COMMANDER REVAMP PART 1 - THE BRITISH FORCES

We kick off the first round of changes coming with the Commander Revamp by looking at the British Forces. As with all December Balance Preview changes, the changes proposed below are NOT FINAL and will be put through weeks of iteration as we listen to your feedback and continue to test the changes in action. We encourage the community to test and play these changes as much as possible and give any feedback they may have in the Commander Revamp Feedback thread located in the Balance Feedback section of these forums.

If you would like to test these and all upcoming Commander Revamp changes, make sure to SUBSCRIBE to the December Balance Preview on the Steam Workshop.

Please note that you can only test the DBP changes via Custom Games by selecting the mod in the lobby's Options menu under

"Tuning Pack".





BRITISH

Commandos Regiment

The major limiting factors of the Commandos Regiment commander is that, most of the abilities are extremely map-dependent. At the same time, we feel that the low accessibility of the Commandos, as well as Commando’s poor synergy with the faction hurts the commanders versatility.

While Mortar Cover and Air Supremacy are extremely strong abilities by themselves, we feel this commander fails to provide any long-term sustainable abilities. The commander has been reworked to support aggressive infantry-oriented play. Since the commander is extremely munitions based, most of the abilities have been reworked to provide a smaller, but more concentrated effect for an affordable cost.

Commando Glider

We feel that one of the issue of infantry-oriented British builds is the lack of field presence that stems from lack of on-map reinforcement options.

Cost decreased from 500 to 390

CP decreased from 4 to 3

Cooldown decreased from 240 secs to 60 secs

Infantry can now reinforce from glider in enemy territory

Commandos (affects all variants)

Commandos’ most powerful ability is throwing gammon bombs. We find that the Commando SMGs suffer from poor moving performance and tends to typically under perform. At the same time, Commandos’ ambush “bonus” which triggers a non-voluntary sprint is extremely powerful vs weapon teams and Grenadiers, but is becomes a liability vs OKW infantry. Finally, Commandos earn little benefit in terms of combat bonuses with their veterancy.

Base stats

Moving accuracy from 0.65 to 0.75

Reinforcement time reduced from 8.5 seconds to 7.25 seconds

*Popcap reduced from 10 to 9

Light Gammon Bombs

Gammon bomb timer increased from 1 to 1.25

Damage decreased from 120 to 100

AoE distance decreased from 1.25/2.5/3.75 to 1/2.1/3.75

AoE damage far increased from 0.25 to 0.3

Cost increased from 35 to 40

Smoke Grenade Ability

Moved from Vet 1 to Vet 0

Now blocks fire and vision

Cost increased to 25 from 15

Does not break stealth when fired

Shares a cooldown with Gammon bomb ability

Ambush

Sprint bonus from ambush (+50% speed for 5 seconds) changed to +35% speed for 2.5 seconds

Commandos can now fire their weapons while moving when the Ambush bonus is active

Sprint bonus now requires Veterancy 2

Veterancy

Self heal moved from Veterancy 3 to Veterancy 1

Vet 2 accuracy modifier increased from +25% to +30%

Vet 3 now provides a Receive Accuracy bonus of 0.9

Smoke raid

We are changing this ability to benefit all British squads but, again, keep its scope small, targeted and sustainable. The ability now revolves around ambushing, and making advances over enemy territory using smoke.

Now a targeted ability that affects a large area (can only be targeted in enemy sector or frontline territory, so as not to conceal the stealth effect)

Smoke

Delivers LOS blocking smoke at the target location

All infantry units will cloak during the duration of this ability, when in cover.

Light cover smoke is dropped on non-commando infantry every 15 seconds. Does not apply to commandos.

Decap speed

Now applies properly to all squads

Assault

We are changing the way the ability works to give it a more offensive nature.

Accuracy bonus and speed increase now affects all infantry squads.

Sprint replaced by 25% speed increase allowing units to fire on the move

Accuracy bonus reduced from 25% to 15%

Tommies gain +100% accuracy on the move. Does not apply to heavy weapons

Cost reduced from 100MU to 90MU

Duration from 60 seconds to 45

Mortar Cover

Now covers a selected area with a radius of 25m (no longer an entire sector)

Recharge time reduced from 240 seconds to 120 seconds

Cost decreased from 150MU to 130MU

Air Supremacy

A recon plane will now fly over the area before being followed by autocannon armed Typhoons that will strafe vehicles and infantry once. Three heavy bombers will follow up afterwards, bombing the area.

Cost decreased from 325 to 250





Royal Engineer Regiment

We find that the primary downsides of this commander are poor synergy with the faction, as well as highly-situational abilities. To improve its viability and utility, we have made the following changes:

Stand Fast

The player now must target an emplacement they would like the ability to affect

Brace and healing is reduced during combat by 50%

Cost reduced from 50 to 40.

Vehicle Repair

The player now must target a vehicle they would like the ability to affect

Recharge time from 120s to 45s

Cost from 100 to 40

Effects end when the vehicle is fully healed.

Command Vehicle

We are readjusting some of the most extreme risk-reward elements of the ability to allow it to be integrated in more strategies.

Command Vehicle no longer affected by a speed penalty or a received accuracy penalty. Still retains the -50% accuracy and the +100% reload time modifier.

AVRE Petard mortar abilities now affected by the reload time increase

Aura no longer affects emplacements

Command Vehicle recon cost to 50 munitions

Loiter time reduced from 90 to 45.

Command Vehicle Aura

Accuracy decreased from +35% to +20%

Cooldown bonus decreased from -30% to -20%

Reload bonus reduced from -30% to -20%

Received accuracy modifier removed

AVRE

Projectile arc changed to match Sturmtiger (will not fly over most obstacles, but will almost always collide with vehicles in front of the AVRE)

Reload time increased from 30 secs to 40 secs

Cost changed from 600MP/140FU to 560MP/160FU

Rotation rate from 35 to 30

HP reduced from 1400 to 1080

Armour increased from 240 to 270

Anti-Building Mortar Support

We find that the ability is extremely map dependent and thus limited in use. The building-destroying aspect of the ability is often unneeded, as the ARE can perform similar duties with greater flexibility. To improve the abilities usefulness and effectiveness, the following changes have been made: