Profile of Sander93

lock it behind LV or second officer upgrade ?

You can easily get the Officer secondary unlock around 1 CP, at least in team games. So no.

Cheese news: the fact that you couldn't kill the AT gun is because you are aiming at either the middle or one of the models in specific. And the Rifle nade having a smaller lethal radius.

Even when the cover shield appear, i could 100% kill AT guns with Rifle grenades, by aiming at the model who fires (not the loader).

ATGs do give green cover damage reduction against AOE weapons under certain circumstances. I think it has to do with the direction the grenade is fired from, as normally that influences whether or not damage reduction is applied or not (as green cover damage reduction is directional), combined with the wonky circumstances under which a gun shield seems to give cover or not.

#1 aiming directly for gunner model


#2 firing from the gun's left side results in a lethal hit


#3 firing from the gun's right side results in a non lethal hit


So in any case, my claim was that

gunshields […] do generally provide the -50% green cover damage reduction against explosions.

and that is proven true (though perhaps generally is a bit of an overstatement, as I haven't tested every single angle, but they at least sometimes provide green cover bonuses) based on these tests (-78hp health damage to the squad while hitting at least two models must mean the grenade did
-50% damage).


Furthermore, I said:

And the Raketen does neither of those things.

Which is proven by replicating the exact same tests with the Raketen, in which no matter the direction it was fired from, the grenade scored a lethal hit on both gunner models:





So back to my original point, regular anti-tank guns do seem to offer the crew at least some protection against various enemy weapons even though the results vary wildly, but the Raketen never seems to provide any protection under any circumstances. So personally, based on these test results, I think it's fair that the Raketen can have a 5th crewman - partly - to compensate for the lack of a gunshield.

I feel like these rak changes miss their biggest pain points, which are inconsistent ability to hit light vehicles (greatly impacts OKW/SOV and OKW/Brit match ups early game) and inability to penetrate allied heavy armor late game.

Those are largely myths. Yes, the Raketen is slightly worse, but the difference is so small it's borderline negligible.

which are inconsistent ability to hit light vehicles

Raketen accuracy is now 0.06/0.05/0.04 at ranges 0/25/55.

Pak 40 accuracy is 0.06/0.05/0.04 at ranges 0/30/60.


At 50 range, the chance to hit a T-70 is roughly:
~71% for the Raketen;
~74% for the Pak 40.

With the only real difference being, I think, that when the Pak 40 misses then its shell will usually scatter near the targeted vehicle, while when the Raketen misses its projectile will usually collide with the ground or with an object. So the Pak 40 has a slightly higher chance to still score a scatter hit with a miss, but with 7.5 scatter angle and 10 distance max it's not very likely.

and inability to penetrate allied heavy armor late game.

Raketen penetration is 200/190/180, and 250/238/225 with vet (and 313/296/281 for the vet 5 first shot out of ambush).

Pak 40 penetration is 210/200/190, and 273/260/247 with vet.


At (their respective) max range, the chance to penetrate an IS-2 is:
~48% and ~60% (with vet) for the Raketen;
~51% and ~66% (with vet) for the Pak 40.

Furthermore, the Raketen has lower veterancy 1-3 requirements (1080/2160/4320) than the Pak 40 (1280/2560/5120) so late game rebuilds or recrews can potentially reach their veterancy penetration bonus a lot sooner than the Pak 40.

They do not. There is no gun shield stat and the model doesn't soak up AOE damage from getting to the crew. The only issue with the raketen is the crew is bunched up closer than most crew weapons.

The Grenadier Riflegrenade does not deal its regular 80 or lethal near range damage here despite scoring a direct hit on one of the crewmen.


At the same time, an identical direct hit on one of the Raketen crew, instantly kills both gunner models.

Isn't that true for all the other 4-man squads? Or even 5 man squads who cluster behind say a single stretch of sandbag... or yellow cover? I've had plenty of games where a 6 man squad gets nuked by a LEFH or walking stuka (especially team weapons like a mortar).

Yes, but other 4 men squads are elite infantry that are supposed to be vulnerable, and not the mainline infantry. Obviously 5 and 6 man squads can be oneshot by explosive weapons too, but the chance of a full 5-6 model wipe is signifcantly lower than with the 4 men Grenadiers.