I'm more worried about some basic decessions that Relic made rather than balancing. I usually play 1v1s and some 2v2s from time to time, not interested in anything above that to be honest. The state of balance seems ok in 1v1 and a little bit odd in 2v2.
My main complaints are:
Design of certain factions
- In general: Playing allies feels extremely dull. It's either or. You mostly have only the half amount of units available due to the teching structure. Axis on the other hand are fun to play, especially Wehrmacht.
- OKW and USF promotes blobbing. Giving your basic infantry squad (Volks) good AT capabilities is ridiculous. It just asks for blobbing your units cause they can both take on Tanks as well as on Infantry. A good player's army should consist of a good synergy of support weapons and infantry with tanks. Not just basic infantry that you A move to victory.
- Support weapons: As the name already said, those weapons are used to SUPPORT infantry. Maxim spam is viable since day 1 (well because of the current bug not that viable, but you know what I mean). There shouldn't be more infantry than basic infantry. MG42 is doing it right in that regard.
- OKW vetting system: is just plain stupid. It automatically favours OKW in the later stages of the game, which makes no sense at all. While your concripts do fine early on, they are just getting eaten alive later on. The best part is that once your infantry reaches vet 3, your OKW opponent still gathers vet till the end while you stand still. This has nothing to do with balance.
Giving units additional abilites once they reach vet 4/5 is fine with me, but not buffing their general stats.
- Useless doctrines: There are way too many doctrines that are not beeing used and never will be. If you don't pick a doctrine with a heavy tank call in, you are bound to the regular teching and limit your options (especially with Soviets). I'd rather go for a fast T34 and wait for an ISU or an IS2, than just beeing stuck with T34 all game. Especially with the T4 cost of extra 120 fuel..
bug fixing priority
Where should I start?
- squads getting supressed on retreat
- squads with camouflage getting cloaked on retreat
- maxim retreat bug
- mines with no effect on target
- commands get interrupted by explosives, flames, etc.
- ...
The list is too long (I'm not suprised that Sib's bug counter reached the 100 mark), and some of these issues are
gamebreaking, they can turn the tide of the game against you.
Some of these Issues even got fixed, but found their way back into the game. Most of them are known for months.
It should be Relic's top priority to get rid of these bugs, but first, let me release a single player DLC.
randomness
I like the fact that tank armor can deflect incoming projectiles, but some thing are just too random.
It's 100 % RNG whether a squad gets wiped out by a mine, or just a model of it. A little bit of consistency wouldn't hurt.
game performance
Game runs like ass. I get constant freezes every 3-5 min on a regular basis. It speeds up afterwards. After each match I gotta restart it due to frame breaks. #Esport
Compare the Input delay of automatch to custom games for example.
It's not enough throwing a ton of money into tournaments, if you have a game that doesn't run smoothly. Especially if you think of the upcomming ESL tourneys.
EDIT
DLC policy
I might be a bit old-fashioned in that regard, but what's the deal with Ardennes assault? Paying 40 EUR for a single player DLC? I expected something like this beeing released alongside with WFA.
For example: Warcraft III got realeased and then the Addon The Frozen Throne with included both Single player (for each faction btw) and Multiplayer (good times). I wouldn't be suprised if Relic excluded the main menu and offers it as a DLC for 2,99.
I would have bought WFA with campaigns for both OKW and USF and the multiplayer content for 40 EUR. But I'm not willing to pay additional 40 EUR (!!) for something that should have been part of WFA.