means he hits with the force of a grenade you can't dodge and stuns the squad(s).

When I obs games, I rarely see, outside of aimstrong and sib, top players consistently using the ostheer sniper. Not saying others don't, I don't watch heaps of games. It will be interesting to see during op Charlie how many actually incorporate the sniper into their strats. In past tournaments, ost play was all about the grens, supporting mg42, half track and pak play. I'd be willing to bet many will be also using the call in command tank, in place of the old wait for a tiger call in.

I think the ost sniper, like most t1-t3 ost units is in a good place, bar some minor tweaks perhaps to the Lmg and sniper durability. The last thing i'd want to see, is big changes to the best designed faction in the game, which actually has combined arms, just because other factions aren't in such a good place design wise.

Ps. Theoretically speaking of course, the wasp upgrade on the Bren carrier was a good counter to ost sniper pay, because a sniper delays ostheer t2 and the wasp was like an m3 flamer clown car on roids. Faust grens- burn baby, burn! Of course because of nda, that is a theoretical piece of daydreaming I just posted, and gives away nothing that may have worked in alpha..

Cheers!

Just as a very rough indicator, currently I use MG, Gren, Gren, Sniper into t2+Pak on open maps vs both factions. Probably a squad of PGrens after that and tech, maybe an extra pio vs soviets for the minesweeping.

On closed maps, Gren, Gren, Gren, MG, T2, Pgren, Pak and flamer upgrade on pio as the 1st muni expenditure.

I'm not very comfortable with the small t1 play, hence the thread, them quad/stuart rushes scare me

Is that really that much of a deal tho?

Mmm I reckon over time it is, as they take a squads worth of pop cap reducing your manpower income and you have to reinforce them of course. A choice in the matter would be nice.

Initially though, the free officer early game does give you a boost.

Compare Rifle vet to Conscript/Gren vet. They don't scale as well with vet.

Originally they were designed to be versatile, with access to all kinds of equipment (bars, zooks, frag & smoke nades, AT nade). Their vet lets them use nades better and more often.

I think allot of people would prefer the straight stat boost like the original factions.

Edit: And just to add my personal pet peeve about USF, which i've held since the WFA Alpha, the "free" officer squad which artificially gives the USF economy a boost in the early game, but gives you no choice in the matter and takes pop cap, so you pay essentially for it over time. Euuuuuuuuuurggggh.