Profile of the_onion_man

If you want to lose, let them get close.

The first problem is that rifles will generally not take anywhere near enough damage to have to retreat, as they charge entrenched grens. This is compounded by the fact that the Heer MG is just plain ineffective against rifles. With equal micro, two rifles will beat a gren and an MG almost every time, because the MG won't suppress the rifles before they manage to flank. Again, most of the time it isn't about the Heer player "letting" the rifles get close.

The second problem is that rifles are extremely competitive with Grens at range; Grens have a slight advantage, but nothing remotely like the rifles' advantage close up.

AAHHHH I ASKED ABOUT THIS IN THE CHAT

I was like "There was some song, I think it was called 'Fool,' by the Something brothers... I think the first word started with a B...?". Not only did nobody know what I was talking about, they were really snarky about using Google. But I had already spent close to an hour looking, and the only thing coming up was the Doobie Brothers and the Allman Brothers.

Thank you so much!! Your brother in law's band should be proud, and I hope they get a big ol' record deal (or Internet famous, whichever is better)!

My suspicion is that Obers, as a unit, would be fine with nerfs to received accuracy and long range DPS.

But this wouldn't do anything to fix the basic design problem that Relic introduced by giving OKW a T0 vehicular suppression platform, awesome T0 handheld AT, a T0 AT gun, and low teching costs--not to mention the free goodies you get for teching such as the T4 flak cannon. The Allies need to be able to compete with OKW, and IMO allowing them to compete with OKW makes Ostheer broadly unusable 1v1 (especially vs. USF).

@Crysack: I guess it depends on your definition of "capable." I have regular success with zooks against light and medium vehicles (excluding Pz4 and Panthers, the latter of which are medium in name only), generally forcing a retreat if I don't get the kill. I think they could use a slight penetration buff--relatedly, the OKW AA halftrack could probably use a slight DPS and suppression nerf--but in general they do their job getting you to midgame, where (yes) you will need a more effective AT solution.

I agree with you about popcap for officers though, it's a killer, especially if you tech the whole tree.

Yeah, but everyone's teching costs look expensive compared to OKW. If you rush straight for armour as USF with no grenades, BARs, M20, AAHT or anything of the sort, you're still up for 140 fuel before you even start building your first tank.

I don't entirely disagree, but you're leaving out the fact that under those circumstances USF gets capable handheld AT (Captain) and a mobile reinforce point (Major), just for teching.

As for Karny's points, first of all I think there is a basic design problem with the idea that USF is not going to scale into the late game. It's fine if Axis have a slight late game advantage, but as of now USF doesn't even have a doctrinal heavy tank call in (note to Relic: this is NOT A REQUEST for paid DLC, the issue is the design). Jacksons are made of paper and get shredded by T4 flak cannon, which is just LOL.

Beyond that, if you're having trouble managing Allied armor (with the sole exception of doctrinal Soviet heavy tanks, and even then really just the IS2/ISU) with Volks+schrecks, ordinarily I hate to say this but that is an L2P issue. Can you charge schrecked Volks completely unsupported against two T34-85s? No but you couldn't do that with PzG's either. In other words there are jobs that handheld AT was not meant to do. Meanwhile any single light or medium armored vehicle will get annihilated by schrecked Volks, as will heavy armor if the opponent is not careful.

Finally, Obers are totally broken. A single Ober squad can easily dispatch 2 or (depending on cover and how the engagement begins) even 3 BAR rifle squads.

My bad on the Panther price part.

But still doesn't mean OST tier-up system is fine.

On the contrary, it just highlights how much OST is getting screwed because of balance changes to make the Allies competitive with OKW teching. OKW are in position to pop Panthers for 120 fuel, get health care + the truly ridiculous armor-shredding flak for free, with almost no meaningful downside. OST has to spend 110 fuel just on the battle phase escalation, and AT LEAST another 25 fuel on T1 and T2, presuming they leave themselves wide open to enemy armor by skipping T3--which is, as things stand, the only realistic way to get Panthers before the 30 minute mark (if ever) in 1v1.