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Now before I begin I would like to recognize that with CoH3 on the horizon none of what follows is really going to matter to CoH2. However, I would still like to create this thread in the interests of CoH3's balance and mechanics.
Admittedly, I am going to be writing this with bias as I am speaking from the perspective of an OKW player. However, I feel it is important enough that this should still be a topic of debate.
There are, from my observations, 3 main reasons why the UKF should start with Royal Engineers instead of the Infantry Section.
1. Solution to the UC Question
In my opinion the UC nerf after the winter patch was too severe. I rarely see it nowadays and it doesn't make too much sense why the base UC should have been hit that hard. Rather, the better solution would have been to nerf the UC's upgrades. However, making UKF start with Engineers rather than the IS presents another solution to the UC problem. With the British starting with engineers, the UC price nerf can be reverted and self-repair can be removed. This should make UCs viable again without being too powerful, as Engineers themselves aren't that strong and don't fight at long range the same way the UC and Infantry Sections do.
Why does this matter? First, it provides the British with another option. The British were seemingly designed as a faction with versatile opening choices like the Soviets, but versatility comes at a cost. A versatile opening can not be too efficient, as is the problem with the starting IS and UC. OKW and USF get powerful openings (USF gets the free 4th rifle squad with tech and OKW starts with Sturms and Raks), but mostly because they don't really have another option. UKF, on the other hand, has 3 options: Sections, the Vickers, and the IS. By replacing the starting IS with REs the UC's impact will not be as brutally efficient as it once was before in conjunction with Sections. The second reason is that it seems the UC is a vital unit in the context of British early game. The British seem to have few answers to MGs, which the UC was one of the few units that could provide an answer. Using a UC to unload an engineer squad behind an unprotected MG could provide British players with a better answer to MGs than they currently have now.
2. Greater accessibility to the features provided by engineers
Another major weakness of the British is their lack of snares. While the movement of engineers from T2 to T1 was obviously made in the interest of this factor, I don't believe there will be a problem at all with letting UKF start with a snaring squad. After all, they don't have that much to respond to LVs anyway, since they'll never realistically have enough REs to spam snares, which all other factions can in a pinch.
Furthermore, starting with engineers makes barbed wire, mines, minesweeping, and other engineering activities that are available to the other factions instantly more accessible. While no player is ever going to play a game without engineers, it makes mortar pits more accessible as well since players won't have to factor in the cost of the engineers needed to build the mortar pit.
Lastly, while this may seem insignificant at first, starting engineers provides UKF a stopgap solution to deal with close range units. REs have a respectable short range DPS for an engineer unit, and it is well known how poor Infantry Sections perform in close range combat. Again, as stated above, such a change provides UKF with more options, which seems to be the most important feature of their design.
3. Removes cheese
In my opinion the greatest frustration with UKF is their ability to hit critical mass extremely quickly because of their starting IS. A UKF player only needs to pay 270 * 3 = 810 MP to field 4 mainlines, while OKW needs 260 * 4 = 1040 MP (230 MP difference). A Wehr player needs 260 + 240 * 4 = 1220 MP to field 4 mainlines and an MG, while a UKF player only needs 260 + 270 * 3 MP = 1070 MP (150 MP difference) to field 4 mainlines and an MG. For a UKF player to field 5 mainlines, he only needs to pay 1080 MP, which is only 40 MP more than it costs OKW to field 4 mainlines. Lastly, for a UKF player to field 3 Infantry Sections and 2 MGs, a notoriously brutal combo against OKW, it will only cost him 2 * 270 + 2 * 260 MP, which is only 1060 MP, and which is only 20 MP more than it costs OKW to field 4 Volks. Granted, OKW does start with Sturmpioneers, but Sturmpioneers are nowhere near as important as an Infantry Section in the long run because Spios hit the wall hard after 5 minutes, while Infantry Sections scale significantly better than Spios. It is also important to consider that depending on the map and the context of the engagement, Sturmpioneers can be utterly useless against Sections who will murder them at long range if the Spios have no way to flank or no sightblockers to take advantage of. Furthermore, that extra infantry section also means extra sandbags around the map and more cover for the Brit player to abuse.
Lastly, starting with engineers can also solve the problem of British map control, as REs have 1.25x capture speed.
Now that I've said all this, I would likely to end by repeating that none of this actually matters to CoH2 as its time is coming. However, I hope whatever comes out of this thread can be applied to CoH3, allowing us to possibly to tone down all the frustrations that came with CoH2. |
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