5.1.8. beta (Doctrine rework, update 1)
Posted: 16 May 2019, 22:19
Hello once again!
We're bringing you a new update for the beta branch. This one addresses some of the issues reported about the reworked Blitzkrieg doctrine and also adds reworked Armor and Infantry Companies of the USA.
First of all, we wanted to address the issue of "OP" static howitzers. There have been suggestions to return them back to what they were but we did not want to do that because that would mean to make them useless again. In the posts you all mentioned various reasons why the howitzers were OP but in the end the biggest issue seemed to be the fact that there could be huge numbers of the howitzers distributed among the team and everybody could shoot barrages everywhere - so practically speaking, the power of a howitzer was not a problem but the number of the howitzers was a problem (or at least one of the problems). So one thing we changed here is that you cannot use the barrages of the static howitzers if you hadn't chosen one of the "Artillery" doctrines (Infantry, RA, Def or SE). You can still capture the howitzers with any doctrine but if you chose, let's say, Armor Company, the barrage ability of the howitzers will be "grey" and you will not be able to shoot it. This is there simply to make it impossible to "share" static howitzers with team mates and thus lower the number of howitzers in team games. Static howitzers are doctrine-specific units and thus are quite powerful but are not meant to be available to every doctrine, just as you cannot "give" your Panther to your SE team mate or as you cannot "give" your Commandos to your RE team mate. The veterancy bonuses per every level were also changed so that on higher levels they won't become too "shipy".
Another completely new thing this update brings is ammunition upkeep for howitzer units. The upkeep values are different based on the strength of each unit so weaker arty units (Pack howitzers, LeiG18, Autocar...) have a lot lower upkeep than Hummels, 210mm Nebels and other strong arty units. This is there to limit the usage of artillery through indirect means. If you play bigger maps with more ammo points you will be able to "feed" more arty units, on smaller maps with limited ammo income you will most likely be able to field about 2 arty units because more of them will lower your ammo income too much and then you won't be able to use other abilities which require ammunition. Thus you need to make decisions about how many arty units you actually need and can afford, instead of the "build as many as possible and shoot everywhere" tactics.
Another thing added in this update are turret rotation speeds for all armored cars - these had in reality turrets rotated manually but in the mod most of them rotated faster than tank turrets rotated with an engine. In the game then Pumas and Greyhounds could circle around tanks and keep shooting at full speed while the gun was always on target this should be harder to pull of now, but it is still possible. It also makes light tanks more suitable for this because they have faster turret speeds so they now differ from the armored cars a bit more.
The change about AT guns is there to make them a bit more useful again. The long aim times were introduced as a "fix" for the glitch abuse where you could bypass the reload times. However, with up to 4 seconds of aim times the AT guns were aiming forever and sometimes armored cars were able to drive all to way to them on a direct line and get pass them and the AT gun did not fire. Kwok came up with this other solution where the AT guns will have aim times of maximum of 2 seconds but the tear-down times are a lot longer. This prevents the abuse too and keeps the guns a bit more useful. This means that when a unit gets outside of the cone of fire and the gun wants to readjust the aim, it starts the tear down time so it limits the AT guns in a different way but with proper support they are a lot more useful with this change than they used to be and even more so for defending chokepoints.
The removal of over-repair is experimental. It just makes units a lot more durable than they should be for absolutely no drawback and this makes then the units harder to balance. Instead of the over-repair the units could rapair stuff faster, we'll see how that goes.
Blitzkrieg Doctrine
There have been complaints about the Combat group call in (mainly that it does not fit the "tank" unlock line and that it is too cheap for the units you can get) the call in has been swaped with the Blitzkrieg ability in unlock tree and it now always provides PIII N (upgraded with both ammo upgrades) and a Grenadier squad upgraded with StG44. This way the ability should stay useful even later in the game because an HE tank with upgraded infantry can have their use at any stage of the game (while StuGs and PIV H/J start getting obsolete when Allies bring their stronger tanks, you also know what you're getting with this ability so the danger of getting a vehicle which you don't need is eliminated.
Command bonuses of command tank no longer work on StuPa/StuH because having extra range for these units (they already had more than 60 by default) was getting insane.
StuH/StuPa were changed too. It was mentioned that their huge range makes it possible to kite enemy units at ranges where they can never shoot back and this kiting in combination with Panthers that the doctrine has now was deemed to be too strong. However, the main intended purpose of StuPa/StuH is to breake through defensive lines and they need the range for it (or they get counter-shot by any AT emplacement and die), so these units have normal range of 60 now but have an ability which allows them to shoot a projectile over range of 80 - this ability is payed per shot, cannot shoot into FoW and can only shoot at buildings/emplacements (so no, you cannot use it to attack tanks or infantry). So if you know there is a 17 pounder emplacement somewhere, you need to get vision at it from some spotter and then you can keep shooting at it from safe distance. Any other units can only be attacked at range with standard attack at range of 60.
There are also changes to the 37mm Halftrack of Blitz doctrine - people complained about it in the past and still complain about it now. It is an incredible infantry killing machine. It was a result of quite good accuracy, low scatter and high damage. We tried to bring it down a bit without making it useless. Now it has less range (all vehicles with HE mode have less range, only this one had full), bigger scatter (so when it rolls a miss, the shot can land farther away and miss the squad completely and also it has tweaked AoE penetration values so it is possible now that soldiers in the AoE get lucky and take no damage. It is still a killer against infantry without cover but the change should be notable against infantry in cover.
US Armor Company
The main change in Armor doctrine is reorganisation of the unlock tree. Now the tank tree is divided into a Tank Destroyer branch and Tank Branch. This requires players to choose based on situation rather than "always go down the same path because it always leads to SP". If you now rush the Pershing you might get overrun by PIV spam against which TDs could be useful, but they are now in a different branch so careful unlock selection can be crucial.
As far as units go, new addition is 105 Sherman, this Sherman, however, no longer has the barrage ability and works the same way as StuPa/StuH described above (direct fire, range 60 + ability that allows shooting at emplacements over longer range). So for artillery you still have TC offmap arty, then 105 Sherman for punching through defenses and then Calliope Sherman (still indirect unit). With this addition of 105 Sherman there was no reason for Scott to be there because the roles are the same but Sherman is more efficient while not so much more expensive, thus Scott is gone from Armor doctrine. There is also no longer a reward choice between M36 and M36B1. It is not like anyone ever used the B1 in Armor doctrine, simply because the ambush is superior element and for unambush combat you have Peshings with same gun and better chance to survive, so Armor doctrine alwas has only the M36.
The doctrine changes are aimed for more well-rounded doctrines and Armor doctrine lacked some special-purpose infantry. They got the Combat Engineers and also a new unlock which makes them a bit better at surviving. They are still purely close-range units and can lose to MP40 squads and will lose to StG44 squads but it provides some room for clearing obstacles and combat repairs.
76mm Sherman Jumbo was removed from Armor doctrine and replaced by 75mm Jumbo. With the improved strength of Jumbo armor it would be too strong to have the 76mm version in same doctrine as Pershings because it would allow for the Jumbo soak damage while the Pershings behind would take out any tanks and the enemy would not be able to charge at this combo because the 76mm gun at closer ranges can actually be dangerous even to Tigers and Panthers. This way if you use the Jumbo+Pershing combo, enemy can sort of ignore the Jumbo and try to go after the Pershing because the 75mm gun on Jumbo is not a threat.
Tank repair ability has been changed to require only tank Vet level 1 (this is for all doctrines). Field repairs are no longer an unlock, they are an upgrade now - this upgrade in WSC changes the tank repairs to "Advanced tank repairs" which allows to repair the tank faster but even this advanced ability still requires Vet level 1.
Infantry Company
Infantry doctrine did not get any extensive changes because it did not needed too many. For the unlock tree the biggest change is probably that the first three unlocks in the top line are now independent. This is because they all feel like very early-to-mid game unlocks and if you don't unlock them in those phases of the game, you probably don't need them later. This change should allow to the player to pick whatever he wants first, based on what the situation requires and thus Infantry players should get a strong presence in the early-to-mid game. The weapon upgrade cost drop unlock has been turned into an upgrade and is now available in WSC.
Since the 105 Sherman (which was the mobile arty of this doctrine) has been moved to Armor doctrine, the artillery path now has a Priest in it at the end. This priest can only use the standard barrage and can also be upgraded with the Flame shots but has no other abilities which the CW Priest has. It is also built in the Tank Depot so you need to pay fuel for it. Still apply the ammunition upkeep values mentioned above so for infantry doctrine it will not be very easy to "feed" several static howitzers and Priests at the same time because the upkeep will lower the ammo income so much that the player won't be able to shoot them all.
Infantry doctrine always had to rely on their arty or team mates to destroy enemy heavy tanks, now they got a reward option to choose between either the 76mm Jumbo or the M36B1. So you can either get a unit with strong armor and relatively weak gun or a unit with weak armor but a strong main gun. For now the Limits are set to 1 for Jumbo and 2 for M36B1 - the Jackson is still pretty expensive and if you build 2 to go against heavy tanks, you are very likely to lose of them in the fight, so it is sort of 1 for 1 situation.
Infantry doctrine now also got the Scott - it again has the same changes as the StuH/StuPa/105 Sherman so it can be used to take out emplacements (with the long range shot) or to support infantry pushes with its direct fire.
So now for the complete changelog:
General:
- Barrage abilities of static howitzers are only useable by artillery doctrines now
- Added ammunition upkeep to artillery units:
-- Pack howitzer, LeiG18, Autocar, Scott: 5 munition
-- Calli Jeep/Sherman, Maultier, 150mm Nebels, 95mm Cromwell/Churchill, 25 pounders: 8 munition
-- 105mm arty (US/WM howitzers), Priests, Wespe, Stuka HT, Hotchkiss, 105 Sherman, StuH42: 12 munition
-- 210mm Nebels, Hummels, Sturmtiger, Grille, StuPa: 15 munition
- Removed unit limit on static howitzers
- Added forgotten fuel upkeep to Sturmtiger (4.56)
- Greyhound, Staghound, 50mm Puma, Damiler Scout Car and most Axis Armored Cars and Halftracks with 20mm cannon turret have their turret rotation speed lowered to "18" (from various values)
- Mine laying time reduced to 5 seconds
- Democharge planting time reduced to 14-16 seconds
- Removed Over-repair from all factions that had it
- Static howitzers now gain 5% faster reload per Vet level (was 10% per level) and 5% scatter reduction at level 3 and 4 (was -10% at every Vet level)
- Increased basic damage of Stuart HE rounds to 50 (from 40)
- Changed accuracy against infantry for Stuart HE rounds - now basic accuracy is unchanged and gets lowered by 25% when the infantry is moving (from "-25% no matter if they are moving or not)
- Significantly shortened aim time of AT guns but added a long tear-down time
US - Armor Company:
- M24 Chaffee has now same ambush bonuses as any other vehicle
- Reorganised command tree unlocks
- Field Repairs removed from the unlock tree
- Tank Repair ability cost drop to 35 ammo (from 50)
- Added Sherman 105 (has no barrage ability, can fire directly at normal range + long range with ability; requires unlock)
- Combat Engineers moved into Armor doctrine (from Infantry doctrine)
- Added an unlock into command tree which improves performance of Combat Engineers (adds satchel charges, CE take less damage)
- Added Field Repairs upgrade to the Weapon Support Center (unlocks Advanced Tank Repair ability; still requires Vet1)
- "Allied Warmachine" and "Rapid production" unlocks merged together (when you unlock the Warmachine ability, your Motorpool and Tank depot produce units faster)
- Increased range of "Commander Off-map Barrage" to 90 (from 70)
- Lowered the cost of Smoke Cloud abilities on Shermans to 15 ammo (from 50)
- 76mm Jumbo removed
- Added the 75mm Jumbo
- Recon buff from Command car no longer affects tank destroyers
- Removed reward choice between M36 and M36B1 (Armor doc now only has access to M36)
- Removed M8 Scott
US - Infantry Company:
- Fast Deployment, Defensive Operations and Mass Deployment unlocks are now separate unlocks
- Weapon Upgrade Cost Reduction changed from an unlock to an upgrade in WSC (100MP 80Ammo)
- 75mm Jumbo removed
- Added a reward choice between 76mm Jumbo (limited to 1 at time) or M36B1 (limited to 2 at time)
- Changed the armor strength of M36B1 to about the same as 76mm Shermans
- Removed 105mm Sherman
- Added Priest as a mobile arty unit
- M8 Scott is now available in Infantry Company
- Lowered basic range of Scott to 60, increased scatter and lowered accuracy against moving targets
- Added a long range shot ability for Scott (can be used only against buildings
Wehrmacht:
- Camouflage ability of StuG IV no longer requires Veterancy level 1
- Cost of Battlegroup call in set to 700MP (from 850MP)
- Battle group now always provides upgraded PIII N and Grenadier squad
- Command tank bonuses no longer affect StuPa and StuH
- StuH and StuPa no longer gain scatter reduction with Veterancy levels
- Lowered range of StuPa to 60
- Increased the scatter of StuPa
- Significantly lowered accuracy of StuPa against movig targets
- Added "Long Shot" ability to StuPa (fires one shot at range 80, 45 ammo per shot; only targetable at emplacements and buildings)
- Lowered range of StuH to 60
- Increased the scatter of StuH
- Significantly lowered accuracy of StuH against movig targets
- Added "Long Shot" ability to StuH (fires one shot at range 85, 25 ammo per shot; only targetable at emplacements and buildings)
- Panzer IV D removed from Blitzkrieg doctrine
- Panzer III N added to Blitzkrieg doctrine
- Ammunition reserves unlock now also lowers the activation cost of Wolfram ammunition ability to 35 ammo (from 50)
- Ostwind removed from Blitzkrieg doctrine
- Flakpanzer 38(t) "Gepard" moved to Blitzkrieg doctrine (from Defense doctrine)
- Changed the Recon bonus of Command tank, now it provides +10 vision range and detection of enemy tanks in FoW at range of 70
- Lowered maximum range of HE rounds of 37mm Halftrack to 50 (from 60)
- Tweaked the AoE of 37mm Halftrack HE rounds so that now there is some chance that infantry in the AoE gets lucky and won't take any damage (just as with any other HE rounds)
That is the content of this update. We hope you'll enjoy the new changes and if you run into any bugs, please report them here so we can work on fixing them.
Next update will bring fixes to reported issues and reworked Defensive doctrine of Wehrmacht.
We're bringing you a new update for the beta branch. This one addresses some of the issues reported about the reworked Blitzkrieg doctrine and also adds reworked Armor and Infantry Companies of the USA.
First of all, we wanted to address the issue of "OP" static howitzers. There have been suggestions to return them back to what they were but we did not want to do that because that would mean to make them useless again. In the posts you all mentioned various reasons why the howitzers were OP but in the end the biggest issue seemed to be the fact that there could be huge numbers of the howitzers distributed among the team and everybody could shoot barrages everywhere - so practically speaking, the power of a howitzer was not a problem but the number of the howitzers was a problem (or at least one of the problems). So one thing we changed here is that you cannot use the barrages of the static howitzers if you hadn't chosen one of the "Artillery" doctrines (Infantry, RA, Def or SE). You can still capture the howitzers with any doctrine but if you chose, let's say, Armor Company, the barrage ability of the howitzers will be "grey" and you will not be able to shoot it. This is there simply to make it impossible to "share" static howitzers with team mates and thus lower the number of howitzers in team games. Static howitzers are doctrine-specific units and thus are quite powerful but are not meant to be available to every doctrine, just as you cannot "give" your Panther to your SE team mate or as you cannot "give" your Commandos to your RE team mate. The veterancy bonuses per every level were also changed so that on higher levels they won't become too "shipy".
Another completely new thing this update brings is ammunition upkeep for howitzer units. The upkeep values are different based on the strength of each unit so weaker arty units (Pack howitzers, LeiG18, Autocar...) have a lot lower upkeep than Hummels, 210mm Nebels and other strong arty units. This is there to limit the usage of artillery through indirect means. If you play bigger maps with more ammo points you will be able to "feed" more arty units, on smaller maps with limited ammo income you will most likely be able to field about 2 arty units because more of them will lower your ammo income too much and then you won't be able to use other abilities which require ammunition. Thus you need to make decisions about how many arty units you actually need and can afford, instead of the "build as many as possible and shoot everywhere" tactics.
Another thing added in this update are turret rotation speeds for all armored cars - these had in reality turrets rotated manually but in the mod most of them rotated faster than tank turrets rotated with an engine. In the game then Pumas and Greyhounds could circle around tanks and keep shooting at full speed while the gun was always on target this should be harder to pull of now, but it is still possible. It also makes light tanks more suitable for this because they have faster turret speeds so they now differ from the armored cars a bit more.
The change about AT guns is there to make them a bit more useful again. The long aim times were introduced as a "fix" for the glitch abuse where you could bypass the reload times. However, with up to 4 seconds of aim times the AT guns were aiming forever and sometimes armored cars were able to drive all to way to them on a direct line and get pass them and the AT gun did not fire. Kwok came up with this other solution where the AT guns will have aim times of maximum of 2 seconds but the tear-down times are a lot longer. This prevents the abuse too and keeps the guns a bit more useful. This means that when a unit gets outside of the cone of fire and the gun wants to readjust the aim, it starts the tear down time so it limits the AT guns in a different way but with proper support they are a lot more useful with this change than they used to be and even more so for defending chokepoints.
The removal of over-repair is experimental. It just makes units a lot more durable than they should be for absolutely no drawback and this makes then the units harder to balance. Instead of the over-repair the units could rapair stuff faster, we'll see how that goes.
Blitzkrieg Doctrine
There have been complaints about the Combat group call in (mainly that it does not fit the "tank" unlock line and that it is too cheap for the units you can get) the call in has been swaped with the Blitzkrieg ability in unlock tree and it now always provides PIII N (upgraded with both ammo upgrades) and a Grenadier squad upgraded with StG44. This way the ability should stay useful even later in the game because an HE tank with upgraded infantry can have their use at any stage of the game (while StuGs and PIV H/J start getting obsolete when Allies bring their stronger tanks, you also know what you're getting with this ability so the danger of getting a vehicle which you don't need is eliminated.
Command bonuses of command tank no longer work on StuPa/StuH because having extra range for these units (they already had more than 60 by default) was getting insane.
StuH/StuPa were changed too. It was mentioned that their huge range makes it possible to kite enemy units at ranges where they can never shoot back and this kiting in combination with Panthers that the doctrine has now was deemed to be too strong. However, the main intended purpose of StuPa/StuH is to breake through defensive lines and they need the range for it (or they get counter-shot by any AT emplacement and die), so these units have normal range of 60 now but have an ability which allows them to shoot a projectile over range of 80 - this ability is payed per shot, cannot shoot into FoW and can only shoot at buildings/emplacements (so no, you cannot use it to attack tanks or infantry). So if you know there is a 17 pounder emplacement somewhere, you need to get vision at it from some spotter and then you can keep shooting at it from safe distance. Any other units can only be attacked at range with standard attack at range of 60.
There are also changes to the 37mm Halftrack of Blitz doctrine - people complained about it in the past and still complain about it now. It is an incredible infantry killing machine. It was a result of quite good accuracy, low scatter and high damage. We tried to bring it down a bit without making it useless. Now it has less range (all vehicles with HE mode have less range, only this one had full), bigger scatter (so when it rolls a miss, the shot can land farther away and miss the squad completely and also it has tweaked AoE penetration values so it is possible now that soldiers in the AoE get lucky and take no damage. It is still a killer against infantry without cover but the change should be notable against infantry in cover.
US Armor Company
The main change in Armor doctrine is reorganisation of the unlock tree. Now the tank tree is divided into a Tank Destroyer branch and Tank Branch. This requires players to choose based on situation rather than "always go down the same path because it always leads to SP". If you now rush the Pershing you might get overrun by PIV spam against which TDs could be useful, but they are now in a different branch so careful unlock selection can be crucial.
As far as units go, new addition is 105 Sherman, this Sherman, however, no longer has the barrage ability and works the same way as StuPa/StuH described above (direct fire, range 60 + ability that allows shooting at emplacements over longer range). So for artillery you still have TC offmap arty, then 105 Sherman for punching through defenses and then Calliope Sherman (still indirect unit). With this addition of 105 Sherman there was no reason for Scott to be there because the roles are the same but Sherman is more efficient while not so much more expensive, thus Scott is gone from Armor doctrine. There is also no longer a reward choice between M36 and M36B1. It is not like anyone ever used the B1 in Armor doctrine, simply because the ambush is superior element and for unambush combat you have Peshings with same gun and better chance to survive, so Armor doctrine alwas has only the M36.
The doctrine changes are aimed for more well-rounded doctrines and Armor doctrine lacked some special-purpose infantry. They got the Combat Engineers and also a new unlock which makes them a bit better at surviving. They are still purely close-range units and can lose to MP40 squads and will lose to StG44 squads but it provides some room for clearing obstacles and combat repairs.
76mm Sherman Jumbo was removed from Armor doctrine and replaced by 75mm Jumbo. With the improved strength of Jumbo armor it would be too strong to have the 76mm version in same doctrine as Pershings because it would allow for the Jumbo soak damage while the Pershings behind would take out any tanks and the enemy would not be able to charge at this combo because the 76mm gun at closer ranges can actually be dangerous even to Tigers and Panthers. This way if you use the Jumbo+Pershing combo, enemy can sort of ignore the Jumbo and try to go after the Pershing because the 75mm gun on Jumbo is not a threat.
Tank repair ability has been changed to require only tank Vet level 1 (this is for all doctrines). Field repairs are no longer an unlock, they are an upgrade now - this upgrade in WSC changes the tank repairs to "Advanced tank repairs" which allows to repair the tank faster but even this advanced ability still requires Vet level 1.
Infantry Company
Infantry doctrine did not get any extensive changes because it did not needed too many. For the unlock tree the biggest change is probably that the first three unlocks in the top line are now independent. This is because they all feel like very early-to-mid game unlocks and if you don't unlock them in those phases of the game, you probably don't need them later. This change should allow to the player to pick whatever he wants first, based on what the situation requires and thus Infantry players should get a strong presence in the early-to-mid game. The weapon upgrade cost drop unlock has been turned into an upgrade and is now available in WSC.
Since the 105 Sherman (which was the mobile arty of this doctrine) has been moved to Armor doctrine, the artillery path now has a Priest in it at the end. This priest can only use the standard barrage and can also be upgraded with the Flame shots but has no other abilities which the CW Priest has. It is also built in the Tank Depot so you need to pay fuel for it. Still apply the ammunition upkeep values mentioned above so for infantry doctrine it will not be very easy to "feed" several static howitzers and Priests at the same time because the upkeep will lower the ammo income so much that the player won't be able to shoot them all.
Infantry doctrine always had to rely on their arty or team mates to destroy enemy heavy tanks, now they got a reward option to choose between either the 76mm Jumbo or the M36B1. So you can either get a unit with strong armor and relatively weak gun or a unit with weak armor but a strong main gun. For now the Limits are set to 1 for Jumbo and 2 for M36B1 - the Jackson is still pretty expensive and if you build 2 to go against heavy tanks, you are very likely to lose of them in the fight, so it is sort of 1 for 1 situation.
Infantry doctrine now also got the Scott - it again has the same changes as the StuH/StuPa/105 Sherman so it can be used to take out emplacements (with the long range shot) or to support infantry pushes with its direct fire.
So now for the complete changelog:
General:
- Barrage abilities of static howitzers are only useable by artillery doctrines now
- Added ammunition upkeep to artillery units:
-- Pack howitzer, LeiG18, Autocar, Scott: 5 munition
-- Calli Jeep/Sherman, Maultier, 150mm Nebels, 95mm Cromwell/Churchill, 25 pounders: 8 munition
-- 105mm arty (US/WM howitzers), Priests, Wespe, Stuka HT, Hotchkiss, 105 Sherman, StuH42: 12 munition
-- 210mm Nebels, Hummels, Sturmtiger, Grille, StuPa: 15 munition
- Removed unit limit on static howitzers
- Added forgotten fuel upkeep to Sturmtiger (4.56)
- Greyhound, Staghound, 50mm Puma, Damiler Scout Car and most Axis Armored Cars and Halftracks with 20mm cannon turret have their turret rotation speed lowered to "18" (from various values)
- Mine laying time reduced to 5 seconds
- Democharge planting time reduced to 14-16 seconds
- Removed Over-repair from all factions that had it
- Static howitzers now gain 5% faster reload per Vet level (was 10% per level) and 5% scatter reduction at level 3 and 4 (was -10% at every Vet level)
- Increased basic damage of Stuart HE rounds to 50 (from 40)
- Changed accuracy against infantry for Stuart HE rounds - now basic accuracy is unchanged and gets lowered by 25% when the infantry is moving (from "-25% no matter if they are moving or not)
- Significantly shortened aim time of AT guns but added a long tear-down time
US - Armor Company:
- M24 Chaffee has now same ambush bonuses as any other vehicle
- Reorganised command tree unlocks
- Field Repairs removed from the unlock tree
- Tank Repair ability cost drop to 35 ammo (from 50)
- Added Sherman 105 (has no barrage ability, can fire directly at normal range + long range with ability; requires unlock)
- Combat Engineers moved into Armor doctrine (from Infantry doctrine)
- Added an unlock into command tree which improves performance of Combat Engineers (adds satchel charges, CE take less damage)
- Added Field Repairs upgrade to the Weapon Support Center (unlocks Advanced Tank Repair ability; still requires Vet1)
- "Allied Warmachine" and "Rapid production" unlocks merged together (when you unlock the Warmachine ability, your Motorpool and Tank depot produce units faster)
- Increased range of "Commander Off-map Barrage" to 90 (from 70)
- Lowered the cost of Smoke Cloud abilities on Shermans to 15 ammo (from 50)
- 76mm Jumbo removed
- Added the 75mm Jumbo
- Recon buff from Command car no longer affects tank destroyers
- Removed reward choice between M36 and M36B1 (Armor doc now only has access to M36)
- Removed M8 Scott
US - Infantry Company:
- Fast Deployment, Defensive Operations and Mass Deployment unlocks are now separate unlocks
- Weapon Upgrade Cost Reduction changed from an unlock to an upgrade in WSC (100MP 80Ammo)
- 75mm Jumbo removed
- Added a reward choice between 76mm Jumbo (limited to 1 at time) or M36B1 (limited to 2 at time)
- Changed the armor strength of M36B1 to about the same as 76mm Shermans
- Removed 105mm Sherman
- Added Priest as a mobile arty unit
- M8 Scott is now available in Infantry Company
- Lowered basic range of Scott to 60, increased scatter and lowered accuracy against moving targets
- Added a long range shot ability for Scott (can be used only against buildings
Wehrmacht:
- Camouflage ability of StuG IV no longer requires Veterancy level 1
- Cost of Battlegroup call in set to 700MP (from 850MP)
- Battle group now always provides upgraded PIII N and Grenadier squad
- Command tank bonuses no longer affect StuPa and StuH
- StuH and StuPa no longer gain scatter reduction with Veterancy levels
- Lowered range of StuPa to 60
- Increased the scatter of StuPa
- Significantly lowered accuracy of StuPa against movig targets
- Added "Long Shot" ability to StuPa (fires one shot at range 80, 45 ammo per shot; only targetable at emplacements and buildings)
- Lowered range of StuH to 60
- Increased the scatter of StuH
- Significantly lowered accuracy of StuH against movig targets
- Added "Long Shot" ability to StuH (fires one shot at range 85, 25 ammo per shot; only targetable at emplacements and buildings)
- Panzer IV D removed from Blitzkrieg doctrine
- Panzer III N added to Blitzkrieg doctrine
- Ammunition reserves unlock now also lowers the activation cost of Wolfram ammunition ability to 35 ammo (from 50)
- Ostwind removed from Blitzkrieg doctrine
- Flakpanzer 38(t) "Gepard" moved to Blitzkrieg doctrine (from Defense doctrine)
- Changed the Recon bonus of Command tank, now it provides +10 vision range and detection of enemy tanks in FoW at range of 70
- Lowered maximum range of HE rounds of 37mm Halftrack to 50 (from 60)
- Tweaked the AoE of 37mm Halftrack HE rounds so that now there is some chance that infantry in the AoE gets lucky and won't take any damage (just as with any other HE rounds)
That is the content of this update. We hope you'll enjoy the new changes and if you run into any bugs, please report them here so we can work on fixing them.
Next update will bring fixes to reported issues and reworked Defensive doctrine of Wehrmacht.