Not in a single game did the command panther reach vet 3, so these finals are by no means proof vet 3 panthers are a "death-switch" which in itself is already enough to render your point moot in the first quoted post.
Vet3 is the definitive point where a death-switch occurs (for any type of army composition that contains vehicles).
However, when you are fielding a Luchs-heavy army, a Vet2 Command Panther already
massively improves the performance of your Luchs.
This is because:
- Luchs has an accuracy-mostly-based attack vs infantry (thus 20% higher-accuracy = 20% more DPS) -- this is unlike other tank cannons (where it's a scatter based attack)
- Reload speed on Luchs does nothing (Luchs fires its shots in bursts, just like the Ostwind)
Now, if you re-watch the replay carefully, again:
- Mark the time when the Command Panther reaches Vet2
- Observe the map control / resource situation
- Notice the double Luchs placement (since they benefit from free accuracy, there is no need to close in on the conscripts to harass)
- Both Luchs are still in range of the Command Panther aura, and they still manage to shred Conscripts at long range, even though there are obstacles between the Luchs and the conscripts.
- On a scatter-based attack (i.e, if the attack "misses", most of the shots would land on the vaultable wall obstacle between the Luchs and the conscript squads)
Secondly, the only time the commmand panther did reach vet 2, it died at the end of the game. Okw still won by vps but if there were more vps, it would be over for okw.
Furthermore, that game shows how it's still possible to kill a vet 2 panther, so there is that.
Sure. What of the cost-vs-benefit analysis?
- How many Tanks did Luvnest have to throw at the Command Tank just to take it down?
- How many of these tanks survived?
- How many attempts before the successful one did Luvnest make before he could take down the Command Panther?
- Wouldn't you say that Nogano had dropped his guard towards the end of the game, when he got outflanked? Could it be the end-game fatigue/feeling he was going to win anyway due to VPs?
Finally, in both games were the command panther got any veterancy (second game saw no command panther actually, it was over before that) were 30+ minutes game, and the only reason the command panther did have any impact was because it was used as a call-in unit, skipping t4 as to build a large army (luchs and stuka were build in both games).
Seeing as the call-in nature is not the point of contention here (nor the mark target ability) the replays show not how the command panther aura veterancy gain is in any way shape or form problematic.
In my OP, I explicitly mentioned that a Vet0 Command Panther is already good enough. Game 1 & Game 2 prove my point.
What I am explicitly targeting is Command Panther veterancy. I have a feeling that Game 3 replay also proves my point, but you seem to believe otherwise. I would love to be able to summon Luvnest in this thread so that he could contribute his analysis of the game.
PS: The reason I even bothered mentioning that no STG Obers were fielded was because:
It's a small difference indeed, made further worse that the call-in nature (bypassing tech) is not appliciable in the command panther situation because of the ober soldaten upgrade.
The commander it comes in is a bit of a mis-match, seeing as it has an upgrade for obers which need to be build in t4, but also a call-in which rather replaces a same unit out of t4. The point here being that taking full effect of this commander requires t4 which deminished the effect of going for the call-in command panther.