Balancing PLA
Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 8:20 pm
Aside from some minor bugbears mentioned already (Mass Type 59Ds vs. Abrams, U.S. mines not working, flamethrowers being very powerful, Asymmetric Warfare having some dead abilities), I think PLA is a relatively well balanced, versatile faction. There are some minor changes I would bring up for consideration for fine tuning though.
Militia: Militia are maybe a little too effective for their cost, especially en masse (though not as effective as flamethrowers). Suggest increasing build cost to 250 from 240, and increase reinforce cost from 21 to 22.
Regulars: Regulars seem to die very, very quickly relative to Army Riflemen, and the marksman rifle upgrades don't seem to appreciably increase their damage output when not using Marksman Shot in my experience. I would probably suggest somewhere around a 10% health increase.
Tank Hunters: One unit of Tank Hunters w/extra RPG can completely nullify a fast Stryker or LAV, which is a major step up from the deterrent that having a single schreck gren squad would be to a fast M8. Tank Hunters seem to be quite accurate at long ranges, and it only takes 3 shots to destroy a Stryker or LAV unless it's got level 1 defensive veterancy or cage armor. M8s are similarly easy to destroy, but panzerschrecks are significantly less accurate, and significantly more expensive to get access to. Suggest lowering RPG-7 accuracy vs. Strykers, LAVs, and Marine APCs by probably 10 percentage points at medium and long ranges, and give Regulars access to a sticky-bomb like ability. Alternatively, give Militia the ability to purchase sticky-bombs as a per-squad upgrade for 25 munitions per squad, unlockable by building Tier 2 or Tier 3. This second option would give Tier-1 to Tier-3 strategies some additional help to prevent their first AT gun from being circle-strafed by a fast vehicle tech, while not giving PLA access to anti-tank abilities directly in tier 1.
105mm cannon accuracy vs. vehicles: Both the ZBD-05 105mm cannon and the Type 59D 105mm cannon seem to be quite inaccurate against vehicles. It can be seen in a couple of my replays that a ZBD-05 with 105mm upgrade is not able to kill a Humvee. It takes 3 shots from the 105mm cannon to kill the Humvee, and I'll be lucky if 2 out of 5 shots hit (though some of these are while on the move). Similarly, the Type 59D seems to miss most other vehicles at medium ranges more than I would expect.
Tier 4 Anti-Tank specialist: I've mentioned before (in relations to countering Abrams) that PLA lacks any kind of effective tier-4 mobile anti-tank. This next part is purely speculative not based on any in-game experience, but I think it's an interesting idea. Move the ZTZ-96 to tier 4, price it like a Panther, and make it ineffective against infantry, like a Panther. Replace the "Last Push" ability in Full Mobilization with an Off-Map Combat Group-like ability, priced at 900 or 1000 manpower. Last Push would guarantee a Regular squad (maybe upgraded?) and one Anti-tank unit, and one additional unit (anti-infantry or anti-tank), with the potential for another anti-infantry unit if popcap allows. The list of anti-infantry units would be: Regulars, MG, mortar, 30mm ZBD-05. The list of anti-tank units would be: Tank Hunters (w/ extra RPG), AT gun, the Full Mob doctrinal tank destroyer, and Type 59D. "Last Push" basically makes me think of throwing everything you've got left at a problem, and that's pretty much how OMCG works out most of the time it seems.
Thoughts?
Militia: Militia are maybe a little too effective for their cost, especially en masse (though not as effective as flamethrowers). Suggest increasing build cost to 250 from 240, and increase reinforce cost from 21 to 22.
Regulars: Regulars seem to die very, very quickly relative to Army Riflemen, and the marksman rifle upgrades don't seem to appreciably increase their damage output when not using Marksman Shot in my experience. I would probably suggest somewhere around a 10% health increase.
Tank Hunters: One unit of Tank Hunters w/extra RPG can completely nullify a fast Stryker or LAV, which is a major step up from the deterrent that having a single schreck gren squad would be to a fast M8. Tank Hunters seem to be quite accurate at long ranges, and it only takes 3 shots to destroy a Stryker or LAV unless it's got level 1 defensive veterancy or cage armor. M8s are similarly easy to destroy, but panzerschrecks are significantly less accurate, and significantly more expensive to get access to. Suggest lowering RPG-7 accuracy vs. Strykers, LAVs, and Marine APCs by probably 10 percentage points at medium and long ranges, and give Regulars access to a sticky-bomb like ability. Alternatively, give Militia the ability to purchase sticky-bombs as a per-squad upgrade for 25 munitions per squad, unlockable by building Tier 2 or Tier 3. This second option would give Tier-1 to Tier-3 strategies some additional help to prevent their first AT gun from being circle-strafed by a fast vehicle tech, while not giving PLA access to anti-tank abilities directly in tier 1.
105mm cannon accuracy vs. vehicles: Both the ZBD-05 105mm cannon and the Type 59D 105mm cannon seem to be quite inaccurate against vehicles. It can be seen in a couple of my replays that a ZBD-05 with 105mm upgrade is not able to kill a Humvee. It takes 3 shots from the 105mm cannon to kill the Humvee, and I'll be lucky if 2 out of 5 shots hit (though some of these are while on the move). Similarly, the Type 59D seems to miss most other vehicles at medium ranges more than I would expect.
Tier 4 Anti-Tank specialist: I've mentioned before (in relations to countering Abrams) that PLA lacks any kind of effective tier-4 mobile anti-tank. This next part is purely speculative not based on any in-game experience, but I think it's an interesting idea. Move the ZTZ-96 to tier 4, price it like a Panther, and make it ineffective against infantry, like a Panther. Replace the "Last Push" ability in Full Mobilization with an Off-Map Combat Group-like ability, priced at 900 or 1000 manpower. Last Push would guarantee a Regular squad (maybe upgraded?) and one Anti-tank unit, and one additional unit (anti-infantry or anti-tank), with the potential for another anti-infantry unit if popcap allows. The list of anti-infantry units would be: Regulars, MG, mortar, 30mm ZBD-05. The list of anti-tank units would be: Tank Hunters (w/ extra RPG), AT gun, the Full Mob doctrinal tank destroyer, and Type 59D. "Last Push" basically makes me think of throwing everything you've got left at a problem, and that's pretty much how OMCG works out most of the time it seems.
Thoughts?