I wanted to start a discussion around a fairly innocuous seeming BR change in the recent list of proposed changes, and similar changes that have also happened. It’s the four Bf109G-2 subvariants we have in the game, which are being proposed to move from their current BR of 4.3 to a new BR of 4.7 in Ground RB only, not in Air RB.
It’s good that we are seeing the decoupling of air and ground BRs for aircraft extending more into low tier. However, in this specific case I think this is not a good change. Germany has no 4.7 ground vehicles except for the PAK Puma event vehicle, which of course isn’t widely available. It seems strange to move a fighter aircraft into a BR in GRB specifically that simply isn’t relevant for GRB. The G-2 variants, at least the German ones, will not be seen often in GRB anymore. I think this is a problem that ought to be addressed, and line-ups need to be respected at least to the extent of not making a vehicle de-facto obsolete.
As the Bf109 is a fighter, with only moderate anti armour capabilities (it can carry a small bomb load) it is really only a supporting vehicle, not something worth building a line-up around. We saw similar when the Kugelblitz was 7.0; without an available lineup it was rarely ever seen in GRB but now that it is 6.7 it slots into an established lineup well.
In the previous round of BR changes Italy’s Re.2005(VDM) from the Battle Pass was moved from 6.0 to 6.3 in air, but got dragged up in ground as well. In this case, there are zero ground vehicles with that BR for Italy, not even unobtanium event vehicles. As a result, it has disappeared from my lineups and I hardly ever see it now in GRB.
I’m sure there are many more examples of vehicles which fill a support role (mainly SPAA and fighters) being dragged into a BR where they haven’t got a lineup to slot into, and at the next highest lineup there are better options available.