This post may seem a bit sudden (especially given that the CRV has only just been unleashed to the masses), but hear me out.
10.7 has been a fairly compressed area for a while in War Thunders history. Ever since the last major update (Line of Contact), there has been a menace around this bracket, destroying the matchmaker and utterly annihilating vehicles from around 9.3 to 11.7 - that being the Terminator, a very suiting name.
Whilst on the other end, Britain has finally gotten itself a high tier wheeled vehicle in the form of an event vehicle, the CRV Block II, an Australian vehicle.
Both the Terminator and the CRV sit at 10.7, and at the moment the CRVs weaknesses are clear as day when fighting the BMPT/72. Its ammo is easily detonated, even by a stray round regardless of calibre; it has an extremely limited number of missiles when compared to its effectiveness, and the APS is borderline non-functional. That’s also not taking into account the borderline awful gun and its abhorrent fire rate.
At its core, what this vehicle does badly is what the Freccia does well, and I have a pretty simple solution that shouldn’t be hard to implement and wouldn’t increase the BR of this vehicle.
Increase the number of Spike-LR IIs from four to ten (just like the Freccia, which also sits at 10.7), and actually fix its APS (this fix should also help the KF41)
Things like the autocannon ammo easily detonating and the crew overall having poor survivability are attributes of the vehicle itself, not the fault of Gaijin. That’s why I believe that even with the fixes mentioned above, the CRV Block II would be both, effective at 10.7 and not overly broken cough cough BMPT-72 cough cough.
Keep the vehicle how it is
Increase the number of Spike-LR II missiles
Fix its APS
Both increase the number of Spike-LR II missiles and fix its APS
Ill use it as britain doesnt have another FNF missile option and is in desperate need of more light vehicles (this is the 10.3 spaa issue all over again)
Gaijin has no intentions to fix compression. All for the sake of “variety”. BVVD said this himself and imo this reasoning was made in bad faith but what can we do…
The ammo is fully external, even in the X-ray view in war thunder there is a layer of steel seperating the belt from the crew. Nevertheless the ammo axploding is sadly not purely a Boxer CRV Block 2 issue but many other IFVs suffer from this as well. But for the BMPT other rules apply.
Sadly an issue that most of the FNF IFVs ingame have. The Freccia is kind of the odd one out and I have been searching for sources that back up its supposed 10 Spikes. Havent found anything of substance yet.
Even with more Spikes the Boxer wont suddenly be good. For that the FNF missiles themselves have to be fixed. Aka give them a better trajectory (true top down) and make them hit stuff that aren’t tracks or antennas. There are many videos of the Javelin one tapping russian MBTs in real life. And its explosive mass is way lower than the Spike’s.
Always has been. The KF41 came with this type of APS back in late 2023 and it has not provided any kind of protection against missiles ever. Even the Trophy APS was gimped for about a year with no input from Gaijin.
Again its not that simple. I dont know where they got the 10 Spikes for the Freccia from but the version ingame is also called the “Freccia controcarro / AT” so its reasonable to expect it to carry more missiles for its Anti-tank role.
The Boxer on the other hand is more of a Surveillance/Scout like the EBRC Jaguar. But for the purposes of War Thunder the crew could store extra missiles in the back. Since its rather small tho I doubt it could realistically exceed 2-4 extra Spikes.
On a final note:
I personally doubt the Boxer was added to the game as an event vehicle to give Britain a worthy top tier IFV. In the state it is in right now it’s a practice target for the BMPTs. They can’t get hurt themselves, they can essentially fire blind due to an ammo detonations killing it instantly and since its open to the masses it’s easy farming for WR% and KD…
Gaijin will do nothing since this outcome was planned.
For in-game balancing, it should be pretty straightforward. The only limitation would be interior space for additional Spike-LR II missiles, which the Boxer in general should have plenty of room for. The Australian Boxer CRV can carry up to six dismounted personnel (from what I’ve seen) in the rear, which isn’t present in-game; hence my rationale for more missiles taking the place of said infantry. In-game, you can even see the additional Spike missiles on the floor of the fighting compartment.
I do agree with most of what you’ve got to say though - if the F-16AJ can exist in-game, we can have more missiles for balancing
You need sourcing for this. Gaijin gives 4 Spikes to vehicles without information on internal storage of them, which is actually slightly generous given it was initially only two for spike carriers. The additions 2 on some vehicles are just rolling around on the floor of the tank in some cases lmao. As for the Freccia, it had actual sourcing for 10 spikes, allowing gaijin to given it them. Anything without sourcing for additional spike carriage aside from already loaded missiles gets 4 and no more sadly.
Can Vilkas join on the fun too? Its essentially slightly worse CRV - not that worse to warrant any sort of BR change, but more Spikes would be welcome.
The reasoning they gave all Spike carriers additional missiles (or for those which originally had two) was for balancing purposes - let’s quickly establish this. The placement of additional Spike missiles is usually in place of dismounted personnel or simply on the floor (as you’ve pointed out). This makes it so the only in-game limitation would be space for said Spike missiles.
What I’m confident about is the fact that the CRV Block II definitely has more room for Spike missiles, given that it has the capability to carry four dismounted personnel in the rear, with seven in total including driver, gunner, and commander.
Image taken from the Australian National Audit Office, a governmental public non-trade restricted website
The hull rear interior would look something like this, so it would be more of a physical limitation than an electrical or operational one. Do the additional Spike-LR II missiles have space? Yes.
F&F ATGMs have to suck in the current environment of WT since they go against the fast-paced, simple as it gets, current nature of WT.
They are weapons with virtually no range limit, that give no feedback they are being used or even on whom they are being used, and can only be mitigated by APS that not all vehicles get, and tall enough hardcover.
If these weapons were guaranteed kills, they would be unbearable to play against for the average player. Also Soviet tanks already are more prone to getting OHK by these weapons due to their design.
