Soviets have enough LMG units.
They may be doctrinal, but they don't need any stock ones.
They have 2. I'd like to see more because the DP was a common weapon, but I understand why it would break the synergy of Soviets = Close vs Germans = Long.
Actually you are missing. A blob with a single unit type that has both AI and AT is worse than blob of different type of units.
That is the reason VGs lost their shrecks.
There no reason to allow Penals to operate on the own and counter both infatry and vehicles.
The idea that a mainline infatry should dominate all enemy infatry of it time, blow things up then shut down light vehicles and help vs mediums is simply bad design.
Current T1 design is bad and expecting Penals to pull all the weight of the flawed design is an even solution.
I do not believe that PTRS Penals "counter" anything stronger than Pioneers or Rear Echelon Troops. Their PTRS rifles have extremely low DPS, meaning it's just 3 SVT Rifles dealing any notable damage. Plus any time they lose a model, that SVT is gone, so at just 5 men they now have less DPS than fresh Osttruppen.
Hand AT, with the exception of PTRS are about burst damage. The DPM on the penals might be the same as other AT but a misstep in front of pgrens or fussies mean 240 damage off your tank, penals are half that.
If course soviet AT infantry fill a slightly different role. Their being a ward as opposed to something to hunt and the 3rd PTRS will make that meaningful. But their job is to protect their vulnerable casemate AT. Not hunt enemies. so the different application of damage in combination of the snare is acceptable.
This, the Panzerschreck is the Tank Terror, but the PTRS is more like the Tank Jabber. The Panzerschreck will force a tank to immediately reconsider it's position on the battlefield, but a PTRS squad can only discourage you, merely a suggestion that charging in could be a bad idea.
It doesn't have the alpha-strike damage of Panzerschrecks that alongside AT Guns and Tanks will rapidly shorten the lifespan of your unit, but it can prevent you from charging forward by threatening you with a satchel charge, and the chip damage will slowly make your position less desirable.
Wouldn't this mess with AA-units pen & damage values?
Wha? I can't see how? It's not changing the aircraft mechanics itself, just the spawn point and where it's height. As far as I know, the AA mechanics are extremely simple and distance/speed/height matter not to AA units.
Making planes materialize out of hidden webway gate, or having them arrive to late that target could managet to get wounded, retreat, repaired/healed and get to the other part of the map before the plane in 1v1 arrives with 4v4 timing?
My suggestion would be to have planes spawn in the sky a set distance, dive at the target, do their attack, and fly off. Spawning them above the camera hides their spawn point, and the set distance means they'll be consistent wherever they're called in.
Stage II would be the spawn point in this scenario, while VI or V is when they do their attack. May need adjusting for individual abilities (strafes need more air time over the target).
Recon passes and strafes from Air Supremacy Operation may remain unchanged.
He did NOT wanted to give them just 6 ppsh.
He wanted to give them 6 ppsh but keep the same DPS as 3 mosins and 3 ppsh.
He specifically said that earlier.
I understood it perfectly, the 6 PPSh's unaltered was my suggestion. Using Pioneer's was meant to reflect his suggestion of a weaker PPSh. My conclusion is that this isn't as bad as I thought, but is not desirable as a Conscript upgrade at all because you would lose more DPS with each model lost.
I can probably MOD 6 ppsh if you want to test them.
Alright I ran some tests to try and get some decent data. 7 tests of variable scenarios:
Overall I was surprised, the Conscripts and Pioneer Conscripts both exceeded my expectations. It looks like you were right, they would moderately outclass unupgraded Assault Grenadiers.
While the weakened Assault Package would clearly be ineffective against any other assault unit, it's not as poor as I thought it would be, capable of fending off upgraded Grenadiers after a charge. While a middle-ground between the Pioneer MP 40 and Conscript PPSh might be a good balance point for a new stock SMG squad, for Conscript Assault Package I would prefer it stay as is and just come at a reduced price or earlier time; the weakened PPSh would certainly be a nerf.
Not gonna lie, these Pioneer MP 40's are making me think that Assault Osttruppen might be fun to see.
Not really.
Conscripts are "CP 0" also, only the upgrade comes at CP2.
And no Assault grenadier would be inferior since they are 5 men not 6 with less durability and more DPS drop off.
(keep in mind that AG cost more and do not have any AT)
Although I have not tested it, I think it's easy to predict that higher DPS and lower Target Size is going to make up for the -1 model disadvantage. I would throw together some tests, but I do not have the time this evening. Had I functioning mod tools I'd also test the Pioneer PPSh version as well, but that I might have to just do by spawning 6 Pioneers and pretending they're Conscripts.
Also, when Conscripts hit the field is irrelevant because we're talking exclusively about Conscripts equipped with a theoretical 6PPSh version of the Conscript Assault Package, unless of course this a theoretical version is also available at 0CP which isn't outside the realm of possibility, but hasn't been explicitly mentioned.
Unit performance is combination of DPS and durability pioneer with 4 model simply can not attack other units. The comparison is simply misleading.
Very clearly I said 6-man Pioneers. This unit does not exist, but it can be imagined easily, it's just Pioneers but with 2 more. That is what those Conscripts would be comparable to. I'm sure you can imagine that a 6 man Pioneer squad would be acceptable fighters against unupgraded units at best.
Conscript's PPsh has 9.7 DPS at range 10 total DPS for squad is 58.2
Assault grenadier's have 10.2 at range 10 total DPS for squad is 51.6 when upgrade 61.8
With 6 PPsh conscripts a 240/60 mu squad would perform close to upgrade assault grenadiers a 280+60 BP2 squad...
Not terribly bad for something that comes at 2CP as opposed to 0CP. It seems quite obvious that upgraded Assault Grenadiers are clearly superior, now having both superior DPS and target size.
Pioneers have 6.8 at range 8 total DPS for squad is 32 so the distance between ppsh conscripts and pioneer is huge.
I meant per-man, it is Pioneers; hence calling them a 6 man Pioneer Squad. Their DPS would be 6.6 per-PPSh, compared to 6.8 per-MP 40 (Pioneer). It would be the weakest SMG unit in the game that isn't a builder unit.