USF teching should be liner, OKW teching should be liner, hail satan.
Yeah really, Relic needs to decide whether USF tech is linear or not. Right now it's basically "you don't have to go CPT, but you're a complete idiot if you pick LT first".
I do recall that in WFA beta the 50.cal had Armoured Pierecing bullets similar of that of the MG42 Incendary Rounds expect at Veternacy 0. I really liked this idea as it did provide LT tier some light anti-vehicle play against OST and OKW. Right now, even with veternacy 3, a 50.cal does poor damage against enemy vehicles. Rather a pity considering it shot 12.7mm rounds.
Just like the DShK AP rounds, they are simply are worst than the MG42s Incendiary Rounds for whatever absurd reason...
I was under the impression that initially (that is after WFA release up to an unspecific point later on) the M2 HMG always had better damage characteristics copared to other HMGs. Guess I was wrong and it was no wonder the 50cals I fought weren't particularly threatening against light tanks.
But yes, M2 HMG is really inflexible when compared with the other HMG units in the game. If it doesn't have properties that make it innately more powerful than other HMGs then they should at least have abilities that do so. 50cal had AP/ incendiary ammo too, if anything those did more damage than 7.62 tracer ammunition; Relic might as well go all the way and portray flare projectiles as incendiary shells, because that's less absurd than MG42's vet1 railgun bullets ability.
IMO, make the .50 anti light armor or ffs give it AP. Why the MG gets AP is beyond me as that gun NEVER EVER had a history of anti-armor abilities while the .50 is rife with light anti-armor history. IMO, having the MG with AP is just beyond stupid as Axis has plenty of other early game anti-armor.
A halftruth that Relic likely exploit for creative license (though it wasn't like the MG42 really needed to be more powerful than it already is); the MGs did use the same 7.62mm Mauser as Kar98 rifles, and therefore you can potentially argue that the sort of AP/ incendiary ammo issued to infantry could be used. But that's the thing, those munitions were only issued to infantry/ snipers, not cobbled into links and expended within seconds by a machine gun. Germany didn't have the economy to outfit any machine gun crew with a can full of AP/ incendiary cartridges, even expert snipers wouldn't have more than a handful of such rounds for the occasional opportunity.
As for LT tier, refining the units in T2 would improve their attractiveness. For example as stated, HMG needs to deal more damage, or at least have abilities that offer more damage potential. One idea you can do is the "alternate" approach, where abilities of, say, HMG are comparable to the Stuart, in particular the HMG can have a form of Button Vehicle ability that performs the same role as Stuart's Blinding Shot. Another approach is "complementary": the HMG can "mark" a target it shoots as being more susceptible to critical hits, so it works as a crucial support multiplier: if you want that Panzer4 have engine damage, you get that HMG marking it while your RIflemen close in and launch the AT rifle grenade. This adds synergy between the two units and thus gives any USF player good reason to go for LT if they expect to live with vet1 Riflemen dealing with vehicles outside of bazooka.
Right now though, HMG is simply a manpower-based option to inflict suppression- RETs' (albeit shitty) Volley Fire and AA halfrack (which costs fuel) already provide that option. me personally I never really bother with HMG and just go for AA halftrack- sure it's fuel, but since I already went LT and need some more oomph than what the 50cal offers I might as well, the thing doesn't require setup time anyways, on top of being able to damage light vehicles.
M20 can have camouflage to hide from AT weapons, and AA halftrack can do something like hulldown to offer a durable but immobile firing base. It would make Fighting Positions entirely useless, but then again it already is.
If you REALLY want just a reshuffle of tier units, then just swap AA halftrack+M20 with AT gun+ howitzer, you at least separate them by support squads and vehicles.
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cblanco ★ 
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VonManteuffel 
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