Everyone knows about it: the meta MRLS stack. Hard to counter, and obliterates most other combos. The state of MRLS is very controversial. It makes units like Towed Arty and Mobile Arty useless by taking their combined strength and slapping a huge range on it. I propose a change that is realistic and would help balance this out:
Towed and Mobile Arty have relatively small ranges, so they can hit their targets fairly soon after firing. MRLS has a massive range, and these rockets could be taking minutes to reach their targets.
MRLS does 50% less (maybe less if 50% is overkill) damage to moving targets. Here is my reasoning:
Artillery in war is used with the main purpose of breaking enemy entrenchment. If the enemy is fortified to hell d-day style and your units can’t plow through, artillery is a key component that can force them out of their fortification and into the open where they are vulnerable. MRLS is hell for the enemy units. Their fortifications are suddenly not very useful when rocket rain is killing them left right and center. But there is a big factor the game is not taking into account: Moving targets. Traditional artillery is ineffective vs moving targets. No amount of skill will allow artillery men to consistently score direct hits on moving trucks and tanks. This is stuff only futuristic guided artillery and guided missiles can pull off.
Artillery, from my knowledge, is usually guided with fire missions. Infantry scout calls the fire mission in, and the artillery shoots exactly where the scout wants. If the artillery missed and hit 20m west of the target, the scout tells him to adjust 20m east and fire again. For moving targets, this is not realistic. When your MRLS rockets take minutes to get there, the chance of you actually hitting the thing could be millions to one. You would have to fire rockets all over the place and hope it hits something along the path, considerably less effective than nailing them when they are still. Remember that this is not world war 2. Armies are not slowly marching up to the Arty, they are high tailing it with trucks and tanks at speeds of 40+ MPH. Take into consideration that for these rockets to travel as far as they do they have to carry a light payload, meaning tanks would need direct hits to take critical damage.
I think the game needs something like this to keep MRLS in check. With the nerf, it would lean more towards the CoW railroad gun, a more strategic weapon for dealing with distant armies. The MRLS would retain its role as a powerful weapon for ruining enemy entrenchment, but would not be a killing machine with 100 radius and need units protecting it from a rush. It would also mean that there would be more space for tactics to use in conjunction. I could use an infantry unit to roadblock the enemy tank, forcing it to stop and get rocketed until it retreats or dies. With the new season 6 landmine rumors, I could use land mines to protect my MRLS from a rush and blow up those pesky infantry.
Thoughts?
Towed and Mobile Arty have relatively small ranges, so they can hit their targets fairly soon after firing. MRLS has a massive range, and these rockets could be taking minutes to reach their targets.
MRLS does 50% less (maybe less if 50% is overkill) damage to moving targets. Here is my reasoning:
Artillery in war is used with the main purpose of breaking enemy entrenchment. If the enemy is fortified to hell d-day style and your units can’t plow through, artillery is a key component that can force them out of their fortification and into the open where they are vulnerable. MRLS is hell for the enemy units. Their fortifications are suddenly not very useful when rocket rain is killing them left right and center. But there is a big factor the game is not taking into account: Moving targets. Traditional artillery is ineffective vs moving targets. No amount of skill will allow artillery men to consistently score direct hits on moving trucks and tanks. This is stuff only futuristic guided artillery and guided missiles can pull off.
Artillery, from my knowledge, is usually guided with fire missions. Infantry scout calls the fire mission in, and the artillery shoots exactly where the scout wants. If the artillery missed and hit 20m west of the target, the scout tells him to adjust 20m east and fire again. For moving targets, this is not realistic. When your MRLS rockets take minutes to get there, the chance of you actually hitting the thing could be millions to one. You would have to fire rockets all over the place and hope it hits something along the path, considerably less effective than nailing them when they are still. Remember that this is not world war 2. Armies are not slowly marching up to the Arty, they are high tailing it with trucks and tanks at speeds of 40+ MPH. Take into consideration that for these rockets to travel as far as they do they have to carry a light payload, meaning tanks would need direct hits to take critical damage.
I think the game needs something like this to keep MRLS in check. With the nerf, it would lean more towards the CoW railroad gun, a more strategic weapon for dealing with distant armies. The MRLS would retain its role as a powerful weapon for ruining enemy entrenchment, but would not be a killing machine with 100 radius and need units protecting it from a rush. It would also mean that there would be more space for tactics to use in conjunction. I could use an infantry unit to roadblock the enemy tank, forcing it to stop and get rocketed until it retreats or dies. With the new season 6 landmine rumors, I could use land mines to protect my MRLS from a rush and blow up those pesky infantry.
Thoughts?
Yee Haw