You know what's coming!

This is the third and perhaps final instalment of my redesign series (I haven't decided if I want to look at US yet). For those who have not read my previous redesign proposals, these are:

- DAK: https://community.companyofheroes.com/coh-franchise-home/company-of-heroes-3/forums/9-coh3-feedback/threads/3632-the-dak-redesign

- Wehr: https://community.companyofheroes.com/coh-franchise-home/company-of-heroes-3/forums/9-coh3-feedback/threads/5082-wehr-design-proposals

You might want to check those out first! Otherwise, let's get into it. This is what I would do to redesign Brits. Unlike Wehr and very much like DAK, I feel Brits could do with a redesign.

Current Design

My issues with the Brits current design include:

- Extremely linear! This has to be the most linear faction ever created in the Coh franchise. It makes them really boring to play with and predictable to play against. I know I'm not the only one who thinks this. 

- Lack of unit diversity. Brits really don't have many units relative to the other factions.

- Lack of side upgrades. Brits only have 4 side upgrades (5 if you include grenades) and they're all really generic and uninteresting.

- A plethora of tanks in the final tier with overlapping roles. While its clear that the Matilda, Grant and Crusader have their differences, they're not exactly stark.

- A lack of AA options. There's only the AA truck (in the base faction), whereas factions like Wehr and DAK have significantly more.

- Bishop is locked away in a side tier. Its hard to imagine this seeing much play in 1v1.

- Some of the abilities are poorly designed. Passive repair on the Stuart for example, takes no skill to use. Grant has free damage buff ability. Rifle grenades are so fast they're almost impossible to dodge.

- Lack of repair options, just Sappers, that's it.

These are basically the issues I want to address in my changes. Some are more prescient than others, myself, I wanted to tackle the linear design and lack of diversity the most.

New Design 

Description

First off, the units in the headquarters are getting largely switched out. Vickers is out and the Dingo and Sections are in. The  CMP Truck is also in, but you require either T2 or the Fuel Depot to produce it and the HQ also contains 3 upgrades, the infantry vet upgrade, grenades and field entrenchments which allow Tommies to build sandbags and wire. Oddly enough, it seems that its a bug that they can't now, as they have the construction abilities in the game files but nothing unlocks them, so I don't know if this is fixing a bug or adding a feature.

Then we come to the first big change, T1 vs T2 start. T1 contains the Vickers, the Mortar and the 6pdr. It also contains the support weapon vet upgrade. T2, which is considerably more expensive, unlocks the Humber and the Bofors gun team. It also contains the vet upgrade for light vehicles as well as the Stuart, however the Stuart requires the Fuel Depot to be researched. This upgrade (or potentially building) has essentially the exact same role as the Supply Yard for US in Coh1, ie it buffers late game tech. The Fuel Depot can be researched when either T1 or T2 has been constructed and as aforementioned, it unlocks the CMP Truck and the Stuart.

Then you have yet another divergence, either to T3 or T4. T3 is the earlier of the two tiers, coming at 40 fuel, however it only contains Foot Guards at base tech. You then have two side techs, which are sequential rather than branching. You first have to upgrade 'Vehicle Reserves', which basically acts as Tier 3.5, this unlocks the Crusader and the Bishop and then you have another side upgrade which I basically called Tier 3.75 which unlocks the 17pdr.

Alternatively, you can go T4, which is considerably more expensive but give you access immediately to the Grant, the Archer and the Matilda. It also has the upgrade for Vet for medium vehicles.

Changes to battlegroups include basically tying all the call in vehicles to Tech. The Crusader AA requires either T3 or T4, the Centaur requires either T3.5 or T4 and the Churchill requires either T3.75 or T4.

The Logic

My first target was to get rid of that linear tech structure, we now have 2 tier options. T1 is more of a classic support weapon heavy tier, giving you all the tools you could need, however, if you want to get a light vehicle, you can get the Fuel Depot, call in the CWT Truck and upgrade it to the AA version. This acts as a great niche for this upgrade, as it allows you to skip the expensive T2 alternative but yet still have a light harassment vehicle. In terms of timings, it arrives relatively early, 50 fuel, the closest equivalents would be the DAK AA halftrack which also arrives at 55 fuel, the Stummel which arrives at 65 fuel and the 221 which arrives at 50 fuel. This Tier basically speaks for itself, it gives you a strong line up of support weapons.

In terms of doing this in the MOD, there are substantial limitations in terms of changes that can be made to the HQ, so I've had to commandeer the Barracks for both the HQ Tier and T1:

The first row and the third row are basically the HQ, as well as the Fuel Depot upgrade. The MG Icon unlocks T1 and the T1 upgrade. Now, T2 is much more of a light vehicle rush orientated tier. 

The Humber comes at a really early 60 Fuel, which if you compare it to the 8 rad  or Stud D which both come at 85 Fuel, gives it plenty of free reign but also makes sense given the relative power between these units. The inclusion of the Bofors to me makes a lot of sense on many levels. The first is that for this timing, the Bofors makes a lot of sense, as like the Flak 30, it can be a soft counter to vehicles, but also perform area of denial for infantry. Given that it requires to be towed, it will be far less mobile than the Flak 30, and would actually work really well with both the Stuart and the Humber, as the Bofors can provide a 'no fly zone' of safety to both of these units. We don't really get to see enough of the towing mechanics, the Flak 36 is the only unit that really needs it, so having this early unit would show off the feature. The Bofors also would provide an alternative AA solution to Brits, which they need. Another aspect of the design which compliments T2 play is a new upgrade for the CMP truck:

This upgrade essentially converts the CMP Truck into a mobile repair station. What's interesting about this upgrade is that Relic clearly had the same idea as reference to a repair station upgrade are scattered throughout the game files, so why they didn't follow through with it is a mystery. It compliments T2 really well as you can rough up your Humber and Stuart and then reverse them back to the repair station before going out again. This really cements the CMP's flexibility into being upgradable to suit whatever teching path you desire. This also fills the gap which Brits have with a lack of late game repair options relative to Dak and Wehr. My implementation in the Mod leaves something to be desired, its a passive repair aura, ideally this should be replaced with a lockdown mode that deploys sappers.  

The Fuel Depot acts as a buffer for late game tech, slowing down T1 techs and allowing Stuart unlock to be buffered, the Stuart, at 90 fuel. basically arrives at the same time as the Panzer II 37mm (85fuel) and the Marder III for DAK (85 fuel). The Marder III for Wehr comes at 75 fuel and the StuG III for Wehr at 105-115 for reference. One aspect of expansion that would be really interesting would be to explore side upgrades which orientate around upkeep and resources the same way the Supply Yard did in Coh1. For example, you could have 4 paths paths, related to: Manpower, Munitions, Fuel and Population, with 3 levels each that look something like this:  

They all essentially provide economic upgrades but a couple of aspects worth noting. To unlock an upgrade that gives you more munitions in the long run, you need to spend munitions up front, to unlock an upgrade that gives you more fuel in the long run, you need to spend fuel up front. So whether these upgrades are worth it or not will depend on whether you think the game will last long enough to reap that investment, but also crucially for the fuel and munitions ones, the bonus is based off of your current production, so if you loose control of the points that give you these resources, its going to take a lot longer to profit from the investment, if at all. Also, it would be really interesting if each level was mutually exclusive with all the other upgrades of that level. So if you get manpower level 1, you can't get fuel level 1. If you get population level 3, you can't get munitions level 3. But you can get Munitions level 1, fuel level 2 and population level 3. This makes the choice really interesting, as the value of anyone of the these upgrade fluctuates with your map control but also what you need at anyone time changes as the game progresses. This is just brainstorming, I haven't put this into the mod...yet. I feel as a rival feature, this is as distinctive and interesting as the DAK deployment system and US Support Commander system.

Finally we reach the late game. One of the things I wanted to do was give Brits two completely separate options for how they wanted to approach their game game and both of them being viable. T3 is the slightly less powerful tier but the aim is to make it a competing alternative with T4 if you decide to go all out.

The Foot Guard are timed to come into the field earlier than they do in vanilla, they come in at 90 fuel (straight tech), which is compared to Stoßtruppen at 95 fuel (straight tech) as well. However if it is found that they come too early, its just a case of moving the fuel cost of T3.5 into the base tier as much as is needed. The Crusader lands at an interesting time (130 fuel) which is the after the Stug for Wehr (105-115 fuel), but before the Panzer III for Dak (165 fuel straight tech) and the Panzer IV for Wehr (145, if you straight tech, more likely 180/170 presuming you pick up base 2/3 tier).  So it has a period where it is the strongest medium which can be fielded by any faction. In terms of scaling, getting the upgun requires tier 3.75, but this also gives you access to the 17 Pdr, which is your primary Anti-vehicle tool for the late game. The Bishop comes bundled with the Crusader and is your primary late game indirect fire option.

T3 is like T2 in that it’s a shock tier, being able to get a strong vehicle out before your opponent and is therefore timing sensitive. As the game draws out, you would presumably have several Crusaders being backed up by a 17 Pdr if fighting Vehicles, or if fighting a strong team weapon camp you have the Bishop. T4 on the other had is much more of a steamrollover orientated tier, representing your strongest lategame choice. It comes at a signifficantly later fuel timing (175 fuel straight tech), putting it on par with Dak and Wehr lategame timings. The grant is basically your standard medium tank, good against everything, the Matilida acts as your heavy armoured, high health bullet sponge and the Archer is your primary late game AT option, being much more mobile than the 17pdr, as well as less vulnerable to indirect fire. Having only the 17pdr as your tool for dealing with havy tanks is a flaw in the Brit design currently, I feel. With a Matilda front line and Archers in the back, you can deal with any armoured threat the same way the Churchill and Firefly combination works in Coh2. The tier also contains your vehicle vet upgrade. This tier would be narually weak against heavy support weapon play, like AT gun walls, so building this Tier also gives Sappers the ability to construct the 25 Pdr emplacement. How the Pdr can be distinguished from the Indian Artillery Emplacement is a problem I haven’t figured out yet.

Most of the time I could see players dedicating themselves to either T3 or T4, which is is good because it means the decision is a weighty dichotomy with specific advantages and disadvantages and makes the faction feel unqiue relative to other factions whose tech tends to narrow as the game progresses. T3 comes earlier and is more of a shock tier, but can scale into the lategame, T4 is aimed at being your lategame steamroller.

Regarding Withdraw and Refit, I don’t actually hate but I feel it needs to be reworked slightly. First off, it needs to be available from either Tier 3.75 or T4. This way if you dedicate yourself to either tier, diversifying into the other can be made easier using this ability. The ability though needs to have some costs associated with using it beyond just loosing the unit. It needs to have a straight munitions cost, something like 50 munitions but more importantly, it should have a 4 minute recharge timer, so people have to think more strategically about how they want to use it and can’t replace their whole army in 30 seconds. Changing it in the Mod tools seems fairly impossible right now. And ditch the version in the armoured battlegroup, that’s just a lazy copy that doesn’t scale at all. Why would you ever use it once you have the free version?

Speaking of free abilities, a couple of changes to some abilities. Self repair on the Stuart should be a timed ability and not a passive one. Passive abilities require no skill to use and generally abilities that require player input should be prefered. The Grant vet ability should have a munitions cost and rifle grandes should either have a longer arc, a fuse or be replaced with normal grenades entirely.

Conclusion

That’s what I would do anyway. You can check out most of the changes described above in my MOD:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2947341907

I haven’t been able to change everything but once the tooling becomes better, I will expand it. I feel like DAK, Brits need some changes to be made in order to flesh them out. They have the feel of being thrown together at the last minute with little thought. My redesign fixes several of their fundamental problems and makes them feel much more fresh and interesting to player rather than just ‘yet another Brit faction’.

M3ta wrote: subway surfers 

One extra change I would make to Brits is making it clear on the units that they're upgraded with the training. Currently, when units are getting those combat bonuses, you have to judge from the units themselves, its not exactly the most user friendly experience. 

Given that these upgrades literally influence all the units in the faction, there would need to be a variety of model distinctions. 

Similarly, it would be better if the training centre and tier structures had tells for the upgrades so that base scouting was more rewarded.

Thanks for your updated description.