Improving the Sixth Airborne "Red Devils"

[Makko]

It seems to me that the general consensus on this deck is that it is overall on the weak side compared to the other battlegroups in game.

While it has some strong and interesting units the overall lineup is lacking in resilience and staying power.


Here are a few areas I've identified that could be tweaked to improve the overall utility of the deck:

-Airlandings are made much weaker by only having 7 men. This is an infantry focused deck with infantry in only two phases, and the mainstay of one of those two phases (B) is weak.

-Cromwells both tank and support versions suffer from awful availability. They have low armor and the tank version struggles against phase B armor. Not getting a good amount of them makes this even worse.

-AT in phase A is really bad, one good AT gun and then some memetrarchs is not enough.


How could these areas be changed for the better?

What other areas of the deck could use some attention?

 

[Deuzerre]

Cromwells are nice because they're faster than other tanks of that price range, making them quite good at breaking through in my small experience using them. I guess in british armoured decks (or polish) they'll be much better wiith more availability.

The weakest bit is they really have low effective manpower, but once you get used to the whole "Your units are only there to hold the ground and spot for your mortars/planes" gameplay, they're decent. They just suck at dishing it out directly.

Oh, and you need to use your artillery for its AP power as makeshift AT guns in phase A, which is kinda annoying.

 

[Harold Alexander]

that's all right, infantry need bigger numbers per card, and bigger numbers in late phases, 6th airborn have good economy in late game, but in late game you dont have any units to spam.

 

[mitchverr]

airlanding is going to stay as is, making it a rather eh thing.

More units per card could help for infantry and cromwells.

A buff to the pack 75mm artillery rate of fire could be welcome, it seems the only mid to light artillery with low rof for the calibre region. Possibly more per card again given heavy reliance on artillery

Could make tetrarch LJ a little better in accuracy, giving it more of an edge in landing a first hit, given its the mainstay AT vehicle. It could even go to AP 15 if eugen wants though I dont see any need for that (as AP 14 is what the weaker LJ round does). Though personally I would preff an acc buff. if anything for it but again, is then relying on these 3 lil guys to do 95% of the work.

If eugen are willing to add units

25 pounders were used to support 1st airborne corps the the whole of normandy, unsure if they were SP or not however. Again, as with most british infantry, 25 pounders were heavily used to defend from enemy attack with the spam being a great deal breaker for germans thinking of taking a hill 10m closer to the british line.

Could add a solo card of 6 pounders phase A I guess.

Could add a 2nd card of littlejohns.

Could create and add commando units from SSB which were attached to 1st Airborne Corps, they all worked together and intermingled. Phase C infantry with a nice availablity per card could work well, could have commando leader, commando subsection(if variaty is wanted, give them a single K GO), commando K.GO group (bren group but with 2 vickers K, be akin to german mg34/42). Can have both french and english lines!

(note, K GO is short hand for Vickers GO No.2 Mk.1 Land Service)


The division has plenty of options for buffs if eugen deem them needing it.

 

[Harold Alexander]

6th airborne was really good in closed beta because of: big amount of infantry, and effective off map arty which help to this deck a lot, but now 381 mm naval arty does less damage than 203 and 210 mm ones.

 

[Karlburg]

6th airborne was really good in closed beta because of: big amount of infantry, and effective off map arty which help to this deck a lot, but now 381 mm naval arty does less damage than 203 and 210 mm ones.

It was good because your other option was the anemic 3 armored. The other allied decks have solid infantry lineups and actually offensive light vehicle games.

 

[Deuzerre]

I think they went away with the idea of infantry hordes for that division, it is after all airborne and thus should probably in the eyes of the devs, even if they're supposed to be "infantry focused", less horde-like than say, the scots.

I really believe that they want us to use them as a division with a heavy emphasis on its "support" tools like the air force and the mortars, skirmishing against tanks, and not as a division with "Cannonfodder infantry, loads of light vehicles".

 

[mitchverr]

having 2 inch mortars phase A would also be nice

 

[Aeon221]

Can't say I particularly want buffs for the plane and off map arty division. The less I have to get air spammed the better.

 

[Max_Damage]

I dont really think it is particularly weaker then the axis divisions. Maybe its just an allied equivalent of Luftlande which many people consider painful to play. Foot divisions have a hard time advancing against artillery and armored cars or tanks. It is what it is.

Btw tetrarchs are must have. You want an effective weapon against the armored cars. I have 10 in my deck. They have a very high speed as well.

 

[Unethical Llama]

The complaints about airlanding are dumb. They're multipurpose AT infantry. Seeing as piat teams cost 15 for 2 strength and airlandings are a 7 strength piat team with a bren for 25, there's no issue at all.

The division is good. Fast and cheap tanks, strong artillery, excellent planes, and lots of cheap vet infantry. They just have no heavy armor and are a bit lacking in the AT department.

 

[local-festival]

Yeah, the deck is really underpowered. Probably the weakest deck at this moment.

 

[Yung Rommel]

They need counters to light vehicles in close quarters areas. HT spam kills them.

 

[frout]

The Red Devils work perfectly well when you succeed in using them as intended : aggressively in Phase A, then defensively, protecting infantry, with heavy air and AT support.
(And Arty special stuff is fun)

 

[Makko]

Can't say I particularly want buffs for the plane and off map arty division. The less I have to get air spammed the better.

Well ideally the deck could do something else, that's the point of improving it in other areas.

 

[Yung Rommel]

How's everyone feel about giving AB Para's smoke grenades, and Airlanding double vet?

 

[Vyllis]

I think for infantry side 101 is for the numbers, 6 Airborne is more preservative and quality (As the commander/division description tells about 6 Airborne and from what i have seen from 101 leak).

 

[IronHat]

The Red Devils work perfectly well when you succeed in using them as intended : aggressively in Phase A, then defensively, protecting infantry, with heavy air and AT support.
(And Arty special stuff is fun)

12th ss and 21st can overrun or stop the airborne pretty easily. The fact that you need ATW for just HT really kills the airborne.

HT should not be immune to small arms fire.

 

[Max_Damage]

12th ss and 21st can overrun or stop the airborne pretty easily. The fact that you need ATW for just HT really kills the airborne.

HT should not be immune to small arms fire.

Every division needs an atg or a tank to destroy halftracks.

As for halftrack immunity. I ve commended on this. To help balance of inf vs halftracks, allow attacking halftracks at 150 or 200m only with all infnatry weapons.

 

[Vyllis]

HT should not be immune to small arms fire.

Yeah when a lone enemy half track get to your flank near a Vicker or Cal.50 and you instinctively tell the gunner to target the half track... nope he wont fire and just stare at the vehicle while dying, "realism & balance".