Profile of Nuclear Arbitor

every faction has serviceable HMGs and AT guns (dont say the 50cal is shit, its not. dont say the USF at gun is shit, its cheaper than a pak and also has great veterancy). you can argue that the leig/pack howitzer are different than mortars, but theyre still most definitely indirect fire. the brits definitely get the short end of the stick with the mortar pit, but its still 2 mortars no matter how you look at it.

the only thing that some factions DONT have are snipers (even then there are pseudo snipers like pathfinders anad JLI) and UKF dont have rocket artillery or flamers.

the .50cal is a good weapon but the crew has cost/durability issues. the 57mm is fine against mediums but has scaling issues against anything bigger than a IV, which is a problem because the only effective AT weapon against Vs/heavies that USF has costs quite a bit of fuel (there isn't a balance issue with the jackson, it just makes it harder to get out than an AT gun) and can only fight vehicles by kiting. OKW doesn't have a non-doctrinal MG and even when it suppressed the kubel was a less effective suppression platform than a setup team after the first couple minutes. brits have the mortar as mentioned. the lieg i consider generally better than a mortar and i haven't used or seen the pack howitzer in long enough that i'll avoid commenting on it.

the problem with not having core units up to standard is that the game design assumes that everyone has these standard units and so situation that require them are disproportionately difficult for factions missing core units.

snipers i don't care about; they're not a core unit.

tl;dr: factions can work without the core HMG/mortar/AT gun trio but it makes the faction gimmicky and gimmicks are not good for gameplay. i'd rather have similar, but solid, factions then ones that are frustrating in certain situations; asymmetry is good but only to a certain point.

i like that each faction is pretty different and have perks and cons, are good in a particular area of combat but maybe not as efficient in another.

lets take this to an extreme (for the sake of a bad example) and have a faction that can't fight but also can't be targeted. they would be super asymmetric but not in a good way. it's the same thing with HMG/mortar/AT guns; they're such a core concept that not having (or having shitty versions) is a massive disadvantage as well a limit on play styles.

True, they are literally the means to get something else, which misses the point of them completely.

The difference of pace in between infantry and vehicles is not that big, which is why things like vehicles seem redundant. To me one the biggest design problems with COH and DOW is the insane speed that infantry moves at, which makes suicide frontal attacks so viable when they they shouldn't which in turn rewards close quarters infantry aggression and puts the onus on the longer ranged units to keep them at a distance. Which is absolutely counter-intuitive.

transports in dow2 were very useful though. they primarily served two purposes: speed (they were a bit faster than infantry, even eldar) and shelter (AT weapons in dow2 are much weaker and infantry based ones not very common while AI weapons were generally more powerful). the shelter was particularly important because you could use transports to get melee units into battle or to get weak squads into something that most of the enemy army didn't do much dps against. the transport role did tend to be slightly limited as the maps were small but there was occasional uses.

coh2 doesn't really support the shelter role (for a lot of reasons including generally lower dps and transports being relatively weak) but the maps are huge and that opens up a lot of potential for transport uses. instead transport can't move a significant percentage of the infantry types (at least mortar and AT gun but some transport can't move snipers or mgs) and they're both awkward to use and seldom offer significant advantages over shift clicking cap orders. they do have a time and a place but actually transporting units is very niche.

So not being able to hear it makes it OP? You can't move your units out of the way? If it misses you've wasted 160 munitions.

this is true of all skill shots, including paratroopers.

what makes it OP is the amount of damage it does.

spectateable team RTS can be pulled off but it comes down to map design and game pacing. if most of the action is happening in a small area of the map, like Caldaris Refinery in DoW2, then it works. you still have to pay attention to ninja caps and flanks on the edges but unless people are actively fighting you don't have spend time there. if the pace of the game is slow enough you can spend time at different areas of the map which helps viewers understand what is going on.