Let’s be clear here. There are exactly two vehicles in the game that can consistently counter ATGM helicopters at or around their BRs. The VEAK, and the Sgt York. Maybe the WZ305 if the helicopter players are particularly dense. Any other gun based SPAAs can be easily countered by simply staying at medium range and jinking backwards and forwards every couple of seconds. Those two (and a half) are also the ones that stand the best chance of actually taking out A-4Es and other standoff range munitions. It’s still a losing fight most of the time, but at least they have a hope of winning.
After the proposed changes, we lose one of the only two vehicles that can do this. In exchange, we get a very poor 7.7 AA that can at best be a erstatz tank destroyer, for a lineup that’s not desperate for such a vehicle. While letting every A-4E and helicopter on the American team run wild without a care in the world,
I’ve heard that this is a historical change, and if that’s the case, I want it made clear that I do not care in the slightest. Gameplay should always trump realism, and in this case gameplay requires more capable SPAAs at this tier, rather than less. We already have numerous vehicles using weapons they never actually used in service, this should absolutely be an exception like them.
Meanwhile, the Type 81 Tan Sam is being shoved up above the 11.0 lineup, effectively making it entirely pointless. To be clear, the missile itself is very good. The ability to use it, however, is very limited. If it’s cloudy, your lock range reduces to >4km. If your target is anywhere near the ground, same thing. Can’t target helis that just sit hovering over a ridgeline, even at point blank range. You struggle with low flying planes if they’re smart enough to stay low after their run. You can be easily snuck up on and killed by planes, since you lack a search RADAR and you’re a huge, hot target easily spotted from the air. And god help you if you try to spawn it into contested airspace. It’s excellent at slapping down overconfident planes that just fly into the map without a care in the world, but against players with enough braincells to counter it, you’re often rendered useless.
In short, it’s just in no way comparable to RADAR guided SAMs. It’s now going to be 0.3 below the Pantsir of all things, as well as 0.7 above the 2S6 which is effectively superior in every way. Spawning the Tan Sam in at 11.0 was often a gamble since if you had friendly SAMs they’d be able to find, lock and engage targets long before you. Now you’re going to be competing with top tier SAMs just about every single game.
This also gimps the 11.0 lineup severely, as you’re now going to be forced to rely on the Type 93 against standoff range munitions. 11.0 was one of the best lineups Japan had, and now it’s losing it’s only somewhat competitive SPAA.
These are just the two I feel particularly strongly about, the rest are also pretty terrible (Like the compression of the 8.0 Air RB planes) but have been covered by others. These are some of the worst changes I’ve ever seen proposed, and I refuse to be silent about them.
