1. The Howitzer
Why it's useless- If any of your opponents have a V1 offmap (free to them, resource wise) they can instantly offmap you with a 100% success rate, removing 400mp and 160f from your game (and often 120m from a nearby triage).
W/o vet, it justs sits there for minutes at a time doing nothing. At vet 3, with about a minute taken off the cool down, and increased accuracy, it's much better.
However, vet on a howi is impossible to protect. If you're too far from spawn, it'll either:
get offmaped while you're not looking
get vetgriefed by the first storms/falls/any thing that can outrun retreating crews (read everything)
Build it too close to spawn, and it FUCKING BUGGS OUT, EATING YOUR HARD EARNED VET.
http://forums.europeinruins.com/index.php?topic=10976.msg187820;topicseen#newHow to improve it- make it mobile inbetween firing cooldowns. Or reduce cooldown (lame option)
2. Crocidile
Why it sucks:
It can sometimes kill axis infantry great, other times, they just turn on their medikits and ignore it, or run to a nearby road, or just seem to be fireproof.
It also has 0 AT ability, a regular sherman does a fine AI job, and isn't useless vs axis medium tanks (though reg. sherm sucks just as badly vs heavy tanks)
Regular sherman can do both AI and semi-AT and is cheaper than croc
How to improve it:
Improve the crits a bit, so full health axis inf don't take sooo long to actually start taking damage
Make it cheaper
Maybe add it's regular gun back (but add a price increase too)
(mix n' match as needed)
3. Allied HMG (not-Helpfull Machine 'Gun')
Why it sucks:
It's suppression is practically nonexistent, I've seen KCH, volks, and Grens (w/o assault) walk right by an HMG that was shooting them. Once they get out of its fire cone, they just gun it down. Even if it does suppress one squad, it doesn't have much splash suppression, which leaves other axis squads free to pwn it.
It's damage isn't usefull either, whenever one of my rifles stumbles into an MG42 they almost ALWAY loose a man AND get suppressed. Axis squads RARELY get suppressed OR loose a man, even after SEVERAL bursts.
The Allied Halftrack is much more effective, imo than this piece of crap. The HT is mobile, cheaper than the HMG, actually does some decent damage, can't be pwnzored by regular infantry w/o shreks (although, it can kind of kite shreks.) And it can carry infantry to boot.
How to improve it:
Significant price reduction
Significant increase in damage OR suppression (to the tune of 1 burst = 1 dead guy or suppression, imo)
(mix n' match)