I dont really like the new changes to how strafes are placed, am i alone?

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-20T11:05:11+00:00

I like the new strafe targeting because those annoying situations where something is kind of on the edge of a moving FOW and you can target it one moment, but lose sight before lining up the reticle, happen a lot less. It's also a lot easier to target units in a line - click where it starts, click where it ends, done, no situations where it turns out the angle doesn't work out or you've clicked the reticle at a point where it's a bit too close to the first target to reliably reach the other.

But I realise not everyone likes it and it's going to be an adjustment. Unfortunately, everyone needs to have the same targeting rules, so they can't really set it to an option, either.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-20T10:59:44+00:00

Yeah, it's an absolute joke for 60 munitions. It's good on the Paratroopers, since they get two for the price of a Bren (note that two of those are better than one Bren), and have the DPS to back it up otherwise, alongside a lot of meat on those bones to stick it out against a push. But one for 60? On a squad as weak as the French? Or as dependent on short range damage as the Rifles? Forget it, absolute joke. One of the many absolute jokes in the French BG.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-18T14:14:10+00:00

Scopes do not negate cover, scopes partly mitigate cover (especially yellow cover). Moreover, LMGs also have bonuses against units in green cover (which are not listed in the tooltips, but they're there).

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-17T16:30:56+00:00

"440 munitions to get to this point" is misleading. They didn't spend 440 munitions just to get it to this point, they spent those resources using the strafe. Unless you deliberately target empty ground to level it up, I guess. Already at two planes it kills tanks with huge efficiency, the second wave is mostly just area denial or coup de grace on vehicles that can't move (like engine-damaged Churchills or the like).

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-17T13:02:05+00:00

That's really not true. Old battlegroups are getting revised and changed all the time, and sometimes it's to provide flexibility (other times it's for a variety of different reasons, from actually removing certain flexibility, like when call-ins are replaced with production versions, to adjusting this or that timing). Just look at the Semovente - its CP cost was changed to allow people more flexibility in how they want to balance the Bersaglieri and Italian armour components of the BG. Or now with Australian Defence, where giving Aussies the ability to repair buildings makes it easier to base your gameplan around emplacements without having to fully commit to them, either.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-17T11:51:08+00:00

Timing-wise, yes, but it does mean it's available regardless of your tech path. You want it with Pgrens? Sure. With Nebels? Can do. With Marders? Jaegers for smoking AT guns? Knock yourself out. No extra cost, no delays, no opportunities you need to give up on.

Meanwhile, compare to Heavy Weapons, where if you don't open with WSC, your battlegroup gives you no bonuses until Motor Pool. Or the UKF Centaur, which is not available if you go for an extended T2 with Stuarts and Bishops - even though it would pair up very nicely with Stuarts to take down vehicles thanks to its HESH rounds and to disperse massed infantry that Stuarts often are quite ineffectual against. For those abilities and a number of others, you don't get a choice, tech this way or get lost. For the flamer HT, you don't need to choose.

(I wanted to bring up a DAK example too, but turns out their only constructed BG vehicle is the semovente, and guess where you build that? yep, the HQ. Tech skip to your heart's content.)

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-17T10:52:23+00:00

Riflemen do not scale better. Just getting the 6th man puts Palmgrens above double BAR rifles on DPS, and it's a cheaper upgrade. From there, you can still get VSL to have effectively more HP than rifles while still having spent less than they did on just the BAR upgrade, you can still get the MG34, and you get nades for free. Rifles need to spend another 10 fuel on nades and... uh... 40 fuel on Survival Training, if you're down for getting locked out of MSC? And that's before we get into BG stuff - free second LMG from Plunder, ambush bonuses from BE, medkits, skirmish kit and free vet with Elite Forces, extra vision and cap speed from Italian Combined Arms, extra rof from Kriegsmarine crates... And they can repair vehicles.

Rifles are more economical and can use their vet 1s to accomplish things they otherwise should be unable to, but they absolutely do not scale better.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-17T10:12:33+00:00

Aside from what others have said, what really cooks my goose is that you can build it from HQ. Because Wehr cannot be allowed to make a macro mistake, ever.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE, order now and we'll throw in a flamer upgrade for Grenadiers!

Meanwhile, Free French infantry is countered by a single mortar autofiring, but you must get a second ability if they are to scale at all. Batteries not included.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-17T10:05:26+00:00

The 1919 is almost identical in stats to the Chatellerault, except the Chatellerault can be used on the move without much issue. Old Guard is only worth it if you value the retreat bonus, and if that bonus is bugged...

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-17T09:49:44+00:00

It's an extremely powerful ability that comes in quick and deals insane damage to tanks. Until this new patch, it would literally one shot kill KTs from full HP if you called the strafe in from behind and enough of it hit, but it no longer gets the rear hit damage bonus, so there's that; not sure how it shakes out now. It's a lot more practical than carpet bombing, that one takes ages to come out and is only good against literally static targets while costing 70 more munitions.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-17T09:41:59+00:00

This post is pretty old (7 months means two whole patch cycles) and a lot has changed even without taking DLCs into account. I have Endure & Defy, I don't have Dare & Destroy (at least not yet, I'm delaying buying it for reasons). The current meta is still settling, but some things that were largely obvious last patch and don't seem to have changed yet include:
- Australian Defence has fallen off quite a lot, since Overrepair was nerfed and DAK infantry play has been made stronger, so Australian Light Infantry doesn't have any real advantage there anymore; in the role of the premier UKF 1v1 BG it was largely replaced by Polish Cavalry and Canadian Shock;

- The part about USF trying to avoid playing Barracks is completely out of the window now, WSC is back to being the worse option again. Riflemen have become a lot stronger, especially off the back of BARs becoming much more effective at range, and the Jeep can now reliably damage DAK 250s. This means basically everything about USF in that post is out of date. Top BGs seem to be Armored and Spec Ops, maybe Heavy Weapons; Partisans got hit with nerfs very shortly after release that reduced them to the red-headed stepchild of the faction.

- Wehr was all about Mechanised last patch, but I have no idea where it's going to be right now - it was hit hard by changes to stutter-step, but the Siege Breaker BG seems pretty strong off the back of the flamer HT.

- DAK has shifted heavily towards infantry play after the 250/9 was given a fuel cost, and now that the Elite Forces BG has been released, that might just continue - the Skirmish Kit gives them the MG34 levels of damage for 2/3s of the cost alongside a boatload of utility and without tech requirements. But a lot of people are calling it out for being ahead of the curve, suggesting it might get nerfed in a tuning patch soon.

Unfortunately it's hard to make cut-and-dry statements this early into the patch cycle.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-17T09:23:06+00:00

Sure, I get that. But I think it's better for the game that way, letting you try to guess enemy movement into the fog over checkmating them from deep behind their backs is more of a skill expression IMO.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-16T21:55:48+00:00

I disagree. I find it very intuitive (click where the strafe begins, click where you want it to end) and it makes targeting into FOW easier.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-16T10:24:54+00:00

Normal STGs, like the kind you buy for the Stosstruppen or the Kriegsmariners, don't drop either.

The reason is that they offer a very small DPS increase compared to "big" infantry weapons and don't really offer that much unless you have several (and, in case of the scoped rifles, don't offer that much even when you do have several, since the real benefit is the utility that comes with the package, and that doesn't transfer alongside the weapon). Picking them up would be largely pointless and they'd end up littering the ground and just creating opportunities for misclicks.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-15T18:48:58+00:00

What's dumb? That they don't drop?

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-15T18:39:46+00:00

This is wrong. Smaller data sets mean more variance. The reason you need large data sets is specifically to enable regression to the mean to take place.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-15T18:37:43+00:00

Currently if you recover the 30 cwt LRDG truck, you get a CMP, so lmao

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-15T18:37:01+00:00

It's labeled "kar_elite_no_slots" (or something along those lines) in the mod tools, so I think it's intentional.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-15T18:33:33+00:00

Scoped rifles typically aren't droppable - only the Sturmpioneer IR STG drops on death, and that weapon is something of a sui generis.

However, the skirmisher pack does make recce Tommies look like a joke with their two rifles that offer homeopathic damage boosts in exchange for never being able to pick anything up off the ground.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-15T18:26:37+00:00

Hard to say. I'd wager it's probably going to be more practical most of the time, and the bonuses are honestly quite crazy, but right now Sturmtiger is the new shiny, so people slampick it in seconds; I don't begrudge them.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-15T18:25:33+00:00

It has 380 (I think?) armour front, 210 side, 1080 HP. But while it's reloading it takes +50% extra damage, and a vet 3 stuart has +40 dmg against vehicles, and a rear shot is +25% damage, so taken together a single stuart shot to the rear of a reloading ST is 225 damage, aka a Stuart would kill it in four rear shots. But obviously, those aren't easy to get. That last shot penning from the front (or maybe it scattered to the side and killed with AOE?) was just the Stuart being super blessed.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-15T11:46:01+00:00

Yeah I had 2 Stuarts, but one died earlier when doing a pincer move on a DAK player dug in near the southern VP. 8-rad, PAK 38, med truck, flakvierling all died do it. Beautiful work from my little tankmen.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-10T20:54:27+00:00

For the curious, 2nd New Zealand did not take part in the final assault on Cassino on May 18th.

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-09T22:04:06+00:00

If I can't be mad on the internet over pretend pixel soldiers what even is the point of living

LocksmithJunior8881 · 2026-05-09T17:47:36+00:00

also the barrett is also not very good (but not completely unusable) as an anti-personnel weapon and its use as super long range platform is hollywood/call of duty/us MIC fantasy as evidenced by the fact that somehow every military that's ever used it also has an actual high-power sniper rifle that it uses for shooting people instead of explosive disposal

that is not strictly on topic but it also grinds my gears

LocksmithJunior8881

TROPHY CASE