Heavy Weapon Team repair trait
Posted: Wed 07 May, 2014 4:09 pm
As we all know a heavy weapon team used to repair any vehicle while firing its main gun in retail. This ability was changed. Now a heavy weapon team cannot repair and fire its main gun at the same time. You either command it to lay down suppressive fire/unleash explosive shells/pierce vehicles or command to repair a vehicle highly reducing the unit's usefulness. There are no (with rare exceptions) situations in the game when you would prefer command 2 rather than command 1 for this unit.
What was wrong with the ability? Why was it considered as an overpowered ability?
Let's have a look at possible combinations. 1) A heavy weapon team + a sentinel; 2) A heavy weapon team + a chimera; 3) A heavy weapon team + a Leman Russ.
1) It is T1, your heavy weapon teams have no access to the refractor fields and specific weapons. No staying power, no killing potency, just suppressive fire. Any sentinel will be safe in a heavy weapon team's firing arc since no ranged or melee unit will break through it. Let's assume we've got a weakened sentinel. The sentinel retreats to the firing arc of a friendly heavy weapon team. The heavy weapon team cuts off any pursuers of the sentinel. The sentinel can either retreat further in order to get repairs from guardsmen or keep on firing at the pursuers. The pursuers will not be able to destroy the sentinel because they are suppressed and as long as they are there is no threat for the sentinel. The difference between retail and elite is that in retail your sentinel could get repairs from that heavy weapon team and here it cannot get repairs. Does it change things? In retail your sentinel contributes its DPS and gets repaired, here you have to decide either to command your sentinel to attack or command it to fall back in order to get repairs (guardsmen may be situated nearby, so there may be no need to fall back). In both cases the sentinel will be safe and it doesn't matter whether it gets repairs or not because the attackers cannot hurt the sentinel if they are suppressed by the heavy weapon team. The only conclusion here is that if you do not counter the suppression team by a jump unit (or by some other measure) then the sentinel will keep on firing at your units, no matter how weakened it is, as long as it is in the firing arc of the heavy weapon team it is safe. Nothing overpowered here, I suppose.
2) It is T2, heavy weapon teams become scarier. They become significantly tougher and deadlier. What can be broken here? A chimera provides reinforcements. Let's imagine a situation where a chimera and a heavy weapon team hold their own against some unit that is capable of doing anti-vehicle damage as well as against some anti-infantry ranged unit. Let's say a squad of tzeentch marines and a squad of plague marines. The heavy weapon team focuses on destroying the enemy's AV unit while the enemy's ranged unit tries to destroy the heavy weapon team. The chimera provides reinforcements so the heavy weapon team can heavily damage the enemy's AV unit. The squad of plague marines shoots at the chimera but the chimera receives repair support from the heavy weapon team. The chimera stays longer on the field due to repair support hence the heavy weapon team stays longer on the field due to reinforcements and finally enemies are forced to retreat. The glorious couple is victorious. This example is given with the retail's status of the ability. Broken?
3) The same principle here.
What is the conclusion? If you do not shut down the heavy weapon team then you are not going to overcome this repair synergy (I still bear in mind retail's status of the ability).
Absolutely each race has at least one measure to shut down a set up team.
My solution is to bring back the ability to retail's status. I don't see any reason not to do it. That is how this game goes. If a set up team is allowed to fire then you do something wrong.
It is also worth mentiong that it is not that easy to park a vehicle near your heavy weapon team so it can be repaired.
What was wrong with the ability? Why was it considered as an overpowered ability?
Let's have a look at possible combinations. 1) A heavy weapon team + a sentinel; 2) A heavy weapon team + a chimera; 3) A heavy weapon team + a Leman Russ.
1) It is T1, your heavy weapon teams have no access to the refractor fields and specific weapons. No staying power, no killing potency, just suppressive fire. Any sentinel will be safe in a heavy weapon team's firing arc since no ranged or melee unit will break through it. Let's assume we've got a weakened sentinel. The sentinel retreats to the firing arc of a friendly heavy weapon team. The heavy weapon team cuts off any pursuers of the sentinel. The sentinel can either retreat further in order to get repairs from guardsmen or keep on firing at the pursuers. The pursuers will not be able to destroy the sentinel because they are suppressed and as long as they are there is no threat for the sentinel. The difference between retail and elite is that in retail your sentinel could get repairs from that heavy weapon team and here it cannot get repairs. Does it change things? In retail your sentinel contributes its DPS and gets repaired, here you have to decide either to command your sentinel to attack or command it to fall back in order to get repairs (guardsmen may be situated nearby, so there may be no need to fall back). In both cases the sentinel will be safe and it doesn't matter whether it gets repairs or not because the attackers cannot hurt the sentinel if they are suppressed by the heavy weapon team. The only conclusion here is that if you do not counter the suppression team by a jump unit (or by some other measure) then the sentinel will keep on firing at your units, no matter how weakened it is, as long as it is in the firing arc of the heavy weapon team it is safe. Nothing overpowered here, I suppose.
2) It is T2, heavy weapon teams become scarier. They become significantly tougher and deadlier. What can be broken here? A chimera provides reinforcements. Let's imagine a situation where a chimera and a heavy weapon team hold their own against some unit that is capable of doing anti-vehicle damage as well as against some anti-infantry ranged unit. Let's say a squad of tzeentch marines and a squad of plague marines. The heavy weapon team focuses on destroying the enemy's AV unit while the enemy's ranged unit tries to destroy the heavy weapon team. The chimera provides reinforcements so the heavy weapon team can heavily damage the enemy's AV unit. The squad of plague marines shoots at the chimera but the chimera receives repair support from the heavy weapon team. The chimera stays longer on the field due to repair support hence the heavy weapon team stays longer on the field due to reinforcements and finally enemies are forced to retreat. The glorious couple is victorious. This example is given with the retail's status of the ability. Broken?
3) The same principle here.
What is the conclusion? If you do not shut down the heavy weapon team then you are not going to overcome this repair synergy (I still bear in mind retail's status of the ability).
Absolutely each race has at least one measure to shut down a set up team.
My solution is to bring back the ability to retail's status. I don't see any reason not to do it. That is how this game goes. If a set up team is allowed to fire then you do something wrong.
It is also worth mentiong that it is not that easy to park a vehicle near your heavy weapon team so it can be repaired.
