I should preface this post by saying I've had this on my mind for a while but I wasn't really able to piece it together into one solid topic until now.
Over the entirety of my time playing BK, I've noticed a common theme in that smaller AT guns (both mounted and pushed variations) quickly become obsolete when people start bringing out heavier vehicles. While this isn't necessarily a problem on it's own, the stage at which some of these guns become obsolete relative to the time at which they are available often leaves a very small pocket of time in which the units is actually useful, meaning these guns are just being ignored in favor of their heavier counterparts more often than not, along with some glaring inconsistencies regarding their general performance in relation to eachother. A few examples of these points would be the WH 37mm guns having trouble against stuart Recce's, or the 57mm halftracks struggling to kill their 37mm HT counterparts head-on even upon getting the first shot off (who happen to also have an HE toggle).
With these problems in mind, I'd like to suggest 3 changes to the lighter AT guns, preferably alongside the changes I and some others were suggesting in the recent AT rifle thread;
1. WH 37mm (field gun and HT's) get AP rounds similar in performance to the US 37's AP to deal with recce and chaffees simliar to how the smaller allied AT guns can kill the stubby barrel panzer 4's (and hopefully the panzer 3 if that thing ever gets fixed).
2.All 57mm and 50mm field guns (not the vehicle mounted ones) getting a detracking ability (similar to that of the panzer elite AT halftrack in vanilla coh) to keep them relevant later in the game against heavier armor.
3.US 57mm HT getting either a damage, range, or accuracy increase so it doesn't lose to 37mm halftracks head-on as often, retaining the shitty pen it has currently so the increase doesn't affect it's performance against tanks (The detracking ability should deal with that issue). A price increase would probably have to come along with this, maybe 25-30 fuel. Either that or give it an HE toggle too if you want to go for the symmetric approach, I'd prefer it be a purely AT focused unit.
4. A slight increase to the fire rate of 37mm guns, maybe with a corresponding damage decrease if deemed necessary. Right now they feel more like 50mm+ guns with worse pen in terms of how much damage they do and how slow they are to fire/reload.
Light AT guns
Re: Light AT guns
These changes together with the changes suggested for AT rifle squads on WH and CW might also help deal with the upgraded jeep spams that I've been seeing a lot of recently after the AT rifles were confined to blitz doc and put in the wehrmacht quarters.
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Warhawks97
- Posts: 5395
- Joined: 23 Nov 2014, 21:45
- Location: Germany
Re: Light AT guns
1. AP for axis 37 mm, fine, why not.
2. Nope. Explained in other topic. We removed such de-track abilities for a reason (see AT rifle topic). What i would be fine with for all AT units is that you can activate a "swapping button" called "aiming for weapk spots and critical parts" and ordering the unit to aim for tracks/engine. This would lower its damage potential, but increasing chances to de-track vehicles. Problem still is that you can only deal crit when penetrating targets. So you would have to increase pen chance and crit chance in exchange for way lower damage. But i dont like that "pay something in exchange for 100% success rate".
Furthermore, their chances to pen rear and thus side armor against heavier targets have been largely increased in recent versions. Medium AT is the most valuable bc they are not so expensive, mobile and provide a defense against a wide range of vehicles. So i think they are fine.
3. Hmm, i havent had such issues but i dont run head on with 57 mm HT, not even against 20 mm armored cars. Use it from ambush and support unit.
4. I would agree.
2. Nope. Explained in other topic. We removed such de-track abilities for a reason (see AT rifle topic). What i would be fine with for all AT units is that you can activate a "swapping button" called "aiming for weapk spots and critical parts" and ordering the unit to aim for tracks/engine. This would lower its damage potential, but increasing chances to de-track vehicles. Problem still is that you can only deal crit when penetrating targets. So you would have to increase pen chance and crit chance in exchange for way lower damage. But i dont like that "pay something in exchange for 100% success rate".
Furthermore, their chances to pen rear and thus side armor against heavier targets have been largely increased in recent versions. Medium AT is the most valuable bc they are not so expensive, mobile and provide a defense against a wide range of vehicles. So i think they are fine.
3. Hmm, i havent had such issues but i dont run head on with 57 mm HT, not even against 20 mm armored cars. Use it from ambush and support unit.
4. I would agree.
Build more AA Walderschmidt
Re: Light AT guns
I seriously suggest you try using the 57mm in a game against players using stug 4's and pz4's, even with AP it's performance is lackluster and the thing might as well be a 37mm if it has to take a shot without the stealth buffs. And i understand that the 57 HT is meant to ambush but the idea of a HT mounted medium AT gun not obliterating a halftrack in one shot from the front is stupid, especially considering the normal version would have no issues. I'm not saying to rush the thing in like an idiot, but using it out of cloak seems to be completely unviable against anything with a weapon bigger than 20mm, which is ridiculous considering the performance of 50mm pumas and the AT halftracks/cars on germany.
As for the switching modes thing, that seems reasonable but the chance should be relatively high with a gun that big shooting from a concealed position, its not like the gunner is being rushed to take the shot and they will generally have ranged out their killzones when in stationary positions.
As for the switching modes thing, that seems reasonable but the chance should be relatively high with a gun that big shooting from a concealed position, its not like the gunner is being rushed to take the shot and they will generally have ranged out their killzones when in stationary positions.