I really dont understand people who say that you will NEVER see a ST shoot, that it is like the sneaky ninja always coming out of the shadows.
If you dont keep your eyes peeled where the ST is at the moment, if you just sit on your defensive line, okay, you wont see it. When I play with friends and we know there could be or already is a ST on the field, it is a regular ping fest like 'ST is here, ST moves there, etc', so no surprise when it comes round to shoot.
It doesn't have to be a ninja all the OKW player has to do is preposition it in range of where he can predict the allied player is going to go and wait for the trigger that tells him to fire off the strumtiger. Examples: in range of a cap point and wait for something to start the decap, range of a choke point with something providing LOS (IR HT), or it can sit behind a screen line of infantry or armor and let them fix the allied player then launch his sturmtigers rocket before the allied player knows whats going on.
its not just the armor its the offensive capabilites and ease of use of unit and all that for a cheap price
Easy of use? Lets talk about the ease of use of the strumtiger and look at the bigger picture of what is on the field when the strumtiger gets there. Strumtiger and AVRE same concept basically but with the strumtiger an OKW player has the luxury of taking a shot and retreating back to the FLAK truck building and with the mech building nearby for free repairs and protection. The Strumtiger has a larger range than the AVRE but does not reload on the move and is highly vulnerable while reloading. If the allies want to kill it they must first get past all the 100% pen AT OKW weapons that are at the forward line get to the Strumtiger and deal with the FLAK truck finishing off the allied vehicle that manage to get through the gauntlet of OKW AT weapons in its rush or the Shrek Blob from the OKW med that that is nearby. Sure you can try to arty it through the fog or war or use an off map but OKW players usually avoid these.
You can argue the AVRE can do the samething and retreat to the brit sim city but if you allowed the brit to make a sim city and get an AVRE then you deserve the punishment..... wait that sounds like OKWs simcity and turtle with a strumtiger..... funny right?
Lets look at what can counter the AVRE some that come to mind:
Teller Mines
Riegel Mines
Regular Mines
Elephant
Jadgtiger
Pak 43 - Target Weak Point - flank with armor to hit rear
Pak 40 - Target Weak Point - flank with armor to hit rear
Stug - Target Weak Point - flank with armor to hit rear
flanking and attacking rear of AVRE instead of front
The tools exist within the axis army and they have much more effective tools than the USF/Soviet/Brits. Instead of hitting the easy button (Whining and asking for a nerf) how about you use some critical thinking skills in an attempt to figure out how to deal with the AVRE.
I would dare say that now faced with a more challenging threat axis players have to think of more ways to deal with it rather than the oh let me group all my PAKs together and A move them! or let me A move my Sherk blob.
Another glorious thing is now axis players gets to feel the frustration that allied players have felt since the game first came out. They get to watch as their AT weapons (tank rounds/AT rounds/Shrek Rockets) bounce off the front of the AVRE. They get to feel what its like to have deal with a super tank that just laughs at non-doctinal AT options.
I can only dream that Relic makes mirror units for allied forces. I can only imaging the gnashing of teeth if USF had a walking stuka, CAS Commander, Super Heavy Tank Destroy with focus line of sight, Target Weak point ability on a Tank Destroyer, AP rounds for its machine guns oh the list can go on and on.