It was a 2 Man grenadier squad affected by zeal and possibly both ferocity and inspired assault that was firing really fast on a firefly that somehow had decided that it was a good idea to get within shrek range. (..)
Counter: Shreks dont get a range increase. Stay at range (kite) from the shreks and focus fire the infantry with.. something that is not medium armor. (Frontal Pershing doesnt care that much about shreks, churchill front do well enough against it as well. I'd back away from affected squads like this just like I'd back away from heroic charge british blobs, just like how I'd wait with engaging airborne for focus firing them until after they have used fireup, just like I always focus fire enemy officers giving leadership buffs. There's a whole intuitive infantry buff system in place here which players need to recognize, and the current version of EIRR has more types of this than ever before.
Being powerful / Breaking the counter systemIf ferocity allowed me to use nothing but shreks for AT, I would not have 2 Geschutzwagons and 3 paks in my company. Ferocity does not break the infantry AT counter system, it just enables shreks and small arms to put up out a lot of damage when the conditions are ideal for it. Airborne Elite range breaks this system when they start to kite tanks so I feel this comparison is functionally flawed in terms of describing why IA/Ferocity possibly breaks the game. The observation that it puts out a lot of damage, I wholeheartedly agree with. Terror doesn't get double shreks btw.
As for the ability itself:You get two uses of ferocity for free, anything more than that costs you a lot of SP's. IA (1 free use)is cheap in comparison but demands intelligence and cover to use properly. In case you didnt noticed, I never used either ferocity or IA when I wasnt in cover and I always try to use it when the enemy is not in cover as well, to maximise the benefit. Its not to hide under the rug that the ability was used correctly and that this takes more effort that a panther or a airborne simply outranging its counter.
A grenadier squad takes a lot of more damage while IA and/or Ferocity is active on it and go down to focus fire incredibly fast. There's a backside of the medal for this kind of use, but for my purposes (screw vet win games) it is very useful. If the received accuracy penalties add up, the squad takes 1.25 x 1.5 received accuracy penalties. This is severe.
IA and ferocity should probably not stack though as the damage becomes too high. This goes for a lot of buffing abilities atm that they when paired up breaks the balance.
Field repair + OBM repair stacking allowing a pershing to repair überfast while moving. Lieutnant and american officer stacking on american infantry.
There's a limit to how fast a shrek can fire because of the animation and the windup/targeting, so I'm highly suspicious to whether or not stacking IA/ferocity on a 2 or 1 man shrek squad makes it shoot any faster, it just increases their damage.
Abilities actually stacking or same old hot stuff?A dev will have to comment on how whether or not the Ferocity and IA actually stacks or, but IA zeal shreks at 1-2 men have always fired incredibly fast and taken lots of damage since I joined old EIR. You sniped them, supressed them or stayed at range and nothing has changed regarding this other than that you can get 2 infantry halftracks that take reduce the downside of IA on flamers and shreks inside.. which is hard to do anything with without screwing over PE as well who are going to use TH abilities on their busters for the same purpose.
Whether these old abilities have turned overpowered, is hard to say. I leave that for others to decide as my opinion on this is that once a player understands he's facing this type of terror build he just needs to adjust his micro ever so slightly to negate most of it's impact on the game. I often get criticised for taking this stand (here's the counter, jimmy) on a lot of perceived balance issues, but its a part of my idea that stuff need's to be balanced from the top down, and not from the bottom up. You can't micro around or compensate for a Panther/Upgun ATHT outranging a 57mm, or airborne kiting your ostwind.
The rest of terrorAlso, terror right now is pretty balanced and weaker than it's old EIR incarnation.
T1's - Double LMG's are more expensive than single ones
- Basic Supplies = Similar to the Old EIR version
- Intensity = Nerfed to hell
- Fitness = Balanced
- Inspired Assault - Grants 1 free use, works great with zeal, sucide assault
T2's
- Volks and Grenadiers only (weakened from earlier Zeal)
- Firestorm = Great offmap
- Advanced munitions = 8 more dmg on mortars, mg42 supresses too fast to benefit from it
T3's
- Oakleaves and Swords = Not worth it, imo. Others may disagree. No zeal on KCH.
- V1 = Might need 1 (free) max use because of how easy it negates a howitzer
- Assault tanks = A regular KT really isn't much more than a damage soak
- Terror Officer = Worst officer of all IMO, hard to use, strange offmap
T4's
- Ferocity (we are arguing it right now
)
- German steel (nerfed compared to old EIR)
- Heavy Support (severely nerfed compared to old EIR)