I am also not sure if my memory is already heavily biased, but I had the feeling that the heavy meta had a bit more variance to it. One reason probably is because at least 3-4 factions are playable even when the new crutch unit is a heavy tank. Also the time to get the heavy was at least 15-20 minutes, which allowed some variability in the game beforehand. Especially OST has a lot of Tiger doctrines, and OKW T2 in general makes for interesting pull and push gameplay. OKW though was basically deleted from the tourney.
At the moment we got two factions with what felt like only one commander each and the exact same build order every game.
The USF dependence on the M36 has been repeated again and again but in these games the M36 was not used so much. Yet USF managed to deal with enemy armor.
I think this is due to the Ostheer doctrine though. Ost is always pushed towards a medium because their spike from the 222 came quite long ago and Allies have the dominating LV on the field. Osttruppen kind of add into that by slowly losing their advantage in the mid game, plus the 76mm is a decent choice vs the P4.
As soon as the Ostheer player got a Panther out, USF was usually forced into a Jackson.
I think most complaints about the Jackson come from 2v2+ where heavy armor is more prominent and gameplay more static.
On the other hand, USF had almost only one commander to counter Osttruppen spam. Strip away the 76mm if USF wants to play any other commander and you will see Jacksons again.
Relic Entertainment
cblanco ★ 
보드카 중대 
VonManteuffel 
Heartless Jäger 
