Profile of Muad'Dib

...your nearly shaking after a bad game.

That's half the reason I play.

That was about 1100 mp vs about 2200mp, not counting the cost of the grenade upgrade and the munitions for the grenades & the commander ability, and that one of the gren squads was at below 50% hp.
So, yeah.

The reduction in anti-infantry performance is fairly minor. The increase in CP requirements was painfully, obviously needed.

Or how about we remove all caches since they go against the game design, mess up tech timings even more (esp. in team games) and are an all around lame mechanic?

Throughout the history of CoH it has been argued that in 2v2 and up rocket artillery is very detrimental to infantry play. The following is my opinion, but I am curious about the general consensus regarding this type of units and the gameplay revolving around them.

I think there are two main gameplay reasons for the existence of artillery in general, and rocket artillery in particular:

1. Breaking up static stalemates. I got 2-3 mgs & AT guns on this point, you have 2-3 mgs and AT guns on that point, we stand around looking at each other WW I style. Artillery comes in and forces me to reposition, creating an opening that you can exploit.

2. Anti-blob. You A-move those squads of whatevers, frontally mowing down my MGs, I target your blob, you get wrecked, you ragequit.

Cool, but more often than not you see rocket artillery being used mid-to-close range to obliterate single squads. The problem with that is that it tends to come out of nowhere, because you cannot realistically scout ahead every time you are capturing a frontline sector, and it can wipe your squad even if you retreat as soon as human reflexes and latency allow.

You will see this happening everywhere, from pro 1v1 World Championship games to 'pro' 4v4 random team matches. And frankly, it is just not fun.

I've seen arguments that this is the only way to deal with some late game powerhouse infantry squads with high vet and/or weapon upgrades. But I feel like if that is true, then this is a serious problem in its own right. It may be rose-colored nostalgia glasses, but it always seemed to me that in vCoH infantry battles would continue to be a thing throughout the game. Now, they kind of are, in 1v1, until the HE rounds (whether tanks or arty) start flying everywhere, veterancy starts dropping, and infantry squads gradually turn into manpower-bleeding, VP capping, AT-grenade dispensing trash units. This is only exacerbated by the (otherwise great) upkeep mechanic, as the more you invest popcap into vehicles, the less MP you have spare to reinforce the squads getting decimated by afore-mentioned vehicles. It feels like rocket artillery, and heavy tanks to a lesser extent, are the primary cause of the effect, as they are best at bleeding infantry and wiping high-vet squads.

It may be that this was caused overall by the power creep over the years, as squad survivability versus explosive weapons is essentially unchanged since release, while the variety of HE sources has increased greatly.

This is getting into essay territory, so I'll stop now. What do you think about this trend? Do you feel measures like the Gren damage reduction with veterancy should be applied to more (all?) squads? Please try to stick to gameplay design, rather than balance, discussions as far as possible.