I will have to adress some of the claims here one by one if you don't mind. I don't like "quote wars" but its really just my attention to single out where I think your wrong.
76mm Shermans can effectively engage StuG's and Hetzer's as well as have good penetration rates against a Tiger (Around 50%). Penetration against the Panther aint too fantastic but shit, it's a medium tank. There's only so far you can push it.
75mm's having HVAP is pretty much pointless. The ONLY thing it would help you against to any noticable degree, would be PIV's, but then it'd be overlapping the 76mm upgun's role.
1st of all - they can already do this reasonably well, and you give up awesome buffs from the other doctrine choces when picking hvap. You just make them a somewhat better at it, which I already pointed out in the OP.
It wouldn't be pointless to grab HVAP if it affected the 75mm - you would have the AI power of the 75mm, while also being able to contest p4s.Its the exact reason heat round p4s used to be really popular and a solid choice. The big difference is that p4's can relax at medium range vs allied handheld cause it won't hit or penetration. This is a important reason why it wouldn't be a problem for sherman 75mms. They can never relax vs axis handheld.
Also being able to deal damage 50% of the time while always getting into the range of a countershot - why is this even on the positive side for you, in the tiger battle?
M18's and M10's receive no drawbacks from using HVAP, dunno where the hell you got that idea from. It's a flat buff which makes M18 penetration as good as M10 default pen, whilst making M10's pretty reliable against heavy armour. Due to fuel costs, you still want to engage with multiple TD's against Panther's or Jagd's, but you will get the job done faster.
You've also totally overlooked what HVAP does for the Pershing. Granted, it puts down the AI capacity... To the same AI as a 75mm Sherman. Still pretty solid. In return, you get the ability to be physically incapable of bouncing Tiger's at all but max range (With about a 5-8% chance) or if vet/doctrines are involved. Panthers and Jagds have a pretty juicy 70% chance to penetrate making Pershings effective Panther hunters.
It's a solid choice. The problem with HVAP is that in comparison, the others are better. Simple as that.
Oh, and you'd have to be fucking nuts to throw 200 hp extra onto the TD's. That'd give them the same health as Sherman's.
Yes. I did just call Ablative Armour fucking nuts.
Hicks, your a very nice addition to the BT I'm sure. But you should keep in mind what is getting ablative armor.
Cromwells, fireflies and churchill varations have ALOT better armor than the m18/m10. 200 hp would literally be 1 1/2 shot more from most axis weapons, while on bouncing or hulled down armor like the royal engineers, those 200 hp actually end up amounting to a lot more. If you add 200 hp to the churchill it gets more chances of a 5% allowing it to escape, while the m18/m10 is facing overkill today most of the time.
Im also going to repeat that the role of the allied m18/m10 by position is critical to the americans because they have nothing like the marder or geschutz that can exist on the field defensively and ignore AI inf.
My problem is that dealing 1 shot to the tiger while great isolated, is not much compared to the kind of raw dps a lot of axis units are dealing out. What does it help to be able to do potshots very effectively when you can't stay in the engagement vs similarily buffed AT units? Your hvap is completely useless compared to a 12% less received damage buff from mid t4 when you are facing shit like the 88, marders or flanking pumas/clowncars.
You see, if we look at the base axis/allied at units you will see that outside of the marder/geschutz, they already have good damage and penetration, while the allied units just have good damage when they penetrate - like the zook when it rear hits. While axis doctrines buff both damage and penetration on their at, the HVAP just does 1 thing. 10% is neglible on the upgun.
I really dislike what I see when I look at ACPR vs HVAP. Marder forces off sherman to repair in 3 shots. You need a pershing to do the same for allies - and you can just forget about having the same firepower for pop.
the main reason hvap sucks is because while its constant, the ROF or DPS doesnt not improve enough. the dps of a marder must be like 200% with acpr, i wonder what the dps increase overall for a upgun vs p4 is in comparsion
