Welcome back to some more patch notes analysis. With the first patch of the British Forces comes a tidal wave of patch notes. Worry not though! With this handy and verbose guide we will help to illuminate the changes that the patch has brought!
Are you comfortable? Then let us begin.
Our personal highlights
Blizzards & deep snow:
Cold tech: (Blizzards & Freezing)
Cold Tech is disabled in Automatches
Cold Tech can be enabled/disabled in Custom Matches ( This option does not affect Deep Snow)
deep snow removal / rework on the following maps: Kholodny Ferma Winter, Semoskiy Winter, Moscow Outskirts Winter, Rzhev Winter, Port of Hamburg
!And there was much rejoicing, because if there is one thing that almost everyone hated since the game came out it was this mechanic. I will miss it but then I admit to being a bit weirdvV
!Probably one of the most hated mechanics in the game, now gone, for good? The rework of deep snow, so far, certainly is a welcome change.kamk
Flamers:
Flame Weapons
All Flame Weapon damage over time duration increased from 3 to 20 seconds
Infantry Held Flame Weapons do not leave Flame damage over time
Reduce flame bonus damage to buildings from 1.5 to 1.25
Reduce flame bonus damage against commonwealth emplacements from 1.5 to 1.25
Handheld Flame Weapons
Post firing aim time increased to 0.5
AOE Accuracy changed from 0.6/2.8/5 to 15/15/15
AOE radius changed from 4 to 2
AOE damage changed from 0.4/0.7/1 to 1/1/1
AOE damage friendly changed from 0.25/0.625/1 to 0.25/0.25/0.25
AOE distance changed from 2/1.5/1 to 2/2/2
Reaction radius changed from 2.1 to 2.5
Burst duration changed from 1/0.5 to 1/1
Damage multiplier vs garrison cover increased from 1 to 2
Damage multiplier vs heavy cover increased from 1 to 2
Damage multiplier vs light cover increased from 1 to 1.25
Damage changed from 8 to 16
Weapon tracking speed horizontal changed from 90 to 45
Ambient Buildings
Ambient building flame threshold increased from 240 to 480
?Facts:Buildings that took too much fire damage in a short amount of time could begin to burn down. The threshold was doubled to compensate for double base damage of flamethrowers.
?Facts:Flamethrowers will kill enemy units in open cover in 5 bursts, units in yellow cover in 4 bursts, and units in green cover in 3 bursts
!A couple of patches ago flamethrower critical hits were removed. Critical hits instantly killed infantry. Flamethrowers did bad damage and relied on these criticals to kill infantry. To compensate for the lower damage Relic added a "burning ground effect" that did extra damage when troops stood still in flamethrower fires.
Now the burning ground effect for infantry units is gone. Criticals are gone. Instead they do damage more evenly across their area of effect. Their AoE attack always "hits". They always do the same amount of base damage: 16. Nearly everything was changed to make these weapons more predictable, and more consistent than ever.
Their new hefty bonuses against troops in cover and buildings could make them a niche weapon in high-cover environments like a city-fight. The best counter to these weapons is standing in the open and shoot them to death.
Of course that all changes against units like the KV-8 and Crocodile which are very good at "straight up fights" and still have a short 3-second burning effect. Moving against these targets will be crucial.
My first impressions are that Hand-held Flamethrowers are now a niche counter weapon against buildings and heavy cover. Most flamethrower vehicles and tanks were nerfed separately. Untouched ones, like the KV-8, are extremely scary.Corp.Shephard
Snipers & camouflaged units
Added 50% bonus accuracy against sniper types to the following vehicles:
Changed detection radius from 10 to 25 for the following vehicles:
Universal Carrier
M20 Utility Car
Dodge WC51
M3A1 Scout Car
222 Scout Car
Kubelwagon
?Facts: Detection radius refers to the range in which units will detect camouflaged infantry (such as snipers).
Most infantry and small arms weapons have a basic range of 35. These light vehicles now detect ~70% as far as they shoot.
! Relic’s wording for these changes, “We wanted to add counter-play to snipers”, is sort of funny to me as it implies that there basically was no counter before. For some sides, such as OKW and British, this was close to the truth. I don’t expect snipers will go extinct but this will dampen their effectiveness in that crucial early game where they need to build veterancy.Corp.Shephard
! While this will ease the anti-sniper play, it will also affect other units with camouflage. Actually getting vehicles with proper scouting ability will certainly grant you options you didn't have before, but are now required more than ever (i.e. detecting sneaky Jagdpanzer 4, Zis, Partisans (!), or scouting units on hold fire)kamk
Heavy tanks
IS-2
Population reduced from 24 to 19
ISU-152
Population reduced from 25 to 20
Focus sight removed
Elefant
Focus sight removed
Population reduced from 25 to 20
Tiger
Population reduced from 24 to 19
Vet0 range from 40 to 45, Vet2 range from +10 to +5
Penetration increased from 180/200/220 to 200/220/240
Tiger Ace
Target Weak Point removed.
(Range offset to 5 + 5 instead of +10 - no change)
King Tiger
range increased from 40 to 45.
Jagdtiger
Population reduced from 26 to 21
cost reduction from 800/290 to 720/245
?Facts: You lose 1.5 manpower for each population your unit uses while alive. All heavy tanks lost the same amount of population cost: 5. All heavy tanks cost 7.5 less manpower per minute.
!So the original Heavy Tank Destroyers can no longer self-spot, though there is no change to the Jadgtiger. Spotting scopes may then become more important.vV
Indirect fire & explosives
Light Artillery Suppression (Pak Howitzer & LEIG)
AOE suppression profile changed from 0.1 to 1
Suppression reduced from 0.8 to 0.3
Nearby suppression multiplier reduced from 2.2 to 1
Nearby suppression radius increased from 60 to 70
Explosive Weapons
Added back the 50% reduce damage modifier to green cover for explosive weapons
?Facts:This cover bonus against explosive damage has actually been in the game for a long time before the British Forces release patch removed it. Standing in green cover with a full health squad will protect it from being wiped out by most grenades (although natural bunching in cover makes AoE weapons more effective). For more information check out Cruzz's The More You Know post.
Exceptions to the rule exist: The powerful British Gamon bomb does 200 damage. Even green cover will not save your 80 health men from this grenade.
!Suppressing large blobs of infantry with these should be more effective. Suppression will be more consistent and likely slightly stronger.Corp.Shephard
Infantry change highlights
Axis Elite infantry reinforcement costs
Panzergrenadiers
Fallschirmjäger
Obersoldaten
?Facts:Obers now cost 40, Falls 38, Pgrens 34 to reinforce
Volksgrenadiers
Grenade replaced with incendiary grenade
Allied SMG Upgrades M1 Thompsons
Mid accuracy increased from 0.173 to 0.43
Far accuracy increased from 0.115 to 0.2
?Facts:Only Paratroopers M1 Thompsons were changed. The Captain and other units appear to be unaffected.
Conscript PPSH
Near accuracy increased from 0.518 to 0.621
Mid accuracy increased from 0.23 to 0.43
Far accuracy increased from 0.115 to 0.2
?Facts:Mid and far range damage for both of these SMGs was roughly doubled by this change.
Rifleman
Veterancy 3 now grants reduce receive accuracy by 25%
?Facts:Riflemen also gain defensive bonuses at Veterancy 2. With Veterancy 3 Riflemen have a total of 48 56% reduced received accuracy.
Received accuracy only works on small arms fire and has little to no effect on tank cannons and explosives.
Conscripts
Veterancy 3 Receive accuracy modifier increased from 33% to 40%
Partisan
Anti-Infantry Partisans will always be equipped with PPSH
Partisan PPSH Damage increased from 2 to 4
Anti-Tank Parisians will always be equipped with Panzershrecks
Anti-Tank Partisans now replace irregulars
Added Partisan Grenade to Anti Infantry Partisan
Added Camouflage to both Partisans
?Facts:The Irregular change refers to the Soviet Reserve Army commander.
!A good buff to help Axis with maintaining an army with a squad or two of Elite infantry. Still shouldn't be used as mainline infantry, but they'll definitely help against the buffed Allied infantry.
There was a lot of talk about Partisans on the forums.
Keep in mind that the doctrinal as a whole is a doctrine aimed at the early and mid game. The late game options is restricted to the Spy Network and Mark Target ability. If you see partisans, remember you wont be facing artillery or any Soviet heavies in the late game. While the shock value of partisans is high (as they should be), they scale rather poorly and will be defeated quite easily in direct confrontations. Use two Volks incind grenades to kill a house, or flamers to burn it down, or just occupy it yourself. Initiate anti-partisan tactics just like the real Germans did.
We also might see some interesting games with Vet3 Cons & PPSHLemonJuice
!Partisans will now be downright terrifying in the right hands. Sadly irregulars were beyond saving but their replacement with AT Partisans takes a terrible doctrine and puts it firmly on the "Oh must try that" list.vV
!Rifles were supposed to be the backbone of your USF forces, sadly this backfired late game more often than not, with a huge manpower bleed. With proper unit preservation, combined with the Bar buff, you can now use them as intended.
I expect a slight Vet3 de-buff in the future though.kamk
Further adjustments
Relics balancing team was busy, really busy.
Even so busy, that we felt the need to spoil the rest.
"Spoiler alert": there's a lot more changes.
ostheerOstheer
okwOberkommando West
britsBritish Forces
sovietsSoviets
usfUS Forces
Conclusions
We are optimistic about this patch. It actually does address a great deal of issues. There's still work to be done, we are certain of it, but this is a really good step, and the timing right before OCF could not be better.
Thanks for tuning in again.
You enjoyed our analysis, or want to add your own? Let us know down below in the comments.
Enjoy the new patch, ya'll!
Edit History:
Changed Riflemen Vet bonus to account for stacking
ostheer Ostheer 
okw Oberkommando West 
brits British Forces 
soviets Soviets 
usf US Forces 
Corp.Shephard 
van Voort 
LemonJuice 
kamk 
Relic Entertainment
cblanco ★ 
보드카 중대 
VonManteuffel 
Heartless Jäger 
