Profile of Omega_Warrior

To be completely honest I believe that the USF Howitzer's greatest ability is in it's versatility, however in an Army that oozes versatility it's really quite poor. I don't deny it's a good mortar however it's too expensive to be a mortar, honestly the developers should be expanding the USF and OKW Commanders and consider giving it to a support commander after buffing it and just giving the 80mm Mortar which is in the campaign to the USF.

The USF's hard counter to emplacements is meant to be smoke, not destruction. It's why they have it on nearly every unit they own. White Phosphorus is a kraut killer that SLOWS and damages enemy units while also screening your own allowing you to get right up in their grille... however the USF is never meant to let the Germans dig in as they are designed to stay mobile. While this is easier on 1v1's it can work on 2v2's.

The M8 and Pack howitzer are redundant yes but then again so is the entire Captains tree with the Majors tree. It's best you just spend the extra fuel on getting frag grenades for more smoke and don't let them dig in in the first place.

I get what you are saying, simple aggressiveness can deter a player from getting concentrated defenses ready and I'm good at making do with what I have. The thing is that with a light mobile army like USF, you are likely to get pushed back eventually. It's real common for players to set up near the center of the map whenever you give them the chance. From there it's real hard to make use of the mobility that make USF so Iconic as axis forces will begin deploying/reinforcing from the center of the map. You will often have to choose between either going toe-toe in the center which USF isn't designed for, or attempting to keep hold of the other two VPs. From there you either attempt for each player to hold a VP which they will eventually be pushed from by the combined might of both axis. Both options will lead to a slow grinding failure unless your opponent makes mistakes. And even after many attempts at different builds, the only one that works reliably is to simply opt for infantry company.

Premptive use of smoke is great, but it simply can't handle every situation. Not to mention building a pack should be a decent alternative to the grenade upgrade in the first place. I hate to keep bringing up the PAK 43, but it is very representative of the situation. PAK 43 doesn't give a shit about smoke, it will fire through it. Throw it behind a flak truck and you have the very situation that keeps me up at night. In my ideal situation I would take the pak out from afar with the pack. Unfortunately I would be lucky to kill the thing even after 5 minutes of constant barragment.

I don't want the pack to be the destroyer of all things like having the firepower of soviet arty. Just that it be able to effectively loosen up concentrated defenses by picking off/forcing away a MG, or AT gun here and there without being 5 feet from them. So I can actually make use of the mobile forces I do have to exploit the weaknesses in the defenses it creates. But right now with current stats, it struggles heavily to do damage to anything that isn't running right towards it.

no buff on that plz it is quite strong already i got multiple 1 shot sq wipe from it already, i can Blame them to RNG but if it become stronger it will like another 120mm or even stronger than 120mm ask pack howitzer is more accurate

The fact that you think a 400mp mortar is more powerful then a 480mp howitzer just further proves that it needs a buff.

And getting the Howi closer is probably suicide since of course, people tend to defend their immobile slow-turning expensive AT gun with forward defenders.

not to mention it has none of the survival benefits of the mortars. No retreat, and needs a 3 man crew to man it. Atleast the leig has a shield on it to give it's men cover.

I don't get this. Are you suggesting I wipe my tears with disinfecting wipes. That sounds horribly painful.

There are two types of indirect units;

Attrition based types: Like mortars and the M8, which rely on slowly and continuously harassing attacking forces or supporting assaults against support weapons with smoke and whatnot, as well as discouraging blobbing.

Barrage Based Types: Units such as rocket artillery or heavy artillery, who's purpose is to break up larger defensive groupings and defensive structures, as well as heavily punish blobs.

USF is notable for being the only faction to have two types of attrition based indirect, while being forced to choose a single doctrine if they want access to the only barrage type unit.

This empty role within the US's arsenal causes serious problems with USF's ability to combat defensive play. Especially in the 2v2+ games where multiple axis players lapping defenses can become near insurmountable for a US only team to effectively fight and harassing becomes much harder with enemies able to cover more space and reinforce further in the field. USF is forced to rely on single use artillery call-ins which are easily avoided by even the slowest of support weapons. The result is usually a US force that is unable do enough damage to a enemy fast enough to have any effect no matter how much resources they are willing to spend. Which leads to them getting quickly bled out as they struggle to maintain hold on key points or assault said defenses.

I am all for asymmetric balance, and by no means purposing an extra addition to fill this role. I simply want for the USF alternatives to function properly. There is no reason for both the pack and the M8 to cover the same roles, especially when one is obviously superior to the other.

The solution is simple, we need only to buff the Pack Howitzers barrage ability, so that it can effectively bridge the gap between an attrition weapon and a barrage one. Increasing AoE damage or accuracy while barraging will go a long way in making sure USF players can effectively adapt against defensive play and assure that the weapon actually lives up to the name Howitzer. Better barrage capabilities even if it needs to come at the expense of nerfing it's autofire is very important. And even though it might not pack the same power as a katyusha, combined with the aforementioned call-ins it should be enough for them to effectively counter defenses play.