Profile of Imagelessbean

The ISG is a fundamentally poorly designed unit. It is a build and forget weapon that picks off troops at distance with no player input. Having said that, the changes you suggest only aggravate that fact. Even the significant reduction in range you offer will have only a minimal effect since you are significantly upping the MP bleed when units do come in range. Now that OKW has suppression platforms they can hold the line and allow the ISG to work. Prior they required such a long range unit in part because of infantry's ability to get in under the gun quickly.

Currently the ISG is boring to play with and against. It hugs the nearest base structure, and fires fairly constantly on small maps. In team games the first Schwer locks out any attempt to attack the unit, and its useless vet is not even noticeable because it has no need to move or require player input.

Without a complete overhaul of the unit I don't see a need to change the stats. I really never felt that this unit should have been brought into the game, and it should, in my opinion, have only a barrage option, acting like a true howie. It would be offset by its early arrival, rapid firing, mobility, and lack of fuel cost. In that way it would be a true support weapon that required good micro, but would help break up defensive lines early and punish excessive mortar play. To compensate for loss of autofire the barrage could receive a significant buff. Again, since this would require quite a bit of work I don't recommend changes to the unit right now.

Just a quick warning, making allied arty do high damage to friendly fire would make griefing easier in team games. If not for this I would like to see all arty be lethal and ignore unit owner modifiers.

The Pak 43 needs to be able to shoot through walls to maintain any level of usability. It is not nearly as useful as it should be because it is a highly specific immobile counter. The unit should have been the 88mm (without pierce) able to fire a barrage at vet 1, but oh well.

Minesweepers should prevent the demo to blow up, simple as that.

Are you recommending this as a balance change (I agree with it)?

I don't think detection has any affect on the ability to trigger the demo.

Vet 5 means little if all vet 5 levels combined are still inferior to allied vet infantry. and yes sp's are a bit more expensive but their reinforcement cost is equal to the gren. allied infantry excel at short range (safe for is) and any long range combat will be won thx to the mg34 and later obers.

Your correct that upgraded volks will beat allied infantry but sooner or later your volks will get outclassed and become a huge mp drain.

Suffice to okw with its weakest support units and lv's should have the strongest infantry. vg's need to be able to hold their ground against allied infantry. they need a 90 ammo upgrade with damage similar to regular sp's

I mean WTF is going on here. weakest mainline infantry weakest support most expensive tech overpriced units. OKW is not doing so hot. The shreks on volks was able to mask these rather large prbolems for a very long time but now the okw needs buffs and a lot of them.

Vet 5 means a lot because it offers real bonuses, I fail to see how it is inferior.

Volks are meant to be outclassed, but they never fail to be useful. OKW is an meant to an Elite army, you are supposed to rely on your elite infantry in the late game once you acquire enough vet.

They do hold their own, they allow you to stall, they trade very effectively when in cover, and they come in a faction with plentiful options to support (you have more than MG34). You can also easily take Allied support weapons you decrew, whereas Wehrmacht players struggle to do so with only 4 man squads.

The tech is inline with other factions (how is it not?). They can also place their tech buildings outside their base areas if they want. Please don't say this doesn't offer a real advantage, if it doesn't matter then it wouldn't be possible.

OKW has been far too powerful for too long, it is now just coming in line with other factions.