@Barton
I think that change would be a slight buff overall? You would have those krafty engineers putting single wires all over the place! Soviet wire is very quick to erect. I do like that as a game mechanic though, it would require a little more micro and becomes an interesting mental game of "FEAR MY WIRE".
@Hector
I agree they are definitely good at their job. Too good in fact. 3 Mines in their current state have nowhere near the same impact on slowing capping as they cannot be clumped and only kill 2 models. Before the mine nerf this was a better argument.
As for "responding to enemy actions", you have two choices:
Pretend demos don't exist and Lose Squads - Game Loss
Treat every uncapped territory & building without vision as potential game loss without a Sturm.
The main problem is not the munitions cost, its manpower. As I said this is much less a problem for Wehr with the cost effective pioneer.
I cannot fight a multi-flank battle, or even properly assault machine guns from multiple angles without multiple Sturm Pioneers. But, their combat effectiveness is simply too low for this to be cost effective in mid game. Late game I hit the popcap ceiling in which they are also incredibly inefficient.
Multiple Sturm is only acceptable if I could get both a flamethrower and a minesweeper upgrade, or a minesweeper and a panzershrek allowing me to actually exploit the munitions advantage you mention above and scale this 300 manpower 9 popcap unit...
My volks already have stg 44s and as many grenades as they want. Munitions have never been a problem for me. In fact if I had weapon racks in my base I would be laughing all the way to the bank.
replay?
my assumption is your 4v4 volxblob got deleted and you are butthurt now
I play OKW and against a competent soviet player I have to assume that every building and point has a demo charge, or risk losing entire squads (vetted or otherwise) to a 90 munition ability.
So now I have to bring a 300mp squad to counter a 170mp squad, and I have no choice but to take the minesweeper upgrade.
To make things worse, since mines were nerfed into oblivion Ivan will take the flamethrower upgrade without question. This makes flank battles of Sturm vs Combat Engineer unwinnable on even terms - unless I manage to surprise him coming around the corner.
It says something that my priority target in every engagement is a 170 manpower unit. Not that it matters, I kill one and they train another...
I am not a Wehr player but I can see this as being less of a problem due to the cheaper pioneer. However it's still unbalanced since the mine nerf for the same reason - pioneer forced into minesweeper upgrade with combat engineer taking flamethrower as mines are cheaper just to walk infantry over
Possible Solutions
===========
1. Remove Demo Charges
2. Nerf Demo Charges + Reduce Munition Cost.
3. Give Volksgrenadiers the option of the retractable minesweeper upgrade, without locking out stg44.
I would be happy with all of these options, with preference being for option 3. I'm not against having a massive squad wiping bomb, but it needs cost effective counters to keep the game fluid - Option 3 would provide this without reducing game complexity.
For the History Fans - did they regularly use radio detonated explosives in WW2?