A remake of the kinds of threads that were popular in the VIP beta forum.
We've had the game for a while now and some issues are starting to become apparent, issues that transcend arguments about Sherman prices or which phase Nebelwerfer 42 should be in. I'm talking about classes of units being UP/OP, the flow of the game, the game's rules, or overarching issues between the two sides. It's been discussed all over the forum but I'd just like to organize my thoughts here in one place, maybe it'll be useful.
1. Anti-tank guns are still too easy to kill. It's a combination of excessive amounts of mortars in phase A along with recon being too easily able to spot AT guns in green cover. Theoretically you can hide them behind the hedge and move them forward at the right time but IMO it's an excessive amount of micro to demand from people to make up for a flawed system. AT guns should be laying in ambush ready to fire, and right now it's a death sentence to use them that way.
2. German AA is bad almost across the board. In combination with phase A air support that ranges from poor to non-existent, it's far too easy to brutalize them with planes in phase A as the allies. It's borderline uncounterable. I take it that the idea is that German AA suppresses less in exchange for having higher damage because of the higher caliber, yet the bonus to damage is still not remotely enough to kill anything, so in fact they get nothing in return for the inherent disadvantages of a slow firing weapon.
3. There's too much artillery, in all phases and all types, and some types are too deadly. Phase A is mortar tag, in Phase B/C you break out the atomic rockets to make sure your opponent can never mount an attack again. Mortars and rockets should be suppression tools and not efficient killers; mortars to relieve yourself from a troublesome unit, rockets to prepare an area for assault by troops and armor.
Rockets should also have fairly long aim times to prevent their use as a panic button to instantly blunt any attack; it shouldn't be too long, so you can still use it to punish a meandering attack, but as of now it's basically a "your attack fails, try again in 5 minutes" button.
The lethality of howitzers is fine.
For availability, IMO in phase A you should have access to one motorized mortar per card or one card of 2x infantry mortars. All rocket artillery should come one per card. High HE SPGs should come in one per card. Towed howitzers can come in 2x per card to make up for their vulnerability.
Off map artillery is mostly fine.
I also feel like artillery uses way too little supplies. You can supply massive amounts of artillery on just one or two trucks.
4. Phase C focused decks seem to be getting worse by the day as the metagame solidifies and people learn the game, and the problem is the current Conquest mechanics and/or the standard rules. Most of the time you win based on the 1-3% you seized in the very opening stages of the game, and the C-decks simply don't have the manpower/money to contend with the phase A divisions then. By the time you've built up your strength, you have very little time to retake ground and even less time to accrue victory points from it in order to eke out a win.
Ideally, we've got to rethink how much of the map you need to control before you get points, and how much each tier of control awards the player. Getting points at 51% is simply bad; such a small difference can be the result of accidents, luck, or map imbalances. If reworking the rules for Conquest isn't in the cards, we've got to rethink the standard settings, like 50 minute timers, higher required score to win, or both.
Conclusion:
These issues, along with a multitude of other minor ones, are starting to make the game feel less and less about who uses infantry and tanks more effectively. Infantry and tanks should be the focus of the game. Other elements of the game, like OP strafing from planes, one-shot bomb runs on AT guns, ultra deadly rocket artillery, unit deleting mortars, etc. are diminishing that.
In other words, units that should support infantry and tanks in doing the killing are instead doing much of the killing on their own. Planes and artillery should make it easier for infantry and tanks to move in for the kill, not be primary methods of killing units by themselves. It's almost as if infantry are support units for the support units! They create a buffer zone to guard your artillery so it can kill stuff, and look at things for your planes to go in and kill, then they move forward in the empty space (if they don't get obliterated by a rocket strike). It feels backwards.
We've had the game for a while now and some issues are starting to become apparent, issues that transcend arguments about Sherman prices or which phase Nebelwerfer 42 should be in. I'm talking about classes of units being UP/OP, the flow of the game, the game's rules, or overarching issues between the two sides. It's been discussed all over the forum but I'd just like to organize my thoughts here in one place, maybe it'll be useful.
1. Anti-tank guns are still too easy to kill. It's a combination of excessive amounts of mortars in phase A along with recon being too easily able to spot AT guns in green cover. Theoretically you can hide them behind the hedge and move them forward at the right time but IMO it's an excessive amount of micro to demand from people to make up for a flawed system. AT guns should be laying in ambush ready to fire, and right now it's a death sentence to use them that way.
2. German AA is bad almost across the board. In combination with phase A air support that ranges from poor to non-existent, it's far too easy to brutalize them with planes in phase A as the allies. It's borderline uncounterable. I take it that the idea is that German AA suppresses less in exchange for having higher damage because of the higher caliber, yet the bonus to damage is still not remotely enough to kill anything, so in fact they get nothing in return for the inherent disadvantages of a slow firing weapon.
3. There's too much artillery, in all phases and all types, and some types are too deadly. Phase A is mortar tag, in Phase B/C you break out the atomic rockets to make sure your opponent can never mount an attack again. Mortars and rockets should be suppression tools and not efficient killers; mortars to relieve yourself from a troublesome unit, rockets to prepare an area for assault by troops and armor.
Rockets should also have fairly long aim times to prevent their use as a panic button to instantly blunt any attack; it shouldn't be too long, so you can still use it to punish a meandering attack, but as of now it's basically a "your attack fails, try again in 5 minutes" button.
The lethality of howitzers is fine.
For availability, IMO in phase A you should have access to one motorized mortar per card or one card of 2x infantry mortars. All rocket artillery should come one per card. High HE SPGs should come in one per card. Towed howitzers can come in 2x per card to make up for their vulnerability.
Off map artillery is mostly fine.
I also feel like artillery uses way too little supplies. You can supply massive amounts of artillery on just one or two trucks.
4. Phase C focused decks seem to be getting worse by the day as the metagame solidifies and people learn the game, and the problem is the current Conquest mechanics and/or the standard rules. Most of the time you win based on the 1-3% you seized in the very opening stages of the game, and the C-decks simply don't have the manpower/money to contend with the phase A divisions then. By the time you've built up your strength, you have very little time to retake ground and even less time to accrue victory points from it in order to eke out a win.
Ideally, we've got to rethink how much of the map you need to control before you get points, and how much each tier of control awards the player. Getting points at 51% is simply bad; such a small difference can be the result of accidents, luck, or map imbalances. If reworking the rules for Conquest isn't in the cards, we've got to rethink the standard settings, like 50 minute timers, higher required score to win, or both.
Conclusion:
These issues, along with a multitude of other minor ones, are starting to make the game feel less and less about who uses infantry and tanks more effectively. Infantry and tanks should be the focus of the game. Other elements of the game, like OP strafing from planes, one-shot bomb runs on AT guns, ultra deadly rocket artillery, unit deleting mortars, etc. are diminishing that.
In other words, units that should support infantry and tanks in doing the killing are instead doing much of the killing on their own. Planes and artillery should make it easier for infantry and tanks to move in for the kill, not be primary methods of killing units by themselves. It's almost as if infantry are support units for the support units! They create a buffer zone to guard your artillery so it can kill stuff, and look at things for your planes to go in and kill, then they move forward in the empty space (if they don't get obliterated by a rocket strike). It feels backwards.
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