Profile of Neo

Rifles nades look problematic now because of gren spam, but if guards or shocks were spammable we'd see the same problem arise again.

I think rifle nades look problematic mainly because of their range, which makes them materially different from any other type of grenade available in the game.

I have had two grenadier squads get suppressed from far away by a maxim that was in the church on Semoisky, fire off simultaneous rifle grenades from miles away and WIPE the MG in the building.

To my mind, there's no issue with throwing bundle nades/molotovs from suppression because you have to get close to throw them. The rifle nade is the only nade that allows you to negate the main purpose of machine guns: suppression.

not visable enough.. you should be able to spot the grenade in blizzard and things moving around..

A more noticeable grenade animation doesn't help with the problem I raised initially, which is that MGs are countered by the units they're meant to counter. Rifle grenades either should be incapable of being fired by suppressed units or the range on them needs to be changed, a lot.

Hey Rage, there has been another patch which again prevents this AWESOME software from working? Any chance of an update pretty-please-with-sugar-on-top?

I think the right approach will be this: if a rifle grenade cannot be fired while in suppress, than any type of grenade including molotov should not be allowed to be thrown while in suppress. As long as we want any hmg, soviet or german, to have a more substantial role.
Denying grenade throw while in suppression just for rifle grenade, would be like allowing a P4 to still use blitzkrieg with a broken engine, while denying to a T34 using ram in the same conditions.

The rifle grenade has 2-3 times the range of other grenades and does not therefore require the unit firing it to expose itself. This is the key difference. Allowing the rifle grenade to be fired when suppressed rewards poor Grenadier micro and tactics in a way that other grenades do not.

This is not a German vs. Soviet issue - German units also throw other grenades and those are fine as they are, just as the molotov/RNG etc. are for the Soviets.

I would ask all people posting here to please focus on the issue at hand and avoid making this a fanboy contest.

After the recent patch the damage of all grenades seem to be more consistent, which is a welcome improvement in my book.

Having said that, I think the rifle grenades are now slightly too powerful against Soviet weapon teams and are effectively a hard counter to Soviet machine guns. This is not because they do too much damage but because they have incredible range compared to all other grenades and can be fired while the unit is suppressed.

In the games I have played since the patch, I have seen and have myself overcome even a well-positioned Maxim by using 1-2 rifle nades to wipe the entire squad.

The bottom line is that it is now perfectly normal for two Grenadier squads to walk into the far edge of the Maxim arc of fire, even in no or negative cover, get suppressed and then wipe the Maxim with two grenades.

My suggestion for improvement would be to prevent rifle grenades from being fired by suppressed units. This makes sense from a historical/realism PoV also because a grenade can be thrown from the prone position but a rifle grenade requires the soldier to crouch/semi-stand to fire it which no sane person would do while being suppressed by an MG.

I think the current "meta" prevalence of gren blobs is partly caused by the fact that Maxims not only have a tiny arc of fire but also are effectively hard countered by the very units they're meant to hold back...

Thoughts?


P.S. I am aware that Germans also face/faced a similar problem where lolotov conscripts could get close enough to the MG42 and throw the cocktail while suppressed. As Germans, the solution was always to reposition the MG once the cons were suppressed but this is not an option given the massive range of the rifle grenades - they can be fired from the very edge of the Maxim's arc of fire.