The USF have Demo Charges in the form of Assault Engineers. They're available in two Doctrines, Armor and Mechanized (although Mechanized requires you get the M3 Halftrack Assault Group).
@Shadow
Never did say they were OP. It was to smite Part time commie as he was bugging me about it the day before. And it still doesn't relate to the thread because I was commenting on a very specific event that happened with me. If any of your sentences have the letters "OP" in it, please take it to the Balance subforum.
@Chris
That 60 range the Jackson has isn't there for nothing. The HVAP Rounds penetration is still good enough to penetrate a King Tiger at max range reliably.
@Katitiof
That 350 pentration also has drop off. If it follows the normal drop of the Jackson's penetration, it will STILL have 330 penetration at long range. Eat that, Tiger Tank.
@Chris
I've solo'd King Tigers with Vet 2 Jacksons (which is hardly difficult to get with the plethora of German armor). The Vet 1 HVAP Rounds ability is a necessity for it, but once you get that, it's very easy to kill King Tigers with 1 or 2 Jacksons.
The Jackson's 200 penetration is still very good, especially once you start using the 30 Munitions (cheap as all hell) HVAP Rounds ability. I'm pretty sure that's buffs the penetration to somewhere around 350, as I've been able to penetrate Tigers from max distance rather reliably.
The Jackson is good enough. Although I'm not very up for seeing a Jumbo 76 - those things would be unstoppable.
I actually try with all my might to save my crew. It does pay off if you're accurate enough to time the crew bail with the next shot of the enemy tank.
Although the 90 Munitions sink for those Thompsons just isn't worth it. I tested it recently, they struggle versus Pioneers.
I think I might know the perfect ability to make these guys worth it later on in the game - a stun grenade. Namely the Mk3 grenade. The grenade might stun like the doctrinal German one, but does very little damage. Huge damage modifier versus garrisoned units.
Boom, insta-useful Assault Engineers (although I think that belongs in it's own thread).
Has anyone noticed that Assault Engineers have the same Vet 1 ability as the Vehicle Crew? That somewhat-imbalanced Critical Repair?
Yup. A way to get your tank out of the fight without even getting your crew out.
Regardless, I find I have to upgrade my Assault Engineers with that M2 Flamethrower (which has been behaving itself recently, thank god) to get any proper use out of them.